Le Scaphandre et le papillon

Mon Ami

It has been a long time since I last blogged due to my much-dreaded affair with dissertation. Wednesdays are good days to blog especially after my Akido trainings which leaves me with great clarity of mind to write about things. But anyway, blogging is given a pretty low importance in consideration of other priorities:

1) Last year to have fun
2) Travel (on going)
3) Hang out with bro, parents and friends
4) Swim (on going)
5) Watch movies (on going)
6) Sort my 123412341234 travel photos (in progress)
7) Learning Akido (in progress)
8) Learning how to drive a boat (done!)
9) Learn diving (in progress)
10) Tennis
11) Advance my guitar skills
12) Learn piano
13) Learn Rhino (in progress)
14) Learn Maxwell
15) Dissertation (good riddance)
16) Pursue film interest (in progress)
17) Thesis research (in progress)
18) Play computer games (on going)
19) Make a new notebook and photo frame
20) Update portfolio
21) Read all my books
22) Daydreaming while staring at the clouds float pass my window
23) Blog

However, getting involved with nuSTUDIOS film school activities recently got me all fired up with my long passion for film-making and I decided to dig out all my pass works to smile geekily at myself while viewing them.

Mon Ami is a short story I did with my co-director YZ in 2001 after my JC examination for VJC. It was my first time trying with the narrative since usually I am more concerned with cinematography due to my AEP training. The result was pretty amateurish given that the whole thing was shot without a script and everything was impromptu. We only had a general idea that it would be a romantic comedy about a girl who had confidence issues in finding her dreams as an actress, and her magical relationship with her imaginary friend. The shooting took 3 days with another 3 days of editing and even thou our friends had no experience in theatrics, they were game enough to give acting a try. The whole experience was great fun and to top it off, we won an outstanding award for the Nationals schools video competition even thou we failed to clear the copyrighted music.

Mon Ami from tefallenangel on Vimeo.

Life in the City-State 1999

“Life in the City-state” is a video installation I did for my graduation from the Art Elective Program when I was in Chinese High School in 1999. I did not manage to learn much in that 4 years of art education, accept film making skills, which I find great pleasure in.



The installation is trying to depict the despondency and degeneration of life in Singapore trapped in the artifice of its own construct, peeling apart its superficial beauty and happiness to reveal the true hollowness within. The set is a dark room pretty much like the atmosphere shown in the picture where a plaster sculpture of me is glued to the television representing the inability of the being to extract himself from the machine of consumption and of being consumed while slowing rotting away with time.

The work is created in the Art block of the above picture, an almost perfectly rectangular double storey enclosure where all sorts of amusing creative antics take place within. I spent many nights there in the Art block working alone sanding my sculpture and editing the video.

The whole video is taken on a professional JVC camera like that in the picture but I can’t remember exactly what was the model (It was like 11 yrs ago). As it uses Super VHS tapes, my work was destroyed 3 times towards the examination date due to a series of unfortunate “tape stuck in lousy video playback device” events. Luckily, by then I decided to go with my instincts, shoot with my feelings, and forgo content, which made me do well for my finals.

Editing then was pretty interesting and extremely taxing coz the world was using analogue technology then. There was no adobe premier or final cut pro, and internet was just introduced to Singapore 2 yrs before. To edit the video, I had to do some extremely complicated programming with all the dials and tv screens, set a long series of commands, hit the big red REC button and pray that nothing goes wrong. Since everything is done in real time, and I made many mistakes, I had to clock many hours in the editing suite while my peers are happily playing magic cards back in the common room.

The plaster component is the 2nd part of my installation besides my video. I had to cast a couple of life-size plaster sculpture of myself which was pretty amusing. I first learnt to cast and shape a series of my hands, a skull and then finally my full body. The full body process takes about a day, where my good friend JT will wrap plaster bandages from my toes up to my head, leaving only 2 holes for breathing. Its hot, strenuous and stuffy as I have to bear the weight of the plaster while in some preconceived pose. I did not have the luxury of that many helpers as seen from this picture when all my friends are busy with their own final year work. Once my body went numb from cold and I just collapsed flat on my face (you can’t move your body as they are under solid cast) and wasted JT’s whole day of work. The drying process takes about 3 hours and JT will give me a free “waxing session” by splitting my cast in two, right at the sides. After which I glued the 2 sides of “me” together, apply more plaster, and sand them to perfection which takes about 3 months. It was such a memorable process doing the whole installation from the filming to the editing and human casting. We often joke that the various casts of me can be found at different places of the Art block in the morning, spinning of supernatural tales. Those days were truly of simple friendships and companionship. Till now after 10 years the AEP peeps still often meet up to dine and stay over :)

Chambre des officiers, La

Just watched this period war movie at alliance francaise which is rather slow but intense.

