A proposal.. what do u guys think?

Michael Chen · May 13th, 2002, 07:05 AM

Thanks for the advice..
Where are you from by the way?

I'll get more info on the law side. At the moment, I would like to see how many people are interested/confirmed so that we have an idea of what type of skills/experiences/equipment that will be available.

Movies in Malaysia are made for cinema release, mostly straight to video/tvs. There are not too many good movies produced locally here, thats why even if they got screened locally, they couldnt penetrate the foreign market. They are some minorities which do though.
We'll definitely shoot in English so that we can reach out to more audiences and most cinemagoers in my country understands english. Most of the films shown in our local cinema are from Hollywood and Hong Kong, a few from local production co.

And bout who gets paid etc, it will depend on the amount of money we are able to make from it. I think all these needs to be written in black and white if possible.
At the moment, i think we'll use the profits made (if we make any) to cover our expenses incurred, and for some of the people participating, and the rest be distributed to those who have provide us the funds.
We need to sort this out together...

Justin Chin · May 13th, 2002, 08:47 AM

Here are some things the group should think about:

- Consider only projects that can be shot with as little gear as possible.
- Think about shooting "dogma" style, as little props as possible, no special fx, what have you. Simple is good. Let the script shine.
- First things first, choose a story. Then we'll know what we have to work with.

At this point we don't need to inventory gear. Assume you have every basic need, camera, tripod, lights etc. Mostly because we should just figure out what kind of story we should tell.

Here are my thoughts:

Work in two threads, the Malaysian production, and the US (or everywhere else) production. Here's the good part. I believe the story should be about a fish out of water. A person who travels to Mayalsia for one reason (or doesn't care to go) but finds that he learns about himself and through his unexpected adventures in a foreign land.

Almost think of this as an adventure, we don't know how all this might work out, we'll probably never get to meet each other before we actually get to Malaysia. So think of how real (cinema verite) a lot of our story can be, filming the airport, the flight, the arrival, etc. Think about how two or more actors might come together and like or hate each other when they meet? What would that bring?

It all sounds like a chaotic process, but without a lot of pre-production and money, it will be chaotic, might as well shoot the chaos. It could even be about a small film production trying to film a movie and the things that happen a long the way.

What is power like in Malaysia? PAL or NTSC?

Dean Bull · May 13th, 2002, 12:41 PM

I am from California. I think that most of the people of this board have most the equipment you need to make a dv feature (be it editing, cameras, mics, EXPERIANCE, etc) So what I would look into is getting a small production budget that will cover expenses of traveling to Malaysia, and living for a couple months. That way, all the equipment is available and so is the crew. In return we get points on the backend. (i.e. movie grosses 100,000 dollars-it cost 10,000 to make-everybody who worked on the picture gets 5-10% of 90,000 dollars) I mean, you work all that out before hand and get contracts signed but that could be one way. The key, I believe, is to come up with an original entertaining script. Cause going to movies should be fun! What kind of censorship issues exist in Malaysia? What Kind of movies do really well? What kind of locations exist close by? How much would actors cost? I am just trying to get an idea of what type of film we should be looking into. Believe me, if this pans out it could be really cool.

Why don't you give us your e-mail so we can discuss this more?

Michael Chen · May 13th, 2002, 05:27 PM

We are using PAL system in Malaysia.

One good thing about shooting in Malaysia is this. Most of the local productions are very low budget type :)
The most expensive movies i've heard of perhaps cost around 300k US dollar. It was one of the best produced locally, and I think it was screened in Singapore as well.
Patro, you might heard this movie before, it's called Spinning Gasing.

And even if we can't get them to local cinema, we may still be able to get them to broadcast in tv, since those that gets into tvs is even much lower in budget.

Minimum props, equipment etc for you guys may be considered high tech for my country hehe. The censorship board will be kinda strict, especially on violence/sex/religions content which I think we won't focus too much on. I'll try to get the guideline if possible.
As to what type of movies do really well.. I can say this. Promotion plays the most important factor here. It doesnt really matter what type of movies. Some movies really sucks, and thanks to the extreme promotion, many people will go and watch not knowing that it's not good.

