We’re proud to announce that Jimami Tofui has been invited by NParks Singapore to be part of Heritage Week celebrations at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Fresh from sell-out screenings at film festivals in L.A., San Francisco, Hawaii and Okinawa – the award-winning film Jimami Tofu will have a FREE ONE NIGHT ONLY screening at Singapore Botanic Gardens on Sat 30th June, 7pm.

This film, our debut feature, won the Audience Choice Award for Best Narrative Feature Film at the 37th Hawaii Int’l Film Fest.

Theatrical releases in Taiwan, Japan and Singapore.

In Singapore the film will officially launch in August at Golden Village Gold Class – where audiences will be treated to a premium traditional Okinawan set meal.

In Taiwan there will be a theatrical release in Q4 through Lux Cinemas Taiwanese distribution company Movie Cloud; previously responsible for the successful release of Train to Busan in Taiwan last year. The deal was brokered by Korean Film Studio, Opus Pictures. In addition a distribution deal for China through Blue Media Times Beijing for TV and Internet rights has been signed.

The film has also been confirmed for Japanese theatrical release later this year in Okinawa.

Singapore Botanic Gardens FREE Screening:

WHEN: Sat 30th June 2018 7pm

WHERE: Singapore Botanic Gardens Eco Lake Movie Lawn

(5mins walk from Botanic Gardens MRT)

NEAREST EXIT: Exit A, 100 Cluny Road (5 mins walk to Eco Lake Lawn)

Audience members at the event stand a chance to WIN a PAIR of return Jetstar Asia tickets from SG to Okinawa. The only direct service from SG!

As a special treat there will be Okinawan picnic baskets featuring the Ryukyu (traditional Okinawan) dynastic food that’s portrayed in the film. Limited stocks so pre-order the Okinawan picnic baskets here: bit.ly/BuyPicnic

About BananaMana Films

BananaMana Films established in 2012, in Singapore, with the mission statement:

To create aspirational Asian films in English for global distribution.

Just three years later they achieved this with a web series called Perfect Girl. It won 7 International awards from 17 nominations and went on to be the first Singapore drama picked up by Netflix and the first non-Korean drama on Korea’s Naver TVcast.

Jimami Tofu is their debut feature film and was borne of a dream to shoot in Japan.
Having followed their progress over a few years the Okinawa Film Office invited the company to scout Okinawa to see if they could use it as a backdrop for their next drama with their objective to draw more visitors from South East Asia.

“At first we were a little underwhelmed. We were seeing a lot of beautiful beaches but we have plenty of that in SE Asia too. It wasn’t until we asked to see the more rustic, village life on the outskirts of Okinawa that we started to fall in love with it. Then we tasted traditional Ryukyu dynastic food and we knew immediately it would be the key to our story. We decided we didn’t want to use Okinawa as a backdrop – it would be the centre piece of our film. So we set about to create an immersive story infused with rustic, traditional food and romance that would make audiences yearn to experience Okinawa.”
Christian Lee (Co-writer/director/producer)

“Okinawa is quite unique from the mainland of Japan. It’s homely, rustic and it has its own sense of charm. Time also slows down here which is probably why it’s famous for longevity. We really wanted to capture all of this in our film – to enable an audience to truly immerse in the Okinawa that we got to know and love. We wanted to be as authentic to the setting as we were to the story. Okinawa wasn’t simply a backdrop – it was a central character to our film.”
Jason Chan (Co-writer/director/producer)

Jimami Tofu – Synopsis

A Chinese Singaporean chef formerly working in Tokyo, finds himself in Okinawa begging a disgruntled old chef to teach him traditional Okinawan food. A top Japanese food critic finds herself in Singapore on an eye opening discovery of SEA cuisine. In reality both are looking for each other after an emotional breakup years ago when she left him without a trace. Emotionally crippled by their breakup, he searches her home-town for her but discovers instead the art of traditional Okinawan food and her childhood best friend. Family secrets unravel and when she suddenly appears in Okinawa looking to find closure he cooks and serves her their final meal. Through it she discovers what she has been yearning for all these years.

