Your Worst (Client) Nightmare! Surviving a Multi-Country Production!

How you manage talents, crew, and partners in a multi-cultural and multi-lingual production? Top it off with a limited budget and challenging clients, how do you stay on top of your game?  Back in August, we presented a panel called “Your Worst Nightmare”, as part of our podcast party and it was well-received by our audience. We have conducted many surveys with our freelancers in the past and working with clients always comes at the top. This special episode is a sequel to the panel, featuring CreativesAtWork’s crew Fanny and Kyle. They share their worst nightmare stories about challenging clients and managing freelancers.

Jayce: Hi everyone, this is Jayce. 

Yen Lyng: And I’m Yen Lyng.

Jayce: Welcome to the Freelance Creative Exchange, where every episode, we speak to a freelancer about freelancing and the gig economy.

YL: So back in August, we presented a panel that was titled, Your Worst Nightmare, as part of our podcast party, if you guys remember. It was well received by the audience actually. I guess it’s something that really resonated with our audience. [00:25] So we conducted many surveys to find out the challenges faced by our freelancers, and working with clients actually comes up at the top.

Jayce: So clearly, it is a topic that resonated with our freelance community. [00:38] So today, we are doing a special episode that is a sequel to our Your Worst Nightmare premiere, with our own crew from Creative At Works. 

YL: We present Fanny and Kyle. 

Fanny: Hi guys. 

Interviewer: So in today’s episode, Fanny and Kyle will share their worst nightmare stories about working with challenging clients, as well as managing a pool of different freelancers, especially freelancers from the regions. So welcome again, guys. 

Kyle: Thank you.

Jayce: Would you like to say about the project that you have worked -- that Creative At Work has previously completed. 

 Fanny: Obviously, it’s not the worst nightmare, but a recent nightmare, coincidentally, happened to be a project that both Kyle and I were on. It was a multinational shoot. Just so you know, Creative At Works has a network of freelancers around the Asia region, so specifically, in these countries, I mean including Singapore. So recently, we helped a client to produce a video across these nine different Asian countries, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Myanmar. Singapore is not included. Yeah, Thailand and Philippines. So there were nine Asian countries which conducted the shoot. I was the producer, production manager’s producer, and then Kyle was the on site director. So it was challenging I guess mainly because there was a lot of constraints. I mean part of it, because of the financial constraint that was given to us by almost every client, and no exception with this client as well. So yeah. I mean a lot of it was this constraint. Another huge part of it was the cultural differences, which each of the local teams operate in. So yeah, so you need an advocate through the way that they function, through the normal way which they work with different people. One of the key aspects of it was because it also involves talent; so this is a project which we have to go to each of the different nine markets to cast for talents, to be in the shoot. So again, when you deal with -- dealing with local crews in a country is one thing; dealing with local talents in a country, I guess, is another thing. And then, I mean when Kyle was on shoot, he will share with us more, but coupled with the different languages, the different climates. I think it proved to be quite a challenge, right?

Jayce: Yeah, but before we continue, I guess we all know which project you are talking about now. But for our audience who don’t know exactly where it is, can you tell us what -- I mean, roughly what it involved, or what you guys had to do for the project.

Kyle: Okay, can we talk about it? Can we?

YL: It was a video shoot, first of all. It was a video shoot. 

 Fanny: It was a video shoot.  So all the talents in these nine Asian countries have to perform the same song. So the video is supposed to showcase the unity and the collaboration of the ten Asian countries, not including Singapore.  So I mean the client is...

Jayce: And I think that video is for quite a high profile event, that’s going to take place. I think of course, the emphasis, or rather the importance, is not really who is it, but really the processes.  And because at Creative At Works, we are also increasing, that a lot of the work now -- or rather [Inaudible] part of the work now needs to be done in collaborations with somebody who is from another country.  So is the collaboration working with your fellow freelancers from another country -- I think those are some of the challenges that seems to be here to stay. And how, as a team, we can work together to overcome those challenges.  So Fanny touched a bit about the different culture, in working with different freelancers from different regions. Language is a main issue, especially because we’re talking about nine Asian countries. Even though we are so near to one another, every one of them is really a seven hour flight from Singapore.  But they’re all so different. But maybe let’s hear from Kyle, when you’re on set. Other than the language issues, what other challenges do you face as a director, on the set, locally, to manage the productions?

