SINGAPOREAN filmmaker Wee Li Lin, whose upcoming feature film Forever stars Taiwanese actor Mo Tzu Yi and award-winning local theatre actress-musician Joanna Dong, talks about the challenges she faced in creating the movie – from writing the script and filming, to juggling post-production work and school commitments.

What is your new film about?
Forever is about Joey, a woman who pursues her dreams – in this case, the great romance of her life – at all costs. She doesn’t hold back in her mind and she doesn’t hold back in her actions. Joey works as a video counsellor for an organisation known as the wedding education department (WED). She is so convinced about the great romance that she can create onscreen that she tries to create that magic for herself – in real life.

What inspired you to write this story?
Joey’s character is based on someone I met several years ago, who was involved in the promotion of marriage. She was intelligent, attractive and successful, but turned into an anti-romance stalker after her then fiance jilted her. Her outlook was a lot darker than Joey’s; Joey is in fact pro-romance.

Talk about your cast and crew and experiences with them on this film.
We were fortunate to have a group of dedicated and capable interns, serving in demanding positions as assistant directors as well as in the wardrobe and art departments. My husband, Charles Lim, who is a visual artist, also stepped in as our art director, and really blew us away with his very good work.

It’s funny that I would refer to my producer, Silvia Wong as my "wife" on set because we really had to nag and look out for each other throughout the whole process of making the film. So I had both a husband and a "wife" on set!

What stage of production are you in? What has been the biggest challenge?
I’m in post-production; in fact, I’m in the editing room now! The challenges we faced on this production were different and yet the same. The biggest challenge always had to do with managing people and their expectations. I hope to start forming a little tribe (of collaborators) who will be willing to journey with me for my next few films.

What are your hopes for this film?
I hope this film will be fresh and fun to watch – that is my biggest goal. I can’t predict how the film will do in Singapore and abroad – I will have to leave it to the wizardry of my producer and the marketing people. But I have to satisfy my own expectations for it, first and foremost.

More than half of our crew were working for the first time on a feature film, and I think most of them, especially Silvia Wong, the producer and co-writer of Forever, did really well!

What plans do you have for the future and what are you working on now?
Life is happily hectic. I feel really fortunate to be able to do this film. The whole creative process, from writing the story to piecing it together, makes me feel very purposeful and satisfied. My edits start at night and I am often in the editing room until the early hours of the morning. I sleep till about noon and then spend the rest of day prepping for some smaller projects and then continuing to work on things for the film.

My MFA in Dramatic Writing at Tisch School of the Arts has been going well, but I’ve wisely taken a year off school (since Fall 2009). The programme is very demanding and I wouldn’t have been able to juggle my film project and school commitments. I will return to school this Fall and graduate in May 2011. I’m also continuing my work on a new screenplay I wrote in school, as well as a brand new concept.