FilmHelp

How to do a Q&A

After the screening of Perfumed Nightmare (1977) just as the audience was about to rush out, the room grew completely dark and the bongo drums started. The director Kidlat Tahimik came bounding into the light in a loin cloth dancing with his son round the stage. Great film, weird music, cute butt. A potent combination, all of us were too dumbstruck to leave, so riveted we were to our seats. Is he for real? He proceeded to taking a 30 minute Q&A in the same loin cloth. Almost naked. I should try the loin cloth/bongo drum for my Q&As one of these days. Talk about a memorable Q&A. Of course it would help if I made a memorable film too!

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Invisible City Tee Shirts

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Tee shirts are a great promotional and fundraiser tool. Tip: Do order women’s cut tees too if you want women to buy it ….and wear it. Most women went directly for the smaller more fitting cut rather than the boxy men’s cut.
pix: Jasmine Ng is seen here purveying quality Invisible City tees to my Mum’s cousin

the ego of the filmmaker

A quote from a presentation given by Slawomir Idziak (Kieslowski’s DP: Blue, Black Hawk Down, Harry Potter 5) at the Berlinale Talent Campus:

“Why are people in film schools not joining together to build a group under the name of Rolling Stones, or Beatles and making the picture and forgetting about ego? Forgetting about something which is very often their enemy.

When the four musicians meet each other, they sit and play music. With filmmakers meet the first time they start to compete who is the better. This is the difference. Our ego, which is very well developed to the education system, the entire system, doesn’t let us to play music with the other.”

A transcription of his talk here

A Malaysian film company set up by filmmakers, Dahuang Pictures

Things they don’t tell you

Invisible City’s press screening takes place tomorrow. This is the screening for press before the documentary opens. I have never read an accurate account of what it really feels like the night before a big screening, so I will tell you. I feel totally vunerable and very fallible. This is the moment where I stand totally exposed before you, unadorned, and I deeply hope I connect with you, the audience, one way or other. If I don’t, ah well, at least I got to visit Snow City. Peace!

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pix by ampulets

insurance for filmmakers

A filmmaker friend asked me whether she should buy insurance for herself as she starts work on a middle budget film that has some overseas shooting. My stand is this: ALL filmmakers (not just directors, but crew members, even interns) MUST buy personal accident insurance for yourselves because of the higher risk of injury that being in this industry entails. I have been in many shoots in Singapore where safety is compromised because of the need to finish fast or where there is not enough personnel to ensure that a job is properly done. Double these risks if you are overseas and in unfamiliar terrain

Don’t depend on the coverage from your company because their insurance is likely to cover their equipment more than it covers you. If you are a freelance crew member, it may not cover you at all.
The genre of insurance to buy is called “personal accident” insurance. You can insure yourself for the scenario where you lose a limb or life caused by accidents. (eg one leg, $50,000, one toe $5,000). The bigger the cover amount, the higher the premium. Some insurance plans cover you for loss of income while you are hospitalised or immobile. Others pay for you to be airlifted back for treatment if you are injured overseas. All for as little as SGD200/year.
Please note that the personal accident insurance does not cover you for hospital expenses. For hospitalisation make sure that you have medishield coverage (or their private permutations like incomeshild or myshield etc). For wall to wall coverage, you should buy the rider too. Hospital bills, especially prolonged stays can wipe your family out.

I googled and came up with some plans: NTUC income, AXA, for personal accident coverage please feel free to add to list

This is a no brainer. Buy it!

Short courses

Continuing on from film school confidential, if you are looking for short film courses, apart from those conducted by DMA, Objectifs‘, look to the plethora of short film/video courses conducted by Australian Film and TV School . I attended the course by Rob Marchand on directing using Mike Leigh’s method of improvisation, it is highly recommended. He was able to articulate the craft very well. NFTRS (UK) has a similar short course programme. Singaporeans/PRs can apply for MDA’s Capability Development Scheme for partial funding.