  Kyle:  The first thing that I would say is that definitely, which is quite obvious, the climate; like the last country that I was in was Myanmar, and we went in at a very crucial state, where the typhoon just passed by. But it was still raining, basically rainfall the whole shoot. We were facing climate issues, as well as like -- different countries have different ways of doing things, in terms of the government. So we had some interesting restrictions, when it came to shooting at certain locations. Basically, we went to a certain location, and the, I would say police, said that if you are -- drop your equipment at this specific point, we will arrest you.  It came to that, yeah, yeah. Like we wanted to unload our equipment at a specific point, and they were like, no, you can’t unload it. You have to unload it; if you unload here, we will arrest you. Yeah. So it was pretty -- coupled with the climate issue. Fanny, back in Singapore, she was actually freaking out.

Fanny: I was praying. 

 Kyle:  So I tried my very best to actually hold down the shoot. Yeah. 

Fanny: Yeah, and then coupled with that, there are some other nuances like in certain countries, when a crew can not wear a certain color t-shirt, because you may look like a group of people who are trying to rebel and things like that.  So there are a lot of things that I think Singaporeans take for granted. Especially permits. In Singapore, when you want to have a shooting permit, you know who to go to. It takes time, maybe two or three weeks, sometimes it involves a processing fee, but you know; it’s all black and white, transparent.  But for the nine Asian countries, each of them is different, my goodness! And then some of them, you go through the proper ways, some are not so proper. But all of these things, I’m very grateful -- we are very grateful that we have good local partners. Who all believe in the same cause, which is for the better of the project.

Interviewer: I think that’s one interesting thing, shooting in Asia especially, the Asian countries.  I think a lot of people, especially those who are not from Asia, always look at Asia as one entity. They forget that there are so many countries that are involved, and even though we all might look similar, we have such different cultures. 

 Kyle: Yeah, totally.

Interviewer: It all comes to nuances, and some of it is that in different cities, there are different -- that there are different cultural. So do you have any particular -- let’s not talk about -- not so much about the shoot but just about generally, cultural shock that you guys had.  While facing -- while working with different countries and different teams. 

Fanny: One culture shock I experienced was that I realized that sometimes Singaporeans think that because we do things properly, so when we go in there and say that we want to do this video for a greater cause, people will adhere.  But certain big organizations, especially commercial entities, they really don’t care. So in this particular case, we were looking for a particular location to shoot, because it gives us a very nice background or something. Landmark. Iconic landmark. But of course, that being a commercial entity, and they don’t really care. But of course, to my client, because they are very used to...

YL:  They are a big client also.

 Fanny: Yeah, big support. They couldn’t understand.  So we were stuck in the middle; so it was very hard to navigate. This was a culture shock because to me, I also felt that there’s nothing to lose for the commercial entity to say yes. But then, the thing is -- the thing on behalf of them, for them is, what’s in it for me? I know I have nothing to lose, but what’s in it for me?  Yeah. But anyway, we changed location. We had to change location. 

Jayce: Yeah. So how do you try to manage this? For this particular project, because actually, it not only spanned across nine different Asian countries, it also spanned across two months, three months kind of thing.  So in terms of the project management time -- and then we are running a time constraint as well. So in this aspect, what do you think we could do better, in terms of project management? Both on the freelancers in the different counties, as well as on the client. Is it an expectation issues? Do you feel that it’s expectation issues, or -- when managing a project of this scale, I think what should we do to ensure that it might run --  well not ensure, but at least that it will run smoothly the next time.

Fanny: I don’t know.

YL: what could go wrong.

Jayce: But actually that is another thing because I think for production, that’s exactly the point. You can be very well prepared. You can actually foresee all of the circumstances, but then, when you’re actually on set. Like whatever can go wrong will go wrong. So -- what is one thing that has really gone on so wrong that you really don’t anticipate it happening. And what do you do after that, yeah.

