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The Honest Filmmaker
How to shoot and release a Christmas film at the Cinema with Eric Wong
#filmpodcast #filmmaking #filmmaker
This week I'm talking to filmmaker Eric Wong. Eric started out as a composer and then went on to make feature films in his home country of Singapore. He's recently completed and released at the cinema in Singapore his Christmas movie 'Hi Noel'.
I spoke to Eric about what it was like making the film, what it's like being a filmmaker in Singapore, we also spoke about his decision to make a Singapore's first Christmas film and what it was like directing children. Finally, we talked about what he was able to transfer from his composing experience into filmmaking. Enjoy!
Check out the re-release of Jim's first solo directing feature The Witches Hammer - out now on amazon
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HONEST, OPEN ADVICE ABOUT YOUR FILMMAKING CAREER
Are you about to leave Uni with a filmmaking degree? Or want to change careers and work in a creative industry? We want to give you the tools you need to enter the real world of production or freelancing. Honest and open career advice from people in the business.
We also talk to those in other creative industries to discuss their careers, the potential cross over with film production and practical tips for a successful and fulfilling career.
Join the community: http://www.thehonestfilmmaker.co.uk
[Music] hi Jim here and you're listening to the honest filmmaker podcast career advice from people in the business this week I'm speaking to filmmaker Eric Wall Eric started out as a composer and then went on to make feature films in his home country of Singapore he's recently completed and released in cinemas in Singapore his Christmas movie High Noel I spoke to Eric about what it was like making the film uh what it's like being a filmmaker in Singapore we also talked about his decision to make a Christmas film why he chose a Christmas movie uh the film's got two lead actors that are kids so he talks about what it's like directing children and also some of the lessons he's learned from his music composing how they transferred over to directing enjoy so talk to me about your route into film making well Jim um I started film making through the root of being a musician right so I the first time I was involved with a movie of any kind I was the comp composer actually oh right okay and yeah that's cuz I was going to talk about that um the composing stuff so so you composed on what a short film or a a feature I composed on a t movie A T T movie for the television yeah it's a it was a 90 minute movie yeah oh right okay and then did you when you were doing your composing did you know you ultimately wanted to direct or was it something no no not at all I was fully to music and I guess uh maybe because as I was writing as I was composing you know I had to listen to whatever the director wanted right so I was like okay right so now I wanted to be the one calling the shots yeah I mean I'm joking so so and is there anything um anything comparable from composing to directing are there any things that are the same do you think yeah I think the sense of timing is quite similar because when you're composing you know you're talking about Beats you're talking about pulse you're talking about music talking about different layers and then when you when you're directing it's pretty much similar in the same but different way you know definitely definitely and um so so you're in Singapore from Singapore what is the film industry like in Singapore well Singapore is a pretty small nation right we are about like six million people population right so the film industry is is not uh very vibrant it could be better it could be better we have maybe about 10 local movies a year being released in Theatrical yeah so yeah and maybe another 10 or 20 in festivals right okay and I this is probably a misconception but to me it's Singapore seems like a wealthy place there's loads of money and there's I'm imagining you're walking down the street and there's people who want to fund films left right and Center is it like that I wish Jim man that that is a dream okay that is a dream now I think uh yeah you right to say that Singapore's pretty wealthy I mean you've got a lot of rich people around but does not mean that they would be extremely willing to fund movies right because if you talk about commercial films uh the rate of investment uh the the rate of return is is not that great as well mhm unless we've got a larger market you know unless our movies can travel to maybe the entire southeast Asia or the larger Asia or even the west then maybe yes yeah yeah and and it's interesting so your movie is uh in English is it or is it's got It's got Mandarin in it as well is that right yeah it's 80% English and 20% Mandarin right and was that a choice you made for commercial reasons or is that you know what what what made you decide to do it that much in English um I think firstly because in Singapore our main language of business is English right our main language of uh education instruction it it is in English um and but most of us we kind of like mix and match a little bit of Mandarin here and there you know so yeah that's what most of us do so so it's it's made to be as natural as possible yeah sure and so talking to the film tell tell me about hi Noel tell me about the film what's it about so hi Noel is a Christmas movie Singapore's First Christmas movie and um it's about little boy called Leon he finds out that his parents uh could be headed for a divorce so he creates an imaginary friend called Leon and together they had a plan to try to save the marriage lovely and did you uh why did you why a Christmas film what made you want to do a Christmas movie well first off all because uh it's never been done before right and Christmas is one of my favorite seasons of the year I mean you know with all the gift giving and the food and the Thanksgiving it's great right so we we always watch stuff like home alone you know and