There are some flying emotions back there.. I can't say who or what in case I get into trouble for blogging about restricted material. Don't want that to happen eh. I'm just happy to know that I'll be out of there in less than 100 days...
Anyway i'm on medical leave today so I managed to catch abit of the new and overly promoted 'Happily Ever After'. Hmm.. trust Jack Neo to name a Singaporean made TV drama after a Disney Hollywood film based on Snow White and the 7 dwarfs.. oh well.
The straits times did a write up of the drama serial last week.. you can check out the link here:
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Lifestyle/Story/STIStory_343184.html
oh when I say 'you' i actually imagine that people read this blog.. hahaha.
anyway, i don't understand what the big hoo-haa is about this particular drama serial that they have to spend so much time and money to advertise it so frequently on Okto... Oh by the way, the trailer's is really similar to the typography and style used in the trailer of 'The Wedding Game', i almost thought it was.. Oh and they took the liberty to tell the whole world that the show was shot in HIGH DEFINITION. oh 'wow'.
So i was having my breakfast at the table in front of the TV and I saw my mum and aunt watching the 'new jack neo english show' ( that's what my parents call it, they don't really remember show names). There I was with high hopes for the TV serial directed by the high profile Producer/Director Jack Neo.. only to be disappointed totally by a lot of things. And then it made me laugh. These thoughts were going through my mind, or rather my mouth:
HD? What HD? hahaha.. I can get the same quality shooting with SD on DV.
The lighting, it's different... I can see the attempt to make it more real.. I understand that the DOP is trying to steer away from the very standard and common BRIGHT lighting techniques that has been used for all Singapore made dramas.. but really.. it still looks flat and it lacks depth. Sound wise, horrible! i could practically hear the air con in the restaurant scenes. I mean come on man.. spend more time paying attention to detail..
Ok, cut them some slack. Maybe they didn't have the proper budget.
But worse of all.. the casting. The 'calefare' aunties and some actors just sounds very unnatural speaking in English. What's more- standard English.. not the english that we use to communicate in everyday life. Somehow it just feels like the scripts have been translated directly from a mandarin script. When the parents of the lead actress started speaking in Mandarin to each others.. suddenly it seems like the show turned professional again.. hmm.. I think the producers could have spent a little more time and money to search for better speaking casts.. ok, fine maybe Neo wanted those aunties to be very er... Auntie. But Auntie's who are very Auntie don't speak perfect english. I felt they were almost reading from a script with weird stops in between sentences and over exaggerated emotions...
Infact, I've been noticing that English TV shows produced by Singaporeans are done quite amateurishly... I know.. the main reason is budget and time. I guess it'll still take some time for producers to break this barrier... They need to get out of the mentality that shows made for free-to-air english TV needs less attention that shows air-ed at a 9pm slot on Channel 8. Stories can be told, scripts can be written, but as actors and directors.. you really need to get into the character and really feel what it's like to be that character. Directors should dare to alter the way things are being written in the dialogue of a script...
Remember the Leap Years? that was a good story. But the writer didn't try hard enough to convert her Novella into a Film Script. Maybe she didn't bare to, or maybe the director thought that keeping it that way would be something new? Maybe she thought it would inject some sort of artsy fartsy feel to the film? anyway, whatever the reason or the motive, I wasn't feeling it. It you mean to do something, you gotta make it more obvious.
The actors talked like they were reciting a prose from some literature text. I don't wanna go into Qi Yuwu's acting... haha. He was fantastic in 881. But he was a mute, with his voice only being heard in the narration.
When was the last time I really enjoyed a good Singapore made english show? I guess the most memorable would be Under One Roof and Phua Chu Kang.. The kind of shows where Singlish was allowed to be used.. and the actors seem more natural and comfortable speaking that way.
Up till now i still stand for Singlish as a Singaporean identity.
It's not a kind of English, just a way of speaking that everyone in Singapore can understand.
Probably it's time for the people behind that speak-good-english movement to take a look at the english TV Industy and ask.. WHAT HAVE WE DONE?
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