Bryan Wong Will Spend His Own Money, Joanne Peh Will Slide Into Your DMs & Ian Fang Will Relive His Drunken Youth For Their Directorial Debuts

Actors don't just want to act anymore — they also want to direct their own films.

Fresh Takes! is special incubator project where our stars Priscelia Chan, Romeo Tan, Bryan Wong, Joanne Peh, Ian Fang and Shane Pow will be making their directorial debuts with a series of 30-minute short films, with the exception of Bryan’s episode, which is an hour long. The 10-ep Ch U and Toggle series, which aims to breathe fresh air into the local media industry with its use of all-new directors, actors, producers and scriptwriters, will also feature short films by production teams from Mediacorp's Ch 8, Wawa Pictures, August Pictures and Studiomonki.

8days.sg is gathered along with other members of the media at the super old-school movie theatre-turned-hipster hangout The Projector for the series' press conference. And for the first time, the media is outnumbered. There are more stars present today than there are reporters, which goes to show how big a scale this TV project is.

Judging from the show reel we were treated to at the start of the press con, we’ve gotta give a thumbs up for these first-time directors, especially Bryan, whose project is called The Playbook. The star had revealed that he had forked out money from his own pocket after he went over budget. Bryan declines to reveal how much cash he had pumped in to the project but says that the money was well-spent .

During the press con, his leading lady Sheila Sim also let on that Bryan would cry together with her for every emotional scene that she had to film, and that he would give her a big hug after each take.

His project: The Playbook
His cast: Sheila Sim and newcomer Ayden Sng with cameos from Quan Yifeng, Constance Song and Kym Ng.
What is it about? A cancer-stricken entrepreneur has only 30 days to live. She tells her two best friends that her greatest regret is that she never fell in love. So they help her reenact scenes from famous rom-coms and the trio are aided by a 'male lead' who they find… in a Thai disco.
When is it airing? Mar 15, 9pm.

“You know what's a “hang flower club”?” Bryan says to us. For the uninitiated, 'hang flower clubs' are nightspots, most of them of the Thai persuasion, where you reward the, um, entertainers with garlands that represent the amount of tips they are getting. “But the lead male character is not a go-go boy, he is a bartender at a Thai nightclub, who helps Sheila's character live out her romantic dreams.

Besides being involved in every aspect of the production, Bryan also composed a score for The Playbook, which he says is a “very integral part of his project because it links the whole show together.”.

His project: If Only
His cast: Richie Koh, Nick Teo, Aileen Tan, Damien Teo
What is it about? Ian Fang’s real-to-reel life story about a foreigner trying to make it in Singapore.
When is it airing? ​​​​​​​Mar 29, 9.30pm.

“If Only means Ian Fang Only,” laughs the 29-year-old actor. The story is based on my personal life experiences, about a foreigner coming to Singapore to study, and how his mother raises him. When I was young, I would drink every night and get drunk every night… So this story is something like a story of my life up until now lah.

I did everything from scratch. It was a challenge... I composed the music myself too. I think it’s a fantastic experience for actors who want to be directors. [The transition] is pretty weird because as an actor, you only have to know the character you are playing. But as a director, you have to know and control everything on set. I think I’ve done a pretty good job because I know what I want. I want to be as responsible and prepared as I can to make my cast and crew feel comfortable. Things can be unpredictable and go wrong on set, so you’ve got to be flexible and work around the problems. For example, if time’s running out on a location we’ve rented, we’ve got to adapt and shoot somewhere else instead. There was once, we wanted to shoot at a hawker centre, but because it was raining and too noisy, we changed to a back alley. We had to adapt, so we borrowed an umbrella and continued with the scene.”

His project: The Droner
His cast: Bao Ercong Bunz, Chen Meixin Macy
What is it about? A boy falls in love with a girl, but has never had the courage to pursue her when they were in school. After spotting her through his drone many years later, he decides to ‘fess up.
When is it airing? ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Mar 22, 9pm.

Of course, Romeo Tan wants his drone involved. He's known to be an avid photographer — have you not checked out romeophotologue.com? — so expectations are running high for his directorial debut. “It's because of my photography skills, that's why I feel more stressed!” he shares during the press con.

“Every boy would fall in love with a girl at some point, and you won’t dare to approach her. After many years, we would all move on and things just don't work out. What I'm trying to say is that fate is quite special. You can meet someone, fall in love, but if you miss the chance, you can't go back again. I want my film to teach viewers to cherish the people you have now,” explains the actor.

However, unlike the other directors, Romeo had some help with his script. “I have an idea of what I wanted, but I got a scriptwriter to help me because I was really busy. I mean, I’m also not good at expressing my ideas out in words. Other than that, I directed and edited some parts of my film. But I left the more difficult parts to my video editor (laughs). I do have a bit of background in editing because I studied digital film and video in poly!”

Her project: Soul Connection
Her cast: Cheryl Wee, Darryl Yong, Lim Peifen, Kanny Theng, Edwin Goh
What is it about? A woman has given up on love after finding out that her date from an online app is already attached. In a strange twist of fate, a delivery boy ends up with his sister's phone by mistake, and he starts communicating with our lovelorn lady.
When is it airing? ​​​​​​​Mar 29, 9pm.

Appearing at the press con with very light make-up is Priscelia Chan, who’s making her TV comeback not as an actress but a director after she was forced to give up acting for the past two years due to a a severe make-up allergy.

“It’s a consolidation of the little lessons I’ve learnt through self-acceptance, love and finding my identity. These two years of me not living the life as an actress has made me think and reflect a lot. I needed to find myself again. There were a lot of 'sondering' (the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own) moments in between, and it gave me lots of inspiration. When this project came along, I decided to take up the challenge and pitched my idea.”

Besides drawing from her recent life experience, Pris also learned the ropes of producing a film. “I was involved in every single stage of production. It was quite fun and cool! I learned that to make a 30-minute ep involved so much work and discussion. You also have to work within your budget and resources. I wanted to make my film indie-like, so the budget’s pretty low! (Laughs) But I think we’ve pretty much made the best out of what we’ve got!

His project: Remember Us This Way
His cast: Kimberly Wang, Ngeow Zijie, Nathan Hartono, Lee Yonghe Eric
What is it about? A coming-of-age story about four friends who buried a time capsule in their school but not before making a pact to return to open it 10 years later.
When is it airing? ​​​​​​​Mar 22, 9.30pm.

Being the director of your own film means you can cast whoever you want. In Shane’s case, of course, he had to cast his girlfriend Kimberly Wang as his female lead. “I want it to be something close to my heart. The scenes in the show are snippets of my childhood and school life. I chose the topic of friendship because I used to have a bunch of close friends, but we drifted apart as we grew older. We’re always saying things like “We'll meet up next time”, but what if there’s no “next time”?”

At the end of our chat, the 29-year-old added that he hopes viewers will be “encouraged to connect with their friends again” after watching Remember Us This Way.

Her project: Under The Tree
Her cast: Fiona Fussi, Chase Tan, Pang CC
What is it about? Two childhood friends part ways as they grow up. One day, the girl decides to write a song but is unable to do so due to her bad Chinese. So she enlists the help of a lyricist, who turns out to be someone from her past.
When is it airing? ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Apr 5, 9pm.

We guess you can say that​​​​​​​ Joanne Peh likes to slide into your Instagram DMs. Except for the actress, it’s to offer model Fiona Fussi the lead role in her directorial debut Under The Tree.

The 36-year-old, who also casted real-life cameraman Pang CC in a major role, admits that it “took a long while” to find Fiona.

“In the story, the character can compose music but she’s not able to write the lyrics. I wanted someone who you’d look at and immediately know that she can’t write Chinese lyrics. I came across Fiona's Instagram profile one night and thought to myself, “I like this girl!” But I didn’t know if she could speak Mandarin. I needed someone who could at least speak a bit of Mandarin, even though 80 per cent of my script has no dialogue. I was so relieved when I found a video of her speaking Chinese! (Laughs) She sounded okay, so I thought I could work with that!

Fresh Takes! debuts March 15, 9pm on Ch U and Toggle.

PICS: KEVIN LAU