1965 (2015)
by Derrick Loo
The 60s was a tumultuous time for Singapore, as it struggled to grasp the social and political paradigm shifts following the withdrawal of the British from the region. A seething undercurrent of racial tension perpetuated the lives of people in Singapore, which eventually culminated in a series of racial riots in 1964 and 1969, claiming numerous lives and many more casualties. Much have been written about this period in Singapore's history; most of which focused on the socioeconomic factors or the political motivations that had played a part in these events. The film '1965' could have gone down this same route, but instead, chose a different, perhaps more personal, perspective to examine this period.
To capture the period look they had in mind, filmmakers Randy Ang (re:solve (2014)) and Daniel Yun (who is also the co-director and executive producer for '1965') decided to enlist the help of Amandi Wong to craft the visuals. And for this project, Amandi picked to shoot on RED DRAGON, paired it with a set of Leica Summilux-C primes lenses, as well as a Cooke zoom for a specific reenactment scene. Footage was recorded in its native R3D and transcoded by DIT Leslie Tan into 1080p ProRes 422 for editorial. Principal photography lasted 33 days, from November 2014 to January 2015.
Below is a interview with Amandi on his work in '1965':
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Derrick Loo (DL): Who first approached you for this film, 1965? And what was your initial thoughts of the idea and the script?
Amandi Wong (AW) : Director Randy Ang was the first to approached me for the project.
Despite the film being set during a sensitive political period in the history of Singapore, the focus is more on the relationships between people who were inadvertently affected by the unrest. Narratively, it is interesting to me.
DL: How long was the prep?
AW: A total of 23 days. 10 of which were in Batam (Indonesia) for location scouting, set discussions and blocking rehearsals on set.
DL: What was the scope of coverage you guys did during prep?
AW: Location scouting. Shot list discussion. Working with the art team on some specific camera and lighting set-ups as well as doing blocking with cast on the actual set.
DL: What camera did you choose to use and why?
AW: RED Dragon was chosen mainly because of its weight. We also needed a second camera to serve as a back-up as well as a quick change to Ronin Gimbal. The other reason being we couldn’t afford having two units of ARRI Alexa daily although we did a test with it and it won us over with the look it captures (the skin tones especially) and the way it handles low light.
DL: What lenses (primes/zooms) did you use for the show and why?
AW: Having decided on RED Dragon (primarily on hand-held mode), I knew immediately that I needed to go for a better set of lightweight lenses which can give me that softer edge and faster T-stops. Based on the available resources we had, I managed to secure a set of Leica Summilux-C primes. We didn’t use much of a zoom. The only time when it was required was to mimic the original footage of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew speaking to the press in a TV studio. And if I remembered correctly, it was an old Cooke 28-200.
DL: Were there any technical tests that you did in prep and what did you hope to find out with these tests?
AW: It was mainly a visual comparison between Dragon & Alexa. We all know Alexa is the better camera in terms of handling skin tones, lowlights and highlights. Thus, the test was to find out the limitations of the Dragon before the shoot and to figure out various ways to work around them.
DL: How closely did you work with the other departments like Art/Wardrobe/Makeup etc?
AW: I didn’t manage to do any hair, make-up or wardrobe tests actually. I was not totally involved since Randy knew quite well how they would look on camera. With regards to the art department, I worked very closely with the production designer, Tommy Chan and his team. We would discuss about the camera angles and set-ups before they designed and built the sets accordingly. His team really did an amazing job in facilitating our filming.
DL: Were there any creative challenges that were memorable? (ie. director wants a certain look or certain shot)
AW: Randy wanted a transition between shots (tilting down from the sky to reveal a bustling Chinatown and to end specifically on a spinning wheel in a bicycle shop). To create a more interesting visual, we did a Steadicam step off from the Giraffe crane following the crowd and ending it with a close-up shot of the wheel. Weather was really unpredictable that day and it was constantly drizzling on and off. We were all in a mad rush trying to work fast. The assistant directors, Sufyan Sam’an (1st) and Julia Lim (2nd) did an amazing job choreographing and coordinating 80 - 100 extras. The Steadicam operator that day was the talented James Hia. Our key grip, Malik Basar designed the step off platform.
Another challenge was the lack of streets to shoot in. We constantly had to cheat creatively to make it look like a different stretch especially during the riot scenes.
