She’s got a ticket to ride

Ever since Faye Kingslee moved to Los Angeles about six months ago, public transportation has been more than just a ride for the aspiring actress.

It’s been a rolling office, a mobile dressing room to put on makeup before auditions and a source of endless creative inspiration provided by a colorful, ever-changing cast of fellow riders.

Now public transportation is taking Kingslee on another kind of ride. Her short video, “The Heartbeat of LA,” just won top honors in Metro’s Transit Flicks Video Contest.

The win means more than just a free one-year EZ transit pass for Kingslee, an Australia native who has lived and worked all over the world, from Singapore to New York. It also was a chance to bring her favorite kind of storytelling to a new audience.

And, it turns out, an opportunity to introduce her volunteer cast and crew to the joys of mass transit.

“All the people who I brought on to work on this project with me had never been on the train before,” Kingslee said. She described the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. shoot, aboard a Metro Red Line train traveling between Union Station and North Hollywood, as a “really guerilla style” operation.

The 2-minute film depicts a sweet, silent encounter between two subway passengers—Kingslee and fellow actor Bryson Kuan—that looks like it just might blossom into something bigger.

Like other films turned out by Kingslee’s ShortFilmsWeekend collective—a nonprofit that brings together various volunteer craftspeople to create movies seen on YouTube—her inspiration came from what she sees around her, often on the bus or train.

“It randomly happens sometimes,” she said. “You can have connections and moments with people.”

Her concept, turned into a script by Alix Reeves and directed by David Redish, was selected over six other finalists, winning 26.58% of 1,000-plus votes cast by the public in the contest.

Kingslee, who aspires one day to have her own production house, lives in Hollywood and usually rides her skateboard to get to her Red Line stop. “I’ve actually been high-fived” rolling along Hollywood Boulevard, she said.

And six months in L.A. haven’t changed her original decision to live car-free.

“I’m still sticking with public transit,” she said. “I still don’t have a car. It’s a way of life.”

Posted 9/10/10