It all started in October 2020 when I had to make a 12-minutes documentary for my year two documentary module. I was fresh off my freelance Pua Kumbu project (which you can read about here) and struggling to catch up with missed classes when my lecturer announced the assignment. Being stuck in my hometown with no access to the university's equipments and definitely no classmates living within the vicinity of my island to form a group, I set out by myself to document a topic of major personal interest, Sarawak Laksa. There were certainly other topics out there contesting for my choice but with assurance from my closest bosom buddies, I picked my favourite food over other topic choices which I have forgotten all about now.
Writing
Documentaries are usually (and best captured when) raw and unscripted. However, there still has to be a certain structure put in place before execution. So I started to brainstorm and write. It was a painful process of thinking up contents that would pique the audience's interest yet not be overly informative and impersonal. Of all the documentary films that we had to analyse in class, it seemed to me like the good ones are the ones that, on top of the facts they present, imparts wisdom in the narratives onto the audience. The voices of the filmmakers, although not always explicitly heard, can be felt through the pieces of seemingly cold and distant visual styles. I didn't want my film to end up as yet another one of those YouTube vlogs (no offence to the vloggers out there), I needed it to be expository yet filled with heart and depth.
At first, it was really frustrating to think of content and structure.
Imagine a million fragments of ideas floating around in my mind that I just had to catch before they disappear to the back of my head. But be careful not to latch onto an idea for too long because then I'll get overly-invested in one aspect and leave out the rest or set myself up for disappointment if it doesn't match my expectations. As I collected my ideas like catching raindrops with a teacup, I grew increasingly frustrated and had to force myself to do a 'brain vomit' of ideas where I wrote down every little thing that came to mind on paper. After that, I needed to link the fragments together and think of all the ways they can fit into one whole piece. Then the ideas got clearer and a rough structure was formed out of my new-found clarity through pen and paper. With post-it notes and a marker pen, I proudly rearranged my core ideas out on my bedroom wall (see right).
I am the annoying friend who calls up her friends and whine about assignments. My friends had to sit through about an hour of FaceTime where I, after whining about my writing frustrations and managing to get a grip on it, pitched the idea to them, bilingual guns blazing and all. My clever friends were even kind enough to challenge parts of my ideas that help me better formulate my concept which prepared me for......
The pitching presentation that accounts for part of the assignment grade and assessed by the lecturer (which I totally forgot about).
Okay correction, I didn't forget the pitch assessment, but I did misremember the date that I had to do it. I was caught off-guard when my lecturer ended the discussions in the seminar early and announced the start of the pitching process. She read a list of names that had to pitch right then and I froze when I heard mine called. I panicked throughout the first few pitches before mine. Fortunately, I was able to whip out my hour-long pitch to friends from memory and compress it into 5 minutes. I even started my presentation with the honest confession of my mistake and an apology-in-advance before I came out guns blazing. This time, monolingually or else my 20 classmates and my lecturer wouldn't understand a thing.
The pitching session was quite intense as I had to show my proposal slides and present my ideas at the same time. The proposal that I used was the draft slides that I had submitted a day before the pitch. My lecturer, Shona, gave helpful and supportive comments about what I can and should focus on in the contents. She liked that I had a lot of implicit meanings behind the context of the facts I aim to present to my audience, so much so that she even recommended more ideas to layer meanings on top of other contents. And most importantly, she gave me the green light to keep the mystery of the secret recipe unsolved. We both agreed that demystifying the age old recipes would be too factual, keeping it a veiled mystery seems to work better emotionally. I just needed to hear her opinions as assurance for my creative choice. Plus, I presented the practical facts and we both took the possibility of demystifying it into account.
