The Merry Riana Show – featuring Aaron Tan

Have you ever dreamt of producing your own film, pitching your own story, and conveying the burning message you have to thousands of people? Being a producer may not be as difficult as you think, unless you’re looking at producing a long haul drama series or a big hits movie. With the current modern technology, anyone can easily produce a short video anytime.

Satisfying the hunger for creative arts, Aaron has always involved himself in the creative process since young, grabbing any opportunities in school, and learning from the people and resources around him. He once aspired to be a musician, an actor. But fate or chance, he lands himself in the film making industry. To date, he has already been in this industry for 7 years, and he is still flaming his passion for film making with the never-ending process of learning and testing new grounds.

Filming process usually requires the whole production team tons of hard work. Ideally, the shooting process inclusive of pre- and post-production, it takes at least one to two months per episode of the film. However, that occurs for TV productions or movies. If you’re one of those aspiring film makers, making your own video and posting it up through online channels such as YouTube may fulfill your desire for film making a little. This has also allowed film making to be more accessible. Cost of production becomes cheaper, and more user friendly, and the creative process can now flow more freely, which in turn empower film makers and even viewers to a certain extent.

“People can broadcast their work, without waiting for an executive in a suit to give them the green light, and viewers can also decide for themselves what they like and don’t like. So if they don’t like it, they can just click on something else” Aaron said. Film makers can now test out their ideas, be a little more experimental in their production, and there is no commercial pressure in terms of appealing to the sponsors or niche group of audiences. You’ll be surprised when you realize that this kind of freedom emancipates much more innovation and exciting ideas among people. Through an online medium, you’ll also get to obtain immediate response from the viewers, and you need not wait for it to be up on theatre screens or broadcast on television to know that you’re doing something that people likes.

Advanced equipments or technology can assist in the creative process in a certain way, but the essence of making a great film truly comes from a solid story behind it – a story that touch on the pulse of human condition and universal struggles. “Equipments are just story telling tools. A film maker with a very compelling story to share can produce something extraordinary with just a camera, and maybe the creative use of existing light sources, and some basic editing equipment” says Aaron. Equipments may assist film makers to a certain extent, but qualities such as passion, commitment, dedication, a good eye for visuals, and the ability to observe, listen and tell a story cannot be substituted by even the best equipment in the world.

Aaron’s suggestions to all budding film makers out there, is to never stop learning and absorbing information. Be really passionate, committed, and humble, be prepared for a lot of hard work, and have a never-say-die attitude no matter what happens. And because of this attitude that Aaron holds on to all these years, film making has helped him experience things that many other don’t have a chance to experience, and these years of hard work have expanded his horizons, allowed him to meet a broad spectrum of different kinds of people in life.

Having seen all kinds of people from all walks of life, Aaron’s definition of gorgeous person “means someone who is passionate about life, and what they do, someone who believes in their own potential and the potential of others, in making a difference to the world,” Aaron defines. For anyone who is interested in knowing more about Aaron or has got any burning questions to ask him, you could email him at tanmienshawn@gmail.com.

And if you want to have a piece of Aaron’s works, well, you came to the right place. Here’s the music video of Ming Bridges’ rendition of the Christmas song “Let it snow” that was done by Aaron himself.

You’ll see Ming skiing around Singapore, how interesting ! =)  

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3. The Merry Riana Show – featuring Sylvester Sim
4. The Merry Riana Show – featuring Elim Chew