bubbles | 泡泡
Full Film
The Idea
The first idea surrounded the theme of Chinese New Year as it was nearing that event. I wanted to try filming the video during my visit to Malaysia as I felt the Malaysian vibes were something Singapore could not replicate. I initially wanted to do Wes Anderson and Wong Kar-Wai as I liked the vibrancy and cheerfulness of Wes Anderson and the sentimental part of Wong Kar-Wai. However, the idea of filming overseas within such a short span of time was not ideal, plus my story was not fully developed at that point in time. Hence, I decided to forego it as I did not feel confident about telling a story that did not have my heart in it.
Not feeling confident about my initial idea, I had to come up with a backup plan. Normally I’m the type of person who sees things first before thinking, and that was exactly how the second idea came about. As I was contemplating what to do, I suddenly thought of my boss who recently lost his baby, and the whole experience being at the funeral. It was my first time feeling sad for somebody’s passing, especially for someone I didn’t know. However, when my boss was telling the story of how his son passed, you could feel the love with how he described his son and how sorry he felt for his son’s suffering. What broke me was when he looked over at his son in the casket, wanting to touch him for the last time, but separated by a glass. His love for his son inspired me to want to tell his story one day. And that one day happened to be today.
​
With that inspiration, visions of how the film looked started forming in my head, and I just knew it was too good not to be done. I immediately started storyboarding the visions, and that’s how this film came about.
The Synopsis
The story follows the tragic tale of a couple who lost the love of their lives; their unborn child. Through this film, we watch as the couple struggle to accept the loss of their baby, both grieving in their own separate ways. As the days go by, the couple struggles more and becomes distant. While trying to get back on their feet and return to their normal lives, they can’t help but get distracted, causing them to do things abnormally. With each passing moment, they are reminded of their baby. The mother starts to question whether she is good enough, if she is a bad mother or even a good person. Her identity is disorientated, time feels so slow now, and her heart is empty. With all the gossip and rumors, she finally has enough, and she breaks loose. She trashes the room, the room containing all memories.
_edited.jpg)
The film goes through the 5 stages of grief, showing the journey of the couple as they mourn over the loss of their baby. It aims to relate back to the audience on how they could be sharing that same heavy feeling/going through the same phase as the protagonist, and it aims to assure them that it is okay to feel this way.
The film also surrounds the concept of bubbles, where it shows how as the protagonist goes through her journey of grief, she’s stuck in her bubble, unable to move on.
The bubble represents our hopes, dreams, and passion. Not wanting to burst the bubble means not wanting to let go of that dream.
However, the longer the protagonist chooses to stay in her bubble, the more she hurts herself and others. Hence, this film encourages the audience to think from a new perspective, that maybe bursting the bubble instead of chasing it, is the answer to unlocking their dreams. To be able to take that first step and burst the bubble, is allowing themselves to break free and expand their horizons.
Behind The Scenes
Sometimes you just gotta do it
Having dinner before the intense shoot
Wrapping up at 3am
A cat just casually disrupting our film. So, I decided to just feature it.
Doing this scene was a big mess as it involved chocolate syrup and red dye. I had to plan out the execution, like when to shoot it, how to set dress the scene and how to clean up both the mess and the talent covered in blood. I'm just glad that my talent was willing to get messy, making the scene really realistic. I did not know how miscarriages worked, so I accidentally poured blood on her stomach. But because of her acting, she covered it up pretty well.
I don't remember keeping them hostage for that long....
Filming the fish tank itself was difficult as the light had a different frequency. I did notice some light flickering in post during the mock shoot, hence I tried to change the fps of the camera to match it, but it still showed up in post. I guess I’ll try again next time.
Getting the camera to focus on the fish was difficult as well. As the fish was constantly moving, I had to be fast with changing the focus. I toggled back and forth with manual and autofocus, just trying to capture it. As the scene required a dead fish, I was worried of not having one on the day of shoot. Thankfully (not really), a fish did die on the day of shoot. Filming the dead fish was hard as the other fish kept feeding on it, moving the corpse around. It did sink to the bottom of the tank, so I had to reach down to get it a few times.
What came difficult was the blocking of the scene. As I wanted the couple to embrace and eventually kneel together, it was a bit awkward and we had to try a few times. I was a bit worried that the scene would not work out and that I would have to change the choreography, but thankfully they worked together to make it natural. Fun fact, the lighting was not planned and I just decided to use it on the day of shoot.
