The Team Behind '(Plastik)' on Raising Awareness About Southeast Asia’s Plastic Crisis.

‍

The producer Sean Lin and director Phillip Rom takes Tatler Asia through the inspiration, filming process, and message behind (PLASTIK).

‍

‍

A Q&A from the article: 

‍

How would you describe your direction in terms of imagery?

‍

Philip Rom (PR): When people talk about pollution, I’m sure the first thing that we picture is a stock image of plastic landfills. Our challenge was how to make this different by not showing any of those typical elements. We wanted to bring it close to home. There were no films that spoke about plastic pollution in Southeast Asia in this kind of context.

‍

We wanted to ground the story and build the world around that. Everything you see is in a local context and as Asians, we love food, so the first scene starts with it. There are a lot of familiar elements for Southeast Asians.

‍

We were also inspired by the other familiar imagery that comes to people's heads in regard to pollution i.e. turtles choked in plastic. The idea that came to me was, what if it was humans in place of the animals? How would we feel about it? What if that was us? These were the biggest questions.

‍

There was a point in a brainstorming session when MeshMinds mentioned about looking through a bottle and that eventually became the backbone of (Plastik). As I said, sow a seed and everyone waters it.  

‍

The full article can be read here.

‍

‍