This film was awarded the Overall Best Film for the open category of ciNE65 Short Film Competition Season Three. SINdie speaks to Lawrence Loh, director of Unwavering.
What were the starting inspirations for this particular story?
The source of our inspiration came at the time we were about to give up on the competition. I noticed that there is this pantry auntie at the office that i was working in who helps to clear the trash bins every morning and wash our cups. Everyday after lunch, i will spot her sitting in the pantry looking out of the window. This got me thinking - who is she behind the cleaning uniform that she is wearing? What is her story? What is her past?
How did you go about the casting choice for the lead actress? What was the process like?
Well, similar to all our past work, we have very little budget and in fact, we don't have any to start with. However, we wanted to make sure that we get the best talent for our film. We were cutting too close to our production deadline for any proper casting calls.
I am blessed to be working with Talking Zebra Films and the producer, Samantha Lee, agreed to come onboard together with the DOP, Daniel Ho. He has kindly 'volunteered' his parents. They turned out to be brilliant and such natural actors!
What are some responses to the film, and what are your thoughts on the film after the win?
We were genuinely flattered by everyone's responses so far and honestly, we were very surprised that most people actually noticed the little details such as the scarf and bag which were iconic items carried by the Singapore Girl - kindly sponsored by our producer!
I think we have produced a short film that is able to connect with people at a deeper level and that matters to us a lot. This win has encouraged us even more to continue doing what we always believe in - meaningful storytelling that touches peoples' hearts and souls. We know it's a tall order but it's definitely worth it.
What is your next project?
I would like to produce a longer short film for Singapore Short Film Awards. This does not mean I'll stop producing 3 minute long films but I want to challenge myself in producing longer form films.
Also, my documentary 'A Needle A Stitch' has bagged the Best Documentary for ciNE65 which has pushed me to start producing my next documentary and I'm glad to announce that we are going into production in September. Challenging but exciting times ahead!
Overall Jury’s Choice Best Direction, Jury’s
Choice Best Screenplay for the Open category of ciNE65 Short Film Competition
Season Three. We speak to director Don Aravind to gather some starting
inspirations and reflections on responses to the film.
1. What were the starting inspirations for
this particular story?
I wanted a film that would stand out
narratively in relation to the competition's theme BELIEVING HOME. We live in
such a diversified social fabric and I wanted to illustrate the not very
"beautiful" side of it. However, it had to be compelling and convincing.
A close friend of mine stays in public rental housing and after several visits
to her neighbourhood, there was a stronger need to write a story. After several
discussions and visits to an old estate with my team member and screenwriter
Wei Ting, we were more than inspired to create a story based on En Bloc. But
the downside, we knew we were standing a low chance of winning the
competition.
2. Why the choice for an interracial casting?
N. Anjalai played the character of Pushpa in
the film. Anjalai is full ethnic Chinese who was raised in an Indian Tamil
speaking family. Hence, her mother tongue was Tamil. I only had her in mind to
play the role of "Pushpa" and no one else. So I would say it was an
unconscious decision that an "inter-racial" casting existed. It was
only at the edit stage did I realise that it had an additional layer. It was an
accident. I never thought much of it until some audience came up and commented
on my casting.
3. What are some responses to the film, and
what are your thoughts on the film after the win?
Tough question, so far generally very good
feedback and some very shocking comments. Most surprising one would have been
that it was labelled a 'political film'. Some commented that it was bold and
compelling and some said it was not a film meant for Cine65 as it wasn't
nationalistic enough. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much for the film. I was
itching so badly to do a short film and needed a strong reason to do so, the
competition came as a platform to sacrifice and take some leave of my regular
job which was television. I can only thank the many people including my team
mates, Kang Sheng and Wei Ting who came aboard for nothing but the love and
desire of doing a good film. Special thanks to my editor Shantha Kumar and my
friend Vel Murugan who had shed so much light and aided me along the way.
4. What is your next project?
I'm writing two short films now and hope to do
them by the end of next year.
Cathay Organization turns 80 this year, and what better way
to mark the occasion than to make a feature length commercial about it?
Directed by Malaysian-born, Taiwan-based director Ho Wi Ding
and screenplay by Michael Chiang (of Army Daze and Private Parts fame), Our Sister Mambo isn’t what you’d call a
fresh story. It follows through the lives of a happy, occasionally
dysfunctional family – film buff and theatre operations manager father (Moses
Lim), competitive property agent mother (Audrey Luo) who must get her say
around everything at home, and four daughters (played by Ethel Yap, Michelle Chong,
Oon Shu An, Joey Leong, mentioned in order of age) who make surprising choices
in love and life.
That alone pretty much sums up what the plot is about, but
that isn’t the film’s selling point. Ethnocentric and peppered with colloquial
terms that probably only a Singaporean audience could understand, Our Sister Mambo has many funny moments
and is well executed with great acting from the cast. Some actors stood out
well from the rest in their characters; Audrey Luo’s K-drama loving auntie
character, Oon Shu An’s sarong party girl and Nelson Chia’s English speaking
China man. Several guest appearances from well-loved local celebrities such as
Xiaxue and Jonathan Leong also upped the star factor of the film, making Our Sister Mambo an easy (on the eye) film
to watch, despite the verbose bits of Cathay’s facts and history (which were
sneakily crafted into the script).
Overall, it felt like Our
Sister Mambo was a piece of work that hadn’t met its full potential. The
subplots (marrying a divorcee with a kid, dating out of one’s race, leaving a
high status job to fulfil one’s passion, an old married couple who had
different interests and possibly drifting apart) had their corners rounded off,
and further exploration on any of the themes listed would have given the film
more bite. But understandably, dwelling deeper might have shifted it out of a
PG (Parental Guidance) rating, and make it less family friendly.
For a film that audience members pay full ticket price for,
one goes away feeling slightly cheated - for despite the adequate technicalities
and passable script, the story is terminally predictable and carries no central
conflict. In fact, the best description of it would be a 90-minute film adapted
from a Mediacorp drama; yet taking its commemorative provenance in to consideration,
one should be slightly forgiving – and accept that despite its long history, Singaporean
film is still very much a work in progress.
By Gwen Xu
'Our sister Mambo' is still showing in Cathay cinemas. Check out the movie trailer here.
As the largest and longest-running film
event in Singapore, SGIFF will continue to nurture and champion local and
regional talents in the art of filmmaking, and encouraging artistic dialogue
and cultural exchanges. 2 programmes will return to the festival – the Youth
Jury and Critics Programme and the Southeast Asian (sea) Film Lab.
The Youth Jury & Critics Programme seeks
to nurture a new generation of critical writers on cinema from the region. Aspiring film critics will learn from established
industry members on cinema from the region over weekly sessions.
Participants for this year’s edition will be educated on
the historical and cultural significance of past and present Southeast Asian
works, how film theory and close readings of films greatly benefit film writing
for a wider audience, as well as different interviewing approaches. There will
also be a live film journal created by participants on the Festival’s website.
They can also vote on the Youth Jury Prize-winning film during SGIFF’s Silver
Screen Awards.
Infact, they will be the very first to watch the works in
competition for the Silver Screen Awards Southeast Asian Short Film
Competition. The programme workshops will take place
on Saturday each week from 31st October, as well as 28th and 29thNovember.
This year’s programme is organised in
partnership with the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information,
Nanyang Technological University, and will be led by UK-based film academic and
curator, May Adadol Ingawanij (Thailand).
The programme is open to post-secondary students based in
Singapore and is expected to take in 12 to 15 participants. Applications
are already open and they close on Friday, 21 August 2015, 6pm(GMT+8).
Following a successful inaugural year
in 2014, the SGIFF Southeast Asian Film Lab—a story development
lab—returns in 2015. The 6-day film lab, from 30 November to 5 December 2015, champions the voice of young filmmakers, and aims to
develop cross-cultural dialogue and meaningful collaboration that fosters a
sense of community. Successful applicants will be working on their first
feature films, and a ‘Most Promising Project Award’ will then be presented
during SGIFF’s Silver Screen Awards.
This year’s Film Lab will be led by
award-winning film producer Terence Chang (Broken Arrow,
Face/Off, Red Cliff), with filmmakers Yong Mun Chee
(Singapore) and Sherad Anthony Sanchez (Philippines) taking on mentor roles.
They will share their filming experiences and bring on board various
perspectives to push participants to reach their potential.
The programme is open to first-time feature film
screenwriters and writer/directors from Southeast Asia. Candidates must have
made at least two short films that have screened at film festivals.
10 projects will be selected to participate.
