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!

Où voulez-vous aller?

Paris!

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.

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!

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! :):)

The LASALLE Show 09

Here it is!

Teaser.

My Second Year Short Film, National Day, will be screening at The Lasalle Show from 22nd May.
More information coming your way. :)

I want to queef unicorns and rainbows.

My sleeping patterns are strange these days, possibly from a prolonged post-shoot fatigue.
No longer am I the creature of nocturne; I find it impossible to stay past beyond 1:30am. My aching back screams bloody murder while my eyes droops and I tell myself to finish off the edit the next morning.

I set my alarm for the morning and struggles to wake up, snoozing my phone away and curses under my breath while I wait for my morning wood to settle.

And I may be giving up nicotine.

*

First look!

Yayyyyy!

One more week.

It's alot scarier than I've thought.

National Day

It was all for the better.
Or worse.




But now at least I see the more important things going back on track, and that is all that matters.

Kleptomania.

'Visiting' this Friday, SMU Film Fest Closing Gala

Visiting is the closing short film for the SMU Film Fest. This Friday, 7:30pm. Do come down!

Tanjong Rhu is in the panorama for Berlinale. Woo hoo!

Casting for National Day begins next week. Yay!

Note made in the dark

1. One of my greatest abilities is that I can write in the dark. Somehow I believe I am a genius.

2. I must admit, I always try too hard to appear more intelligent than I really am.

3. One of the first things I did during my residency: bought Robert Bresson’s Notes Sur Le Cinematographe, the French version. And I started to read it from cover to cover, without knowing much French. I had the strange belief that I would be able to understand it. Or at least I would be able to learn some French after reading it. But it didn’t work that way. Maybe I should have started with Le Petit Prince.

4. I learned most of my French in the cinema. French films are shown without subtitles, and foreign films are shown with French subtitles. I spend most of my time in Cinémathèque Française. I don’t even check what film is showing. I just go there at night, buy a ticket and sit in the front row.

5. Why do we love cinema? Because in the safe world of cinema, facing these fictional characters, we become more human than we really are. We become kinder and more sympathetic; we simply become better people.

6. Because in the safe world of cinema, we are merely observers. We stay safe from the danger and the emotional threat of life itself, safe from growing indifferent.

7. Because in the safe world of cinema, we experience many lives.

8. Why make films? Because film is the greatest art form of this century, and I want to be on the side of the greatest.

9. Because in real life, we can hardly understand each other.

10. Because that is the only way I can hang out with friends.

11. Because I don’t know any better way to live.

12. Because there is a part of me, sad and fragile, that can only be shown to you in the dark.

*

Notes by Tan Chui Mui, taken from an article on Criticine

hoon/ramlah

Meet Lay Hoon,

she's been standing around for 3 hours straight, with 3 more hours to go before she retires for the night. She sighs. The smell of Dunhill Reds musk the air as she walks towards another table of middle-aged men, their faces reddened with Guinness Stout. 3 more, and an extra mug, they told her. Lay Hoon nods and walks towards the drink counter. The men go into a boisterous fit of laughter as it drowns into the incessant chatter of the next table, and then the next. She walks straight to the front of the line at the counter, behind her a queue of customers waiting to place their orders.

3 Guinness, 1 mug and ice, she said. The tiny, old lady behind the counter frowns, her right hand reaches to grab some small change and the left grabbing two cans of Coke Lite. Lay Hoon stands on one leg, gently stretching her calf while resting her arm on the counter table. The old lady grabs another can of carrot juice.

Lay Hoon doesn’t mind the waiting.
The drinks counter is a better place to stand around, rather than the tables of old men and rowdy Caucasians who only order Tiger. She doesn’t drink, but worked long enough to know that Tiger isn’t the favourite among her customers, at least the local ones. Ironic, considering that she is herself a Tiger Beer ‘ambassador’, a word she still cannot pronounce. Initially, Lay Hoon thought the unpronounceable job title gave her a sense of self-importance, but has since understood the job simply entails to taking and serving alcoholic orders.

She longs to change out of this uncomfortable uniform; its nylon material doesn’t absorb the smell of humidity very well. She gently lifts the top of her blouse and takes a whiff; that familiar acridness penetrates her nostrils.

“3 Guinness!” The old lady places the beer bottles, and a bucket of ice in front of her.

“And an extra mug,” Lay Hoon said.

*

This weekend:

Besides rushing my essay on Post-Neorealism in Italian Cinema that is due Monday, accompanied by a stack of readings sitting untouched on my table, I have a scene to reshoot:



And amongst hundreds of other things due next week.

Freedom Film Fest

Across the causeway, the fifth Freedom Film Festival is running this weekend.
I'd go if I wasn't flooded with work and shoots.
(via Popagandhi)