TV Pilot: Bang Bang Club

PRESS RELEASE: 18th May 2016

Asian TV pilot, Bang Bang Club, is a winner of the prestigious Platinum Remi award from Houston International Film Fest 2016, the recipient of two nominations (Best Editing, Best Original Score) at the Indie Series Awards LA and has since been Officially Selected at Austin Web Fest and the 31st Valencia International Film Festival. 

Originally created as a pilot for a suspense/thriller TV series with the support of the MDA and iFlix, the 20min pilot was submitted as a short film and web-series to International festivals.  Not a stranger to awards BananaMana Films‘ previous work, Perfect Girl, won 7 International awards from 16 nominations. 

Bang Bang Club Pilot:

About Bang Bang Club

Synopsis:

Banks control the world beyond our imaginations. When one bank strips away the livelihood of two young men they take revenge by joining an elite assassins training group: The Bang Bang Club. Only problem is the club has links all the way to the highest financial powers of the world, and has other plans for them: covert murders and their own demise. An affair that blossoms with one of the elite female assassins of the club may be the only thing that will ultimately save the two men BUT they’ve both fallen for the same girl. Framed for murder the two men are pitted against the law, an elite assassins group and eventually each other as they try to uncover deadly secrets at the highest level of the financial system in order to save their lives.

Singapore series, Bang Bang Club, has recently picked up two nominations from the Indie Series Awards 2016, Los Angeles.

The 4 episodic web series has been nominated for:

• Best Editing (Christian Lee, Jason Chan and Khairul Norady)
• Best Original Score (Jason Chan)

Bang Bang Club – Nominated at Indie Series Awards 2016

Founded in 2009, the Indie Series Awards celebrate the best in independently produced, scripted entertainment created for the online platforms. Past nominated series represent the highest level of achievement in the genre groundbreaking programs, created by entertainment industry professionals (many of them celebrities).

About Bang Bang Club

Created by BananaMana Films, with support from MDA, “Bang Bang Club” is an action thriller series that has not only attracted international nominations but interest from regional OTT platforms looking to develop it into a full length dramatic series or feature film.

Synopsis:

Banks control the world beyond our imaginations. When one bank strips away the livelihood of two young men they take revenge by joining an elite assassins training group: The Bang Bang Club. Only problem is the club has links all the way to the highest financial powers of the world, and has other plans for them: covert murders and their own demise. An affair that blossoms with one of the elite female assassins of the club may be the only thing that will ultimately save the two men BUT they’ve both fallen for the same girl. Framed for murder the two men are pitted against the law, an elite assassins group and eventually each other as they try to uncover deadly secrets at the highest level of the financial system in order to save their lives.

Trailer:

PRESS RELEASE: Jan 2016

Singapore Production Company BananaMana Films Signs Viki to Distribute “Perfect Girl” Worldwide

Viki,  the global TV site powered by fans, with nearly 40 million viewers a month has acquired its first Singaporean produced drama from BananaMana Films, Perfect Girl, and will be rolling it out to global audiences as part of its Valentine’s day offerings. Perfect Girl Trailer

Perfect Girl, was initially created as a 10 episodic series but also runs as a short feature. The low budget series created for just USD $700 and filmed in Singapore, Perfect Girl, defied all odds when it went on to sweep 16 nominations worldwide and win 7 international awards including:

Awards:

Toronto Webfest 2015:

• Outstanding Drama Series

Atlanta Webfest 2014:

• Best International Series

LA Webfest 2015:

• Outstanding Drama Series
• Outstanding Writing
• Outstanding Directing
• Outstanding Editing
• Outstanding Lead Actress

Additional Nominations:

Raindance Webfest 2015:

• Best Achievement in Production

Vancouver Webfest 2015:

• Outstanding Drama Series
• Outstanding Series
• Outstanding Lead Actor
• Outstanding Lead Actress

LA Webfest 2015:

• Outstanding Cinematography
• Outstanding Sound Design
• Outstanding Lead Actor

Toronto Webfest 2015:

• Triple Threat Auteur

“We’re really proud to have put Singapore on the map at all these festivals – it was a first for Singapore to be nominated and a first for the wins but we’re blown away to be the first Singapore drama on Viki. Viki is a platform that we had watched grow from its local beginnings to a huge global streaming service. That it had started by bringing Korean content to the world makes it special for us as we’ve been inspired by Korean film and TV. It’s no accident that their content travels, currently they make some of the best shows in the world. Having Perfect Girl amongst other global and Korean prime-time TV and films is a dream. Getting our show in front of millions worldwide and having it cross language barriers is also incredibly exciting. Here in Singapore we’re constantly being told that local content doesn’t travel but I think Perfect Girl proved that it CAN travel and make a mark not only on the festival circuit but on a global network too. We hope this will help pave the way for other locally made dramas to reach international audiences.”

