Film is Business?

Like everything else, the money (or rather, the lack of it) gets in the way.

About 10 years ago, as a film student, I always thought that film is art. That's why we study film theory and everything else about filmmaking.

I remembered a lecturer used to tell us that film is business. I didn't believe him. How could it be? Explain to me Battleship Potemkin and The Birth of a Nation or Citizen Kane and tell me that it's business.

Fast forward to January this year - Eng Tiong and I attended Dov Siemen's 2-Day Film School. He's from Hollywood and taught people like Quentin Tarantino. So he's invited by MDA to be here in Singapore to conduct his famous seminar. Eng Tiong and I've been out of school for some time so we thought we should attend the seminar to revive that student spirit and passion we have for filmmaking.

At the seminar, Dov Siemen, too said that film is business. Now much older (and hopefully, wiser), I totally agree.

As a student, there's this romanticised idea of what an independent filmmaker is. It's not much of a difference from a struggling artist who believes and sticks to his ideas and ideals at all cost. It's about personal expression. I didn't think money mattered.

Until I grow up and realised that there're bills to pay. Oops. Welcome to the real world.

Not that I don't believe in film as art anymore. I do. But that comes after I've gotten my 3 square meals a day, pay for the roof over my head, transportation expenses, business overheads... Then let's talk about pure film art.

I think we can balance art with commerce. It need not be one or the other. In fact, it's important that both work hand in hand. We can make a great movie that lots of people love to watch and that ensures our survival so that we can make another one. And the cycle continues.

Ultimately, I realised it's about telling an engaging story.

After the Dov Siemen's seminar, we decided that we're going to make our movie. It has always been our dream to go into filmmaking. What stopped us before is money, money, money.

We still lack it but let's work with what we have.

So instead of film, we're going to shoot on high definition. Just make sure we light properly!

In terms of the story, Exposed! will be a great movie for us to start with because:
1. The story takes place in 1 location.
2. The story happens within 12 daylight hours - i.e. no night scenes

So that would save us quite a bundle!

The story is great! It's definitely engaging. I can't reveal much of the plot here but as the screenwriter, it's definitely a work of love, passion and damn hard work!