and stuff like that so I we want I wanted to make our own Singapore version of that I always wondered maybe there's an advantage in doing a Christmas film because you just purely from a sales point of view because you think well it's got repeat viewing possibilities because people can watch it every single year and kind of gives you that warm fuzzy feeling so again was that ever in your mind or yes it was actually yes it was you know I mean how many reruns of Home Alone have we watched right so something like that yeah definitely and and how did the film come about the idea was from my daughter actually I've got a 12 year-old daughter and uh when she was six she told us that she has an imaginary friend right and and from there she introduced us to an entire world of imaginary friends I was like wow okay kids today they have such imagination and as we did more research we realized that uh up to 60% of kids in the world have imaginary friends so we thought oh what a cool idea you know and and and you know we wanted to deal a little bit with some of the modern issues of divorce I mean we know that divorce rates are rising all over the world all across the world not just in the west but in sing in in China everywhere so I wanted to explore a little bit about the impact of that on children yeah so you got this you got the idea from your daughter and uh you've written your script now what where did you how did you get the money where how did you get the finance to make the movie okay so so the script existed as a 20 minute short film initially so when we decided to take the plunge and do it we said okay let's expound the script into a 90minut feature and uh so we took about a month to do that and because we run a production house right so most of our pre-production and post- production it's it's all in-house effort right so so we don't have to come out with cash in that sense so we only had to come out cash for for the talents the location the the the Wardrobe uh the crew and all that so we self-funded the entire thing oh wow okay self funded and is it I guess the flip side of singap poor being a wealthy Place does that mean everything costs more is it more expensive to make a film yes it is so it's it's not working in our favor right I mean uh in the entire southeast Asia I think we are the most expensive in terms of Film Production in terms of crew man man hours right equipment rental stuff like that yeah yeah so we are quite expensive quite expensive and then also the other thing is one of your lead characters is a child what's two what's it two of them so what's it like working with children have you got any tips for people who are going to be working with kids um okay my ad my assistant director was my wife right and she has a lot of experience dealing with kids yeah so I mean she used to teach in kindergarten so that really really helped okay so I think uh my advice for directors who have never dealt with children or if you don't have kids of your own um get someone you know who's great at handling and wrangling them I mean I'm sorry to use the word wrango but yeah sometimes we do need some help you know and especially uh on day one of our shoot it was a kindergarten scene right so we've got 15 kids yeah and you know we are trying to block them and you know put them in their place and tell them not to move after the first couple of them stop moving the next few will start moving and it's like you know like a what you call that wacka moole yeah yeah yeah I could imagine yes it was difficult yeah and what about um getting those uh getting the kind of performance from the children so the moments where you really need them to be sad or happy is there any sort of technique for getting that I think you've got to prepare them right if they know the scenes prior to whatever the shoot days they can do some preparation some of them actually do some homework right so they they go and watch how other actors their age do it and then they think about how they want to execute their so those are actors who are how do I say it it they they're more professional in that sense you know yeah so even the kids they do that yes good good good to hear um and then you've so you've shot the film um and then I've seen you've got like a limited um Cinema release for it is that something that you arranged or have you gone through a sales agent how have you managed that um so in Singapore we have a few uh major Distributors so I approach one of them uh who whom I've known for some time and he was actually very very pleased you know to support uh helping to distribute the movie so we had it released in about nine Cinemas MH oh that's great that's really good and how have you found the how have you found that have you have you had to do a lot of promotion yourself or Yes actually uh I mean being the director in the production house we we do a lot of the promotion right so all the social media so we ramp it up we have like behind the scenes photos we have short video clips we have uh VX BX you know we have like different people talking about it so we try to you know make a variety of social media posts every day yeah yeah yeah and if you got plan as your distributor got plans for releasing it internationally well we we we are so busy with our local distribution we haven't found time to do that yet yeah yeah but we do hope to do so I mean Distributors yeah yeah if the Distributors tuning in I'm sure you know I'll be happy to have a word so you've made a feature film it's your first feature film what do you wish you'd known when you started that process I think I wish I had known how to do distribution better yeah because as a filmmaker most often we are concerned with the story right and with the technicalities in creating the film but we don't really think about how to distribute it later on I mean this is of course for the independent filmmaker right we're not talking about Studio films yeah yeah yeah so I wish I had known a little bit more on distribution right right and if you're um if you are a first-time filmmaker yeah where where did