Jason Chan (Co-Founder, BananaMana Films)

ABOUT PERFECT GIRL:

A coming of age romance for anyone who’s ever had a crush.

Since high school, Stan and Jenny have had crushes on each other. They wrote letters to one another over school holidays but in person, they barely spoke; sharing only the occasional lingering glance and smile. Over the years they fantasised about how perfect they would be as lovers. Now, 10 years later, they bump into each other and have the chance to make it a reality but it’s not that simple; self doubt, fear of rejection, of losing their fantasies will hold them back from what could be the perfect union.

ABOUT VIKI

Viki is a global TV site with TV shows, movies and other premium content, translated into more than 200 languages by a community of avid fans. With nearly 40 million viewers each month and over one billion words translated, Viki uniquely brings global prime-time entertainment to new audiences and unlocks new markets and revenue opportunities for content owners. Viki was named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer 2014 and is an independent subsidiary of Japanese Internet services company Rakuten. Viki has offices in San Francisco, Singapore, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo.

PRESS KIT / PHOTOS DOWNLOADS

PRESS RELEASE June 2015: 

Singapore drama series, Perfect Girl Series, wins one of the top awards in Toronto.

Singapore production house, BananaMana Films, won the coveted Outstanding Drama Series award at Toronto Web Fest on 23rd May 2015 for their romantic web series “Perfect Girl Series”. Their digital series beat out 4 other worthy finalists from Canada including “Guidestones, Sunflower Noir” which was shot over three countries on a budget of US$400,000 and had received an International Emmy in its first season.

High Quality Nominees:

Even more remarkable is that “Perfect Girl Series” was created, shot and post-produced by just a team of 4 and on a SGD$1000 budget demonstrating that skilful story telling, creativity and execution is the key to achieving International standards.

Synopsis:

“Perfect Girl Series” is a romantic drama comprising 10 x five-eight minute episodes and charts the journey of a couple who fell in love in high-school but only ever wrote letters to each other at the time. They meet 10 years later and have the chance to close the gap between them but their memories, fantasies and insecurities become their biggest obstacles.

Other Awards:

This seemingly simple story has gone on to win numerous awards at other International web series festivals including:

• Best International Series (Atlanta Web Fest),
• Outstanding Drama Series (Los Angeles Web Fest),
• Outstanding Writing (Los Angeles Web Fest),
• Outstanding Directing (Los Angeles Web Fest),
• Outstanding Editing  (Los Angeles Web Fest),
• Outstanding Lead Actress (Los Angeles Web Fest)

Distribution Deal:

Following these awards Singapore-based distribution giant Hub Media Group signed an International distribution deal with BananaMana Films for both their series: “What Do Men Want?” (TV Series completed in 2014) and “Perfect Girl Series” with immediate distribution to the Philippines, China, India and the US.

“Many production companies wish they could to create dramas that travel. BananaMana Films demonstrated their ability to do this by winning the drama series category in THREE International festivals AND they were up against really stiff competition from the US, Canada and Europe. What drew me to sign distribution deals and hopefully, develop more work with BananaMana Films was their unique ability to create world-class, Asian dramas in English that will travel. Believe it or not this is extremely rare.”

Hub Media Group CEO, Kevin Balhetchet

Perfect Girl becomes first Singapore drama acquired by Viki for global distribution

About BananaMana Films

BananaMana Films is an award-winning narrative content production company that specialises in premium, aspirational dramas for web, TV and film. They have a strong focus on creating narrative Asian content in English.

About Hub Media

Hub Media is a global film, content and format distribution company with production and financing capabilities, IP creation, production management services, content and licensing expertise. The core service include consultancy in media management providing customised solutions to the needs of cable operators. Hub Media was incorporated in Singapore in 2007 and co-produces and distributes content spanning a range of genres: Children, Documentary, Lifestyle, Drama, Film and Formats. As a distribution company with offices located in Singapore with audio and sound stage capabilities in the Philippines, Hub Media spearheads and guides all aspects of R&D, media management, providing consultancy and management services from as early as the initial conception of an IP to product development stages right through to post-production. The biggest supplier of Latin telenovelas and Tagalog dramas in Asia, Hub Media also has in excess of 200,000 hours of Film, Television, Music and Content rights.

