CIT Produces TMSI Video

CIT video production team tackled new challenges and reaped unexpected benefits during the video shoot

The video, titled "Tropical Marine Science Institute on St John’s Island”, was shown at the opening and launch of the Tropical Marine Science Institute (TMSI) in St John’s Island, November 2002.

According to TMSI, the video will also be used as a promotional material to generate strategic partnership with potential partners and to introduce TMSI to the public and various schools.

Up close and personal

Unlike other educational cum presentational videos that the team produces, one difference was that a cohort of TMSI Principle Investigators (PI) spoke for themselves – projecting a more personal and intimate touch through the video.

It was somewhat more a challenge to get the PIs to ‘speak’ into the camera. There was no proper script in the beginning, and it was the producer’s job to put his participants at ease.

Weather element

The entire video was shot on St John’s Island, and according to the crew, it rained whenever there were any outdoor shootings.

The crew was transported to the island from the Pasir Panjang Ferry Terminal, where they loaded all their equipments into the boat provided by TMSI. Barring that the boat was slightly flimsy to begin with, the crew had to take great care that the cameras did not get wet in process of being transported and while filming.

New challenges

Aside from shooting for the TMSI video, CIT’s video production crew managed to film the Singapore skyline from a boat for the first time. The Raffles Place/Shenton skyline becomes the latest precious resource to add to CIT’s film archive.

It was also a rare opportunity for the crew to work with microscopic and very small subjects, such as the seahorses. The greatest challenge, according to a member of the crew, was in achieving the right lighting effect of the subject in water.

But the crew did have a little help with new technologies. They had the disposal of the EZ Prompter (borrowed for trials) – a portable prompting system that was attached to the camera lens and lighting mounted of the betacam SP camera. It holds up to two minute of text information and does not require additional power and operator.