READY....ACTION!

A group of students from SMU came to Jonathan's school to request to shoot a short documentary on how a family takes care of a child with cerebral palsy. In the meanwhile, Mediacorp also wanted to do an awareness documentary to create more awareness for the school. So the school liaised and the two groups joined forces to produce the documentary.

The head of social workers Department approached me and I said yes.

The SMU students roped in a 3 Mass Communications Students from Ngee Ann Poly to do the filming (actually they are friends).

Filming began this week from 9 October and ended yesterday, 13 October.

Besides filming in Jonathan's class (who has photo and media consent), they also filmed me at home. From how I prepare Jonathan before leaving for school, to feeding him, and doing his homework.

Jonathan was a good boy. He cooperated although on some days he didn't want to do it. He's a natural in front of the camera...haha.

We had to retake two scenes when the first taxi driver decided to withdraw from the documentary. So the whole segment was repeated the next day (Thursday). But I felt it was another chance for me to correct what I said wrongly the day before and this second time round, I described it in more details. I believe God allowed it to happen because I wasn't happy with what I said on the first take the day before.

Here are some pix (click on pix for larger image):


The creative group with two of Jonathan's classmates.

Extreme left is Ling (student from SMU), Nadia, Joachim, Jeremiah (from Ngee Ann Poly Mass Com class) and Sean (professional photographer).

With Jonathan are Mohammed (left) and Kelvin (right).

While Jonathan, Jeremiah and I were in another taxi, doing a scene on the way to school, Joachim and Nadia were in another taxi playing with my camera.

I was surprise to see this picture when I got my camera back. It was a pleasant and good present for Jonathan. Notice the drawing on top right corner of the paper? That's Jeremiah!!

Filming done on the last day (Friday 13th...what a day!! haha). Jonathan was getting tired already. On the way home that day, he told me he didn't want them to come back with us.

It was a fun while filming although tiring. The whole team was very accommodating.

This documentary will be used by SMU and probably on TV Mobile (which hasn't been confirmed). Spastic Children Association School will receive a copy as their introductory video to new clients. This documentary will be used for 2 to 3 years.

On the whole, it was a good experience. Jonathan was really good and so were his classmates. They all had a lot of fun when attention was given to them. Teacher Lay Keong was very gracious to allow the crew and photographer to mingle in class even though she had to go on with lessons.

The group from SMU and the crew from Ngee Ann provided so much fun in school as well as while we were home filming. The Mediacorp Creative crew came to our house and bought lunch during one of the days and we had a lot of fun just sharing and throwing ideas.

I hope that this documentary will be able to touch many people and create more awareness about Singaporeans who have special needs and how their families cope.