Yes we shot those scenes within a very short window time frame, ie 15-20mins, just before the sun disappeared from the horizon.
I was blessed with 3 things,
1. The weather was perfect. It was hot and humid the whole day. Thus when the weather is such, ie no rain, the clouds were clear, somehow you just prayed that the sunset will be awesome. We were blessed with the perfect sunset. It could have gone the other way (because Singapore weather is nuts for filming). It will always be 50-50 so you just had to take chances and hope for the best. The sunset scenes were shot over two days.
2. I was blessed to have a team of wonderful cast and crew. We knew we were on a very complicated window time frame. Everyone was on the ball and knew what they were in for. Every single one knew what they were supposed to do, and to quote one of my former trainers - “very automatic”.
A special mention to the filming crew for being so kickass.
3. When you have perfect “money” shots, I’ve decided that to go forward, the film deserved a good post-production treatment. My gratitude to everyone at the post house. You’ll need the best to achieve the best. My platoon sergeant once (no, in fact many many times) said - “may as well go all out or don’t do it at all”. I can never thank the post production team enough for giving that useful lift to turn the already awesome footages into something phenomenal. And for always being soo accommodating. So paisey every time I sent that little text or email.
(Just in case you’re wondering why I quoted my ex-trainers twice… it’s because they were legends and many of my army peers reading this can grudgingly agree on)
My apologies for digressing.
Back to PENDEKAR. If you haven’t watched it yet, please do yourself a favour to watch it. You may not understand poetry (many of us don’t either), but PENDEKAR is meant to be universal. I take inspiration from lots of martial arts films by Zhang Yimou and many of his contemporaries from China. PENDEKAR is truly a cross-cultural piece regardless your background. It’s a little snapshot of Singapore cinema when it’s given room to breathe. Thanks to Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay for giving that space.
Now, please watch PENDEKAR on your biggest monitor you have if you haven’t done so. And just marvel at the glorious beauty brought to you I am proud to say, by a production team that’s one of the best in Singapore - not I say one but many industry folks and the international awards say one (that’s if you’re clueless about Singapore production). Stay to watch the end credits to see who these folks are to have blessed Singapore with such cinematic highs right now.
The film premieres on 10 June, Thursday, 8pm
(Available online until 27 Jun, Sun, 11.59pm).Watch PENDEKAR here.
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