After her parents pass away in a car accident, young university graduate Alex is forced to take over the family’s matchmaking business Love Shop. Alex has always had somewhat of a vendetta against Love Shop: its nature of commodifying love stands against everything she believes in.
Through a circus of colourful characters and strange circumstances, 2020 Official Selection Love Shop (SGP) follows Alex in pursuit of companionship and better lives.
Melbourne WebFest spoke to Writer and Director Mervyn Yap to find out all the ins and outs of the web series.
What inspired your series?
Mostly it was us being surprised that these services and businesses still existed in Singapore thus becoming the basis for our series.
Your series features multiple key locations, including the Love Shop itself! What was the process behind picking each location in key scenes?
When we were scouting for locations for Love Shop itself. We really wanted something jank looking, but still felt like a cubicle… big cubicle that’s believable within the Singapore setting, Love Shop’s office was the set that had the most set dressing involved. The rest of the locations within the series were based off availability and budgets to find the most suitable ones without the need for major set dressing.
What is the most interesting element of your series for the audience?
Seeing different people and characters in all shapes and forms come together, out of their way, to find love in a weird place.
What was your greatest challenge creating the series?
I think the main challenge for us are simply that there were too many early mornings…
Love Shop Trailer
Why choose the web format for your series?
Viddsee, the producer and commissioner of the series is an online video entertainment platform that streams short form content.
The main character of your series, Alex, goes through a mindfulness journey after the death of her parents. What was the process like in developing her character?
I think for Alex, it is a mixture of grief and a practical need to get things done, then seeing and exploring how the character reacts to things and situations thrown at her.
The matchmaking agency plays an important aspect of your series. In today’s current climate, how important is the theme of love and companionship?
For me, the themes of love and companionship in today’s context is probably less important romantically but increasingly paramount in a general way which can be something as basic as the need to just stay connected with fellow human beings.
Your series is filmed in Singapore, however the main spoken language within the series is English. What was process behind this decision?
Singapore is a multi-lingual society but most of its citizens speak and understand English as it is the official medium of instruction.
Your series is available to streamed on ViddSee. For emerging creators, what was the process like of finding a distributor and or platform for your story?
Viddsee is a streaming platform that focuses on short-form content, we submitted a proposal deck to them for Love Shop during one of their Viddsee Originals call-for-proposals and was lucky to have been selected to be commissioned for the Viddsee Originals programme. So in a way, we were fortunate that Love Shop had the financial support and a distributor right from the beginning.
What advice would you give emerging creators?
Best advice I can give is to – Slow down… then speed up…
FOLLOW LOVE SHOP
WEBSITE