Ubuweb: Youtube of the Avant Garde

I was looking for Farocki’s Inextinguisable Fire (1969) and lamenting that it would be impossible to find it in Singapore when I stumbled upon an amazing trove ubuweb.com. It hosts works by Robert Frank, Peter Forgacs, audio of Om Kawara reading One Million Years amongst many others. With this site, one peeps into film from a parallel universe. Link

INTERCHANGEABLE FILMS

NYT 14 Feb, “Filmmakers, film-industry types and the journalists who love them often refer to something called the festival circuit, a sequence of hectic, semi-glamorous events that crowd the calendar and circle the globe. But it might be more accurate to speak of a festival system: a complicated, ever-expanding web in which the interests of commerce, art and criticism converge, sometimes in harmony and sometimes at cross-purposes.

Any festival is contingent, ephemeral, something of a pseudo-event. When it is over, there is a brief flurry of evaluation — Toronto was strong this year, Sundance was disappointing, whatever — but those judgments tend to fade as the movies themselves, the ostensible point of the whole enterprise, make their way in the world, or into oblivion, or onto the next festival.” Cont’d reading NYT

Film Traffic

There is always a department in film festivals called “Film Traffic” which has an army of people, usually volunteers, who make sure that all the film reels are in tact, cleaned and taped together in the right order for its screening. It is a thankless but a very very important job. I know this because years ago in the 90s, we had a rare screening of Edward Yang’s, A Brighter Summer Day in Singapore. Its rare event anywhere because the film is 3 plus hours long and the film hard to get. Anyway, the projectionist played the reels in the wrong order, for the three parts of the film, parts 2,3 were switched around. Sadly, a swathe of Singaporean’s know the film the wrong way round. The funny (though inexcusable) thing was, even in the wrong order, the film was still great. Now that takes real skill. This post is dedicated to them tape traffic people. The stills below are from the Rotterdam Film Festival 06 Film Traffic Room
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rain dogs (????opens tomorrow

rain dogs poster.jpgI have been following Ho Yuhang’s career from across the causeway ever since I saw his first feature Min in 2002 at SIFF. Min, a bare bones DV feature is a quiet film about a Malay bred young woman’s search for her Chinese biological mother. It was an assured first feature and I wondered what he could produce with more resources. Two years ago, Hong Kong company Focus Films, also the sales agent for Singapore GaGa, produced his third feature Rain Dogs. I saw it at Pusan International Film Festival in a cramped video booth and I am still in admiration. Book now, am afraid that it will disappear from GV cinemas without a blip. Rise of Malaysian Chinese Cinema

Film skool CONFIDENTIAL

So you realise, a little late in life, after wondering around a bit that you really want to be a movie director, but you have no idea how to get started. With all the buzz surrounding the setting up of the Graduate NYU Film School in Singapore perhaps its opportune to reflect on the notion of film education. Starting from nothing, if one wanted to work in film industry, be a director, is film school the best place to learn about filmmaking and to get into the film industry? Or does it make more sense to apprentice oneself to a filmmaker/editor/producer to learn the chops from them which was how most people learnt about filmmaking in the pre film school days. I was faced this forked path when I realized that I wanted to become a filmmaker in the mid 90’s. At that time, no tertiary film school existed in Singapore (Ngee Ann Polytechnic had just opened, but I felt too old to be making films with 17 year olds). I decided that the best way for me to learn about filmmaking was to throw myself at the feet of Hou Hsiao Hsien hoping that some of his skill would percolate down to me or to apprentice myself to the drama department in Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS, the only TV station in Singapore). The former did not work out so I joined the latter.

Later when I realised that working in television making Triple Nine and Under One Roof did not further my filmmaking dreams did I apply to study for an MFA in film at Northwestern University. Since I learnt the craft under different regimes, I can shed some light on the film education process.

