Why do I want to pursue writing?

Richard Lee
2 min readNov 18, 2020

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I have a dream to make my own movies and TV series someday. I first started out learning about how Visual Effects works and did self-learning. I created my first Visual Effects driven short film that got me enrolled into Nanyang Polytechnic’s Digital Visual Effects course. Throughout my years in school, I started to self learn about filmmaking side by side as I learn more in-depth about Visual Effects. Always trying to connect the dots between the two.

I participated in short film competitions and have been fortunate to win a few awards and most of the time my short films gets nominated or into the top few selections.

However, I come to a realization that if I want to ever direct a movie or TV series I have to be given the opportunity by others. And that set me thinking, if no one gave me such opportunities, that would mean my dream could not be realized.

Therefore I decided to learn about screenwriting, armed with the knowledge I have in filmmaking and Visual Effects knowing what can be done in whatever limitations or resources I have at my disposal. I come to a conclusion that instead of waiting for others to give me the opportunity, just like most Directors in studios and TV stations, I decided that I will have a better chance at it if I am able to convince a Producer if he/she likes the script, it will be greenlit for production and I will be able to get the opportunity to direct it.

After all, especially in Singapore, where budgets are limited, censorships are stringent. Knowing as much as possible for filmmaking is beneficial in creating and planning projects. Instead of having to rely on multiple people in very early stages of inception, one can weigh and calculate with clarity and confidence of what can or cannot be done, and what boundaries we can push.

I hope to improve more, as filmmaking is a never-ending craft to learn.

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