CIS students proved themselves to be some of the best international student filmmakers in town once again at the Singapore International School Film Festival (SISFF). In its 7th year, the festival saw a total of 42 film entries competing in categories of drama/comedy, action/suspense, documentary and video art. A jury of teachers from international schools in Singapore, including our Head of Digital Literacy, Egmond Boon, judged the films. The winners were announced in an Oscar-esque awards ceremony on 5 May 2017.

This year’s CIS award winning filmmakers are:

OVERALL BEST EDITING AWARD - Ryan Chow & Zildjian Boon G9 - for music video

Dehydrated -

BEST HIGH SCHOOL NARRATIVE (Comedy/Drama) AWARD - Ruscel San Jose G11 for the short thriller

Lost City -

Congratulations to our young aspiring filmmakers! We look forward to following their artistic journeys. Read more about two of the award winning projects below.

Dyhydrated - Ryan Chow and Zildjian Boon

Ryan and Zildjian described their filmmaking experience as a challenging yet enjoyable journey. The biggest challenge they encountered during the process was experimenting with new techniques and technologies which included using drones and trying out difficult camera movements. The boys were committed to doing an impeccable job, and had a real eye for the details. They created and tested many ideas throughout the project and spent a lot of time checking every single element, including the lighting and environment. They did not hesitate to reshoot as needed to ensure their movie was perfect.

Ryan’s and Zildjian’s first step working on this project was producing the music. They spent a considerable amount of time planning and delegating tasks. They completed the host of tasks including screenplay, project documents, and storyboards to ready themselves for filming. After a few months, they were ready to film. They found the filming really easy because they had done the groundwork, had a good understanding of their plan, and their team was very well organised. In total, filming took about a month and a half. Once it was complete, it was time to review the footage and the screenplay to make sure everything was in place and nothing had been forgotten or was missing before they started editing. This process took about two weeks. When they were in film production mode, they released posters to build excitement and hype about their project.

When asked about the highlights of their filmmaking project, Ryan pointed to the team, “working with a team made up of very fun and energetic people was great. Making the props, shopping for costumes and seeing the finished product, as well as the development of the entire film, was also very cool and enjoyable.”. They were all excited to come across random people constantly asking about their progress, which really encouraged and pushed them to do an excellent job as they knew there were many people who were eager to see their finished product. Weren’t there challenges? Of course there were, as in any other projects: the hardest challenge was getting the permission to use school facilities and creating the most suitable schedule for all team members, because they still had school and homework commitments. All in all, it was a great experience where every team member learnt new things and a great music video was made!

Ryan became interested in filmmaking since he started secondary school. He began filming with short videos of school events then transitioned to more complex projects such as Dehydrated. Zildjian started his musical journey as a drummer and performed in major school events such as BeatFreaked and STEAM Fair. He has a passion for electronic dance music and has been dj’ing with his artist name DJ BØBLHEAD for more than a year.

Lost City - Ruscel

Ruscel found out about the SISFF only three months before the festival and immediately started writing a script for a thriller film, her preferred film genre. She completed writing the story in one night. The really hard part for her was finding actors. She knew the importance of casting and how her rapport with the actors would make the film into a success or a failure. She could only find one person out of the two actors she needed; after spending 2 months on her actor search she gave up on SISFF!

However, joining SISFF was in her fate. During spring break, Ruscel went back home to the Philippines where she spent time with family and friends. She spent a lot of time travelling by car where she started filming on her phone for fun. This was when she decided to document the rest of her trip, mostly getting footage of the city at night, and submit it to the SISFF. Inspired by an art film she watched about New York "The City That Never Sleeps", she decided to use the footage in her coming-out-of age type of story. She said “I knew that kids my age are trying to find themselves and I am a third-culture kid, so I tried to make a film that catered to those who were "lost" or trying to find themselves.”

Ruscel had her actor ready from the previous film idea. It was a quick shoot and took less than an hour to do. The editing was a long process, since she used her own software and had to re-learn everything. When she was recording the audio, she made an artistic choice, to not use a proper microphone, but to leave the sound raw. All the filmmaking process was a learning experience that she cherished a lot. Winning an award was a great plus which validated her choice of pursuing film in the future, and make films as a career.