1.What is your role / contribution to the film in each phase?
The Producer.
2.What have you learnt in each phase?
There is always something new to learn in each production phase. Last shoot, I learnt that if you ask, you might just get what you want (though not always) as we managed to borrow a prosthetic leg from the hospital when we thought it would be hard. This time round, we thought it wouldn’t be much of a hassle to get a school field (from either a primary or secondary school) but little did we know.
We started off by settling on our main locations – Ahmad’s house, which a big part of it took place in Ng Mun’s house at Petir Road, and Ibu’s room to be set in Ronnie’ house in Woodlands. Hence, we wanted to get a school field that was near either of these places as it would help save traveling time. Who knows but as usual – Rejections. We asked several schools around the area – emailed them, then called them, only to be asked to email again, waited almost for a week before they replied to reject (good thing we actually asked early) and then emailed other schools again. The last resort was to use Kismis field, at least there’s a field, but at the end of it, Woodlands Secondary agreed to let us shoot. Initially, they asked us to approach Singapore Sports Council (SSC) as 3pm onwards, their field would be used by them. But our shoot would only take place in the morning, hence they allowed and we didn’t have to go through SSC. Now I learn a new thing, that SSC’s website also provides the schedule and timings of certain “block-offs”. We also thought of using stadium fields because a lot of schools were rejecting our request, till we felt that no other school we agree anymore. But after checking at SSC, many stadiums were closed due to preparation for YOG, further limiting our choices. Then again, a big thank you to Woodlands Secondary School. I’ve learnt it’s really important to contact the locations you need as early as possible because you don’t know what will happen..
Another thing – casting is VERY important. We started out with a Malay mother and son, in the middle we changed it to Chinese mother and son because we were having problems finding the casts. Towards the end, we changed back to the Malay version and whew, I have to say it’s not easy to get the casts you want!
Oh, and this time round the direction Wee Kiat was away in California, despite that the pre-production could still go on, with Afiq being in charge of Casting (he’s the Assistant Director). It was hard to contact Wee Kiat and at one point, he told me he was in front of a waterfall as it was the only place he could find reception. Then, his school’s internet cable got funny and lost connection and later on the motel they went had no Internet (it was at the time where we were doing Media Law written report too) and it felt like, there isn’t a direct way of contacting him except to SMS and wait for his reply. But yes, we all survived as things could still go on without him physically in Singapore. Something else I’ve found out – we’re really depending on technology to contact and stay connected, because we need things fast, we cannot send letters and wait..not just for our industry, but probably others as well..
As the story took place in a Malay family, we had to find out about their dressing, family setting etc. Good thing we had Malay members in our group which helped out, and Ng Mun’s maid as well. Though we may not know something well, but it doesn’t mean we cannot do it.
