AYAH TEASER

AYAH SHORT FILM

On the brink of eviction, a father struggles to avoid getting evicted while taking care of his son.

 

 

An MMU's Faculty of Cinematic Art's Short Film Final Year Project, we introduce to you a story of a father-son relationship, a familiar story that is close to us in many ways.

Follow our journey on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/modernmarhaenproduction/

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Concept

It's going to be an observational film drama, that depicts the social reality of the Malaysia that we live in. Through this film, it will be a discussion of social class and family dynamic drama. The family dynamic is between a father (Mid 30's) and his son (10) through this film, the character arc and personalities of a different age dynamic are also will be shown in this film. This film will be a slow-burner but through visuals, it focuses on moments of emotions, sadness and happiness, the highs and lows of life.

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Synopsis

Struggling to make ends meet, a single father, Naja (Mid30's), attempts to provide a good life for his son, Firdaus (10), working an office job while involved in a side MLM business as a side income. Already not profiting from his side business, he’s then fired from his job, and adding salt to the wound, he is then shocked by the risk of eviction. He must now work his way on preventing that from happening whilst protecting his son from the reality of the situation, as his son attempts to help his struggling father in his ways.

From trading in his phone to approaching a loan shark, he attempts to gather quick money whilst applying for a new job. Despite all his efforts, things don’t go his way as his motorcycle gets repossessed and eventually, items from his house forcibly moved out, forcing Naja into a corner, pressured, eventually blowing up accidentally to his son that he’s trying to protect all along.

Naja would then eventually come to realize, how much can he protect his son from, while both learn lessons in life, appreciating the smaller things in life, for wealth is not about what you have, but how you behave.

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Director's Statement

Based off my personal experience. When I was 10 years old my father was in a state of bankruptcy. At the moment he has lost hope but he had prevailed during that time. I want to immortalize those moments.

Also to educate me and others about the importance of enjoying and cherish the smallest things in life.

Sometimes we tend to focus on our problems and think that we are alone, but if we open our eyes there are people around us that is more difficult situation than us, we have to be grateful about our life although it’s hard.

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Meet The Team

Dinie Azri (27), Producer

“Do your work with freakin’ style!!!” - He insisted.

Azlan Norani (26), Co-Producer

“Don’t underestimate the power of believing ” - A hardworking hustler one would say, as he never stays put, constantly moving around to work.

Khairul Adha (24), Director(on the right)

“When life gives you lemon, you make lemonade out of it" - his most used words, some might disagree and do something else with it, but who doesn’t like a real real good lemonade.

Samuel Sin (21), Writer & Sound Designer

“Trust in my passion and in my potentials and not just on my skills, and I’ll make sure, whatever it takes, to make it good.” - Usually quiet but the most opinionated of them all, he turns what can’t be said into words instead.

Yugan Shanmugam (21), Director of Photography

“I shoot what I see” - Constantly working on his craft, now he challenges himself further with being a DP for 2 FYP projects.

Amir Dzulkiffly (24), Production Designer

“Production crew : Art... Art.... ART!!!
Me : ??”
The quietest of us all, hearing him speak is considered a blessing, a soft-spoken soul.

LuQman Zainal Fikri (21), Editor

“I need to edit my life back” - Soulful personality, and involved in other groups as well, he’s hardworking and is here to create great things.

 

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Scheduling

Our pre-production started back in July after the story was selected by our lecturers. The writer started writing the script as planned for the production of the teaser which was shot in September. Pre-production will continue until December as we start our crowdfunding campaign in October.

We are planning to shoot in December, which is during the school holidays in Malaysia. We will proceed to post-production which will go on until March. The completed film will be premiered in Multimedia University Iskandar Puteri Campus in March and, once it has been screened, the producer will start submitting it to film festivals around the world.

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Project Budget

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As you can see from the chart above, we are spending most on PROPS, EQUIPMENT and CAST. And this is why:

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Why Should You Care?

Our film's main purpose is to show the social reality of Malaysia that we live in. It will be a discussion of social class and family dynamic drama that happens a lot in Malaysian citizens. We also wanted to portray the Minority voices in Malaysia, a social class that is often overlooked and to show that even with our differences, we all have something in common, and family is one of it.

Usually, the risks and challenges faced to create a film is the lack of support and resources, since we're students, our influence and reach might not be sufficient. As much as one could save on the cost to produce a film, there's so much one could compromise.

As such, one of the major risk and challenges is to have enough resources to make this possible. other than that, we are also diverging from the typical genre/style of film that is different from what our local audiences might not be used to so we need the help and support anyone could provide to make sure we're able to produce a work, able to slowly but eventually change the perspective of storytelling in this region.

As such, we really hope we could have your support in creating a story worth telling, and we're hoping to reach further away from home with this story, an emotional connection despite the differences of culture and race; a familial relationship knows no boundaries.