Plateau

• Main Author: Png, Hui Min
• Other Authors: Ben Shedd
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Visual arts and music
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/67556
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Purpose of Project: My intention with PLATEAU is to explore the meaning of life that I feel is relevant to everyone: that we are vulnerable to threats beyond our understand and control; that our close ones are becoming lost to us; that achieving goals one will feel accomplished; that having a moment of desire or pleasure makes one ecstatic; but all these can be nothing important at all. The journey of life can be seen as mimicking a roller coaster ride, but it all comes downs to a point that it is still stable after all. Approach: I take my creative cues from the films of my youth, and so it is with my visual approach to PLATEAU. As opposed to the commercial style that so pervades contemporary drama films, I prefer long takes, allowing the actors to work within the frame, building both an audience relationship with the characters, as well as allowing the emotions to build in a more deliberately soul-stirring manner. Also, light pattern is one area that I would like to explore and implement into the film to create a rhythm, a pattern — it can be the light pollution that we have got here in Singapore or from the mother nature where sunlight beams through the multiple layers of leaves, as I find it is an appropriate technique to bring in more flavours to the visual story telling. As my film deals with the character leading to her final passing, seeing her appearing lesser towards the end of the film is one that I feel compatible and effective, subconsciously allowing the audience to feel the gradual distance to the character. Not to leave out yet another powerful tool — sound. Sound has been my major concern since the start of pre-production, as I understand it is an easily neglected part of the whole film and could jeopardies your work that you have put in your blood and sweat for months or years. For film scoring, I prefer to limit myself working with at most three instruments for each score. Music that performs with such little instruments and just by playing around with the tunes has always left me an intriguing experience. To further explain clearly what I mean, S. T. A. Y — a music score done by Hans Zimmer for the movie Interstellar, is one of the soundtracks that inspires me and still leaves me goose bumps even till now. With these above approaches taken into account for the making of the film, my intention is to allow the audience to be deeply absorb into this drama, and to become participants in the events onscreen. As with the best drama films that have affected me over the years, I would like nothing more than to leave the audience with an experience that will stay with them, in both body and mind, long after the closing credits have rolled. Findings: After almost one year of preparing and making this film out, it actually did not dampen my spirit and passion in filmmaking. It truly opened my eyes with a lot of unpredictable situations and attentiveness to details in the art of filmmaking. I realised that it is a never-ending learning journey, mistakes bound to happen. The only way is to keep on going and never give up. Through this journey, especially during the production period, I found that even I have worked for over 10 hours; I did not feel tired at all. That's when I realised how much I love the process of filmmaking. Even if I have my bad days, just by watching a film trailer or a BTS video could easily ignite my passion back and wanting to start working again. From the old self of always doubting myself to a new me of having a little more confident in my work is truly a great improvement. I hope the fire in me will continue to burn strongly. Originality: The film did not have a define three act structure; there was no define conflict either. What we see in the film was different significant slice of life that happened in the family after the mom was diagnosed with cancer; be it happy or sad. Each scene represents different period of time; propelling the story at an ajar pace but at the same time seamless. Specialisation: Digital Filmmaking Keywords: Short Film - Narrative, FYP 2016, Plateau