PRODUCTION NOTES

Originally SNIPERS was supposed to be a story on just Steve Tan, but after reworking it, two more additional short stories were added. This is James Lee’s first full-length feature as writer and director although he has made several short videos like "Ah Yu’s Story" (35 min., 1998), "Think Positive" (12 min., 1999) "The Man From Thailand" (30 min., 1999), "Survivor" (12 min., 1999) and most recently "Sunflowers" (7 min., 2001). All of his previous shorts were shown by Kelab Seni Filem Malaysia in The British Council KL and also the popular "Chicken Parts" series in The Actors Studio.

SNIPERS was planned to be shot entirely on Video 8. But after being introduced to digital video via his starring role in LIPS TO LIPS, he decided to shoot the movie on DV, because of the advantages of the high shooting ratio and the opportunity to edit on a non-linear editing PC system.

SNIPERS was shot with a single Panasonic NV-DX10 camera and edited on Adobe Premiere software.The whole processes of the shoot was initially inspired by John Carpenter's low-budget "Assault on Precinct 13", with only one soundtrack through out the whole movie, hence there's very little soundtrack in SNIPERS. But in terms of vision it is more of a character study like "Taxi Driver" and "Falling Down".

Lee says, "Due to my poor writing skills, the screenplay was not really well-written, so halfway through the production it was abandoned and merely acted as a guide and structure. Improvisation by the actors was more effective then sticking entirely to the script.

"With a budget of RM15,000 that's not even enough to make a decent MTV video or sitcom episode, Lee embarked on a torturous journey of movie-making. With support from other independent film people, friends and family, it took four months to shoot and complete the movie.

Due to scarce manpower and equipment availability, a lot of corners had to be cut. Lights were sponsored by a friend’s production house, Titik Video Sdn. Bhd.

Even with no payment, the actors and crew worked diligently and gave their best. That's a factor that kept Lee going. With no gigantic machines like a setup for films, shooting with a DV camera has its own advantages.

Due to its compact size, the shoot can be executed in true guerilla way. It was a shoot-and-run, and there was one time when the crew almost got kicked out from an apartment block, but was saved by a good Samaritan.

After the shoot and editing, Lee learned a very important thing about making movies. He says, "It's not the medium that you should worry about. A good movie does not require gigantic machines and special effects. You just need a camera, actors and ideas."

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