In Your Neighbourhood #6 - Filmmakers 23/11/01
Some say films are pieces of art and commentary that can be windows into a society's soul.
Somewhere in your neighbourhood in Northeast Singapore, efforts are being made to open such a window.
Hi, welcome to In Your Neighbourhood with me, Chong Ching Liang.
The Northeast Community Development Council and Canon Marketing Singapore are collaborating on the "NorthEastern Exposure" community film programme.
The CDC will be offering free filmmaking course to its residents.
Northeast CDC Senior Community Development Officer Karina Lim on the take-up rate.
"We've had overwhelming response, over 200 applicants in fact, and for this course alone, we can only take in 75 at the moment so we unfortunately have to turn away quite a few of them."
The popularity must be pleasing to the newly elected Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC, Penny Low.
She says there's great possibility in encouraging film-making.
"Firstly, they are able to express themselves in how they see things, what they feel and how they would tackle it. And it could also give them an opportunity to express their desires, dreams and aspirations. That means it gives the respective authorities an opportunity to meet their needs. That in a way is what I would call an exchange of ideas and that can foster better understanding. Then people may be better relate to the place they live in, and to start to feel a sense of ownership, in the place they called home."
One of the creative forces behind Wu Liao Media is Colin Goh and he's helping to train the budding film-makers.
Is he surprised by the turnout?
"Oh yes! Very much so! We are very surprised by the response and we are very surprised by the warm reception we get for the other short films we screened to get people used to the short film genre itself. And a lot of people are very surprised, "look! O' er I can tell a story in about 15 minutes and I think what this shows is that a lot of Singaporeans are bursting with stories to tell. And it’s a great way to vent. It’s a great way to give voice to all your concerns and all that stress and deal with it. It’s a really creative way and I think it should really be encouraged."
The rawness and edginess of short film making is the window to Singapore's heartlands.
"This is where real art happens. Its not so arty, on the other hand, it could be very surprising. Over the last couple of workshop, we've had some amazing ideas coming up from documentary to comedies to sort of social critique and you know, from unexpected quarters. You have some 12 years old exploring the basis of the trends and so on. It’s fascinating and it’s long overdue. The community has a lot of contents just waiting to be released and we think film, especially digital movies are a great way of giving voice to these issues and to their individual stories."
Film making has already been revolutionalised.
Having a digital camera and a decent desktop computer are all you need to bring out the Spielberg’s, Coppolas and Lucas in you.
Colin again.
"Now everybody can shoot a film. We are also going to see very different movies because of that. It won't the usual what will play to many houses. You'll see a lot of personal films, you'll a lot more reflective films and I think uhm, with quantity will come quality. The more films they have, the more people look at films; eventually we will develop our own style, our own grammar. I don't know, but it may herald a turning point here for our film industry."
Canon Marketing sells digital video-cameras but these days, straight selling is no longer enough unless one starts investing for the future.
Its deputy division sales manager for camera division, Alex Chan explains.
"For Canon, our part of the involvement with the community is to create interest in film making and also to support our fledgling film industry itself. It's an extension of our community involvement."
So what sort stories can we look forward to?
For a 4-student team from Dunman secondary of Jeyland, Sulaiman and two Daniels, the scope is ambitious.
They plan to bring to screen mutant hamsters the size of Godzilla.
[mutant hamster sots]
But as you can hear, the story may be fantasy but the landscape is uniquely Singaporean.
Through such films, maybe the much called for heart-strings of Singapore will start to resonate.
Tampines MP, Penny Low again.
"I am very much into community-bonding issues, building u0p the original Kampung spirit. When I was young we lived in a kampong, we have neighbours we can count on cl: I know, doors that are never closed. Doors that never close [laughs], You know we don't gates and there's a certain degree of respect for each other's privacy as well even though it’s so open. So it’s a bit ironic that as we progress, we lost that part of our humanness. If we could bring that back, that's where our quality of life would really be enhanced because at the end of the day, we need to count on and trust our neighbours. "
Important task and maybe films are the fun way to offset an otherwise arduous task.
This is Chong Ching Liang, for Newsradio 938.