1. It would be impossible for me to film in anyone's home kitchen if the outbreak in Kuching was as severe as it was back then and,
2. Honestly, nobody knows the recipe and those who do prefer to keep it a secret forever.
Taking Shona's feedback into mind, I continued to tinker with my slides until they were ready for the final proposal submission a week later. She must've been satisfied with what I've done because she gave me a bottom line first class for it. However, her comment on the improvements I could've done was: to make my layered implicit meanings and the emotions evoked out of places, memories, and experiences more prominent in my synopsis; which are and should be the core of my ideas and documentary. I didn't know I was supposed to write it in because I can be a little dense sometimes. I spent a lot of effort on it and the final final version of the proposal can be peeked here:
Pre
Planning the content was hard but it was even harder to get people to be in it. I had a billion plans to film all sorts of people explaining the dish to me from every perspective. But as we all know, the Covid-era is not a good time to be running around on the streets interviewing people. Or going into people's houses and kitchens to film the making of the cuisine. So then I tried and managed to secure a few interviewees to put the hefty focus on. However, the process was very discouraging at first as almost everyone I asked rejected for many reasons. They were too afraid to leave their homes or were too shy to join my production etc.
Firstly, there's Madam Choo whose Laksa I absolutely love. I used to eat my breakfast at her stall every morning for 3 months before I went to university in September 2019. She was reluctant to film during the first few times that I asked her permission for it. Eventually, she gave in because I explained that it is for an assignment that means a lot to me. However, that meant that I had to ask for permission to film in the coffee shop that she operates in. Luckily, we've eaten there so many times that the owner, Ah Zhui, was very gracious to allow me to film in their shop.
Secondly, I asked Chloe Ling to join aboard my production but it took me a long time to figure out who she was so I can contact her. Sounds weird? The story goes like this:
Laksa is beloved within my friend group (and all Sarawakians in general). My friend, Jacq, is an ultra Laksa fanatic who's been obsessed with Laksa for a long time now. In high school, her personal Instagram account was dedicated, and I'm not kidding, to rating Laksas all over Kuching.
So one day in 2018 or 2019, another friend of ours encountered a poem online that is dedicated to its namesake "Laksa Sarawak" and sent it into our group chat. We had a laugh about the poet's extreme enthusiasm for the dish and likened her dedication to Jacq's. Jokes aside, I remember thinking that it was such a great poem written with so much heart and talent! Fast forward back to when I'm writing and producing my documentary a year or two later. I thought of the amazing poem I've read and tried to search it up online to no avail. Desperately, I texted my friend who found the poem to check if he still remembers the poet. He didn't but he managed to dig the poem up on Facebook and helped me find Chloe! When I texted her on Instagram to express my admiration for the poem and asked if she could recite the poem for my film and allow me to interview her on the topic, she kindly said yes and was very enthusiastic about my project.
Next, I contacted a high school friend of mine who also really loves Laksa. Vivian is an absurdly talented visual artist with amazing tastes and makes so much good art. Everything she has experimented on from sketches, paintings, 2D animations to miniature art etc were so impressive and incredible. She has a pleasing and distinctive psychedelic aesthetic to her art which you can check out here on her Instagram & portfolio. Anyway, I recall seeing a drawing of Laksa that she had put out before and I contacted her about being in an interview. Unfortunately, she couldn't join and I had to look around for more people to film.
At the same time, I also reached out to a café that sells Laksa in town which never got back to me but ah well...... it happens.
I was thinking out loud at home about who else I can interview and my mother thought of just the right person. She mentioned a colleague of hers that I've never met who loves food so much he knows all the best food outlets and dishes in town. In addition to that, he gets interviewed all the time by newspaper and tv journalists about our local cuisines. So I thought why not give it a shot and contact him? And that's how I found our Laksa expert, Joshua Chan! He agreed to do an interview and I didn't expect much from him but boy, did he surprise me.
So with certain people and places confirmed and ready to shoot, I planned my production schedule to fit into my mid-semester break where I had no class for a week. I would be at the coffee shop for 2-3 days for the main filming and interviewing sessions then take a day to film in the city centre where spices have been sold in the main bazaar for a decades. I also reached out to my ex-bossman in The Filmmakers Company to rent equipment. Sam was happy to lend me a tripod, a shotgun microphone and a tiny foldable arm rig all free of charge! I'm just relieved to be able to work with anything I can get my hands on on top of my Canon EOS M.
