MNO 2007_Week10_TLS Stories

Park Ji Yeon (A0113987U)

Elin Denis Lyfors (A0128433)
Ji Yeon: Thank you so much for your time, Janet. Can you first describe your
background, like the industry that you are in and the specific roles that you play
in your occupation now?

Janet (Interviewee): Ok, so I will talk about the company that I run, so its called
DV Studio Private Limited. Its a company I started with my partner in 2009, ok,
and this small company, right now we have 6 people, its a company that
produces television programs for the local TV stations. And on top of this, we use
similar sets of skills to also produce videos for other companies, so Ive done
training videos, you know, all kinds of videos for other companies. Ok, so my role
is really, what we call the executive producer, which is very specific to this kind
of business. It is really the overall in charge of any project we do. Im overall in
charge and I make sure we get the funding, I get the people organised, and things
moving. So Im the overall in charge of a project.

Ji Yeon: So do you, like, direct videos yourself?

Janet (Interviewee): I dont direct, because Im not a director. Anything that you
see (that) comes out in the video involves many people, so you have the
executive producer, you have the producer, you have the director, you have the
writer, you have the editor There are many people involved in a TV series
especially a lot. Even though I have 6 full-time staff, I have a lot more freelance
staff and I use a lot of partners. I work with a lot of partners, like, currently Im
having in the middle of drama series on Mediacorps, so the director I use is
somebody from outside because I dont have enough resources, so its a
professional director that, you know, offers the services on the free-lance basis
we use them.

Ji Yeon: Thats very interesting actually its my first time meeting someone
whos in, like, this business.

Janet: Haha ok.

Elin: I think its my first time too.

Janet: So, its very specific.

Ji Yeon: Actually, a lot of my friends want to get in, but I heard that in Korea, the
barriers to entry to entering this are really, really high.

Janet: Yeah. And its a huge industry over there, in Singapore its a small
country so the business we are in the media industry, so it corresponds to the
size of the market. So there are not very many companies in Singapore because
Singapore is small. And even there are, they are all very small none of us are big.
Some of the bigger ones only have 20 people thats it because we dont hire
people permanently. We have our permanent staff, then we use a lot of partners
and freelancers whenever we have a project. Because everything is driven by the
project.

MNO 2007_Week10_TLS Stories
Park Ji Yeon (A0113987U)
Elin Denis Lyfors (A0128433)
Elin: Is it hard to be a good teacher, too, at the same time?

Janet (Interviewee): Yes, in a way, yes. But this is something that Actually, my
partner is my husband and companies with husband and wife with has specific
issues. And he is really the person he is a director by background. I use to work
in the broadcasting industry, although only for 3 years, as a researcher and a
writer not for drama though. But he has always been a director, so he wanted
to start this business, I wanted to teach. But you know when your husband is in
the business and its small, you get dragged into helping out, and then I always
tell him that I cannot resign. No matter how much I hate it, I cannot resign.

Ji Yeon: So youre forever a partner. Really, literally partners.

Janet (Interviewee): Yes, its a juggling the two. But for me, coming here is like a
break, its an enjoyable break to be in NUS. So Friday, I teach full day I disallow
any phone calls from the office unless its absolutely urgent I wont take the
calls.

Ji Yeon: Can you tell us more about, like, the audience of the videos that you
produce?

Janet (Interviewee): Ok, so my primary business is in the broadcast, so the
people who watch it will be Singaporeans, and because my husband is Malay, he
does shows mainly for the Malay channels, the minority channels, so and most
of my work for the last 5 years has been in that channel, so its target primarily at
the Malay audience, although there are some cross-over but the genres are very
different. I have done sitcoms, Ive done meleodramas, Ive done telemovies, Im
also in middle of a docu-drama. Ive done a documentary last year as well. So all
kinds of genres, but for the local audience.

Ji Yeon: So the things that we see on Mediacorps?

Janet: Yeah, but mine is specific on the Malay channel.

Ji Yeon: The Malay channel?

Janet: Yes, correct. But its subtitled so even if you watch it, you will understand.
My colleague, Violet, who also teaches the class, supports me. Shes so sweet, she
watches the subtitles, haha. Im like Its in Malay, and shes like shell watch
the subtitles.

Ji Yeon: Tell us about it, and well watch it, too. So I heard that you do a lot of
activities, and you know like how activities and tasks you perform in can be very
challenging. So can you think back and remember a work situation within the
past six months in which you were really, really challenged? So, think back and
try to relieve that experience.