AW: The key grip was Malik Basar. We have been working together for many projects. The gaffer was Wan Arif from Indonesia. It was my first time collaborating with him and his team from Jakarta.
DL: Describe your working relationship with the grip/lighting department
AW: I trust Malik and his creative input a lot because of our frequent collaboration on many of my projects. With Wan, my initial worry was with the language barrier and the fact that we only managed to get him on board 10 days before the shoot. Everything turned out to be fine even though we didn’t exactly communicate verbally much. One thing I like about him - he always listened and hardly jumped to conclusion even though he is a very experienced gaffer. He was full of patience, creative and keen to adapt to different styles of lighting.
DL: Was transcoding needed for offline editorial?
AW: Yes. Our DIT, Leslie Tan provided the 1080 ProRes 422 for offline editing. We also had Leslie do the on-set LUT using Resolve and baking them into the offline dailies. There were however no on-set editorial happening during principal photography.
DL: Who were in your camera department? And how do you think they performed?
Due to some scheduling issues, my main camera team came in much later. My camera team for the first 12 days consisted of Aizat Hisham (1st AC), Daryl Nah (2nd AC) and Endra Jamil (Cam grip). The main team thereafter included Dean Sam (1st AC), Feng Kexin (2nd AC) and Dickson Chua (Cam grip). Leslie Tan (DIT) was with us throughout the project. Basically, we can fight a war together.
DL: Was there a particular creative direction you try to keep to, pertaining to the cinematography of the film?
AW: Both Randy and I wanted a hand-held feel and perspective almost throughout the film. The camera movement became more stable only after the narrative settled down towards the end of the film. For most of the riot shots, Randy wanted them in the form of a POV of either the rioters or the police. It was as if cameras were thrown into the chaotic surrounding and ignored by the crowd while taking in the physical energy of the mess and madness everywhere.
My main approach to lighting is seeing it as a way of creating shadows so that the audience will be able to see clearer with their imagination. And for indoor scenes, the light should feel like it leaked in through cracks.
Another direction was how I wanted the exterior night scenes to be lit. I am a great fan of Bela Tarr’s B&W films and Roger Deakins’ Prisoners. I knew that I wanted to light it like a B&W film. Hence, the contrast instead of the typical blueish moonlight. My key light motivation is always from surrounding practicals.
DL: Did you prefer a certain range of T-stops?
AW: If possible, I would always prefer T2.8 & 4 and 5.6 & 8 for wider shots requiring a deeper focus. For big-screen presentation, I feel it is really not necessary to shoot wide open for a so-called ‘shallow depth of field (DOF) cinematic 5D (full frame) look’(which is more for TV in my opinion). Filming is all about collaboration between various disciplines. As a team, we should also think about the actors. What is the point of a very nice shallow DOF bokeh when the focus on the actors is soft? I believe in the actor’s performance and to achieve that, he/she should have one less technical thing to worry about. There were situations when I had to opt for wide open though because of low light conditions.
DL: Did you use any filtration on lens?
AW: Only Polariser and Black Pro-Mist.
DL: Where were the locations that the film is primarily shot at?
AW: All locations were in Batam, Indonesia except for the modern day setting which is shot in Singapore.
DL: What is the difference in shooting on stage vs location? And which do you personally prefer?
AW: The main difference is the amount of control we have and how much we can manipulate the look that we want. On stage set we built, almost everything was cater for the camera setups so we can move faster and complete more setups, not having to be disrupted by factors such the weather, time of the day and environmental sound etc. That said, when sounding on stage, we had to recreate all those natural elements such as the ambient lights & sound quality. So it is equally challenging.
I remember many years ago when I attended the Budapest Cinematography Masterclass with participants from all over the world and we were tasked to light and set up a shot in a well equipped and spacious studio. My team mates were from Hong Kong. At the end of the shoot, we realized how different we Asians approached the lighting vs those from the Wests. They were fully utilizing the stage- from one end to the other. In contrast, our setup was mostly cramped into a corner!
DL: What are some of the challenges you faces while shooting in Batam?
AW: We have one main location that required a total of 4 hours traveling to and back. So waking up at 4am and trying to sleep on a bumpy ride was a challenge. Also that particular location are not very ‘clean’….
