Assistant Director
A drama short film made as our Final Year Project in Temasek Polytechnic. Supported by SAFRA and National Youth Council, and awarded the NSFTV Project Prize.
A reluctant teenager takes over his estranged father’s traditional ice cream cart, only to discover the silent sacrifices that shape their fractured relationship.
Runtime: 16 minutes | Language: Mandarin and some English | Webpage
Temasek Polytechnic, Diploma in Digital Film & Television, Final Year Project (April 2024 – March 2025)
Benjamin, a disinterested teenager, resents his father, Hock Seng, an ageing ice cream vendor who insists on giving discounts to National Servicemen (NSmen) despite their financial struggles. When Hock Seng falls ill, Benjamin, desperate for money, secretly takes over the business, struggling to keep up. Just as he begins to lose hope, a group of NSmen, who are regular customers of his father, step in to help, offering their support in ways he never expected. Through their kindness and his perseverance, Benjamin starts to realise that his father's dedication to his job was in fact, rooted in love, sacrifice and generational love.
This project was developed in two stages, first from April - June 2024 as we made a proof-of-concept video, and then the actual film from October 2024 - March 2025. As the assistant director, my main tasks were casting, locations, scheduling and call sheets, and command of the set. Due to constraints, the video and film uses different cast members, locations, and with significant story changes. It was much work in essentially planning for two different projects, but it was ultimately a great opportunity for us to revise our plans and start from scratch.
Proof-of-Concept Video
As the casting director, I was responsible for sourcing actors, contacting them and auditioning them. With 9 principal characters, casting was a long process of finding the right person for each role. Among our final cast members, some are applicants to our casting calls (the child talents), some recommended by others (our father and son characters), and some sourced from online and talent agencies (NSmen characters and other bit roles). I was responsible for contacting the various talents, reviewing their portfolios, preparing audition sides and facilitating auditions with our director Ondrei. Challenges were that some of the actors I sourced did not respond to my emails, some talent agencies took too long each time to reply, and some great actors were keen but we could not cater to their schedules or rates. It took time to find actors who could perform well on screen, but we eventually managed to round up a vibrant and diverse cast.
With 8 locations per the script, it was important to select places that were suitable for the film while also considering convenience, time and amenities. Using Google Earth and places suggested by my team members, we managed to find locations that could cover for multiple places we needed, like using Khatib for both its army camp and HDB void deck. With this, we managed to cut it down to 5 main locations, just that coordination had to be especially precise as we needed to move between areas each day. The toughest location to find was the home location, as the team needed a small old-fashioned unit for two full shoot days. Unfortunately no one we knew had a home that suited the look, and I decided to visit an old neighbourhood at Whampoa to distribute flyers door-by-door. It was hard to convince the residents to allow us their homes and we were naturally not able to meet the industry standards of $1K+/day. But after visiting the neighbourhood a second time, our patience was rewarded when we were able to secure a one-room flat that was suitable for our film.
While finalising cast and locations, I did early drafts of a master schedule and call sheets to inform actors and location owners of the rough dates and hours we would need. But with plans constantly evolving, script changes required continuous adjustments to the schedule and logistics during pre-production. A month before production, we had several scenes, locations and characters scrapped and more scenes added. It was chaotic to align the logistics to fit our needs, and our main cast had strict schedules that allowed us only certain dates or hours due to their other engagements. The reshuffling tested my ability to stay organised and adaptable, and reinforced the need for contingency and back-up plans.
My job during the shoot was to communicate among all departments and to keep us on schedule, by checking on cast, extras and crew, and facilitating workflow on set. Over the course of the shoot, I learned to balance efficiency with flexibility, pushing me to stay composed under pressure and better anticipate challenges.
As I strengthened my confidence in this leadership role, I learned to communicate more effectively and the stress and pressure pushed me to develop essential project management skills, enabling me to think ahead and work more smoothly moving forward. This FYP has been incredibly rewarding, proving that growth comes from stepping outside my comfort zone and embracing challenges as learning opportunities. Across the many months of work, I have gone through a continuous learning process that has exposed me to new experiences. I appreciate my team members very much and am thankful for their support, teamwork, collaboration, and the friendships we formed as we worked towards our goals. Looking ahead, I aim to continue developing soft skills such as communication, teamwork and leadership, refine my project management abilities including multi-tasking and time management, and expand my knowledge in film production, as learning in this field is a lifelong process.
Locations for FYP.pdfMelt_ExecutionPlan_Day7.pdfCall Sheet - MELT - Kampung Shoot - Kampung.pdf
My teammates and I received the NSFTV Project Prize for the film, which TP surprised us with at our graduation ceremony 😆