'Giselle' by Martin Hong was nominated for Best Art Direction, Best Sound and Best Cinematography at the 5th Singapore Short Film Awards.
Here is a brief introduction: "Giselle" was done in 2012 as part
of a school film module called "FILM210".
Basically what we had to do for the class was
to decide on a single location (based on the options proposed), and then all of
us would have to shoot a short film there over the course of a week. The idea
was to force all of us to weave different stories using the same
location. More on Martin's works can be found on www. martinhong.com
What had inspired you to come up with this
story idea for the film?
I was researching on the origins of fairy
tales, and I thought it was pretty interesting how a lot of people aspire to
have 'fairy-tale-endings' but a lot of the original stories lead to pretty dark
or tragic conclusions. I thought it'd be interesting to explore this social
phenomena, on how this notion of idealized romances stem from such cautionary
tales.
I came across this ballet called
"Giselle" as well, based off an extremely old poem about the
sacrificial nature of love. And so using these two polar views of love, one
selfless and the other self-indulgent, I sought to weave a story that could
juxtapose both the fantasy and reality of love.
How were Andrea Chong, Marcus Tan and Cindy
Chia casted for their roles in Giselle?
They started as friends of friends, and as
soon as the script was finalized I just went ahead to cast them. They were all
studying in NTU as well so that made meeting up a lot easier.
What kind of rehearsals do they have to go
through to prepare for the shoot?
Prior to filming, Andrea was actually the
only one I had rehearsals with. We met up a couple of sessions to talk more
about her role and to rehearse the scenes. She had never done film acting
before but she did have some stage experience. I also didn't know Andrea before
the shoot so a lot of the rehearsals were actually sharing sessions haha. But I
think they were important for the both of us to be on the same page.
Share with us more on the journey in developing the film.
I think the project evolved a lot from
production to post. It was a pretty organic process actually, which got me
worried at some points because it was so different from what I imagined
originally.
I guess also cause it wasn't a very
straightforward narrative to me (which is what I was used to) that it allowed
for more room for changes. I also had a lot of time to just experiment with new
ways of re-editing it, so that was something I was grateful for.
What is the most memorable part of making the
film?
Prior to "Giselle", I had done some
short films before but this was a milestone for me just because I had a proper
team to work with. Like I had a DOP, gaffers, art assistants on set, which was
really amazing for me because in the past I never had such luxuries. In my
younger days I had to light, shoot and direct all by myself, and it was
impossible to reach certain levels of production. I remember my mum was the
cameraman in "Orbits" HAHA.
Shooting "Giselle" was the
beginning of working in a more systematic and professional way, and now 2 years
later looking back, I can say that experience really taught me a lot about
filmmaking.
If you were given another chance to remake the film all over again, would you do it and why?
IT'S TEMPTING HAHA but I wouldn't just
because I think every film has a creative 'shelf-life' of sorts. Even though
tons of things could have been better, I think once you've decided a work is
complete, you just have to let go of it and move on, regardless of its flaws.
I think holding on to the idea of re-doing it all the time is quite unhealthy
lah haha as much as I'd love to improve it.
What is next in the film making pipeline for
you?
Now I'm working on a new short about cultural
amnesia amongst youths in Singapore. We just wrapped production so now we're
now all chionging it in post haha.