Applications are already open and they close on Friday,
21 August 2015, 6pm (GMT+8).
Home-made was awarded Overall Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Sound Design for the student category of ciNE65 Short Film Competition Season Three. We speak to director Aloysius Lee to find out more about what went behind the shoot.
How did you conceive the idea for Home-made?
The idea of Home-made was conceived over a simple meal. We were discussing how much food meant to Singapore and how vibrant our food culture is. Our vision for the film was to put Singapore on the world map - almost literally. That's how the concept of putting a simple local dish in an international cooking competition came about. We hope that by watching Home-made, viewers will remember the taste of home and it will bring back any personal memories of home cooked meals that they have had in the past.
What was the length of time you took to write, film and produce Home-made?
Pre-production took us three weeks. During which, we sourced for our cast and location. We also had to make several revisions to the script (which is in essence a monologue) in order to make it as relate-able to the audience as possible. As we are all recent graduates, we did not have a big budget to produce this film. Therefore, finding things like cast and location was tough as everything had to be kept extremely low-cost.
The actual filming took us two days. The first day of shoot was where we captured the “past” sequence i.e. Joey and his grandmother. The second day was filming of the cooking competition.
After this, post-production took a week. Piecing everything together in a creative way that could capture the viewer’s attention was crucial. Once the sequence was complete, our music composer and audio post production personnel started working. They were in-charge of producing an entire piece of original music for the film as well as the entire film’s soundtrack. The sound team was highly on task, and would not stop making changes (no matter how minute) till they achieved what they wanted.
Could you share with us more about casting details?
Casting was one of our biggest challenge. Due to our limited budget, we had to get cast who were willing to help us out and trust us for little remuneration. Additionally, they had to embody the role and character well - that could not be compromised. We went through several rounds of looking for actors and actresses amongst our pool of family members and friends, before coming to a final decision.
Did you face any difficulties in making Home-made? If any, what were they?
One of our difficulties would have to be finding a location for the cooking competition. The space had to look very professional, something that could be of international standards. The private kitchen used in the film was lent to us by Chef Stephan Zoisl of NUTOPIA. He was extremely supportive of our efforts, and his delectable dishes can be seen in the film. He even helped us style the char kuay teow, the icon of Home-made.
Clover Films and mm2 Entertainment Pte Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of mm2 Asia Ltd.) are proud to present a new movie production, “LUCKY BOY”! The comedy will be helmed by one of Singapore’s most promising director Boris Boo巫培双 (Filial Party, Greedy Ghost,) and chronicles the defining moments & culture of Singapore for the past 40 years.
At the press conference, it was announced that the movie will star iconic MediaCorp artiste Chew Chor Meng 周初明 (It's A Great, Great World ) and wildly popular JM Artiste Network artiste Wang Wei Liang 王伟良 (Ah Boys To Men 3 : Frogmen). This will be the first time that the two local artistes who are fondly known as “Lobang” for their previous endearing portrayals will star in a movie together.
In an effort to enhance the talent pool of acting talents in Singapore, the production team will be auditioning aspiring female talent for several leading roles in the movie. Female talents based in Singapore between the ages of 18 to 25 years old can send in their photographs and details to luckyboyauditions@gmail.com, from now till 25th July 2015.
The production team is also happy to share that leading international broadcaster FOX International Channels (FIC) and its leading Chinese movies channel, SCM and the highly acclaimed director Jack Neo’s J Team Productions are coming on board as investors for this movie.
The movie depicts several decades of the lives of Lin Yu, (played by Wang Wei Liang) his family, friends and Qing Qing, Lin Yu’s primary school classmate, whom he immediately falls in love with and continues loving throughout his life. The movie “Lucky Boy” transports us back to the “time of our lives” as we witness the growth and experiences of Lin Yu along with Singapore.
Budgeted at S$2.5 million, the movie is scheduled to commence filming in September 2015 and slated for release in the second quarter of 2016. The movie is presented by Clover Films and mm2 Entertainment Pte Ltd, in association with FOX International Channels and J Team Productions, with the participation of Singapore Film Commission.
'What Times Mosquitos Are Sleeping?' by Petrus Kristianto: With a title that sounds like an exciting Nat Geo docudrama, this film defies all such expectations by taking viewers on an unsolicited road trip to urban mundanity. With frequent bumps in sound design and pacing, this cinematic ride excruciatingly paints the absurdity of a vapid urban life. (Bryson Ng) << Want your film to featured? Send us at sindie@sindie.sg >>
