By Shawne Wang
At the final press conference for the film, which hits cinemas on Thursday, Chai confesses that he hasn`t slept in two days.
Small wonder. Chai and his young, talented cast have been engaged in a series of publicity events over the past few weeks to spread the word about their film. They have held mini-concerts all over the country, performing familiar xinyao classics from the film in college campuses and library@esplanade.
“We put so much of our heart and soul into this film, Chai says, “It took us a few years to get the financing for it. At the beginning, people were sceptical if a xinyao movie would feel too outdated. But we met a lot of ‘expensive people` gui ren (benefactors) who had themselves been affected and touched by xinyao in the past and were willing to help us out and support us.
It`s clear from the good-natured banter and bickering amongst Chai`s young cast that they`ve become fast friends. Julie Tan recalls that she and twin sisters Jayley and Hayley Woo would occasionally get on one another`s nerves, in the way that only people who are very close can do. The girls also took great delight in explaining that the flatulent aspect of Seah Jiaqing`s character in the film is based on a real-life incident that took place during their boot camp.
For a seemingly small, intimate movie about a group of friends participating in a song-writing competition, Chai reveals that the film actually boasts quite a few special effects shots due largely to having recreate an early 1990s version of Singapore. “It`s not something that people will notice, but we used a lot of special effects in this film. There`s a shot set in Cantonment Road which lasts just a few seconds we got rid of the Pinnacle @ Duxton in the background! The pagers used in the film don`t actually work anymore, so we had to have their screens done with special effects!
“The only place we couldn`t change, he admits with a touch of regret, “was the airport. I felt that was a shame. The special-effects shots required to change the look of it would just be too big. Moreover, we were only allowed to film from certain angles. But that really couldn`t be helped.
In fact, for a few scenes set in New York, Chai had to insert his actors into footage that he rushed to the Big Apple to shoot. In the end, the production had neither the time nor the resources to go all the way there. “We had to match the lighting from the footage we shot in New York precisely with the shots we took here with the cast!
Daren Tan jokes, “It was so hot! On a bright, sunny day in Singapore, we had to sit on a bench in our winter clothing and act loving!
Those who have already seen the film have compared it to the smash-hit Taiwanese coming-of-age drama You Are The Apple Of My Eye; some have cynically suggested it`s a deliberate attempt to re-create its success in Singapore. While Chai acknowledges that comparisons are inevitable, he says that he got the idea for his movie before the Taiwanese film was released to such astounding box office success in 2011.
“Actually, the movie that had the biggest influence on That Girl In Pinafore is a Taiwanese movie from 1977 called The Golden Age (—