Related websites:
Northeast Community Development Council
http://www.northeast.org.sg/
Newsradio 938
newsradio.mediacorpradio.com
Somewhere in your neighbourhood in Northeast Singapore, efforts are being made to open such a window.
Hi, welcome to In Your Neighbourhood with me, Chong Ching Liang.
The Northeast Community Development Council and Canon Marketing Singapore are collaborating on the "NorthEastern Exposure" community film programme.
The CDC will be offering free filmmaking course to its residents.
Northeast CDC Senior Community Development Officer Karina Lim on the take-up rate.
"We've had overwhelming response, over 200 applicants in fact, and for this course alone, we can only take in 75 at the moment so we unfortunately have to turn away quite a few of them."
The popularity must be pleasing to the newly elected Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC, Penny Low.
She says there's great possibility in encouraging film-making.
"Firstly, they are able to express themselves in how they see things, what they feel and how they would tackle it. And it could also give them an opportunity to express their desires, dreams and aspirations. That means it gives the respective authorities an opportunity to meet their needs. That in a way is what I would call an exchange of ideas and that can foster better understanding. Then people may be better relate to the place they live in, and to start to feel a sense of ownership, in the place they called home."
One of the creative forces behind Wu Liao Media is Colin Goh and he's helping to train the budding film-makers.
Is he surprised by the turnout?
"Oh yes! Very much so! We are very surprised by the response and we are very surprised by the warm reception we get for the other short films we screened to get people used to the short film genre itself. And a lot of people are very surprised, "look! O' er I can tell a story in about 15 minutes and I think what this shows is that a lot of Singaporeans are bursting with stories to tell. And it’s a great way to vent. It’s a great way to give voice to all your concerns and all that stress and deal with it. It’s a really creative way and I think it should really be encouraged."
The rawness and edginess of short film making is the window to Singapore's heartlands.
"This is where real art happens. Its not so arty, on the other hand, it could be very surprising. Over the last couple of workshop, we've had some amazing ideas coming up from documentary to comedies to sort of social critique and you know, from unexpected quarters. You have some 12 years old exploring the basis of the trends and so on. It’s fascinating and it’s long overdue. The community has a lot of contents just waiting to be released and we think film, especially digital movies are a great way of giving voice to these issues and to their individual stories."
Film making has already been revolutionalised.
Having a digital camera and a decent desktop computer are all you need to bring out the Spielberg’s, Coppolas and Lucas in you.
Colin again.
"Now everybody can shoot a film. We are also going to see very different movies because of that. It won't the usual what will play to many houses. You'll see a lot of personal films, you'll a lot more reflective films and I think uhm, with quantity will come quality. The more films they have, the more people look at films; eventually we will develop our own style, our own grammar. I don't know, but it may herald a turning point here for our film industry."
Canon Marketing sells digital video-cameras but these days, straight selling is no longer enough unless one starts investing for the future.
Its deputy division sales manager for camera division, Alex Chan explains.
"For Canon, our part of the involvement with the community is to create interest in film making and also to support our fledgling film industry itself. It's an extension of our community involvement."
So what sort stories can we look forward to?
For a 4-student team from Dunman secondary of Jeyland, Sulaiman and two Daniels, the scope is ambitious.
They plan to bring to screen mutant hamsters the size of Godzilla.
[mutant hamster sots]
But as you can hear, the story may be fantasy but the landscape is uniquely Singaporean.
Through such films, maybe the much called for heart-strings of Singapore will start to resonate.
Tampines MP, Penny Low again.
"I am very much into community-bonding issues, building u0p the original Kampung spirit. When I was young we lived in a kampong, we have neighbours we can count on cl: I know, doors that are never closed. Doors that never close [laughs], You know we don't gates and there's a certain degree of respect for each other's privacy as well even though it’s so open. So it’s a bit ironic that as we progress, we lost that part of our humanness. If we could bring that back, that's where our quality of life would really be enhanced because at the end of the day, we need to count on and trust our neighbours. "
Important task and maybe films are the fun way to offset an otherwise arduous task.
This is Chong Ching Liang, for Newsradio 938.
Related websites:
Northeast Community Development Council
http://www.northeast.org.sg/
Newsradio 938
newsradio.mediacorpradio.com
posted by CHONG Ching-liang | 4:21 PM
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