Singapore deejays make 18-minute film for $150
Singapore deejays Divian Nair and Dee Kosh (real name Darryl Koshy) have produced an 18-minute film for only $150.
The film, “Candle”, was shot in two and a half weeks using a Canon 5D Mark III DSLR camera, and a cast and crew of 10 people. The $150 budget went to paying for props like bedsheets and flowers.
The film also used lighting and microphones from 98FM, where the two deejays work. They also got the help of friends to help with additional photography, editing and sound design. One of the locations used in the film, Chillax Café, is owned by a friend.
Described as “Singapore radio’s first short film”, the video was first posted on YouTube two days ago. It has since garnered over 67,000 views and gone viral on social media, .
Speaking to Yahoo Singapore, Divian said, “We wanted to release it before Valentine’s Day but … we wanted to be more timeless and not just timed to Valentine’s Day. If you notice through the whole film, there is no strong mention of Valentine’s Day [except when it was briefly mentioned in the first scene].”
The film was conceptualised and written by both Divian and Dee, and it was also Divian’s first time directing a short film.
The duo, who host the “Double D’s” radio show on 987FM, also act in the film. The two other cast members are Sandra Riley Tang, vocalist for local band The Sam Willows, and Lavinia Tan, a Gold 90.5FM deejay.
Divian also said that he came up with the film’s central quote "Time is a candle's flame and what burns are the minutes we live” himself, with some tweaking from Dee.
“It was such a central idea to the film. We wanted it sound as corny and cheesy as possible, so in the later half, it would mean something.”
The 27-year-old said that he was really proud of the film, “When people started tweeting the quote, that was the moment we knew we hit the heartstrings.”
Spoiler alert
Divian also shares a secret about the film’s ending. [Warning, spoiler ahead. Stop reading now if you don’t want to know the film’s conclusion.]
“I don’t know if a lot of people catch this, but at the end in the last scene when she dies, when Sarah dies, she dies on Valentine’s Day,” Divian said.
The film’s storyline has some parallels to other films such as “A Walk to Remember”. Divian also said that when he first came up with the story, a friend had also mentioned that it was similar to the book-turned-film “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green.
He said, “I think if the film is on its own and the style is different and all that, people will compare it to everything similar… There will always be parallels, but everything we came up with was entirely original.”
“It was just me and Dee downstairs, smoking 15, 20 cigarettes and just running through the story.”
Watch the film here:
