I'm itching...

Man this picture sure brings back memories... I want to do another one!! Better one!!

LET'S MAKE A MOVIE!!

Now You Can Watch The Movie

Dear friends,

The movie, Where There's Will, There's Wei, is now up on google videos. I've split the movie into 4 parts and here are the links:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

If you want to let your friends watch the movie, you'll have to pass them these links, as these videos would not appear on the video search. Also, these videos are not downloadable. And finally, please be informed that the movie would only be up till the end of June, and would be removed from the internet right after that period.

Hope you enjoy the movie. Ratings and comments are much valued.

Recent Reflections

Writing a brief for MalaysianLah & also for the remake of Where There's Will, There's Wei isn't easy, but it's good. Putting down the 'what's it all about's would be extremely helpful, considering the amount of time & energy I would invest in my passion for movie-making & video blogging - things I'm quitting my job to focus on.

Of course I understand the spontaneity of it all, how there isn't always a need for righteous justification of our actions or behaviour - we laugh, because it's funny; we cry, because we feel the pain. There isn't always another explanation for our modes of expression apart from 'it feels right', 'it's so fun', or 'because that's the only way I know how'. Michael Jordan didn't have to write a thesis on how a flying basketball player could bring about exhiliration & thrill to those who witnessed his flight - he just flew, and he took our breaths away.

You know that feeling, I'm sure. You felt it before - when you heard the piano solo, then the drum roll accompanied with strings, leading to the chorus of David Tao's Who Do You Love; or when Boyz II Men sang the chorus of End Of The Road acapella... it sounded awesome, it felt right. Some of us we even knew what was coming despite hearing it for the first time, and it felt like we were connected the writers & arrangers of the song. Even though we were not part of the production team, we felt like we're part of that music-loving community. Then some of us start to feel disastified just being part of the audience - and it has come to that point for me in movie-making (actually I feel very strongly about music too, I'm just not convinced that I'm good enough).

But feelings can be all so fragile, spontaneity can be put off in an instance. That's where the writings come in for me. I don't want to be without a direction and purpose more than the "feel good" factor. I've seen too many people merely surviving. I don't want to be that ship, wandering aimlessly on that big bad ocean, going nowhere at all, getting battered & bruised for nothing at all, going for repairs just to carry on... frustrations have to at least be standing in the way of something worth persevering for.

(To be continued)

Day 6 Part 2

The timing was almost perfect. We just finished our breakfast after shooting part 1 of the day when Josephine called, announcing the arrival of the people from Subang & all over... We gathered at Brian's place again & got everyone to change to their school uniform. We also gave everyone their school badges & name tags... haha. Will talk about that some other time =)

One of the reasons recording is easier than live acting is that the actors only has to do good once. Practices are minimal & instructions won't have to be given over & over again...
I honestly didn't know what to expect when it came to dealing with a big group of actors. I was really hoping that their experience in live performances would come good this time. And true enough, they didn't disappoint. They acted professionally & the whole thing was really good. Of course, there were some pleasant distractions along the way. But it was fun...


Caleb was on acting duties for this, so Joseph took over his camera responsibilities. It was awesome to see the joy in everyone's face throughout the entire process. I would like to think that I contributed to that. Of course, they are a joy as well. It was really fun working with them. I'm glad to have a bunch of friends I can count on.

Due to the odd schedule, Josephine wasn't able to participate in several of our shootings. When I have the time, I'll take shots from the video I have and blog about the other parts of our movie making process.

Day 6 Part 1

Part 1 of Day 6 was pretty much uneventful. The scene done was apretty short scene, so there was little error. The difficult part was actually waking up that day, as Day 5 ended pretty late. But we managed to arrive in Brian's house before Anna (the sister) woke up =) The Ong family has been very generous in letting us invade their time & space. They opened their home & we are extremely grateful.



The scene took us back to the school again. We actually were ahead of the schedule & had extra time for breakfast!! Naturally we also fooled around with the camera. The following video includes us having fun in our free time & the bloopers from Day 6 Part 2.Enjoy!!

Day 5

Day 5 began at 9.30pm. And I believe it was just an hour ago before we informed Chi Wing that he would be play the part of Will's tuition student. Chi Wing took it on his stride (he's cool like that) & he performed well on his first acting role with us. The only problem we had with him was that he was unable to act scared - because he would look too cute.