For questions or requests for interviews, please contact:

Christian Lee | christian @ BananaMana.com | T: +65 9636 0860 BananaManaFilms.com | facebook.com/bananamana

Singapore Web Series Sweeps Awards in Hollywood

PRESS RELEASE: 5th April 2015, Los Angeles, Hollywood

Singapore based production company, BananaMana Films, garnered five prestigious awards at Los Angeles Web Festival 2015. Nominated for 8 awards, the Singapore web series, “Perfect Girl Series”, had already put the island country on the map by being one of the few Asian series to be nominated at the oldest and largest web series festival in the world. That it received 8 nominations was already a boon for the young production company. Of the 8 nominations they were honoured with 5 wins:

• Outstanding Writing
• Outstanding Directing
• Outstanding Editing
• Outstanding Drama Series
• Outstanding Lead Actress

Mike Ajakwe, Emmy award winning writer and founder of LA Webfest

Awards Night in Hollywood

The awards night was held at the Hilton Universal, Hollywood with attendance of hundreds of competing web series makers from all over the world. The humble ‘web series’,  a rare phenomenon in the past but in recent years, due in part to festivals like LA Webfest, has grown to literally thousands online and has become the new launching pad for discovery of talent from actors to writers to directors. More recently, TV pilots, TV series and films have been launched from web series which have piqued the interest of producers particularly in Hollywood. In Canada there is government funding for the development and production of digital series which demonstrates that content is king no matter what platform it sits on. Yahoo, AOL, Youku and Vimeo have funded web series so far and there’s a growing list of platforms that are interested in following their lead – realising that viewers nowadays are platform agnostic.

Christian Lee, Jason Chan and Khairul Norady with their win for Outstanding Editing

Jason Chan picking up Outstanding Writing award

Christian Lee and Jason Chan picking up Outstanding Directing award

Min Lee (Designer), Khairul Norady (DOP) and Christian Lee (Co-Director)

The Power of Web Series

This wasn’t the first award for BananaMana Films whose very first web series “What Do Men Want?” was awarded in 2014 for “Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series” at LA WebFest. Initially commissioned as a web series for the online platform Toggle (in Singapore) the commissioning editor of Toggle saw its potential as a TV series and asked for it to be re-developed into a 13 x half hour TV series just 2 weeks before start of production. This paid off as it was subsequently acquired by Singapore’s national broadcaster, Mediacorp Ch5, and aired as a fully fledged TV drama in 2014. This inspired BananaMana Films to use the web as a launching pad for their next project “Perfect Girl Series”.  Their focus in the web space paid off with “Perfect Girl Series” being honoured with the ‘Best International Series’ award at Atlanta Web Fest 2014 and nominated against some of Hollywood’s giants (AOL, Legendary Pictures) at Vancouver Web Festival 2015.

“What’s exciting about web series is that there are no rules – no one tells you how long it has to be, where the commercial breaks are, or whether it’ll work commercially… you come up with an idea, write something in the corner your room, show the script to a few people and then go and make it! We did just that and 6 months later we started getting nominations and awards from all over the world. That’s really empowering!”

Jason Chan (Co-founder BananaMana Films)

“It was surreal to be in a ballroom of hundreds of incredibly talented web series makers from all over the world. We met filmmakers from Italy, Spain, Germany, Canada, US, Australia and more. To then get honoured with these awards was incredibly humbling. By the time we were called up for our 5th award we really didn’t know what to say – we didn’t really expect to win so many! It’s a great example of how stories really can travel beyond our borders and that it isn’t always about budget – believe me – Perfect Girl was made on a micro micro budget!”

Christian Lee (Co-founder BananaMana Films)

Both Jason and Christian were also invited to speak on two panels at LA Webfest – sharing their expertise in the web series arena: from finding funding, to writing, directing and also acting in their own series. The panels were a great opportunity for web series makers from all over the world to meet and share stories but also for many aspiring filmmakers in the audience to learn about the process from ground up.

“LA Webfest was an amazing experience for us. Having that sort of recognition in that town (Hollywood) really has opened a lot of doors. We have production companies from the US calling to develop co-productions and media agencies contacting us for sponsorship opportunities. It’s clear now that making something good is a great first step but then you have to get it out there, get it seen and hopefully acknowledged in a big way.”

Jason Chan (Co-founder BananaMana Films)

 

Press Release Feb 2015:

Singapore Web Series Competes with Hollywood and AOL Productions

Singapore web series, “Perfect Girl Series”, created by BananaMana Films, has had an enviable run with web festivals. Thus far the web series has been honoured with official selection at Roma, Atlanta, LA, Korea, Miami and Vancouver Web Series Festivals.

Perfect Girl Series – Winner Best International 2014

At Atlanta Web Fest, Perfect Girl Series won the prestigious Best International Series award in 2014 and has also been nominated for 8 awards at LA Web Fest 2015, including:

• Outstanding Drama
• Directing
• Writing
• Lead Actor
• Lead Actress
• Cinematography
• Editing
• Sound Design

BananaMana Films has been invited to speak on two panels at LA Web Fest 2015 to discuss the production and distribution of Perfect Girl Series.

First Asian Web Series Nominated at VWF:

In early 2015 “Perfect Girl Series”  was honoured with 3 nominations from the highly regarded Vancouver Web Fest. With other official selections and nominations hailing from the US, Australia, Canada, Europe and South America “Perfect Girl Series” is the first Asian web series to be officially selected and nominated at Vancouver Web Fest.  The nominations include:

• Best Actor: Jason Chan
• Best Actress: Khaleila Hisham
• Best Foreign Series (all countries outside Canada)

Perfect Girl Series – Vancouver Web Fest 2015

Nominated with Hollywood and AOL productions:

BananaMana Films is honoured to have their micro-budget series nominated with other premium level productions such as “CAPER”, a super-hero web/TV series produced by Legendary Pictures (the studio behind Batman Begins, Superman Returns, The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar), and “The Future Starts Here” created by San Francisco-based filmmaker and Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain and produced by AOL for the company’s own web series network.

AOL has recently produced 16 web series of premium original content with A-list Hollywood talent including Ellen Degeneres, James Franco, Katie Holmes, Steve Buscemi and Sarah Jessica Parker. Tiffany Shlain joins these A-listers with her own web series on AOL’s digital network.

“We are honoured and humbled to be nominated with these other incredible international series. Just a few years ago the term ‘web series’ was practically unheard of. Now, we have Hollywood giants like Legendary Pictures and AOL investing in premium quality web series. That we’re nominated with them is incredible but what’s more exciting is that it means there’s a future in story telling on the web. The production quality of all the nominated series blur the line between cinema, tv and the web. It’s no longer just about user generated cat videos – there is a future for artistic, premium level, long-form production online. Being a part of it is very exciting!”

Jason Chan

Peeks at Nominated Web Series:

Complete Works: Best Actor: Joe Sofranko (USA)

Complete Works – Official Trailer – All Episodes Available on HULU from Complete Works on Vimeo.
Quella Sporca Sacca Nera / That Dirty Black Bag: Best Foreign Series (Tortoli, Italy)

Whatever, Linda: Best Actress: Hannah Cheesman (Toronto, Canada)

CAPER: Best Foreign Series (Valley Village, USA)

The Future Starts Here: Best Foreign Series (San Francisco, USA)

WATCH ON AOL

Perfect Girl Series: Best Foreign Series (Singapore)

How to Make a Web Series

So you want to know how make a web series? But you’re not sure where to start? Well, I’m going to outline the steps we took to make a successful web series. Of course, “success” is relative and subjective. We’re constantly striving for more in terms of views, promotion, commissioning. But if we take a look back – we started a corporate video production company. We shifted into making a couple of short films. We were then commissioned to make a web series “What Do Men Want?” with 65 episodes that was then acquired by a free to air broadcaster as a 13 episode TV series. Our next series “Perfect Girl Series” has won for “Best International Series” at Atlanta Web Fest 2014 and is nominated for 8 awards at LA Web Fest 2015. We’ve also been invited to speak as panelists at LA Web Fest (one of the oldest and largest web series festivals in the world). So, in short, we have made a couple of successful web series but it’s always challenging going forward – trying to make it sustainable, trying to fund the next one… starting all over again. But for those of you on the verge of beginning or aspiring to make one – here are some tips and lessons we learnt on the way.