As to locations, there are lots of pretty good locations around. Perhaps you could check out www.malaysia.com for all the good locations etc :)

And as to how much an actor cost, if cost really matters, i'd suggest that we promote this in colleges etc and get students to volunteer. We can do an audition for this, and let them know that we can only pay them if we make a profit. There may be some students who are willing to do them for free.

Students doing Australian programmes will have a 3 months break from November till February. Perhaps we can target this group. Therefore, we can have a pretty low cost movie with free crews, and put our funds on other aspects.

The main thing now is the funds. I think it'll be better to get funds from UK or US, since our currency here is much smaller.

Perhaps we could exchange email?
Mine is outward_b@hotmail.com
I have MSN too.
I hope that more people will join us, as i think that if we could get more people from other countries to get involve, chances of the press covering our story will be bigger.

May 13th, 2002, 09:06 PM

First:

We're all assuming that this proposed production should be a movie (film). Let's not rule out other options, too. Some of these are:

-TV movie
-Documentary
-Travelogue
-Eposidic programmes (which could entail any of the above, as well as anything else)

I have ideas for all, but it seems that documentaries are the easiest to do. I know there's not a lot of money available for distribution in Malaysia/Singapore, but the ideal situation would be to shoot something in SE Asia, and have it distributed in the US/Europe.

In this way we get the best of both: low-cost production and shooting of SE Asia, and high(er) acquisition costs of the West.

But I'm open to anything.

So let's agree on the type of production to be shot first. I'd opt for a series of documentaries, but of course would love to do a film.

Also, instead of emailing each other yet, let's continue our conversation here so that others may get involved.

Any thoughts?

Patro

andrew@ambitiouspleasure.com
Singapore

K. Forman · May 14th, 2002, 01:07 PM

I just did a quick look up on Malaysia. Believe it or not, I don't have alot of knowledge of the Country. Anyways, I found references to the Orang Asli tribes. Looking a little deeper, I found them to be several distinct tribes of aboriginee located in Malaysia. http://www.xlibris.de/magickriver/oa.htm

Anybody else smell a Discovery documentary?

Other than that, I personally would look into Military history, or even cultural roots and how they evolved. Maybe a few deserted villiages or temples, as an archeological/anthropological viewpoint?

Michael Chen · May 14th, 2002, 05:07 PM

I am leaning in favour of doing a film at the moment. But I am open to anything too.

Atomic has emailed me and sounds pretty enthusiastic in doing a movie. I know documentary will be easier to do, but we don't really get to have people from the US to come over here often, and for them to come , they may want to try their hands on film and we could gain good experience from doing it too.

Lets hear from what the others has to say.
I'll try to put up with a more detailed proposal sometime this week/next week, once I receive more input from you guys.

For now, lets decide on what we are going to do so that we can start assigning roles. And Patro, if you have any interesting ideas for movie scripts , could you mail them to me , justin and atomic?

Perhaps we could do a documentary if our first film project isn't that successful :)

Capt Quirk,
It'll be great if you could join us too.

Kyle "Doc" Mitchell · May 19th, 2002, 07:45 PM

Guys:

Wow. I leave the boards for a couple weeks to finish some exams at the university, and look what everyone is cooking up. Sounds exciting about this Malaysia idea. Like MichaelC, I'm wanting to gain as much experience making feature narratives as possible. I want to stay informed about this project. I'll be through will school after this fall and I'm looking for something exciting to do next january (before I start to work for the summer). This deal looks right up my ally. Besides travelling to cool places and meeting cool people, making movies is my passion. I'm willing to brainstorn and what-not for script ideas. However, the one thing that worries me about Malaysia is the strictness level against violence. All my personal homemade movies and student projects (except 1) all have some sort of kung-fu derivative fighting style; not all have blood. I'm tellin' ya, story really cooks when you've got some well-planned fight scenes shot wide-angle to match the strength of your characters. I'm not really into bizarre artsy movies - like them though - but I prefer "fun," simple stories that are exciting and different. Stories that Hollywood would be too scared to make. Hmmmmmm. Maybe Malaysia would be a cool place to hang. Keep me posted.