Since in Batam there are no filming rental facilities there. We had to plan everything in detail during preproduction so that the right equipment can be packed and shipped in a single trip. The production team also had problems finding proper generators, scaffolds, cherry picker and trucks for equipment. And because of that we had to push back the shoot dates slightly.
DL: Let's talk about lights and lighting...
AW: My main lighting package consists of a 18K HMI, 3 x 6K Par, 2 x 4K Par and a couple of smaller daylight lamps. For tungsten we have 2 x 5K, some 2K, 2 x 2K 30” Jem ball and many units of smaller lamps. Kino Flos are the usual 4 feet and 2 feet 4 and 2 banks.
The final list was decided after my final location tech scout with Wan and his team. I always prefer to light from outside of the set as much as possible mainly for two reasons. First, the quality of light feels more natural, secondly I can free up more space for the actors to move around without restricting their performance. I am a big-believer of giving as much freedom to the director and actors as possible. In narrative films, between good performance and fancy set ups, I'd choose the former. That also explains why my lamp heads are often of a bigger intensity for the further throw factor, since I have to put it further away from the set.
DL: There were a good mixture of handheld/ Steadicam shots, as well as on sticks and dolly. Were there a general rule as to which you sort of operation you choose?
AW: We have a rule that the camera should be hand held as much as possible before the scene of Mr Lee Kuan Yew making his TV broadcast in the studio. The exception to this is when the camera is on a crane. I always prefer the camera to be more stable when its meant to be a dolly or crane moves. The only Steadicam shot was that Giraffe crane step off shot that I had mentioned earlier. The rest of the sequences the looked similar to Steadicam moves were either achieved by using a mixed of dolly, Ronin gimbal, electrical golf cart and a passenger van.
DL: As a period film, what's your lighting philosophy?
AW: Right from the beginning, we knew we did not want it to be too stylized and pretty. Our lighting approach was to re-create and enhance the look naturally. ‘Poetic Realism’- quoting Vilmos Zsigmond.
AW: Yes and no. Those specific lighting were mostly tweaks after the final blocking. I would craft the light or shadow further as an additional layer to their performances. We didn’t want to go for an overly glamorous sort of lighting for them. The idea was to feel and look as natural and real as possible.
DL: How was the fire scenes (in the warehouse) shot?
AW: We had a really talented SFX director, Adam Howarth to design and build those sequences. The indoor set was built with an open roof for smoke and heat to escape safely. The whole sequence was shot at night for day to match the exterior shots of the burning warehouse.
DL: Describe your working relationship with the directors.
AW: There are two directors on set. Daniel Yun, being the co director as well as the EP, oversaw the performances while Randy focused more on the overall direction. I work mostly with Randy and it was my first collaboration with him. We had known each other for a while but just didn’t have a chance to work together till the project. We had numerous meetings talking about shots and setups, as well as going through some of his references. Usually after reading through the script a few times, I will listen to hear the director's interpretation and the initial direction of what he/she hopes to achieve. After which I will do my own research and proposed what I think it will be good for the film, keeping the director's vision in mind. After the tone and camera vocabulary are set, we will go deeper into each shot and scene to work on the details. Randy is more of a visual director and he is very particular about the texture and detail of everything. When we are on set after the rehearsal blocking, he will tell me how he feels the scene should be but also gives me the freedom to suggest the coverage, shooting sequences and framing etc. The only challenge was sometimes we will have to pause for a while the directors conferred on creative details.
DL: And what about the art department...?
AW: We are very fortunate to have such a strong art team on '1965'. The Production designer, Tommy Chan, and Art director, Keng Boon, are such a talented duo that they can never fail to impress us. As there were many sets in '1965' and with a tight deadline, we had to meet regularly and update each other on our progress and changes. Other than the overall look and feel of each set, we also discuss in detail about the types of practical light, removal walls, specific set dressing as well as some special props.
DL: Regarding the reenactment of the historical scene where Mr Lee Kuan Yew announces our separation from Malaysia, what was the creative approach adopted by the filmmakers?
AW: The key direction was to be as real as possible. As the original footage were in B&W, the art team did extensive research to find the exact color of all the props, including the walls at that time. They even built the studio camera from scratch, which is able to be wheeled around and appeared in the foreground! There were camera moves, including the zooming and focusing, that I had to mimic to stay true to the original recording.
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