Random Musings

There was a huge article in today’s Life! (here) about how the Singapore Film Commission (I never knew there was one) is now doubling its handouts from $250,000 per film to $500,000 per film to young deserving film-makers.

Which I think is great, cos films are expensive to make, and our young aspiring film-makers need all the funding help they can possibly get.

Moreover, I have no doubt that this funding would result in positive development and growth for our local film industry.

But it naturally made me also wish that there was such a thing as a “musicals commission” here to help fund new local musicals as well.

Perhaps our local musical theatre scene is a sorely-neglected field of the arts here.

Honesty speaking, musicals aren’t quite as expensive as films to produce.

I think if you compare pound-for-pound, a musical costs maybe just 10%-20% of what a film would cost.

(As in, I’m comparing a new local film to a new local musical, similarly I’m comparing “Avatar” to “Wicked”. As I said, pound-for-pound.)

I think if you can help fund just $50,000 to a new local musical, it would be fantastic enough.

You should be able to do quite a bit with $50,000 worth of funding.

We have to remember that a musical is not as easy to stage as a straight play.

Many straight plays have just one static set, and a small cast of at most three or four characters.

A musical definitely needs scene changes, which means added cost of sets, props and costumes, and a musical typically has more actors than a straight play.

Not to mention the need for dancers and musicians as well, which also means having to hire choreographers and musical directors.