To make sure I'm not going into this under-prepared, I started to type out an extensive list of interview questions so I wouldn't get too chatty and veer off my main purpose. I also tried to have a shot list prepared JUST IN CASE but it didn't serve its purpose fully, it was just used as a rough reference.
Sub-Plot
Towards the end of pre-production, a uni friend reached out to me and asked whether I would like to head/direct a student film production of my choice. As the President of Kent Malaysian Society, he was supposed to oversee the development of a student-led theatrical-turned-film production as the Society's annual flagship event. Every year, the Society puts out a theatrical play to showcase our culture in an event called Malaysian Night or 'MNight' in short. This time around, it was supposed to be directed by another friend of mine to participate in the very first film festival for Malaysian students in UK and Ireland. The festival was set up in place to replace the physical MNight events with 'MFilms' from all over UK and Irish universities. However, our production was not working out under the unfortunate circumstances of the pandemic. I didn't know what happened exactly but they took a chance in me to see if I can do something about it.
It took me two days to contemplate the choice. On one hand, I can kill two birds with one stone by submitting this assignment as festival entry. On the other, I will be required to do more than what I would have done for just this assignment. I sought council from friends and family and gotten mixed reviews. Honestly, I was scared to take on the commitment and everyone's advices ended with: "It's your choice, you know better. We can only tell you so much." Somehow, doing an internship over the summer break and working on Dreams of Cloth & Colour seemed to have given me enough confidence and insanity to text my friend the next day to tell him that I'm willing to try. How insane of me?! I was literally still struggling with catching up on my missed classes and not yet through with the post-production of my freelancing work??? With that, we set up a committee meeting for the next day where I would pitch my idea to them. Everything was done in a hurry because the festival would be held in March and it was already early November.
So on the afternoon of Sunday, 9th November 2020, I concealed my self-doubts and set out on a Zoom call to convince everyone that I should be able to pull it off. It was intense to have 8 or more people on mute, camera off, expecting me to choke, crash, burn and pull out from the project last minute (okay, I might be a little too dramatic about this). At this point, I've had enough practice with pitching to do it under even more pressure. I don't know if I handled it well, I just remembered that majority of them seemed reluctant to go forward with it. Their concerns were that it would be too much to handle. And if they couldn't do it once when they had more time, why would it be possible with less than 5 months? They kindly asked me to log off the call so they can discuss their final verdict. It was odd that this was my first time in a long time of meeting my friends, everyone seemed distant and cold. I wondered if they were just in work mode.
Production
...... kicked off that same evening before I started filming in Ho Joo Coffee Shop. Prior to that Sunday dinnertime meeting, Chloe has invited me to a virtual potluck event on Zoom where I briefed her about the interview after everyone logged off. Because Chloe is across the sea in another side of the country, we couldn't meet up personally and had to film our interview via Zoom. So if you're wondering why her appearances are always so grainy onscreen, now you know! I explained the recording logistics to her for the best low-budget recording quality. It goes like this:
First off, we shall video call on laptop with earphones plugged in. Next, plug in our iPhones with a separate set of earphones to record our own voices through the microphone. This way, it will record both of our voices on separate tracks to be synced together during the edit where the audio doesn't have the robotic quality that Zoom recording has. Plus, my voice wouldn't interfere with her recording and vice versa if we can only be heard in each other's earbuds. This trick was learnt from my podcasting friends for editing convenience which I will write about soon. However, Chloe doesn't have a separate set of earphones and had to resort to recording her voice with her iPhone's bare microphone. For precaution, we turned off our fans and switched to air conditioning so that the audio quality wouldn't be interfered by the wind noise. I recorded in my room for minimal noises and recorded the footage with Zoom's built-in recording function. Right before we started, we both clapped in unison as slating for syncing measures.
