The Dream.

Sometime 4 years ago, a dear friend had approached me with a proposal. To be a partner in a venture that at the time, seemed like almost a fool’s errand. He asked me if I wanted to help him make movies. At that point in my life I thought, why not? It should be fun. And boy was I right.
My name is Bahir Yeusuff, and I function as the Business Operations Manager of Perantauan Enterprise, and play the dual role of Producer and Production Manager for the production of S’kali. This entry will be written, less about the actual production, but more on the foundations of that dream.
I never did film. Or even anything remotely close to the industry. So for me, I approached every meeting from a business standpoint. From meetings with prospective producers, to meetings with prospective sponsors, it was rarely ever about the dream or the passion, but more about the money. Or at least the promise of money. But eventually, the passion takes over. The dream that belonged to someone else is now shared by you. And that is when the real fun starts. That point came for me, when I started to realize that I didn’t want just anybody to be in on the movie. I didn’t care how much money they were willing to put in; if they didn’t share our passion, I wasn’t interested in them. There were those who said it couldn’t be done, not on the budget we had proposed, and there were those who said our proposed timeline was too long, or that we still had time to wait. But these comments only steeled our conviction, if anything to prove that it was feasible, and that these 20-somethings could do it.
So we did it. Armed with a great cast and an amazing crew, we shot our movie. It was a grueling 2 week schedule, in which we learned a lot about a movie set, each other, and ourselves. Personally, it was a sharp learning curve. Only having been on a set, running and managing a set was a totally different ballgame. A ballgame made especially difficult seeing that a few months prior to shoot, I wasn’t expecting to play. But I managed, with a great deal of help.
At the end of the 2 weeks, and as we all went home to sleep, knowing we didn’t have a morning call time, it felt weird. Waking up felt worse. It was disheartening almost. 2 days after the wrap, crew members started calling each other, inquiring about their day, and finally, feelings of longing. Yeah, after a 2 week shoot, the crew started to miss each other. Sad, but true. At the end of that two week shoot, we felt like brothers. It was really weird.
It’s fair to say, that as our first project, we’re not expecting to be millionaires on the coat tails of this production. And neither are we expecting a call from Ron Howard’s assistant anytime soon. (although, if you are reading this, drop me an email Mr. Howard sir) If anything, this was to prove to a lot of people that it was possible. And to find out if we, any one of the people on the cast and crew, were ready for the movies.
The vision we had for the company and this first project was to introduce new talent. Be it the ones in front of the camera, or even behind it, we wanted to bring in new blood to this industry. As had been mentioned, everyone involved is here for the first time. For what it’s worth, I know it wont be my last.