THE STORY

Humans are born with a black mark on their body. These marks are unique to every two people and those who have matching marks are each others’soulmates. It is only fitting
that everyone’s goal is to find their other half and live happily ever after.

Amy is a traditionalist who sees her mark as nothing but beautiful and romantic. Daniel
resents his mark, finds its unnatural that he has no choice in who he wants to be with.

The story takes place when amy’s on her trip to meet the person with the matching mark. Halfway through her trip, her car breaks down and she is forced to take a detour for a few days in a small isolated town. She meets Daniel, the mechanic, and they both argue and bond over their differences and inevitably spark feelings for each other. However they both do not share a mark and Amy’s guilt and attachment to her mark and other half shattered any possibilities of them being together. At the end they part ways.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

I wrote this story long ago, as an insecure teenager who struggled to see worth pass the number of partners and admirers I had – and yes, I do realise the intense toxicity this has on my own mental state. I grew up surrounded by my peers who seemed to have found romance very easy, even at the wee age of 13. At my core, I am a romantic – I am obsessed with love, beginning from a young age and brought with me to my teenage years, the ideals of love that was presented in the movies I watched. So much, that I was known by my friends as ‘the person that knew how to love but never had the chance to love’. I have never been in a relationship despite my peers telling me I should, as if the commitment was one-sided and that I’ve been doing it wrong for the entirety of my high school years. I never understood how they approached their relationships, but I came to an easy conclusion of the reasoning being me. I grew angry and confused at myself – what was it that I lacked, that I had, that contributed to my lack of admirers?

The idea behind having a choice being made for you (or taken from you, however you look at it) by a higher being wasn’t something new, however it intrigued me, to have this menial issue I constantly thought about settled with and not be a worry.

I contemplated on it, but as time passed, I cared less about it and set the story aside for it to be dealt with later – which is now. Though I no longer feel the same anger as I did before, I picked it back up and approached it carefully as it is in the end some sort of letter I am writing for my past self, the frustration and obsession I once had laid out for not only me but for the world to see.

DEVELOPEMENT

The director at the beginning of it struggled with the need to please their own vision and to please the people around them.

As a team we sat down every night to discuss the possibilties of this world. There was a struggle between all of us and the expectations of others to make this world as detached from reality as possible. Our director preferred it to be more of an extension of our reality, something not too jarring for strangers to accept it as Our World. This meant we had to find the in between for both needs, where we don't want to compromise we were also realistic with the limitations we had.

On a story stand point, the expansion of this world meant a different outlook of the script. No longer was it just about two people and their emotions, but more of how their surroundings effected their upbringing and beliefs. We all agreed that the focus was still the characters, however we had a justification and backstory for everything. As the background and setting of this world was established, it was easier to understand the notions of the characters and why their actions are as such.

The process of creating the idea was nothing more than words and sketches, we had to put it to the test.

Considering our limitations to make reality look fictional, we settled with camera work. Our cinematographer wanted the normal to look like a dream, a fantasy, but to achieve this we had to work with finding the perfect location and using the correct equipments.

Our producer brought us to every corner of the state of Johor to find the perfect setting - something uncommon, something timeless, but something that brought out a sense of nostalgia when seen. 

Once we found what we wanted, which took much longer than anticipated, we decided to test what we wanted it. The key that makes the World what it is, is the marks humans are born with. Our production designer and director discussed between each other what was our aim. Again was this limbo of in-between every ideals - we wanted this mark to not be archaic, but we didn't want it to be too moderns. We wanted it to not resemble anything of this world, but to also remind people of everything all at once.

At the time we were still playing around with different designs for the birthmark.

We did test shots in Taman Kulai. Using different mediums and designs, we tried to gauge through the lense of its possibility. Once we knew of the challenges we would possibly face, we got back to the drawing board and began to plan for our teaser.

THE TEASER

As a team, we debated how we wanted to present our story. There were many choices, to either go down the route of a traditional trailer and pick scenes from the script to tease with, or to avoid that altogether.

We took the risk of shooting a scene taken in Amy's past, a conversation held by her mother and herself. Our director wanted to highlight the conversation, the mood, feel and the pace of the film as well as an insight of what drove Amy to wanting to find her soulmate (which is where the story begins).

Check out our teaser above!

THE BUDGET

ART DIRECTION

We have found the location we wanted. Now, for the workshop. Majority of the story takes place here, and to keep the continuity, we want the workshop and the town to look seamless and have the same look. We have thought of renting out an actual workshop, however we will be disrupting business hours and we are limited to when we can use it and how much we can alter to our taste. To prevent this, we thought it's best to create it from scratch.

The finalised birthmark design (the desired pattern and how we want to standardise it).

The birthmarks or tattoos in this universe is what every character needs to have. Not only do we have to think of our main characters but of extras as well. After working on our teaser and test shots, we used many different mediums (body paints, gel) and found that though this is the more affordable options, keeping the designs consistent as well as its longevity was nearly impossible. The story focuses a lot on the mark, and we found it best to create custom made tattoos - they last longer and application is much easier, hence saving time.

EQUIPMENT

The look of this film is very specific. To achieve the desired shallow and dreamy look, our camera department requires specific lenses and filters.

Though certain equipments will be rented from our school's depot, some are required to be rented out (monitor, certain lighting and rigs).

CAST

We want the best of the best. Considering the script is dialogue driven, the delivery of the words and emotions are important to make this story what it is. We aim for industry grade actors, however we're also open to aspiring/experienced actors as our main cast. We also need to pay for extras as we would require to take a bit of their time to apply the birthmark etc..

TRANSPORTATION

We will be shooting in Johor. Unfortunately, many of rental houses are in KL. With that, we would need to rent at least a van to get all of our equipment to our location.

POST PRODUCTION

Most of the editing will be done by us alone. We're decent at foley but we're not the best at composing music. We believe sound is the key component in immersing audiences in the story and so we will be going to studios where professionals will help us with composing and the foley.

MARKETING

Concept poster by Zeek Man!
 

We want to go far. We don't want this to just be a university project, but we want it to be shared worldwide. Other than posting this up online, we plan to send this to film festivals worldwide (some of which require money) as well as a bit of fund for merchandise (posters, DVD copies etc.).

THE TEAM

Coming soon!

TIME

Inevitably, time is an obstacle we are all familiar with. We're close to the date of our shooting, which is less than 2 months away. We will be juggling classes and expected to finish this by the end of February. Submissions for rough cuts on this film is an important aspect for us to get comments and criticism from our lecturers, so it will be a wild ride trying to pull this off.

COST

Filmmaking isn't cheap, in fact it costs a lot to make it amazing (exceptions apply). We really wish it didn't require so much money, but that's how the world works. Filming is unpredictable, no matter how prepared you are. There's no telling what could happen, and there's always a possibility of extra cost should any problems arise.

From the day this idea was pitched til now, we have come a long way. There were many obstacles faced, but we continue to fight pass them. Despite our struggles and fears over the success of this film, we are putting our best to make this a reality. In the end, we are just filmmakers who want to share this story across a wide audience, and we hope you'd be one of them too.