SGSC X NGEE ANN POLYTECHNIC FMS - Panel Discussion

"Same But Different" - In Conversations With Cinematographers From Different Fields

On 17th Aug 2018, SGSC, in collaboration with Ngee Ann Polytechnic FMS department, organized a panel discussion for the students and members of the society. Our panelists were Alan Yap, Amandi Wong, Gerald Stahlmann and Koh Soon Sng. The session was moderated by Derrick Loo.

Alan is a prolific commercial Director of Photography that has lensed award winning TVCs with renowned directors such as Wayne Peng and David Tsui.

Amandi has a strong body of narrative works and is involved in some of the high profile films in Singapore, such as “1965", “Lucky Boy” and the soon-to-be-released “Zomebiepura” .

Gerald's work comprises of a good mix of commercials as well as narrative pieces. He shoots extensively in Singapore as well as neighbouring regions such as Indonesia.

Soon Sng is an award winning documentary cinematographer that has done work all over the globe. In 2018, he was the honoured recipient of "Special Award: Magic Eye" for his camera work in World Media Festival.

Alan Yap sharing life experiences as a TVC cinematographer.

Although a cinematographer's primary job is to create images to help tell stories but there exist nuanced differences in the way they approach doing that in their respective fields, hence the theme of the discussion, "Same But Different". The session was attended by students from the Film & Media Studies (FMS) department and also members of our society and invited guests.

The 1.5 hour event went well, with all panelists sharing valuable insights. We touched on many topics, such as: the differences in prep work with regards to TVC vs narrative features or documentaries, working relationship between the cinematographers and the directors, working with crew in multiple departments vs working with a lean crew and many more.

Finally, SGSC would like to thank Ngee Ann Polytechnic and especially Timothy Chen, lecturer in FMS, for helping to secure the space and co-organize the session.

Watch some of the clips of this panel discussion here.