2018 - My Splendidly Sobering Year

Cramming a lot of lives in one lifetime is exciting as long as one's expectations are well managed. Overall, I am good with two out of three items turning out successfully, with the remaining one flagged as 'work-in-progress'.

In all, 2018 was splendid and sobering. Here are some of my milestones worth sharing:

Hentak Kaki Fan Club

Hentak Kaki Fan Club was formed on Facebook after an encouragng response from a Facebook re-post of the short film of the same name.

Hentak Kaki is a Puttnam School of Film, Lasalle College of the Arts award winning production, directed by James Khoo, for his final year thesis project towards his BA (Hons) Film in 2010.

It is about a career warrant officer who is too afraid to leave the army, after he injured his knee and is deployed into a desk-bound vocation.

The story demonstrates that in life we must all adapt to the myriad of persistent changes around us and continue to grow. This I think, is what resonates with the audience and the reason why the film is successful enough for this fan club to be formed.

The response came as a pleasant surprise as it has been 6 years since the story was conceived. As Lord David Puttnam once puts it, "Film is a very influential medium, as they tend to hang around for a long time, unlike books which once read, would spend most of their time sitting on shelves."

Once  the Club was formed, the membership quickly swelled to over 3,000 members. Some of them suggested that we should make Hentak Kaki into a feature film.

Encouraged by that, a feature film length script surrounding Warrant Officer Lee Teck Hong was written and peer reviewed; and subsequently, a trailer was shot.  

Army films have a good track record in the box offices in Singapore and so there are already interested investors wanting to talk.

McBeth 

Yes, it is "McBeth", we didn't misspell it. It is rightfully "McBeth", to borrow a prefix from McDonalds, as our story revolves around fast food business rivalry. We played to a full-house at the Projector in Singapore.
McBeth, written and directed by Phil Gruber, is my first improv performance and a satirical take on MacBeth as King of Fast Foods, with the Delta Force Group. Amid the rehearsals, we were fortunate to have veteran Jeff Michalski, flown in at great expense from the United States, to teach us about the finer points of improv. There, I learned that it is very important to observe my co-actors and the peripheral area, and learn to mirror and support them - essentially, the core of improv.
I wonder if the number of divorces will go down should every couple were to go through improv courses as part of their compulsory marriage counselling. At the end of the training, they will have had gone through a host of exercises to learn to support and listen to each other. :)

Trump-Kim Summit - 12 June 2018

Incidentally, one of the improv actor's brother is the Kim Jong Un look-alike. He came to Singapore during that the Trump-Kim Summit - much fanfare to the masses, but a nightmare for the security people.
All in the name of good fun and world peace.

Writers' Lab

I was selected as one of the twelve candidates  out of many (so I was told) for the Lasalle Writerslab 2018. We have an interesting mix in the group comprising people from different age groups, walks of life and profession. This is a list of our profiles and script loglines. 

I wanted to write a story that involves intrigue and action and so I ended up with an action-thriller.

It is about:

"A retired warrant officer turned private eye stumbles into an arms dealing racket while investigating his old friends. As he uncovers more, they expose his shady past to frame and eliminate him."

Towards the end of the lab, my mind was twisted into a chaos of plot revelations, pacing, false climaxes and reversals. I became obsessed and immersed into the plots and characters 24x7, till my head started to hurt.

Tech Assignment

Halfway through the Writerslab, I got a job as a technologist to help businesses go-digital. This includes helping media companies transform and enter the digital eco-system  to become data driven, taking the guesswork out of decision making. 

As for myself, I have been in front of the camera, behind the camera and now beside the camera injecting technology into the production processes.

These days a lot of data analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are used to identify content production, distribution, post-production scheduling and talent casting. As a small nation of many small production houses with very small budgets, we must punch above our weight by leveraging on technology.

Thus far, it has made film production more efficient without hinderance. The creative process (thankfully) is still very much derived from human inspiration. Likewise, I think the acting profession is safe from automation. Or at least the good ones are, those whom have the factor-X and charisma - attributes that essentially require human consciousness. Much as computers can beat us in chess games, they are mathematically finite machines, and are not conscious and incapable of wisdom.

Bloodline Blues Premiere





Bloodline Blues is a 23-minute action film that I wrote and directed and collaborated with Elliot Chan, David and a happy bunch I gathered along the way.

It is about a young heir to an English noble family who escapes from his obligations to reconcile with his lover in Singapore.

