Ross Ching is an American

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California.

Early life and education

Ching grew up in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. He started making skateboarding videos as a teenager. Ching went on to study film at

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

and graduated in 2008. He was originally interested in producing but later transitioned to production after his time lapse and stop motion videos in college began winning awards.

Career

Ching's edited together thousands of

long-exposure Long-exposure, time-exposure, or slow-shutter photography involves using a long-duration shutter speed to sharply capture the stationary elements of images while blurring, smearing, or obscuring the moving elements. Long-exposure photography ...

photographs in QuickTime Pro for first short film ''Eclectic'' . He's released at least two more sequels by March 2009. Following his graduation, he created a video inspired by

Death Cab for Cutie Death Cab for Cutie is an American rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington, in 1997. The band is currently composed of Ben Gibbard (vocals, guitar, piano), Nick Harmer (bass), Dave Depper (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Zac Rae (keyboar ...

's song, "Little Bribes" due to the lack of employment opportunities during the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...

. He used

time-lapse photography Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus ...

to visually represent the song's 211 words alongside images from Los Angeles. The project took 50 hours to make and costed about $100. Prior to releasing it, he contacted different people on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

with large followings to preview the video, who in turn promoted it. He posted the video on his website in May 2009 under the banner, "looking for work". ''

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several award ...

'' later covered the video, saying "We rarely post fan-made videos, but this is too good... Hire him!" Within days,

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

contacted Ching to purchase the video and released it as the song's official music video. Ching released action short film ''

3 Minutes ''3 Minutes'' is an action-oriented short film that was released on January 10, 2011. Production on the film commenced in 2010, with director Ross Ching at the helm, alongside producers Don Le and George Wang. The film stars Harry Shum, Jr., ...

'' in 2011. He also re-released "Running on Empty" and added new footage to it, redubbing it for the big "Carmageddon" event in Los Angeles that threatened to shut down the freeway system. Producers

Don Le Don Pham Le (born September 20, 1983) is an American television and music video producer. Career In 2008, he co-founded the production company Northern Five Entertainment and produced the original pilot episodes for the action web series ''Th ...

and

Peter Katz Peter Katz is an American film producer. His work includes ''Pop Skull'', ''Home Sick'' and ''Mortuary''. Career Katz has produced genre films that have screened at the AFI Fest, Rome Film Festival, as well as the New Zealand International Fi ...

approached Ching to shoot the short film, "Already Gone". The film was shot in one day in a Los Angeles warehouse and starred

Shawn Ashmore Shawn Robert Ashmore (born October 7, 1979) is a Canadian actor. He is known for his roles as Bobby Drake / Iceman in the ''X-Men'' film series, Jake Berenson in the television series ''Animorphs'', Agent Mike Weston in the television drama se ...

and Harry Shum, Jr. The producers hoped that the short film would generate enough interest for a feature film treatment. The short was one of the top finalists at the first ever Shot on

RED Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

Film Festival in 2012. Ching directed a webseries for Thrash Lab called "Empty America". He followed it up with "10 Epic Ways to Smash A Pumpkin".

Filmography

* ''

'' (2011) * "Running on Empty" (2011) * "Empty America" webseries (2012) * ''"Already Gone"'' short film (2012)

Music video

References

External links

*
Official Ross Ching WebsiteYoutube3 Minutes - Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ching, Ross Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American filmmakers American music video directors