Production Talk - 'Hello Goodbye' by Tay Li Cheng

Synopsis

Wen is a housewife disenchanted with her marriage. Taking on a job as a chambermaid, she seeks to find the human connection she so desires. When a new guest Bryan checks into the hotel, he brings with him the baggage of his recent divorce. Slowly, a bond begins to form between the two characters as they take turns to inhabit Bryan's hotel room -- Bryan dealing with the loss at night by watching his own motivational videos, and Wen finding out more about Bryan as she cleans up after him in the day. An exchange of notes sparks off a mutual attraction, leading to a moral dilemma as their relationship threatens Wen's marriage.


What is your inspiration behind 'Hello Goodbye'? It seems a little surreal that the woman would be taking up that in our context.

The idea came from my stay in a Vancouver hotel while traveling. Every day, the chambermaid would leave a card with her name on the vanity. This struck me as odd, and I could only surmise it allowed guests to leave a tip for the right person. At the same time, this name added a personality to the otherwise nameless room cleaning service. A series of what-ifs began to surface; what if I met the chambermaid with that nametag in the corridor? What if something went missing from my room? Would I be able to trace it down to the named chambermaid?

Soon, a story about exchanges in the hotel room started forming in my head. Add that on to my interest in the deterioration of interpersonal relationships and effective communication due to the use of technology in our society today, you get ‘Hello, Goodbye’.

The premise of the female character has been exaggerated. Her longing for the human connection (which she is unable to receive in her marriage) leads her to look for a job dealing with people. Yet there is a shy side to her character which prevents her from directly interacting with the hotel guests. The domestic nature of the job was my externalization of the role she plays in the marriage (docile, always enduring).


The film's got traces of some foreign/Hollywood films I have watched. Are there any influences in this film?

Definitely. I was heavily influenced by films like Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003), In The Mood For Love (Wong Kar Wai, 2000), Last Life In The Universe (Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, 2003) and the Italian film The Consequences of Love (Paolo Sorrentino, 2004). The common thread running through these films is the anomie of the human spirit.

In fact, I secretly wished for my film to be a homage and side-story of the unexplained interaction between the chambermaid and the hotel guest in The Consequences of Love, which was never developed in that film. My initial development of the characters actually referenced the film quite a bit, but my story took on a whole new dimension of its own later on in the development process, thanks to my co-writer Kun Lei. We initially planned for four characters but very quickly narrowed it down to two key players, resulting in a tighter plot. We also referenced Lost in Translation and Last Life in The Universe for building up the tension between the two characters, keeping a strong amount of attraction but not crossing the line into intimacy.

My director of photography, Jonathan, was also heavily influenced by the camerawork in Tony Takitani (Jun Ichikawa, 2004), where the wide shots enhanced the loneliness of the protagonist. Space was a key element in the framing of the shots in order to externalize the emotions of the characters without much dialogue. Influenced by works of Taiwanese directors like Tsai Ming-Liang and Hou Hsiao-Hsein, Jonathan seeked to sculpt the locations into a third character.

Who are your favourite directors? What are your favourite genres?

I have no favourites at this point in time. I believe each director has his or her own style that deserves a look into. But I do like a good, clever movie with a solid storyline and acute camerawork that serves the story. That being said, my current occupation is with music videos since they are a fairly duration-sensitive medium that relies on a poignant story told within a very short span of time, running either parallel to or subverting the lyrics of the song -- Visual storytelling at its finest.



Take us through some of the challenges in making this film

It was my first time directing and coordinating a production with this much production value. Besides handling the stress of managing a crew of 12-15, this was my first time working with two professional actors who each brought with them their own styles and habits. That being said it was a incredibly enriching and humbling experience working with all the professionals on set.

Finding the initial budget was also a problem, since we had decided to shoot on 16mm film. We also had to secure the locations for the shoot like the hotel rooms and corridors. The original shoot had to be postponed from December to January to accommodate for the peak tourist season, where the hotel loaning us the locations would be heavily packed with guests.

After some technical problems with the camera midway through the shoot, we had to organize a reshoot. With limited time and budget on our hands, we had to exercise prudence and economy with the pick-ups, besides coordinating the (by then horribly packed) schedules of cast, crew and locations.



