Singapore Student Film

A couple of weeks ago (yes, this is how backdated this blog can get) I went to a screening by the graduating class of the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Film, Sound & Video department. To be completely honest, I went there without any high hopes. After all, said the snobbish elitist in me, I was from Northwestern University's Radio/TV/Film department. It's going to be hard to find student film that matched up to those I'd seen.

The first half of the program, dedicated to the video works, proved me right. I got there late, so I missed the first one, Solace, but apparently I heard it wasn't fantastic either. Some quick notes about each film, in screening order.

My Favourite Thing
Well-meaning, but fatally flawed in execution. Storytelling was kinda clumsy, with an attempt made at a character arc but failing. Some portions were just head-scratching setups with no payoffs. Above all, the thing that really annoyed me was the bad dubbing, with tons of dialogue out of sync.

Eden
Somehow this student film managed to get lots of big-name actors to be in it. I don't really know why. Typical masturbatory self-indulgent student film crap, in the worst possible way, full of the usual tired angst-ridden cliches. The cinematography was impressive and stylistic, and so was the sound design, but they weren't enough to save the day.

Gan Bei
Amusing at times, but again, flawed in execution. Overexposed shots were cut next to normal ones, giving a jarring experience. Episodic in nature, and often rambled on for far too long. If it was cut down by half, it would be a decent short. Still, getting promising, especially after morose wreck that was Eden.

There was a break, during which I discovered that some of the part-time actors that I'd met on set before were actually at the screening and in the films. The second half looked promising in terms of content, but again, there was trepidation. It began with an animation.

Feathered Circle
Animation short. Unoffensive, but boring. Definitely not as deep as its creators would like it to be. And it left me wondering: This is the best animation there is?

And the rest were all shot on film.

Fallen
I'll come right out and say it: The blue tint for the entire movie annoyed me to bits. But I liked it a lot, because of the gritty look and feel of the entire piece, and the deft editing and storytelling. True, the jumping back and forth along the timeline could have been handled more smoothly, but it wasn't bad. The ending, while clever, was abrupt and kinda anti-climactic, and could have been set up better.

Ganga
Very well-meaning, with Important Themes, but ultimately also flawed in execution. Confusion arose when the timeline was jumbled up. The flashing back and forth was not as clear as it could have been. This was especially so when the scenes that were supposed to be set way in the past had modern touches like new window grilles in them, which only served to puzzle the viewer. Like it or not, production design plays a huge role in a film, especially when it's a period piece. Little things will signal a time shift - decor, fashion, hairstyles. When these are handled well, it's almost invisible, but when they're missing, it gets very jarring.

Pontianak
To be honest, I wasn't expecting this to be very good at all. I suppose I was still traumatized by the experiencing the extremely bad local film Return To Pontianak all those years ago at the Singapore International Film Festival. So it was a very pleasant surprise when this short actually turned out to be really good and scary. Good sound effects, creepy sound design and overall smooth technical prowess all made this film work well. Of course, because it was shot on film on a small budget, there were times when I wished there could be a cut-in of a closer shot, but that's just nitpicking really. The performances were good too, especially the old Malay actor playing the bomoh (witch doctor). When he got possessed by the pontianak's spirit, he took on creepy feminine poses and sent chills down my spine. The sound designer chose to play the exact same lines recited by the actress playing the pontianak above the dialogue for the scene, and the overlapping was very creepy indeed. A simple thing, but very effective.

Aik Khoon
Rambling piece about a taxi driver and his bum of a friend. While my colleague liked it a lot, I can't say I felt the same way. Thematically, I thought it might have been trying to do too many things at once. The setups were fairly obvious, and it felt rather episodic. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it didn't really flow that well for me.

At the end of it all, I came away suitably impressed. While I might have been harsh on them, I feel that many of them are up to the mark, if not better than the student film I've seen back in school. And that gives me optimism.

Perhaps things will get better here, slowly but surely.