Stop Talking About It

Wannabe film makers and actors like to TALK a lot – about their next big project. We know because we’ve been there. Long coffees, long lunches talking about this or that idea and pretending to get feedback from each other. Talking about making a web series doesn’t actually get you there very fast. It usually goes something like this “I’ve got this idea about a web series… but I haven’t worked out all the details yet…” The reality is – it’s procrastination and if you listen closely to the conversation it’s usually full of excuses for why you’re not making it yet. I’ve been there when I was an actor wanting to create work AND now as a creator listening to others continue to talk about how they want to make something but haven’t done it yet. The excuses are many and varied – usually to do with “I want to make a web series but I’ve got to pay the bills” or “I’m just not good at writing” or “it takes too much time”. The bottom line is it’s really really hard to make a web series – or any narrative drama. It’s a completely different beast to corporate video production and it requires the ability and perseverance to create something from nothing. Everyone knows that’s the hardest part. Lots of people will jump onboard once you have a script but very few will actually write it. The script is the absolute foundation of it all. Nothing else happens without it.

Write the Script

Learn as much as you can about writing. I read every book out there about script writing in the past. There’s a bunch of them but these were my favourites:

• Robert McKee “Story”
• Linda Aronson “21st Century Screenplay”
• Christopher Vogler “The Writer’s Journey”

After that I did a screenwriting course that ran for a year and a half with live in sessions and monthly meetings with both our tutors and our writing group to give feedback on your newest development. This was primarily a feature writing program but I learnt so much about screenwriting – and I’d have to say no amount of reading could compare to even the first week of direct feedback from real produced, industry screenwriters. Learning from professionals will shortcut your journey by years.

Then, as painful as it is, sit down and write. Give yourself a structure – for our first commissioned series we had to write 65 x 5 minute episodes. Now, imagine how scared we were since we’d only ever done 2 short films! But, because we had a deadline, we had to write. Our deadline was intense – we had to write and pre-produce in one month. So every night my writing partner and I got on google hangouts and wrote plot lines in five minute chunks. We always tried to have some sort of cliffhanger at the end of the 5 minutes and to include at least a B if not a C storyline. “Keep it fast and moving along” was our mantra.

Forget about Script Software

When I say this I really mean – don’t worry about formatting and expensive software and learning how to use it – the hardest thing in the world is just writing WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. That’s what you should focus on. Get onto google hangouts with your writing partner and share a google text document and start writing plot points together. For example, this is the first 5 minute section of  “What Do Men Want?”:

• Bob pulls out huge hair ball from shower drain – WTF
• Bob confronts Jimmy about not helping with cleaning (Jimmy is almost comatose on the couch) – blame game.
• Jimmy talks about bigger, loftier issues, Bob concerned about health and safety and house rules broken – argue to a climax – Bob slams the door.
• Bob pleads with Jane (intro to Jane) to help convince Jimmy to break up with Ding Ding (PRC).
• Flashback – Jimmy picks up Ding Ding in Mandarin class
• Flashback to confrontation – Jimmy brags to Bob “free classes” – Bob reprimands him
• Jane pleads with Jimmy (phone call – Jimmy is very reticent about talking to her) – “Bob’s really concerned” … montage of feet on toilet seat, soiled toilet tissue in the bin, Ding Ding hocking a lugi, granny panties hung all over kitchen, Bob in the background dry retching. Jimmy: “We’re all one generation removed from the village – don’t you take the high ground… she makes authentic fried rice…it’s just nice to have someone there” Jane: “have you ever tried mine”. Jane “As long as you’re not using her”.
• Jimmy barges in on Ding Ding who’s squatting on toilet (oblivious) “Dui Bu Qi” she says “Mei Guan Xi, Wo da Bian le” – sub: no problems I’m just taking a shit. “Hao Ba” – “I’ll be out in a minute to start our lesson”. – Jimmy is slammed “Hao Ba” (down)
• Jimmy in Bob’s room (cleaning)  – explains that squatting is anatomically correct – but he’s going to break up with her.
• End tag – Bob trying to squat on the toilet

Dialogue is actually much easier than plot points and it’s the plot points that will really be the strong foundation for your series. Concentrate on that and then hang the dialogue on this skeleton. You’ll be amazed how easy it is to create dialogue once this is really mapped out.

Once you’re finished with your plot outline go over it again and again and make sure it’s tight! Don’t have loose ends – all events and characters should be absolutely necessary – they must play an important part in the story – driving the story forward or characters towards their objective. If they don’t – cut them out of the story. During my writing course we weren’t allowed to write a word of dialogue for 6 months. All we did was write plot outlines for 1 feature that had to fit on one page. This was a big lesson and a fantastic way to start.