Any interesting things happened during the shoot?

We realized after the initial reconnaissance trips that there was never going to be a hotel room that fit the bill (and offer us enough space to execute the long shots we required). After discussion with the producer, director of photographer, and production designer, we came up with a plan to build a whole hotel room in our school’s sound stage, complete with a mobile fourth wall.

The fun part was getting the hotel furniture for the set in order to maintain continuity between the corridor and the interior décor. We scouted around Singapore looking for places which sold second-hand hotel furniture, trying to find the exact look (and period pieces) reminiscent of a 80’s hotel in Singapore. Arguments about how the phone and guestbook should look, how the teacups and hot water dispensers should be styled came about, but in the end they were hardly featured. I guess that spoke a lot about the dedication of our crew in caring for details and making it picture-perfect.

We also took pains to modify some of the furniture we found and bought to give them extra realism and credibility. Goodness knows how long the crew spent polishing the brass handles on the wardrobes and bedside tables in order to give them that extra shine, after the initial base coat of paint and lacquer we gave the furniture. It really felt like we were preparing for an IKEA product shoot! I am really glad the hotel room turned out fabulous in the film, our hard work really paid off.

Read more about the film here

Production Talk - 'Chicken' by Charmaine Oon

What is a chicken? What is a CHICKEN??!

*****

What on earth set you on this idea for 'Chicken'!?
What are you trying to achieve in 'Chicken'?

Why not the chicken? We bake, steam, fry, mince, and process chickens on a daily basis; laugh at it on cartoon channels; refer to it derogatorily in our metaphors. The chicken’s image has been exploited, caricatured and mythologized; re-created under consumerist terms.

I was also intrigued by wikipedia and its dense network of links – how its the first stop for a cursory view on things, yet scoffed at if you quote it in school work; how its so random but coherent at the same time. And mind maps! my teachers were big on them. So ‘Chicken’ is an educational video of some sorts, a filmic representation of wikipedia.

We thought that the eclectic nature of mind maps can be translated to the film through the dense collage of images. The visual collage of different formats (textures)/ environments seem to condense different time and multiple realities into a single space. We begun to explore the possibility of imbuing the film with a sense of self consciousness. Perhaps the different processes that the images undergo mirror our own interpretation and understanding chickens.


I understand that it uses a lot of stock footage, tell us more about the process and costs involved in getting these footages?

We used a lot of things. Some of them came through googling for footage whose rights have been relinquished. We were also kindly supported by AVA and they had a repository of chicken ‘artefacts’.

Who is that woman in the film? (eating kaka) She is so funny

She is Jeannie’s (the producer) mom!



Do share any interesting anecdotes in the process of making this film (where did u buy your kaka snack by the way?)

I will tell Shoe (the production designer) that you bought her nifty .psd skills! After several fruitless attempts to locate kaka, we called the company up and realised that they've stopped producing it.
We shot in a chicken farm in Malaysia and we have an awesome funny video of Jeannie trying to catch a chicken. This is the end frame of the clip - victorious Jeannie Never realised how warm a chicken is.


You have a natural sense of humour, would you consider doing something more like a narrative comedy?

We didn't set out to make a funny film.. Perhaps, if comedy is not an end in itself.

Production Talk - '3 Days Grace' by Kenny Tan

Synopsis

An aggressive boxer’s reluctant reunion with his ill father sparks off a hostile yet awkward circumstance where father and son are forced to live together for the next 3 days.


Director's statement

3 DAYS GRACE was produced as a thesis film for my final year project at NTU School of Art Design and Media. The main concept of 3 DAYS GRACE revolves around a strained relationship between a father and son. The film tries to explore the intricate and awkward relationship between two grown men bound by Asian values, coping with life in the absence of a wife or mother. The film has its focus on the fading importance of filial piety in modern society that used to be a distinct Asian virtue.

Showreel

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Is this a personal film? Or were you inspired by other events?

This film was first driven by the interest of working on the father and son theme. I had wanted to tell a realistic story that included the things I’ve observed based on personal experiences and other individual’s stories. Upon reading news articles about the local government contemplating on enacting filial piety laws, the idea began to take shape as I try to include such a premise into the film.