We were ready to screen Bloodline Blues in January, but didn't get around to do it till November, as we wanted to find a suitable venue. We eventually did, thanks to the Art House at the Old Parliament and we had a full-house screening. 

RIP

Five of my friends died suddenly from heart failure in the month of August 2018. They were quite young, at ages 49, 53, 54, 56 and 65. 

The one who was 49 years old, was writing a stage play on his laptop, when suddenly his artery burst and he collapsed head down on his laptop onto the floor. 

Another, a very health conscious 54 year old, collapsed after his morning exercise with his group of friends.

Yet another one of them, 53 years old, was the one that gave me the technologist job. We were chatting away less than 36 hours before his death. He was jolly and was telling us that he had his retirement plan all worked out to live in Perth, Australia. Then he didn't wake up two mornings later, on the 9th August 2018, Singapore's National Day.

A bigger surprise is that most of them are outlived by their elderly parents, which makes me wonder what had gone wrong. Is it their lifestyle, their diet or their thoughts that had gone wrong? I know that we manifest through our thoughts. Thoughts become things and if we are not careful, negative thoughts can eat us up gradually from inside.

At their funeral by their coffin, my heart was screaming out, "Wake up! Talk to me!" Though I know it was futile,it was my last attempt to say goodbye properly. How could they leave without a hint or warning?!!! 

Their death is a sober reminder of how fragile life can be. Touch wood, but every night when we go to bed, there is no guarantee that we will wake up the next day. Therefore, every day lived is a leap of faith. Being more aware of that now, has made me more conscious of how I spend my time.

I also meditate more regularly to clear my mental debris and distance the mind from the soul. When that happens, the soul takes charge. The soul is always peaceful. It is the mind that flutters every time emotions are shaken.

I now choose to live life truthfully. Of course, common sense applies as to how we can do that optimally. But basically, there is nothing to fear for living truthfully or speaking truthfully, as more likely than not, we are merely relating to another mortal, or groups of mortals. No  matter how big and intimidating they are now, they too will have to go one day.

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In summary,

My 2018 is both splendid and sobering. Through hard work and collaboration, I managed to partake in creative projects that I hope will serve people in the bigger scheme of things in the long run. I think I have spent my time quite wisely, bar some silly moments. We always have those silly moments don't we?

Thanks for visiting my blog and have a happy and joyous 2019 ahead.

You may like to read,

A Rather Morbid Year to Cheer.

Giving Voice to a Museum Objectl

I gave voice to animate a piece of paper, a relic from the Second World, at the National Museum of Singapore two weeks ago. It is part of their "Facetime with History" event, where visitors can get a feel of history by chatting with the exhibits. 

The owner of the piece of paper had used it to take notes during the mandatory Japanese language classes during the Japanese Occupation (from the years 1942 to 1945). The owner, likely a Hokkien speaker, had used Hokkien to phonetise Japanese words, which ironically are themselves Kanji, and therefore are borrowed Chinese characters.

This is the gallery where the piece of paper is exhibited. "Syonan", meaning "Light in the South" was the name of Singapore during the Japanese occupation.

These are some of the exhibits. 

This is the said piece of paper, the one on the bottom left.

This is it.

This is a game to illustrate how Hokkien words were used to phonetise Japanese words, by ethnic Chinese in Singapore at that time.

For example, Ashita is phonetised approximately as "Ah Si Ta" in Hokkien.

The visitors on Friday were more earnest learners, mostly young adults. When it came to Saturday and Sunday, the visitors were mostly young families, whom many of the adults were happy to let their children play the above game to their hearts content - transforming it virtually into a playground.

I had some problems keeping to character as Peng (the paper), with these kids messing around. "Peng" stands for "Peng An", which means Peace in Hokkien, I must have repeated that a hundred times. LOL.

Here are the other voice actors. They acted as a writing desk, a rocking horse and National Stadium seats.

In the end, it was quite a blast. We did our part to entertain our visitors with our improvised voice acting.

For more about Voice Acting ,click here.

For other articles about Hokkien, click here.

Crazy Rich Asians

Crazy Rich Asians the movie, brought a horde of netizens screaming about the lack of minority representation in the movie - that among the super-rich in Singapore, only the Chinese are depicted. The online and offline press were abuzzed with such outcry, with the local tabloid, The New Paper, joining in the fray. See, "Crazy Rich Asians should have been called High SES Chinese" by columnist S.M. Ong (The New Paper, Sept 3).

