10 December 2014
In December 2014, Diploma in Broadcast Media Level 2 students, Chervin Chua and Andrew Kose, had the trip of a lifetime to Thailand as invited participants for the Amazing Thailand Film Competition.
As part of the Thailand International Film Destination 2015, Chervin and Andrew joined over a hundred filmmakers from all walks of life for one unforgettable week, when they were challenged to use their imagination, creativity, resourcefulness, and ingenuity to research, travel, and make a film in this limited time.
Their short film Canvas of Possibilities took home the prize for Most Outstanding Presentation of Thailand (Chao Phraya Basin). Chervin shares his experience of the competition here with us.
“Preparation for our film started three weeks before the competition started. Having heard of the competition from our lecturer, Wesley Leon Aroozoo, we were excited about it and even made a short teaser to present our film to the selection committee of the Amazing Thailand Film Competition.
A little less than two weeks before the competition commenced, we received notice that we were selected for the competition. Without delay, we started liaising with our Production Assistant in Thailand on filming locations, props and other logistics, so when we arrived at Thailand we were ready to start shooting. Because we planned ahead, we managed to shoot at three locations – Bangkok, Ayutthaya and Kanchanaburi – which was quite a feat considering many teams chose a single location.
Thailand was an amazing experience. We had the most freedom in shooting, the people were hospitable and many smiles were received. We would wake up thinking about the film and sleep (not much) still with the film in our mind. It was filmmaking heaven, no distractions!
Although it might sound like our journey was smooth sailing, it was not. We met with many unprecedented circumstances. For example, there were many budget constraints and also locations which we weren’t able to shoot at, and we had to improvise solutions many times along the way. The competition really challenged our ability to think on our feet and come up with creative ways to solve problems.
This competition was the “Amazing” we were looking for when we applied. We will definitely be participating in many upcoming film competitions around the world, hungry for experience and exposure in the filmmaking industry.
The chance to network with filmmakers from around the world was an eye‐opening experience, being able to see the different styles taken towards filmmaking from countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, USA and the UK. We made many friends from around the world and we enjoyed the experience in Thailand thoroughly.”
