0:01:10 – Speaker 2
Greetings and salutations. Thank you for joining us. My name is Jonathan Nadeau and this is Embrace your Storm. We’ve got another exciting episode, if he was always. Today I’m speaking with Andy. She submitted a film to the Tornado Film Festival Unmasked. So, andy, thanks for coming on today.
0:01:28 – Speaker 3
Hi, hi, john, Lovely to meet you and hope to catch up someday in person soon.
0:01:34 – Speaker 2
Thank, you so?
0:01:34 – Speaker 3
much for taking time out for us today.
0:01:37 – Speaker 2
Hey, it’s my pleasure. Thanks for coming on. So the question I like to ask everyone, before we get into Unmasked, is what brought you to film as being your creative outlet, like what brought you on that, down that road?
0:01:53 – Speaker 3
Well, I have been a career banker. I’ve been a banker for most part of my life and then one day I just decided to follow my heart and follow my passions and that’s how I ended up in the creative world. I started as a theater producer and then I moved on to making films and today I have made about nine films under my production banner, Arclight Productions. And, yeah, I love acting. I direct a lot of my films. I’ve directed five films. And yeah, I write, I dabble in screenplay, I love the music, I love choreography. So anything creative it’s bringing it on for me and it’s been a lovely, soul-fulfilling journey for me so far in this new creative phase of my life.
0:02:47 – Speaker 2
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. What kind of films did you like watching when you’re growing up?
0:02:57 – Speaker 3
So books, films, my favorite genres were always mystery, thriller or rom-coms.
I am a sucker for rom-coms so, yeah, I love romantic tales and I love thrillers, so those are my favorite genres. I mean, as a viewer, those used to be my favorite genres and I realized, as a filmmaker, I mean I’ve been making a variety of stuff but again these two genres are where I feel that I am doing very well, and maybe it was something that I’ve carried in me since I was a kid, which I’m only realizing now that I’m trying my hand at different genres. So interesting, very interesting.
0:03:41 – Speaker 2
And so I guess that leads into kind of unmasked. You want to tell the story, the audience, about what Unmasked is about.
0:03:50 – Speaker 3
Yes, so Unmasked is a featured film.
It’s about a 15-minute film, it’s a thriller and it’s one of the, as I just mentioned, it’s one of the genres I really enjoy and Unmasked has been loved by audiences in Singapore.
We opened to like our premiere show had 700 audiences and we’ve had multiple shows since. And it’s a edge of the seat kind of thriller where, in brief, this very wealthy lady the film’s based in Singapore. So it’s about this family in Singapore and this wealthy lady has been murdered and during her funeral ritual of the 13th day, which is a custom thing in India, we see how many members of her family and friends who are there at her ritual. They each seem to have a motive for murder. So, you know, we kind of the story uncovers how everybody seems to have a motive for murder and then the story goes on to uncover. You know various things happen and how. Then we know how the murder happened and why it happened, and then there are twists and turns and one moment you think, oh, this person is the murderer and then you realize, oh, there’s another mastermind behind it. Then in the end there’s another kingpin behind it.
So it’s like a typical thriller of twists and turns and basically, like you know, entertainment. Entertainment is what this movie was and it was amazing fun doing it and our audiences loved it. It’s got amazing music background score which, kind of you know, makes you feel the film.
0:05:38 – Speaker 2
Definitely, definitely. So what’s the background about the ritual you’re talking about? Like that’s part of the movie Like, what is that?
0:05:48 – Speaker 3
So that is called Theraviv, which is if, when somebody passes away, I mean there’s obviously the cremation, etc. And on the 13th day, the family and friends usually will get together to do prayers for the soul and also, in some cases, celebrate the person who’s passed away. Like you know, you, you’re basically there to revisit memories of the person who’s passed away. It’s called Theraviv. Theraviv means 13, which is the 13th day after death, and it’s one of the final rituals of a person passing away.
0:06:24 – Speaker 2
Okay, that’s cool. So then, the that’s where, the during that time, that’s when the flashbacks. Yeah.