Regards,

Kyle "Doc" Mitchell

Michael Chen · May 21st, 2002, 12:50 AM

Glad to see that more and more people are interested in the idea.
And yes you are rite, as I think that it'll be pretty exciting and it'll be good experience for us.
I am into action films as well, and would love to plan some fight scenes with you which can be implemented into the feature if you are able to come.

Keith Loh · May 21st, 2002, 05:54 PM

Michael, four years ago I tried to start a video game development house with the backing of one of your major companies in Malaysia (if you want to know which one, I can tell you in email). I got pretty far (we got development money and we satisfied our backer's due diligence) but then the Asian economic disaster hit and the project sunk.

At the time we were very jazzed about going to a new country (I'm Canadian but my family is from Malaysia) and setting up shop because of the climate of 'newness' in Malaysia. It was very exciting visiting and talking to both business and also young people about entertainment.

That part was very positive even though it didn't develop. However, I did feel some negative backlash from some of the community who were concerned that the product (video games) was going to be "Malaysian" enough. Most of the investors 'got it' that the product could be aimed internationally but still have local input, but I had to fight some battles because some local creators were afraid that it would all be a bunch of foreigners using Malaysian money to make something that was culturally not native.

I'll be interested to see how your project develops.

Michael Chen · May 26th, 2002, 06:50 AM

I'd say it all depends on the people you are working with. Some of them are not as open as others.

But then, lots of video games shop has been banned here. There's only a few in Malaysia which are operating now, and this may be the case why there have been lack of support.

If you are interested in venturing into films over here, feel free to let me know. Or you can mail me.
We'll keep you posted on the project. Its still at the early stages of pre-production.
I sure hope that we can get this through.

Michel Brewer · May 26th, 2002, 11:04 PM

Hey add me to the email list, I would be interested in joining in on this and so sick of my job its actually funny....im hopefully taking leave in august...my equipment is all ntsc though... a xl1 and pd100a. And unforutnately i come from news so documentry might be better. At the same time pretty much willing to try anything dont want to be here on 9/11 2003. As I said my b/g is news.....btw anyone see the hbo 9/11 tonight, incredible job. A friend I work with shots were included (he shot dv a trv 900 to be exact). I just rather be doing something i like, so please put me on the email lists im interested in going.

michel

Riley Florence · June 8th, 2002, 12:44 PM

Count me in! I would love to come and help on it.... i'd just have to get out of school.. but thats no problem.

Michael Chen · June 8th, 2002, 08:16 PM

Sure.

Drop me a mail at outward_b@hotmail.com
or give me your email add..

By the way, if you could help us out by locating some of the distributors in your country, that will be great and hopefully we can get enough returns to pay all our expenses.

Kyle "Doc" Mitchell · June 14th, 2002, 07:36 AM

MichaelC:

Sorry about not promptly emailing you when I said I would a few weeks ago. I'll get to cranking it out to you. Many apologies. I'm wondering if you could let the board know how everything is coming along. I'm still interested in the project, and check this thread every once in a while when I realized that I never emailed you back that one time. Let us know, thanks!

