What is Cinema?

According to the Students

Genevieve Lee
Describe a certain tendency of Singapore cinema? Qualify and describe Sg cinema? Explain what you think is missing? 

Singapore ’s cinema often encompasses suppression because our society is not as open in expressing views. However, Singapore cinema has shown us the impact that Western popular culture has on our nation. Most film makers have also chosen to talk about what is unique about our culture here in terms of our language and behavior. The unique aspect that I think Singapore cinema has is that we come from various cultures and I think that should be show cased in our films. I find that there is still not enough diversity in film making. The marketing of Singapore films is also not as strong as that of Hollywood films. Maybe the locals are still not very well-informed or appreciative of our local films. I think that we have to find a way to make it appeal so that it can last.  

Jasmine Goh
What is your view of current Hollywood cinema? Describe a certain tendency of Singapore cinema? Qualify and describe Sg cinema? Explain what you think is missing?  

Singapore cinema tends to focus too much on the local culture. It is too self-pitying. 
 

Nicole Tan
What makes cinema distinctive of the other arts?

Cinema is distinctive because it does so much more than telling a story. Its not just something that one can read like a book, it is something which combines the visual and sound together with the script to bring the story about the film alive. Cinema is more than just art; it’s become a part of our lives. 
 

Benjamin Tanaka
What is cinema?

To me cinema is a celebration of expressive life in visuals and sound. Whether be it portrayed fictionally or not, the cinema is a powerful device that speaks to the masses due to its universal content. It is in films that we see our psychological, sociological, physical and spiritual selves in a direct or indirect manner. 
 

Kane Wheatley-Holder
What is cinema?

We all want something or someone to relate to us in life. Some movies do and some movies don't. However I think the art of cinema truly shines when you are sitting down one day and you suddenly realise you can really relate to one of the characters on screen. When that special moment happens it makes you think about life, yourself and things you wouldn't usually think about. Its like looking at yourself mirror for one and a half hours or whatever; sometimes you see into the past of yourself or perhaps even the future. It happens to us more than we like to admit. Cinema is like traveling through time. 
 

Josiah Ng
What is cinema? 

To me, Cinema is a marriage; A holy matrimony that births forth a whole new experience for the viewers. Simply said, cinema is the romantic engagement of the different Artistic elements that make a movie, such that having one without the other would seem to the viewers a moment of loss and emptiness in the heart.  
 

According to the Staff

Michael Kam
What is the ultimate film experience (filmmaking or film viewing)? 

Filmmaking – when you realize you’ve captured something special, and you know some of your collaborators know that too. You feel pretty good for that moment, and then move forward with the hope that there will be more, but know that even if there isn’t any, it was a good day. 

For or against digital cinema?

For – it’s inevitable, and it holds possibilities, yet, I love how organic celluloid is, and hope that it lives forever. 
 

Andrew Millians
What is cinema?  

Cinema is the dominant art form with which we share our life experiences, our hopes, our dreams, and our fantasies. At its heart, it is escapism that has the power to both entertain and enlighten.

What makes cinema distinctive of the other arts?

Two things: It’s intimacy. The audience is made to feel they are a part of the filmmaker’s world at a greater level than any other art form. It’s malleability. Cinema affords the artist the opportunity to communicate almost any message or emotion in a myriad of different ways.

What is your view of current Hollywood cinema?

It is what it is – an artistic framework driven by the bottom line. It’ll never be about the “art” as long as millions of dollars are being made. But, the Hollywood system is a magnet for the truly gifted when it comes to making films. 
 

Chandler Bissell Pohl
What makes cinema distinctive of the over arts?  

Quite simply, cinema is the superior art form.  All the luxuries of the other art forms were combined in order to make cinema.  The ability to tell a story:  written word.  The ability to see images: painting.  The ability to watch people act:  theatre.  The ability to show real places: photography.  The ability to partner the images with sound:  music.  So on and so on.  But the one added and perhaps the most important distinction cinema has over the other arts is the ability to edit both time and space.   

What is the ultimate film experience (filmmaking or film viewing)?

It’s the process of creating a story that captures my interest.  Every aspect from hatching an idea, committing it to paper, committing it to film, and then screening it for an audience.  I enjoy communicating my ideas (in story form) with other people. 

For or against digital cinema?  

I have never been an advocate of digital cinema nor will I ever discourage the use of it.  What I am not fond of is the new breed of filmmakers it enables.  Some famous auteur years ago said something to the effect, “There will be no truth/freedom until there is a camera in every man’s hands.”  Or at least that’s how I remember the quote.  As for it’s meaning?  Well, digital acquisition has taken the economic barrier down and enabled the masses to become “filmmakers”.  Now that every man has a camera in his hands, I have seen the end results and would prefer a barrier (economic or other) to be put back in place preventing the Everyman from continuing his quest to make movies.

What is your view of current Hollywood cinema?

I’m quite happy with the direction of the Hollywood film factories.  Their job is to produce Movies of Magnitude, movies that are larger than life.  Though I’m saddened the American Independent scene has become so spoiled.  Independent cinema should be independent because of two factors.  The first should be financial.  And the reason being because of the second reason:  stories that counter the mainstream.  If all of these so-called American Independent films are being commissioned and courted by subsidiaries of the film factories and then mass-marketed to a wide and accepting audience, they are by my definition, no longer independent.  That’s a shame.  But at the same time, most independent films are just cheap productions made by a would-be digital filmmaker who had access to a small fortune. 

Describe a certain tendency of Singapore cinema? Qualify and describe Sg cinema? Explain what you think is missing? 

Singapore cinema is not concerned with telling stories.  As the locals say, “I can’t be bothered.”  When you look at American/French/Italian /Japanese cinema, you can easily say the name of a famous filmmaker from each region.  Chances are the name you say will be a person who would probably consider themselves storytellers first and filmmakers second.  I don’t find that’s the situation in Singapore.  The majority of filmmakers in Singapore are not mindful of their audience (regardless of exhibited format), they don’t seem to care about whether the ideas/story they set forth in telling are being eagerly awaited/accepted by the masses.  If all the audience has is a choice between pseudo-art that is weak on story and character or unintelligible comedic fodder that is weak on story and character, then our choice is simple.  Either way, we (the audience) aren’t getting what we want – filmed entertainment that tells us about living, dying, loving, and leaving.

Is cinema more important than life?

Cinema is life.  Perhaps that’s true.  In a sense, the current medium for our century’s morality plays is cinema.  Without it we would have no sense of right and wrong.  The community must make a movie and then judge the movie in order for us to accept the current standard of living or adopt a new standard of living.  They are inseparable entities.  Life is the foundation for movies.  And movies are a reflection of our lives.  

Ryan Ingrassia
What makes cinema distinctive of the other arts?

It’s designed to appeal to the largest number of people possible. A piece of art only needs to appeal to one buyer. Fashion is specifically designed to appeal to only a select wealthy few. Cinema is an art for the masses.

Describe a certain tendency of Singapore cinema? Qualify and describe Sg cinema? Explain what you think is missing?

Like Singapore itself, Singaporean cinema is never confident of itself and always feels too self-conscious, as though it isn’t sure if it’s worthy of merit without the approval of film festival awards. 

Mélanie Morrissette
What is cinema?

Cinema is like a dance, you can be a passive observer, witnessing what is happening on the dance floor. Sometime you can see action and fight happening between two antagonists, hoping for the hero to win. You can also be a voyeur, looking at other people behavior and secretly desire to be part of the dance. You can observe people dancing frenetically on the dance floor, other crying of emotions, people laughing and behaving like no other place, people meeting and flirting which each other. And suddenly, without you even expect it, a hand comes toward you and you are invited to participate to this world of fiction. 

Just by dancing and spinning around, you can be taken by the music and words whispered to your ear, experiencing the vertigo of love and its disorientation. Or you can just be taken by a sweet look and a sweet touch.  

Above all, you can just be charmed by this world of light, shadows and sound that makes you experience the world in a totally unexpected way. Cinema like dance can bring in a trance toward another world.  

Is cinema more important than life? 

No, however cinema helps to cure the pain of daily life. Cinema gives me hope that we can influence people thinking and behavior, cinema is like a mirror that shows us the beautiful and ugly side of human being. Cinema can also offers an aesthetic experience completely surrealist and unreal, cinema can makes us live our dark and secret fantasy.