Meet the Jury Part 1!

We're incredibly excited to announce the first member of our jury panel. Meet CheeK, chief Content Officer At Mediacorp Pte Ltd

A creative professional with over twenty years of experience in entertainment, film and television production in Asia, CheeK has worked on both sides of the desk – as a multiple award winning writer, director and producer and as a senior management executive at major international media companies like MTV Japan and STAR TV. As such he has full understanding of the creative process as well as how to manage the business.

CheeK is currently the Chief Content Officer of MediaCorp Singapore, responsible for driving the content strategy and development for its extensive portfolio of entertainment products across its TV and digital platforms as well as content syndication and on air talent. He was previously the Head of Creative, Content and Marketing for Scripps Networks Interactive, Asia Pacific (Food Network Asia, Asia Food Channel, Travel Channel and HGTV). Prior to joining Scripps, he was a co-founder and the Head of Creative for The Group Entertainment, overseeing all of creative and co-managing the business.

Food is a recurring theme in CheeK’s work both in television and film. This is not surprising as he is a food and wine lover who holds a Diploma in Wines and Spirits (WSET Level 4), Certified Sommelier (CMS level 2) and French Wine Scholar (FWS) qualifications. He also writes about wine and food in Wine & Dine magazine.

His current obsession is with how entertainment content can increase the Happiness Quotient of users/viewers on multiple platforms - especially in the digital space.

““Whether on a smartphone or a Hollywood sound stage, great film-making is all about Story, Stars and Style…
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— CheeK, CCO, MediaCorp

The AAYFF presents Film Masterclasses with Dan Sully

The AAYFF and the Tanglin Trust Foundation are very excited to announce the visit of Dan Sully, TV Director and filmmaker on the 6 and 7 March. Dan will be putting the Senior film students through their paces as they learn about filmmaking from screenplay to edit, in two days of masterclasses. The sessions will be recorded and shown at a later date via the AAYFF's youtube channel.

Dan Sully is a British filmmaker based in London.  He started his career at MTV making music television and shooting live multi-camera music performance before making the leap into music videos.  He started off making a series of music videos for the independent label Bella Union (Beach House, Howling Bells etc...) and went on to make music videos for many high profile artists such as Elbow, Will Young, Kaiser Chiefs, The Maccabees and Miles Kane.  

 In 2012 he wrote and directed the short film 'The Ellington Kid' which made the front page of reddit, became a Vimeo staff pick and racked up 500k hits in under a week.  ‘Senka’ his second short film was completed in 2015 and is playing film festivals.  He is now developing a couple of feature projects.  He has directed commercials for Nike, Beats, Absolut, McDonalds, Tesco, Nurofen, Ubisoft among many others.

Dan Sully's work in film and photography can be found on his site:

www.dansully.net

Freddie Yeo of Infinite Studios

Freddie Yeo, COO of the incredible Infinite Studios, Singapore popped into Tanglin last week. He had lots of support and ideas for the forthcoming film festival and offered these words of encouragement for all students…

““Whilst technology is important, we also can’t be slaves to it. It’s the combination, with our own human experience and individual stories that will make our storytelling unique. That will ultimately inspire and differentiate us as filmmakers”.
”

— Freddie Yeo, COO, Infinite Studios, Singapore

He was particularly impressed that the AAYFF festival is aimed at students from 10 years old and he’d encourage young students from all across Singapore and the region to start film making – no matter how old!

Infinite Studios is an integrated Media Entertainment and Creative Services company with the vision to become one of Asia's leading producer of Film, TV and Digital Media content for a global audience. 

Wise words for our young filmmakers from Philip Cheah, director of the Singapore International Film Festival

As we make preparations for the very first Across Asia Youth Film Festival, we have been lucky enough to draw on the experience and expertise of our festival partners Disney, HBO Asia and Mediacorp. Another prominent member of the Singapore film community to offer us his wisdom is Philip Cheah, director of the Singapore International Film Festival. Philip was kind enough to write with words of encouragement and some advice about running a film festival. He also had this special message for our young filmmakers.

“If one can assume that the Buddha is within us, then one can also imagine that the film we want to make is also already within us”

— Philip Cheah, film critic

Ten top tips for young Filmmakers!

With six weeks left until the deadline for this year's festival there is still time to come up with an idea and make your film. Here are ten really useful tips to help you. There are also some fantastic online resources available here on the site to support your projects!

Tanglin Trust School's Media Technology department featured on Channel News Asia!

The official opening of the Nixon building was featured on Channel News Asia!