I didn’t want to explore or highlight whether it was a good or bad thing to implement the law or whether it was needed, but rather, I wanted to tell a story that can happen in such a premise. I worked with my co-writer Asa Lee who also became the producer of the film on the development of the narrative. The film is essentially about a grown man and his aged father. There was the deliberate absence of other female characters in the film except the social worker. She embodies the role of the government as both the enforcer and the impartial mediator.






What are you trying to achieve in making this film?

I guess the first thing I wanted to achieve was to tell a delicate yet poignant story about kinship. The project was also a further exploration for me in terms of directing a different genre and film style. The way the script was crafted allowed me to work with minimum dialog as I explore the use of silence and restrained communication particularly with the main characters. The film was also a technical study for me to work with full HD production, prime lenses and a tapeless workflow.

I had worked intensively with my DP Joseph Peng to achieve the look and feel of the film on set and this process continued all the way into the final colour grading phase. I had also wanted to put focus into sound design as well as original scoring into the film. Sound has always been the least priority in many student films largely due to budget constrains or the lack of understanding but I feel it is one of the most important component of a complete film. I had the opportunity to work with sound designer and composer Kevin Teoh to create an original sound design as well as score for the film. Despite being a rather quiet film, you will be surprised to know that many of the sounds you hear on the film are recreated through foley recordings.

Of course all of this could not be achieved without the hard work of a committed crew and cast as well as the generous support of the sponsors.






I notice you have quite a wide vocabulary of styles throughout your films from Lorong 27 to that Our Last Day to this. What are you inspired or driven by?

I guess most of the time, I make films based on experiences and events that happen around me at certain points in time. For eg. LORONG 27 was made when the coffeeshop that my granny owns was about to be sold off and I wanted to shoot the film as my last of memory of the place. OUR LAST DAY was shot at a time when foreign media and cultures were creating such an impact on people around me that generated the sudden urge for me to direct a foreign film on local soil. Similarly to my other films, 3 DAYS GRACE was conceived at a time when filial piety was constantly discussed by people around me and on the local media. Before entering film school, I was a self-trained filmmaker and my earlier works were strongly influenced by mimicking what I had seen on T.V or in the cinemas of those time. It is only in later years that I began to try and define my own style. Every film is a practice for me, I believe the only way to hone my skills and achieve my vision is to keep making them. Every film I’ve completed is different and I get different experiences and learn different lessons from them both during and after they were made. Most importantly, it was the love for moving visuals that drives me to keep creating them.






Any interesting things happened during the shoot?

As the house plays an important part of the story. Looking for the right house to film in was paramount to achieving the look I had envisioned. We had scouted and viewed so many different kinds of apartment it was almost as if we were contemplating on buying one. Initially, most of the houses that we scouted had problems either with its exteriors or interior furnishings, the houses were either too new or too cluttered. It was only until the last minute that we discovered an old bungalow along Chun Tin Road, the disheveled exteriors were just as what I had wanted, the only problem was, the house had been unoccupied and completely empty. It was impulsive but we decided to rent the property, art direct the whole house and commence filming in a few days time. The art director for the film Andy Chung had the difficult but important task of filling up the house under a tight budget. We had to borrow, rent and even scavenge for furniture and other items to fill up the house. Trips to the junk yards and rubbish dumps were a daily affair, I must say that the art department did an amazing job and it turned out really well on film, they even brought in a prayer alter complete with a deity.

3 Days Grace offical website

FLARE UP again

1 year ago,we witnessed the 1st batch of NTU ADM graduates (now they are doing pretty well...)



This year, we were back at National Museum again for another polished and glossy event, with even more industry players (do note that this is not a Film Festival, it's a private screening)





See the 2nd Batch of Graduates from NTU ADM 2010 introduce themselves and share about their films and personal journeys. They also share their plans after graduation and what they feel about the state of the local film industry.

Pictures from the second screening of FLARE at the NTU campus.

For film reviews, kindly click on the following links...

10^th Of May

Chicken("Muji")

HOT!

