2 short films that I did! For National Day Short Film Competition

(Still trying to get the videos up)

Our Pledge

This short film is considered to be my ever first production based on just using more of visual than on having dialouges in the script to tell the audience what I feel about our National Pledge. Although we may not have notice what our daily routines are like but we have always been living life along with the pledge. Probably because this is the society that we're living here in Singapore.

One People One Nation One Singapore
The Esplanade

I would be surprised if you did not smile at all in this short. However, I really hope I did make you at least giggle. Though this short may be directed by me but the idea of making a "kuso" version production came from Davian. I had been serious all the time. And when he suggested this, I was thinking..hmm..why not? Since I'm able to submit 2 entries. So here it is..An informal short film. Also, a first time doing "kuso".


Let me first elaborate on the first story. The main part of this entire short, is to bring in the first part of the National Pledge "We The Citizens of Singapore, Pledge Ourselves As One United People, Regardless of Race, Language or Religion..." By setting up a mahjong scene, I feel that it would give a sense of togetherness feeling.Although there is a player short, Jing Xiong playing as the owner of the house, managed to get his friend Rajan to come over to his place to play. "Race" comes into place in this scene and to make this "kuso",noticed that the background music(the Indi melody), produced by James Lye, prefectly hit the right spot the moment Rajan came into the picture. And then it ends off by the 4 of them playing mahjong together. Haha..One more thing, not sure if you've noticed. I designed the short in such a way that Kai Wen, Wei Khim and Jing Xiong are speaking in English rather than in mandarin despite they are Chinese. Whereas when Jing Xiong spoke to Rajan on the phone, it was in mandarin. Haha..This is where "language" comes into the picture.


The Esplanade is a skit of 2 architects who just received a new project to build an Arts centre. But they couldn't come up with a design that would bring a common 'thing' or a 'feature' of Singaporeans. You should have watched it with the mindset that Esplanade has not been built. This short was just an assumption of mine of how the design of Esplanade actually came up-an accidental incident which is the fliping over of the durian shell. Haha..Ya...and fitting to the later part of the pledge "To Build A Democractic Society, Based on Justice and Equality, So As to Achieve Happiness Prosperity. And Progress for Our Nation", building Esplanade with a common Singaporeans' feature(which is the durian,as Singaporeans love durians..but not me..) and eventually you see the real Esplanade which means "progress".
There will be votings for the shorts. I will update the links to you again.So do visit my blog.

Special thanks to those who casted in both the shorts.Here are the credits again.
Cast: Davian Teo, Felicia Chua, Jing Xiong, Kai Wen, Wei Khim, Rajan and Eric.
Music by: James Lye (for both shorts).

Those who would be interested to be part of my production as actors/actresses, do drop me a message or leave your contacts under comments. Appreciated.


"There is no small roles. Only small actors."

吓到笑！

Check out this handphone trailer man..! The movie is coming up on August 13th. Can't wait to see the final product.

Anyway, this scene was shot past 3am in the morning till 6am. We started work since the day before. Everyone were like so sleepy and tired..Production..not that easy afterall.

The production is finally over! (Apologies for this late entry..)

How's everyone man? I was helping out under Jack Neo's upcoming movie for the past 1 month, the whole thing ended on 30th May. (So I'm like quite late writing in this entry as it's already 8th of May..LOL)Well..the latest info is that the movie will be out in August which is around our chinese-calendar's ghost festival.

The whole experience was very new to me. Firstly, I was offered to be a production assistant. Well, it sounds nice lah...but actually is to be the "maid" of the actors/actresses. It's like have to provide drinks for them, shelter them with umbrellas while we get ourselves suntanned and even fanning them when they're perspiring.. Well, honestly speaking, I feel that being a production assistant is kind of the lowest ranking of the film industry but it is an important role on the other hand. Reason is that, without production assistants, who is there to provide you with things. Anything you want, you could simply ask from production side. They have it all. And though it may be tiring but if you were to step into the media industry, the very first job that you get is definitely starting off as a production assistant. Everyone in the industry will tell you this. However, I think not very true la..Cause if yu take part in acting schools and eventually become an actor, you don't have to go throught that.

Secondly, I get to meet new people who has many years of experience in the film industry. I got to meet a colleague in the team, his name is Alfred. He had spent 10 years of his life in doing lightings and lightings is not easy, you have to carry heavy equipment. As for my built, I don't think I could handle something that heavy. But lightings is also an important department for movie makings. It would affect the audience's vision of looking at the big screen. So movie makings is not easy, you have to consider many aspects in order to make a good movie. You got to have storyline, you have to have actors who know how to bring about the characters for the movie, you need to have people controlling the crowd...

