Ross Ching is an American

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, California.

Early life and education

Ching grew up in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

. 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 university, public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CS ...

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 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 (commonly abbreviated to DCFC or Death Cab) is an American rock music, rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington, in 1997. Death Cab for Cutie's music has been classified as indie rock, indie pop, and alternative rock. The ...

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

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

. 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 th ...

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, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

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 awar ...

'' 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 the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

contacted Ching to purchase the video and released it as the song's official music video. Ching released action short film '' 3 Minutes'' 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 and Peter Katz 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 whose career spans film, television, and interactive media. A former child actor, he first drew notice as Jake Berenson on Nickelodeon's ''Animorphs'' (1998–1999), Tyler Connell ...

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 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

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

* '' 3 Minutes'' (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) Filmmakers from California American music video directors