i missed you
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Drama
I Missed You follows two Asian Americans rebuilding home in VR: one imagining a homeland she’s never seen, the other reconstructing one he left. Backed by a skilled USC team this story examines displacement as both geographical reality and psychological condition for those living between two worlds.
i missed you
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Drama
1 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $2,600 for post-production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
10 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
I Missed You follows two Asian Americans rebuilding home in VR: one imagining a homeland she’s never seen, the other reconstructing one he left. Backed by a skilled USC team this story examines displacement as both geographical reality and psychological condition for those living between two worlds.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
We’re so glad you’re here, because this film exists for people like you.
I Missed You tells a story many carry but rarely see onscreen: the quiet ache of living between cultures, between
languages, between versions of home. Through the lens of virtual reality, we explore what happens when memory becomes the only place you belong.
The film is already shot. What happens next depends on this moment and on who chooses to stand with it.
If this speaks to you, keep reading. You’re part of why we made it.
In I Missed You, Mia, an Asian American VR therapist, helps grieving clients reunite with loved ones through immersive simulations. But when a Korean immigrant asks her to reconstruct the family he left behind, the boundaries between his memories and her own begin to blur. As she builds his version of home, long-buried questions about her own severed heritage surface — forcing her to choose between professional distance and personal truth.
Mia and Myung are not heroes in the traditional sense. They are human, flawed, and carrying choices that have shaped entire families. Mia has built a controlled, pristine life to survive the unanswered questions of her adoption, yet beneath her professionalism is a longing to understand what it means to be left behind. Myung has spent decades burying the guilt of abandoning his pregnant wife, convincing himself that reinvention was survival. Their collision is raw and morally complicated, forcing both to confront the cost of distance, pride, and silence. Stories like theirs deserve support because they reflect the quiet, intergenerational wounds many immigrant families carry — wounds rarely explored with this intimacy and nuance on screen.
I Missed You confronts urgent questions about the world we’re building: What happens when grief becomes a service, when technology turns memory into something you can purchase and replay? As VR promises connection without vulnerability, the film examines the tension between digital intimacy and real human reckoning. Beneath that is a deeper search for identity and belonging, the immigrant ache for home, the adoptee’s fractured lineage, the longing to reconcile who we are with where we come from. These themes matter now because we are living in an era where displacement is common, technology mediates our closest relationships, and the meaning of “home” feels more fragile than ever.
The visual world of I Missed You is intimate, tactile, and psychologically charged. Faces are framed in close, searching compositions; skin, breath, and touch become landscapes of emotion. Lush, saturated images, like the deep crimson of a flower, contrast with sterile whites and vast negative space, reflecting the tension between artificial perfection and emotional emptiness. Darkness isolates figures in suspended, almost surreal environments, while soft natural light exposes vulnerability in quiet domestic moments. The palette moves between controlled suburban stillness and dreamlike abstraction, creating a cinematic language where memory feels sensual, fragile, and slightly unreal, as if reality itself is only partially solid.
I Missed You is currently in post-production. The film has been shot, and we are now entering the final stage: editing, sound design, original score, color grading, and festival delivery. This campaign will allow us to complete the film at a professional level and bring it to audiences through festivals and community screenings.
This story is deeply personal to our team. We are artists shaped by immigration, adoption, cultural distance, and the complicated inheritance of silence. We have lived the ache of fragmented identity and the tension between survival and belonging. I Missed You is our way of honoring those quiet, intergenerational wounds, and giving them cinematic space.
We are also making this film because technology is reshaping how we grieve, connect, and remember. As VR becomes more immersive and emotionally persuasive, we are asking urgent questions about what happens when memory becomes a product. This story allows us to explore that ethical and emotional frontier through an intimate, human lens.
We believe audiences are hungry for stories that sit in moral complexity, that do not simplify immigrant narratives into triumph or tragedy, but allow them to exist in contradiction.
Your support goes directly toward finishing the film and bringing it into the world.
Funds raised will be used for:
- Picture Editing - Final edit polish and post-production workflow
- Sound Design & Mixing – Creating an immersive emotional soundscape
- Original Score – Composing music that bridges memory and reality
- Color Correction & Grading – Finalizing the visual tone and palette
- Festival Submission Fees – Submitting to top-tier and culturally aligned festivals
- Marketing & Outreach Materials – Poster design, trailer finishing, press assets
Every dollar raised moves us from a completed shoot to a finished, festival-ready film.