Regards,

Kyle "Doc" Mitchell

May 13th, 2002, 07:05 AM	#16
Michael Chen Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Singapore Posts: 163	Thanks for the advice.. Where are you from by the way? I'll get more info on the law side. At the moment, I would like to see how many people are interested/confirmed so that we have an idea of what type of skills/experiences/equipment that will be available. Movies in Malaysia are made for cinema release, mostly straight to video/tvs. There are not too many good movies produced locally here, thats why even if they got screened locally, they couldnt penetrate the foreign market. They are some minorities which do though. We'll definitely shoot in English so that we can reach out to more audiences and most cinemagoers in my country understands english. Most of the films shown in our local cinema are from Hollywood and Hong Kong, a few from local production co. And bout who gets paid etc, it will depend on the amount of money we are able to make from it. I think all these needs to be written in black and white if possible. At the moment, i think we'll use the profits made (if we make any) to cover our expenses incurred, and for some of the people participating, and the rest be distributed to those who have provide us the funds. We need to sort this out together... Last edited by Michael Chen; May 13th, 2002 at 08:42 AM.

May 13th, 2002, 08:47 AM	#17
Justin Chin Major Player Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Oakland, CA Posts: 227	Here are some things the group should think about: - Consider only projects that can be shot with as little gear as possible. - Think about shooting "dogma" style, as little props as possible, no special fx, what have you. Simple is good. Let the script shine. - First things first, choose a story. Then we'll know what we have to work with. At this point we don't need to inventory gear. Assume you have every basic need, camera, tripod, lights etc. Mostly because we should just figure out what kind of story we should tell. Here are my thoughts: Work in two threads, the Malaysian production, and the US (or everywhere else) production. Here's the good part. I believe the story should be about a fish out of water. A person who travels to Mayalsia for one reason (or doesn't care to go) but finds that he learns about himself and through his unexpected adventures in a foreign land. Almost think of this as an adventure, we don't know how all this might work out, we'll probably never get to meet each other before we actually get to Malaysia. So think of how real (cinema verite) a lot of our story can be, filming the airport, the flight, the arrival, etc. Think about how two or more actors might come together and like or hate each other when they meet? What would that bring? It all sounds like a chaotic process, but without a lot of pre-production and money, it will be chaotic, might as well shoot the chaos. It could even be about a small film production trying to film a movie and the things that happen a long the way. What is power like in Malaysia? PAL or NTSC? __________________ justin www.monsterrocket.com Filmmaker \| Cinematographer

May 13th, 2002, 12:41 PM	#18
Dean Bull Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: San Diego, CA Posts: 106	I am from California. I think that most of the people of this board have most the equipment you need to make a dv feature (be it editing, cameras, mics, EXPERIANCE, etc) So what I would look into is getting a small production budget that will cover expenses of traveling to Malaysia, and living for a couple months. That way, all the equipment is available and so is the crew. In return we get points on the backend. (i.e. movie grosses 100,000 dollars-it cost 10,000 to make-everybody who worked on the picture gets 5-10% of 90,000 dollars) I mean, you work all that out before hand and get contracts signed but that could be one way. The key, I believe, is to come up with an original entertaining script. Cause going to movies should be fun! What kind of censorship issues exist in Malaysia? What Kind of movies do really well? What kind of locations exist close by? How much would actors cost? I am just trying to get an idea of what type of film we should be looking into. Believe me, if this pans out it could be really cool. Why don't you give us your e-mail so we can discuss this more? Last edited by Dean Bull; May 13th, 2002 at 02:29 PM.

May 26th, 2002, 11:04 PM	#27
Michel Brewer Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Ventura California Posts: 179	im interested Hey add me to the email list, I would be interested in joining in on this and so sick of my job its actually funny....im hopefully taking leave in august...my equipment is all ntsc though... a xl1 and pd100a. And unforutnately i come from news so documentry might be better. At the same time pretty much willing to try anything dont want to be here on 9/11 2003. As I said my b/g is news.....btw anyone see the hbo 9/11 tonight, incredible job. A friend I work with shots were included (he shot dv a trv 900 to be exact). I just rather be doing something i like, so please put me on the email lists im interested in going. michel

June 8th, 2002, 12:44 PM	#28
Riley Florence Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Salt Lake City, Utah Posts: 61	Count me In! Count me in! I would love to come and help on it.... i'd just have to get out of school.. but thats no problem. __________________ -------------------------- -Riley Florence SLC, Utah. http://www.secondsection.com

