The Singapore 48 Hour Film Project

What Happened During Your Weekend?

The Singapore filmmakers share stories from their wild weekend of filmmaking. (Blogging will begin after the filmmaking weekend ends.)

Remembering Johnny Axel

We compiled a few quotes from our cast and crew, both Perth and Singapore.

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Australia and Singapore, holding hands at last and over coming adversity. may the Merlion and Kangaroo walk on the same line forever!
– John Barker, The Great Johnny Axel

I will never forget leaning against that palm tree listening to John serenade me. Thank you for letting me be a part of this amazing day.
– Danni Touzel, Cast

When I told Sueanne I would be her "Perth Unit", I meant it as moral support, and as a joke, but I'm so grateful that she jumped straight onto it and decided that we could and would make it happen. Splitting up the film saved us so much time, and somehow worked more seamlessly than we thought. I had an amazing crew in Perth with incredible initiative. Our cast in Perth was ****ing brilliant as well. It was the most epic production I had ever done, and I'm still on a high from it.
– Eunice Wong, Director/Editor

The most unpredictable element of shooting and editing in two countries would be internet speeds. I almost died when I tried to download the last act of our film at 5pm and it told me it had 10 hours remaining. Thank goodness we managed to find alternatives when the internet was uncooperative!
– Sueanne Teo, Producer/Editor/Team Leader

It was a crazy circus! Colourful, magical, exciting and magnificent! Considering that our team was based in two different countries, Australia and Singapore, we did amazingly well. As expected, there were hiccups here and there due to the nature of our work and Murphy constantly popping by the sets. But you know what? We pulled through. If given another chance to do this, I would definitely stagedive into it.
– Muhammad Zaki, Director

Each time I tell myself I will not join a crazy competition like this, I end up doing it. In my opinion, this was our best short film yet, churned out in such a short period of time. The Perth Unit was brilliant! And kudos to the chiefs in Singapore who put everything together very smoothly. I had tons of fun rockin 'n' rollin :)
– Andrea Anthony, Producer

For an accountant to be a producer in such an epic "international" film, I feel quite honoured I could play a part in this (my cameo as another photographer, & my car - see blue car in Johnny's serenade).
– David Tan, Producer

I tell you what, doing a project like this sure hones your skills! Creating the ‘E?’ animation took Adriel and I the better part of 4 hours. The set alone was made in about an hour. The camera work and lighting were mint and almost instantaneously set up. It’s all well and good being able to brag about what you achieved in 48 hours but the thing I will take away from it other than that is the importance of a cracking crew!
– Chris Nixon, Graphics/Cast

It was a great experience finishing off a video in 48 hours... never thought it was possible... great to work with Eunice who has great directing skills and the rest of the team which just worked so well together. Well done to Chris, Ciaran and John for great performances.
– Adriel Bong, Continuity/Assistant Editor

It was a lot of pressure to get everything done in just 48 hours... but it was worth every second of it. Everyone was so hype and did their job splendidly. We definitely had lots of laughs, that's for sure. Perth & Singapore! Go TEAM!
– Nadya Yusuf, Sound Recordist

So totally cool we pulled it off with all our resources and friends even if we did get grumpy or scream-y in the middle of it. Plus I've never eaten so much pizza until this production. Yay to deliverymen!
– Sarah Coldheart, Sound Recordist/Assistant Producer

If they were a real band, I'd be a real groupie. and paint scissors on my own face!
– Gwyndalyn Ko, Makeup

It was really hard to see through the view-finder because my face was melted from all the ROCK!
– Ciaran Voyce, Assistant DoP/Cast

It was really fun! I've never been part of a live film project before, so this was a new experience for me. Being silent on the set is a hard thing to do.
– Liesl Tan, Graphics

The entire event was a blast and took the fun of filmmaking to another level. To my Curtin comrades let’s melt faces this year!
– Deland Tay, Director of Photography

In between takes, I sprawled myself on set and got 40winks. Power naps kept me going for the whole 48hrs!
– Azmi Danuri, Director of Photography

A sharp, edgy film which cuts to the heart of the greatest scissor-related, totally unhinged band of all time.
– Michael Findenberg, Cast

Making it an international production was kinda risky, but it definitely paid off! A good looking and diverse cast, pretty smooth shooting/editing process, I'm proud to be a part of it.
– Jerome Lim, L337 3D Animator

I wanted to help out in the previous film project, but was unable to due to NS commitments, so I'm glad I was able to join in this year. This has indeed been an interesting time for me, looking at how a short film is done within such a short time frame.
– Stuart Lim, Transport

It was great to be part of such a professionally run movie! Star quality all the way!
– Melanie Ham, Cast

A wild weekend, death metal junkies singing "You are my Sunshine" in a random back alley, a cosy attic in a house where my GPS lost its signal, wonderful people who've been more than patient with all my NGs made this experience simply unforgettable.
– Catherine Vargas, Cast

It's hard to remember what it was like through all the awesomeness! That's right. I went there.
– Ellen Sheppard, Cast

- The Cast and Crew of "Beyond The Band", Team SEJA

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Tiring But Fun

I was able to source and confirm a few talents 2-3 days before the event. Previously I was able to get my crew together but had no actors because most of my contacts were students who were either in the midst of their exams or just started school. Since the group of us who are doing this had some prior experience rushing wedding videos, I figured we should be able to handle the quick pace of shooting and editing a film in 48 hours.

