‘Anchovies’
is a short film we discovered during the 6th Singapore Short Film
Awards earlier this year. It captivated us with its mish mash of fantasy,
rustic beauty, and nostalgic nod to the old Malay movies of the 50s and 60s.
It is a 23-min Malay short film produced by The Big
Shots in collaboration with zero3studio, supported by the Singapore Film
Commission. It's written and produced by prolific filmmaker of children's films
Lee Chee Tian, directed and edited by Zulkifli Salleh, and photographed by
cinematographer Lim Beng Huat. It stars newcomer child actor Amirul Hakimi Bin
Fauzi, Aric Hidir Amin, and veteran Malay actors Roslan Kemat and Daeng Amer.
It is intended to be the final instalment of the "ABC Junior
Films" trilogy produced by the same team. The other 2 films that make
up the trilogy are "Beam" (which was covered by SINdie
previously at http://www.sindie.sg/2010/03/dialogue-panasonic-digital-film-fiesta.html)
and "Colours" (which was also covered by SINdie at http://www.sindie.sg/2008/08/celebrate-drama-colours-by-derek-lui.html)
. It just recently won the Gold Remi Award in the Family / Children Category at
the 48th WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival last weekend in Houston,
USA.
Synopsis:
A boy watches a scary sea monster movie and
becomes afraid of the sea.
Problem is, he comes from a family of
fishermen, and is expected to become a fisherman too.
Will this spell the end of his traditional
livelihood?
Trailer:
We chat with writer and producer Lee Chee
Tian and director Zulkifli Salleh to learn more about how this exquisite film
was made?
How did you conceptualise the story? Is your
family in the fishing business as well?
CT: The idea for the story
actually came about when the Korean monster movie "The Host" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468492) came out. I was letting
my kids watch that movie on DVD, and it just struck me then, while observing
how they reacted to the movie - what if they got too scared of the monster, and
ran away midway, without watching the movie to its end - what scar will it
leave on them for the rest of their lives? Thus hatched the central idea of the
film.
Initially, I was thinking of using a widely
recognisable sea monster of my own childhood era, and what better than
"Jaws", of course. Unfortunately, I was given a rude shock when I
found out from Universal how much they'll charge us for incorporating a few
seconds of footage from that movie (not only was the number as large as the
shark, it was in USD too!) So that idea had to be abandoned, and we made
"Beam" in its place.
The story got shelved for some years, and one
day, while looking for new story ideas to make new films, it struck me again
that I had at hand some children's films under my belt made over the years -
"Colours", "Beam".... I just need one more
"A"-titled film to make a sort of trilogy. The Jaws story somehow
resurfaced, and I thought, what if I change the sea monster, such that instead
of Jaws, it's some other sea monster with an "A" name, and instead of
something big, it's something small, yet very recognisable.... The result of
that brainstorming - ikan bilis, whose English name happens to be
"Anchovies" - just what I need!
And the rest of the story just swam into
place after that enlightenment.
And no, none of us are in the fishing
business.
I like how you blend the elements of old
Malay cinema into the world of the young boy who is faced with some real-wrold
dilemmas. Is this also a tribute film to old Malay cinema? Can you share more
about your influences in this film.
CT: As I explained, I
initially intended to use "Jaws" instead of a Malay movie, but forced
by circumstances and issues of practicality, we simply had to adapt. Now, on
hindsight, I'm glad that we didn't get to proceed with the "Jaws"
idea, and made it into the ikan bilis story that it is now. And because we
decided to use "Ikan Bilis" as our sea monster, everything naturally
became very Malay, and we realised we actually had a rich local Malay cinema to
draw our inspiration from rather than a Hollywood blockbuster, and it just made
more sense!
It's just like what the father character in
the film keeps telling his son, "We should know our place." Why try
to be Hollywood when we have our own identity that we've built ourselves that
we ought to be proud of?
