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It was a memorable morning for all participants
of a unique Panel Discussion Session organised
by Assistant Professor Michael Brown held at NUS
School of Computing on 14 October 2009. Students
from CS3343: “Digital Media Production” were
treated to two interesting guest speakers from
JTeam Production. JTeam Production is one of
Singapore’s pioneer production houses since the
1980s, and is associated with movies such as
“Home Run” and “Just Follow Law”. The two guests
were the “J” himself, Jack Neo, and Boris Boo.
Mr Jack Neo is one of Singapore’s best known
comedians and film makers, becoming a household
name in Singapore through his roles in the late
1980s as a granny ‘Liang Po Po’ and house wife
‘Liang Ximei’. Jack went on to direct over a
dozen successful Singapore-made movies including
“Money Not Enough” and “I Not Stupid”. Mr Boris
Boo is a full-time writer at JTeam Production
and has been involved in close to 100 scripts
for various productions from TV to film. Boris
made his directorial debut with JTeam’s most
recent production “Where Got Ghost”.
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Mr Boris Boo (left) and Mr Jack
Neo (right) starting the panel
discussion |
Jack warming up to the audience,
spelling the start of a lively
interaction session |
Boris and Jack accepting tokens
of appreciation from Dr Michael
Brown (extreme right) |
Michael and Jack at the
reception |
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Jack and Boris shared their experiences in
film-making, direction and acting with NUS
students at the two-hour panel discussion. Some
surprising and comical questions were raised by
the audience, including questions on film
censorship, logistic management for movies,
audio selection, scrip-writing and instilling
humour and creativity into film at the
appropriate scenes. Jack and Boris took turns to
answer the questions related to their fields of
expertise.
With a tinge of humour in every answer, Jack
turned a formal discussion panel into a lively
interactive session between the participants and
himself. When asked about how he deals with
censorship issues in Singapore, he comically
recalled how one of his films received an NC16
rating instead of a PG rating just because it
contained one single scene of semi-nudity while
‘ang moh’ (western) films may contain numerous
such scenes. Jack also gave a great deal of
insight into his early days of filming in
Singapore, where budget, equipment and
experiences were limited. Very interestingly, he
recalled how when he first started filming
“Money Not Enough 1” in the 1990s, he faced the
difficulty of obtaining state-of-the-art filming
equipment and had to rely on very simple filming
and audio capture equipment to complete the
film. He amusingly shared how most of the
audience in the Asian film festival where “Money
Not Enough” was screened loved the audio because
it showed the true environment of Singapore in
its development stage when indeed those were the
sounds captured from the unavoidable
construction works going on at shooting spot
that Jack detested and had not planned to
include in the movie.
Boris complemented the panel with his discussion
on troubles faced in finding shooting locations,
managing talent, final editing of film and
audio, and issues related to matching the script
to the director’s vision with suitable logic in
the story. Members of the audience were amused
by his interesting recounts and learned a few
tips in film-making by listening to his
experience working with Jack.
The session concluded with Jack words of wisdom
and encouragement to students to follow their
passion and strive hard to do what they aspire
to do and never give up in their efforts even if
they failed the first time. Dr Michael Brown
thanked both the speakers for their presence and
presented them with tokens of appreciation.
Jack and Boris then interacted with the audience
over a tea reception. Some participants took the
chance to have their photographs taken with the
two visitors.
In simple words, the event made for an
unforgettable two-hour session. Students look
forward to more of such interesting and engaging
guest speakers who can trigger their inquisitive
minds.
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