Tan Pin Pin's 'In Time To Come' focuses on daily rituals of Singaporean life

Singaporeans go through many rituals in their everyday public life – from flag-raising ceremonies and fire drills in schools, mosquito fogging to greetings by staff at department stores.

The rituals were interwoven into a new documentary film ‘In Time To Come’, produced and directed by local director Tan Pin Pin. The film is a compilation of such rituals as well as moments that are unlikely to be considered worthy of preservation, such as the in-between minutes of daily life waiting for things to happen.

“The film is made to allow viewers to just sit back and experience everyday scenes in a special way”, said Tan during a media screening of the film at Filmgarde Bugis+ on Thursday (7 September) morning. “In such a fast-paced world, I want viewers to be able to let the film wash over them and let their breath disappear”, she added.

The film, which has no lead characters or narration, includes many repeated scenes over different time frames. Most shots are still shots where viewers are free to interpret and perceive for themselves what daily activities and ceremonies mean to them.

“When I started what eventually became this film, I was collecting images around the topic of public rituals that define our daily lives. Rituals by definition are repetitive so there was an atemporal aspect to what I had filmed”, Tan said. “I wanted to capture the culture and essence of the events”.

Filming for ‘In Time To Come’ started in 2012 and took Tan a total of four years to get the collection shots, which were then edited to be a commentary on modern life in Singapore. Since the period of shooting coincided with the SG50 celebrations in Singapore, commemorative rituals were recorded as well.

“This is probably the longest shoot I’ve had. We had shoots on 56 days and there was at least 100 hours worth of footage, it is atypical”, Tan revealed. “For many of the scenes, such as the tree-chopping one, we even had to camp out for days. We were at the mercy of the process”.

Tan also shared that what caught her eye during filming were the before and after rituals, instead of the actual rituals. “I asked myself what my contribution is. I want to show people what happens everyday without boring them with what they have always been noticing”.

Other than the content and art direction, the film was also special in terms of its length. With a running time of 62 minutes, it was considered long for a short film but short for a normal film. Tan, however, feels that the length of the film should not matter and that it should be “as long as it needs to be”.

Another key theme is time capsules, which is in line with the film title. Time capsules embody the human desires to contain the past, present and future in one object, Tan said.

The film shuffles between the opening and sealing of two time capsules in Singapore. Tan also managed to film shots of the preparation of the objects and old time capsules being exhumed and when the content were revealed. “In that way, time capsules are very similar to films. This film is my time capsule,” she added.

As to the sounds of the film, most shots contain raw background noises such as the sounds of walking, automated announcements and nature, while other scenes were muted to render the intended effect.

“Sound is critical for the full experience of the film. If you don’t watch it in the cinema, there is no justice done to the crew”, Tan said.

‘In Time To Come’ will be screened exclusively at Filmgarde Bugis+ from 28 September 2017. It has a PG rating with English subtitles and is distributed by BFG Media. More information can be found on the film’s official website.

‘In Time To Come’ is Tan’s first film release in a mainstream cineplex. Her earlier films such as ‘Singapore Gaga’ and ‘Invisible City’ were released at the Arts House, while ‘To Singapore, with Love’ could not be shown as it was banned in Singapore.

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