Who's Shooting What? 2011: Henry and Harry Zhuang

Directors:Henry and Harry Zhuang

Project Title:Lian Pu

'A teacher who faces difficulties in performing well in her work, chance upon a seminar that gave her the ability to change faces in order to excel in her work.'

"Signing off~!"

A 'Trilogue' on the SIFF 2010 Singapore Short Film Finalists (Act 1)

Filmmakers, beware! What you are about to read is a heated conversation between three people about this year's SIFF Singapore Short Film Finalists. Don't feel alarmed if even some things like the glint of sunlight in a particular shot are talked about. We love details! Joining Jeremy and Colin is Leon Cheo, a guest voice for this SIFF season.


Leon, 25, is a director-writer-producer currently doing a BFA in Creative Producing with Chapman University (Singapore). His latest film, “Four Dishes”, has travelled to film festivals in Iran, San Francisco, Bangkok and Berlin. He never gets spare time but maximises it as much as possible by developing new projects. He just completed a new short, entitled, “Swing”.

Act 1

Jeremy: In the previous year's shorts finalist line-up there were one or two I could say without batting an eye-lid that I didn't like. I can't say that for this year. I think this is a year of moderates - nothing too bad and nothing good enough to make you think we've found another poster boy or girl. Adding to this is the range of genres in a single competition. They are namely comedy ("Que Sera Sera"), animation ("Contained"), kids' drama ("Sunrise"), drama ("Promises in December"), documentary ("Life with Ummu"), experimental ("The 25th of Laura") and what I call the perfume ad whimsy ("Mu Dan"). It is strange how there is a token from every common genre. I am still thinking about my favourite although I can already hear some people rooting for "Que Sera Sera", "Contained" and "Mu Dan".


Let's talk about them in order, starting with "Que Sera Sera". Ghazi has a knack for taking the cheeky out of many things. It is both witty and adorable how the inner-voice (VO) sounds like a rebel while the outer voice is a whimper. As a result, it makes the boy seem vulnerable which I feel is key to making the audience sympathise. I cannot forget the little presentation he did to his teacher alone. It's a classic for sure.

Colin: What a sweet film, and how cheeky indeed that it achieves this by being as profane and borderline racist as it is! A lot of this can be attributed to the disarming figure of Syahidi, who plays the chubby kid that is the film's centre; as well as the ever-present voiceover by (I presume) the director Ghazi himself. Like I noted, the voiceover can be rather profane, at one point even getting into a chant of words I won't repeat here, while the sanitised subtitles keep swapping between "Dick." and "Head." It also tempts charges of racism, despite disclaiming that "I am not racist", when the kid, late for school, bumps into the Indian discipline master at the school gate. It helps, of course, that I know the actor playing the discipline master is a sporting friend of Ghazi's. But what saves all this even more is (as you've alluded to, Jeremy) the disparity between the cursing voiceover and the boy's sweet and natural disposition, which ends up making the former seem more harmlessly amusing.

I also loved that, like Philothea Liau's "Brazil" (where the value of an eraser reaches absurd heights), "Que Sera Sera" manages to evoke nostalgic details of past school days, and appends to that a kid's perspective on those details. I'm referring here to the discipline master's punishment, so idiosyncratic to its time and place, and so random and unfitting to the problem; and to the boy's reaction, never questioning the punishment's logic, but troubled by an unrelated set of problems that it will cause him.


The only complaint I have is that the film contrives a tummyache just so that the main character will miss his class. This makes sense logistics-wise, since you'd only need to cast the teacher and none of his classmates; and it helps the emotion of the scene where he presents his ambitions to the teacher alone, since it's no longer a chance to show off to peers but a more intimate reveal of his dreams to someone who seems to care (which prompted another filmmaker during the Q&A to ask Ghazi if he ended up marrying that teacher, heh).

But since the rest of the autobiographical film feels light and frothily believable, the tummyache could have been better foreshadowed so that it wouldn't seem like a mere storytelling device. For instance, his voiceover could have mentioned that he eats just about anything (and showed him eating something bad), or he could have been filmed eating just before he was made to run laps around the parade square. A minor point, really, when the rest of the film manages to be so funny, truthful, and above all sincere.

