Boys will be boys : director's commentary

Abstract

This final year film project was carried out as an exploration of Singaporean authenticity and realism in film. The film structure took shape as a character-driven, dialogue-heavy narrative short film. Throughout the entire production process, especially in the conceptualising and scriptwriting process, care was taken to keep the elements of the film recognisable and relatable to people in this young generation. This was kept in check by constantly bouncing the ideas off group members, peers on the outside, and especially the actors themselves regarding their own dialogue, and keeping it open to revision from input by them. What was discovered was that even with these attempts, inherently there is not one way everyone experiences and expresses themselves in this adolescent time, and therefore a decision needs to be made as to what to prioritise. For this film, it was decided that it was more important for the lines to flow naturally from the actors. This film attempts to distinguish itself by placing itself in a slice-of-life setting while avoiding commonly associated topics such as poverty or family drama, and keeping the repercussions that are brought on by adults to a minor factor in how it plays out. This is a thesis project done for the specialisation Digital Filmmaking. Digital Film, Short-Film Narrative