Directing Mr Ballerino

I’m reminded again what directing is all about. Every production is unique. You never have the perfect family. The producer brings them together, but it’s your responsibility to ensure they see eye to eye when the camera rolls. Even after close to 25 years, it still gets overwhelming, because your family is different all the time. Each has their respective expertise and skills. The fun part of running the symphony is calibrating these respective expertise to a common vision. Not just a common vision, but my vision - that linear vision that identifies my work from the rest of the pack (regardless of the genre), one that followers of my humble work will know it’s from me.

Orchestrating a film set is not just about taking sexy shots. It’s about identifying a cast strength and make their respective performances work For them in a scene. It’s about projecting the strength of the camera for you to your own unique style. Many times a scene doesn’t require fancy execution even though the gadgets are there. I like my shots motivated and uncluttered. There are too many things happening in a scene there’s no need to bastardize it with unnecessary fancy shots. Maintaining consistency in all aspects or performance, visual style including the art and makeup/style departments. For drama series, you receive diverse screenplays and scripts. It is important to fuse these eclectic narrative styles to your own, consistent style. The production assistants and runners tie all the departments together.

So, directing is not just about the sexy shots. It’s about getting the conceptual essence of the drama series and rallying everyone in the production that they have a stake in it - just like the sound recordist insists to have ideal sound environments to record his audio, because NO audio sweeteners can save a bad sound. Their names will be on the end credits after all.

Thus with all these responsible technicians onset, the director cannot feel safe behind these professionals. He gotta step up. They are not the reason for his shortcomings.

Mr Ballerino wraps

In any drama shoot, the only other person that sees my eyes is the Director of Photography. It is important that our vision does not waver, even when my “eyes” start to waver due to onset fatigue - and vice versa.

The vision needs to be maintained. On any given day, our energies need to sustain one another. In the just-wrapped principal shoot for the upcoming drama series, Mr Ballerino, for Mediacorp Suria channel, Sofyan Mohd Daud and his kickass crew maintained that energy for 38 days. It’s imperative to maintain positive vibes on set, regardless of circumstances. We all need that for the intensive 10-14 hour daily shoot. Filming continues from 11 January 2020 to 12 March 2020.

Filming is a Very Physical Activity, especially for Director of Photography and his dedicated crew ie, gaffers, grips, camera assistant.

Cheers to the completion of filming. Looking ahead for more collaborations soon!