I guess we would all expect to hear that I have learnt a lot over the past weeks here and have met a lot of people. Yes indeed, those are both very true, but even more so, I think I have learnt more about my current place on an international scale as a filmmaker. I guess this filmmaking journey is all about knowing myself and knowing the most effective (but not necessarily the best) way to guide myself onto the path that I desire to take. I have long known that I like to throw myself into the ocean and then learn how to swim, because then I am forced into a challenge that I created for myself and I will not let myself down. This character of mine was also apparent in my previous decisions to move to Beijing to put myself into the biggest platform in the Chinese world for an actor, even though I didn’t know anyone in China before, and had very little money with me back then. By making my first feature film ‘Roulette City’ before making any short film, I knew I was in for a hard time. But making films is about breaking the rules, so I didn’t care to follow the traditional route of making shorts before a feature. I knew I was going to get bored by making say, five shorts before making my first feature. And who knows, I might have lost the desire to make a feature if the journey took that long. I am a huge believer of ‘rage’, and think that some passions die off if you wait too long to express it, simply because waiting kills passion. However, back in my mind, I also knew that the ambitious attempt of making a feature as my first film of any length meant that I was learning by doing, and would be making a lot of mistakes. I felt completely burnt out many times during the making of ‘Roulette City’, and only a year and three months later today, I wished I would have made the film very differently. This is simply because I spent every second of the past one year and three months thinking, discussing, researching, and dreaming about filmmaking, and I would like to think that I had grown as a filmmaker since the first day I started writing the script for ‘Roulette City’. Like we also know, I have shot three interlinked short stories since ‘Roulette City’, and have named the first two ‘Blue Card’ and ‘Stamps’.

So anyhow, here I am at the end of the Berlin Talent Campus, which was part of the 60th Berlinale Film Festival 2010. This is the first time that I’ve been to any film festival and I am totally overwhelmed by what happened the past 10 days. First, I arrived in Berlin on 10th Feb morning and immediately felt very welcomed and comfortable. This is not my first time in Berlin (I was here in summer of 2003 as a backpacker, but was doing a bunch of European cities at one go back then). The first impressions that I have of Berlin this time was that the weather was freezing cold with snow everywhere, but the people extremely warm and helpful. I checked into the hostel that the Talent Campus had arranged for the participants and wasted no time in getting acquainted with the many cinemas that will screen films from the festival itself for the coming 10 days. One of the first things I noticed here in Berlin was that the Berlin Film Festival advertisements were everywhere. When I got to the shopping mall where they sell the festival movie tickets, I was shocked to see the very long lines in front of the ticket booths even before they were opened, These lines were there everyday and they kept getting longer and longer, until when the final two days of the festival (because the public can only buy movie tickets 3 days in advance). Many of the cinemas that screened the festival movies were near the city centre in a place called Postdamer Plaz, and some others were near metro stations. With my Talent Campus festival badge, I could watch the festival movies for free and I took full advantage of this by watching as many as six films a day when I had no campus activities, and two films an evening during campus days. I must say, watching six excellent movies a day is not very fun at all. It’s like eating six huge meals a day.

During the campus days, I woke up every morning with a sense of gratitude. In a sense, I reminded myself every morning that I was lucky to be one of the 350 chosen from 4700 to be here. In other words, there were many people who wanted to come, but were not chosen. The campus days (13-18 Feb 2010) were long and intensive. I get up at 7am in the mornings to get dressed and mark the campus events/masterclasses that I want to participate in, and the movies that I want to watch for the day. Then we all stand in line for about 30 minutes to book our coupons for the events and movies we’ve chosen and the event coupons and movie tickets are given out on a first come first serve basis. Standing in line was often a great way to meet new people, and speaking of meeting new people, there were really too many people to meet. Most of the participants were caucasians and after a while, it really wasn’t too easy for me to tell a European face from another in a sea of westerners packed in say, a lecture hall. The participants of the campus work in different areas of film. There were obviously directors and producers, but also cinematographers, actors, screenwriters, and even location managers. The campus masterclasses and events were also very packed in terms of schedule and there was always something for everyone. In fact, there was often more than one thing at the same time that interests me, so I was often torn and had to give up one class for the other. The masterclasses, small group discussions, lectures, and workshops are conducted by industry experts from all over, who were in town for the festival. This year’s experts include Stephen Daldry, Claire Denis and Yoji Yamada, to name a few. All in all, I learnt heaps, and met A LOT of people in the week long campus. I think my Facebook friends list will double by the time all the campus talents got home and finally find time to Facebook each other. Speaking of Facebook, the Talent Campus has a website (not Facebook page) that carries information about all it’s alumni and it works just like Facebook where all past talents get the chance to update their work or personal information, and keep in touch with one another. The Berlinale Film Festival itself is also very keen in having the Talent Campus alumni send their new works to the festival in the future, and is always proud to announce when they select a campus alumni’s work to screen at the festival. This is actually the part that excites me most. ‘Roulette City’ wasn’t selected for the Berlinale this year, but I am hopeful about the future.

So that’s an overview of what happened at the Talent Campus in general. For me personally, there were other highlights too other than the standard campus activities. First of all, I am receiving mentorship from a German industry expert on my short films ‘Blue Card’ and ‘Stamps’. I will continue to work with my mentor on these short films till 26 Feb (it is 24 Feb as I write this passage now) and for now, it is possible that I might combine the two short films into one, in a newfound, interesting narrative form. I also shot a third short film that is connected in terms of content to ‘Blue Card’ and ‘Stamps’, and I might just use footages from it work into the new combined-version. In short, I might just combine the initially planned three short films into one. Another highlight for me in Berlin this time was a call from the Singapore embassy in Berlin for a casual meeting over coffee. So, I met with the deputy chief of mission and the first secretary of the embassy, and it was nice to feel the support from my country.

Speaking of my own country, I have moved back to Singapore a week before I came to Berlin. In a sense, I have given up my apartment in Macau and moved my stuff back to Singapore. Strangely enough though, I don’t feel that I have left Macau at all, probably because it’s so near to Singapore and I could visit easily. I definitely also hope to continue shooting films in Macau as the place is (I’ve said this so many times) very beautiful.

And finally, updates on ‘Roulette City’. Over the past week, I have just received official notice that the film will screen at the Macau International Film and Video Festival in Macau on 10th April (Sat) at 1700hrs. It will also screen at the Singapore International Film Festival in Singapore, also in April. I guess that marks the premieres of the film, and I look forward to seeing everyone in Macau again when I return for the film’s screening. The film has been re-edited to a short length, and is 75 minutes now.

Entry under: THOMAS LIM interviews, Thomas Lim's film activities by Thomas Lim No Comments »