The article hits a little 'below the belt' in some parts (see quote below), but then, hey it is a tabloid. What do you expect?

Quote:

Dear Kevin (the author),

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Not everyone in Singapore is Chinese as depicted in the movie, they complain.

But that's not your fault.

Coming from old money yourself, you emigrated from Singapore at age 11 and evaded national service so you probably didn't get to interact much with other races here.

"As a child, you're cloistered in this world," you said in an interview.

"You don't know how other people live until you leave that world and realise not everyone has an airplane in their garage."...

Unquote.

While I respect the opinions of those crying out loud, I too have my views, so I wrote to them and was surprised to get it published.

Here:

(A rewrite of the print, in case display resolution is poor in small devices.)

No reason for Crazy Rich Asians to be like MediaCorp drama

I refer to the article "Crazy Rich Asians should have been called High SES Chinese" by columnist S.M. Ong (The New Paper, Sept 3).

I assume the article is written tongue-in-cheek and I should take it with a pinch of salt. Crazy Rich Asians in not a documentary. It is a film version of a book based on the author's observations of super-rich Chinese in East Asia. So let it be.

Minority inclusion in this instance and context is not necessary. I would hate to see it turn out like a MediaCorp drama with minority races artificially inserted. That is understandable for MediaCorp as it is a national broadcaster. 

But this movie has not such obligations or objectives. Neither should it set out to sterilise or pontificate. It is fiction. It is satire. Cut it some slack. 

Audiences don't want to watch real life. They want drama, art with creative licence to entertain.

For all movie reviews in this blog (including this post), click here.

Hearing Voices

While cleaning up my phone memory, I found some interesting voice-over (VO) audition samples that I had recorded on my phone, over the years.  They are in English, Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew.

Audition Track 1 (for a short film):

"A long time ago, we used to live in a simple house. Back then, it was just me and my papa. We did not have much money but at least we had each other.

When the 1985 recession hit, papa's hardware business was severely affected. However, I knew that he loved me very much.

But we all know that happiness is always temporary one..."

In English with Singapore Accent

A bit changed.

In English With Hokkien Accent


Audition Track 2 (for a documentary, I think):

为了推翻满清，华侨慷慨解囊相助，甚至义无反顾，投身革命事业。我绝对不会辜负你们的一番心意.我相信 这次起义，必能成功！

Roughly, it means: In order to overthrow the Manchus, the overseas Chinese have generously helped each other and are committed to the objective of the revolution. I will never disappoint you.  I believe that this uprising will succeed!

In Hokkien

In Teochew

In Cantonese  

This one for "Forget Us Not" - a support group for people with dementia and their caretakers



This one for the National Problem Gambling Council Ad in 2012





For other VO posts in this blog, click here.

Dinner - An Honour Singapore Short Film

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This is an Honour Singapore Short Film called "Dinner" (2015), dedicated to all working fathers, particularly those who have difficulties expressing their love for their children. 

Honour Singapore is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting a culture of Honour and Honouring. For more about the organisation, click here.

To watch the film, CLICK HERE.

2015 was a traumatic year for me, as an excruciating pain that started from my spine, persisted and took over my body. I was living through electrifying pains every single moment without a break! Despite that, I tried to live as normally as I could, enduring every second that passed by slowly.  Not wanting to miss out on life and acting, I continued to go for shoots, rehearsals and auditions, keeping quiet about my ordeal from those around me. For more about my trauma and how I overcame my chronic pain,  click here.

I had to drag myself to go for the audition of this film. I remember I had two other auditions that day and this was the last in the evening. I was exhausted just enduring the pain through the day. Ironically, the director. Saraniyah Saranavan, then a final year student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Film Sound and Video Course told me later that the moment she saw me entering the audition room, she thought, "This is exactly the father character I need! He looked so tired!" lol

I am impressed that Saraniyah, an ethnic Singaporean Indian, directed the film in Mandarin, as I know of some directors  that would only direct films in their language of proficiency. In some ways, that made her focus more on how the actors deliver the emotions.

Generally the production went smoothly, apart from a supporting actor pulling out, or rather, failing to turn up. That meant that I had to work with a hastily installed actor plucked out from the crew, who was unfamiliar with acting, whom I had not  rehearsed with, whom had no time to learn his lines and whom had some difficulty getting into character (and understandably so). The rude shock is that the absentee actor is supposed to be a friend, or at least I thought he was! Clearly, he was not honoring his commitment! Honour! Honour! Where is the honour!

