Article Archive: The Edge Financial Daily (Monday, 24 May 2010)

The Edge Financial Daily 
In Conversation:
Lights, Camera, Action!
Written by Anandhi Gopinath
Monday, 24 May 2010 00:00

Our commercial and independent filmmakers are as different as they come. Yet their quest is the same — to tell Malaysian stories. Veteran actor/producer/director Hans Isaac and up-and-coming indie filmmaker Deepak Menon give us a clear picture of what separates the work they do, the art of storytelling, the many challenges they face in telling the Malaysian story and the not-so-bright future they see for local cinema.

Malaysia has had quite a successful commercial film industry for many years now. The past decade, however, has seen a burgeoning independent film industry that has been winning multiple awards in film festivals all over the world. As different as they are, both our commercial and indie films have a similar purpose: to tell Malaysian stories.

Veteran actor/producer/director Hans Isaac and up-and-coming indie filmmaker Deepak Menon come from opposite ends of the spectrum yet share many similarities in their filmmaking quest, most importantly to express themselves and seek acceptance of their creative self-expression.

They share with us their thoughts on making movies for the Malaysian audience, their experiences and hope for the future.

 

Anandhi Gopinath: Let’s start with this question: what exactly is a Malaysian movie or a Malaysian story?

Hans Issac: It’s movies about what we know. It’s about not putting boundaries, saying I don’t have to make what has always been made. If it’s a very normal script that I get, I would accept this half but I would ask them to tweak it, but don’t do it the way their market wants it. What’s the hook of your story? Then, you must put the hook in a clever, compelling context.

When I put together Cuci, the goal was to show the access to opportunity no matter where you come from. Don’t be lazy, take the opportunity and something good will come of it. Even if you don’t succeed, you’re still further from where you started.

Deepak Menon: I think all stories — fictional, narrative or history — are an experience shared. The vision of the writer’s writings, the director’s visuals and the music composer’s rhythm pass through the audience’s mind for interpretation. The value of that experience is perceived by the audience, which is then guided by their belief systems, attitudes, acceptable community customs, past experiences, perception of reality and even their sensitivity to the subject matter.

As Malaysians, we are exposed to many sets of culture and belief systems due to our rich demographic cultural density and vast historical origins. So capturing tacit knowledge becomes an important ingredient for originality.

As a storyteller, the challenge is then to identify the most common and mundane experiences and share and deliver them in a less forceful and intimidating manner. Subtlety, sensitivity, respect and community responsibility play important roles in a country like ours. Remember, Asian cultures encourage the use of less offensive written, verbal and non-verbal communication methods.

The perception is that international content should copy Hollywood and Bollywood content as they seem very successful. But you have to realise that they are successful because they promote original storytelling that focuses on the development of their national content.

A Malaysian story has to be reflective of and responsive to the uniqueness of the integrated Malaysian culture, social cultural environment and the business environment, support the national agenda, represent the people’s voices, and at the same time, contribute to the national content and talent industry and strive to promote shared values internationally.

 

Deepak, your two movies, Chemman Chaalai and Chalanggai, were really good and successful too. It’s a big deal for a filmmaker, especially an independent one, to start off his career with not one but two successful movies. How did you do that?

Deepak: I was in television before and to a certain extent, I’ve tried to carry my experience into filmmaking and integrate it. I’ve been carrying cables for a long time — since I was 10 because my dad was in production too. That, plus my observations of the industry … I’m also in film education, that’s my first qualification. My second qualification is in business administration. I also write for academic journals.

I also tried to solve a problem in the industry. The problem I saw was that there was no Indian content! Absolutely none. I looked at this and wondered why people weren’t making any Indian movies. So I met filmmakers from the older generation, like Datuk L Krishnan ... they all told me not to do it. Even those filmmakers making Chinese and Malay movies, they said don’t do it or I will go bankrupt. I took that as a challenge and decided to do it.

The first problem was that there was no local Tamil movie industry to speak of. No talent, no nothing. When you think about India’s Tamil movie industry, they have Rajinikanth and that sort of star power. I didn’t have that here. But I used that as an advantage by reversing the entire order of producing a commercial movie. I targeted 50 to 70-year-olds, and the cinemas told me, no way will old people come and buy tickets. That fell on deaf ears. I also changed the screenplay — nothing like what the Indian filmmakers do. I cast ordinary people in the roles and the cinematography was against the norm too. If you want to break the rules, know them well and break them totally — no halfway business.