Living It

Remember Me

Hello,Goodbye

3 Day Grace

Mandy's 8 Theories of Sleep

FLARE 2010 - 'Mandy's 8 Theories Of Sleep' by Wendy Chee

Wendy Chee's 'Mandy's 8 Theories of sleep' shows how simple child's play can turn into priceless moments. It is like a minor's version of Royston Tan's 15 (the short film) in which 2 characters go about conversing spontaneously and the result is effortlessly funny and subtly warm and fuzzy at the same time. It is not difficult to get a sense that Wendy has a way with getting the kids to lose all inhibitions and give us many moments of innocence and genius. Perhaps even lovable mischief. It is one production in which the director is very decided on what she wants and is confident about the delivery. In a way, she has chosen a very safe framework - get two kids, give them a structure to a conversation (actually just give them lines!), get them comfortable by doing what they do best and voila! It can be too far from being endearing.

Mandy is a primary school girl who can't get enough of sleep. She can sleep anywhere, everywhere and anytime. Her parents try to break her habit but fail to. So enter Jia Ming, her opposite/nemesis/other half of the screen, who tries to break her attempts to sleep. In turn, she comes up with her 8 theories of sleep. The theories are child-like yet not without its share of wit and messages (like in the usual Disney features), so we adults have to pay attention to. Even when the theories are ridiculous, there is still some undeniable logic in them like 'Sleeping can make you grow taller,because you are not being pulled down by gravity'. Come on, you chuckled, didn't you?

In a way, it is also a very kiasu film. The 2 kids were good enough to stir up some screen magic but Wendy took an extra step to embellish the scenes by creating countless visual surprises along the way. Kiddy props and set-ups were a signature in many of the scenes. There was probably a fair amount of colour grading to give it that candy-coloured world look. If that's not enough, the cleverest trick was the use of a familiar idea - kids in adult positions. Though this is not entirely original, Wendy's got her personal touch to directing her kids in way that looked like they were in their element even though rehearsed. Guess it take a kid to direct another and Wendy's certainly let her kid out. A scene to remember is Jia Ming clasping Mandy's hair using the cover of his pencil box and but in the end gets hit by the pencil box when she executes a knee-jerk reaction upon waking up. Classic.

Kid's films are a plenty because of one reason - they light up the screen easily. It is almost exploitative. Not that it is terribly easy to work with kids as well. To get the little devils to work magic for you sometimes needs a meeting of the sun, stars and the moon. But if you genuinely love kids and are a kid yourself, it gets easier and it shows.

FLARE 2010 - '10th of May' by Wong Ruyi

10th of May is an ode to family soap operas. It is also hard not to bring to mind the current popularity of the never-ending Taiwanese serial 'Love' or '爱‘ when you think about the petty feuds that go on this film. In essence, a girl (Rebecca) is about to get married but her mum's insistence on the traditional tea ceremony leads to some awkward feelings when the people on the other side of the marriage are more modern. Little peeves and disagreements grow into acidic Cantonese drama faster than you can say Channel 8.

However, it is a meticulously put together film with great attention paid to location, props and talents (plenty of care-lare-fares too!). If you can stomach the melodrama, good for you because that's one hurdle down. The other is a dealing with the mum's secret. Picture a Cantonese speaking mother etched firmly in her traditional beliefs dialing into a very strange line. It's an 'Ang Moh' sounding man on the other line. His voice is evocative and strangely 'canned'. As he speaks, she gets more aroused and slides her hands inside her flaming-red cheongsam. What's new? Repressed people need to entertain themselves. But wait. Aren't we still on Channel 8?

'10th of May' exists in 2 distinct genres interspersed with each other. One is tension-filled family drama. One is a really strange brand of erotica. How the 2 can co-exist is quite hard to come to terms with. It is possible that director is trying hard to push the envelope. But it seems giving a 180 degree twist to a character without the luxury of a feature length film to explain it, is pushing the film off its intended path.

In fact, the mum is one complex character that steals most of the limelight (except for the hilariously stilted one-liners from her ah soh friends). The actress, pregnant with emotions, seems to be struggling under the misguidedness of her character, somehow seeming like she has got multiple personality disorder. It is evident that it is a very meaty role to play. From the pain of single motherhood to putting with the scorn from the in-laws to being at odds with her daughter's wishes to succumbing to her primal needs, it's a roller coaster journey for the character and the actress. While the role is difficult to fill, the director could be a lot more decisive to be helpful. While the film presents itself strongly on the more familiar themes of clash of values and social classes, it wavers when treading on less familiar grounds.