Leon: I agree with Jeremy; there is no outstanding short film this year. I like certain things about the films, and also dislike certain things. With "Que Sera Sera", I think it's great that we have Malay voices like Ghazi in the Singapore film landscape. The casting of Muhd. Syahid is a wonderful choice. He is cute and immediately endearing. Because of him, I forgive the toilet humour. The crude and vulgar stream of thought of the boy is hilariously sharp. It's nice to have a comedy when everything else is more serious and dramatic.

Jeremy: Now that you brought up the tummy ache, I am starting to see it as an narrative excuse. But hey, maybe let's just imagine all of these, tummy ache, profanities is Ghazi! Haha. It is meant to be a personal film anyway.

I sort of had an inkling this would be the audience favourite but my loyalties started to sway when I saw "Contained". It is undeniably meticulous in its execution. I must say I do not understand the animation techniques well but I tend to judge the skill by number of frames. In other words, it has to move a lot! I see a lot of very shoddy work from students where you can tell the figurines/characters have very limited lines of motion. In this, the motion is fluid and there is always something surprisingly in each scene. I especially the part when the studs and crazy thorny things were popping out of his head! I also must say the sound design was spot on!

Leon: The technique in "Contained" is evident. I don't know what you called them in stop-motion terms but I really like the way shapes evolve into other shapes. The creepy visuals and textures of this short film reminds me of Jan Švankmajer, probably the most influential artist in the stop-motion world. Every year at SIFF, there is always one animated short and the technique is usually excellent. Now, if only Singaporean animators would begin tackling more narrative-driven animated stories - I think that would be truly a treat.


Jeremy: I would say give us something different this year - let "Contained" win! At least it sets a new precedent for animation.

Leon: Maybe they are not winning because they aren't as dramatically fulfilling as the live action shorts?

Colin: I, for one, would have no problems with a win for "Contained". Great stop-motion animation nearly always catches me in the throat, just for the sheer technical bravado and patience involved, and "Contained" managed that early on with its depiction of those plasticine waves sloshing.

But despite the difficulty of crafting those wide shots of the island, I find myself aligned too with Leon's point about the need for more narrative-driven animation. That may explain why my favourite scenes of the film are those set in the dark, tight confines of the hut interior, where the main character tends to his dying flower. There's a surprising rage to his attempts to save the mere appearance of the flower's health, culminating in that sad image of the re-attached petals blowing off the flower, leaving strips of cellophane tape flapping in the wind. I love that, while most films would opt for making a similar character pitifully emo, this film drives him insane instead—and breaks out that madness visually in its memorable final shots.

The theme of being left alone carries over to the next film, "Sunrise", about an eldest son who has to care for his younger sisters after their mother leaves them for work. It's the most "foreign" film among the finalists, filmed and set in Cambodia with the orphans of the Sunrise Children's Village, which may explain why I found it hard to identify with it... although the languid first half may also be to blame. What did you guys think?

Jeremy: Two years ago, there was a film in SIFF called "To Speak". It was about two kids wanting to own a house and overcoming all odds. My first impression of "Sunrise" is that this is yet again a film that exploits the 'easy abundance' of stories in poverty-stricken Cambodia, like a kind of "poverty voyeurism". But compared to 'To Speak', it has more cinematic value and a stronger narrative drift. By the way, I love the framing and the lighting in the house scenes. Evokes a languid feel and also enriches the mood in the house. What i really take away from this film is the temple scene in which the boy stoically speaks to the monk to arrange for his mother's funeral. The naivety and the innocence of the boy just captures me!

But what I don't like is the length. I realise nicely-shot scenes have a short shelf-life on film. Never repeat them too much which "Sunrise" did. There is also what I would call a paradox of novelty. By this, I mean if you start your idea in a seemingly colourful place, you may end up with something actually very boring and if you start in a more ordinary premise, with a little thinking, you could conjure something actually very exciting. Hope you know what I mean guys...