Friday
By 9pm, we had all gathered back in my office where a group of us gathered to brainstorm and write a story. We took pictures of our acting talents and used their mugshots for inspiration. Of course we were also limited by their schedules. We finally decided on two male leads who can and are willing to spend their entire weekend with us. The story then kinda flowed from my director before we developed it further. At around 2am, we got some sleep in the office and got ready to leave for our shoot at 9am in the morning.

Saturday
We decided to do everything in one location. This also saves us the hassle of traveling so we can spend more time shooting. Arriving at the location, which was a HDB void deck, we found a 2-3 funeral wakes barely a few hundred metres from us... Let's just say we had to be real creative in placing our shots to avoid shooting them. We needed some last minute extras and I managed to get my dad on board. Shooting continued for the whole day and finally concluded at 9pm at my flat. I then proceeded to do a rough cut of the film before sleeping at 4am.

Sunday
I had a team of 2-3 editors/post-production people including me and after the church, they came over to my house to pick me up and the rough cut as we headed back to the office to finish up the editing and mixing the sound/music. By 6pm, my director finally finished his edit and we then had to down convert the footage from HD to SD. That unfortunately took us 1.5 hours and by the time we left the office for Tisch Asia (the drop off point) it was already 7:45pm. It certainly felt like the Amazing Race as we drove towards the venue. We made it with 23 mins to spare and successfully dropped off the film.

All in all, it was an enjoyable experience made so by friends old and new who all share a love for film. The fellowship and camaraderie of all involved made it a joy for me to produce the film. I guessed it helped that we drew the comedy genre and one of our talents had a natural knack for being funny without realizing it. Looking forward to seeing the film on the big screen.

- Andrew Yu, Vanguard

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shell-shocked

48 hour film was a very unusual experience.
It was certainly NOT a dull weekend.
Just a little background: I am a full-time dental surgeon that loves films. I have done a few short films but not in the last three years when my day-job took over my life.
I had some reservations about doing 48hrs. Time and personnel issues mainly. But I thought it was a good way to get creative again. So, I signed in and took whatever came my way.
I managed to secure an actress and a guy to help me edit.
The scary thing was that I had to work on Saturday. 48hrs was really 40hrs to me.
Friday the 1st came along and the event took off. It was an exciting kick-off. I attended the event myself. It was lonely seeing everyone in teams except me.
My genre was thriller/suspense. I tried very hard, prior to the event, to not anticipate any story. Somehow that worked. On the way home, I thought up a story and the script was ready by 10pm.
Just when I thought things were going on schedule, my editor told me he couldn\\\'t work with me on the weekend. Nevermind. I decided to shoot at home and startd working out my shots. I realised my nightshots could not work and I did not have any lighting equipment. Whoopsy.
I went to bed with a lot of anxiety.
On Saturday, I went to work - a whole morning in the surgery. I text-messaged my actress to tell her that we shoot at 7pm. She called a minute later to tell me she forgot about the shoot and she was going to Phuket. I was stunned. I had not cast and non crew. And no lights.
So, I finished my day at the surgery. I headed to a production house owned by a friend to borrow some lights. Non of the lights they had worked.
So, I decided to shoot part-day, part-dusk and some at night.
I begged my wife to be my actress. And I had to act in it myself. Who is going to handle the camera when both of us are in front of the camera? Time to call a friend (one that was willing but never handled the camera).
The saturday shoot was as unorganised as anything you could imagine. I made a shot-list by numbering my script lines and shot whatever I could think of under the one hour of lights I had left.
The friend came at 7pm with a red-head. Yay! I shot the rest until 2am. It was slow going espcially when I had to instruct my friend to use the camera and teaching her to compose the shots and test the level of lighting. It was frustrating and I gave up on being a control freak.
I went to bed without even looking at all the shots.
Sunday was tough. Low on energy but editing is when the film comes together. I got up at 7am and went into the study to start editing. It looked so bad at the start and I was getting palpatations. The lighting quality was all over the place. I didn\\\'t have enough shots to cut. It was 1pm. Oh crap! Igrabbed my camera and set up the red-head and just shot all over the house.
Back to the computer. So, I set up the shot sequence and put sound effects and created the music. It was coming together. I fixed the lighting as much as I could.
At 5pm, I was done! I couldn\\\'t believe it. It wa far from perfect but somewhat watchable.
So, time for the transfer. Easy...NOT!
Just when I thought all was good, my computer broke down. I could not transfer my final cut to mini DV or any other form. It was stuck. I tried for the next 2 hours.
It was 7pm and I was stunned. I had spent 12 hours on Sunday alone, with a complete product which I would not be able to submit.
I said to myself: I\\\'ll be damned if I don\\\'t submit this. NO MATTER WHAT I AM FINISHING!
The next step - the only method I could possibly think of - is my little secret. But I got it on miniDV.
I tested it on TV. It looked...different...to what I initially wanted. Too bad. The whole weekend was cursed anyway.
Leave it to the gods.
7.50pm. Crap. The documents! Signed everything.
Drop off at 8.20pm.
What I have learnt from the 48hrfilm experience:
1/ It\\\'s difficult to rely on people. Working alone may have made it easier.
2/ As long as you can stick to your story, the shooting can be salvaged.
3/ The only way to survive the weekend is to expect everything to go wrong. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
4/ Although the experience was harrowing, it was very free-ing. My motto is to let go.

I am not sure whether my final product is even watchable and I may be embarassed by the final product. I am proud of the fact that I handed it in on time. It\\\'s difficult when you go through the whole weekend on your own. The emotions. I felt desperate, tired and hopeless at times and it was very difficult to fight through all that.

Will I do this again?
Maybe. Maybe.

- bernard siew, penguinoville

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