I pushed things to the limit with Chemman Chaalai and we went against Finas when they rejected the film because they said: ‘Kamu mencemarkan budaya Malaysia.’ This was back in 2005. But the movie was finally released.

 

Why did Finas reject it initially?

Hans: The guidelines were not clear. I am on the board of the producers’ association of Malaysia. We’ve been working on these guidelines for a while now. That’s why they suddenly said rempits are okay and protesting is okay. We were shooting blindly before and then suddenly we’re told we cannot show this — we can’t go back and reshoot everything.

We’ve never had guidelines because no one was brave enough to put these guidelines down and say, ‘Yes, I think these are good guidelines and let’s put them down.’ You can’t expect the ministry to do this; they will vet what’s already there. Someone has to do it, and we have it now.

Do you think Malaysian audiences get the point of your movies?

Hans: Well I get the point because my movies are straight up and direct (laughs).

Deepak: For me, it’s not a problem … I go for a lot of screenings and weird stuff and I find that any form of art and expression has its audience somehow. People do like my movies and the people I reach out to do enjoy what I make, so it’s great.

Hans: You’ll always have the problem of audiences not quite getting it. Some people will say ‘teruklah’. Some people will say ‘it’s okay’. And some will say, ‘man, I loved it’. Question is, who is your market and are you happy with what you’ve said. That’s most important.

 

Pick one major positive of the evolution of the commercial movie industry.

Hans: It allowed a guy like me, with no vision for filmmaking, to make a movie. And that’s very hard. I knew nothing about movies and I didn’t go to film school. I was acting for years and I sat with editors and directors and I worked my way up. I was an extra, I ‘tapaued’ food and I waited for my time. It allowed me to come here from nothing. I’m a hospitality management grad. How the hell am I making movies?

Content-wise … well, if someone makes a movie that makes RM7 million, people will quickly do the same thing. We should do that. Make a movie based on a passion you have, get it out of your system, then move on. But direct it when you’re ready.

How has content developed in the indie film industry? And how do you form your own content?

Deepak: To be independent, one must not be dependent. There is a need for constant innovation. Innovation here is not only in content creation, but also in the business process, operational process, regulatory system, media innovation, distribution channels, exhibition channels, working structures and, most importantly, financial strategies.

Technology has played a vital role in democratising the creative industry to be able to compete globally. Unlike the traditional filmmaking dictatorial industry, a filmmaker today is capable of dreaming big dreams. While independent filmmakers are limited by their environmental constraints, they have an opportunity to explore and develop strong working models that these slow-moving media giants can only dream of. Small is beautiful and flexibility has become the key.

So yes lah, the content creation process in the independent filmmaking scene is less confined by the capitalist structures but driven towards personal actualisation and community development in building a strong foundation and pushing back the boundaries for future content opportunities and exploration.

In developing my content … well, I leverage opportunities that I see. This is my talent, these are my capabilities, but there are also four factors I always look at: the attractiveness of a story, its durability, its timeliness and if there is a value-added factor. I am a family filmmaker, so nothing too scandalous. I am also a subtle filmmaker — I don’t attack anyone or anything, I’m liberal and I let the audience consume what they want in a movie.

 

The perception of the public — the non-filmmaking crowd — is that commercial filmmakers are only after the money while indie filmmakers are after the creative aspect of filmmaking.

Hans: You have Deepak’s kind of filmmaking and you have my kind, and they are both very different and cater for two different markets. But if we go from this side of the fence to the other side, the strategy changes radically. It’s about marketing, about money and about business.

Every indie director wants to make a commercial film. They have access to money to be able to shoot on different formats, live sounds, really good actors, and the colour grading is better.

Deepak: Filmmaking incorporates a set of creative processes that strategically integrate most, if not all, entertainment industry challenges and transform them into opportunities. Producers, writers, directors, dancers, actors, musicians, visual artists, financiers, distributors, marketers, exhibitors, managerial crews and technical crews come together in a shared vision to transform their aspirations, talents and ideas into a tangible product. And most of the time, there is a borderless crossover effort between commercial and independent artists.