ZUL: When Chee Tian
handed me the script for Anchovies, the treatment for the movie that Lat
watches is already an old Malay cinema movie which I agree is a great
idea. Some of my references for these scenes were films by the late P
Ramlee such as "Seniman Bujang Lapok" and "Pontianak".
These films are great as it can be serious and scary at some point and at other
scenes it'll make you laugh. And although they are in Malay language,
many races enjoyed it and remember it till today. That is my aim in my
films too. There are certain points about the films which I'd like to
achieve, the balance between humour, horror, and the use of minimal
techniques of the technologies of that time to achieve this. We aim to
achieve the intended emotions by using mainly 1-2 shots per scene without much
intercutting as well as using basic straight cuts and dissolves in the
transitions. The actors also did well as for the old cinema scenes
especially, we need them to do one continuous take per scene as Malay cinema of
that time doesn't use much intercutting but instead emphasizes a lot on good
performances. The cinematographer Lim Beng Huat also researched to have
his lighting and camera techniques as close as possible to that era of film
making.
For the other parts of the film which are set
in the present day, I don't really have any particular influence or
reference film but mainly I aimed to have all of my directing decisions to be
motivated by the story. After rehearsals with the actors, I
discussed with the cinematographer on the shots and it is nice that Beng Huat
shares the same enthusiasm on moving the camera for the story. Beng Huat
shares his interpretation of the scenes and we discussed ways to tell the story
visually. Based on this I'll also modify the actors' blocking where needed.
During editing, coloring and sound and music stages the team also based each
creative decisions on moving the story forward.
Was it difficult shooting in Johor Bahru and the other outdoor locations? What were the challenges you faced?
CT: There are no film
professionals in Johor! All the professional services that we need to support
our film production are based up north in KL. We had such a hard time looking
for such personnel in this part of Malaysia. In the end, most of our
professional crew members are from Singapore.
Shooting in a foreign land, language,
logistics, transport and accommodation naturally posed great challenges to the
team. We were fortunate that the locals generally were rather friendly and
tried to support our filming activities as best as they could. Some unhappiness
due to inconveniences are bound to happen - after all, they're not used to
seeing film crews pop up in their neighbourhoods, unlike KL - but we managed to
resolve most issues that arose in the most amicable ways. At the end of the
day, it was all worth it, because we wouldn't have been able to find better
locations than those to fit the story so perfectly - definitely not in
Singapore!
What were the most enjoyable moments of the
shoot?
CT: To see the film forming
into shape exactly as we envisioned it - the actors, the locations, all
perfectly matching how it appeared in our heads, we knew while we were shooting
that we were making a film that we would be very happy with.
ZUL: For me the most
enjoyable moments of the shoot would be filming the movie screening scene at
the village with all the villagers. We did this on my first day on this
set and this is the scene with the most number of casts I have ever did.
I am amazed at the villagers' enthusiasm at supporting our filming as during
the screening scene, almost all the villagers came down to the field, even
though we were showing just a blank screen. They were directed to give
different expressions and I am delighted when they managed to pull off all the
emotions we needed. Another interesting part of this scene is that we had
a cow and a chicken to watch the film together with the villagers and it
somehow manages to give a scared look while watching the movie on screen.
Another memorable moment is when I begin editing the film and felt that all the
shots just fits in place and feels just right.
How long was this film in the making? When
did you start pre-production?
CT: We're not counting the
time when it was originally hatched as a "Jaws" idea, right? If we
count just from the time it was re-written as an "Ikan Bilis" movie,
still, it took us more than a year from script to actual production. Location
scouting and casting took us the most time, as you can imagine, as these played
the most crucial parts in the film - the film either makes or breaks based on
these two elements alone. We're glad we managed to land the perfect choices for
both. How blessed we were! Again, as the father character in the film says,
"Everything has its place." Everything in this film happened to find
its place indeed!
You seem to have a very experienced cast and
most of them put up very strong performances. Describe how you work with your
actors.
CT: Credit really has to go to
Zul for casting the perfect actors for all the roles in the film. The cast
really made the characters alive! I'm ever so thankful for their wonderful work
in this film.
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