In the best case scenarios, film schools (or education for that matter) allow you to find your voice and they also provide a supportive environment to help you develop it. That was why, although I enjoyed my time making Under One Roof, I had to leave Television. The harsh daily grind of TV-making was killing my voice I had and I had leave to save it. I decided to enroll myself in film school, to not just learn the technical side of things, but to set time aside to help me define, refine my filmmaking voice in a structured environment.

If you are not an autodidact like me then which film school should one go to? Obviously cost is a factor and I will come to that later. The other factor is fit. Different film schools have different emphases. Some are strictly narrative where it is not uncommon for thesis films to cost USD 30,000, be shot in 35mm film. Others are less rigid. The best way to decide which school is for you is to see their students’ graduation films to see if you identify with it. For example, a person like Wong Kar Wai, had he gone to film school would NOT have come out of a film school like NYU, Columbia, UCLA (those schools have a strong focus on script which would have beaten the lets-make-it-up-as-we-go-along inclinations out of him in year 1). He would probably have come from a school like the Art Institute of Chicago which is also the school which Apitchatpong (Blissfully Yours) graduated from. So if you find yourself with a WKW personality, an Art Institute type school would have supported that way of filmmaking.

My references are USA-centred, but one should certainly look to UK, Australia (Unversity of Technology, Sydney has a great films coming out of it), Lodz Film school, Poland, the Beijing Film academy and Hong Kong City Unversity Film School, just to name a few. I myself wanted to go to film school in Japan but I blew the scholarship interview. The other film school I also explored was in Cuba, because I was very impressed by the films of Santiago Alvarez, he who could out of a few stills make the most moving polemical documentaries. At the back of my mind, I was keen on film schools set in cultures I was unfamiliar with, had small or non existent film industries but a thriving underground one. This meant that its filmmakers were more creative in not just getting their films made, but shown as well. They could out of necessity, like Santiago Alvarez say a lot more with a lot less and I wanted to learn from them.
In the end, I decided that Northwestern was best for me, not just because of the scholarship that was offered, but that I fell in love with Chicago. Still, I wonder what kind of films would I be making now if I went to film school in Japan or Cuba.

The other thing is cost. Unlike an MBA from a tier 1 university, which pays for itself 2-3 years after graduation. When you graduate from film school with a Tier 1 MFA, you start at entry level salaries of a fresh graduate or lower. So, if you are going to have to blow a USD 120,000 loan going into a Tier 1 MFA film school in the USA, don’t do it. It will take you many years to pay off the loan and that delays any further plans of auteurship that you may have had in mind, plans that led you to going into film school in the first place.
There are other ways of course, you could find a cheaper film school or win a scholarship. For me, if I didn’t get the Northwestern scholarship, I would have used a fraction of that money to make films and to learn from them. To become a filmmaker, observing others doing it, making one’s own films and watching and reading about films is really the best way. You could do this in a film school (has equipment, crew) or you could do this outside. For every Spike Lee who went to film school, there are others like Amir Mohammed, Martyn See, John Woo and WKW who didn’t. Point is, the benefit has to be balanced with cost, in terms of money and its collary, time.

And so, I ended up in the US, at a school which has a very strong industry focus, but interestingly it also had a very strong experimental niche within its ranks. Added to that, we were surrounded by a world class film history faculty due to our close proximity with the University of Chicago. In searching and refining my filmmaking voice, I was exposed to the best of different kinds of films and non-films so my filmmaking world view expanded exponentially. No longer was film just about what one saw in the cinemas, it grew to encompass installations, new media, theatre and various other expressions of life. I learned how amorphous rules are and how often they are the product of historical and cultural factors that are constantly being re-exammined and changed. I also learned that I could be a force in that change. Through Northwestern, I found myself at ease in the art world, in the film world and also in the TV world. The breadth of my filmmography, award winning documentaries with Discovery Channel, installations (80kmh, 9th August) and also independent documentaries (Singapore GaGa, Invisible City) is a result of this exposure.

