14 Jan – Following the local box office success of "Woohoo!" and "Great Day", acclaimed Malaysian director Chiu Keng Guan (or Chiu) has finally returned to the big screen with his long-awaited third feature, "The Journey". During our interview with the guy at the press conference for "The Journey", Chiu recalled his experience of directing his third movie. According to Chiu, making "The Journey" was no easy feat because he has to deal with lots of less-experienced actors and naturally, a lot of NG (No Good) scenes are cut many times until a single perfect shot is achieved. However, he has nothing but praises for these actors who did great jobs delivering their roles with a sense of realism. Chiu also emphasised that the sequences of the hot-air balloon in the movie was done practically, rather than relying on computer-generated effects.
"We did the hot-air balloon scenes without using computer graphics as we did it for real. When the wind blows, it was very hard to control. We did a lot of testing from 8 feet, 10 feet, 30 feet and at the end, 80 feet," Chiu said. Additionally, he also spoke about the participation of the general public to create the hot-air balloon. "The hot-air balloon is not only done by our props department but also done by the people from all walks of life. We opened up to the public and asked more than 200 people to come and join us to make the real hot-air balloon, which was made of over 10,000 recycled plastic bags", Chiu added. "The Journey" opens in cinemas nationwide on 30 January.