BRENDA BILLY ONG
1st Assistant Director
Brenda is a Singapore-based 1st Assistant Director, working across film, television and commercials. She started out out as a producer and eventually finding a home on set as an AD. The job is mostly people, timing, problem-solving and a fair amount of improvisation. Herding cats is not a far off.
Singapore has been a good place to learn the trade – multi-racial crew, various working styles, different languages and cultures, and usually a few ways of getting the same thing done. The work is what keeps it interesting: good people, complicated days, strange rigs, last-minute fixes and the occasional miracle before lunch.
Away from set, the rest of the time is spent observing things and things being made by hand. People watching, taking photographs, cooking, sewing, working with materials. Loads of it eventually finds its way back into the work – a welcome change to spending most days on radios, schedules and screens.
Based in Singapore. Happy to work anywhere.