Genre: Romance Drama
Language: English and Japanese with Chinese Subtitles
Running Time: 121 mins
Locations: Okinawa Japan and Singapore

So you’ve submitted to a film festival or you’ve been officially selected by a film festival and they require a blu-ray of your short or feature. – how do you make one if you’re on a Mac. Quite easy.

The majority of Macs do not have DVD burners anymore so you’ll need to purchase an external DVD writer. The Superdrive by Apple does not support Blu-ray – it can only burn conventional standard definition DVDs.

Apparently most USB DVD writers will be compatible with OS X but do check when you purchase. We bought the Samsung External Blu-ray SE 506CB – which I found to be extremely well reviewed online. It did not disappoint.

About the Samsung Blu-ray SE 506CB

It is USB 2.0 powered which is convenient – no need for an extra power cable and adapter. For Macs and PCs it’s simply plug and play. The bundled software is for windows only but don’t let that worry you – it’s simple to use with a Mac. It’s lightweight, comes in black or white, has a tray for the DVD with just one button for eject. When writing a disc it is incredibly quiet – so quiet in fact – I thought it wasn’t working. It’s also useful in that you can plug it into any USB port on a smart TV and use it as a Blu-ray or conventional DVD player.

Burning a Blu-ray on a Mac

You can use various software including Adobe Encore or Toast (requires Blu-ray plugin) but the easiest way is to use FCPx. Just choose your project then output it as a Blu-ray.

Just go to SHARE and add destination (if Blu-ray isn’t already an option):

Add Blu-ray:

Then click on Blu-ray and choose your external drive from the drop down menu (Output Device):

Add a disc template, background, logo graphic, title graphic etc. Don’t forget to title your disc in the INFO section then click NEXT.

Your Blu-ray DVD should be ready soon.

Selling second-hand videography bundle packages at reduced clearance price! All

equipment is in full working condition unless stated otherwise. Perfect as starter kits

for freelance videographers, on-the-go filmmakers, pro-sumers and enthusiasts

aspiring in videography. Cost-effective solution as main or B-cameras including

scenarios such as multi-camera live streaming for events, recces and actual shoots.

Please contact Bryan at 82981288 or bryanjameskwa @ gmail.com if you are

interested in purchasing any of the packages.

Package 1 – Panasonic GH3

SOLD

• – GH3 Body
• – 12-35mm F2.8 Lumix Lens
• – 3 Batteries
• – 2 Chargers
• – DC Coupler
• – Lens case
• – Camera strap
• Working Condition: 10/10

Wear Condition: 8/10

Price: SGD 945

Package 2 – Panasonic GH3

SOLD

• – GH3 Body
• – 12-35mm F2.8 Lumix Lens
• – 3 Batteries
• – 2 Chargers
• – DC Coupler
• – Lens case
• – Camera strap
• Working Condition: 10/10

Wear Condition: 8/10

Price: SGD 922

Package 3 – Panasonic GH3 (Box)

• – GH3 Body (Eye cup missing worth approx. SGD 20)
• – 12-35mm F2.8 Lumix Lens (Wear marks on exterior)
• – 2 Batteries
• – 1 Charger
• – Lens case
• – Camera strap

Working Condition: 10/10

Wear Condition: 8/10

Price: SGD 880

Package 4 – Panasonic GH2 x2

SOLD

• – GH2 Body
• – GH2 Body (Screen Faulty)
• – Lilliput Monitor – serves as replacement monitor
• – 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 Lumix Lens
• – 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 Lumix Lens
• – 3 Batteries
• – 2 Battery Grips
• – 2 Chargers
• – DC Coupler + AC Adapter
• – Lens Case
• – Camera Strap
• – Mini Jack Audio Converter Cable

Working Condition: 8/10

Wear Condition: 8/10

Price: SGD 990

Nikkor and MFT lenses

SOLD

SLR Magic Hyperprime 12mm f/1.6

• – Working Condition: 10/10
• – Wear Condition: 9/10
• – Price: SGD 410
• – Availability: 1 piece
• – Description: Minor exterior wear marks.

Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-42mm f/3.5 -5.6

• – Working Condition: 10/10
• – Wear Condition: 8/10
• – Price: SGD 120
• – Availability: 1 piece
• – Description: Minor exterior wear marks.
• Nikon 50mm f/1.8 Series E Lens (Silver)
• – Working Condition: 7/10
• – Wear Condition: 8/10
• – Price: SGD 30
• – Availability: 1 piece
• – Description: Minor exterior wear marks. Focus ring is a bit tight between 0.6m and 1.0m.

Nikon 50mm f/1.8 Series E Lens (Silver)

SOLD

• – Working Condition: 7/10
• – Wear Condition: 8/10
• – Price: SGD 30
• – Availability: 1 piece
• – Description: Minor exterior wear marks. Focus ring is a bit tight between 0.6m
• and 1.0m.

Lens Mount Adapters

SOLD

1x Nikon G-type to MFT

1x Nikon F mount to MFT

1x Nikon mount to MFT

2x Konica to MFT

• – Working Condition: 10/10
• – Wear Condition: 8/10
• – Price: SGD 10 Each or Free with purchase of any compatible lens or body

Accessories

SOLD

4x Impact Large Clip Clamp with 5/8″ Receptor and 3/8″ Female Threads

Working Condition: 10/10

Wear Condition: 10/10

Price: SGD 10 (each)

Indislider Mini

Working Condition: 10/10

Wear Condition: 10/10

Price: SGD 100

Neewer 48 Marco LED Ring Light

SOLD

Working Condition: 10/10

Wear Condition: 10/10

Price: SGD 25

Description: 6 Adapter Rings (49mm, 52mm, 55mm, 58mm, 62mm or 67mm)

Nikon Speedlite SB-800 + Soltron D32T Thyristor Flash Unit

SOLD

Working Condition: 10/10

Wear Condition: 10/10

Price: SGD 300

Description: Speedlite is brand new and unused + Free Soltron

2x Cowboy Studio CN-600SA LED Lite Panel + ikan IB-TR190S Sony V-Mount Battery

SOLD

Working Condition: 10/10

Wear Condition: 9/10

Price: SGD 840

Description: New LED panels at approx. SGD 346 each, now selling at SGD 170

each. New ikan battery at approx. SGD 926, now selling at SGD 500.

Sony E-Mount Video Lens

Sony FE PZ 28-135mm f/4 G O SS

• – Working Condition: 10/10
• – Wear Condition: 10/10
• – Price: SGD 3100 (each)
• – Availability: 2 pieces
• – Description: Brand NEW and never been used for shoots. Boxes have only been
• opened to check the working condition of the lenses

Sometimes we shot scenes with just one tiny light source and the footage was unbelievable – you gotta see it to believe it…

The Sony a7s is a game changer for film and TV production. In this interview we talk about the various aspects of the Sony a7s that made it a killer camera to use on long form narrative production. We used the Sony a7s for the first time on a TV pilot and were blown away by the efficiency of workflow especially with its low light prowess. At the end of the video is a short trailer for our action-thriller pilot that demonstrates how well the footage turned out with minimal light.

Why use the Sony a7s?

Since corporate video production days we’ve always preferred using DSLRs or mirrorless cameras. The form factor was familiar to us and we liked interchangeable lenses. We also had a preference for older legacy lenses which often gave a different look and feel to the shots. There was basically more artistic choice than having a very sharp zoom lens on the end of a video camera. Of course, nowadays there are many “video cameras” that have interchangeable lenses but we’ve stayed with the mirrorless form factor mainly because of its compact size. There are many competing mirrorless and DSLR cameras that are available for indie filmmakers – so why the Sony a7s?

