CNY 2008 Greetings & Moving On...

Today marks the first day of a brand new lunar year - the year of the courageous and enterprising Rat! It's also back to the start of the zodiac cycle. (For those who are clueless - there are 12 Chinese zodiac signs and each heads a year in the following animal order: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog & finally the pig.)

And this is probably a no better time for us to move on as well. We've more or less completed our TRUTH BE TOLD journey.

Zhuo Ren
Since starting this blog, we had grown so much in our understanding of not only movie-making (especially the business side of this industry) but as Eng Tiong once put it at a seminar - the most important thing we've learnt is - how to zhuo ren (i.e. be a person). What he meant is that inter-personal relationships is really what it takes to accomplish anything in life. Dealing with people will always be a life-long learning experience and hopefully, we'll get better at it with time and practice.

Rejection
During the Blog-Aloud session, a question came up from the audience, "What is the toughest thing in making this movie?" Eng Tiong gave a no-holds-barred answer straight from our hearts - "How to pick ourselves up and keep on moving when the world is against us."

Rejection is always the hardest to stomach. It is so easy to just give up or dwell in self-pity and lament that nobody understands us or nobody cares. There's so much pessimism sometimes that it's really hard to be optimistic.

How do we combat that? Well, we watch movies! That will somehow, miraculously, bring back our spirits. Perhaps, we are just very stubborn people. We refuse to believe that we can't ever create movie magic that we see on-screen. And seriously, watching movies is also way cheaper than pigging out or drinking or fagging, and way heathier too!

Moving On...
There'll probably be sporadic news here and there about TRUTH BE TOLD (afterall, it's an intellectual property that spans erm... perpetuity?) but it's time we start another movie-making cycle. We're working on a slate of projects and one is especially in active development right now. When the time comes, we'll release more news. In the meantime, check out our more generic blog - Pilgrims' Blog - for tips, tricks, news & irrelevant thoughts about filmmaking from the staff of Pilgrim Pictures.

There's an ancient saying that "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Yay! We've finally moved our butts! We hope we've inspired you to move yours! :)

Can't find TRUTH BE TOLD DVD?

We've heard that some of you have difficulties getting hold of the DVD. Good news - there's more copies!

Each DVD is S$24.90 (includes local shipping). This is strictly for Singapore only.

If you're keen to get your hands on the DVD, drop us an email at:
questions@pilgrimpictures.com.sg

Please include your name, contact number, mailing address and the number of DVDs you need.

Disc-Spotting

We've bought our first copy of TRUTH BE TOLD dvd at a Poh Kim Video outlet!

Besides TS Video & Poh Kim, we've spotted our discs at Music Junction and Laser Flair. Check them out!

DVDs & VCDs Now on Sale!

Need a Christmas gift? Our video release is out! Please continue to support our movie and bring home TRUTH BE TOLD dvds or vcds! :)

BONUS FEATURES in TRUTH BE TOLD DVD:

• English & Chinese subtitles
• 5.1 surround sound
• The Making Of
• Trailers
• Short film DOLLHOUSE

We're pretty excited about the dvd release for a few reasons.

One - TRUTH BE TOLD is digitally mastered and comes with a 5.1 surround soundtrack which it was originally mixed for. For those who've watched the film in the cinemas, it was only in stereo as we couldn't afford the Dolby license for the theatrical release.

Two - we've also managed to release our short film DOLLHOUSE! This short was a precursor to TRUTH BE TOLD. We've tested filming on HD and working with the team on this short before embarking on the feature.

Three - it's great to see our movie packaged in its cute little DVD box and to add that to our personal video collection. Finally something on the shelf that contains our work! And it's definitely easier and we look more "serious" when bringing that around than a DIY DVD screener (or 5 bulky reels of 35mm film!)

DVD & VCD release date: 27 November 2007
Available at: TS Video / Poh Kim Video
Distributor: Scorpio East

Thank you for your support!

TRUTH BE TOLD ends its theatrical run in Singapore cinemas this week. For those who had supported us by catching it in the cinemas (and some of you did it more than once, twice or three times!) , a big THANK YOU!

We had set out to hit a certain target figure for our box office. I'm glad we achieved it! It may not seem much (as compared to some local productions) but we're pretty satisfied. Afterall, the most important race is our own.

What a marathon! But it's far from over. We're now moving on to the next stage of distribution/ exhibition - the video window.

TRUTH BE TOLD will be out very soon on DVD and VCD! More details will be available very soon when the exact release date will be.... :)

Into the 4th Week!

TRUTH BE TOLD enters its 4th week in the cinemas today!! This is really unexpected and of course, we're extremely delighted! We thought yesterday will be the last of our theatrical run.

Over the last weekend (October 20 & 21) we went down to all our shows to personally thank the movie-goers. We're balled over by the warmth from the audience and how supportive they were. Many clapped when we introduced ourselves. Some of them encouraged us to, "Jia you! (Keep it up!)"

Others came up to tell us how much they liked and enjoyed the movie.

A lady in a wheelchair told us she wanted to catch TRUTH the night before on Friday, unaware that the 9pm shows are no longer available. So she went home empty-handed. But the next day, she rushed down to GV Plaza from the Mt. Elizabeth Hospital after collecting her medicine to catch the 1st show at 11:10 am!

Another lady came up to us just as we're about to leave GV Tiong Bahru for GV Vivocity - she wanted to know how she could "donate" some money. Dumbfounded, I asked, "To whom?" and she replied, "To you!"

She must have read about our struggles in the papers. (Too bad... we've yet to set up the "ENG TIONG & JEN NEE MILK POWDER FUND".) We are once again touched by this kind gesture but we have to politely refuse. We suggested that she may like to invest in our future film projects instead.

A couple with young children in tow came up to us after the screening at Vivocity to thank us for TRUTH. The man's father used to live in a 1-room flat and he wanted his children to experience that with this movie.

Still, others came up to us with their stories that they would like to be told on the big screen...

And there are (and always will be, I guess) people who told us their views on how to improve the film, what they did not like, what they found flawed.

I believe there will never be a film where everyone who has seen it will unequivocally love it. At best, it will be on a scale of from how many people love your film to how many absolutely hate it. What we can do is to listen to the ground and hear what people have to say and then sieve out what is useful.

We definitely love to hear more! If you haven't catch TRUTH BE TOLD, here's another chance to do so! We're still showing at Golden Village Plaza Singapura, Vivocity & Tiong Bahru!

Check out GV's website for showtimes.

Operation TBT

Last Sunday, we embarked on a "publicity stunt" codenamed Operation TBT. Our TRUTH BE TOLD standees ended their run at GV Plaza and GV Vivo. If we don't bring them back, GV will throw them out with the trash.

Of course we wanted them back! Our hard-earned $$ are in those 4 by 7 feet styrofoam! But we can't fit them into any vehicle we can get our hands on so we thought of the next best solution - walk home with it!

We stay in the city outskirts, so the walk won't take very long. The added advantage is that we're creating free buzz for our movie!

Special thanks to our friend Ai Ping (above) for coming along to execute our crazy idea. At Plaza Singapura, we carried the standee from GV down to the street level via the escalators.

Ai Ping took this beautiful shot - all for LOVE indeed!

I guess our standee frightened away the "cows"

A detour - can't resist a photographic opportunity!

The river crossing...

Almost home...

A final pose at the place where it all started - Block 33 Taman Ho Swee

Into the elevator and finally on to home!

Total hours: Nearly 2! We took a leisurely stroll from Plaza Singapura back to Tiong Bahru and make lots of pitstops along the way to take pictures and rest a little. And it did turn some heads!

On the same night, we brought back the other standee at Vivocity. The journey was longer and less adventurous. I guess we were getting tired and the scenery wasn't as appealing!

But both standees are now safely back home. Operation TBT is a success! The idea may be a little crazy but hey, filmmaking doesn't have to be stressful or depressingly serious all the time. We had fun!