Filmmaker James Chen searches for his soulmate in new documentary project

Examiner - Armed with Jet Blue's "All You Can" Jet pass, filmmaker James Chen plans on traveling to 30 cities in 30 days and try to go on 30 dates as he attempts to find his "soulmate" in a new "sousveillance documentary" project.
"I believe in soulmates," James states on his website. "But I also believe that finding them is one of life's journeys. I've always wondered, "What if your soulmate wasn't in your home town?" How would you ever find them?
James recently answered a few questions about his new project for Examiner.com:
What inspired you to create this project?
From a personal side, I believe that while soulmates exist, it's up to us to find them. If life was kind to us, we would run into our soulmate on our way to work and on a Saturday night out with friends. But sometimes life isn't so kind. What if your soul-mate is on the other side of the country? How would you meet them? How would you know unless you flew out there and went on a date? It's set of hypothetical questions that I've always wished I could afford to answer, but have never had the resources to do so. Until now. (smiles)
From a filmmaker's side, I have an enormous amount of respect for documentary filmmakers. I think the entire process of making a documentary requires a great deal of discipline, patience and hard work. I have shot a few single day live events, and they were challenging enough on their own to shoot and edit. The task of creating an entire film seemed daunting. But having watched a string of incredible documentary films recently (Planet B-Boy, Whiz Kids, Food Inc., Burma VJ), I was really inspired to attempt one and just waiting for the right opportunity.
When the opportunity for this project came up, I knew it would be frantic to plan, but I decided to jump at it. I guess I enjoy learning through trial by fire. It's stressful, but forces you to learn and recover from your mistakes quickly. So if I can survive this project, hopefully I'll grow a bit as a filmmaker and weave a good story along the way.
How did you come up with the concept for 30 days, 30 cities, 30 dates?

When I discovered the Jet Blue All You Can Jet pass, I was fascinated by the possibilities. Several of my friends bought it and started planning vacations, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to visit parts of America I hadn't seen yet. Then... the Asian part of me thought about how I could maximize the value of the pass. The possibility of doing something crazy like thirty cities in thirty days sprang to mind. That's when the filmmaker side of me took over and demanded that I film the entire journey. So it quickly went from a relaxing vacation to work.

I brainstormed several ideas that I thought would make a compelling documentary and narrowed it down to two, a more serious one that would try to highlight non-profit work and a more light hearted one that would allow me to seek out my soulmate. When I presented the ideas to other people, the overwhelming majority surprisingly voted for the soulmate search. Even strangers I approached were curious to see what would happen on my search for a soulmate. I was personally rooting for the non-profit documentary. But aside from the voting, the logistics, hurdles and costs for producing the non-profit film was much more difficult, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do it justice. As a filmmaker, the choice seemed clear. Though, I'm still hoping for an opportunity to shoot the non-profit documentary some time in the future.

From the non-filmmaker side, what single guy wouldn't want to go on 30 dates? I did have several reservations about it though. This would be the first time I've really "put myself out there", so to speak. Writing the personal's page felt a bit awkward, but good practice I guess. The logistics and planning for the entire project still has me very stressed. But I'm very fortunate to have some amazing producers backing me up (Philip Hoang and Chris Lee), who have really worked overtime to ease the burden. And it's difficult to say what to expect from here. I might have thirty dates lined up, or I might have zero. Regardless, I'm excited and preparing for the best and worst. 

Define your perfect "soulmate"? read full story at Ed Moy's LA Examiner