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Behind the Sea of Mirrors

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It is a sunny April afternoon when Singaporean director Thomas Lim and his film crew crowd into a local bar. Two softboxes illuminate the usually dimmed interior of the venue. 

It looks like an ordinary film set so far, but something is missing – there is not even one professional film camera on the set. Instead, the director and the cinematographer, Santa Nakamura both concentrate on the screen of an iPhone, which they have chosen to use to film the new movie Sea of Mirrors.

“The first reason I chose to film with an iPhone is that I think it suits the style of our film. I like the visual texture the iPhone can achieve. It suits a story like ours,” the director explains.

“Secondly, I think the iPhone suits the character of the core members of the team. We like to use the latest technology to advance our belief that film-making can be done with whatever resources you can gather rather than waiting for funding and imagining that one can make a multi million dollar movie. Because waiting kills passion and we want to keep the passion.”

The director is confident a new wave of iPhone filming is approaching and they “want to be ahead of the wave”.

As for the Japanese cinematographer Nakamura, who has some experience with filming with iPhones, the main advantage of switching from a traditional camera to a mobile device is the increased mobility and agility.

“For example, if we are shooting with a big camera, we will be limited by the setting of the scene. But with an iPhone, I can shoot from an angle that would not be achievable with a camera, and access places where big cameras can’t go. We can explore new angles and move around… I believe iPhones will help to invent new ways of filming,” he says.

Shooting in Macau for the first time, Nakamura loves how Macau is like “a big movie set”.  With Vegas-like views, quaint alleyways and the waterside area all in one city, he thinks Macau is “full of feelings”. 

Sea of Mirrors is the second film about Macau that Thomas has directed. His first was Roulette City. Compared with his previous shooting experience here, the director says he has been able to gather more resources and find more support for Sea of Mirrors, with investors who appreciated Roulette City very much committed to investing in and supporting his new film.

“Also, after so many years of visiting and living in Macau, I know Macau better than before. So when I was writing the script in Los Angeles, I could easily imagine the locations that I wanted to shoot in,” Thomas adds.

Knowing Macau well, however, didn’t stop the city from “surprising” Thomas with some extra “effects”. He explains that Macau is actually quite a “noisy city” due to its dense population. As a result, the crew would, from time to time, record sounds that they never imagined would appear in the scene. 

Nakamura, meanwhile, comments on the very foggy weather of springtime in Macau. 

“It looks good sometimes but we can’t achieve what we planned with it,” he says. 

In order to deliver the best results on the big screen, Thomas has invited professionals from all over the world to participate in Sea of Mirrors, among them Macau-based Australian actress Sally Victoria Benson and Japanese actress Kieko Suzuki.

Having grown up in Macau, Sally thinks shooting a film in her home city has been a wonderful experience because she can share with her colleagues her insider’s knowledge of Macau.

The film has also given her a different shooting experience and allowed her to attempt different ways of performing.

“I am not used to spending so much time on a scene because when I was working in the mainland, the schedule was usually tight and sometimes we shot up to 30 scenes a day. In this movie, we have around 100 scenes for the whole film but we have a few weeks to do it all. This is great because there is more time for the actors to explore and try different things,” Sally comments.

She believes that working with people of different backgrounds enriches both the experience and the film.

“Obviously there can be problems  (when working with people from different places), but so far there haven’t been any. When we have a common goal, everyone just works towards that goal,” she says.

On the other hand, this is the first time Kieko Suzuki has been to Macau, and shooting the film has been a “challenging and exciting” experience. 

“This is very different from other destinations I have been to. This city is very charming because it has the contrast between China and Europe. It also reflects our own project because our crew comes from all around the world,” says Keiko.

She also praises the professionalism of her colleagues and especially mentions Nakamura’s  sense of good lighting, which Thomas also agrees with her on. 

“Without a cinematographer, I am not as sensitive to lighting. So when [Santa and] I do it together, we achieve something that is even more than I imagined when I was writing the script.”

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