0:06:36 – Speaker 3
I mean in a normal Theraviv, you’ll see people going up in front and addressing the audience about their memories of this person. In this film the way it transpires is there’s a person taking a tray of tea to every member at the event and as the tray of tea passes from one person to another, that person goes back into his flashback of memories of that incident, which kind of shows their relationship with the victim and their motive. Like you know, that’s cool.
0:07:10 – Speaker 2
I like movies like that.
0:07:11 – Speaker 3
that play, yeah, I mean it’s not a linear narrative, it’s a non-linear narrative. It kind of goes back and forth between flashbacks and stuff, so, and then it has, as I mentioned, lots of twists and turns. So but that’s what thrillers, you know, that’s what makes thrillers entertaining, right, Like absolutely. Linear is no fun.
0:07:36 – Speaker 2
Now is it. Did you write? You wrote this script then?
0:07:40 – Speaker 3
So the story came from a writer in based in Singapore, and then the creative director of the film and myself and the writer. We sat together and we worked out the screenplay and which is the usual way I do my films that a lot of writers in Singapore will keep sending stories to me like at any point in time. I have a bank of 25 scripts that I’m sitting on, so at least 25. I pick what I want to make and then we start the work of developing the script. So so it’s a long process.
It takes months for us to develop our story to a script, to a screenplay. So so, yes, I was writing this. I mean, I was one of the writers for the script and the screenplay stages, but the story idea came from somebody else, like you know yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
0:08:29 – Speaker 2
So, how long did it take you to to produce the film?
0:08:35 – Speaker 3
So my films are produced pretty fast. We are a lean, mean team and very, very micro budget films we make because we produce our films in in the market like Singapore, which is which is quite small like in terms of the revenue returns that we can get back. We’re not an established industry like, say, hollywood or India. So so yeah, I mean we have to keep our costs really, really low. These are micro budget films that I make but it easily. So unmask was done very fast, I think about eight months.
0:09:13 – Speaker 2
Oh, wow.
0:09:14 – Speaker 3
But I was making three films together, so I took one and a half years to make three films.
0:09:20 – Speaker 2
Wow.
0:09:21 – Speaker 3
Yeah, so it was kind of back to back and running parallel, like post production was kind of running parallel. So yeah, I mean it was. It was quite a stretch. After my screenings I took a two month clean break like I was dead. I was like completely wiped out.
0:09:42 – Speaker 2
I believe it.
0:09:45 – Speaker 3
But yeah, it was a very, very rewarding journey because audiences loved our films and why it all worked out well.
0:09:52 – Speaker 2
That’s really cool. So what I think you mentioned earlier, like you have some other scripts, or like what are some projects you’re working on right now? Like after you have none, they have unmasked, you know, finished, and that’s making it circuit.
0:10:07 – Speaker 3
So nothing that I have spoken about publicly yet.
0:10:11 – Speaker 2
Okay, okay.
0:10:12 – Speaker 3
But, yeah, there are a. There are a couple of projects, that big projects, that I’m working on and I have ambitions and dreams of making them bigger and better than anything I’ve done so far. So, fingers crossed on that and, yeah, I hope we have everybody’s best wishes to to make our combined dreams come true. I mean, it’s it’s not just my dreams, but dreams of my team, like the team that I represent, the team of artists who work with me to create these works of art. So so, yeah, we’re all, all collectively, dreaming to make something bigger and better.
0:10:47 – Speaker 2
That’s cool. So, like, what advice would you give the people starting in the film industry? Like, what would you like that are getting started, you know right, like whether it’s you’re writing a script or maybe getting into producing or directing like, what advice would you give someone?
0:11:03 – Speaker 3
So if you ask me for a very honest opinion, I would say that either have like, at least when you’re starting out I mean, this is a very tough industry to kind of really make a mark so at least when you’re starting out, until you found your footing, especially financially, you should have an alternate profession. I mean, you know, till you found your footing and because, after all, I mean you have to pay the bills.
0:11:32 – Speaker 2
I hear you, I hear you.