The first days of WWI. Adrien, a young and handsome lieutenant, is wounded by a piece of shrapnel. He will spend the entire wartime at the Val-de-Grâce Hospital, in Paris. Five long years, and his life changes as he struggles with his defaced looks.

I'm still in love with french movies for their colourful intepretation of life which is so dreamy and full of hope. I think this even permeates down to their cinematography and dialogues.

After the movie I can conclude that FRENCH LADIES ARE EXTREMELY BEAUTIFUL AND EMATES CHARM! The photos here can no where compare to their grace in this period drama.

Boy A

I think its been a long time since i did a movie post. But having just watched Boy A, it deserves my effort. And given that I just finished a major competition and taking a break, i'm in the mood for some writing.

Boy A is the term used to address a child killer who under went rehab and is now trying his best to adjust back to the society. The irony is, often or not, you can't just pretend to leave ur past and unfortunately, you just can't live with lying to yourself. Sadly, life does not start afresh for Jack even when he is given a new identity or having done a heroic deed. In the end, what he had done catches back to him and he had to face the sadness of life.

Boy A won 5 wins and 7 nominations. The plot is simple, but the power lies in the excellent simple directorial devices and cinematography. The story is told in a series of flashback that ties the present to the past in subtle metaphors. The camera leads and plays up the audience's emotions just by the composition alone. The last european film that I can conjure up to compare the camera asethetics may be the diving bell and the butterfly, however, instead of banging on saturated visuals, Boy A replies simply on timely pauses and loads of white space. Due credit have to be given to the lead actor andrew garfield for potraying his helplessness and how sometimes innocence is no match for the winds of destiny.

Throughout the show, a familiar scent jolts my memory, but no matter how hard I try to find the familar source, i know its no longer there. I think Boy A does the same visually. It makes one appreciate the innocence of living and how simple things like being loved are taken for granted compared to Jack who had that deprived for his whole lifetime. A truly touching show in that memorable evening.

B is for Bomb

Good shot at the bomb

881

Released Date : 09-08-2007
Genre : Musical
Running Time : 110 min
Director : Royston Tan
Cast : Qi Yu Wu, Yeo Yann Yann, Mindee Ong

Score 3/5

Story-telling *****
Cinematography *****
Directing *****
Acting *****

Comment

Skillful attempt, Roystern thou unpolished, works his magic

Plot

2 young sisters join the getai to fulfill their dreams and face challenges by an upsetting duo as well as impending death.

Review

I must admit I’m never a fan of Roystern, yet I have to give credit to Roystern for picking up the theme of “getai”, (thou most probably due to its penetrability into the foreign film market with its exotic and excessive display) giving due attention to this dieing art form, and giving voice to this forgotten generation. And in the end, weaving all these into a tasteful film that pleases the subject’s patrons and yet reaching out to the young.

This is in comparison to some of our more popular local productions that prefer to tug at known pains of the Heart Landers and hoping to make a profit out of it with its stale subject matter and cheap jokes. Hence, it is totally revitalizing to see a more skillful attempt with kinder intentions.

Roystern’s directing style is almost text-bookish and this film would be an A if it has been his thesis paper. He is displaying almost all the correct strokes at the appropriate times. However, it would have been better if he had decided to leave the mainstream or the established examples in such an exotic subject matter. I would not blame him since he is still young and I would have done the same in his shoes. There is heavy influence from French storytelling such as Amelie as well as Hong kong visuals such as the moody Wong Kar Wai and Christopher Doyle’s over-exposed colours. It would have been better not to insert stylistic props to define the film as an art show, equally better if there is understanding that not every film have to be art farty to be indie.

This film is like a summation of his past works and a display of his skills in his previous ones. The pause moments in the film are borrowed from 4.30 and the setting almost cliché with places like staircases, drive-through car wash, rustic shophouses. The story picks up well at the start and the momentum was well in motion. However, due to a lacklustre script, the story loses steam towards the end, an unnecessary attempt to push the film towards 2 hours.

Nevertheless, the effort and attempt is commendable in putting front the medley of Hokkien songs that warms the forgotten corner of our hearts. If the film had found its issue or have established the core of the story, it would have truly won my heart. Perhaps there has been too high an expectation of the director who is skilled in the works of visual magic. In truth, 881 lack emotional depth with too little time paid to emotional exchange among all the glitzy. It would have been better beyond all that style to question and strengthen the subject matter of getai if that was the original intention. Otherwise, it would have been an extravagant documentary which fails to cover in detail.