The Singapore Film Industry
is back on its feet again. It all began in the early 30s, where the first
filmhouse, SHAW Brothers, was set up. It was soon followed by Cathay Orgainsation.
The 40s could be seen as the golden age for our movies. However, with the
invention of television and the import of better Hollywood movies, the
industry began to decline. By the 60s, it was almost non-existant.
Fortunately in 1995, Jaytex
Productions spent S$2 million dollars to do 'Bugis Street', a nostalgic
film set in Singapore in the 60s. In the same year, Eric Khoo, then a student
who 
just
graduated from polytechnic, made his debut 'Mee Pok Man' with S$450,000.
It claimed an award in Hawaii. Seeing that the scene has heated up, Cathay
began productions again, churning out 'Army Daze' in 1996. It made S$1.6
million dollars. This was definitely a confidence booster for filmmakers
and soon enough in 1997 we saw Eric Khoo's second film '12 Storeys' and
Lim Suat Yen's 'The Road Less Travelled'. The Singapore government decided
to be supportive at last, and set up the Singapore Film Commission to promote
the industry.
This year, Jack Neo's
"Money No Enough", a Hokkien comedy, broke all records by getting S$2 million
in box office, and still counting. "Forever Fever", a hilarious film about
the 1970s when John Travolta's "Saturday Night Fever" hit Singapore, was
the debut film by Glen Goei. Miramax Films saw great potential in this
local film and has bought the distribution rights to it. Encouraged by
this news, mayn others followed suit. In the making are Victor Khoo's "No
Strings Attached" and Jonathan Foo's "Teenage Handbook". Team member Chow
Lee Ling will be an extra on the set of "Teenage Handbook".
Our team thinks that
the Singapore film industry has a huge potential, hence would like to ask
all film makers out there to consider investing in Singapore or at least
shoot footage in the country.
This will provide Singaporean
film makers precise useful information on how to go about producing a film.
We
had an chat with Miss Michelle Tay, who had acted in her college's highly
successful play, 'The Odd Couple'. Hear it here and no where else!
We
also interviewed Mr Terry Morgan, a re-owned writer, teacher and director
in Singapore. We were truly amazed by his direction in his rendition of
Shakespeare's tragedy "Macbeth", and are honoured to have him talking to
us.
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