Low Light Sensitivity

We had been users of the Panasonic GH series for awhile and they served us very well but when the Sony a7s came out we were blown away by its ability to capture images in the dark. To see this in action check out our Sony a7s Low Light Sensitivity Test. One of the pain points in the past has been lighting. We never had enough light – so we were always carrying large LED banks with huge V mount batteries and multiple large light stands with the accompanying crew. Sets ups of course then take much longer – sometimes 30-40mins to get the lighting right. People forget that once you turn on a big light from one direction you then have to turn on other big lights to cover shadows created by the first light. You’re often chasing your tail with any lighting setup. Then you have to cut or shape lights to make sure there’s not too much light in certain areas and this required flags with their own stands. All this added multiple stands/ tripods to the scene that actors and camera operators had to work around. When you’re making an indie production you often have small spaces and limited time – so efficiency of lighting was an area we always wanted to improve.

With the Sony a7s we discovered that we could easily shoot up to 40 000 ISO without much noise. We couldn’t believe our eyes the first time we did this – the camera could literally see beyond our eyes – but not only that, it could capture footage that was noiseless enough to use! Suddenly the game changed. We reduced our lighting setups to just two single LED lights and 2 or 3 tiny palm sized Z96 LED panels. Our entire lighting kit fit into one backpack! As we shot our action-thriller pilot we discovered that many scenes required just a few lights – sometimes just one LED source. We were simply amazed by the low noise footage we got. Sometimes we shot scenes with just one tiny light source and the footage was unbelievable – you gotta see it to believe it. Check out the video above to see examples of our 40 000 ISO footage with just available light.

The low light sensitivity was the single most powerful game changing aspect of the Sony a7s. Our efficiency increased by 3-4x and we could power through a day shooting at speeds we’d never imagined were possible.

Ability to Shoot at Higher Apertures

Because of the low light sensitivity of the Sony a7s we were able to shoot at f4. This is important since, in the past, in low light situations we were often limited to shooting at f2 or lower to get enough light. This meant our actors were unable to move very much or our camera operators had to desperately follow focus which is always difficult. At f4.0 or above we’re able to keep moving actors in focus much more easily and once again this increases efficiency.

Great Audio in camera

The audio in the Sony a7s works perfectly. We tested audio using various configurations in this Sony a7s audio test and we found that even the onboard amplifier was perfectly usable to certain levels. The ability to record audio into camera it is always a major concern for us since this affects efficiency. If we can record perfect audio into camera why would we record separate audio outside the camera? We found out early on that recording audio into camera was perfectly fine especially with dialogue. This meant that we didn’t have to sync audio afterwards which was always tedious and time consuming. We have had two shows sold to broadcasters and both met all audio guidelines – in fact we’ve been nominated for a sound design award. Hence, we will only use a camera that has good sound recording internally. Nevertheless, we do use a JuicedLink as a pre-amp with Sony a7s Audio since it is a very nice professional grade low noise pre-amp and allows us to have up to 3 XLR inputs into camera.

Accepts All Lenses

Since the Sony a7s is a full frame mirrorless camera it will accept all lenses ever made. We used two lenses by Sony extensively through our pilot shoot: the Sony 24-70mm f4 zoom and the 70-200mm f4 zoom. Both are sharp and have optical stabilisation which is great for hand held work. However, we also have legacy primes that we love. One is the Konica-Hexanon 40mm pancake which was a famous prime lens decades ago and can now be found on ebay for about US$150 or less. We love the look of this lens and find that it’s a go-to lens for us on many occasions. The 85mm Samyang cine-lens is another go-to lens for us particularly for mid shots or closeups. The focus range is perfect for handheld shooting without a focus puller – one operator can pull focus easily. You will find that some cine-style lenses have a very long focus range built specifically for focus pulling rigs. Personally I don’t like this because it means you have to have a focus pulling rig of sorts and often another focus puller. It’s very difficult for one camera operator to use these lenses whilst having to pull focus throughout a scene.

