A glimpse #2.

VOLUPTAS ~ "What you don't need, you don't keep."

An upcoming, independent feature film directed by Sanif Olek.
Story by Sanif Olek & Hady A Hamid. A reeljuice production.

Release date: TBC.

Pesta Perdana 2011

At Pesta Perdana 2011 (presented March 4), the drama series, Ayah @Rumah "Stay-home Dad", was awarded "Best Director, Drama" for Sanif Olek and "Best Lead Actress" for Sharon Ismail.

It was nominated in the following categories
1. Best Drama: Ayah Kat Rumah
2. Best Scriptwriter: Muzafar M Yusof
3. Best Director: Sanif Olek
4. Best Actor: Osman Sulaiman
5. Best Actress: Sharon Ismail
6. Best Child Actor: Akid Fauzan Boey

Thank you Papahan Films for getting me involved in Ayah @Rumah. I take the award back to that meeting Raihan & myself had at maccas Bras Basah, where we first discussed the direction that Ayah @Rumah should take.

I share this award with Hady A Hamid - the other deserving director!! (We directed alternate episodes).

To Osman and Sharon for working their a*** off on this production, yes they did! To Akid and Nazrie too. To the production crew + technical crew + interns (...too many to mention here, but you kickass mofos know who you are!) for putting it all together. To Yane and his crew for the sofa and World Cup.

It was hard work and much sacrifice. It was not perfect. But the laughter kept us all together :)

THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I'M TRULY HUMBLED!!

Post-script:
This award was presented before the "live" event, ie pre-recorded (...WTH!). Would ceremonies such as the Oscars/Emmys/Baftas/Arias have done that to this award category?

Note:
This is the 2nd consecutive award for myself in this category, ie Director, drama series. The first was in Pesta Perdana 10 (2009). In 2005, I received the same award but for a Special Drama category.

"Ramuan Rahasia" feature film funding appeal

Please help to spread the word.

This is an appeal to assist funding to complete the still-in-progress feature film, "Ramuan Rahasia" [The Missing Ingredient]. Production commenced in 2009 but has stalled due to insufficient funds. Read on for funding details..

Also visit the appeal page on Facebook.

"Ramuan Rahasia", blends spicy food, classic Nusantara Malay songs and unrequited love into a digestible contemporary platter. The film not only entertains, your monetary pledges will support to document a cultural collage unique to Southeast Asia.

THE FILM



If music be the food of love, play on... (Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 1)

"Ramuan Rahasia" is inspired by food films such as Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman, Lars Halström’s Chocolat, Gabriel Axel’s Babette’s Feast and Alfonso Arau’s Like Water For Chocolate.

Thus in "Ramuan Rahasia", the dish used is Sambal Goreng, a signature Malay dish. To further anchor the work in the regional social context, evergreen Nusantara folk songs such as Si Jali-jali and Sayang di Sayang, have been incorporated which will be sung by and give greater dimension to key characters in the film.

"Ramuan Rahasia" also pays homage to the musical film genres directed by the late P Ramlee and M Amin at Shaw and Cathay-Keris Studios respectively.

THE CINEMATIC PROJECT
Potentially the first full-length Malay-language feature film made in the country in forty years, imagine "Ramuan Rahasia" as the meeting of Zhang Yimou's Raise The Red Lantern peppered by Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding with a dash of Robert Benton's Kramer vs Kramer.

Rahim Razali, a legend in Southeast Asian Malay cinema, heads the list of well-known talent.

The cross-cultural components that make up "Ramuan Rahasia" taps on the ready Malay-speaking audience in 'Nusantara', where a majority totalling 370-million reside in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia alone. The film situates itself as speaking from the centre of the Nusantara. On top of that, the cross-cultural themes in the film are a magnet to the Malay diaspora and lovers of Malay culture around the world. The universal theme of love lost and reconciled should guarantee it a wide potential audience.

THE FUNDING
The project needs S$300 000 more to complete. This fund is required to film the remaining 10 days of shoot, including post-production costs. The initial 65% was filmed out of Sanif Olek's own resources.

Transaction methods
PAYPAL acct: sanif.olek@gmail.com
Post Office Savings Bank (Singapore) a/c no: 085 827 227
All currencies in Singapore dollars.

BASIC $10-100
Immense gratitude and appreciation

PREMIUM I $200-300
Signed script.

PREMIUM II $400-500
Signed DVD + Credit on website

PREMIUM III $1000-2000
Signed DVD + 2 tickets to the premiere screening.

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER $4000-5000
All of the above + Thank you credit on film

CO-PRODUCER $10 000
All of the above + Opening credit on film

PRODUCER $50 000
All of the above + Opening credit on film

Raise Money Online

A glimpse #1

VOLUPTAS ~ "What you don't need, you don't keep."