A little caveat, film school is not for everyone. If you already have a very strong voice and know exactly what you kind of films you want to make, you may find school’s structured environment oppressive. I had friends who hated the film history or film theory class requirements. They felt that these classes got in their way of filmmaking. If you have a one-track mind, find a one track film school, or just make films and get on with it.

The above post pertains to film school at graduate level where the applicant is alot clearer about what she wants from life. My views on film schools at undergraduate level deserve another post

10 reasons to go
10 reasons not to go

or …if you are looking for short film courses, apart from those conducted by DMA, Objectifs‘, look to the plethora of short film/video courses conducted by Australian Film and TV School . I attended the course by Rob Marchand on directing using Mike Leigh’s Method of improvisation, it is highly recommended. He was able to articulate the craft very well. NFTRS (UK) has a similar short course programme. Singaporeans can apply for MDA’s capability Development scheme for partial funding.

S$200,000

Just heard from Colin and Yen Yen that their film Singapore Dreaming grossed S$450,000 (USD 300,000) after a 9 week run in Singapore. Colin mentioned in their blog that this was the highest grossing non-Mediacorp Singapore film. Their qualification refers to the fact that they did not have the marketing nor distribution clout of Mediacorp, the mega media conglomerate in Singapore. However, they did have the backing of another, albeit smaller conglomerate in Golden Village who threw their heft behind this release, opening it in 18 screens with posters, trailers and marquees everywhere. No expense was spared by Golden Village for this Singapore film.

That Singapore Dreaming grossed S$450,000 with their help provides interesting information for me, a producer and director who wants to make work about and for Singaporeans. Of course the gross may be more than $450,000 at the end of the day after you factor in DVD sales, TV sales, overseas sales etc. So let’s say, the gross, after three years is S$500,000.

My conclusion is this, if I wanted to make an independent non-Mediacorp feature film whose primary market is Singapore, one that has mass appeal, something you can bring your whole family to, then, if I want to BREAK EVEN, the film must not cost more than S$200,000 to produce.

How did I arrive at $200,000? Of the $500,000 that they will have grossed, I conjecture that more than half will go to distributor fees, hall hire fees as well as marketing costs eg organising press screenings, conferences, buying ad space, printing posters, striking 18 prints, making DVD/press kits,
So, what can one produce for $200,000? In this day an age when people boast that they can make a feature for $300, $200,000, seems alot of money. But I don’t refer to those kind of films, I refer to the films where the crew/actors are paid a fair wage, that the production actually has insurance for them. It would have to be shot on video (DVCam?) with small lighting kit and skeletal grip equipment. The should will likely be about 3 weeks, shot in Singapore or Malaysia, be a contemporary small scale plot oriented drama about anything as along as its is enjoyable, has mass appeal, something you can bring your whole family to watch. As usual, for this kind of industrial narrative-focused production, script and actors are key. So films along the lines of Sepet, Iranian children’s films would probably be do-able for this budget and have a good chance of opening in 10-18 screens. Or you could make a ghost movie though you can’t have a period drama, special effects, car chases, helicopter shots, no not for $200,000.

If you want to attempt something more edgy or adventurous in terms of structure or content, may be documentaries, I say just gather a group a friends and start shooting. So that even if it doeesn’t get released, or goes straight to video, you don’t lose your trousers and you don’t have to be too burdened about ensuring a return on investment for your backers and more importantly, you had fun while you were doing it

Artist Statements

At the recent Singapore Biennale, I read my fair share of artist statements. These statements are sometimes used as an opportunity to explain the work, at other times to explain the philosophy of the artist which may (or may not) shed light on the work. For me the clarity and accessibility of the statement bears a direct relation to the clarity and accessibility of the work.
Here are some of my favourite artist statements that I have stumbled upon
DV8
Annette Barbier/Drew Browning’s
Krishen Jit Astro Fund for Malaysian Artists

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Its not art, its air Con piping at the Biennale’s Tanglin Camp