In September last year, I spent a day doing the Behind the Scenes (BTS) photography for a short film titled The Perm which was directed by Wee Li Lin. Tay Cheng San was the Director of Photography, Chua Seng Yew and Sabrina Poon were the Assistant Directors, Vanessa Sim was the Production Manager, Hanning Yap and Apple Ong were the Art Directors and Mike Wong was the Gaffer.
The synopsis for this short film is as follows:
Soft spoken Carolyn, 12, is on the cusp of the awkward teenage years. About to enter secondary school, Carolyn decides to get a trendy Korean hairstyle to kickstart the fact that she is now of age (within the Singapore school system) to perm her hair. Carolyn’s grandmother assures her that the best place to get the perm done is at grandma’s long time hair salon down the block. But is the salon Carolyn grew up in the right place to undertake this important rite of passage?
This film was shot in an actual “old school” hair salon and having such a small space to work in was an interesting challenge. Besides trying not to get in the way of any crew member, I also had to be extremely careful not to appear in any of the mirrors all over the salon when the camera was rolling. Overall, the tight space made for quite a different shooting experience compared to the previous BTS shoots that I have done.
Check out a selection of the BTS photos from The Perm in the following slideshow. You can check out the full film here – The Perm:
