Storyteller | Filmmaker | Visual Journalist
Restoring Glory:
Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery
Short Form Documentary
About the project
Project Type: Short Form Documentary
Role: Video Editor, Camera B Operator
Language: English, Mandarin, (English subtitles)
Completion Date: 2024
About:
This documentary captures the story of Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery as it wrestles with the fading echoes of its traditional craftsmanship. Built a decade ago, the monastery faces the challenge of reconnecting with its original artisans from China and Taiwan amid budget constraints and a looming loss of heritage. Through poignant interviews and striking visuals, the film explores the delicate dance between preserving a rich legacy and navigating the passage of time.
Creative Problem:
As part of a university course (Image & Sound Production), we were tasked by the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore (URA) to create a 5-7 mins architectural documentary about a conserved building in Singapore. We had less than 2 months to create the entire video from securing profiles in pre-production to delivery.
Solution:
Our group decided to reach out to one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Singapore, Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery (莲山双林寺), and document their latest round of conservation works. We also wanted to push the visual language of this documentary and take on a more stylistic approach to ensure the buildings came alive for our audiences.
Process & Development
As we had a extremely limited amount of time for the pre-production stage, our lean but agile team had to constantly improvise on set. We also used a 2 camera set up to ensure we got enough footage. The opening and closing scenes were also the last minute editions to our production schedule. This was because we had a difficult time securing access. We had 3 shoot days, and 9 intensive edit days.
As we were facing a serious time crunch, we didn't follow the traditional documentary workflow and skipped some steps. Sound design was done concurrently with cutting of the visuals.
Our Rough Workflow:
Day 1 - Prepping the footage (ingest, sync interviews, sort all B-rolls by location and time of day)
Day 2 - Cut down interview + generate transcript for director + edit script
Day 3 - Edit Opening Scene
Day 4 - 9 - Completing all the other sequences
Day 9 - Submission of version 1 for feedback (Final submission for our class assignment)
After day 9 - Colour Grading, Reediting the credits and ending sequence
*Feedback was done concurrently while churning out a completed version.
Screenshots of all my timelines on premier pro to show the number of versions we went through
My timeline at the end of Day 3
My timeline at the end of Day 9
reSULTS
Awards:
• First Place | AHA Short Film Fest presented by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)
• Bronze | Film & Photography: Documentary presented by The Crowbar Awards 2025
• Finalist | Film & Photography: Directing presented by The Crowbar Awards 2025
• Finalist | Film & Photography: Editing presented by The Crowbar Awards 2025
The team at AHA film festival
The team at The Crowbar awards 2025
credits
Director: Ashley Wong
Producer: Zachary Lim
Director Of Photography: Erika Lee
Sound Recordist: Josephine Teo
Editor: Christine Lim
Colourist: Ilzymanshah Kamarudin
Special Thanks:
Kym Campbell, John Siow, Chuang Shaw Boon, Jack Chan, Chung Pei Zhen
In collaboration with:
Nanyang Technological University Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI)
Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore
