An inkling for a web series that brought 10 startups together, The Bungsu Story (TBS) tells of a young Bruneian student looking to navigate the ups and downs of university life.
Lead by The Creative Core BN (TCCBN), a social enterprise that focuses on building communities through arts projects, and Filterworks Productions, a startup company known for their funny viral videos – TBS will screen publicy beginning this Thursday at the Arena Cineplex in Kiulap.
The 30-minute pilot episode of a light-hearted comedy drama set and filmed in Brunei. The story revolves around Safarah, a university student navigating life as the youngest child in her family and wanting to be the best in class. Her hopes of finishing first in class get disrupted with the arrival of a boy into her life.
The project started last February and took five months to complete – with all 23 members of the film crew and 30 actors and actresses volunteering their skills and talent without pay.
During an exclusive press screening at the Arena Cineplex recently, a panel session was held comprising of director Aznniel Yunus, the two main characters Safarah Nordin and Adi Nabil as well as two executive producers, Amali Hj Roslin and Aaqiil Ahmad.
During the panel session, they stated that they are currently looking for donations to continue making more episodes for TBS.
The collaborators calculated that to continue filming TBS, they would need funding of “$15,000 to $20,000” per episode. While the cost of making TV series could range well into the thousands per episode as mentioned by the panelists, TBS’ pilot episode was made with only $600.
Aaqiil confirmed that whilst the characters in the story have been developed, the storyline or the number of the episodes were still fluid.
“It depends whether we can secure funding and how the public receives the story,” he said enthusiastically.
After the panel session, the audience was asked to fill in feedback forms to help understand the reception of the pilot episode and also for the audience to give suggestions for improvement in future episodes.
The story was co-written by Filterworks and literary startup Heartwrite Co. while music enthusiast Juan Madial was responsible for the musical direction of the episode, composing the episode’s score and penning and singing the series’ theme song, ‘Rasa’. Other collaborators also include Aznniel’s Nostril Productions, Beluneu Films (and) photography companies Lokal Fotografi and Moment and Time, as well as creatives Ayman Isa and Mamad AK.
Progresif Cellular, Arena Cineplex, Makan Ceria, Brunei Halal, Wing-it, Zanana Chips, Rep Athlete, Lagenda Clothing and Rack & Brew are amongst the companies who supported the project through sponsoring screening venues, props, filming locations and costumes.
The collaborators are now currently in talks with potential investors for TBS and also invite interested backers to invest in the project.
Catch The Bungsu Story exclusively at Arena Cineplex (Kiulap) starting from 27th July 2017. Tickets cost $6 per entry. For more information, please email filterworksproductions@gmail.com.
To learn more about how the episode was made, please visit TCCBN’s YouTube for their Movie season at www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmGJFFI7jT8_HVkgRm381jWMMhbyBdhgg