I have worked with Evalee on several other productions. One of them had her acting in a TV episode of a plastic surgery gone wrong, and the other, of her being a victim of a school bully. lol

I think she did well playing the rebellious daughter, particularly those awkward and subtle reconciliatory moments at the dinner table. Eventually, love finds each other.

Overall, I enjoyed the production. I even learned to cook from a professional chef, whom happened to be the director's father! :)

For other short films pertaining to 'dinner', click here.

Stray Roads

This is a Temasek 20/20 Project, written and directed by Royce Tan.

It is about old taxi drivers losing clients and going out of business with the presence of private hire cars competiting for passengers.

Technology is becoming ubiquitous and a disruption to traditional businesses. This is a reality that is already happening and will persist.

In the taxi business, even the private hire model like Uber, will be overtaken by the use of automatic driverless cars. Prototypes are already there and statistically, they are safer than human driven cars. 

Many other professions will also be disrupted by technologies, for instance:

• Artificial intelligence software can diagnose cancer at 90% certainty compared to a human oncologist achieving only 50% certainty.
• Real time credit ratings will tear current banking processes apart.
• Genetic engineering

Information security will be a big issue. See Augmented Risks.

Here is the behind-the-scenes:



So where do we go from here? Today's young people will be tomorrow's 'old people'. How will they cope with yet newer technologies coming into their lives? Or will even the meaning of 'old people' be redefined?

For more short stories about how old dogs must learn new tricks to move on to new jobs, watch:

- Hentak Kaki

- Unemployed PMET Achieves

And another vision of the future... year 2022:

- PRISM

Reminiscence 忆 "yi"

"Reminiscence", directed by Lee Dong Sheng, a Puttnam School of Film, Lasalle College of Arts production.

Story about: 

A father and his autistic son's closure to a family tragedy that happened during his childhood. 

An autistic child's behaviour may appear odd from common perspectives, but beneath that awkward exterior lies the same truthfulness and love - like anyone of us.

In the last three years, there seems to be more films about autistic kids and old folks with dementia. I have acted in several already! A sign of the times.

Here is the film itself:

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Here is the behind-the-scene clip I shot and edited together using my mobile phone, while waiting in-between-takes:

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Last day of shoot. In an open field at Woodlands, Singapore. Midday sun hot!

For films about dementia in this blog, click here

Bloodline Blues

"Bloodline Blues"
Written, produced and directed by Michael Chua. 

Cinematography, choreography and editing by Elliot Chan.

This 23-minute action film has taken longer than we have expected to complete, as we were not under any commercial pressure and wanted to give it a good finish. There were some production obstacles in the beginning, but once they were weeded out, it never had been easier since. Such a bliss to have everyone else working together through those long hours amid the humid sticky Singapore environment to make things happen. All just for the sake of art and passion. 

"Bloodline Blues" is about a young heir to a English noble family escaping from his family obligations to be reconciled with his lover in Asia (in this case Singapore). 

The main characters Philip (the young heir) and his lover Cindy, have their origins as supporting characters in another of my feature length script "The Next Plot" (see the short version of it here). I wanted to peer into their lives and create stories to make them lead characters in their own right.  Just like we are all lead characters in our own life. So listen even to meek and quiet, as they too have their stories.

"Bloodline Blues" is inspired by the sinister friends that I have made, the stories that they have told me and my observations during my many years living in Australia, Asia, Africa and Europe. Power, money, ego and sex are common motivations for conflicts across cultures and ethnicities. I think this will go on, until we elevate ourselves to Nirvana or Heaven. Until then, there will always be stories to tell and lessons to learn.

Here is the trailer:

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The poster shoot:

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For other productions that I have written and directed:

The Next Plot

CPIB Video Competition: United Against Corruption

Caishen (财神)

"Caishen" (The God of Fortune, 财神), directed by Ding An, is a 20-episode web series in Singlish, shot in the year 2016 and released in time to greet the start of  the Lunar New Year in 2018.

Singlish is a version of English patois spoken in Singapore, often associated with the funny bits of a conversation and its informality. It is English spoken with Chinese speech structure, spiced with Chinese dialect, Malay and Tamil vocabulary.

This series is about the calamitous adventures of Roy Kee, a middle-aged anti-hero and gambling addict who is given a phone app that ironically can only make others, but not himself rich.