If you want to use prime lenses developed for micro 4/3 cameras – you can! As long as it’s a manual prime. Just set the Sony a7s to APS-C mode and the camera will simply record the pixels within a smaller 35mm frame size. This APS-C mode also means on every lens you have two focal lengths!

Conclusion

Without doubt the Sony a7s is a game changer for film and TV production. We were able to shoot in lighting conditions that would have been impossible in the past.Being able to shoot with available light or sometimes just one lighting source was amazing and meant that our shoot moved at almost 2-3x the pace. Our only reservation was that the batteries wouldn’t last through a night of shooting. We’d often use 2-3 batteries per camera on a 8-10 hour shoot. However, it wasn’t as bad as we’d expected since the batteries charge very quickly – sometimes in 30-45 mins. We had bought external batteries in anticipation of this problem but on our shoot we never used them. It was always quicker and easier to use internal batteries since it added no additional weight or components to the camera. We like a slick workflow with minimal external add ons. Hope you enjoy the video above and do ask us anything if you have queries about our workflow or let us know your opinion of this camera.

Disclaimer:

In full transparency we’d like to just say that we are working with Sony and their cameras to evaluate and try to achieve great quality footage for our upcoming drama series. However, all opinions and technical considerations in this blog are our own.

Sony a7s ISO Sensitivity Test

As we prepare to use the Sony a7s for production – in particular for a TV series we’re producing – we needed to find out how far we could push the incredible ISO levels on this camera but still retain good quality footage with accurate colors and low noise. So we did a little test. It’s not a scientific test by any means but we did try to control for a few things. In this test we wanted to know not only if the Sony is sensitive in low light (which we now well and truly know) but also what is  an optimal ISO to be working at to achieve editable and gradable footage. To test this we controlled most settings on the camera except of course ISO and the only change to exposure was made with the lights. This allowed us also to understand how much lighting we really needed for our set and to light our actors whilst keeping it noise free. Whilst a sensitive camera like the Sony a7s may not reduce the number of lights you have – it’ll certainly reduce the amount of light each one is needed to emit. That translates to smaller, lighter equipment which is great for all productions particularly indie ones.

Our settings:

• Picture Profile 6 (our favourite picture profile – flat and optimized for editing)
• frame rate 25
• shutter speed 1/50
• aperture f4
• Lens: Sony Vario Tessar 24-70mm Zoom f4

Camera and Lighting Setup:

We used two small Z96 LED lights in front of our talent, one Z96 lighting a spot on the wall behind and turned on a table lamp in the background as well. Of course we could only dim the Z96s so the table lamp eventually blew out on camera.

F&V Z96 LED Light

Our aim was to increase the ISO whilst keeping all other settings the same. We would just dim the Z96 LEDs with each increment of ISO to keep all the exposure levels the same.

Exposure Levels:

We spot metered through the camera to keep the grey card as well as the talent’s skin at 0EV. The highlighted spot on the back wall (lit by the Z96) we kept at +1.3EV.

Our conclusion:

Once again – just as our previous test – we were blown away by the incredible low light performance of this camera. We found that we were comfortable pushing the ISO up to at least 8000 if not 10 000 with minimal noise and good color rendition. Some have said they’d be quite happy to use up to ISO 80 000 but I think for broadcast TV we would stay around ISO 10 000 and below – which is still an incredible range for us to be able to work at. As you could see from our inset frames of  “what we could actually see” with our eyes vs what the camera saw – we were able to work with very very limited (dim) lighting. This is a boon to indie or budget filmmaking where sometimes budget constraints mean that you have less hands on set and less lights you’re able to work with. This doesn’t mean we’re not going to light or shape our lights but it does mean we can now work with much smaller lights with smaller output. This means lower power consumption which means less batteries, longer shoot times, less to carry – all great efficiencies for any filmmaker. In fact we’re in the process of developing some very small, focusable lights powered by AA or AAA batteries. If anyone is interested in something like this do email us.

