Adeline, Alex and Yan Zhao losing precious brain cells over the crafting of a script and storyboard

Darren brought his Hasselblad to work today, together with a couple of old polaroids. Wanted to do a special photo project for Chinese New Year but everyone else was too busy and he was simply ignored in the office. So what to do, but to disturb them at work instead. A last minute commission from a regular client got us all in a frenzy, even as we prepare for another major shoot next week. At least there is the Chinese New Year holidays to look forward to at the end of this mad period.

Our new short film coming up! Shot for the Panasonic Digital Film Fiesta.

The power of good communication techniques.

Song: "Eyes" by Rogue Wave

Locked from Little Red Ants on Vimeo.

What happens when your mind is awake but your body is not? Can a life held afloat by thoughts still be called a life?

This short film was inspired by the plight of locked-in syndrome patients.

A screen grab from our edit. Jodi is a most amazing actress.

We have finally come down to a final draft of the short film that we have worked on for the past few weeks. Initially conceptualized for the Nikon Film Festival, the film wasn't submitted in the end because the competition only allowed U.S. citizens. But we thought it was too good an idea to go to waste. (Plus, all the hours thinking up the script would go to waste!) So we decided to go ahead with the production anyway. 

Production turned out to be very guerilla-like. The decision to film on a chosen date was made only the previous day. That evening, we glanced through the script again to refresh ourselves (we went through so many versions that we couldn't really remember which was the one we settled for), put together a production schedule which involves travelling from the east to the west and to the east again, and scrambled to find suitable locations for two scenes. We ended the day by trying to fit the equipment into our vehicles. In all this haste, we were a little afraid that we might miss small but important details.

But production went really smoothly, except for an unexpected afternoon downpour which almost short-circuited some of our stuff. A major reason for the smooth production is definitely Jodi, our one-take wonder woman..!

A new short film coming soon!