Personal « IAKEIJ

The following Question and Answer is transcribed by Stefan S. a film writer and critic in Singapore. It is taken from his blog in the link

Beng Kheng: Perhaps the filmmakers can introduce themselves and the films?
Kirsten: I did this film during my 1 year residency in Korea, and it was based on my observation of local society, where the majority is conservative and uptight, but there’s a minority who are quite liberal. The story stemmed from a conversation with a group of friends where one of them had been found out by the father during a (masturbation) session, and I expanded the story from there!
Anthony: This is my new film which was shot sometime August / September last year. This is probably the second screening in Singapore, after the earlier one at the Singapore International Film Festival. This is the first time I’m attended a local screening of it though.
Jiekai: My short film was shot last summer, and I spent a year editing and doing post production. I am interested in parallel structures in storytelling. The girl and her dead mom stemmed from my curiosity about death. The original story was based in America, where I had the script but didn’t shoot it. Jin, the NS serviceman, was from my having experienced it, so that’s how the two stories come together.
Leon: My film was made in August last year, and it was what I thought about family. [To Jiekai] I thought there was some strange homoerotic tension between the two guys in your short?
Jiekai: Well that’s not the way I interpreted it! I looked at it more as friendship. I came from an all boys school – Victoria School – and I probably know more about the male-male interaction. As for Jin and his friend standing at the balcony, yes there is some invisible tension , which is something unspoken, but understood.

Beng Kheng to Kirsten: How was the response from the Korean community?
Kirsten: I first screened it at a private screening for about 250 people. Initially I was afraid that they were religious folks and would react negatively to it, but fortunately they saw the light side of the film, and took it quite well, so I was quite relieved. As for sex and religion in the movie, you know, even with the title Come, well if you noticed there were questions posed in the movie such as where did the porn come from, and where does a baby come from, it was my subtle way of saying that perhaps all things come from God.

Q: Is there a reason why a handheld camera was used throughout the film?
Anthony: Yes it was a conscious decision from the start. The first thing and the last thing taught in school was that the story dictates the style. In my previous film, it was about death and dealing with it, so I decided to use a cold, static camera, within which to allow the drama to unfold. Here, it’s about the recklessness of youth, their innocence, and the wild stupid things that we do when young. I want to capture that and the grittiness of it as well.

Q: Could you all talk about the difficulties you faced during production?
Kirsten: I faced two major difficulties. First, the film shoot was organized by film programmers, and I was given four days to do pre-production. I didn’t get to meet the actors until the day of the shoot, so I didn’t know what they were like personally. Second, tbhe language. I was one of the two foreigners and everyone was Korean. I had to grab the translator, who was also my art director, when I want to say something.

Anthony: My main difficulty, due to the subject matter, was casting. I didn’t want to use actors because I wanted to capture honesty and sincerity, so there was no open auditions, and I looked to friends who were teachers or had interactions with students. Eventually I found 2 kids, and I took a gamble. They didn’t know the whole script until 2 weeks before the shoot. It was made in a different way, where they had to stay with me in the flat that we shot in, so that they can rehearse, which was for about 2 weeks which also allowed them to get to know each other better, get close and more comfortable. The film was shot in 3 days.

Jiekai: It was in the writing of the story. When production started it was still unfinished as I kept revising it, adding new characters and scenes. Scenes that were conceived spontaneously worked for me, although images that came to mind was not logical, but made emotional sense. Casting was also difficult, as I did street casting at Far East Plaza looking for teenage girls between 14 to 18. It was difficult to approach them without coming across as dodgy, so in the end I got my producer to do so. The film was shot in 3 days too.
Leon: Mine was mainly finance I guess, as I didn’t get a grant. So it was made in one location, as I had made a huge film previously and it was a nightmare. This film was shot in two 10 hour shoots each day, and it was quite fun actually.

Q: You said that the random images were images you had put into your film. Was it supposed to mean anything?
Jiekai: The logic is not important for me. The images came during travelling, and they made emotional sense to me, so I put them in. They were symbolic but not made to be too representative. The story was not important to me but the mood they create is.

Q: Could you elaborate on the concept and backstory to the characters in Four Dishes?
Leon: It’s mainly about a guy who wonders what the perfect family is like, and what he wants and how he gets it. The backstory, well it came from a friend told me about an image of a father and son having dinner, where the kid was playing his PSP and ignoring his dad.

Recapping the 2008 Winter Study Trip to Belgium and Netherlands. The photographs are taken from the class camera shared by everyone.

First day. We had lunch at this crowded cafe. Sandwich’s pretty good though.

Meeting at night T.T Marco gave a comprehensive and informative lecture on image making.

Everyone look so stone on the bus.

Visiting the abandoned Beer Brewery turned Contemporary Art Museum. This place is located in the poorer district in Belgium where many migrants settle. The rooftop view is panaromic and gorgeous!

Belgium Waffles – simply irresistible. The Parisan style arcades are gorgeous as well.

Our guide at the Tintin museum is a magician

The Film Archive in Belgium. The projectionist accidentally fried one of Magritte’s home video. It is kinda a funny tragedy.

A Photography Museum.

Building under renovation. Originally made by I-can’t-remember-your-name Art Neaveu architect.

We are at Gent, visiting the soon-to-be-opened gallery of Marcel Broodthaer’s daughter. We also met Broodthaer’s wife who rushed to meet us from the airport. We had some good coffee and cookies, and looked at some incredible private collections.

We got treated to some delicious Pasta/Pizza at Gent, after which we attended a lecture on American underground/experimental cinemas in the 60s that Bruce gave in a local film club. Its nice to sit in a tiny space and watch movies on a projection, intimate and comfortable.