Next, download Celtx, a free script writing and formatting software. It’s great, it’s free and it’s available on pretty much any platform. Use this to start writing your web series script once you’ve got your outline locked off.

Learn About Camera and Sound

Okay, not everyone will subscribe to this but we wanted to learn all about camera, sound and even editing because the biggest problem is always budget constraints and asking favours from industry professionals. The reality is, these days everything is available to us in terms of technology that’s relatively cheap and how to use it (tutorials on the web). This wasn’t available to us even 5 years ago when cameras were extraordinarily expensive or difficult to use. Nowadays we have cell phones that can shoot 4K video – that are more advanced than US$80 000 cameras 5-6 years ago! We can edit on iMacs that are faster and than the computers used for some of the best Hollywood productions created 5-10 years ago. That means you CAN learn and you CAN have a production house with equipment to do pretty much anything you want for probably under 5-6K. And learning about cameras and sound isn’t rocket science. There are thousands of tutorials and dedicated websites online.

Specifically – get yourself a camera like the Lumix GH4 or Sony A7s. We love the Lumix GH series and shot both our series with these. Our second series “Perfect Girl Series”  has been nominated for a Cinematography Award at LA Web Fest 2015. It was shot entirely on these fairly inexpensive cameras. The Sony a7s is a new favourite we’re currently working with for the reason that it has amazing low light capabilities.

Sony a7s – incredible low light capabilities.

Sound is really important. I’d recommend getting some lavelier microphones (the Sennheiser EW 100 G3 series is my recommendation) and a shotgun mic. We bought the Audio Technica AT897 shotgun ($199) which is cheap and really good – we haven’t had a need to upgrade yet and we’ve had our show broadcast on free to air TV with great results. We use a JuicedLink PreAmp to go from shotgun or Sennheiser into the DSLR. This is really good low noise preamplifier to help boost nice clean sound.

Recommended Shotgun Microphone for making a Web Series

Recommended Preamp for making Web Series

Post Production

We use FCPx on iMacs. It’s a great program – it’s cheap and it’s really all you need! Learn it and you’ll never have to depend on an editor again. We do all our color grading within FCPx. It really is an amazing piece of software. A couple of iMacs and FCPX is really all you need for your post production workflow – don’t let anyone tell you that you need thousands to hire an “online editing suite and professional editors”. You can do it all.

We do all our own in house music too. Of course not everyone can play or compose music but you’ll be amazed what Garage Band or Logic Pro can do with built in loops and rhythms. We actually compose all our music from scratch. But I just use an old keyboard with MIDI inputs  – connect it to an iMac and then use the free Garage Band to record the tracks! I wouldn’t say composing is easy – but the software nowadays makes it really pain free to edit, change and automate music. Garage Band and Logic Pro have a feature for creating soundtracks – where you can drop or import your finished film into the program and then basically play along with the visuals while recording. I wrote more about how to compose music for your web series or film.

Marketing and Promotion

Lastly and by no means the least – get your series out there. We knew little about web series festivals when we started but we researched and submitted our series into multiple web festivals. Some will love it, others won’t … it’ll depend largely on the judges. But one thing we learnt is that it makes a difference – winning awards and getting international recognition gives you plenty to talk about and the press like that! So do friends and family. Social media works but it works even better when you have something to promote. The reality is most people are busy with their own lives and will rarely take the time out to watch something you’ve made unless someone else gives it legitimacy. An award is just that – legitimacy from an objective party.

Winning for Outstanding Directing (What Do Men Want?) opened many doors for us in terms of meeting with potential new investors and buyers of content. Our next series did even better with 8 nominations and 1 win so far and these accolades convert into viewers on our website.

Watch PERFECT GIRL SERIES here.

Perfect Girl Series – Award Winning Web Series

Here is a growing collection of REVIEWS from social media channels on “What Do Men Want?”.

“This is the first-ever local English drama that I’ve watched from start to finish, the script is relatable , pacing is good, and the character’s are really well drawn out. I loved the injects of humor particularly from Bob’s character. I had to binge watch to satisfy my cravings! In what may be ironic, I’ve always found other local English dramas to be too low-brow and unrealistic. On a personal note, I really admire what you guys have done – it’s not easy putting a production like this together – you should be really proud and it’s also very nice of you to share your knowledge: “How to make your web-series” on your blog.
Hopefully you’ll get the financing to make Season 2 happen! I’m already imagining the plots! P.S. Also, can’t get rid of the WDMW theme song – been playing in my head all weekend! haha.”