FLARE 2010 - 'Chicken' by Charmaine Oon

How do you savour the little balls of chicken-essence-coated flour that we knew as ‘Ka Ka’ from our distant childhood? (note: only kids of the 80s will know this). According to the film ‘Chicken’, we crush them flat against the top of our tongue and let it ‘melt’ with our saliva so that we can be tingled by the magic of the MSG ‘goodness’. Not a bad ‘titbit’ to take away from this film (which is one that clamours our attention unabashedly).

‘Chicken’ is really an exploration of visual texture with a comic overtone by visual artist Charmaine Oon. It is built around the simple concept of the word chicken. There are no rules to the exploration. The film obsesses over ‘Ka Ka’ an iconic chicken-flavoured snack on one hand and exposes the origins of the ‘prostitute’ innuendo in the Chinese word chicken on the other. In between, there is a multitude of stock footage that give ‘Chicken’ a rich visual topography.

While use of black and white stock footage doesn’t break any new ground, Charmaine uses them in interesting juxtapositions and adds contextual layers to them. In fact, a masterstroke that stands out is the oddball humour. The motherly character who extols the pleasures of eating ‘Ka Ka’ is a classic example. She is not the archetypal person you would put in front of the camera sharing the ‘goodness’ of ‘Ka Ka’. She is more like the ‘eats your greens and fruits everyday’ sort. So watching her indulging in the balls of MSG was truly hilarious.

There were also a few staged scenes which stylised and even caricaturised some of the commonly known images associated with chickens and eggs. These included an egg farmer collecting eggs in a make-believe farm filled with boxes coloured in candy hues and also a bright-eyed boy roaming about in this 'toy-farm'. Dreamy and enticing in a way, it epitomises the overall drift of the film. And if I may define it, it is sub-consciously an attempt to recreate a 'play' world where we are free to look at familiar things with childlike eyes and a touch of mischief.

FLARE 2010 - '3 Days Grace' by Kenny Tan

Father-son relationships are always a tough subject to tackle in film, especially when there are few words spoken between both parties. 3 DAYS GRACE manages to take a strained father-son relationship and explores the tension between the two parties, deftly articulating what is commonly difficult to express through words.

While there are few words spoken between them, it is clear from the beginning that their relationship is a lot more complex than it seems. Pong’s brief interactions with his father are always of conflict and rife with impatience, and in a brilliant scene we see shots of him scrubbing his father’s urine-stained mattress being cross cut with shots of his dad’s utter helplessness, unable to feed himself – highlighting his Pong’s frustration with his father, as well as his father’s own frustration with himself.

Much of the underlying anger that simmers within Pong is not seen till much later, but clever editing hints at this emotional baggage. Throughout the film, there are constant cuts from still and quiet shots of Pong and his father in the house to the active, kinetic shots of Pong’s training of his boxing students. Director Kenny Tan uses the juxtaposition of the shots to allude to the idea that beneath a facade of apparent calmness lie many repressed emotions and dreams.

Our curiosity as to Pong’s beef with his father is eventually explained in flashback scenes where we see his father insulting him and being emotionally abusive towards him. Tan is smart in leaving this little nugget of information right till the very end, teasing the audience with subtle hints throughout the film, eventually building to the rather heartbreaking climax. The film also highlights the cyclical nature of father-son relationships, bringing Pong from a place of being the helpless one to being the character in power, while his father is relegated to a position of helplessness.

Credit must also be given to the actor who played Pong, who plays Pong with strong conviction – carrying with him an air of anger but also at the same time maintaining a vulnerable disposition. Pong, who despite being coarse and harsh towards his father, never gets to the point of being unlikeable, and always manages to engage the sympathies of the audience. This is important because the film does not set out to make him a villain or to demonize him, but rather aims to explore a father-son relationship that is tragic and heartbreaking. In this aspect, Tan has shown much maturity in his handling of the theme and his characters.