Kyle: Okay so to set a little bit of context for our international friends is that Singapore, when we do shoots, we are quite well organized. Most of the time.  Recently, there was a huge, huge movie, Hollywood movie that was shot here. I’m not going to say which movie it is, because I don’t want to shout out the movie for them. It’s about Asians. So it really proved that Singapore has suitable locations for Hollywood productions as well. So with that said, Singaporeans are actually very used -- like media people are very used to being like, okay, everything is organized, everything is good. We have this impression, like if you have more than five crew members, it’s short of a big shoot. So I went out to this specific country, with our partner, who had worked in Singapore for quite a while. And then, I saw that the crew, okay, the crew -- almost 20 guys, like a crew. So I was amazed, like this is going to be good, right. Little did I know, the camera guy/director of photography was very, very undertrained. So he shouldn’t have been touching a camera; that’s all I’m going to say. And in terms of what I wanted to do is that I really considered stepping in and saying, you know what, I’m going to direct and shoot at the same time, because you can’t set up a gimbal with five guys in 15 minutes? That’s kind of bad. But the Chinese in me was like, we should give them. Like I don’t want to sour the thing, and then I don’t want to do this in front of the client. It’s not nice.  So I had to bite the bullet and I was like, I’m just going to try my best to tell him like hey, you really...

Jayce: But I guess that is something that is unavoidable, because different countries’ states of development are different. So I would say that fortunately in Singapore, at least from a technology perspective, we have been quite fortunate to be at the forefront of technological changes. So in terms of getting the latest camera, in terms of getting the latest skill sets, we have no problem. But compared to some other, I would say regional countries maybe, in terms of the technology. I know that would be a bit slower. So I think that is also one of the key considerations, especially for friends who want to shoot in the region.You may have to take note of your technical requirements; whether that is easily available in those countries. But I think that brings me back to a point that Fanny mentioned, about strong partners. We are grateful that this is the case, that we do have very strong partners. That’s why we could actually -- there’s issues in between, but we can still successfully complete the projects, and we kind of look forward to the final product, in that sense. So leveraging on this, what do you think is, I would say, what some of the checklists are, that you need to ensure before you go to another country to shoot.

YL: Yeah, what is different from the usual shoot that you guys do in Singapore, that you guys usually do in Singapore. Whether it’s extra precautions maybe, or of course, we do have to do paperwork, but is there anything else? 

 Fanny: I guess for me, I always give them very long, summarized -- okay, maybe long, summarized email sounds a bit off, but it’s a long email, but it’s all checklists. Every time I talk to them, it would be a checklist, and I would keep adding on to the checklist. So that we are all clear that these are the items we have to do.

Jayce: You’re talking about the partners, right?

 Fanny: Yeah, the partners. So the communication to them is very important because sometimes, because of language issues, you’re also not sure where you keep dumping information, whether they’ll remember. Because, after all, it’s a little bit complicated, especially when it involves casting of talents, location permits, and things like that.  So I always summarize my requirements in every email I send them. So I would summarize the main things. And then on the other side, when I present it to my clients, I also present it in a deck, which also has the same requirements. So it’s all very clear to both parties, and as the local team in Asian countries progress in their pre-production, the report to the client also progresses. This is how I keep it in check. Throughout the entire project, it’s three minds, of course things will go wrong, many things go wrong.  But I guess the only thing is there’s always a solution. You can sit down and I can be angry about it, and then by the end of the day, you have to keep the client’s solution. All they want is options, tell me what to do. And then the project can move on.

YL: How about yourself, Kyle? If you were to go back there to shoot?

