Capturing Beijing through the viewfinder

Huang says she is reduced to a Chinese stereotype of a girl struggling from a life transition from a poor town to a big city at first. But White says it has nothing to do with where the heroine comes from and whether she's poor or not. It's a story about a girl opening her mind to a new life.

"It's very usual for Chinese to shoot the conflict between the poor and the rich. But the international audience can identify more with White's idea. That's what a story on Beijing should be," says the 25-year-old producer.

The cast for Selander's film You, Me and Beijing is on the set.

During the one-week stay in Beijing, the US script writers and Chinese video teams have compromised, exchanged ideas and been inspired by each other. Selander says the biggest impression was made by the people in Beijing. Their hard work and talent makes him think of people he worked with as a screenwriter in Hollywood.

"There are cultural differences: the food, the language, but these are surface distinctions," Selander says. "The Chinese I met all have the same concerns as Americans: job, school, family and traffic."