An hour later, the 2 leading actors, Caleb, & myself arrive at Kepong KTM for scene 11. I initially had doubts about the location, but once I look through the video camera LCD, it felt right. The street lights, the night view, the narrow path & the entire surrounding set the atmosphere.

Scene 11 was the most difficult to write. I took almost 2 weeks to think through it, and with May's help, I managed to complete the script just a day before we shot it. So it's understandable that the actors took a while to memorize the script.

Because the KTM was still operating at the time, there were people passing by & we had to stop from time to time. There was this passerby who made our day that night. We were getting ready to shoot when he asked "Can I pass?" and then as he walk by he wished us all the best. And that was really neat.

We headed back to my house for recharging (energy & camera battery) and a change of clothing. We took longer-than-planned to get out of the house because I wasn't sure of which location to use. In the end we just settled for the abandon shoplots behind my house. It turned out alright, but as I looked at the footages again I realised that there was a spot that had a better background colour (yellow wall) & probably even better lighting...

Doing 2 difficult scenes in 1 night is no easy task, let alone a bunch of amatuers like us. Thankfully the mistakes made were funny enough (blooopers!!) to distract us from the fact that the time was almost 1am. Day 5 was about being spontaneous & flexible, being able to just go with the flow, enjoy the moment & enjoy the results of it. I suppose that's one of the beauties in movie making. I'm thankful for a bunch of friends that has made this journey so enjoyable. Hope everyone involved enjoyed the ride as much as I did.

Read Day 4 here.

Day 4

Day 4 was a Wednesday evening... Initially, these scenes were suppose to be taken on a Sunday afternoon, December 9th. Unfortunately Alina slept in (she forgot about the whole thing), hence the re-scheduling. She was very apologetic about it, and she promised to make it for the next one. With our weekends all taken, I had to use a weekday, and was pleased that both Alina & Jason made it.

So we met in church at 6.30pm. May bought food for everyone, so we decided to eat first, lest we get distracted by hunger. Again, the conversation was enjoyable, so much so I forgot that we were suppose to be shooting 4 scenes within an hour.

These 4 scenes are gists of an interview between Alina & this new young author, Tang Wei Ken, who have just written the book - Where There's Will, There's Wei - which is the title of our movie. These scenes serve mainly as guides to the story of Will & Wei, and to some they're like breathers in the movie. In fact, our movie starts off with Alina introducing the book & its author.

Jason & Alina had a lot of fun doing these scenes. We used the white screen as our backdrop, and since there was only 1 white screen(and 1 camera), we had to do every scene twice. Either of them memorized the script, so they had to keep on checking their lines. Alina was first up, so she made a lot of mistakes & Jason kept laughing at her (blooper video).

There's this likelihood that we won't use these scenes in our remake of the movie. Personally I would want to let the story speak for itself. Would love to put in more scenes, and that does not necessarily mean more dialogue...

Alina is one of our best actresses. But even though I always consider her in every project of mine, I only recall working with Alina once before. The title of the play was Retune, and it's demand was extremely good. We performed in 3 times, I think, one of it we did for 600 people, and they clapped after every scene. But that's another story... It was rather 'last-minute' when I smsed her & requested that she played the role, so I'm grateful that she accepted the job...

Day 3

I've finally completed my post on Christmas... Feels a bit messy around here, because right now I'm going to write about something that happened 2 weeks before Christmas. And I plan the next post to be about the last weekend of the year... And then I'll continue to be writing about the movie... If you do get confused, just click on the labels at the sidebar. Oh, there're video links there too. Hope you'd enjoy and get a taste of the movie making process...

Day 3 didn't start off well for me. There was this scene which we were extremely excited about. It would be the perfect beginning to the story of Will & Wei. It would depict the young William & Wei Ken and how they faired in kindergarten - the beginning from their friendship. It was suppose to serve as a great indicator of their relationship.

But it was not to be, for us. One of the child actors backed off & refused to take part in the shooting. Furthermore, the noise in that place was not suitable for shooting at all - bad management on my part. It was really hard to chew. I remembered the time where the initial planning group actually talked about this scene & how their faces lit up... It was suppose to be awesome. I wonder if they would be as frustrated as I was if they had to face it head on.

For the next hour or so I was absolutely blank. Everything just stopped. I felt disappointed. I wanted to just go home & sleep, but I had to get myself together quickly - we had another scene to take & I was suppose to preach in youth service the very same day. I couldn't pick myself up in time, so I had to ask Jason to help me coordinate the shoot. He agreed to help without asking any questions, and that really comforted me. The scene was well done, thanks to Jason & the participation of the youth. I would then proceed later to preach about how life can be frustrating, and how easy it is to just throw in the towel & give up doing the things that are right, true, just, and necessary. I talked about how amazing it is, that in spite of all the pain, the passion of Jesus took Him to the cross & how that perseverance has given us so many good things. 2 of those things I was exceptionally thankful that day were HOPE & FAMILY.

Day 2 Part 3

Third installment of the longest day in our shooting schedule.

This part is one of the longest scenes we have. It's a bit too long for me, but it could be just me. After all, it was quite late when we ended the shooting, & I spent a lot of time editting, so... Anyway, this scene is one of the most important scenes, as it conveys several things about our 2 main characters. Knowing that it might get draggy & long, I tried to put as many comic-relief moments as possible, but it didn't turn out the way I imagined it to be.

First, it showed the aftermath of Wei Ken's intervention in Will's trouble with the coffee shop boss - Did Will keep his job? Or did Wei Ken make matters worse? Secondly, we wanted to tell the audience the dreams and aspirations of the 2 childhood friends. And lastly, we lightly introduced the role of the leading lady of the story, Jean.

and I think Brian did quite a good job in doing that. What do you say?

In the script it was specifically stated "smile like an idiot". I recall the audience having a good laugh at this.

In spite of the long day & the time, we still managed to have fun and enjoy ourselves. All thanks to Brian & Jason. Check out the blooper and you'll know what I mean.

Read Day 2 Part 2 here.

Day 2 Part 2

Second installment of the longest day in our shooting schedule.

After getting Brian & Jason wet (find out more here), we headed to Brian's house, where we'll shoot the coffee shop scenes. This part is actually a continuation of the singing scene, where Will does a lot of damage with his singing, and of course pisses off the boss.

I don't know if anyone noticed, but there's a glitch here. You see, Jean was suppose to be see in the previous scene, following her angry mom (the boss) into the kitchen. But because we shot that scene at a different location and on Day 3, Jean did not bring the clothes she wore for this scene, so she couldn't be involve. Did anyone who watched the show notice that? Hehe...

Anyway, here's how the story goes. The boss gets angry at Brian, rushes into the kitchen, where the other 2 colleagues (played by Caleb & Daniel) were resting. Jean tries to comfort her mom, as Brian pleas for a second chance. The next picture is suppose to depict 3 faces terrified by the boss' anger, but I think it doesn't do justice to their great acting. Sorry guys.

We wasted quite some time here. We actually shot the scene in Brian's house kitchen, but it was only until May and I saw a nicer spot in the dining room area did we decide to reshoot the scene. That spot was bigger, the background was nicer, & we could actually do a bird's eye view on the scene (you'll have to see the movie to catch that). Good thing the actors were cool with that. Now back to the story.

So Wei Ken comes in, & tries to be the hero - the right man in the right place at the right time. He tries to save Wei Ken's career. And as you can see, he went quite a great length to do so... Do you think he'll succeed?

See? The background colour nice right? The black & white effect was used in the movie. Click on the picture to see the blooper.

Read Day 2 Part 1 here.

Day 2 Part 1

Day 2 of our shooting is the longest in our schedule. There were 2 breaks in between, for carolling practice as well as dinner... Then of course there's the travelling to do. So I was hoping that Part 1 would be done quickly and smoothly as possible, but it wasn't to be.

The first scene we shot was a break up scene. I wanted to do it at a playground, but the playground we went to was filled with mosquitoes. Joseph also mentioned that someone committed suicide there... Jason & Jean had to suffer a while before I decided to change location. It turned out to be a good decision. It wasn't a perfect location, but we got most things we desired.
Jason & Jean aren't a couple in real life, so it took them some time to adjust to the idea of holding hands. Jason found it hard to control himself (laughed a lot) while Jean was still feeling the effects of the stings... But we managed to pull through & let Brian & Joseph go off to their carolling practice. Jason, Jean & I headed up to the apartment where we would shoot several more scenes.

