Click here to view a small gallery of working files for Suffering for Success.
Suffering for Success was conceived as a sequel to my second short film, IV League, which was distinctly unimpressive and did not fulfill the early potential I felt it had. I knew I still wanted to do something relating to education - my experience as a teacher had deeply affected me and my belief in the school system, and armed with this new perspective, I felt I was ready for another go at critiquing the Singaporean students.
Based on my experience with Murphy's Law (my first short film) and IV League, I knew I could not continue shooting on my Sony Handycam. Murphy's Law had screened at First Take and that was when I saw my film on the big screen for the first time - I realised the Handycam picture was too grainy, too low-resolution, and did not produce a true enough colour to be usable. IV League had been shot just weeks after Murphy's Law, and I had not had the chance to learn from my technical mistakes. As a result, IV League was a flop. I knew that whatever I did next, I needed to overcome first and foremost the inevitable resolution problem. So, despite having sworn once that I would never be an animator, I turned to animation.
This happened to dovetail perfectly with the fact I had no ready acting talent to call upon, and that I would have needed to rent a camera to shoot live-action, which I felt I wasn't ready to do. (Urban Invasion proves that, I think.)
David, a frequent collaborator, suggested animating "South Park"-style, which is the fastest, most painless way into the world of animation. This suggestion not only contributed to our ability to finish the project in 12 days, but also meant that form-wise, we would have free reign. Ridiculous things are always more acceptable when they aren't carried out by "real" people. Once we'd set our boundaries, we went to town with our ideas. I remembered watching a film at Best of First Take 2006 that consisted only of a series of funny advertisements, and that was the structural blueprint for us. Ads have the benefit of being a little unrealistic and off-the-wall, and they move basic stories quickly with the objective of leaving a strong impression. This structure helped us to focus on the "message" of the film. Breaking our film down into seven separate mini-stories also made it easier to execute, because we could rope in friends who could individually work on entire sequences without having to constantly cross-refer. For instance, all I did was to storyboard the "Perfect Score" ad for Kelly and tell her which frames I needed, and she was able to do the rest. Cheryl did the same for the "Electric Chair" ad.
At this point in the creative process it became necessary to establish a clear through line for the film, because all of us have had formative educational experiences and our humour tends to be verbal, so our project threatened to be derailed by the inclusion of ideas and perspectives that were only tangential to the key message of the film. The rule was laid down that the message was the idea that students will do anything for a grade, and stood the very real risk of losing the big picture - and themselves - in the process. If there was a humorous way to portray an aspect of school life in a deeper, more insightful manner without losing sight of this message, then that gag could stay in the film, but if something was only in the film because it was clever, we took it out.
It's never difficult to come up with examples of how ridiculous the focus on grades is. Chicken essence advertising campaigns featuring PSLE, O Level and A Level top scorers as if they were celebrities, students who commit suicide or go into depression over poor grades (this is a real problem, and not funny at all), the copious amounts of caffeine and Red Bull that go into students' work... In late September, go to the fifth floor of the National Library at 8:50 AM in the morning, and watch the ritual gathering of students staring at the light above the glass door waiting for it to indicate that the door to the study lounge is unlocked. Don't ask me how I know this.
Here's a little tidbit - at the beginning of the Electric Chair sequence, there are faint words on the screen background. Look closely, and you'll see some wry comments about Buddha's foot. This was inspired by a magazine ad for a private tutor that used a similar background that read, "ping shi bu shao xiang, ling shi bao fo jiao" (he who doesn't regularly burn his joss sticks, will be hugging the Buddha's foot when the time comes). Frankly, the proliferation of commercial services aimed at honing students' test-taking skills is absurd. To be sure, we're not the only country that does this, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a problem.
In the production process of this film, there is one technical innovation of particular note. We had nothing beyond the most basic recording equipment, no soundproofed space, and no advanced sound editing software. How did we record the audio of Suffering for Success?
In my Theatre Studies days, I'd been very interested in sound and did several theatre pieces centred around theatrical sound, so you could say that was where I learnt the ropes. Once, I needed to record the sound of someone burping, and one of my friends offered to let me record her burp in exchange for a few cans of Coke. To isolate the sound from ambient noise, I built what I call a "pillow fortress": every pllow, bolster and cushion in the house assembled in a tight circle with just enough space inside for one person to sit, covered by a barrage of blankets. I then stuck a microphone inside the fortress to record whatever sound I needed.
For this production I did the same, and confirmed two things that had not been apparent when I was recording just the burp:
Fortunately for this production, the recorded sound was of good enough quality, but the pillow fortress is far from being an adequate solution in a professional situation.
One of the big strengths of Suffering for Success is, I think, also its greatest weakness. A film is narrative by nature, and satire and parody lose their impact without a reference point. The advertisement format certainly helped us to focus the film, but advertisements aren't narrative, and to any audience except an audience of young Singaporeans, the film will lack clarity and context. I don't believe one needs to sacrifice "Singaporeanness" to make a film accessible to a wider range of audiences (see Singaporean Film, Global Appeal) but in this case, the very structure and premise of the film make it completely inaccessible to anyone but a small demographic.
I think that the film is as good as it can be as a series of advertisements, barring technical improvements. I refer to the film as raw and edgy, but you wouldn't be wrong if you pointed out that it does the absolute minimum, from the technical point of view, to convey its message. It could be a lot more polished, a lot more professional, and still not lose its impact. I think that with the resources available to us, though, we did do our best, so I don't have any regrets on that front. If I were a professional, with professional resources, I think it's fair to say you would have seen a much more technically accomplished production.
If I had the opportunity to do it again, I wouldn't choose the advertisement framework - I would try for a simple narrative and avoid satire. It's easy to sit here and take potshots at Singapore's education system and its students, but it's also easy to forget that the real toll of our education system is being taken on Singaporean students, not in terms of our lack of critical thinking skills or creativity or whatever criticism you want to level at Singapore's education system. I would be looking at the physical and emotional stress on Singaporean students in the lead-up to the A Levels, the constant feeling of being out of one's depth, the reasons for our placing so much emphasis on the O and A Levels, instead of talking about the inane techniques used by students to keep up with their work and the proliferation of businesses that feed on the students' madness for results.
I think the issue of education is one that I will keep revisiting, whether I want to or not. It forms such a large part of a Singaporean youth's childhood and upbringing that it is impossible to ignore, but on top of that, there are complex emotional and social issues involved that need to be explored and articulated.