For documentary or lifestyle work this camera is a no-brainer buy! I’ve since had this camera on several overseas trips. I used to swear by fast primes simply because I needed to let in as much light as possible but with the Sony Vario-Tessar 24-70mm f4 zoom I could capture anything, anytime. An aperture of f4 is no longer a limitation. It has already changed my workflow and will revolutionise our production processes. Love it when technology does that!

Sony a7s Low light performance

Disclaimer:

In full transparency we’d like to just say that we are working with Sony and their cameras to evaluate and try to achieve great quality footage for our upcoming drama series. However, all opinions and technical considerations in this blog are our own.

Interested in how well the Sony a7s works in low light?

So were we after a series of amazing low light demonstrations of this camera were posted from around the world.

If you’re not already familiar, the Sony a7s is an interchangeable lens camera or mirror-less camera so it’s not strictly speaking a DSLR (which by definition has a mirror). Nevertheless, most filmmakers still refer to it as a DSLR and up against well established indie-filmmaking cameras like the Canon 5D, Canon 7D, Lumix GH4, Lumix GH3 and more recently Samsung NX1. These companies are every year coming up with something to trump each other in terms of specs or quality to lure filmmakers to their side. Most recently Sony came out with the a7s which, in a surprise move, focussed on the size of the pixels in their sensor instead of the number of pixels. The Sony a7s has 12 megapixels but their increased size on a full frame sensor allows it to capture more light – in fact, much much much more light than it’s competitors. The Sony a7s low light performance is beyond any other camera of its price range in fact it blows away cameras of multitudes its price. Naturally we were very interested in getting our hands on a few!

Less Pixels Bigger Pixels

The sensor is also capable of outputting 4k footage without line skipping, pixel binning or down sampling which means you should be able to get your bokeh (background blur) while avoiding artefacts like moire or aliasing. Sadly 4k video isn’t possible in camera – you must use an external recorder fed by the HDMI output.

As narrative directors and producers we were very interested in how this camera would help our workflow in production. In particular we are always looking to minimise weight and maximise speed without compromising the image. One thing that stood out to me when I first saw its low light potential was that we could shoot with quicker lighting setups. This isn’t to say that we wouldn’t light our actors or shape our light around a room but that we would need less of it – which means smaller, more portable lights. Our lenses could also have a higher base aperture which would mean we wouldn’t be struggling with focus on night shots where we were forced, in the past, to use apertures like f1.8 or even f0.9. Whilst this camera also offered a full frame look with possibilities of more bokeh at large apertures we were particularly interested in using higher apertures to get more depth of field in a shot – more detail in the background – particularly at night. At the very least, with higher low light sensitivity, we would have the CHOICE of being able to stop down or up depending on the look we wanted.

Zoom Lenses vs Primes

Although many filmmakers swear by prime lenses generally because of their sharpness compared to zooms – the new generation of zoom lenses have improved to the point that, in our opinion, it’s almost imperceptible particularly in narrative work. But then again we’re not pixel peepers. For us, a zoom is practical. It takes much less time to change shot size and keeps us getting the shots we need – fast. Every minute counts on long-form production. So we decided to test two zooms in anticipation of our next production:

Sony 24-70mm f4 ZA OSS

Sony FE 70-200mm f4 G OSS

Blown away by Sony a7s performance in low light

Equipped with two Sony a7s’s and the above lenses we set out to shoot a night scape of Singapore using ISOs that we would never have touched on any other camera.

To say we were blown away is an understatement. The minute we started shooting and adjusting the ISO to levels like 32,000 and getting seemingly usable footage – we began laughing. This simply shouldn’t be possible – we were doing things that we’d never done before like shoot night scenes with apertures of f5 or even f8! Some shots were taken in what seemed like complete darkness to our eyes but at 32,000 ISO or ABOVE we were able to capture detail in the shadows. In general the camera was pretty easy to get used to. The only minor gripe I would have is that the video record button is on the side of the camera (you can’t use the normal shutter button), it’s also tiny and a little unnatural to use. Also the batteries run down very quickly. On an evening of about 5 hours shoot we went through two batteries each. Which is probably why Sony ships two of them with every camera. For a long form (film, TV) shoot we will need an alternate battery source – there’s no way we will survive using Sony’s own batteries when we have to shoot 12 hour days. In any case for casual shooting (photography or even videography) 2 batteries should last for most.

Noise Reduction

ISO and settings are listed in the left corner of the video. It wasn’t at all a scientific test – we just wanted to get a feel for it and the possibilities – as such we have used some noise reduction in some scenes (which is what we would do on any production shoot anyway). What surprised us is how little we needed. Some shots were taken at 25,000 ISO and we did minimal noise reduction. We found the noise to have a very nice grain – organic looking, not particularly blocky. In fact many times we would reduce noise reduction to allow more of the grain back in to get a more “natural look”. As always there is further compression with any upload to a video server (less so on Vimeo than Youtube) but if you’d like to check out the original output click on the Download Link below the video.

Thanks for reading – if you’ve had experience with this camera or have any thoughts/ questions we’d love to hear from you below.

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)

Original Music of  “What Do Men Want?”

We’ve had many requests and comments about the music of “What Do Men Want?” so we’ll post some bits and pieces of the score plus some of the recorded songs below.

All of the music of the series was done in house and was recorded on Garage Band on an iMac using the Apogee ONE as the microphone in most cases where there was vocal or ukulele recording needed.

The music was composed by our very own Jason Chan and it was all done on an old Yamaha MIDI keyboard straight into Garage Band after the locked off edit of each episode. He arranged and recorded the songs too using the simple equipment above.

Enjoy the tracks!

My Friend My Home – Theme Song for “What Do Men Want?”

We’ve had a heap of requests for the ukulele chords of “My Friend My Home” the theme song of “What Do Men Want?” so here it is – a video of me recording the song with Garage Band and the ukulele chords in the video.

You may also download the lyrics and chord sheet here: My Friend My Home Ukulele Sheet Music

How to write music for your web series

One very important element in any film, TV or web series is MUSIC. Sound and sound design is itself a very difficult and incredibly important element but that’s for another article. I just wanted to give a few hints as to how to create your own music for your web series.

When we were creating “What Do Men Want?” it was done under incredible time duress! We had approximately one month to write a 65 x 5 minute episode web series (that later turned into 13 half hour episodes). Nevertheless, we were writing as well as doing pre-production which includes casting, sourcing for locations, scheduling, finding costumes etc. When you consider that we ended up with 25 actors, 800 scenes and over 100 locations you’ll start to understand how daunting it all became. So the last thing on our minds was post-production which is a whole other beast altogether.

However, when we finally did get to post-production we realized after watching the first cut that we needed music and the search was on!

Stock Music

This is where most people will find their answer and to be honest we were going down this track too. However, when we saw the first rough cut with stock (corporate sounding) music inserted we knew right there and then we had to find another solution. Stock music is exactly that – STOCK – it rarely fits well. It’s hard to match one theme to another – which works for corporate videos but not well for narrative stories. Often it takes so much time to listen to all the music out there and find the perfect piece for each section of your web series that it can take so much less time to actually write and record it. Stock music can also be expensive depending on how many tracks you want to use. It wasn’t a good solution for us at all so we decided on the very daunting task of composing our own music from scratch. Daunting at first – but actually not too bad in the end.

Music as Story

My approach with music is that it is yet another character or voice within the story. It sometimes adds to a scene, deepens a scene or takes you on an emotional flight – somewhere that just speaking cannot necessarily take you. It can have many functions and if you’re clear about what a scene needs to achieve then you’ll start to know what sort of music needs to help you with that scene. Unless you have someone who knows STOCK music inside out I found that it was just easier to compose it. If you’re not a composer try and find someone who is and who is willing to help score your web series. It really does open up another dimension to your story telling.