We had a fun mutual agreement to prepare a bowl of Laksa each to snack on during the interview, much like the atmosphere of meeting a friend for a meal in the kopitiam (coffee shop). It was an amusing conversation because while we get to talk about loving Laksa, we also chatted about being creatives and especially being artists in the local scene. Our hour-long chat allowed us to learn about each other for the very first time and yet it was surprising how much we have in common with each other. Chloe said once in the interview that this is a classic example of how 'food brings people together' when I asked whether she believes in that notion. I asked other interviewees the same question too. The answers are wonderful to hear but I cut it all out because it felt too directly expressed, leaving the audience with no mental space to come to the conclusion themselves. As we bade each other goodbye, I reminded her to record her poem recitation on her iPhone with her earphones' microphone which she eventually did and sent me 3 entries to pick from.
Day 2
The next day, I got out of bed at 5am with a taste of Monday blues and excitement. Being up so early and having my dad chauffeuring me reminded me of the high school days when I was a sleep-deprived zombie. For the first time ever, I arrived at the Ho Joo even before its daily opening at 6am. And that was how I shot the opening scene of the shops waking up to host the early farmer's market shoppers. It was eye opening to see the early crowd trickling into Ho Joo for coffee with colourful bags of groceries for the week. Contrary to what I knew, the kopitiam is actually quite popular! I just never got to see it at its peak hours from 6-8am because I'm such a late bird to rise for breakfasts. Old men in their 60's lounged around Ho Joo sipping aromatic coffee, relieved to be able to enjoy their friends' company without masks. You can sense their anxiety to gather in such close proximity but they seemed glad to be able to hold on to a bit of normalcy reminiscent of the lifestyle before the pandemic.
One thing I realised while filming in Ho Joo is that people can get so awkward and self-conscious when the camera lens is pointed in their direction. I do not blame them for the unnatural behaviour as I do understand how intrusive an unwanted camera presence can feel. Every moment, action and space shot on camera seem so elaborate and amplified that people subconsciously start to be aware of how they will come across onscreen. My dad's movement became extremely orchestrated and slow. It was so rigid and unnatural that it even made me feel uncomfortable watching it back. It helped me see that a good performer is one that could neglect the presence of the 'scrutinising' lenses.
On another incident, two men who sat at the table in front of mine thought ill of my intentions to film. They even claimed that I was an undercover police or informant who was prepared to snap away and snitch on people not wearing masks in public. They thought I was going to get them fined for not having the proper mask or social distancing etiquettes and stared me down sternly. I was really puzzled at their response until they called me out loud while they were getting up to pay and leave. I laughed it off, explained myself and apologised for recording them without permission. However, that got me thinking: if I asked for permission to film, they'll either reject or they'll act awkwardly. But if I film without asking, I get to film people in their natural element (which is my preferred choice) but I'll come off as rude and creepy. There is no best way to deal with filming random people in public, the two extreme results are either unnatural 'performances' or 'unethical' filming. So I tried to ignore the messy grey area concerns and focused on getting every shot I could. It boiled down to keeping certain shots where people were unknowing and natural (or knowing yet comfortable) which ended up great and rejecting the shots where people felt uncomfortable in the edit.
Otherwise, some people would just talk to me while I filmed. They would interact with the camera to claim some screen time or just distract me by asking me what I'm doing. On some occasions, they were funny; but then they can be frustrating sometimes especially when I'm taking a good shot and they start to yell stuff at the camera or the vendor (Mdm Choo). What can I say? A girl hanging around the coffee shop for a few days with a camera strapped to her arm is quite a feat for many people who got used to the familiar hence monotonous kopitiam atmosphere. In my earlier edits of Sarawak Laksa, I didn't include most of those scenes. However, I developed more sense of humour as I went through the final weeks of cutting it and decided to add in more of it since it occurred so frequently. Just a subtle reminder that I'm present behind the camera and to let my audience experience a little of what it was like being in my shoes!
That day, I spent about 8-9 hours at Ho Joo. I quietly observed and filmed Mdm Choo and Ah Zhui's family. For a quiet hour when there were little customers, I sat at Mdm Choo's table to take a break with her. As we chatted away, she surprisingly started telling me things about herself, her work, her family... Details that I wouldn't have known if I hadn't planned to make this documentary. Now that I think about it, it must've been the first real conversation I've ever had with her despite visiting her so often. Her openness came as a surprise to me because she seemed so reluctant with the filming at first. Unfortunately, the camera wasn't rolling then but if I start pointing the camera at her, I might spoil her willingness to be open with me.