May 13th, 2002, 05:27 PM	#19
Michael Chen Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Singapore Posts: 163	We are using PAL system in Malaysia. One good thing about shooting in Malaysia is this. Most of the local productions are very low budget type :) The most expensive movies i've heard of perhaps cost around 300k US dollar. It was one of the best produced locally, and I think it was screened in Singapore as well. Patro, you might heard this movie before, it's called Spinning Gasing. And even if we can't get them to local cinema, we may still be able to get them to broadcast in tv, since those that gets into tvs is even much lower in budget. Minimum props, equipment etc for you guys may be considered high tech for my country hehe. The censorship board will be kinda strict, especially on violence/sex/religions content which I think we won't focus too much on. I'll try to get the guideline if possible. As to what type of movies do really well.. I can say this. Promotion plays the most important factor here. It doesnt really matter what type of movies. Some movies really sucks, and thanks to the extreme promotion, many people will go and watch not knowing that it's not good. As to locations, there are lots of pretty good locations around. Perhaps you could check out www.malaysia.com for all the good locations etc :) And as to how much an actor cost, if cost really matters, i'd suggest that we promote this in colleges etc and get students to volunteer. We can do an audition for this, and let them know that we can only pay them if we make a profit. There may be some students who are willing to do them for free. Students doing Australian programmes will have a 3 months break from November till February. Perhaps we can target this group. Therefore, we can have a pretty low cost movie with free crews, and put our funds on other aspects. The main thing now is the funds. I think it'll be better to get funds from UK or US, since our currency here is much smaller. Perhaps we could exchange email? Mine is outward_b@hotmail.com I have MSN too. I hope that more people will join us, as i think that if we could get more people from other countries to get involve, chances of the press covering our story will be bigger.

May 13th, 2002, 09:06 PM	#20
patro_sg Posts: n/a	First: We're all assuming that this proposed production should be a movie (film). Let's not rule out other options, too. Some of these are: -TV movie -Documentary -Travelogue -Eposidic programmes (which could entail any of the above, as well as anything else) I have ideas for all, but it seems that documentaries are the easiest to do. I know there's not a lot of money available for distribution in Malaysia/Singapore, but the ideal situation would be to shoot something in SE Asia, and have it distributed in the US/Europe. In this way we get the best of both: low-cost production and shooting of SE Asia, and high(er) acquisition costs of the West. But I'm open to anything. So let's agree on the type of production to be shot first. I'd opt for a series of documentaries, but of course would love to do a film. Also, instead of emailing each other yet, let's continue our conversation here so that others may get involved. Any thoughts? Patro andrew@ambitiouspleasure.com Singapore

May 14th, 2002, 01:07 PM	#21
K. Forman Capt. Quirk Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Middle of the woods in Georgia Posts: 3,596	I just did a quick look up on Malaysia. Believe it or not, I don't have alot of knowledge of the Country. Anyways, I found references to the Orang Asli tribes. Looking a little deeper, I found them to be several distinct tribes of aboriginee located in Malaysia. http://www.xlibris.de/magickriver/oa.htm Anybody else smell a Discovery documentary? Other than that, I personally would look into Military history, or even cultural roots and how they evolved. Maybe a few deserted villiages or temples, as an archeological/anthropological viewpoint?

May 14th, 2002, 05:07 PM	#22
Michael Chen Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Singapore Posts: 163	I am leaning in favour of doing a film at the moment. But I am open to anything too. Atomic has emailed me and sounds pretty enthusiastic in doing a movie. I know documentary will be easier to do, but we don't really get to have people from the US to come over here often, and for them to come , they may want to try their hands on film and we could gain good experience from doing it too. Lets hear from what the others has to say. I'll try to put up with a more detailed proposal sometime this week/next week, once I receive more input from you guys. For now, lets decide on what we are going to do so that we can start assigning roles. And Patro, if you have any interesting ideas for movie scripts , could you mail them to me , justin and atomic? Perhaps we could do a documentary if our first film project isn't that successful :) Capt Quirk, It'll be great if you could join us too.