  Kyle:  Actually at the drop of a hat, I would do it again actually. Okay, I guess first off, I think this was a really, really good experience, and I thank you all for the opportunity to go there. It opened my eyes and actually I’m proud to say that I’m officially an Asian person, because I experienced all of the culture.  With that being said, I think that the first thing that a filmmaker needs to -- or at least a production house needs to prepare for is to get a very good producer, like Fanny. That has clear communications with all levels. Because I see all emails, so I see all of the levels of communication. So there is no way that nobody knows not what is going on.  But then again, we are talking about different countries with different cultures. Probably we check our emails like every one hour, we probably check the email all 24 hours, which is a different culture. And with the development of technology, things get easier, but it’s a double edged sword. We, as filmmakers, we have to become even more prudent. Like in a sense whereby we have to throw out, be prepared to throw out every single piece of preproduction that we have. No matter how well that you do pre-pro, there becomes a point where everything is gone. So you have to think on the spot. And with technology advancement, you must be ready to do what is necessary. For example, like maybe jumping in to help the DP to shoot. Maybe help sound a little bit. Because if you’re going to shoot it like this, like the 90s, like I’m just a director, I’m just going to be there to direct. I’m not going to help you in anything, it’s not going to work.  Because this is now very different. We’re going in as a very lean time. 

YL: Yeah, that’s true. You have to play multiple -- be prepared to play multiple roles, basically. But bringing it back to your worst nightmare. Was this actually the worst project that you guys ever had? 

  Fanny: There was a recent nightmare. I would say from my point of view, because my worst nightmare also actually involves freelancers, who have failed to deliver to us, and put in a predicament.  I mean we have been through -- we are lucky to have only been met with a very small number of cases, but of course, one of our cases have impacted so much that we have actually changed our direction, from being a platform for all freelancers, to a platform for specially curated freelancers that we can trust.  So that we can provide a better service and quality of work to our clients. So some of the examples are like freelancers taking 50% of payment and disappearing. And these aren’t freelancers who are new, these are freelancers who have been around for quite some time, they’re quite veterans. But it’s just unfortunate that they disappear. Or we decided to trust -- go with our gut, with a group of young freelancers. But they had a pretty solid portfolio. But then, the entire project, they failed.  They failed to deliver -- there was -- but of course, being the part time manager, we came in and helped us. So it was two weeks of non sleep for me and Jace. That was a very difficult time. That was a few years ago, before we met Kyle

YL: I think I came like right after that. Right after that project.

Jayce: But I guess things always happen for a reason. ‘Cause thankfully, in small instances like this, that at least so concrete, that really at the end of the day, it’s very important to what -- with professional freelancers. Because we are not just freelancers, I think a lot of our podcast guests have also mentioned that if you think of yourself as a freelancer, it’s just a pair of hands. That you just do that. But if you believe in your craft, if you can further add value to the project that you have, then, it’s actually a totally different ball game. And we are all professionals, achieving what we want to do. 

YL:   Because I think a lot of our content, we do talk about from the point of view of freelancers, and you know, this is my worst client ever, this is my best client. And what the client should do. But a lot of time, we must turn around to get ourselves in, what, as a freelancer, people are actually trusting you with their career sometimes.  They’re trusting you with money, and they’re paying you for your job. And we have to deliver to that standard. And being -- creative is what we -- I like to say sometimes we are middlemen, because there are some people who -- some creatives who cannot talk to clients, and clients who cannot talk to creatives. And we have to come in and balance immediately, that conversation a lot of times. Yeah, but it comes from both ends. There are black sheep on both sides of the coin. 

Jayce:    Yeah but I think for us, it’s always communication. So what Fanny mentioned, it’s not just communicating to the freelancers, but it’s also communicating to update your client, about what’s happening, and ensure that everybody is actually on the same page in that sense. So Kyle -- Fanny shared her worst nightmare, how about yourself?

YL: No worst nightmare?

  Kyle: Oh, I have plenty.

YL: Give us the juicy details.