Afterwards, orders came again and we resumed our work until the stall's closing which made it into the ending of the film. I also stuck around to film Ah Zhui's family cleaning up and closing Ho Joo for the day and is proud to say that I've witnessed a full day of Ho Joo's operation! Through that, I conceived and fell in love with the idea of starting the film with the shop's opening and ending with its closing. A full circle that can hopefully bring a certain degree of satisfaction to my viewers the way I found satisfaction in accomplishing a full day of observation under the tropical heat. It might or might not also be a tongue-in-cheek response to the question that the pastry vendor asked me earlier that day; the question of whether I'll film until her stall closes.
Day 3
Initially, I had planned to get up early for another full day in the coffee shop on Tuesday. But I was satisfied enough with the footage I had captured on Monday and slept in. I still went to shoot at Ho Joo but I only arrived at 8am. As before, I tried to capture shots and all but my ultimate agenda of the day was to film the interview with Joshua. He arrived late morning as agreed upon and is more friendly than I expected from my first impressions through texting him. Although he does carry an air of cool, he gets very conversational and passionately animated when it gets to talking about food and culture. I asked him about Laksa and got more information than I had hoped for. He even told me about his plans to make a trip around South East Asia to eat all kinds of Laksa as his research.
While setting up the camera to film the interview, the tripod I borrowed had a funky leg that came straight off. I low-key panicked and tried to attach it back with no success. In the end, I resorted to using the mini tripod I have to hold up the camera on the table. It wasn't ideal because it became a low angle framing when I had intended for it to be eye-level. It also drooped gradually with the weight of the camera throughout the whole interview session, I readjusted the camera's tilt every now and then but it still caused the framing to look slightly different in every frame. I used the same mini tripod to film Mdm Choo's interview on Thursday because I gave up hope on using the funky tripod. Our chat went on for about 3 hours, almost half of it wasn't even on camera. We were supposed to end the session after an hour and a half but then we continued our conversation off camera for a long time. The knowledges and perspective Joshua offered were very illustrative which gave me more ideas on what to shoot. That afternoon, I looked through all the footage I've captured and sorted them into my editing file while cooking up more scenarios to be included in my shot list.
Day 4
Wednesday was an off-day for me even though I did go and shoot a stall in town. I must've been pretty tired at that point AND catching up with my missed lectures but I can't recall now.
Day 5
Thursday was the day I filmed two more stalls around town and then went back to Ho Joo to interview Mdm Choo. Not sure if she was anxious because of the camera or because we didn't see each other long enough that day for her to warm up to me. She answered every question in a haste. It was only until we talked about her mother that she slowed down and soften a little. I was a little disappointed in myself for not being able to coax her into elaborating her thoughts more and make her comfortable enough to open up the way she did on Monday. Then again, she was in a hurry to go home and I was an amateur interviewer. Probably still am. I believe this interview lasted only 30 minutes, maybe less.
Going into Edit Mode
For the rest of Thursday, I went through Joshua's interview to pick out contents. The first cut of his interview was 24 minutes long. That drove me nuts! It was twice the length of my limit! And it's one person's view only! To think that I was even planning to interview more people such as my mom (I thought it would be interesting to know what she thinks about Sarawakian Laksa after moving here from Selangor for more than 20 years). I also sorted some footage into what I called the B-roll cut by snipping together the parts that I think can be used in the film. At this point, I was still quite clueless about how the film will turn out despite having the story outline and collected so much materials.
Day 6
On the sixth day, I went to film more Laksa stalls in the morning and sorted more footage in the afternoon. I came up with a full 35 minutes draft cut of all the interview contents which I then managed to categorised into every sub-topic the day after.
Day 7
I don't know why I bothered to work on Sunday again but I did which meant that I had way too much on my plate and was on the way to being burnt out. I took the lengthy sorted interview materials and cut it with more details. This time, I began to intercut all the interviewees' sentences. Fusing their thoughts together to resemble a conversation going on. I thought it was interesting how I had Joshua sit on the left side of the table and Mdm Choo on the right whereas Chloe was in the centre frame most of the time. It was cool to know that my instincts had this figured out on set even before I stepped into the editing suite to notice how the spatial and framing choice influenced the story presentation. It turned out 10 minutes shorter but it was still 12 minutes more than my 12 minutes limit.
The intercutting and duration minimising of the interview cut went on section by section (sub-topic) for another two days. It was exhausting to hear the same thing over and over again until I figure out how to make it shorter, make it stick together or do away with it entirely. I stared at my screen, hunched back, from morning to night time each day. It was absolutely exhausting and excruciating to go over all their words like that but at least I trimmed the draft down to about 15 minutes. I don't know how pro editors do this as I was beginning to think that I'm not cut out editing (pun intended).
I discussed my work and progress with my lecturer and my friends, hoping that they can catch what I missed in the edits. Shona gave me many pro tips and advices that I can't recall now while my friends, Tracy & Jacq, were able to offer me feedback of how they felt watching it as audience. Their external takes did help alert me of the flaws of the overall execution and I tried my best to resolve the issues. I then started to add section markers and translated English subtitles which took me a full day of Google Translating and consulting my Mandarin expert friends.
Back to the Camera
This is starting to get really long and messy even for myself.
On day 12,
I went back into production; starting my day with one of Joshua's favourite Laksa which he suggested I try. My mom accompanied me to walk and shoot around the city for half a day. That was when I filmed the many shots of beautiful spices and people going about their grocery shopping in decades-old legacy shops. It was drizzly and gloomy that morning so that was good news for me. If it was sunny as usual, the lighting would be too harsh on the sights that I tried to film. My mom indirectly became my production assistant, holding up an umbrella for my camera and I while I stared intensely at my camera display. I'm really grateful to have mom around. It gave me a lot of freedom to do my thing while people question her about her weird kid and whether we're tourists. And she was also very helpful in suggesting me the sights to film.
And...... Into the Editing 'Suite'
Then, it was back to my laptop and Final Cut Pro again. I began fine cutting my interviews, snipping out grammatical errors and unnecessary pauses that disrupts the flow or takes too much time. It began to remind me of editing Sam's YouTube video again. I was tearing my hair out thinking which 'uh's and 'ah's to keep and which to toss.
Day 13
...marks my third Sunday of starting production. And I sure didn't take time to rest! Rest is for the weak!!! (Truth be told, I just had too much to deal with and I needed to hit the ground running with this so I can juggle other commitments.) I took out chunks that I liked but wasn't working well or were time consuming including the part where Chloe talked about how she got inspired to write the legendary poem. It was getting just under the time limit but it only consisted of continuous interviews with no pauses and B-roll visuals. Taking the advice of my close friend and supervisor, I watched The Big Durian that afternoon for inspiration. And I was inspired! The documentary about a berserk runaway soldier who caused an infamous street shooting suited my taste of using irony and awkwardness to deliver subtle comedic effects. I also found the erratic pacing of the documentary interesting and appreciated how it slows down to savour certain hard hitting sentiments while speeding through the more factual/expository parts. All in all, it was provocative about the themes of racism and racial harmony. My documentary does have a more optimistic take on those themes so it wasn't as sensitive but I admired how The Big Durian broke down all the taboo and anxiety around discussing such issues.
For the following week, I did all I could to add in visuals to the interview 'voiceovers.' The whole process was painstakingly slow as I looked through footage again and again until I figured out where what would fit and how it would work with the words said. It almost felt pointless when I was halfway through it. My editing instincts were worn out from experimenting the results of putting certain visuals and audio together. It made me feel like I was making a powerpoint where I had to find visual elements mentioned by the interviewees to paste on top of the audio segment. The result of it was equally as boring as editing it sounds! Feeling lost, I showed the draft to Karen & Lam from work as well as Shona. Karen said, "Too long. And too much talking." Lam said, "Okay lah." Both didn't sound so good to me. Shona looked at it after our seminar and advised me to give it a rough colour grade. She said it would bring out the atmosphere and 'the feeling'. I didn't understand what she meant but I took her advice and tried it.