May 19th, 2002, 07:45 PM	#23
Kyle "Doc" Mitchell Doconomus Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Raleigh, NC, USA Posts: 100	Guys: Wow. I leave the boards for a couple weeks to finish some exams at the university, and look what everyone is cooking up. Sounds exciting about this Malaysia idea. Like MichaelC, I'm wanting to gain as much experience making feature narratives as possible. I want to stay informed about this project. I'll be through will school after this fall and I'm looking for something exciting to do next january (before I start to work for the summer). This deal looks right up my ally. Besides travelling to cool places and meeting cool people, making movies is my passion. I'm willing to brainstorn and what-not for script ideas. However, the one thing that worries me about Malaysia is the strictness level against violence. All my personal homemade movies and student projects (except 1) all have some sort of kung-fu derivative fighting style; not all have blood. I'm tellin' ya, story really cooks when you've got some well-planned fight scenes shot wide-angle to match the strength of your characters. I'm not really into bizarre artsy movies - like them though - but I prefer "fun," simple stories that are exciting and different. Stories that Hollywood would be too scared to make. Hmmmmmm. Maybe Malaysia would be a cool place to hang. Keep me posted. Regards, Kyle "Doc" Mitchell

May 21st, 2002, 12:50 AM	#24
Michael Chen Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Singapore Posts: 163	Glad to see that more and more people are interested in the idea. And yes you are rite, as I think that it'll be pretty exciting and it'll be good experience for us. I am into action films as well, and would love to plan some fight scenes with you which can be implemented into the feature if you are able to come.

May 21st, 2002, 05:54 PM	#25
Keith Loh Air China Pilot Join Date: May 2002 Location: Vancouver, B.C. Posts: 2,389	Michael, four years ago I tried to start a video game development house with the backing of one of your major companies in Malaysia (if you want to know which one, I can tell you in email). I got pretty far (we got development money and we satisfied our backer's due diligence) but then the Asian economic disaster hit and the project sunk. At the time we were very jazzed about going to a new country (I'm Canadian but my family is from Malaysia) and setting up shop because of the climate of 'newness' in Malaysia. It was very exciting visiting and talking to both business and also young people about entertainment. That part was very positive even though it didn't develop. However, I did feel some negative backlash from some of the community who were concerned that the product (video games) was going to be "Malaysian" enough. Most of the investors 'got it' that the product could be aimed internationally but still have local input, but I had to fight some battles because some local creators were afraid that it would all be a bunch of foreigners using Malaysian money to make something that was culturally not native. I'll be interested to see how your project develops.

May 26th, 2002, 06:50 AM	#26
Michael Chen Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Singapore Posts: 163	I'd say it all depends on the people you are working with. Some of them are not as open as others. But then, lots of video games shop has been banned here. There's only a few in Malaysia which are operating now, and this may be the case why there have been lack of support. If you are interested in venturing into films over here, feel free to let me know. Or you can mail me. We'll keep you posted on the project. Its still at the early stages of pre-production. I sure hope that we can get this through.

June 8th, 2002, 08:16 PM	#29
Michael Chen Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Singapore Posts: 163	Sure. Drop me a mail at outward_b@hotmail.com or give me your email add.. By the way, if you could help us out by locating some of the distributors in your country, that will be great and hopefully we can get enough returns to pay all our expenses.

June 14th, 2002, 07:36 AM	#30
Kyle "Doc" Mitchell Doconomus Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Raleigh, NC, USA Posts: 100	MichaelC: Sorry about not promptly emailing you when I said I would a few weeks ago. I'll get to cranking it out to you. Many apologies. I'm wondering if you could let the board know how everything is coming along. I'm still interested in the project, and check this thread every once in a while when I realized that I never emailed you back that one time. Let us know, thanks! Regards, Kyle "Doc" Mitchell