Narrative PSA

The Most Familiar Place - 16PERCENT

We thought we were shooting a simple skincare commercial.

Turns out we were learning how overwhelming, lonely, and suffocating a flare-up can feel, and how one small act of kindness can pull someone back from drowning inside their own head.

I LOVE YOU.

Client — 16PERCENT 

Production Agency — Bestboy Studio

Director — Youyou Zhang

Scriptwriter — Youyou Zhang

Executive Producer & all other producing roles — Kurtson Wong

Casting — Kurtson Wong, Youyou Zhang

DOP — Ken Hor

Gaffer & Grip — Senhong

Sound Recordist — Ken Hor

Production Decorator — Kurtson Wong, Youyou Zhang

Hair & Makeup — Seehuan

Editor — Ken Hor

Colourist — Kurtson Wong

Sound & Music — Youyou Zhang

Behind & Beyond

Oh well…

Let’s revisit the very first commercial we ever made together as an international team (a bunch of Malaysians cross-bred with one not-very-Chinese Chinese, really).

As our firstborn, it was… many things:

— A 4-minute piece with an overly ambitious two-shot structure; 

— A PSA that accidentally looked like a horror scene until the midpoint; 

— Two characters with (almost) zero dialogue; 

— A legit casting event (yes, an actual casting call in an office in KL — when do we get to bring that energy back?); 

— Special-effects makeup, because why not complicate life; 

— A shoot that took just a few takes, but a full prep day before it; 

— And the first time someone wrote and directed anything half-decent (read: with a team, not alone in her own chaos).