It turned out that Shona was right! Giving it rough colour grading did help me shape the tone and mood of the documentary which prompted me to discover the romantic essence that I wanted it to have. Who knew that bringing up the saturation of the colours and cranking up the colour temperature would bring out the flavour of the film?! It made everything look more cohesive and purposeful. It also gave me a sense of direction to continue with the edit.
While rough colour grading, I began adding music into the mix. They added even more flavour into the film! Teresa Teng's classic, Story of a Small Town, is (sin my opinion) very representative of the Kuching lifestyle as the lyrics describe a small town (Kuching) where friendly people share many stories (gossips). Bekikis Bulu Betis by the legendary Andrewson Ngalai is the epitome of Sarawakian music! Mainstream? Yes! But hey, it's an Iban song so popular and beloved that it possesses the power to get any drunk person to stand on their feet to joget (dance). So I thought it was a smart move to harness the power it has over all Sarawakians' hearts and do our under-represented culture justice. Even though everything was starting to come together more clearly, the job was far from done. Fitting visuals to the beat of the songs and pacing the voiceovers were hellish.
Rough sound editing made me realise a lot of production mistakes that I made that complicated the editing phase. I chose to record the interviews in Ho Joo because the pandemic was scary then and nobody dared to record at enclosed spaces or enter each others' homes for fear of exposure to family members. However, that meant that the camera's shotgun microphone picked up way too much noise that ended up in the audio files of Joshua & Mdm Choo's interviews. Everything from the coffee shop chatters to nearby traffic noises disrupted the audio, making it hard for me to intercut Chloe's audio files with theirs. The background noise differences were too drastic and distracting to the ears. It drove my test audiences & I crazy so I did my best to find all sorts of audio snippets of Ho Joo's room tone from other shots to lay under Chloe's interview tracks.
No Lights. Just Camera. And... ACTION! (again)
There I was with my camera in Ho Joo again on Day 21. This time, I brought reinforcements! Just kidding. While editing Chloe's poem, it became apparent to me that I needed to fill the screen with beauty shots of Laksa. In particular, beauty shots of it being devoured with love. My deadline was approaching very soon and I desperately reached out to my friends to ask for help. I needed two emergency 'actors' to eat Laksa so I can film it. I even promised free Laksa but they didn't need that to join production. They were happy to help without returns and that's why my friends are better than yours. Just kidding. Mycan, Kaylex and Mian arrived that Saturday morning ready to film. I was anxious that the perfect table I wanted to 'stage the performance' at would be occupied so I went much earlier than they did to reserve it. My concerns were valid as it was occupied when I first arrived. Thankfully, the patrons left and the table was cleared right before my friends arrived.
I was deliberate when filming the scenes because I had it all visualised in my mind and typed out on a shot list. Every little thing made me tick when I was in that mode of wanting to control almost everything to âšperfectionâš. After my friends figured out which two out of three of them should be onscreen, I sat them down on either side of the table as I had pictured in my brain. I stared at their faces to check their lighting and moved them around a little bit for the optimal lighting. I was blest with amazing natural key light coming in from the exposed side of Ho Joo that bathed my friends' faces with diffused soft glow and soft shadows. The sunlight also bounced across the opposite wall to create the fill light. The back light was limited because it only came from the back exit doorway but my actors were already quite well-lit without additional lighting. The fluorescent lights in Ho Joo were usually nuisances for me in my early filming sessions. Its rate would always clash with my recording fps and the image would flicker badly. The spinning fan blades of the ceiling fans also caused light flickering here & there. I didn't realise the prominence of that problem until the editing phase where I had to give up on several well-framed shots destroyed by the flickers. Luckily for me, the flicker wasn't very prevalent that day except for the top-down shots of the laksa bowls.
