Screengrab from Viddsee.com


Local online video channel Viddsee officially launched a new Singapore Film Channel yesterday to promote local works from home-grown filmmakers. The announcement was made at the opening of the Singapore Media Festival. 

For its inauguration, up to 30 short films will be curated for the channel, which will feature works by up and coming student filmmakers such as Tariq Mansor, Lauren Teo and even other notable independent filmmakers from Singapore such as Kristen Tan and Leon Cheo. 

The channel will offer viewers a wide range of genres; from documentary shorts, comedy-drama and animation. 

Co-founders Derek Tan and Ho Jia Jian founded the curation and distribution site in 2013, which now sees more than 500 million users globally. 

“What we are doing is an initiative to help showcase more local films to audiences locally and globally. The partnership with Singapore Film Commission (SFC) is to create a more dedicated film channel and drive this out to a regional audience as well to come and appreciate our local films,” said Tan. 

'The Lying Theory' by Lauren Teo, one of the films featured on the new Singapore film channel


As to how the initial 30 films came about, Tan shared that the selection came from the data generated from its website.

“We’ve taken a mix of films that were kind of celebrated from our audience so there are some films that Viddsee has curated before and at the same time using those information data to also bring on new films that we want to share with the audience. So it takes on a very audience-centric approach to how we are curating the films back to our audience.”

If you are an aspiring filmmaker out there who hopes your film will be featured on that new permanent channel, you should make sure that your film consists of these elements.

“The way we choose the films goes back to the kind of curation that we have adopted,” said Ho, adding: “That goes to the level of production quality; the kind of stories; how shareable the content is too. These are the elements that we actually look out for in terms of curating the content.”


(Check out all the local films on the Singapore film channel, here!)

'Ways of Seeing' by Jerrold Chong, one of the films featured on the new Singapore film channel
 

On top of the new film channel, Viddsee will also be commissioning their first original short film by a Singapore filmmaker, to produce a heartfelt Singapore-inspired story for a local and regional audience. 

“In terms of the original film, we are kicking it off internally and so in terms of the story, the details will be shared later on. The essence of it is using the data that we have to understand our audience -what they consumed and what they like in the community- and that will help inform us how and what kind content we will be making. That will be a new process that we will be kicking off in the new film,” revealed Ho. The film is set to release in the first half of 2017. 



What are your thoughts on the new film channel? Let us know in the comments below!