you find it out was it trial and error did was it research online where did you get your info on distribution um okay so attending film markets yeah right attending film markets uh so I went to the American film convention this year mhm uh and of course speaking to veterans in the industry right meeting uh growing your network and meeting Distributors I think that is very important yeah uh we we should do a lot more of that yeah yeah and did you so you went to AFM this year how was that experience for you what did you get out of it uh so it's AFC the AF Las Vegas yeah right are you FC right right yeah it's a brand new one it's a brand new one and uh it was great you know listening to all the um you have Studio level producers talking and you have Indie directors talking so I learned a lot really a lots yeah oh yes so one one thing I was going to ask you about and tell me what the real because obviously you read different things online is there's are there Singapore is quite tight on media is it on restrictions is that true is there sort of restrictions of what you can do I think Singapore's media is quite open right right the only thing that is a little bit more touchy could be the politics that's about it everything else is is okay yeah so it's more about as I understand it it's more about how news is reported rather than a restriction on Creative prodct yeah exactly right okay yeah and do you one other thing I was going to ask you was if you if I'm watching your movie what do you think um what's it going to tell me about Singaporean culture and what's it going to tell me about what it's like to live over there well it's going to you're going to see that Singapore is a really ultramodern um Ultra Clean country all right and um the thing is that a lot of people still don't know that Singapore is not part of China yeah yeah yeah yeah there are lots of Americans who think that you know Singapore is still part of China we're not right we at the southernmost part of the Malaysian Peninsula so um we are an independ the nation and it's a very modern city so it's great great place to be so please come and visit I don't know if I can afford it that's the tricky part it it's the I'm sure the hotels are probably quite expensive but yeah I'd love to come love to come um and I guess yeah I guess I was going to ask you about because you've done a bunch of short films and you obviously create stuff um commercial uh videos for people yes uh H how did you get into that and is that is that the day job is that what you do sort of dayto day yeah so um like I mentioned before I was a composer I was a musician we did audio post you know we did sound design and stuff like that but um we signed on some music artists so we are record label as well so as we produce albums for them produce music and songs and albums we realized that we really needed the music the the the the video side of things to sell the artists right because people want to see who your artists are so we started D dabbling in video production so that's how we got started M so one Fay uh Singapore's most successful commercial director his name is Jack Neil he saw one of my music videos right and he got really excited so he wrote me into his production his movie okay so he was on a uh it was a big budget production right uh military you know like a comedy military comedy kind of thing right uh like Police Academy but it's in the military something like that okay so uh uh I joined his production on day 20 so it's halfway through he shot it for 45 days okay so I joined on day 20 and on the first day when I was there he turned to me in the morning right in the morning I've never been on a big production before okay I'm looking at the director's monitor he turns to me and says Eric I'm going out for a meeting you direct wow so I was like sure no problem no problem sir just go ahead for your meeting and I'll direct and I did not even know the script and I did not know what was happening but I just jumped into it so that was my first foray into the movie business right and of course uh for the next uh 25 days or so so I was directing and I was on the cameras as well jumping back and forth right M and then after the movie wrapped uh he had a lot of sponsors in his movie so I started doing all the commercial ads for all these sponsors so that's how you know we we started crafting our our skills wow that must have been a baptism of fire if you're Dro into a film like that but that sounds really good but because of that we discovered the love and the passion for telling stories through film and did you you mentioned mentioned your wife's your uh ad on the feature film yes did you meet her in that uh film making environment or did you both kind of move into that after you no we we were all musicians before yeah oh right okay so the whole gang the whole gang yeah so um she's she's not just the assistant director she was the editor and the colorist of the film right right okay lots of lots of uh bit of a family business and what about your daughter have you got her into it yeah yeah she acted in it oh lovely there we go a small small little scene small little scene so do you have a motto do you have a mantra or anything that you apply to your work um not really but personally uh we believe in giving it our best you know we don't ever do slip shot work we want to produce work that is excellent so we believe in that yeah yeah good good good and then what is the best Christmas movie ever made and why best I I think it will still be home alone it's still home alone yeah I I like it because I mean it's there's just something special about you know a little boy being locked at home and then you trying to you know save himself from robbers and all it's it's a fun movie yeah so I I just like that yeah I hope you enjoyed that episode if you'd like to hear from more industry professionals how they got into the business and how you can do the same or you just want to listen to some cool stories from movie sets around the world then please do subscribe to the honest filmmaker podcast[Music]