Janet (Interviewee): Oh God, its happening right now. Ok, our business is very
stressful, deadlines are really tight, and as the executive producer, I have to
MNO 2007_Week10_TLS Stories
Park Ji Yeon (A0113987U)
Elin Denis Lyfors (A0128433)
manage a lot of people from different fields, people who are very, who are er,
what you call producers, (mumbled) producers who are very logical and
supposed to be organised, because they do all the organising, Then you deal with
directors who are all creative, has a lot of idiosyncracies, and sometimes feel that
they are the most important person on the set, then you deal with the crew. And
because I have to deal with the in-house people? I also have to deal with external
people, so one of the more recent issues Ive had is, Ive hired a director from, er,
who Ive never worked with before, who is considered established in the
industry and I decided to work with him for this project that is still ongoing but I
discovered very soon that our work ethics are very different. I mean he has
talent, but talent is one aspect, ok, but our work ethics are very different. We are
very organized, and disciplined company and he is a typical creative, I can turn
out one hour late if I choose to, you know, I can finish whatever time I want
and if I choose to not, you know You know time is money for production, so
when we do with our own staff, we tend to be like Ok, this scene is over. Lets
move. Er, this director is not like that, hes very cool, very chilled, and therefore
we often find ourselves not finishing whatever we planned. Its frustrating
because first of all, you have a deadline to meet, secondly, you have budgets to
keep. Every day of shoot is worth couple of more thousands dollars. So it was
very frustrating. Who really got impacted was my full time team, who had to
manage the set because I would plan the overall but I dont go on the film set.
And they are torn between what my instructions are and what is really
happening over there. So you often find me say Why are we not finishing? There
is only 8 scenes, why is it not finished?, and shes like, you know, shes torn
between telling me the truth and kind of being part of the pack, so my team is
very stuck there, two or three of them who are from the company, and they have
to manage it, and they dont quite know how to behave because though they
know they work for the company, at the same time, they have to deal with the
director and the director has a lot of influence on the set. So as a result of his so-
called chilled work ethics, the actors are taking the lead, the crew is leading the
lead because the director is usually the most respected person on the set because
he is like the captain of the ship when they are filming. And because Im not there,
so hes boss de facto. Only when Im there, then they behave. Its true and then, so
as a result, there is this friction between Actually it became a friction between
me and my own staff. Because I felt like something is going on but nobody is
telling me.

Elin: So you cant change the director?

Janet (interviewee): Um, but if theyre not telling me I kind of suspect, but if
theyre not telling me, its very hard for me to go and confront. Because they are
not telling me the stuffs.

Ji Yeon: So you cannot be just suspicious and just

Janet (Interviewee): Yeah well, I have my suspicions but its a question of how I
want to deal with it because I also have to decide if I sack him, who will I
replace him with, and how would I affect the morale of the people on set because
they have become friends right? Its a 52 day shoot, thats a long time over 3
MNO 2007_Week10_TLS Stories
Park Ji Yeon (A0113987U)
Elin Denis Lyfors (A0128433)
months and everybody has gelled. So in fact, it had gone on to a point where I
was the enemy. You understand? So, sometimes you have to make a decision
whether, you know, I kind of know it, but its just a whether, how do I want to
intervene. Do I just find other ways to manage it and as long as we finish, if its a
2 or 3 day overrun, Im fine, I found other ways to manage it without breaking up
the team, and kind of tell myself that this is the last time Im gonna use the
director. The show is progressing its not as if its a bad show in fact, it is
doing very well. But its just... it wasnt very good for my relationship with my
own team. I didnt really care about what other people thought, because they are
here for the project and theyre gone. But I do have my own team that works
permanently for me, so it just caused a bit of friction unnecessarily because they
were I mean after the fact we just finished filming, and I spoke to one of them,
and she finally admitted that, I was so torn. I wanted to call you so many times,
but I dont know if I called you, how would everybody on the set think, would
they isolate me? You know, there is all that relationships and sometimes,
friendships complicate the whole situation. Yeah, its a very complex thing.

Ji Yeon: Can I just ask you something? Because when you usually engage, lets say
a director, dont you guys have like a contractual obligation that he owes to you?

Janet (Interviewee): Yes he does, but I guess it depends on how hardball you
want to be. We could actually gone down the court and say: Please leave, we
could have. That is the legal aspect, but the question is this: there are other
things you gotta consider like I said, if you did that to him, how would it affect
the rest of the people who are on board with him, but then because they still
have to act, life still has to carry on so we took them into consideration and did
not do that. Because my partner actually is a very experienced director, a lot
more experienced than the director i hired. My husband: If you want me to, I can
just take over, Because he could, but its just that we have two shows ongoing.
With another show, a docu-dram he is taking care of. So I said hed be very hed
be overstressed, and more importantly, it would I just worry about the morale
issues. Its balancing between capacity we didnt have a lot of capacity and the
whole morale issue.

