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Gone schooling
PHOTO: WEE T.Y.
After finishing her movie Gone Shopping, filmmaker Wee Li Lin (left) was feeling burnt out. So she decided to go back to school.
Since September last year, she has been studying for a Master of Fine Arts in dramatic writing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Asia at Kay Siang Road, under a Media Development Authority (MDA) scholarship.
"I have always been interested in scriptwriting, but I was never very strong in writing. I’m more comfortable as a director," she says.
The course at Tisch has redefined her approach to writing a script. She is now much more mindful of structure and of concepts like the dramatic question of the story.
This is not the 35-year-old's first learning experience with the renowned institution.
About 15 years ago, while she was an undergraduate at Brown University in the United States pursuing a degree in art semiotics, she spent a semester at a filmmaking workshop in Tisch, New York.
She was thrilled when the school opened a campus in Singapore. "I know its calibre," she says.
The school accepted her application to its two-year writing programme.
Ms Wee did not want to burden her parents with the fees, which were almost US$20,000 (S$29,800) a semester, so she applied to MDA for a scholarship under its Media Education Scheme.
She was on a high when she got the scholarship. "I didn't realise how much it would mean to me. It was such a booster, to be recognised by MDA as someone worthy of a scholarship," says the award-winning director.
Under the terms of the scholarship, she has to contribute to Singapore's media industry for two years after graduation.
On the nature of her contribution, Ms Wee says she is willing to play the role of scriptwriter, leaving the directing to someone else in some films.
"There are some great filmmakers out there. If one of them wants to option one of my scripts, it would be totally cool."
But she will also make her own films. "I'm still a director at heart," she says.