You can get a sense of the various themes and music used throughout our series by just playing through all our trailers for “What Do Men Want?”

How to Record Music to your Series

I won’t go into how to write music per se as this will be like any art form – full of subjectivity. But if you’re on track to write your own music or have someone else write it for you – you may want to use Apple’s free GARAGE BAND which has a movie import function allowing you to just bring in your locked off edit and then literally play along with every scene that needs music. As you play you record. You can score the entire series this way with multiple tracks (multiple instruments). If you want to get a sense of an orchestral score check out PERFECT GIRL SERIES where I used all sorts of genres of music but finished with a full orchestral piece at the last episode.

The great thing is it’s all totally FREE. It even has a great DRUMMER feature that allows you to score using a drum rhythm that’ll change as you move your mouse or track pad. It’s as organic as conducting the drummer live! I used this a lot in Perfect Girl Series. 

Incidentally apart from Garage Band you may need a keyboard with MIDI inputs – just about any keyboard will work. I prefer one that has the full set of keys (88 keys) because I used to play the piano and I just can’t get used to little keyboards. This is the Yamaha keyboard I use – it’s quite old and there are many new updated ones.

As far as microphones – I use an Apogee ONE (which you can see below in the videos). It is both a sound card that’ll plug into your Mac and has a built in microphone. I love the condenser mic on the Apogee – it has a very natural recording tone. I used it for our theme song for “What Do Men Want?”

Create a Hook and Develop It

I believe you should treat music just as you treat plot and story. You should spend the most time trying to create a few themes that represent the feel, dynamic and sense of the story. Then develop these themes through the story. In “What Do Men Want?” there were a few themes that will play through an episode but I would always start with sketches or hints of the theme and then develop them through the plot concluding in a full blown piece at the climax of that episode. Often I will leave it on a kind of musical cliff hanger. I tried a similar thing with Perfect Girl Series too only this time the themes were developed throughout the series towards a climax at the 10th episode.

The hardest thing in the world is to write a “hook” or a catchy theme. This isn’t always necessary but it can help to deepen the story or to create a sense of familiarity. Catchy themes always get people saying things like “I’ve heard this before” or “I just kept singing that to myself” or “I couldn’t get that out of my head”. You may or may not want this to happen – but it’s great for serials particularly if you want people coming back! If you can – spend time trying to craft a great melody – many composers don’t really do this – but this is like crafting the foundation or plot of a script. It’s not good scripting if you’re just going to throw words at a script – you have to know how to select the few great words that will tell a compelling story. It’s the same with music. Just knowing the grammar of music doesn’t necessarily make you a good composer, in my humble view. Knowing how to put together a few great notes in a combination that’ll take the audience somewhere – into memory, wistfulness, emotive states is what is my aspiration for writing music.

My Friend My Home – Theme of  “What Do Men Want?”

Since this was a story of two bachelors looking for love and finding it amongst their female friends – I wanted it to feel like a loosely recorded song – as if a couple of guys just sang it on the couch after a night out. It needed to be simple, light hearted but sincere. So I picked up the ukulele which has that sort of sound and started riffing with themes. Bear in mind I only started learning the uke a few months before. I can only play a few chords but that’s enough to write thousands of melodies. Once I came up with the general melody I wrote the lyrics to fit.

And just to show you how easy it can be to record it all – even for broadcast TV – here’s me recording the song with just a ukulele and one harmony – recorded on Garage Band which you can see working in the background.

Variations on a Theme – “You’ve Got Me”

As an example on how to vary and develop your music or theme through a drama here’s another theme I wrote for “What Do Men Want?” I used the exact same ukulele chord progression for “My Friend My Home” and just created a melody on top of it. It again breeds familiarity and deepens the effect of both themes.