Leon: I think films like "Sunrise" get stale very quickly. I could do with a bit of trimming on the running time. I mean, you see this kind of film every year at the festival and there is really nothing new or interesting to be seen here. I wonder how/why this film was selected...

Colin: Yeah, I think we all agree on the slowness of much of the film. There's an approach to observational detail (e.g. a shot of a plastic scoop bobbing in a full bucket) that works when these details are tethered to a narrative throughline, and I don't think it's achieved in "Sunrise". To be fair, I like the same temple scene that Jeremy does; it reminded me of Kore-eda Hirokazu's Nobody Knows (Japan, 2004), which also involves a kid having to step up to being an eldest sibling, an adult, and even a surrogate parent, long before he ever deserves to.

Jeremy: You know, I have a feeling the judges might just give the prize to "Promises in December", the next film. It's got that award-worthy genre and form, in other words, it's a 'serious' film. You've got a plot that has a historical and social context. The issues are well-thought out, the acting proficient and you've got it all geared up to look like it wants to be taken seriously.

So where's the catch in my comment? The catch is I feel a little uncomfortable with how the film could be a little unorganic and scripted. The opposite of that would be Ghazi's Que Sera Sera. I also don’t like how the feel of tsunami is being evoked. It somehow feels quite artificial. I also had an issue with Raymond Yong’s TV-style acting.

Leon: I really liked the film. Though the early scenes between the taxi driver and the maid are a bit stilted, I enjoy the parallel and juxtaposition of the main characters. As the film goes along, you wonder where it's going. Then, the final revelation comes and it is well set-up: you get scenes of the taxi driver at a columbarium and you wonder why. The pay-off is good and the non-linear play on the plot is effective. I connected with this film the most. I want to see more of Elgin Ho's films.

Colin: I'm divided on "Promises in December". For starters, while the taxi driver and the maid are in danger of being far too common character types, the film pairs the two as leads rather fruitfully. I like that it opens with the maid on her phone, shaping her as a person with an imaginable life back at her Indonesian home, without abstracting it into a burden as many migrant films do; and I like that her employer family's daughter for whom she makes breakfast actually seems appreciative of her work, when so many other filmmakers want to harp on the flashpoint of abuse.

Instead the film makes the taxi driver the worker-class character who is beset with problems. His HDB flat and packet char kway teow are clearly meant to contrast the landed property and pancakes where the maid works, and yet the film does this while skirting past a lot of the cheap oppositions that are one of my pet peeves about local film. I suspect it works because the maid doesn't actually live there, making the contrast more complicated, and because the film doesn't demonise either way of life.

This leads to what is absolutely my favourite shot among all the finalist films: when the maid is in the driver's taxi, he tosses off a comment that she probably wouldn't want to live in Singapore if it weren't for the pay, right? As he says this, we get a shot of the maid looking out of the cab window, on which is reflected a row of HDB flats, and she is silent as they drive by. It's such a profound shot, capturing the perspective of a woman who probably dreams of a life that the man is disavowing, even as we acknowledge that her six years' work in a landed property would likely misrepresent life as he knows it.


And then the film has to spoil that by contriving an explicit link between them, of all things by invoking the Asian tsunami of 2004, and delivering "justice" to each character. Not only does the link make the whole setup feel artificial, it's a little unfair to use a senseless tragedy like the tsunami to give fictional characters grief, especially if it's a fake-out or if it's to "punish" a character for not being understanding. "Promises in December" does both, and I haven't even mentioned the awful closed-captioning on the film, which mars a potentially horrifying tsunami recording over a black screen with the words "[woman screaming]". (Or that, at an earlier point, reads "[phone vibrates]" even though the onscreen phone isn't visibly vibrating.)

Jeremy: On hindsight and after this discussion, my view of "Promises in December" has shifted a bit. I agree with the favourite shot of yours Colin. It carries the film's spirit of irony quite cleverly. Maybe I didn't pick it up at first look because the HDB flats' reflection was whizzing past the window surface too quickly. They could have cut to a point-of-view shot of the flats instead. It would have amplified the message. My conclusion about this is I like its idea but I would have preferred a less deliberate form.