As I was filming my friends, I shed my normal friendly-self to focus on getting the shots. Although I did want them to eat naturally, I had to make sure my camera was ready to take the designated shots before they go for it. For a few times, I snapped at Mycan for starting an action before I cued him to. I felt bad about it but I really couldn't afford retakes. Fortunately, everything went smoothly after they were familiarised with the way that I worked and vice versa. With the whole shot list checked off, I was finally able to take a breather and eat some laksa myself. At the same time, Mycan pulled out his podcasting microphone to help me record background ambience for editing use. We also tried to record the 'ASMR' of slurping and crunching laksa for fun even though I ended up not using it. As for the background track, I discovered that using the audio recorded via Mycan's podcasting microphone sounded different, more muffled and filtered than the shotgun camera's audio and it couldn't be used in the soundscape either as it didn't blend well together with what I initially had.
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Exhilarated by the new shots I took, I rushed home to piece them together with the poem. Considering the shots that I've taken, I picked a romantic ballad by the legendary Malaysian diva, Saloma, and actor P.Ramlee, her husband. Saat Yang Bahagia sings about the moments of happiness that hits you unexpectedly. The feeling comes and goes rapidly but discreetly plants the blooming seed of passion within you. It reminds me of my indescribable love for Laksa (and home) that emerged out of nowhere and grows bigger with each passing day. Cutting the music right to poem was challenging at first. Fortunately, the tune matched well and I just had to tweak it enough to sound seamless. Then I added the visuals over it and cut them according to the beat. Some rough colour grading and...... voila! The flow of it still needed additional work but it was easily my favourite part of the film! I showed it to Alee, my supervisor, and she noted how it is very Yasmin Ahmad-esque. That sent me over the moon because the late Yasmin is an icon and my personal favourite storyteller.
On day 23,
I had a week left before my assignment submission deadline. It was a Friday night and I had an appointment with Alee to look through my edit together. We were miles apart and had to work together on Discord. I shared my screen and played the film on the editing timeline so we could figure out what needed change and have it fixed on the spot. I met Alee in Kent and she was a film postgraduate. We clicked right from the get-go and have remained close friends until now. She's always generous in providing me good counsels on my academic work and broadening my film knowledge. As always, it was comforting to seek her expertise in editing that I still need more improvements on.The adjustments she suggested made the film flow better. Towards the end of the session, she suggested that I try adding Noh Salleh's Sarawak to the closing sequences. I gave the song a listen and immediately made up my mind to include it when I heard the musical intro. Alee's intuition and wisdom is the best resource that I have in this project. I am so incredibly lucky to have such an amazing friend!
Day 24
Ah, Monday mornings! I shot the title scene with the top down shot of a bowl of laksa coming into frame and placed on the coffee shop table. The shot flickered but it was so aesthetically pleasing. And if you're wondering, yes, I did devour that bowl of laksa right after I shot it. It's almost as if I was the hunter and it was my prize shot! I went back home to continue cutting it for 3 days. Constantly asking for feedback from my family members who were deliberately avoiding me at this point and finalising the cut for my approaching deadline.
Deadline
Nervously, I submitted my film to Shona and crossed my fingers. I love filmmaking but having to be academically-graded on it is always nerve-wrecking for me. However, it was quite a relief to be able to take a break from it after 2 months of working on it including ideation and pre-production. My day count excludes all the days that I didn't work on the project so 26 days of production and post-production actually spanned across 5 weeks. That was also the last week of the semester and of my documentary module. I was a little sad that it was over because I really enjoyed that module even though it was all done online. However, the work wasn't done yet because we were required to write a critical analysis that we will be graded on as a reflection on the project. I took a week of my winter break to conjure up the 2000-words essay before I jumped onto my next assignment. While this blog talks about the more technical part of my experience, the analysis essay offers a more detailed account of my story inspirations and reasons for my creative choices :
Sub-Plot Becomes The Main Plot
So remember the sub-plot I mentioned earlier on? It's about to be the main plot in the next case study so stay tuned to read about how I extended the assignment to submit as a festival entry and all the chaos that I went through for that!
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