An upcoming, independent feature film directed by Sanif Olek.
Story by Sanif Olek & Hady A Hamid. A reeljuice production.

Release date: TBC.

Screening updates.

AMEEN will screen as part of Sinema Showoff! Curator’s Picks (Season 2010).
Date: Tuesday, Dec 21,
Screening time: 7.15pm sharp.
Venue: Sinema Old School, 11B Mount Sophia, Singapore 228466
Admission is Free. Tickets are available online tix.sinema.sg or at the door on a first come first serve basis.

Screening will be followed by Q&A. Media links here and here.

Making films.

I have been asked this question many times from many Singaporean filmmakers who are just starting out, don't have the 'connections' or rich parents. Or others who wonder why I'm slogging on making films when I can just remain doing fun television programmes. I wish I have the perfect answer, below are extracted from the latest one I posted on Imran Ajmain's Facebook post. I've attempted to respond the best I could.

The Question.
How do young Malay people interested in film and video find out about doing something?
What kind of projects that you see happening elsewhere could we emulate for the SG scene for indie movie-makers?
Because of censorship & funding, and just about the lack of scarcity for content, Indonesian film-makers burst into a straight-to-DVD frenzy, and going strong til today. Can this happen in SG?

My response.
You NEED to COMMUNICATE your STORY to your audience. Tell them WHAT YOUR STORY IS ALL ABOUT. If you YOURSELF are able to tell your story in ONE LINE effectively, you have managed to engage your audience 80% to your story.

For example, you must be able to tell "My story is about Jack who wants to go up the hill to fetch Jill a pail of water", not "My story is about Jack's frustration going up the hill to find water for Jill". We already know it's frustrating to go up the hill, on top of that to carry a pail of water. We WANT to know HOW Jack manage to fetch that water for Jill.

What is so unique about your film?
Ask yourself these questions - why would you want to watch another half-past six MATRIX when Hollywood has done it perfectly? Why would you want to watch another Godfather when the one done by Francis Ford Coppola is considered the TOP 5 best film of ALL TIME in the world. Why would you want to watch another INFERNAL AFFAIRS when even the one remade by Martin Scorsese (The Departed) is considered inferior to the original done by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak in Hong Kong?

I feel that "wannabe" film story tellers are so fearful of how people would react to their work. Or how their film would look like. I've mentioned this and I'll mention this again. STORY is king, and I believe this applies to to making music/poetry as well. When your CONTENT is good and effective, people will be drawn to it NATURALLY lah.

Technology CANNOT assist you when your storytelling is zero. Good example of impressive films with flawed storytelling - Spiderman lll, X-Men lll, 90% of Michael Bay's films, Gangs Of New York, Matrix lll, etc...

I observe that a lot of people are worried more about technique and style than CONTENT. Technical gimmick and eye candy CANNOT hide flawed storytelling. Your HDSLRs and REDs can come later, much later, after your STORY.

You want to be innovative? Fine. Go to film school or at least study the fundamentals about structure. Quentin Tarantino learnt about linear storytelling so that later he could start breaking some rules.

The late P Ramlee (father of Malay cinema) said, "Seni itu adalah kerja Tuhan maka lakukan dengan bersungguh-sungguh dan penuh keikhlasan" (Art is God's gift, thus practice it wisely with sincerity).

Yes the only way to get your film noticed is film festivals. Don't get disappointed if the first film festival you sent your film to gets rejected. Different film festivals have their own niche and target audience. One of the reasons your film gets rejected could be the theme in your film is not suitable for the film festival, or that the film festival's programmer is simply NOT into your film, not that your film might be bad. Otherwise EAT HUMBLE PIE and make another one, and another one, to improve on your storytelling.

Oh, your family and best friends are not exactly the best people to judge your work.

For my views on censorship, kindly read this article. On government film funding, check the Singapore Film Commission's website (which you can google/bing/yahoo).

I'm still self-funding my films. Either my stories are engaging that many of my collaborators may have volunteered themselves to see that it gets made (and I'm truely humbled), or they are too nice to tell me my stories suck (which I'll be upset as they're not being honest)! Either ways I still love them - after all this industry is about constructive criticism, no?

Just do it, the rest shall fall into place.

On that note, this film, Ramuan Rahasia, is seeking funds to complete.

Rumah Kita "Our House"

These "Rumah Kita' video advertorials were part of the Community Matters Public Education Media for Community Leader's Forum FPE 2010 by MENDAKI. 9 videos were screened. Participants were encouraged to engage effectively on self-reliant and empowerment following the video screening. Videos are conceptualised and co-produced by MENDAKI/CLF and Cokelat.