0:11:33 – Speaker 3
To get through your life as well. And then, yeah, I mean, when you really found your footing and you know that you can make it big, then you know you can just go all in. But, like in my case, I had a banking career to kind of, you know, see me through. And then I also have a financial consultancy business that I’m running on the side. But it is very challenging, especially in the early years. There’s a lot of struggle.
So unless you I mean either you have rich parents, or a rich husband or somebody to sustain you, or if you need to sustain yourself, then you need to have something on the side and it needs a lot of passion and patience. It needs, like you know, you have to be patient. You have to be patient with yourself. It is not something that you can build in a day. It takes a long time to, like you know, usually a film if I try to create a feature film it’ll take one and a half years to make, right, you know, and for the one and a half years the whole world will be asking you what are you doing? Like you know right, exactly, exactly.
So it needs patience, it needs, it needs a lot of dedication. It’s like long hours, because when I’m in the middle of a project, sometimes I have 20 odd days. You know, and like I remember this, one time we had a 24 hour shoot. You know, I mean it’s crazy because you have when you’re working with micro budgets. Then you know if you have like your location for a day, or you know you have your cinematographer for limited hours and you just have to squeeze in everything I hear you.
Option work at the end of the day, so it’s a lot like you. So you need a lot of passion and patience.
0:13:12 – Speaker 2
That’s that that you’re, you hit the nail in the head. You’re definitely right. And about About the patience part, I think a lot of people Don’t realize how much that comes into play when they, especially when it comes into creating a film, they there’s so much that comes into to getting that from the script to you know seeing it on a screen or you know getting that, that finished product. So it does take a lot of patience and time. You’re right.
0:13:41 – Speaker 3
Yes, yes, and a lot of flexibility. You know, like you, sometimes our scripts develop on the state, I mean on the sets, and right.
Tell our actors you know you have to be flexible, you have to be. Just because you’ve learned your lines Does not mean that is the line that’s going to come out. Yeah, but it’s. It’s an amazingly fun process. I think everybody in my team I mean they just they are doing it because they love doing it. That’s the beauty of it. So, so yeah, I mean it’s, it’s a great place to be with a bunch of like-minded people and it’s awesome fun. It’s soul fulfilling, definitely like I can put that down on paper that when you know Audience watches you on screen and appreciates your work, nothing that you do anywhere else in the world feels as great as that.
0:14:32 – Speaker 2
I hear you, I hear you, yeah, definitely.
0:14:35 – Speaker 3
So it is very rewarding, but yeah, I.
0:14:38 – Speaker 2
So do you want to give out like, like websites or social media stuff? So if people want to get a hold of you or sure they can.
0:14:48 – Speaker 3
I have a website, our client productioncom, and if you search for an indita Ghosh, singapore on Google, you’ll get about one and a half pages worth of Articles on me. It’s an indita GHOSH, that’s how I spell my name. Andy is just the name that my, my friends call me by. So so yeah, I’m in the taghosh ocklight productions and you’ll be able to contact me.
0:15:22 – Speaker 2
Andy, thank you so much for your time and your submissions of the festival. Without Without your work, there’d be no tornado film festival. So thank you so much.
0:15:30 – Speaker 3
No, thank you so much, john, for taking time out to to you know, chat with us and to hear our experiences from another part of the world. You’re in a very different industry. We’re in it, I mean, you know yeah. I hope I have been able to give you a flavor of the Singapore market and the Singapore film industry, a small part of it and and yeah, I mean, thank you so much, lovely, and I’d love to collaborate and see where it takes us absolutely.
0:15:57 – Speaker 2
Thank you so much again, andy, for your time and everyone. Thank you for listening, thank you for downloading and don’t forget to embrace your storm. See ya.
0:16:08 – Speaker 1
Tornado with Jonathan Nado. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe now. See you first to hear new episodes with more stories of inspiration about the highs and lows of life and how embracing the storm is so much more fulfilling of a life than being crushed by the weight of the world. And until then, we hope you’re inspired to do something, whether it’s creating, participating or learning, whatever leads you to your personal passion.
Transcribed by https://podium.page
