1.What is your role / contribution to the film in each phase?
My role for AFP1 is – Art Director. For the pre-production stage, I have helped in the script breakdown and source for props and wardrobe we need. I also went on a location scout together with the team to familiarise with the place.
2.What have you learnt in each phase?
During this phase, there are several things that I learnt.
As our shoot requires a prosthetic leg, I went to research on how we can make or even buy one, as it is not easy to find a prosthetic leg ready for sale. We even thought of doing CGI but none of our team members have actually done something similar. We asked Mediacorp as well but they couldn’t help us.
Initially, I thought hospitals will reject us if we are to ask them for a prosthetic leg that we could borrow or lend, because it is usually custom made and expensive. However, I was wrong as the hospital kindly replied my request saying we could borrow it. If I had continued to think that hospitals would not lend us, and did not even try asking them, we might not have something similar to a real prosthetic leg. We might have resort to use crutches or even changing it to become an “injured leg” instead and loose the impact. Hence, I learnt that we need to keep on trying different channels and not give up despite the slightest deterrence.
Another issue we encountered is the bus availability. We planned to shoot on a weekend initially but had to change to a weekday, thus affecting our schedule. I think most of us have came across similar problems where things don’t turn out well during or even before the shoot. It’s another emphasis that we have to be flexible and find solutions to our problems, such as re-casting actors to fit the new schedule, as we never know when Murphy’s Law will come knocking on our doors.
Very often, we are our own stumbling blocks. Many things in production and even in life, if you don’t try, you will never know. We will always have our own perceptions of how things are and will be. Until we challenge our own perceptions and release our own chains, we are our own prisoner.