vivo recently premiered its short film, “The Incident”, shot using the brand’s flagship vivo X60 Pro smartphone. The featurette marks vivo’s second short film, with its pilot short film being “KITA”, which was shot on the vivo X50 Pro. “The Incident” is directed by acclaimed Kedahan filmmaker, Chong Keat Aun, winner of the Best New Director accolade at the 57th Golden Horse Awards.
This year’s film features an impressive line-up consisting of Miss Universe 2015 finalist Pauline Tan, veteran film actress Adibah Noor, kid actor Phua Chandler and winner of the Best Actor award at the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival’s Asian New Talent Award, Yuan Teng. It is accompanied by the melodious soundtrack, “Light of Hope”, produced by singer-songwriter Yise Loo and sung by Firdhaus Farmizi.
Here are 6 little-known facts that you may not know about “The Incident”.
1. ‘The Incident’ was filmed over the period of 2 days.
In less than 48 hours, the cast and crew pulled together to bring “The Incident” to life. While it may seem like a short period of time, Director Chong shared how he was intentional about this as he understood the gruelling conditions that the cast and crew had to endure.
As all were mandated to abide by a strict set of SOPs, it not only meant that sanitisation took place every 30 minutes, but all were required to wear their masks throughout the shoot, even in harsh weather conditions. Director Chong shared how the cast and crew were often under the punishing hot sun when they filmed scenes such as the one in which Yee Cheng’s motorcycle broke down while she was doing her food delivery errands.
2. Singer-songwriter Yise Loo composed “Light of Hope” in less than 24 hours.
One night was all it took for the composer, Yise Loo to string together the melody for the famous theme song – “Light of Hope”.
The melancholy tune which incorporated the Malaysian seruling, served as the short film’s soundtrack and Yise had initially planned to sing it alongside long-time friend, Director Chong. Due to the time constraints however, Yise sought Firdhaus Farmizi instead, marking their first collaboration efforts together.
3. Fei Dao Er learnt to sing a phrase in Cantonese for the song “Light of Hope”.
Firdhaus, also known as Fei Dao Er to his legion of fans, is fluent in Mandarin, having learnt the language after attending a Chinese kindergarten and vernacular school and having many friends who spoke the dialect with him.
As many of his fans on social media also spoke Mandarin, Firdhaus focused on singing in Mandarin to resonate with them and to date, one of his most well-known tracks is “Gulf of Alaska”, which has scored more than 4 million views on YouTube, in less than a year.
However, for the song “Light of Hope” in which he lends his vocals to, Firdhaus had to master the Cantonese phrase, “Moonlight shining on the ground” and he nailed it within the day of the demo recording! Firdaus is one of very few Malay singers in Malaysia that can sing very well in Mandarin.
4. Miss Universe 2015 finalist, Pauline effortlessly pulls off barely-there looks for her performance as Yee Cheng.
Due to her nature of work, we often see actress Pauline Tan sporting flawless makeup for her movies, television shows and photo shoot sessions.
So, it was exceptionally refreshing to see her come to the set of “The Incident” bare-faced! Not even with a drop of baby oil as it was her intention to realistically portray hardworking mother, Yee Cheng who struggled to make ends meet during the pandemic.
5. Pauline actually knows how to ride a motorbike!
Make no assumptions about the prim and proper Miss Universe 2015 finalist for she is able to cruise down a street on a manual motorbike.
In fact, this was precisely what she did for her role for most of the riding scenes. Though Pauline is quick to note that her maximum speed is just at 10km/hour, she was able to naturally depict the role of a food delivery rider due to her having learnt to ride a motorbike for a previous role.
6. This memorable scene was shot by placing the vivo X60 Pro in a makeshift drain hole.
One of the most striking ways to use perspective is to simply change the height in which an image is captured.
This poignant point-of-view shot of Yee Cheng reaching for her smartphone after her accident was achieved all thanks to the vivo X60 Pro. With the ultra-thin body of 7.36mm placed in a unique spot peeking through a makeshift drain hole, it created an astonishing depth-of-field and framing, which eventually marks this as one of the most memorable scenes in “The Incident”.
Watch “The Incident” here:
You can also enjoy listening to “Light of Hope” here:
