Interview with Pearry Teo, Hottest New Director from Singapore
June Caldwell
June 26, 2006
INTERVIEW BY: JUNE CALDWELL, RODGER CALDWELL, STEVE CARVER, AND TIM ESTRADA
Pearry Reginald Teo, film director/producer (b. 23 July 1978), also known as Zhang Pingli, is the first Singaporean movie director to make a Hollywood film. The movie, The Gene Generation, stars Bai Ling and Faye Dunaway. The movie is due to be released in late 2006.
We sat down with the mysterious and creative Pearry Teo, and asked some questions to see if we could find out what makes him tick!
What is the significance of the ‘black crow’ for you?
I have a black crow tattoo on my back. My first tattoo took only two hours but to make the jump was bold and daring. I got my crow tattoo in London which took thirty six hours. ‘The Crow’ was the first movie I had ever seen. Football or what you would call soccer was what I watched growing up. Once in a while I’d sneak in a few cartoons like Transformers or some Cantonese drama. My dad sent me to a boarding counselor when I was 15 due to feelings of rebellion. I had to be cleansed. Me and a friend would sneak out to see the cinema. We’d figure out what movies we want to watch as we can only watch between 9 to 9:30 and catch the train back. There was nothing going on at the time. Cinema was all we had and my friend eventually convinced me
to see ‘The Crow’. I thought it was some kind of animal documentary! I remember seeing people wanting to leave once someone died. That moment shaped my perception of what I though cinema was going to be. It was my first impression that lasted for my future. Getting the Crow tattoo reminds me of that first experience. It covers half my back. It has made an impact on how I envisioned cinema, art, films and everything else. It was more of a symbolic thing than an influence.
I'd like the cast of the Crow to work with my on one of my movies. The girl who played Sara disappeared, no one know where she went. After watching the Crow you leave with a different kind of emotion. You didn’t feel uncomfortable with the darkness, you accepted it. Society views it as dark and creepy and as an escape. To me it wasn’t, I embraced it. I’m hoping to bring this darkness back with glamour. It should be acceptable. You should walk out and not judge the people the same way. There was a certain level of romance, revenge and redemption that separates what life is about and what people tend to forget. They gave way to sex, violence and drugs.
How is The Gene Generation a new direction for film?
The Gene Generation goes the opposite way. In the process of people revenge, people find redemption.
in process of finding romance, they find family. Take a detective film like LA Confidential and reverse it and you get revenge. Themes are reversed with a different approach. If you approach a film like everyone else you will end up making a copy of the film that makes the quality look bad. I want to be original and use thematic elements and create something new. I hope that people look at life and question things. Everyone should make movies they want to see. They can only please themselves first. Take the phrase "you can't love someone unless you love yourself." If you can’t love it, put passion and inspiration into film don’t expect the audience to like it. Take it and try to let it shine through the cast and crew or else it will not come out great on screen. Say you’re going to shoot at 500 people and that’s going to be OK. Never be afraid. Many directors are afraid. They feel there always needs to be a happy ending otherwise the audience wont like it which isn’t true. We don’t always view life a certain way. One person may say your lead character will die in a melancholy fashion or something happens that’s not supposed to happen. It becomes logic vs. your creative side. Instead of saying what might work on the audience, say what is true no matter how ridiculous. If you believe it, it will happen. Look at George Bush. He looks like a moron but he believes what he says no matter how ridiculous. He believes in himself and people get sucked into believing him. If you believe it is possible.
How do you get people to suspend their sense of disbelief?
There are times when people try too hard when they try to make it believable. It doesn’t work when making something as real as possible like a documentary. Get you facts right. Elements of the Passion of the Christ
seem untrue, for example, the costumes. On the flipside you can do something so bizarre that people know not to believe in it. When you see a fantasy, you stop asking questions. Through fantasy you seek the direction as opposed to why is that wolf flying? These are questions you shouldn’t have to ask. Take the Never Ending Story. What's that flying thing? You shouldn’t ask that because it is already established. People who take the movie too seriously… I have no interest in them being for the audience. A movie should take the audience away from the real world. Through opening the imagination you look at it through an
unconscious way. The conscious mind is always working to make things believable and the state of being OK with it. Your subconscious mind opens and you start thinking with your left brain. Emotions open up. You can
take a typical romance where boy meets girl and they fall in love toward the end or in action/adventure where the scene is set up and through 25 minutes the action starts. In act 3 the protagonist realizes their power,
and it builds through that formula.
How did you get involved with this particular film?
The film that was approached to me was a typical documentary. It was a silent film that seemed slightly normal that the producer asked me to create. Most of the movie was about a sister trying to get her brother out
of trouble. The producer wasn’t too impressed. I jumped in and explained to him it was a science fiction film, which he did not know. I just made that up on the fly, and ran with it!
What is the storyline of the film? How did it come about?
This film was approached to me as a story between a brother and sister. It was originally set to be a silent film about fathers and sons. He told me you'd be perfect for this drama feature about a brother and sister. I was
wondering what the film would cost me. I read the script and had a normal reaction. The brother and sister had a normal life. In act two the brother gets in trouble, then the sister tries to get the brother out of trouble. The producer read the script and wasn't impressed by it but he did owe the script writer so he just asked him to call later for a meeting. He never saw the catch to the story so I informed him that this was a Science Fiction
flick… which he didn't know. Since he never got to see the script writer I improvised to make the script clear. I got full writing credit at the end of the film. I worked to incorporate the Science Fiction elements and I had
them living in a war. I was thinking of what kind of war I wanted. Everything about Science Fiction has been thought of. I was looking at my bookshelf and decided to make it based on ordination. They thought it was
a great new concept. Nobody found out it was based on Hitler's Natural Selection process with the names changed! Thus was born ‘The Gene Generation.’
What were the logistics like taking on such a project?
I had already shot the entire picture with a re shoot on December 21st. It was a long process creating the entire city. We spent seven weeks in Bulgaria and on to Amsterdam. Different companies have varying moral ethics as each told us to re touch everything. We had redirects and texture mappings. Most cities are no more that 18 miles so ours had to be 36 miles in diameter. We designed the entire background. Editing is done mid week. Editing was done here as was sound and music composition. We had to fly sound check down to make sure the movie looked complete. We remixed music to see what fits. We paced time and editing.
Were you on time and under budget?
My budget was 1.3 million. My shooting schedule was 26 days. I was directing two films from two units and I was the only director. If I had my way it would have taken 52 days to shoot but we had a budget. We were on
schedule with a few cuts including a scene with the lead actress who played a punk. She and her friends were going to a secret club but we didn't have the set ready so we ended up on the roof. We had to build a set in and hour and a half. There were all sorts of weird animals like a three legged cat roaming around. This actually added new interesting elements. This was all unscripted. There was a point where I was freaking out!
What is the heart and soul of this movie?
I elaborate that love is something we fight for. What I learned from making this film is that love does hurt. You loose out when you look at the final outcome. We are who we want to protect and the people we protect
are who we really are. The goal, morals and pursuit of thematic elements are what principals our lives. What we fight for and hold on to is what makes us. It's not about what we get in the end. It's the journey in the
process that makes us. The characters express that while love does hurt in the end you need to turn into something. Love was worth getting hurt for. People may look at the finished product wanting to die and live for
love and that's when we lose. They have to want to learn for love even if it's for a day or 20 years. All that matters is the journey that we go through for that person. People forget what happens in between. It's not
the destination, it's the journey. In the end it's more complicated. It's all these emotions that make life's poetry.
So this is about love, not sex?
The media in society promotes sex, not love. I hope the Gene Generation gets a message across... You can find sex in any Hollywood film. Let's try something different. As great as our special effects are, love is the
emotional independence. Our actors wanted to see this bond and love between this family. I spent most of my time with the cast instead of visual arts. Sound and vision only give way to crazy visuals. I was passionate about the love. Love may be looked down upon, but it's my main focus.
The film was about a brother and sister and the relationship as parents to each other in their parents' absence. The good people in the film support this family. It's right motivation and right action vs. right action and
wrong motivation. None of them are right but I think 90% of the audience will feel it is right.
Who is your target audience?
I prefer an intelligent audience. I prefer them to look at life instead of conflict, looking at life with a dark aesthetic. They're not afraid of conflict. Foreign culture works better with this. I was raised in
Singapore. This movie is intuitive... It has elements of City of Lost Children with the core audience being between 18-25 years old. There is a long shot in the film to let you know where it takes place which my editor
knows about. The setting isn't too optimistic. I'm hoping to educate myself from this, my first film.
What does being the Director mean to you?
Rather than showing off my work I'd rather share the experience... It is collaboration. I like to nudge people in the right direction and get them to see what I'm feeling. I explain to people what's in my head and push them to run it a certain way. I don't like the director title as King of Everything. Everyone owes something to someone at some point. Even the president answers to us. It's all about the project and not about power. Let's get together and do something great out of this!