Presented here are the 2 videos I directed.

"Air dicincang tidak akan putus"


"Juru Gambar"

Postscript: JALAN lll (final episode)

This last episode of the third season of JALAN was telecast on Nov 24 @2030hr on MediaCorp's Suria channel, Singapore.

The topic of the day was, "Who is the Malay person?" Tough one.

I enjoyed doing this scene so much I decided to use this as a special teaser for the episode.

End credits 101.

Dear Majesty,

One of the things I've learnt with that film school diploma, subsequently a media & communications degree, was that credits are only given when one actually DOES SOMETHING for/in a production.

Nonetheless YOUR name HAS been included at the end credits in the first place, your majesty. And NONE of your subordinates would dare to overlook that. Oh no.

Did I miss anything, or could there be a fine print in any of those film school texts that say when a project is good/successful, everybody takes credit - or in your majesty's case, to be acknowledged with queen-like grace?

Subsequently, could you banning me from your castle's gates be another one of your majesty's vendetta against those who does the unthinkable - in my case making that mistake of crowding your name in that single page end credit with mine? But I remembered we collaborated and did put those ideas together, turning the programme to what it was, didn't we?

THAT series went on to become the NUMBER ONE magazine show in the network's HISTORY and it apparently set a BENCHMARK for future shows of that genre ...or so I was told.

Whoah, I would never have dared to take your majesty's crown, the seats would be too high for me to come down and mingle with my fellow peasants.

My humble peasant apologies if my fellow peasants missed your royal majesty's majestic name in the credits and chose to acknowledge us, the peasants instead. After all, end credits go too fast, don't they?

Perhaps in future, we can linger on your majesty's name for 3-5 mins, instead of 3-5 secs in a single credit page. But that would eat into the duration for the programme's ACTUAL content. Would it comfort you if the fonts are made bigger to compensate the too-short duration?

The peasants humbly await to be enlightened. Majulah (Melayu) Singapura!

My viewpoint on local film regulation/censorship.

[reproduced from SINdie]

"We continue with a series of responses from local filmmakers on the current regulation and/or censorship system in Singapore. This is an ongoing project initiated by a group of students from LASALLE. Discussions and exchange of views are encouraged between members of the public and arts practitioners on the regulatory issue of films in Singapore. View our previous interviews here.

We find out what local filmmaker, Sanif Olek has to say:

1. During the process of making a film, have you ever felt restricted by any regulatory boundaries set by MDA? If yes, in what ways?
Telling stories is an intuitive, instinctive process. I let my stories flow. My work in television trains me a lot about restrictions. Nevertheless, I don't see restrictions as limitations. There are other ways of telling your stories and communicating your ideas effectively. But if one needs to shoot a scene of someone "licking" ice-cream, I'm afraid there are no other ways of presenting someone "licking" the ice-cream, are there?

2. If for artistic purposes, would you make a film which you know might attract censors or cuts but still continue to do it anyway? Why?
I want to tell my stories effectively and avoid sensationalism for the sake of being sensational. I shoot something because there is something that I want to communicate. You can't fool the audience if your film is not sincere. I don't shoot a film on purpose to attract negativity. I think the panel in the censors are getting smarter. There are 6877000000 people in the world who wants to see your film, with or without censors.

3. In the Arts Community Position Paper, it is suggested that regulation should be implemented in place of censorship, as the former involves objective classification that is not politically-motivated. What is your view?
Can you rephrase your question, please? This question is too cheem for my heartland intellect lah.

4. Two of MDA’s guiding principles behind its regulatory work are to uphold community values and to safeguard national and public interest. What is your view?
State whatever they like. Yes we can find all of these in their mission statement.
However, I do agree that Singapore is multiracial and race and religion are very delicate issues. Some adult individuals are mentally-deranged when it comes to these things and still need the government to look after them. *not insulting the intellectually-handicapped here - please stick to context*

5. Have you participated in any discussion programmes or feedback consultations with regards to content regulation initiated by MDA? Would you participate in future? Why?
Was invited but most of the time didn't go because 1. invited at the last minute or 2. couldn't be bothered as most of the time these panels treat these discussions like primary school social class (?) sessions. I got bills to pay (don't we all..?), and that's very important for struggling artistes like myself. Yes would love to come.

6. What do you have to say about the censoring/banning of content in films screened in local theatres which are still obtainable on the Internet?
There's so much the MDA or any censorship bodies can do but ultimately I think PARENTS are still responsible to what their kids watch on the internet. Technology is so advance these days for the parent to utilise to regulate what they want their children to watch.

Thank you SINdie.