Continue to Act 2 »

SIFF Production Talk - 'Contained' by Henry Zhuang and Harry Zhuang

Synopsis
“Contained” is an experimental animation created with no prior planning or storyboarding. We reacted to the medium spontaneously and sculpt the form of the story frame by frame. By expressing our emotion through the molding of the clay, the process of the animation took on a form of self therapy.

Biography
Born in 1982, both twin brothers Henry and Harry Zhuang had their first achievement in animation with their CG animation titled "Birthday Present". This 3D CG animation won a CG Excellent Award in the CG Overdrive 2006 and 3rd prize in TBS Digicon6+3 Singapore Regional Award. After which, both begun their animation career working as animators in a local animation company, Sparky Animation Pte Ltd. Upon gaining close to 2 years of working experience, they decided to further their studies at Nanyang Technological University School of Art, Design and Media. During their studies there, one of their animation assignments, "A Story About My Dad", received a 1st Prize of Gold Award in the Safety@Work Creative Awards.

Both Henry and Harry Zhuang are currently in their senior year at Nanyang Technological University, School of Art, Design and Media. Both are pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Animation with the help from Media Education Scholarship grant by the Media Development Authority of Singapore,. 'Contained' marks their first independent short film.

What started the idea behind Contained?
The idea started when we were working on a short assignment which require us to work on the idea of metamorphosis using clay. We animated a short animation of an island being trapped by the incoming red sea. Then my brother and I started playing around with our ideas and the project slowly evolve into a short film.

How many animation pieces have you made so far?
We have done quite a few animation together. The animation we did range from 2D, 3D, paper-cut and stop-motion animation. The very first one we were involved in was our Final Year Project at Nanyang Polytechnic in 2002, titled "The Legend of Bukit Timah", which was an official selection in Kalamazoo Animation Film Festival. Then the next animation we did was a 3D animation to aid us in looking for job after NS, titled "Birthday Present" at 2006. It was awarded CG Excellence award at CG overdrive. Then when we were in NTU, we did a paper cut animation that won Gold award and Judges choice for the "Safety@Work" student competition.

How long did it take for you to make this film?
As it was an extension of our assignment, the whole production stretches over a year, which we were only allowed to work on it during our free time, in-between our lessons. We would think that the actual production took five months.

What were some of the biggest challenges in the production?

We think that the biggest challenges would be the last scene where the blue sea turned into red. It was a long process to animate that scene. We had to keep pushing the plasticine and each frame took roughly 25 minutes to complete.Some other problems which i think most stopmotion animators face is to maintain the character standing in a off balance pose before we shoot the frame. Bumping into the camera can be quite a hassle too. We have to keep adjusting the camera or the puppet to match the previous frame.

Do you always collaborate? Tell us more about your working relationship since you are brothers. What were the good moments, the difficult moments and the interesting moments?

We have collaborated in quite a number of animation projects. I think one of the main reason that we can work together is that we have similar vision and taste for film. Maybe because we spend a lot of time together? The good thing about working with a close brother is that when we discuss, we tend to be more open towards one another, sharing our deepest thoughts and personal views towards art. But sometimes, our discussion can be pretty aggressive. The most interesting moments would be after our aggressive discussion, we learned more about each other, and would realize the "good" in our difference in opinion.

For example, I wanted to do something and explained it to my brother. After he tried out, the effect was not what I had in mind. But it turned out to be a surprise to me.

Do you plan to take your 'brotherhood' to the bigger stage like some big Hollywood examples?

Haha. We would continue to work together in the future. It’s like chopstick, it works better as a pair. However, on saying that, we would definitely give ourselves chance to do personal project for the sake of self exploration.

What's the animation filmmaking community in Singapore like? I see you got some help from Tan Wei Keong, a familiar name when as far as animation is concerned.
There isn't really a official animation filmmaking community in Singapore, not that I know of. We knew Wei keong through MDA, when three of us received the MDA scholarship grant together in the same year. He was our senior in School of Art Design Media, NTU. He was a great help to us, advising us on how to craft the story and had encourage us throughout the production of animation.