Ji Yeon: So the next question is why was this task or activity a challenge for you. I
guess you explained that pretty much. So, can you give like more details of what
are the characteristics of the task that made it so challenging.

Elin: Maybe we got an answer to that, too?

Janet (Interviewee): Well what is the characterstic of the task yeah, the
difference in our work ethics: you know, what is professionalism, what is
discipline, what it takes to finish the show, I think there was a gap between us
and the director we hired. To be fair, I kind of knew of his reputation, but
unfortunately, Im an idealist. Fortunately or unfortunately, Im an idealist. I
know hes talented and thats the reason I hired him, knowing that I had to deal
with some of these issues. And because Im a bit of an idealist, I thought that
maybe he was never in the right environment, or maybe I could get him to take
more ownership of what hes doing. So I put in place right from the beginning, I
MNO 2007_Week10_TLS Stories
Park Ji Yeon (A0113987U)
Elin Denis Lyfors (A0128433)
had chats with him. This is Asia so you cant tell a thing to his face, I heard that
you are very whatever I cant. So I would get involved to show that we are
serious about this, we are very focused on the craft, so I personally took him
recking on the locations . Very few executive producers do that, because we are
bosses, but I did that. I invested myself, my time, and invest time to like get him
involved. But I guess, I never learned his lesson, but people are hard to change.
Having said that, I have to say that towards the end, he realized that we are
different kind of company, we are very focused on the craft, and although he is
quite established, we as bosses, me and my husband, are more experienced, and
we are actually more capable.

Elin: But does he try to meet your expectations?

Janet (interviewee): Later on, I think he doesnt have a choice because he
realized it. Because there were certain things that were not done well, so we said
we want to re do it. And then he said, he would feel really like Ok then he
feels that Oh, thy are we redoing this? and I said, Because station didnt
approve it. I said Im gonna re-organise a shoot were we just shoot that, and
he said Ok, when is it? and I said, You dont have to come, You know like my
husband was like He doesnt need to come, Ill do it, and thats when he starts
to feel like Ok, Im not as wanted as I did and we just discussed it yesterday,
because we just wrapped the filming. My husband said, You should have had
two directors, instead of one, because when you have two directors, there is
competition. So its a very, very, very human-oriented, you know.

Elin: So youll differently next time?

Janet (Interviewee): Ive always used more than one director, always, but just for
the one time that Id decided to use one because just it would keep a greater
consistency. You know, when you are in business, a lot of things is trial and error.
You make decisions, knowing all the pros and cons, and sometimes knowing that
you have to deal with the issues, you would still make the decision because that
may be just the best decision at that point in time given the circumstances,
because you have the balance the budget, balance timeline, balance many many
things when you run a company. So its not as if I did not it, Its just that I did not
expect how the fallout would be, I mean I underestimated the magnitude of the
outcome, but I knew that it was gonna happen. You know what I mean? I still
managed it, its not as if, Oh my God! Its such a surprise, what am I gonna do?
No, no, no Ive always kind of knew it, I put in place certain things to minimize
it. But, you know, because I dont have time to be on set so its just sometimes get
out of hand. But if Im on set, they are very well-behaved. The director is very
well-behaved, and because the director is well-behaved, everybody under his
influence would behave well. But you know, when youre boss that long, you live
to the age that I have, Ive got teenage kids, so you dont need to be there to know
whats going on. You always know. I always tell my kids: Dont lie. I can tell it a
mile away that youre not being its the instincts of mother, Boss instincts, you
know. But yes, its complex, but its part and parcel, so you learn each time.
Yeah

MNO 2007_Week10_TLS Stories
Park Ji Yeon (A0113987U)
Elin Denis Lyfors (A0128433)
Ji Yeon: What was your frequency of being on the set?

Janet (Interviewee): Oh, not very frequent. Out of 52 days, less than half.

Ji Yeon: Oh, thats still quite frequent, I guess.

Janet (Interviewee): The first 12 days, I was there very frequently because I was
short of one staff, and so, I was there a lot. And we finished on time all the time.
But later on, I had to go on to another show. I had to move on to another show so
the middle portion, the last 30 days, 40 days, I think I was there less than 10 days.
So I wasnt there very much. But there are days when I go down because I know
like a specific location had a time limit and I told them you cant exceed the time
limit. So I make sure that I go down there to ensure that they finish. And when
Im there, they finish.

Elin: Typical behavior?

Janet: Typical behavior.

Ji Yeon: When parents are looking over you, you do your work, if they are not,
then you

Janet: Im glad my oldest son is not like that hes very much his own person. He
is like, Whether you are around or not, I do my homework, so hes not like that.
Hes not afraid of me.

