'Ciplak' Article in the Star - justin_guber

'Ciplak' Article in the Star

Khai takes the lead By RIZAL JOHAN
Imagine you’re in your mid-20s – 25 to be exact, and are about to turn 26. You’re a film fan and a budding filmmaker and you’ve told yourself that you will make a movie by the time you’re 26.
Now, many of us may have had such aspirations or tried to fulfil them. Some may have succeeded but most would have to renew their resolution.
Khairil Bahar, however, not only fulfilled his dream, his film was so impressive that cinema operator and film distributor Golden Screen Cinemas (GSC) decided to put it up on the big screen.
Bear in mind that Khairil or Khai as he is known, shot his movie on video with a shoestring budget (around RM10,000 and about RM8,500 was spent on the video camera), a skeleton crew, and used all his friends to act in it for free.
Apart from directing, writing the story, producing the film and editing it, Khai is also the lead actor.
The film, Ciplak (loosely translated as “imitation&rdquo, is about a Malaysian undergraduate, Jo (Khai), studying in Britain who also happens to be a DVD pirate who gets his goods from back home.
In his final year, Jo plans to finish his studies and make his biggest sale yet before he leaves the country for good. But at the same time, the Malaysian police are about to launch its biggest raid yet.
The budding filmmaker, who shot his first feature film in October last year through to mid-January, shared about his filmmaking experience. It proved to be a journey of discovery as Khai honed his filmmaking skills and learnt that while he may have finished making the film, putting it on the big screen had a whole different side to it.
“I’ll be completely honest – I didn’t think more than a handful of people would see this movie,” said Khai. “My only intention of making this movie was to make it ... because my dream was to make a feature-length movie before I turned 26. I just wanted to make a movie by the time I was 25, which I did. It’s just coming out now that I’m 26.”
Khai had intentions of having the film screened at international film festivals, at HELP University College and releasing it on DVD eventually.
He, however, held a small screening for members of the press in April and after receiving some encouraging comments, Khai submitted Ciplak to GSC.
“That was quite a surprise, I never expected that to happen,” said Khai about GSC’s decision to take on his film.
“It’s a low-budget movie. It’s a real make-it-by-any-means-necessary movie and you’ve got all these other films with big budgets, so how did this little movie get through?” questioned Khai.
GSC's answer was: ‘We’ve seen it, we like it but we’re not sure whether we should show it.’
“They’ve (GSC) been incredibly supportive about the whole thing because anyone in Malaysia who looks at the subject matter... you look at the script already and it’s like, ‘Okay, this is controversial.’ That’s why I thought it’d never be screened in the cinema.”
And where controversy was concerned, there was another local film which sparked more controversy recently, much to Khai’s surprise.
“I just saw the Remp-It trailer and I’m like (expression of shock), ‘You can get away with this?! I would have put so much more in my movie if (I had known) I could get away with this.”
To accommodate his low-budget production, Khai shot his film on weekends while working as a copywriter in an advertising agency and recording an album with his band Y2K (he plays bass for Y2K and guitar for Triple Six Poser).
It's crucial, as Khai realised, to treat your cast and crew right. Especially if they're working for nothing at all.
“Because I’m hiring friends for free and I’m putting them out of their way, it also means that I can’t be bossy about them like, ‘We have to shoot on this day.’ In the end, it’s their house, it’s their life and it’s their weekend,” said Khai.
Khai also had to sort out the casting by himself. Having written the story, he would think about which of his friends suited the characters.
“A lot of times, I’d call them up (his friends) and say, ‘Hey, you wanna be in my movie? Ok, make sure you’re free this weekend.’ “
He did have a problem in finding the female cast.
“Contrary to popular belief, I’m not much of a ladies man so I don’t know that many women. So a lot of female characters were tough to get.”
Whatever hurdles presented itself during the production of Ciplak, Khai overcame it even if it meant doing re-shoots and editing the whole movie on his own.
However, when GSC decided to pick up the film, Khai had not anticipated having to spend even more time to prepare the film for cinema release.
“It’s been a year since the first day of shooting and I didn’t think I’d still be working on the damn movie (laughs),” mused Khai.
“I didn’t know what the process was for getting a movie onto the big screen. I figured, let’s say if GSC wanted the movie, ‘Here’s the movie and that’s it’, and it’s taken out of my hands but apparently not.
“There’s a whole path when you want to get a movie out: what you need to prepare for the censorship board, for Finas, for the cinema, for the cinema cut, for the press and for the marketing material.
“And I’m just like, ‘What? I edited this on my PC, give me a break (laughs).”
Again, Khai saw the things through and proves that anyone with a video camera can not only make a movie, but if it’s good enough, it can even hit the big screen.
Khai, a life-long film fan, started making short films as a teenager using his mum’s video camera after being influenced by the new wave of independent directors like Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs), Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi) and Kevin Smith (Clerks) in the 1990s.
“I just learnt as I went along (about filmmaking). After you shoot and edit things enough times, then you wonder why things work and what doesn't. Of course, reading a lot of books and when DVDs popped up, that was the money moment because you just pop in the DVD and turn on the commentary and you just learn, like Rodriguez’ commentary on El Mariachi is as good as the book (Rebel Without a Crew). It just explains everything.”
And to all you budding filmmakers out there, Khai has this piece of advice: ”Do the best you can with what you have.”
And there you have it, sound advice from the newest local independent filmmaker.
Ciplak will premiere on Nov 23 at GSC One Utama and Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur, and on Nov 30 at GSC Gurney Plaza, Penang. For more information about Ciplak, visit the website at www.ciplakmovie.com.

25.11.06 06:19

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