TRUE -5

Personal Journal - 5

About 6 months ago, the storyline to TRUE began to take shape as I was working out the details of the story. I was conducting one of my classes at UCSI(University-College Sedaya International) one day and I see this girl silhouetted by the sunlight just outside my class and I had found the lead role in TRUE.

I needed an innocence, vulnerability essence to the character yet there is also the streak of stubbornness and perseverance in the character of the blind girl and instinctually, I see those qualities in that particular girl. I approached her, Rachelle Lim to be involved in TRUE. She was hesitant in the beginning as to my intention but I assured her my goal is to make a good film. Once she agreed, I told her the background of the story and the character and what I see in wanting to make TRUE. The only hurdle now, I have to find the male lead character that would help the blind girl in achieving her dream of making the film. That took another two months for me to find the him...

to be continued...

ECHOES notes - 2

Director's notes -2

The Beginning

Fate works in the most mysterious and unexpected ways. My family and I had just gotten back from Vancouver and I was beginning my year by working at a new environment where the university college has recently moved to the new campus in Cyberjaya. I was contented with the trip and while still adjusting to the new place, I got a call from Tan Chui Mui one day, telling me about the meeting between Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC) and the “indies”. I agreed to attend the meeting and in attendance were Ho Yu Hang, James Lee, Woo Ming Jin, Mui, Deepak and a few others. Vernon Fernandez represented MDC in presenting the availability of funds for short projects. I was enthralled at the idea that MDC was going to fund video projects. Straight away, my head was swimming with ideas. One of it was that I have always wanted to work with Deanna Yusoff which we have been trying to get a project called DEADLINE off the ground for the past three years. This MDC funded project would give me that opportunity to collaborate with her. When I got home, I told my wife about the project and roughly, I sketched out the outline for ECHOES for her to begin writing the synopsis first. I had other ambitious plan to get the project approved. I wanted to shoot ECHOES on High Definition (HD) as a lot of the shots would be high contrast and I wanted to test the limits of HD.

to be continued...