KUCHING: ‘Sumpahan Jerunei’, a movie rich in history which highlights the Melanau culture, goes beyond just visual effects (VFX) as portrayed.
Its director Jason Chong said the film is beyond VFX, with its intriguing and interesting storyline and heart-touching characters.
“This movie shouldn’t be judged solely on its VFX because it is more than that.
“This film is also a heritage story from which we can learn something out of it. The acting and dedication of the actors are also of high quality,” he told the media after a meet-and-greet session with the artists at GSC The Spring Mall here, yesterday (Aug 3).
Chong was responding to several comments that went viral on social media, saying that the computer generated imagery (CGI) technique in the film did not meet the expected standard.
He also explained his side of the story, admitting that there were indeed shortcomings in terms of VFX, and there were issues alleging that the chosen VFX director abandoned the work halfway.
“There were rumours that he had misunderstandings and conflicts with me, claiming that we couldn’t work together, but that’s not true.
“The VFX director, in reality, produced VFX effects that didn’t meet the standard. When I received the first batch of VFX effects, I rejected them as the quality was amateurish.
“So, there could be two possibilities. One is that he might have the skills to create VFX, but he didn’t execute it professionally.
“The other possibility is that he lacks the skills to produce Hollywood-standard VFX, which is also unprofessional because he took on the responsibility as the VFX director.
“From there, we noticed that something fishy was going on. He even spent hundreds of thousands of the allocated budget, and yet he couldn’t deliver the promised results,” he said.
Following this, Chong said a local team had stepped in to salvage the work despite facing budget constraints after the initial budget was spent by the previous VFX director.
“I would like to record my greatest appreciation to this VFX team from Malaysia. Despite numerous shortcomings and budget constraints, we managed to complete this film,” said Chong.
The movie, which had its premiere on July 27, featured among others Bront Palarae, Uqasha Senrose, Daiyan Trisha, Amerul Affendi and Ruminah Sidek.