Lynn Tang (Email)

“Just want to comment on the great work you guys have done. Its been a while since I have enjoy local English series and will continue catching What Do Men Want and the award winning Perfect Girl after that. Do continue producing all these good series!”

Benjamin Yong (Email)

“My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed this series week after week on channel 5. It’s hilarious and entertaining and we’ve been mouthing ‘colourful’ and ‘donkey’ to each other after watching last night’s episode. You guys have done a great job – congrats! We hope you’ll continue to produce more series like these. You and Christian are so natural on the set – fabulous acting!”

Loreen Tan (Website)

“Quite like this series… reflects some real life relationship issues unlike the typical unrealistic dramas.. also great to finally have some quality and standard spoken English from Channel 5 dramas!”

Vicky Lye (Website)

“I don’t watch this kind of series, as a rule. My general tastes lie in F/SF genre. So coming into this with no expectations and nothing to compare it to… I was hooked right away. Quick first impressions, spoiler free: The core four, Jimmy, Bob, Jane and Lingual, are all perfect. The orbiting characters are well acted and some are downright hilarious. Even when the plot gets into the crazy zone, it’s funny and unique and I laughed and cried and cheered for… Well… Spoilers. I hope there’s a second season.”

Carla Benton (Website)

“JASON!!! I need to personally congratulate you for this series you and Chris have produced. Just watched the first 3 episodes in one go and was not only greatly entertained, but also couldn’t stop laughing many times. ‘Did you just say -colourful-?’ HAHAHA Great acting, very good diction- very good story, script and direction. All prizes are well deserved. Very refreshing! I’m happy to have once worked with most of the actors together. So nice to see them again in a very different production. Both thumbs up!! I remember in KL you told me that you studied script writing for I think in total 4 years? I can see it paid off and am so happy for you guys. All the best for coming projects!!”

Peer Metze (Facebook)

“Loved it! Great acting and beautiful filmography”

unrulymisfit (Instagram)

“Watched an episode last night. Very funny. Reminds me of How I Met Your Mother.”

Des (Website)

On Ep 3:

“By far my favourite episode. That ‘colourful’ tip would have been very useful a few years ago! lol The comedic timing was spot on, had me laughing out loud when Jimmy said ‘Donkey’. Clearly Jane and Jimmy has something going, this is gonna be just like Ross and Rachel – I wonder how long they’ll take before these two gets hitched! “

Jeff (Instagram)

On Ep 1:

“Loved the first episode guys, these characters are larger than life but I can relate to them all the same time. The misunderstanding in Chinese had me in stitches! Jimmy’s mustn’t have been paying much attention during the lesson but I loved how Lingual really rubbed it in when she’s translating the breakup!”

Jeff Wang (Website)

“Planned on watching two or three episodes tonight, but had to watch the entire series! I loved it … loved the characters (especially Jane & Jimmy) but even the not-so-loveable ones became loveable. I really enjoyed the male/female perspective throughout the series. I look forward to Season 2. “

Swami C (Website)

“The humor. The acting. The cinematography. There were some episodes that were a little cringey but doesn’t matter, it was great overall. Excited for perfect girl!”

Nur Huda

“Hey guys, i’m a huge fan of this series. it’s very relatable to me – my grandmother, a British chef during world war two, brought me up the first 12 years of my life. so mainly, i speak english at home.Before this, i haven’t really seen a great series with proper english. most Singapore tv series have singlish. a good move to use proper english and appeal to the international market, and it’s smart to include the language into the writing. many things about this series are very clever. the opening music is short and sweet. catchy. I think there were many things that were brilliantly written too. Lingual’s sharpness is attractively prickling and yet her childishness juxtaposed with the good traits immediately makes a character i want to see more of in the later episodes (there’s so much room for her character to develop).”

Lyon Sim (Website)

“Thoroughly enjoyed this episode!!! The communication breakdown between the Chinese lady and Jason’s character was hilarious XD And the whole premise of the relationship was even more absurd (Free Chinese remedial??!) HAHAHAHA! (Can Jason speak Chinese fluently? Because the way he acted like he didn’t was SUPER real)Lingual, is freaky. Very convincingly played”

Ping (Website)