Timeline
- March–April 2026: Final picture lock
- April–May 2026: Sound design, scoring, and color grading
- Summer 2026: Festival submissions begin
- Fall 2026 onward: Screenings, festivals, and community conversations
The film is already shot. This campaign is about completion and release.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Music
Costs $750
Giving Memory a Pulse. Music is what carries emotion when words fall short. This is the heartbeat of the film.
Color Grading
Costs $750
Coloring the Emotional Landscape. This is where the film fully becomes what we imagined.
Sound Design
Costs $550
Building the Space. In a story about distance: physical, emotional, cultural, sound matters. This is what makes the film feel lived in.
Festivals & Distribution
Costs $450
Carrying the Story. Stories about immigrant guilt, adoption, and fractured lineage deserve to travel. This is how the story finds its people
Screening
Costs $350
Bringing People Into the Same Room. Because some stories are meant to be witnessed collectively.
Poster
Costs $100
A poster is more than promotion. It’s an invitation. It’s how someone who has never heard of this story pauses, and feels something.
Subtitles & Captions
Costs $200
In a story about what gets lost in translation, and what longs to be understood, this helps the film speak to everyone it was made for.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Ted Taekeun Kim is a director/producer currently pursuing his MFA at USC's Peter Stark Producing Program. Prior to USC, he worked as an assistant at Authentic Literary & Talent Management in New York and co-founded a music video/commercials company in Brooklyn, named Souvenir Media. His short films have won awards at BIFAN and Asian American International Film Festival, and have screened at Vancouver International Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival. He is passionate about arthouse cinema and cultivating new Asian American voices.
Daniel Davidson-Kalmar is a producer in his second year of the Peter Stark Producing MFA Program at USC. He previously worked in the film festival space, with roles in development and programming at TIFF and Hot Docs. Before coming to USC, Daniel earned an MA in Cinema Studies from the University of Toronto and studied film production at New York University. He brings to his producing work a passion for independent film and a commitment to supporting emerging filmmakers.
Emma Kuypers is a MFA candidate at USC's Peter Stark Producing Program. Prior to moving to the US, she earned a Bachelor's and Master's degree in the arts from the Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound in Brussels, specialising in Film Producing. She worked in the European film industry as an on set production coordinator & assistant manager. She has a passion for independent European cinema with an American touch.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
We’re so glad you’re here, because this film exists for people like you.
I Missed You tells a story many carry but rarely see onscreen: the quiet ache of living between cultures, between
languages, between versions of home. Through the lens of virtual reality, we explore what happens when memory becomes the only place you belong.
The film is already shot. What happens next depends on this moment and on who chooses to stand with it.
If this speaks to you, keep reading. You’re part of why we made it.
In I Missed You, Mia, an Asian American VR therapist, helps grieving clients reunite with loved ones through immersive simulations. But when a Korean immigrant asks her to reconstruct the family he left behind, the boundaries between his memories and her own begin to blur. As she builds his version of home, long-buried questions about her own severed heritage surface — forcing her to choose between professional distance and personal truth.
Mia and Myung are not heroes in the traditional sense. They are human, flawed, and carrying choices that have shaped entire families. Mia has built a controlled, pristine life to survive the unanswered questions of her adoption, yet beneath her professionalism is a longing to understand what it means to be left behind. Myung has spent decades burying the guilt of abandoning his pregnant wife, convincing himself that reinvention was survival. Their collision is raw and morally complicated, forcing both to confront the cost of distance, pride, and silence. Stories like theirs deserve support because they reflect the quiet, intergenerational wounds many immigrant families carry — wounds rarely explored with this intimacy and nuance on screen.
I Missed You confronts urgent questions about the world we’re building: What happens when grief becomes a service, when technology turns memory into something you can purchase and replay? As VR promises connection without vulnerability, the film examines the tension between digital intimacy and real human reckoning. Beneath that is a deeper search for identity and belonging, the immigrant ache for home, the adoptee’s fractured lineage, the longing to reconcile who we are with where we come from. These themes matter now because we are living in an era where displacement is common, technology mediates our closest relationships, and the meaning of “home” feels more fragile than ever.