  Kyle: Okay, I’m not going to name any names, but this was actually pretty bad. I’d say probably top three. So when I was still studying in the south, I got this gig from a friend of a friend. I mean, spoiler alert, I’m going to say, don’t work with a friend of a friend if possible, because the lines get blurred.  Because it’s a friend of a friend, so it’s like, oh, can you do this little bit extra for my friend, because you’re my friend. So don’t, try to avoid it. If you really have to do it, black and white. So there was no black and white, but this friend of a friend was actually a factory owner. So actually, the job was pretty simple; it was just to shoot a video highlight for a certain event. And then, actually, this point -- at this point, actually it’s a nightmare for both sides. So I actually had to manage another freelancer, and I had to manage [Inaudible] It’s both sides. I got a nightmare from both of them. So yeah, I was playing the role of producer, so I was shooting a second camera, and I got another videographer who was way better than me in shooting, to shoot. He was a friend as well.  So the project, the budget wasn’t very big, but the client said, oh, open door for you, you get to shoot future corporate videos. And I knew as a student, okay, I’ll do it, I’ll do it. Then, I was charging pretty low rates then. Then, the client kept increasing the amounts, like, can you add this, can you add that? I was like, okay, okay, I’ll add. But then, without -- I didn’t do a really good management of both sides. So without really thinking much, I told that to my friend, and my friend got pissed off. Because my friend was actually, at that point, freelancing for two years already. So he knew what was going on. So he told me [Inaudible] but he is a creative, so he felt insulted. So there was a mismanagement for my side. Then, the client -- I just told the client, I can’t do it, and then the client said, you know what, I have nothing against you; I have something against your friend.  So in the end, it was a big quarrel, which ended up in -- being brought to the school, because she knew were I was from, and the school pressured me.

  Fanny: Pressured you, pressured you to do what?

  Kyle:  I’m not going to say that it was the school. Someone from the school pressured me into like, dropping the project, because I was holding onto the project, and I was like, I’m not going to let it go. So I lost that one. But it hit me pretty bad, it really hit me pretty bad.   I stopped taking freelancers’ work for about three months, because I felt really bad; I felt like I was a loser. But it taught me a very important lesson which is, black and white, no matter what. 

Jayce: Yeah, and sometimes I think communication, as much as we were mentioning it just now, that we have to keep open communication from clients, and to freelancers. Between both parties. I think a lot of the times, the meetup as one lesson to be learned, is that there are certain things that you should filter out, before going to the other side.

  Kyle: Yeah, totally. 

Jayce: And sometimes, it’s not so much what you say but how you say it. And some things, the other party just does not need to know. 

  Fanny: Yeah, privileged information. 

  Kyle: I agree, I totally agree. So yeah, I’m not working with that friend anymore. So I saw both sides; I lost everything. 

Jayce:  But I think it might have happened to a lot of people. A lot of people would be able to relate in that sense, especially coming up very young. You’re trying new things, and that’s when the most mistakes will happen.  Yeah and unfortunately, this is where you learn the most -- get the most experience from.

  Kyle: This kind of experience actually proves to you whether you want to take on the freelancing path, because it’s very harsh. When this kind of thing happens, it will blow back in your face like not just in terms of your reputation.  Sometimes legally, sometimes in financial terms as well. So if you can make this kind of mistake -- I’m not saying make that mistake -- but I’m saying if you can make this mistake, and you still want to go into freelance, then you know that it’s for you. 

YL: I have to say that it is about running a business, where we all just want to do something and think we can earn money from it. But when you are earning money, you are running a business independently, everything falls onto you. 

Jayce: Yeah and I think on top of that, because it’s creative work. So there is no -- it’s very difficult to say who is right and who is wrong. Let’s say you’re an IT professional, or an IT freelancer. Somebody commissions you with an app.  If it works, it works. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. So it’s very clear what they are delivering. So I think in terms of videos, for example, in terms of a design, it’s very difficult to argue. The client may say, I don’t like it, but the freelancer says, I’ve already done it. So all the more, it’s even more difficult to actually say who is right and who is wrong. So like what Kyle mentioned, you don’t only need to have a contract, but you actually need to really sit down and think about the specifications. 

  Fanny: Yeah, like break down your project into milestones. So what we do is, for example, a video project is pretty hard because it jumps from a script to a storyboard, a storyboard to a video. It’s very hard, but in certain cases, like if you do 3D animation, it’s easy, because you have a style, script, then you go to some review frames.  And then you go to some 3D stuff things and then you go to 3D animation. But there are still ways. If you break it down into steps of different milestones, and each milestone, you ask your client to sign off. Actually that will help to prevent such problems.

Jayce: Yeah, at least mitigate the disagreement that’s going to happen at the end of the day. So for example, going back to Kyle’s story.  If the client keeps adding on, adding on. So at least if you have the specifications, they already agree to do this, or shoot for this price.

  Kyle: Exactly.

Jayce: Right? So if you want more on, you have to pay. And then all of that. Yeah. But of course, the thing now is -- I think compared to back then, that freelancers have changed a fair bit now.

  Kyle: Oh yeah, totally.

YL: And you see IMDA coming in right.  And at least there’s a dispute resolution, or dispute channel out there that freelancers can refer to, which is through mediation. So at least there’s a channel that you can refer to, that you can get a third party to then come in and assess the situation.  But of course, when I say that, more needs to be done there in that aspect. But in -- for a bigger budget project, project management is always key. So finding the right person who can manage the project is very important.

  Kyle:  Yes, totally.

  Fanny: Like, us, we manage our projects. 

Jayce: And with this particular project, we have already proved -- with our partner in that sense, or our network in Asia. So if there’s any issues there -- so I think that is interesting for us as well. But going back to the region, do you think that there will be more work that will involve shooting in other regions?

  Fanny:  I think definitely, definitely. But of course, the -- I mean, the question I always have is, does it have to be Singapore who is doing the pre-production?  Because our partners -- to be honest, the rest of the Asian countries are pretty strong as well. The only thing hindering them I guess would be only language, but of course, if you -- if your company has a head office in Singapore, where all of the communications work, has to be approved in Singapore, then it makes sense for us, as a base, to help you manage your work.  Around the region. I guess I’m short selling ourselves. 

Jayce:  But I think there’s this value where people come to Singapore, still because Singaporeans are known to be very trustworthy. You come to Singapore because -- there’s a reason why people still treat Singapore as a gateway to the rest of Asia, because they know that when they come here, at least there’s governance.  Like you said, there’s a proper way in which we do things. Even though it’s going to take time, you know it’s going to go through the proper channels, and you know what to expect, you know what to look for. But going into other countries… 

FT:  So having that experience, in terms of working on projects that involve Asia. What other projects do you think that you might want to do with Asia again?

  Fanny: Naturally, I would think about films now, or short brand content, which is very good storytelling. Because in Singapore, there is a city landscape. So there’s a...

Interviewer: Kind of limitation?

  Fanny: Yeah, on the kind of stories, or even the landscapes that you can take. But nine of the Asian countries, each have their own personalities, or visuals. So naturally, that’s one thing I can think of. 

  Kyle: Definitely, I think the culture between all of these countries is very, very different, and with my limited time spent there, I feel that there’s so much potential. In this project, this Asian project, really, truly stands for what Asia is, like me, going down there and working with the local film crew, the local directors.  I think that it really is a really, really cool experience and I think there are definitely more opportunities, and we have met like, really, really good friends. Which we can go back and be like, let’s work on something cool. 

Jayce:   So if you could choose one Asian country to start working in, what would it be? Maybe each of you can suggest one.

YL: Maybe not so much a country, but we have different teams we…  [Inaudible]

  Fanny:   I know which country you would choose. 

  Kyle: I think she knows which country -- so you go first.

Jayce: So which one would you like to start working with?

  Fanny: [32:50] Actually, I would say Vietnam. 

Jayce: Okay, what’s the reason?

Interviewee: I think maybe because personally, among all the countries -- I mean, I’ve been to Vietnam a few times so I’m a bit closer there.  And our partners there have experience with the Singapore culture as well, so we work very well together; especially on the communication part. So we are more aligned.  So I would say Vietnam for me, because in terms of pre-production, that’s one of the easiest teams to work with. 

YL: Okay, Kyle? Which is yours? Which is the next country that you hope to work with?

  Kyle: [33:28] Laos. 

YL: Why, why Laos? 

  Kyle: I think not because of the fact that I’m a quarter Laotian, not because of that fact. But because of the fact the Laos film cinema community has just started.  Like our partners in Laos told me that they had their first cinema open like 20 months ago, which is… 

YL: First cinema?

   Kyle: Yeah. So it’s basically the birth of their cinema.  You want to be there, because everything is basically -- history is being done. There’s no previous, and there are like, what, seven film directors so far, and one of them being our partner, a female, which is a very exciting time to be there. Yeah. 

Jayce:  Do you think -- I mean, now that we’re talking about -- bringing it back to having that Asian movement going on. I hate to call it that -- but I know a lot of people wouldn’t call it that, but to me, this is what it seems. As Hollywood is going on its Asian movement. And its diversity movement. I think it is a key time for Asians, but where do you think Sinagpore’s role in it comes?

  Fanny:  My answer has always been the same the past 10, 12 years since I’ve been in the industry. Singapore’s role is in executive production; always has been. We’re the ones who have the IP rules, IP laws, IP production scheme.  We are the ones who can do the financing, we can do the funding. Storytelling, we are still very much behind, compared to the rest of the Asian countries, although we are slowly improving. But because of the nature, a lot of Singaporeans share common experiences; not many of us have had very diverse experiences, compared to other countries.  So the stories that we tell -- you know what I mean?

Jayce: It’s not as deep maybe sometimes?

  Fanny: Yeah, or diverse, or different. I mean, we slowly see some coming up, through social media but compared to the rest of Asia, we still like -- we should only do what we do best which is, I believe, has always been executive production. 

Jayce: So I think Which is where Singapore comes, in, and why Singapore is still considered the launchpad of a lot of Asian projects, is because of this. When people come to us, they know what to expect; they know that there’s governance over here. They know that people here can be trusted.  I wouldn’t say that other countries can not be, but you know that it’s basically uniform throughout Singapore. You won’t get any hard surprises from a lot of the teams over here. So a lot of the rest of the world will come through Singapore, and then reach out to the rest of Asia. So it gets us to where, we still have that place.

  Kyle: I think jumping off what Fanny said, I totally agree with her; I think that Singapore can play the role of executive producer. But on top of that, because we are a bridge to the east and the west, our role. It’s sort of diluted our identity; therefore Singaporeans  are not that diverse. But slowly, we are finding our own niche identity. After all, we are just a 50 year old nation. So there’s so much more to learn, that we’re -- as compared to other countries. So we focus -- I would say that the past 50 years was like, building the infrastructure. And now, it’s the time of creativity to jump in.  So I’m very, very hopeful that in the future, that there is going to be a lot more storytelling from Singapore, and a lot more collaboration within Asia. 

Jayce: Yeah, that’s true. I would like to explore actually that just now, the fact that we  mentioned coming to Asia, a lot of people think of it as just one entity. But how we all identify as Asians [Inaudible] is so, so culturally different. So when you’re talking to say, a Thai or like Malaysia who is our closest neighbor here -- yeah, I’m Singaporean, I’m Malaysian. But then, when someone outside of Asia says, oh you guys are Asian. Yeah, we’re Asian, so what. So yeah. I think it happens, not only in Asia, but in a lot of parts of the world as well, where there’s this kind of cultural divide, but I think it’s very interesting from the creative scene, to explore this kind of relationship between our neighbors.

  Kyle:  Yeah, totally. 

YL: And sometimes it’s good to understand more about their culture and what they do, it is important -- because we, in Singapore, always think that everywhere else is like Singapore, but the fact is, everybody else is not like Singapore.

Jayce: Yeah, we are very sheltered actually, we are a very special case to the rest of the world.

  Fanny: Our client was, for this particular project, was thinking that everybody should listen to them, but then, no. And then, when I talk to my local team for example in Malaysia, they’d be like -- when I describe to them what to expect, they’d be like, yeah, yeah, Singaporean. That’s actually that. Even though we are so close, but then we have our own way of doing things. But I mean, it’s all in good fun. We should embrace our differences, and work together to bring greater content out from Asia.

Jayce: I guess to understand the nuances as well. We just don’t expect that everybody are like us. For example, we are very efficient, we are very productive. Like what Kyle said, everybody replies to emails and we’re dealing with like, one to two hours.   

