“Unless you believe and work hard on your dream, the dream will not come true.”

Published at 1:57 AM in Commentary, Nation

By YEOH AI TEE

“Unless you believe and work hard on your dream, the dream will not come true.”

This is a quote from Lee Sheng Wang, winner of the Silver Award at the 2010 Commonwealth Vision Awards. Lee was chosen as one of two Malaysians to represent Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Lee, 19, is a student of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR). He is currently a degree in Mass Communication (Hons) Advertising. Unlike other students his age, he regards filmmaking as an important part of his life.

He first started dabbling in filmmaking during his school day. What is his motivation of filmmaking? He commented that family support is very important as a motivation for him to realize his love of filmmaking.

However, things were not always that easy. He realized that the belief and having the passion to make it happen is important. Without this belief, the dream merely remained a dream and it would not come true.

Furthermore, he said that the belief is important and it has to be strong to provide him with the energy and motivation. This is important, as strength is needed to move on despite barriers and frustrations that he had to face along the way.

He admires filmmakers likes Steven Spielberg, Albert Hitchcock, John Woo and Ang Lee. Among all these famous filmmakers, he admires Albert Hitchcock greatly. The reason is because his filmmaking has its own unique style using cinematography movement and the originality in telling a story.

According to Lee, Malaysia’s film and entertainment industry is growing rapidly. Unfortunately it is not growing fast enough to sustain the rapid growing talent. He noted that he told that if a country is in an economic recession, the budget for entertainment would always be the first to be on a chopping block. But this has not diminish his passion for filmmaking.

“My priority in the next year is to complete my degree with good results. Thereafter, I will set my mind to working on an award winning film within the next two to three years. This will provide the opportunity for me to work with other well known producers and filmmakers in jointly producing a world standard movie. Also, this is my ultimate goal to be an accomplished filmmaker” says Lee with a smile.