Ji Yeon: So not like the people on the set?

Janet: Not like my staff. I think the saddest part of is is that it affected my
relationship with my own staff, which I have to see and work with even after the
show is over. So what were gonna do probably is to post-mortem it, so we just
finished, we just wrapped last week, so we are just gonna post-mortem it. Im
just gonna clear the air.

Ji Yeon: Yeah, I think thats really important.

Elin: Were there any circumstances or situational factors that made the
challenging task or activity especially challenging? Haha, I think all the questions
are the same.

Janet: I think its actually human this whole issue is just the real crux of it is
the gap in expectation of the performance, from not the ability point of view, you
know, its from attitude towards work point of view, work ethics point of view.
Thats the crux of it and then the situation makes it worse because he is quite a
well-known, established person. So even though everybody around him was not
like that before, his influence was strong so everybody became like him,
everybody is chilling, so there is the only person who tried to get everything
going was one of my assistant director. She is known to be very tough, but even
she told me, she says After a while, everybody is making fun of me on set.
MNO 2007_Week10_TLS Stories
Park Ji Yeon (A0113987U)
Elin Denis Lyfors (A0128433)
Whats wrong with you? Chill! You know, so because of that shes one girl,
and shes very young, shes 26. She felt overwhelmed. So it didnt help. So its
quite poisonous in a sense, its quite viral. So that made it tough, and Im not
around, too.

Ji Yeon: So they became really like a group groupthink.

Janet (Interviewee): So that doesnt help.

Ji Yeon: So do you think that there were like any other factors, aside maybe just
your relationships with maybe differing work ethics, that made the situation
even worse?

Janet (Interviewee): Myself. Because of the because its such a long project, its
filmed over 3 over months. When they start like, being like a group, and they
start telling me things. Then for me, I like to work on open spaces, and if people
face a problem, Id rather they just come to me, and say they have a problem. I
may or may not get angry depending on the time of the day or whether I think
that problem was an honest mistake or something that result from just not
paying attention or no ownership. So it depends. But often, I do not get angry
when people come to me with a problem. Ill probably be like, Im like, I dont
like it, but Ill solve it. But in this case, everybody was just not telling me stuffs,
and when you are not telling me stuffs, my vibe, and I have a very good instinct
that people are not telling me stuffs. My vibe is that there is something that they
are hiding and that spirals into a situation of distrust and Im generally good-
natured until somebody crosses the line, then I become a master. People who are
good-natured, dont make them angry because then, they become monsters. So
because of that, after a while, without even being very conscious of it, I get jumpy
over the smallest things. Like I discover something, and sometimes I jump to
conclusions, then Excuse me, why is it like that? When actually, perhaps, if I
had been more rational and calm, I would have not jumped at them and heard
the proper reasons you know that kind of thing?. But it just became really
unhealthy, you just picked on small things that you dont normally pick on. I have
two projects and Im like an angel in one, and monster in another. And actually,
Im actually very conscious of it. Im aware of it, but being aware of something
and managing how you respond to it is very different. Because were all humans,
so sometimes, we just react. But Im very aware of it. Sometimes, I regret the
things I said.

Ji Yeon: But now that its over so going to

Janet (Interviewee): Yeah its over so I would talk to them, and Im not one
person who would... I mean I would always acknowledge my own kind of
participation in making the situation worse sometimes. But the most important
thing is we learn from it, and the next project, we do it better. I have an upcoming
project. Like right now, Im working on a new one, apart from these two. Im
working on a new one. Its a much more complicated project. Its a historical
drama.

MNO 2007_Week10_TLS Stories
Park Ji Yeon (A0113987U)
Elin Denis Lyfors (A0128433)
Ji Yeon: Wow, I love historical dramas.

Janet (Interviewee): Partial historical, its like a present with a flashback, until
1640s and goes back to 1960s, Singapore the heydays of Malay movie-making.
Nobody have heard about P. Ramlee, but yeah, its complex. So Im starting that
now while Im finishing the rest. And out of 4 of the people who are on my
permanent team, two of them are still here. One is gonna resign, and the two are
still here so I need to sort that whatever misunderstanding they may give out
such that we can move on to the rest project. This ones gonna be tougher. This
one is a tougher project.

Ji Yeon: You mean like longer and

Janet (Interviewee): Its longer yes, its longer, its more complicated
technically. Even casting is more difficult because you have two sets of actors
they must look like each other when they are in their sixties So its complex,
and uh but the director would be my husband.

Ji Yeon: And hes a good one.

Janet (Interviewee): Yeah, you know, but there are other issues. This is a good
case study of how husband and wife work together.