  Fanny:  don’t do it because there’s a lot of procrastination so then the gets stuck. So it’s not in the good. So in the past, we’re also not good. 

Jayce: That’s true, but when it comes to the other countries  so to them it’s like, not replying to your email within 24 hours is fair. They’re not expected to respond to you within that time frame as you’ve expected. So the pace in Singapore is a bit fast, for certain areas.

YL: I think it’s a priority as well. A cultural priority to us is like, we just deliver to the client in the fastest way possible. 

  Fanny: Sometimes also -- I thought of a funny little -- when the client wanted -- our client being proper, they wanted a location permit, like a proper location stamped by the authorities to say that we can film. So I told one of your local team, you know you must apply for a permit, and my client want. No, but this is how they get things done, it’s fast.

Jayce: I think we also had this in one of our projects, in our neighboring country as well. Where they said, do we have location permits? They’re like, what location permits? Nobody cares. They said, no, but we need location permits; they need to see someone sign, the owner of the building or something like that.   It’s abandoned. There’s someone who owns an abandoned building, it’s just not being taken care of. There’s no one. No one will come in.

YL:  I don’t know. I got the permit I have to say. They told me it was the permit. 

Jayce: So this might be helpful as well and I think it’s probably a factor in these projects is translation cost.  Because other countries speak differently. So I mean at some point, even though some of them are quite okay with English, but at some point, some documents still need to be translated. Like a location permit, what does it say and things like that.  So I think that is actually one of the costs that we failed to take into consideration. So some of the nuances, some of the additional costs like that, are - if you do multi-country shoots,I think you should take into consideration. 

Jayce: So with other countries apart from Asian countries, do you think you guys would like to work in, or work with...

  Fanny:  Well actually, I would love to work in Japan, yeah. [ I mean because in my previous life, I was working for a Japanese company, and I know they are very, very different. The way they do things is very systemized, and they are always different -- the workflow and things like that.  So I think it would be an eye opener, if we had a chance to work a real local Japanese crew, to see actually how they organize their shoot. And to learn from them. 

YL: I wouldn’t mind observing.

  Fanny:  Yeah, I think working would be... 

Jayce: I mean I do love the Japanese, I do have some Japanese friends, I do actually have a Japanese client, but I think they are actually very different. They admit themselves that they are very different from the usual Japanese, and because they have a more international, worldwide view.  So it’s still quite easy to work with them, but the fact that they themselves admit that usually, you don’t find this kind and then I’m like, okay, observation would be great.

YL: How about you, Kyle?

  Kyle:  I actually have the same as you, Japan. I do want to shoot a project in Japan. But I did, but it wasn’t in the normal part of Japan.  Not in a bad way, it was in Okinawa, I shot a short docu there. Yeah, it was very different from -- yeah. But I do hopefully, maybe, we will get to shoot a project in like, the more busy part of Japan, to tell a story there.  Because I think that the people there, they are not like Singaporeans. They are not actually like Hong Kong people, because we are very fast. And we are very like, this all has to be fast, we have to do this. But Japanese, they are fast but there’s something different about -- their kind of fast is like, they take a certain amount of like, ownership in that kind of sense. Where if they don’t do certain things right, they’d be like, oh man, I could have done this better. Whereas maybe Singaporeans are like, yeah, I  mean, I did my job maybe. I don’t know. As a Singaporean, I feel that way; therefore, I want to go to Japan to understand their culture as well. Because I think that even the film industry is different, very different there, probably. Yeah 

YL: Alright. Do you have any worst nightmare stories to share with you? Share with us because we would like to hear from you. So maybe now, we can . And thank you for tuning in to another episode of Creative Freelance Exchange. 

Jayce:  So subscribe to ITunes and leave us a review. 

YL: Also subscribe to our YouTube channel and leave a comment, because we want to hear from you. 

Jayce:  We are on Facebook and Instagram. Also remember to follow us there, as well as subscribe to our feed. 

YL: Join us next time for a brand new episode of Freelance Creative Exchange. Until then, bye!