For sustainable growth and to be able to continue producing film works, positive consumption and financial returns from works are inevitable. The difference here is just the working model. The flexible independent filmmaking model enables filmmakers to focus on key issues and aspects that so-called commercial films are restrained from exploring.

There is a desperate need for academics, industry practitioners and government regulatory bodies to re-evaluate  current industry standards. The audiences are limited to consuming what is available. It is the responsibility of the providers to promote the right content to ensure the growth of the national industry.

Would you ever do an indie film?

Hans: Of course! But I won’t spend RM1.8 million on it. I would shoot differently. I would downscale everything and shoot with what we’ve got. One van with everything in it, minimum production team, and the story would be about four people only. No scene with plenty of extras, then I will edit it in my office. I would consider doing this for sure, as long as I have a strong storyline.

A commercial movie takes 35, 40 days to shoot and it’s a huge battalion of people. This huge convoy … my, it’s mental. I’d rather not shoot like that. I’d like to pile everyone in a van and just go and shoot and tell my story. But then again, if everyone in Malaysia watched this movie, it would become a commercial success because it made money.

So you mean the difference between commercial and independent movies is really only the money?

Hans: It comes down to that, definitely.

Deepak: I’ve won awards as an alternative filmmaker, a digital filmmaker, an indie filmmaker …  they keep putting me in boxes. For me, it’s simple — as long as you have a business model and you want to make profits, you have to close shop if that model doesn’t work for you. There is a saying — rich people care about what food looks like, the middle class cares about how many portions at the same price, and the poor want to know if it can keep for a week. When you are working with scarce resources, you learn how to work with what you have and how to make it stretch.

Independent only really means you’re not dependent on anything. No one is there for you and when you fall, you fall on your own.

Hans: I self-fund, but I have backers, so that means I’m not independent. And I pay two actors as much as Deepak’s entire budget. The process of making the film is pretty much the same; it’s just the different budgets and limitations we work with.

Okay, let’s call them mainstream and underground movies then. What else separates the two?

Hans: When it comes to content, there is a great responsibility towards the money that’s put into a movie. When you have RM150,000 in the shape of a grant, the responsibility is less. But for me, when the money comes from my own pocket or my investor’s pocket, the responsibility is greater.

Studios have the best process to create a good story. They will fund nine commercial movies a year and the 10th will be given to an indie director. We’ll let this indie guy do what the hell he wants to do and see if it works. Bigger studios can’t take that risk because the board of directors will say, ‘no, we want 10 commercial movies’.

It depends on the people on top, whether they are willing to take the risk and say, ‘guys, don’t worry, make an indie movie and do what you will with it. Even if it flops, don’t worry, you won’t lose your job’. That’s how Hollywood does it — they make several commercial movies per year and then there’s one that they fund for the heck of it. Studios here don’t think like that. They want all 10 movies to be successful in the same way. No risk, no ‘jalan depan’ — it’s that simple.

How do you see the future of the film industry here?

Hans: I think it’s going to be stagnant. This is it. There might be one film that comes along, it will be successful, and that’s it. It’s unfortunate.

Deepak: American films are the highest grossing in the world. Next is India. Now it is Nollywood — the Nigerian film industry. They came up because there wasn’t a structure they had to work with, so they just happened. Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore — they all have very structured film industries. Look at how they have penetrated our market! But we can’t penetrate their market because of the limitations we’ve set ourselves creatively.

Hans: Put it this way, Malaysian cinema is predominantly Malay cinema. Malays watch Malay films. Chinese don’t watch them, Indians don’t watch them either. Chinese films? Chinese watch them, Indians watch them, and Malays watch them.

Deepak: We’re limited by the language, but it’s not just the language. It’s the stereotypical stories that people are bored with.

Hans: [The late] Yasmin [Ahmad] made beautiful stories. But did they sell? Remember Sepet? You put a hero dying at the end, people watch it once and that’s it. But if the hero lives, it’s a great thing. But who says that is what actually happens? We need to start telling real stories and we need to start accepting them too.

This article appeared in Options, the lifestyle pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 807, May 24-30, 2010

The Edge Financial Daily Article Online Link:
http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/lifestyle/167609-in-conversationlights-camera-action.html