For non-Singaporean viewers, do not be put off by the quirky delivery style. Trust me it is quirky even for Singaporeans. That gives it the charm and uniqueness, amid the surreal nuggets of wisdom that you will find useful. They are usually interwoven into the recurring silly moments. Overall, it has this unexpected sarcastic undertones that cynics will  certainly love. I particularly like the deadpan moments.

Here is Episode 1 of the series [19 minutes]. After finishing it, click on the prompt to proceed to the next episode. If you are unable to link to the next episode at some point, then continue watching it via Youtube.

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In Between Takes

Actors wait a lot in between takes. During that time, there is little we could do other than rehearsing our lines. Some actors read light novels and yet others get some work done on their laptop off their other full-time/part-time job. Mostly, time is wasted browsing Facebook and indulging in mindless chatter.

I tried exercising, but that will make me sweaty and ruin my makeup and costume.

Lately, I have started taking photos and videos of the crew while they are setting up. So they shoot me 'on-air', I shoot them 'off-air'- all just using my mobile phone to shoot and edit them into one-minute videos, on the same day - all in between takes.

Here are some of them...
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4th Feb 2018 @ Changi, Singapore (lots of mosquitoes).
Production of "The Road", an original music video, directed by Lesha, music written by Yiam, with crew and cast supported by a bunch of students from Yale-NUS university.

I played the role of the father - an depressive one.

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5 Feb 2018 @ a coffeeshop at 503 Jurong West Avenie 1, Singapore. 

"Silhouette", directed by Ashley Tan Han Wei, is a story about two boys looking for their missing father. A Puttnam School of Film, Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore production. 

I am the missing father. :)
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8 Feb 2018 @ 15 Kismis Road, Singapore.

"Stray Roads", directed by Royce Tan, is story of an elderly taxi driver who cannot cope up with technological advances and competition from private-car hire cabs.  A Ngee Ann Polytechnic student production.

I acted as the taxi association leader speaking out against the competition.

Incidentally, I found this online article: 

S’porean, 70, feels too old to study 298 pages for private hire driver license tests

Shooting and editing on 'rapid-fire' is addictive. I find myself doing more and more of it. I will post them here when they are done.

For more photos and videos, follow me on 
INSTAGRAM: jupilier.

Have a Happy Lunar New Year!

360 VR

13Jan2018
My first shoot in 2018 - a 360 degree Virtual Reality (360 VR) government training video. After "action" was shouted out, everyone in the crew had to literally run into hiding, so that they will not be captured by the camera. The camera captures everything around it 360 degrees. There is no "behind the camera" and "framing of shots" in 360VR, a departure from conventional video production.

#360vr #360vrvideo #360vrfilm #360#governmentvideo #corporatevideography#training #trainingvideos #trainingvideo#virtualrealityworld #vr360

More about 360 VR

360 VR was the buzzword at the recent Asian TV Forum 2017.  An extension of VR is AR (Augmented Reality) - a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are "augmented" by computer-generated perceptual information. 

If we combine VR, AR and AI (Artificial Intelligence), they bring enhanced and intelligent experiences to the user. These immersive technologies will enable businesses to market their products closer to reality online. A VR producer told me that we will see many VR videos made this year, not just for games but for various commercial and industrial applications. In fact, it is estimated that 85% of them will not be games.

While the budgets in the market for documentaries are dwindling, more money is being poured into interactive immersive content.

There are multiple experiential engagements that can be facilitated by VR, like:

• Offshore oil rig scenario videos that can be used for training;
• Action genre movies where the viewers' movements to follow the action sequences forms part of the excitement and experience.
• Creating the inner world of mental disorders, to enhance the understanding of the disorders for the medical profession and laypersons.
• Field Journalism.

What about storyboarding?

Traditionally, we are used to storyboard in frames. However, if you ask a four year old if he think in frames, he is going tell you the story purely, and naively so, from his perspective.

Similarly, in VR we define the storyboard relative to the audience, like user-centred design; and not by objects relative to frame.

This approach should come naturally to practitioners of user-centered design, but may feel foreign to those used to directing audience attention.

Instead of controlling what the audience sees in VR, we work with probabilistic areas of user attention based on ergonomic data.

For more about VR storyboarding, click here.

Six years ago, I was in a National Library Board (Singapore) corporate video shot from a Point of View (POV) perspective. It was a first step in VR, but using only one camera (instead of four cameras for 360).

This was how it looked like: