The nights are harder to bear.

Fear grips you tight and doesn't let go. Lips dried, always thirsty.
Where do we go from here?

Renewal.

Maybe it's time to close this blog.

In Labourious Post-Production.

Thanks motu. :)

A friend all the way in Bournemouth very kindly set up a fund-raising site for my thesis film. :D

And that, was the beginning of all the good things I hope will come as I start shooting in a week's time.
So if you have some cash to spare, help me realise this film!

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I am totally freaking out right now.

I need to do the laundry today.

From the metro.

Où voulez-vous aller?

Paris!

I want to move to tumblr, or whatever the hell that is.

(via newyorkcanwait, photolittle)

Only because they advocate the use of Helvetica.

Lazy Sunday afternoons are the best.

I am a filmmaker, not an academic.

But I'm also a filmmaker completing his education in a film school, and this dissertation of the spatial representation of Singapore Cinema I must write.

Concured.

Some thoughts on film censorship - Singapore style (via Alfian)

Q: Anniversary has been passed uncut with a R21 rating. Is this what you’d expected and do you think this is the best case scenario given the subject matter?

Alfian: I think this whole policy of rating homosexual content on the basis that it will 'promote' homosexuality is idiotic. There's no other word for it. It frames every film that's either got gay characters, or deals with gay issues, as a recruitment video. I don't know where's the evidence for this – that watching gay people depicted in media will turn you gay! And of course what's been happening is that any form of representation is, in their books, already considered 'promotion'. That you're advocating for people to adopt the 'homosexual lifestyle'. That's like saying that if I'm wearing a T-shirt in public I'm telling everyone to go and buy it.

The other thing is this whole notion of having a multi-tiered ratings system. The Media Development Authority (MDA) loves to promote this using a classic capitalist argument – more options means more choice for the consumer. So we have a bewildering total of five ratings – R21 (no patrons under 21), M18 (no patrons under 18), NC16 (no children under 16), PG (parental guidance) and G (for general audiences). But the truth is the consumer doesn't really have more choice – the censors ultimately choose what he or she gets to watch. When you have this kind of multi-tiered system, decisions actually become very arbitrary – what separates an R21 from an M18 film, for example? How do you operationalise this? I wouldn't be surprised if distinctions are made based on how long a sex scene is, for example: less than 30 seconds – M18, more than that, R21. As if duration defines the magnitude of the 'sexual.'

In a way, I'd expected the rating from MDA. And this isn't because I know exactly what the lines of transgression are. I expected an R21 rating simply because we're dealing with gay content here – and they're stricter on gay content within a Singaporean context, because this might suggest that homosexuality might be an indigenous phenomenon, and not something copied and imported from the West.

My stand on censorship is quite simple: protect minors. And what they need to be protected from is excessive and gratuitous sexual and violent content. This is because there might be some correlation between prolonged exposure to such content and potentially sociopathic behavior – even though the jury's still out and the whole discourse is contaminated by all the supposed controversies surrounding media effects and moral panic.

They should also get rid of all that bureaucratic multi-tiering. It's easier to decide on which side a film lies on if you just have a single threshold. And the maximum age should be lowered from 21 to 18 – the male population is mandatorily conscripted at 18, and if you're old enough to be trained to kill people using government-issued weapons, then you're old enough to see breasts or cocks on screen. Because otherwise then MDA is saying that the state is recruiting child soldiers, right?

I think film censorship in Singapore is in need of urgent reform. Because it's not just about protecting minors any more, but has extended to censors arrogating themselves the duty of supposedly purging the media landscape of 'spiritual pollution'. Censorship has become this thing where people are occupying seats of influence and see themselves as God's servants instead of civil servants. And civil servants should be people who, first and foremost, serve the interests of the public and a secular state.

CASTING CALL

We are currently opening a casting call for a thesis short film titled ‘In Labour’. Workshops and rehearsals will begin late December while the shoot is scheduled to commence at first week of February 2010.

We are looking for:

‘Zoe’
• Female, 28-35 years old
• Works in the photocopy shop in Singapore
• Speaks Malaysian-accented Mandarin, Cantonese and Bahasa Melayu

‘Purple’
• Female, 25-32 years old
• Study-mama working in Singapore
• Chinese accented Mandarin, and any dialect preferably

‘Ibu’
• Female, early 50s to mid 60s
• Landlord and motherly figure to Zoe and Purple
• Speaks Bahasa Melayu
• Preferably stout and plump

‘Ah Yi’
• Male, 9-12 years old
• Purple’s son, studying in Singapore
• Chinese accented Mandarin

‘Old man’
• Male, late 60s onwards
• Speaks Mandarin

Acting experience preferred but not required.
Audition period: 25th October- 3rd December 09

Please make an appointment or contact us for any enquiries.
Contact: Norma (96261359)/Kimberly (90909035)|Email: psofilms@gmail.com

Thank you.

1 more to make it 10.

Once in awhile, I like to put up a list of things I need to do.

1. Thesis Paper on the relevance of social and cultural context in the cinematic city.
2. TVC storyboard and pitch this week. Shooting in 3 weeks.
3. Directing Exercise with the Musical Theatre students. Shooting in 2 weeks.
4. Post Production for Documentary module, due in 3 weeks.
   
5. Funding proposal for thesis film, due in 2 weeks.
6. Casting opens for thesis film starts this week.
7. Script drafts for thesis film.
8. Pre-production meetings for my thesis film and 2 other Thesis films that I'm ADing for.
9. Reading up on Poitiers and Paris and practising my French.

Now I feel slightly accomplished.

You'd better look out below.

Something filled up
my heart with nothing,
someone told me not to cry.

But now that I'm older,
my heart's colder,
and I can see that it's a lie.

I guess we'll just have to adjust.

Pet Society has taken over my social life.

11:57:47 PM alfian: r u wearing the new clothes
11:57:51 PM shoobs): havent yet
11:57:54 PM shoobs): im doing the kitchen
11:58:05 PM alfian: hahah ok tell me when you're done i wanna see

Wednesday, 14 October 2009 | 12:00

12:00:25 AM shoobs): check it holmes, im in my kitchen now
12:00:40 AM shoobs): in my new clothes and new shades and new everything
12:01:00 AM shoobs) and dont you love my bathroom
12:01:08 AM shoobs): im aiming for an underwater theme
12:05:53 AM alfian: omg you stacked your cooker on your low table
12:06:03 AM shoobs): i dont know what to do with the low table!
12:06:06 AM shoobs): its so out of place!
12:06:49 AM alfian: hahaha
12:07:18 AM alfian: u should squeeze ur chairs nearer the dining table
12:07:29 AM alfian: and put the low table below the wall condiment holder
12:07:41 AM shoobs): hahahhaha look at us!
12:07:44 AM alfian: i can't believe i'm dispensing pet society decor advice over msn

Bonjour, je m'appelle He Shuming.

So anyway, the film school head and the French Embassy are sending me to Poitier, west of France in December this year for the 32nd Les Rencontres Henri Langlois because National Day is screening as part of an Asian film school showcase. I can't wait because it's my first trip to Europe and I can visit Paris after that! Now I am thinking how long, and how much I can afford to stay.

I have alot on my plate right now which is driving me insane. I just barely started on my dissertation, am stuck on my thesis film script due in 3 days, a documentary to finish, a TVC to pitch, funding proposals to write, plans for my Poitier/Paris trip, things I may have left out - I don't know where to start!

-

I cannot tell the difference, between what has changed and what has not. Perhaps everyone and everything is on the next page, repeating the same old. It feels like ending a scene and not knowing what should happen next.
I should know these things, but I don't. It frustrates me that I have not a clue.
It is the same thing. Nothing's changed.
This felt like yesterday, and the day before yesterday. This is not what I ordered.

Looks like everyone's gone out to play without me.

S-Express: National Day at the 5th Singapore Short Film Festival

The Asian Film Symposium is on this weekend at the 5th Singapore Short Film Festival. The travelling short film series S-Express will be screened as well and National Day is screening as part of the Singapore leg this Sunday at 7pm! So buy your tickets now cos it's apparently selling fast. I'm going to attend the forum on film associations in Asia and catch some of the shorts I missed this week.

My first film festival! :):)