(L-R): Actors
Wang Weiliang,
Joshua Tan, Ridhwan Azman,
Tosh Zhang and director
Jack Neo |alt=Refer to caption
Development Ah Boys to Men is Jack Neo's first military-themed film, as well as his "most ambitious project so far" according to himself. The production received the full support from MINDEF to shoot the film; they were provided access to vehicles, equipment and weapons as well as on-site consultants. Neo did not accept financial funding from MINDEF as he wanted to retain full control of the creative process. The film was funded under the
Media Development Authority’s Production Assistance grant, and by investors and sponsors, some of which included
Toast Box,
Bee Cheng Hiang and
KPMG. Research for the film alone took around two and a half months. Neo said the decision to break the film into two parts was made after the distributors told him to keep the films 100 minutes in length, as any longer and it would have been more expensive and difficult to schedule.
Casting The crew employed a
talent scout to find potential cast; Neo initially wanted to include regulars like
Shawn Lee and
Joshua Ang, but ultimately decided not to, so as to give the audience a completely new feel. Approximately 500 auditioned for the lead roles. For this project, Neo wanted to work with
bloggers and
getai singers to create a new platform for acting. Many prominent businessmen in Singapore, such as
Kenny Yap, executive chairman of
Qian Hu Corporation, were also invited to make
cameo appearances. The film marked the film debut for most of the lead cast, and it also resulted in a spike in their popularity, to the extent that "[...] getting mobbed by passionate fans has become part of their everyday life."
Crew Ah Boys to Men was directed by
Jack Neo and the script was written by Neo and Link Sng. Neo, Lim Teck, and Leonard Lai served as producers, while Neo's wife Irene Kng, along with Mang, Teck, Tengku Iesta, Tengku Alaudin, Kenny Chua, William Sin, Dominic Inn, Tan Tong Hai, Eric Liang and Sky Li Yunfei, served as
executive producers.
Filming was one of the film's
practical locations. An estimated S$100,000 was spent filming there. which was, to one of the stars,
Tosh Zhang, "as tough as what we really went through during national service." Filming took place mostly in
Pulau Tekong (which is used exclusively as a training base for various
Singapore Army units and home to the
Basic Military Training Centre), making
Ah Boys to Men the first film to have filmed there. The "unpredictable" weather was a problem the crew encountered while filming at Tekong; 35 days were spent filming there. Other filming locations included
Robinson Road, which was used for a major war scene and specially sealed off to the public for a day on August 19, 2012 Neo was warned beforehand that destruction of the road incur fines. A certain fight scene set in a restaurant, which involved ten actors, took a night to finish filming. Scenes set in the 1970s were, according to Neo, the hardest to film as the details were hard to perfect. Additionally, Neo had to specially get 1970s-era local army helmets due to MINDEF not having any in stock.
Effects For the opening scenes, in which many landmarks in Singapore were destroyed,
computer-generated imagery (CGI) was used to create the explosions. Neo's insistence to use real weapons and
pyrotechnics for the shooting of the CGI-war sequences, despite the high cost, was due to him wanting to provide a "new feel" for the audience. The film features
Dolby Atmos surround sound, the first South-East Asian film to do so. The visual effects were done by Vividthree Productions Pte Ltd and spearheaded by VFX Director Jay Hong. it was first uploaded on
YouTube, accompanied with an official
music video, prior to the release of the film. The official music video was uploaded on YouTube on October 20, 2012. Reception to "Recruits' Anthem" was overwhelmingly positive and within a month of its uploading, it grossed 610,000 hits. As of March 2014, "Recruit's Anthem" has grossed over 2,000,000 hits. ==Release==