Production Talk - 'Mosquitoes - Xiao Fu' by Ang SooKoon

Mosquitoes-Xiao Fu is a 2 part short film. mosquitoes is an animation of a short poem about missing someone. Xiao Fu is about a little girl who hangs out with her younger brother. They go about doing regular things that kids do. She also has a penpal whom she writes to, exchanging information about their lives. I was the only person filming this at the production phase. The music for mosquitoes is composed by Evan Tan and Xiao fu by Joe Ng.

Jeremy (J) : What inspired you to make this?The visuals evoke a mix of nostalgia and surrealism. What did you intend to create?
SooKoon (S) : i made the film because i miss my boyfriend, vincent. In retrospection, i think i always make my videos/films as a sort of reflection on my personal state of mind/emotion.
I think the nostalgia is evoke from the wish to have befriended vincent as kids. As for the surrealism, I guess any memory is part real, part made-up.

J : Were you shooting with a super 8 camera?

S : Yes, it's shot in super 8 to get soft tones. The natural daylight here in singapore makes colours come out too vivid, too bright which can be good for some thing but i didn't think it's good for this one.

J : It looks extremely grainy, were the images altered, modified to a great extent in post?
S : I like to tell you that it is intentional but no, i didn't alter the images. It came out grainy because i filmed and edited it. I am not so pro as a cinematographer and as an editor.
things i do come out rough. I like this style anyway. But well, on the other hand, i also try to improve technically.

J : Any interesting things happened during the production phase of this film?
S : It took one day of filming with the kids for xiao fu. The kids are very good kids and easy to work with. Nothing very interesting happened (other than, i hope, the film) We had mcdonald's in the afternoon. Mosquitoes was made entirely at home.

J : What kind of works have you done in the past and how does this comnpare to them?
S : I make videos that is a cross between video art and narrative video. Most of the time, i have an abstract or a very minimal story going on mosquitoes-xiao fu is sesame street inspired short film. Mosquitoes is made in the one of sesame street's cartoon style. I love these cartoons about alphabets and numbers. I watch them in utube if i want to feel this certain child wonder lightness of being. Xiao fu is the first time i have kids as actors. Xiao fu is named after a little chinese girl who is big bird(from sesame street)'s friend in the film, "Big Bird in China". Mosquitoes-xiao fu is similar to my other films in the sense that I try to inject a sort of otherworldliness in the simplicity of the common everyday.

J : Are you working on anything currently?

S : i am making drawings for my solo show in the substation coming sept,
along side with a sculpture which i have in mind to complete for quite some time already.