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IN THE SPOTLIGHT

‘The Story’ by Aldina Azani is her take on realism through the use of social media and alternate reality games which acts as a platform for storytelling and uses stories in Instagram or Facebook to blur the line between what is real and what is fake. Watch it here

ALDINA AZANI

Tell us about yourself

My name is Aldina Azani but most people just call me Dina. I am 23 years old this year. I am born and raised in Kuala Lumpur. I’m still attending university at Sunway University, I started university quite late because I was attempting to study in Korea. I am a film student so loving films do come with the job.

How did the idea and story of this film come about?

I got the idea when I was in the shower and I heard a loud bang on my door. Naturally, I thought it was my sister so I ignored it. But the banging wouldn’t stop so I wrapped myself in a towel and investigated. Turned out that I was the only one upstairs the whole time! My imagination went wild and I remembered a cursed post I saw a few years back. I thought making it look like a familiar social media platform would sort of blur the lines between fiction and reality for the audience.

What inspiration or references did you draw from in terms of other films, mediums, filming techniques?

My main inspiration is the Blair Witch Project and ARG’s. ARG’s are alternate reality games where people use social media platform to tell fictional content, it’s especially well known in the Tik Tok world. I used an iPhone to shoot, I know that using a camera would produce better quality footage but I wanted the experience to be as authentic to an Instagram story as possible. Also, I wanted to show that storytelling doesn’t always need amazing equipment to be effective.

What were some of the challenges you faced in getting this film made?

I had an amazing actress a.k.a my sister, so there weren’t many challenges. I wanted my other sister to become the ghost as she has long hair and it would’ve been more effective, but she rejected the offer. Other than that it was smooth sailing.