Hi, I’m Khai.
Copywriter by training.
ECD by trade.
Currently at BBH SG.
I tell stories.
The Best Gift for Your Child
I wrote this based on my own childhood, somewhat. My art partner, Janson, and I challenged ourselves to keep the story to one location. In this case, a wedding banquet. That was our canvas. The rest was history. Fun fact: the elderly woman in the crowd stars in ‘How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies’, but this was made way before that.
Last Day of School
My first attempt at writing a short film. My art partner, Janson, and I went into the client meeting with only a piece of A4 paper. On one side was the script. On the other, nothing, no option 2. It was sold in one narration, by yours truly. It was filmed by James Lee of Doghouse 73. It won Singapore’s first Cannes Entertainment Lion.
Make Time for a Change
The creative duo, Adeline and Kenneth, had an idea of dramatising how hard people in Singapore work. It’s as if they’re attached to their desks. “Hmm, deskbound…” I went. Possibly the only value-add from me. They went to get art supplies, built desks that could be hooked around your waist, and presented to the client the idea in the flesh.
Flexi-Cat
While brainstorming, this was my exact text to the team:
”Was thinking what if there was a drain pipe from the roof that’s super curvy and swirly. Then there’s a cat on the roof, wanting to go down. It goes into the drain pipe. Then we cheat cos then the camera follows the curvature of the drain pipe, to follow the cat crawling inside. And then the cat emerges from the drainpipe below. VO: Now that’s flexibility, like Income’s ILP.”
A few chats on budget and making it a transparent pipe instead (and not “cheat”), I think we made something really nice :)
Everyone Can Be Someone
We started with animation, but ended up claymation. And who better to turn to than the artists of Bristol, the birthplace of Wallace and Gromit. Painstakingly made by British animator Aiden Whittam, in his basement, during lockdown in The UK. Many thanks to Coldplay for letting us use their hit, ‘Fix You’ for a non-profit.
You Make The Call
It was one evening in the office when my art partner and I were just sitting with our then ECD, Jab, talking about stupid couples on the phone who don’t want to hang up. “You hang up,” “No, you hang up,” Eureka. Let’s make the world’s longest phone call between a really stupid couple, where neither person wants to hang up.
Fear Less
As a kid, I remember doing silly, reckless things when I was a kid. I never knew fear. I always felt invincible. But as I grew older, that sense of “bravery” made less sense. And I became more careful. I became less “brave” and more “fearful”. That was the inspiration for this piece. Shoutout to Alphaville’s ‘Forever Young’.
Me First
Is it okay to be selfish? Or rather, is it okay to be selfish now so that you’re generous in the future? This was a question we kept asking ourselves when conceptualising this thought of ‘You need to be selfish and put yourself first now, in order to be selfless to others in the future.’ It was fun creating a villain for this piece. Often you don’t get to.