One of the most enjoyable things throughout the entire process is to be able to spend time with one another. At most we meet 3 times a week, & we hardly get to talk. And during those moments we took to rest, eat, & prepare props, we managed to catch up on each other's lives . It was refreshing & very precious indeed.

Another really cool thing about this movie making process is to have people working together. I LOVE THAT!! It's so cool to have different individuals make time, come together, & put effort into ONE CAUSE. It's just so awesome. Not 1 person had to do something alone. Everyone helped each other out. And that my friend, is UNITY.
Benjamin Teng only appears on 1 scene, and he took his part seriously. He even gave input on how the camera angle can be & all that... And the scene turned out quite well, thanks to him.

I have A LOT of people to thank. And I do remember. Your contributions are not forgotten.

Voice Dubbing Gone Wrong

As the original had too much noice (captured at a parking lot), we tried to do some voice dubbing. Initially there was a suggestion that we should dub everything, but after this attempt, I think we'll just work on capturing voices at the shooting itself. In the end, we went with the original video, which wasn't that bad after all...

Yesterday night was the special screening of the movie Where There's Will, There's Wei, and we received a lot of feedback, both positive & negative ones. And since now the movie is over, I'll focus more on making the bloopers & blogging about my first movie... Cheers, everyone. Happy New Year, enjoy the movie.

You can also view the video here.

2 Saturdays Ago (Day 1, Part 2)

So after we were done doing scene 3, we proceed with the photo shoot for our poster. I don't know how it is normally done lah. I mean, when do they do the poster shoots? For us, it was just easier to take the shoots there & then, because we don't want to travel to the same place again. And of course there's the limitation of time.

I recruited my life-long friend, Josephine Kang, to be our photographer. She'll be documenting our movie-making journey with her camera. All the pictures featured here are taken by her. She's not a professional, but I think she is doing a great job for us.


We actually had a practice round before this photo session, so we were sure of the poses & pictures we want to capture. So the process was pretty fast. Below are the raw pictures. Later they would be passed to Jason to work his magic & design the poster. Comments, anyone??

After the photo session, we proceeded to Jalan Ipoh for the second part of our movie shooting. My dad bought this house & has several plans for it, that I won't go into here. He put in a lot of effort to the house & it's really beautiful. So far everyone that has stepped into the house said so.
The pictures above weretaken in one of the rooms, which we used as Wei Ken's (played by Jason) room (posters weren't originally there). It took me a while to like the green colour wall that my dad painted. But it was really nice on camera. I wished we had more locations that had such bright colours. This is our best location yet.

Hmm. I think I'll have to post about the personnels involved in the entire movie-making process.

Read Day 1 Part 1.

Scene 3 Bloopers

2 Saturdays Ago (Day 1, Part 1)

It's surreal when I think about it, but we have already begun shooting scenes for our movie. It just happened. We initially played around with the idea of incorporating video into our Christmas play, but now we are in the midst of making a short movie.

It's funny... A year ago we were really talking about making a movie. We divided ourselves to fund-raising task force, script-writing team, project planning committee... We even had a few to write the soundtracks... but nothing happened. And now, all of a sudden, we find ourselves trying to make a story come to life.

Location: Undisclosed.

Of course, when things come in a rush, it gets messy. One thing I forgot to do is delegate all the tasks that I'm lousy at, such as administrative work (time management, resource management, clothings & props)... Resulting in me having to play different roles at a time & causing everyone a bumpy ride. Sorry. Must thank Jason & May for helping out a lot. Nothing would be achieved without the people around me. So THANK YOU.

Many people say that it's a typical storyline on Friendship. But to be honest this is a breakthrough for us, as we have always been basing our plays on the "Prodigal Son" theme, where there's always one bad dude and one good dude. This time both characters are dynamic ones. They are either good or bad. They are just people with different personalities and traits, people who are bound to fail & make mistakes, to be hurt & disappointed. I think people can relate to that.