The visual world of I Missed You is intimate, tactile, and psychologically charged. Faces are framed in close, searching compositions; skin, breath, and touch become landscapes of emotion. Lush, saturated images, like the deep crimson of a flower, contrast with sterile whites and vast negative space, reflecting the tension between artificial perfection and emotional emptiness. Darkness isolates figures in suspended, almost surreal environments, while soft natural light exposes vulnerability in quiet domestic moments. The palette moves between controlled suburban stillness and dreamlike abstraction, creating a cinematic language where memory feels sensual, fragile, and slightly unreal, as if reality itself is only partially solid.
I Missed You is currently in post-production. The film has been shot, and we are now entering the final stage: editing, sound design, original score, color grading, and festival delivery. This campaign will allow us to complete the film at a professional level and bring it to audiences through festivals and community screenings.
This story is deeply personal to our team. We are artists shaped by immigration, adoption, cultural distance, and the complicated inheritance of silence. We have lived the ache of fragmented identity and the tension between survival and belonging. I Missed You is our way of honoring those quiet, intergenerational wounds, and giving them cinematic space.
We are also making this film because technology is reshaping how we grieve, connect, and remember. As VR becomes more immersive and emotionally persuasive, we are asking urgent questions about what happens when memory becomes a product. This story allows us to explore that ethical and emotional frontier through an intimate, human lens.
We believe audiences are hungry for stories that sit in moral complexity, that do not simplify immigrant narratives into triumph or tragedy, but allow them to exist in contradiction.
Your support goes directly toward finishing the film and bringing it into the world.
Funds raised will be used for:
- Picture Editing - Final edit polish and post-production workflow
- Sound Design & Mixing – Creating an immersive emotional soundscape
- Original Score – Composing music that bridges memory and reality
- Color Correction & Grading – Finalizing the visual tone and palette
- Festival Submission Fees – Submitting to top-tier and culturally aligned festivals
- Marketing & Outreach Materials – Poster design, trailer finishing, press assets
Every dollar raised moves us from a completed shoot to a finished, festival-ready film.
Timeline
- March–April 2026: Final picture lock
- April–May 2026: Sound design, scoring, and color grading
- Summer 2026: Festival submissions begin
- Fall 2026 onward: Screenings, festivals, and community conversations
The film is already shot. This campaign is about completion and release.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Music
Costs $750
Giving Memory a Pulse. Music is what carries emotion when words fall short. This is the heartbeat of the film.
Color Grading
Costs $750
Coloring the Emotional Landscape. This is where the film fully becomes what we imagined.
Sound Design
Costs $550
Building the Space. In a story about distance: physical, emotional, cultural, sound matters. This is what makes the film feel lived in.
Festivals & Distribution
Costs $450
Carrying the Story. Stories about immigrant guilt, adoption, and fractured lineage deserve to travel. This is how the story finds its people
Screening
Costs $350
Bringing People Into the Same Room. Because some stories are meant to be witnessed collectively.
Poster
Costs $100
A poster is more than promotion. It’s an invitation. It’s how someone who has never heard of this story pauses, and feels something.
Subtitles & Captions
Costs $200
In a story about what gets lost in translation, and what longs to be understood, this helps the film speak to everyone it was made for.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Ted Taekeun Kim is a director/producer currently pursuing his MFA at USC's Peter Stark Producing Program. Prior to USC, he worked as an assistant at Authentic Literary & Talent Management in New York and co-founded a music video/commercials company in Brooklyn, named Souvenir Media. His short films have won awards at BIFAN and Asian American International Film Festival, and have screened at Vancouver International Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival. He is passionate about arthouse cinema and cultivating new Asian American voices.
Daniel Davidson-Kalmar is a producer in his second year of the Peter Stark Producing MFA Program at USC. He previously worked in the film festival space, with roles in development and programming at TIFF and Hot Docs. Before coming to USC, Daniel earned an MA in Cinema Studies from the University of Toronto and studied film production at New York University. He brings to his producing work a passion for independent film and a commitment to supporting emerging filmmakers.
Emma Kuypers is a MFA candidate at USC's Peter Stark Producing Program. Prior to moving to the US, she earned a Bachelor's and Master's degree in the arts from the Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound in Brussels, specialising in Film Producing. She worked in the European film industry as an on set production coordinator & assistant manager. She has a passion for independent European cinema with an American touch.