Who are your target audience (or who would you be interested to show this to?)

Hmm.... there wasn't really a target audience. We were making a film for ourselves, maybe it was like a self reflection. After finishing the animation, we seem to understand more a bit of ourselves.

If given more money, how could you have made this film differently?

I think money wasn't an issue in this project. But if we were being funded, maybe we would have had a movable camera stand and a DSLR camera so we have more camera movement in the animation. Currently, we are restricted by a tripod or a fixed stand.

What other stories, projects are you on to now... or have in mind?

The other project we are working on is a 2D dominate, 3D and stop motion animation short film titled "Thepsis". It’s about a person's persona. We are still in the preproduction phrase and we will be using the short film as our Final Year Project.

What are the top five movies you wish you'd made?

I think I wish I had made Neon Genesis Evangelion, Mind Game, Infernal Affairs, Ghost in the Shell and maybe Totoro. =P


Check out the Zhuang Brothers' website.

Homegrown Films at the SIFF 2010

Here's a list of the Singaporean films screening at this year's Singapore International Film Festival!

SINGAPORE PANORAMA SHORTS
Sinema Old School / NC16
16th Apr (Fri), 7:00pm

KITCHEN QUARTET by Nicole Midori Woodford
TIE XIN (RESPIRATOR) by Michael Tay
MASALA MAMA by Michael Kam
HENNIE by Ethan Page
RICE by Taj Jenkins Musco
SCOT FREE by Chia Pei Zhen
Get tickets

ROULETTE CITY
Dir: Thomas Lim
The Arts House Theatre / PG
16th Apr (Fri), 9:15pm

Tak goes to Macau with his uncle Wai to win money at gambling to afford his ill mother’s operation. They win big at initial tries, but lose it all when Wai runs into Tak’s former lover, Winnie. Believing he killed Wai in a furied brawl over Wynnie, Tak is lured into a gamble he cannot refuse: Winnie’s freedom in exchange for information known to a local policeman, Kin. To gain Kin’s trust, Tak befriends his sister Amanda and unexpectedly falls for her. As Tak grows closer to the siblings—and Kin inches closer to discovering Tak’s true intentions—Tak must decide where his true loyalties lie. Get tickets

SINGAPORE SHORT FILM FINALISTS
Sinema Old School / M18
17th or 24th Apr (Sat), 11:30am

QUE SERA SERA by Ghazi Alqudcy
CONTAINED by Harry Zhuang Weifu, Henry Zhuang Weiguo
SUNRISE by Platon Theodoris
PROMISES IN DECEMBER by Ho Elgin Tat Chuen
LIFE WITH UMMU by Lai Huiyi Tanya
THE 25TH OF LAURA by Joshua Simon
MU DAN by Lincoln Chia
Get tickets

IN THE HOUSE OF STRAW
Dir: Yeo Siew Hua
The Arts House Theatre / R21
17th Apr (Sat), 9:15pm

Over the summer break, Zhi Wen decides to move out of his parents’ house to live with two friends. After discovering that Ah Pin and Mark are professional bicycle thieves, Zhi Wen slowly finds himself entrapped in a strange world of vice and deception. A magical personality game they play will finally cause them to switch identities with one another. The film is the tale of the three little pigs set in the modern landscape of urbanised Singapore. Will the three little pigs live happily ever after? Get tickets

MEMORIES OF A BURNING TREE
Dir: Sherman Ong
CONVERSATIONS ON SAGO LANE
Dir: Chen-Hsi Wong
The Arts House Theatre / PG
18th Apr (Sun), 9:15pm

Memories of a Burning Tree: Smith comes to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to tie up some loose ends. He meets Link, a tour guide, who agrees to help him. Along the way, they are offered help by Abdul, a gravedigger, and Toatoa, a metal scavenger, who themselves are searching for answers to their own journeys. Their search eventually leads them to realise that this is a never-ending journey of dreams and disappointments.

Conversations on Sago Lane: An HDB estate on Sago Lane houses one of Singapore’s highest concentrations of elders, who have survived successive waves of relocation and redevelopment since migrating from China during their childhood. Get tickets