SYNOPSIS
On the anniversary of her daughter’s death an American
real-estate agent has to close the deal on the sale of a shopping mall to a
Chinese buyer. The only thing between her and the sale is the buyer’s personal
‘spirit detective’, without whose approval she never says yes to
a purchase.
Hi Leo, do tell us more about yourself, and how
you & your team for the 48HFP got together-
I am currently working as a
commercials director for Freeflow Productions. I have made a handful of short
films and, as a writer in advertising, many adverts. The team for the 48HFP
slowly came together through a mix of friends, generous people from work and
kind actors who agreed to come aboard and help us out.
Really creative use of the prop (BBQ
tongs)!
Did the idea of using a BBQ tong come quickly,
or was it something you conveniently threw into the story? I believe I have
seen Chinese mediums use some sort of fork when doing contact with
the netherworld, but a BBQ tong is really one up!
Haha! Yes. Once we had decided on the
character of a ‘Spirit Detective’ we had a bit of fun thinking of all the
strange and weird things he could do to ‘test for ghosts’ in the building. In
comparison to some of the other ideas we had, using the BBQ tongs like a tuning
fork actually seemed on the sensible side!
I thought that your use of line was really
good; I have yet to watch the winning entry for the Best
Line prize, but the little girl screaming at the end was really creepy,
and I was also very impressed with her delivery (though it was just one line).
Have you made many horror films in the past? The Anniversary felt very naturally done, much
smoother than how I would envisage a 48 hour film to be like.
It's only natural that, when racing
to get a whole piece done in just 48 hours, a certain amount of mania is
likely to appear on the screen! I'm not quite sure why our piece ended up
having a very calm feeling to it. Certainly, while shooting, it never felt like
a big panic and no one lost their cool. I suppose the spirits of the building
must have been smiling on us. As for little Eva - yes, she did a perfect job
delivering the line. It comes over satisfactorily spookily... despite the fact
that she couldn't stop giggling while doing the shoot!
And the inevitable question, what were the
challenges you faced in directing a 48hfp? I am sure many people would have
asked you this, but filming in a shopping (as dilapidated it was)
probably has its constraints, permission from management, security guards
chasing you out etc., so...how did you go about gaining access to the filming
venue, and how did you manage to bring together such a wide range of actors?
Also, do share with us how long did you take to write the story, organize the
shoot, do the filming, edit, etc..Will also like to know how much the making of
your film cost (HAHA! Singaporean question), if you don't mind sharing.
It’s funny you should mention trouble
from security guards. There was a security guard there and he did approach us
to tell us to clear off. When we showed him the papers to show that we had
permission from the building’s management, he suddenly went completely the
other way in terms of his attitude to the production. He was virtually holding
the boom microphone by the end of the day - we probably couldn’t have made the
film without him! As for the questions about timing, the writing all happened
on the Friday night. So we had the rest of the weekend to shoot, edit and
grade. The costs were pretty minimal because of the competition rule that all
participants have to contribute on a volunteer basis. I think the hiring of
some kit, the competition entry and then other stuff like transport and food
all came to about S$800.
Is there a director whose work you admire, or
any film you had in mind when you were making The Anniversary? I couldn't really
put a finger to it, but old building + little creepy girl + nervous middle aged
lady + silent slightly-crazy chinese man....
With the 48HFP you can’t prepare much
in advance because of the nature of being told your genre and so on when you
arrive on the Friday night. However, we did know our location. And so, thinking
about that, this empty abandoned and creepy space (like the Overlook Hotel), we
found ourselves looking at a lot of Stanley Kubrick’s framing. He uses a lot of
“one-point perspective” shots which suited us very well. So we pretty much
copied that directly!
*Spoiler alert*
Not very clear
on whom the little girl was actually speaking to, and not wanting to settle for
my best guess, I sought clarity from Leo.
Quick answer: It is the ghost of the
woman's daughter speaking directly to her.
Long answer: We always saw the
building itself as being a character in the film. Almost the strongest
character. The building has a will of its own. And it doesn't want to be sold.
It wants to assert itself. So, sensing this unresolved issue in Mrs Anderson's
life, the building conjures up the ghost of Mrs Anderson's daughter in order to
ruin the prospect of the sale. When the daughter says "Look at what you
did, you..." (which is the mandatory line of dialogue for the competition)
we feel she is talking about the failure to sell the building. But perhaps more
than that... perhaps this is a wider comment about Mrs Anderson's failings as a
parent - which may or may not have had a role to play in the daughter's
death.
Interested yet? Watch The
Anniversity here at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1HWW1BHygo
Photo credit: Leo Poloniecki
By Gwen X
Photo credit: Leo Poloniecki
By Gwen X