His secret to overachiever status? "I tend to set myself ridiculous deadlines. It's the only way I get anything done."
When asked where the idea for the film came from, Khairil said,"I actually started out only knowing that I wanted to make a film, but had no idea about what." For the most part of 2009 and 2010, he worked on a lot of corporate video jobs.
"I hadn't been writing at all, which really bugged me." Being part of the writing and acting ensemble for the play Lost & Found stirred him to write, leading to him setting a deadline. In June 2011, he would by hook or by crook start shooting another feature film.
Khairil made his first short film, Nicotine, in 2004 and his first feature film Ciplak in 2006. With only a budget of RM10,000 (RM8,500 was spent on the camera), Ciplak went on to garner positive reviews as well as the Best Alternative Film award at the Anugerah Skrin 2006. He then quit his copywriting job at an advertising agency to focus on shooting full time with his production company, Checkered Past.
Inspired by the collaborative writing effort on Lost & Found, he attempted to emulate it when writing the script for Relationship Status. Khairil changed his mind when he realised that he would be dealing with seven busy schedules, including his own.
Of course, the film was inspired by his own "relationship status." "I was going through a typical bout of emo issues about a girl," he says. "It occurred to me that ever since I joined Facebook practically every relationship I've had somehow's been connected with the damn site."
Though yes, Khairil expects the subject matter will mean much "emo-ness" in the script but he hopes audiences will appreciate the mixture of humour and drama he's added to temper it.
Relationship Status proved trickier than his last film-making endeavours. "Usually when I write a script, I have the rough idea of the whole story in my head and rarely make notes. For this one I had to plan it all out because there were so many stories to keep track of."
A big fan of structure, he planned the beats for each of the stories on a mind-mapping app on his iPad. Then he kept moving said stories around to see which beats would fit where. "It was quite a headache!" After all his finger-waving was done, he wrote the first draft in a single sitting lasting about 12 or 13 hours.
Talking about the process, Khairil said that story for him is king. "I rely heavily on the story because whenever I'm doing stuff like this it's with practically no budget. So I can't rely on beautiful cinematography or effects or sets."
His past films, he said, tended to be dialogue-driven. They were also shot on a handheld camera because Khairil liked working fast and thought it kept everyone on their toes and importantly – it didn't get boring. "I rely a lot on the script and hope the story will carry me through," says the film-maker.
Being both writer and film editor helped smooth along the process. He knew what cuts to make, what shots he would need so he would only shoot what was needed. Khairil hates wasting time on a set. "Time is money and energy: two things that I can't afford to waste."
He names P. Ramlee, Martin Scorcese and Robert Rodriguez among his film influences. But on this particular film, he drew on inspiration from Kevin Smith. A fan of Smith's films and writing, Khairil was also inspired by how the former released his film Red State independently as opposed to selling it to a major distributor. He decided to emulate Smith and release Relationship Status himself.
"This was the first time I didn't think of the film-making process only up to the point that the film was completed. From day one, we were all looking beyond the film – how are we going to get it distributed? How are we going to market it?" said Khairil.
On the local film industry, while he acknowledges it is steadily growing, Khairil feels mainstream movies put spectacle above story. He says the same thing applies to Hollywood, but the difference is that the industry players there have their base fundamentals down where even the lamest of films are at least watchable. The same can't be said about Malaysian films.
"As for smaller film-makers such as myself, I think the main thing we all need to do is to start looking at the business side more -- how do we get this film out there? Who is our audience?" Khairil says questions like these need to be asked before a film-maker lays a single scene down.
His hopes for Relationship Status? "I hope that (audiences) enjoy the flick and relate to it. And I hope they don't end up killing me for bringing up any bad memories of relationships that got messed up because of Facebook! In all seriousness, though, I just hope they like it."
In future, Khairil hopes to use his experience working on the film to help promote more indie flicks. Rollin Sixers will also be releasing a few more singles and Khairil also has plans for his collaborations with the site We are Malaysian Made.com or WAMM.
Khairil is optimistic about the new year: "I like to think of 2011 as beta testing for what will hopefully be an awesome 2012."
Follow Khairil's further film-making adventures at www.khairilmbahar.com