Thirdly, as I've mentioned before in my previous entry. I was from the production department and later was arranged and asked to help out at the Art Department. Well, I feel that being in the Art Department, it was interesting at first. But along the way, there were somethings which I just simply couldn't meet up to expectation. Well..I was kinda sorry that whenever I wanna offer my help, instead of helping, I was like creating more problems. The moment when I started feeling that way, I told myself to stop whatever that I am doing. Cause I know that I was not on-form at all. Haha...You might be thinking how come need to be on form although we're not playing soccer..Well, to be frank, I think I was really not helping out much. And things start to get nasty to me..unfortunately..my team members in the Art Department, which I believe, started to have some negative thoughts about me.. I could feel myself very useless at that point of time. Serious, no joke. Well, there are some negative things that happened to me which I don't really want to write them in this entry. As I just do not wish to remember again. However, don't worry my friends, I'm ok..Eventually, around the last 2 weeks before the end of production, I dunno whether is it by chance or so that I happened to re-pack the whole Art Department Van of props such that I know where I can find things right away as I know where I placed them. So basically, for the past early weeks when I was not on form, I dunno the things that my members wants me to get, therefore, I couldn't help them much when they ask for it. Haha..I was quite happy about it after re=packing the Van on my own. Eventually,everything comes into place, the nastiness went away..I could see I'm part of the team again. Most of the time when I was asked to look for a particular item, I managed to know where the exact location of the item that they want. However, things that are not packed my me, I had to searched all over again lor..and that did not take up much of my time looking for it either.And finally, after the whole process, our relationship as a team was bonded again. Though it was kinda awkward as all of us are guys but I could feel that everything was back to "OK!" LOL...

Alright, here are some of the photos that I have with me during the shoot and after the shoot where we have a wrap-party, a dinner organised for the whole crew for the efforts put in.

4 Days of film production for NeoStudios - 吓到笑

Yea! Finally a break from a 4 days straight of hardwork. Today's Labour Day probably that is why we're asked to take a break before we get back to work for the whole of this month. Anyway..just here to blog on the 4 days that I experienced.

On the 1st day, my duty is basically a Production Assistant. What a production assistant do is to get everything prepared before the shoot - things like drinks, umbrellas, towels etc.. Anything for the crew members when they need it. To simplify: To be the maids of everyone in the production LOL!Well, actually before the first day, I've already met colleagues like Noel, who has been in the industry for some time and is very experienced in this sector. Also, Dorithy, who also took part in the same compeition as me -The Director and Scriptwriter Search 2008. Yup, so on this first day, Noel was the one driving the 2 of us in his rented van to search for materials around Singapore. Half of the day was spent on purchasing materials and even carrying of tables into the van to the shooting scene location. I was later being posted to the Art Department. I came into the shooting scene whereby I see 3 guys half naked with tatoos all over their bodies putting all the furnitures together to create the scene for the atmosphere. They were shifting here and there, screwing things up, arranging the furnitures and most importantly they will visualise what exactly the scene will look like in their minds and try to make it realistic. I was at first afraid of being part of the team as it was considered tough jobs, like banglahs. However, at the end of the day which is somewhere 8pm in the evening. It was time to buy the props. Then I found out that, all 3 of them drive!! And they have their own cars! So better off than banglahs..LOL..Well, they are chinese btw. The head of the Art Department who is our Art Director, his name is Kenneth. Then followed by Willam and Jerry who are his assistants and of course the newly me in the team. =)

On the 2nd day, we were all gathered with the casts and crew for a prayer session. We were all told to arrive at the first shooting scene at 6.20am. (Which from last night that is less than 6 hours of sleep plus I couldn't sleep at all because I was afraid of waking up late). Jack Neo was there, so was the producer and the scriptwriter. Actors for the first time that I see them right in front of me were Liu Qian Yi, Wang Lei, Ah Nan, Hui Ge (Whom I congraduated him for getting the Star Award), Chen Jian Bing, Tony, Ya Mien(who is what everyone recognised as Lao Char Bo,she acting as ghost) and Directors Jack Neo and Boris. Also, I got to meet people who are in NeoStudios. Everything was the first time for me, so was this girl named Linda. I got to meet her and I was surprised when she said that she wasn't part of the competition that Dorithy and I took, rather, she got the job through someone in NeoStudios and she told me that she's the Production Assistant of Jack Neo. So good lah..can learn alot of things from him and can even get close to him. Alright, how Linda and I met was we were both told to ask all the cast and crew what they want to have for their lunch. She and I being the first timers in such a big movie production, we were really pai seh and shy to ask them especially the actors and the Directors. But in the end, it was pretty ok as Ah Nan was joking around with us. He's really a great comedian! He really can bring out the laughters in everyone of us. The actors some of them really very fussy..in the end, there were people advising us that it was impossible to satisfy everyone's need. Therefore, we just ask what they can't eat that's all.Really save alot of time lah..but for me, I just feel that it would be a very great service if everyone can have food of what they like.If one day I become a director or a boss in a company, I think my workers will feel very seng niang as their welfare is very well taken care of by me. Haha..

On the 3rd Day, finally, a shoot outdoor. The weather was super hot. The sun was the worst enemy of the day. Everyone was perspiring non-stop so was asking for more water etc. There was one scene whereby it was along the corridor and there was some dried dog shit on the ground which I believed was left behind by the dogs that were owned by the neighbours. And sad enough to say, someone has to clear it. And unfortunately, I just nice standing right in front of the Assistant Director and she asked me to clear it. Well...this kind of task, I believe no office ladies or any high ranking officials will do it. For me, for the sake of the production and for respecting the rank of the Assistant Director, I went to clear it. It is like a task whereby no one will notice who went to clear it but it is a task that only the ones who thinks of the bigger picture would do it.

Finally on the 4th day which was yesterday, all the scenes were taken outdoor. It was better than filming indoor. Which was so hot and stuffy. Anyway, this day was the funniest as one of the scenes that we took was in a restaurant. There were 4 dishes prepared for the actors. And Liu Qian Yi being the Main Character out of the 3 among Jian Bing Ge, Tony and himself, he ate alot!!I as the Art Department crew, had to make sure that whatever that he takes and eat, I had to top it up.Topping it up is nothing as food is prepared on standby but to put them in the exact same spot before it shoots is a headache. LOL! But it was fun at the end...when Jian Bing Ge and Tony do not get to eat. I believe when you guys watch the movie, it will be hilarious!

Alright..tmr's shooting gonna start again.Been having lacks of sleep but the whole journey so far is very enriching for me and exciting. Not sure when I will blog again..but till the next time then. =)

It's my 20th BirthdaY!

Man....starting to have a 2 in the tens place..just make me feel like I've grown..........older. LOL!

Growing up is the process..eventually, youth will be gone, we start to get matured and begin to get busy with our purposes in life..Well, few days before my birthday, managed to catch up with most of my frens..and best of all..I went clubbing for the second time with my fren at Double 0! And got to meet really cool friends..I found out that I was too serious kinda guy who does not know how to really relax myself or DANCE at all..Man..I got to learn some dancing tactics for free from the new NS men that I know..I seriously enjoyed clubbing with them for the first time..had fun haha...Those interested in clubbing..let me know..! Haha...let's club together..

Well..some people might find that going clubbing is not something decent..But as you think about it..you're going with your friends and as long as you have your own principles and you abide by it, then it should be fine...but of course, dun go astray lah..I'm not sure if one day I'm gonna be classified as a clubber..but maybe ba...haha...however..it's time to learn some dancing!

Alright...clubbing at Double 0 was 2 nights before my birthday. The next day, I went for Lydia's play, a special event organised by her church,The New Church, in celebration/rememberance of Good Friday and of Jesus Christ at RELC International Hotel. I brought Eric along and seriously..The play was interesting, hilarious and story was good..Message from the play brings out to the many audience of different age group. Very original too. (Not forgetting the Indian music with the people dancing with it..made the whole atmosphere more lively and entertaining..) And for the third time that I meet Lydia..How I actually met her was I was on the train..and I approached her..Hey! Not desperate or what hor..But we were both on our way to SP. I did not know her at first but on the train I saw her "playing" or touching her hair throughout the whole journey to Dover like as if she juz had a new haircut...But anyway..got to know her when I approached her when we both got onto Dover. And now, things are getting better for us as friends I suppose.

Well..and on my birthday which is today...I received many wishes from many friends..And have quite a long chat with them. Though I did not really celebrate with my friends out..but I just felt that I got to catch up with most of them..which I think is more worthwhile than going out for a party or something. My family members..my dad came back from work early..same for my sis and my young brother coming home to celebrate my birthday with me...A simple celebration. We just called for KFC the family feast meal. We had quality time together too...Hardly get together as we always doing our own things which is -> work.

Haha...You could be thinking that having KFC with my family members is the final celebration that I had for the day. Haha..but not so...It so happen that someone who is so sweet came out for supper with me..Ee Xuan! I've not seen her for months! I still remember there was just this once that we met when we were at Bugis..she was on the escalator, I was on the escalator too..but we're taking the opposite directions. I was coming down and she was going up. And that was the only glimpse of seconds that we met...And just now, at the last hour of my birthday before it hits 12am, we met again at Bedok the most famous Bar Chor Mee hawker centre..and there, we had our supper and we chatted and catched up with things..She was beautiful and her eyes were still as sparkling as ever when the first time I saw her. I still remember she was very "dao" when I first approached her when she and I left from work in Tampines BHG, that was the first time I met her and it was at the predestrain crossing. But now, we're getting better as friends too..I really thank her for being out in the night despite that it's dangerous for a girl to be out...And we did have our supper and chat...In the end, I accompanied her home safely on a cab and it was also time for me to be back home. When will I get to meet her again..? Who knows..But God knows.. =)

Alright...finally I received the email.

