Chloe: 2009
In 2009, I decided to create a non-profit, low-budget short film called “Chloe” for my personal portfolio. The inspiration for the main character came from a young mother in my community who frequently blogged about her daughter. After reading her posts and viewing her photos, I recruited volunteer production crews and cast members from my network of interested friends.
Our first shooting day was on November 24th, 2008, and as a novice director, I made several mistakes. We worked from 7am to 6pm and only two scenes were deemed acceptable. We encountered difficulties shooting the film due to scheduling conflicts and the fact that all cast and crew members were volunteers. Filming took nearly a year to complete, and all the shoots were taking place on weekends and public holidays. At the start of the project, we had eight crew members, but as it progressed, only two or three remained.
Despite the obstacles we encountered, I learned valuable leadership skills from completing the project with those who remained committed to it. The post-production phase culminated in a successful screening for the cast and crew members, as well as some of our friends. I was proud to have created something for my hometown community and grateful for the volunteers who worked tirelessly to bring “Chloe” to life.
百善孝為先 : 2017
In 2017, I was offered a director role to create a short film for the Foo Chew Association. The producer informed me of the tight budget and limited shooting time for this project. I realized that I needed to rewrite the original script to fit within these constraints, and so I developed a new, shorter script that would be manageable for the non-professional cast.
With only one day available for shooting, my producer suggested that the film be dialoguefree to ease the actors’ burden of memorizing lines. We agreed to this approach, and set to work on the production.
The resulting short film, created for the Foo Chew Association’s 62nd anniversary, was presented during their evening event. When the credits rolled, all the cast and crew members joined together on stage to express their gratitude for the opportunity to participate in the project.
As a guest invited to direct this film, I was deeply honored to be a part of the team and to contribute to their success. The film, titled “百善孝為先”, was later uploaded to my Facebook and YouTube channels.
Inexplicable, 莫名事故 : 2021
In 2019, my friend Douglas and I decided to create a YouTube channel for short films. We shot our first short film, “Small Talk,” on July 15, 2019, and uploaded it to my personal YouTube channel on August 14, 2020. The positive feedback from my friends encouraged us to continue making more short films. We contacted some YouTuber friends for help, but most of them rejected us. We then turned to our friends and asked if anyone was interested in acting. All the actors and crew in the short films were volunteers.
We uploaded the first six short films to the Opixel_TV and my YouTube channels, but they did not become as viral as we had hoped. However, we had four more short films undergoing post-production, so I took the time to edit them. While editing the last short film, “One Night,” I had an idea to combine all the short films into a full-length feature film. My friend Douglas liked the idea, and we expanded it into how to promote the movie, which we named “Inexplicable, 莫名事故.” We decided on a “onetime showing” on YouTube, similar to a live stream but with a difference: after showing the movie, we manually hid the video. “Inexplicable, 莫名事故” was shown on December 4, 2021, and quickly became the most viewed video on my YouTube channel in just two hours.
One of my friends, Alexander (Papaboy), an actor in “One Night,” suggested I submit some short films to the Brunei Local Film Festival. I submitted “Walked By Some Places, 走過的這一些地方,” and “One Night, 獨夜” to the Brunei Film Blitz Festival for the Open Category. “One Night, 獨夜” was selected as one of the top ten short films in 2021 and received mostly positive comments.
During the progress of making these YouTube short films, I learned that the most viewed short film doesn’t always receive good reviews. Instead, the most stylistic short film received fewer views but better reviews.
Adrift: 2022
At the beginning of 2022, I planned to pitch two scripts to two different financial backers. After a week, I received feedback from the “Adrift” financial backer, who discussed the story concept and distribution direction with me. I was transparent with the investor about the budget and the proposal of the pitch, and they agreed with the budget. I then continued to write the script, which was completed two weeks later, followed by casting, scouting shooting locations, and recruiting crew members.
We managed to shoot the movie in 21 days within 7 weeks, despite our original plan being 17 shooting days within 30 days. This was due to our supporting actor, Bryant, contracting Covid-19 in the middle of the production and needing to reshoot some scenes. Most of the movie scenes were shot during the daytime, and the cast and crew struggled with the weather conditions, tiredness, and sleeplessness during the production process.
After finishing production and post-production, the movie entered the final stage of a premiere night, which was only for invited guests. Our plan was to submit the movie to film festivals outside of the country and may not concern about selling box office tickets within the country. The premiere night was a celebration for our cast and crew members, friends, and family to watch the movie together. However, on the day of the premiere night, the cinema received a call from the local censorship board saying that the movie couldn’t be shown in the cinema, even though it was a private showing for invited guests. A month later, the investor and I agreed to show the movie on Facebook for live-streaming, but only for invited guests.
“Adrift” has received seven selections from film festivals all over the world and has won two awards so far. We plan to review more film festivals in a year’s time. The movie has not yet been shown to the public, and we have no plans to upload it on YouTube or Facebook, or any other social media platform at the moment. Instead, we will use “Adrift” as a portfolio to attract more investors for my next movie project. At the moment, the feature film “Adrift” will only be shown personally to potential investors.
WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE
2009 - Chloe
WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE
2017 - 百善孝為先
To watch the 10 separate short films and “Inexplicable 莫名事故“, trailers on the Opixel_TV YouTube channel.
WATCH IT ON OPIXEL_TV YOUTUBE
To watch the full movie “Inexplicable, 莫名事故“, please email to subscribe to get the link to watch it on YouTube.
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2021 - Inexplicable 莫名事故
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To watch the full movie “Adrift” please email to subscribe to get the link to watch it on Freefilmway.com.
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To watch the Final Cut Version with 4K resolution of “Adrift” please email or what’s app my personnal line as below link make an appointment to watch it.
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2022 - Adrift