FW: Jack Neo's Movie Director & Scriptwriter Search‏
From:
Gloria Tio-Dunn (gloria@neostudios.com.sg)
You may not know this sender.Mark as safeMark as junk
Sent:
18 March 2009 02: 39AM
To:
zkchang39820988@hotmail.com

Hi Zi Kang,

As spoken, below is the email. See you tomorrow.

Thank you!

Gloria

Gloria Tio-Dunn
Manager, Creative Development
Neo Studios Pte Ltd

(address) 113 Somerset Road *scape Youth Centre Level 1 Singapore 238165 (tel/fax) +65 67381349 www.NeoStudios.com.sg

From: Gloria Tio-Dunn [mailto:gloria@neostudios.com.sg] Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 2:48 PMTo: 'info@neostudios.com.sg'Subject: Jack Neo's Movie Director & Scriptwriter Search Importance: High

Hi Filmmakers and Film Lovers,

As spoken, you have been shortlisted !

The meeting details are –

Date of Meeting : 19/3/2009 (Thursday)

Time of Meeting : 7pm

Venue : FLOW Dance Studio at Level 2
*scape Youth Centre (also known as National Youth Centre)
113 Somerset Road Singapore 238165

The Youth Centre is by Youth Park, diagonally across Cineleisure, next to Singapore Power Building.

Looking forward to meeting you.

Thank you.

Gloria

Gloria Tio-Dunn
Manager, Creative Development
Neo Studios Pte Ltd

First day training at Suntec City Subway.

Ok, I definitely have to blog this down. This is something that I'll never forget and never want to forget in my life. It was the first day of my training at Subway with Zhi Hui together at Suntec City outlet. We reached the outlet in our uniforms but were asked to take a seat for like 20 mins before we begin the training. (20 mins just wasted like that) .

Firstly, it was the introduction of the staff members.. I could only remember the store manager and one of the staff by the name of Brynie (pronounced as Bryan..same pronunciation but different spelling) but anyway, right after that, we were told to really "work" the whole day sia..To me, it's not like a training...Ok, for my case, I'll mentioned later in here..I'll talk about Zhi Hui first, he was asked to be a dishwasher the WHOLE DAY! Man! How can sia?! If it's me, I'll really get exhuasted by it. Wat's more is that, he showed me his bubbled hands..man..It was really too much on the first day..He was thinking of quitting and going back to Friven. Well, he also did cleaning of the dining area and basically everything that is in the kitchen. But guess he got to slack too lah..but complains that he made was that there was this staff that commanded him to do this and that..Zhi Hui was kinda pissed off as on the first day, it is not possible to know so much at one go..

Whereas for me, I was stationed at the front counter. So basically, I had to listen to the customers' orders and make the sandwiches for them. Come on, it's not 1 or 2..it's like 30 in like an hour..I had to remember the type of bread there are, the numbers of vegetables that I have to place in the sandwiches, I had to toast them (and sometimes get burnt by the oven - burnt my fingers) and put the different sauces over them. Sounds easy..u try! So there were like so many different orders of how the customers want to customise their sandwiches, we'll just have to follow their orders..

Haha..Just to share with you if you've never been to a subway or know how to order a sandwich from there. All you have to do is, the moment u queue, u're at the Thru-Put counter. A Thru- Put counter means that u're actually queuing in a way that your sandwich is made from the 1st station to the last station. Station 1 --> Station 2 --> Station 3 --> cashier. So at the first counter, you'll definitely see a sticker pasted on the window pane of the station 1 listing you the 5 different types of bread - Wheat, HoneyOat, Italian, Hearty Italian, Presmegato Oregano(if the spelling is correct) but before that, you should have thought of what sandwich you would like to have-for example: Subway Melt, Subway Club etc. and the size of your sandwich - 6 inch or 1 foot.

Station 2 would be the station whereby the sandwich artist will place the meat slices based on what sandwich you want. Then, he will ask if you would like to have cheese on the top and toast with it. Once done, he will transfer the sandwich over to the third counter for your vegetables.

The vegetables comprises of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, pickles, capsicum, olives, spring onions and preserved green chilli. But you can choose which one you dislike. After that, would be the sauces for your toppings. The number of sauces goes like : Honey Mustard, Yellow Mustard, Redwine, Sweet Onions, Mayonise, Southwest, Chilli, Ketchup and so on.. Finally, your sandwich is done and to make payment at the counter.