From script to screen—Priscilla Goh’s story

Browsing through some of Priscilla Goh’s earliest films on Viddsee, one might be forgiven for thinking she has a fascination with the “crappy” things in life. From bird droppings to toilet paper, her works bring a fresh perspective to the mundane, with good humour thrown into the mix.

Her short film Ah Gong’s Toilet Paper, which tells the story of an elderly man trying desperately to find his favourite brand of loo roll, won ‘Best Screenplay’ in the Open Category of ciNE65 2017, a competition for aspiring filmmakers to tell their Singapore story and what Singapore means to them. This was an impressive result, considering it was the first time she had ever written a fictional script. 

Seeking to improve her scriptwriting skills further, Priscilla enrolled herself into the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s (IMDA) WritersLab programme in 2018. The intensive scriptwriting programme aims to push the boundaries of scriptwriting and storytelling for television and online platforms by nurturing and developing the skills of committed Singaporean writers. Even with her prior writing experience and the ciNE65 award under her belt, Priscilla found that the programme widened her perspective on what made a good script. 

Not according to script

An avid reader and writer since young, Priscilla describes her foray into scriptwriting and directing as “a kind of serendipitous comedy of errors.” In her teens, she was the President of the school’s literary wing, but somehow did badly for English literature at the GCE ‘A’ level examinations. Thinking that she may not be cut out for the literary scene, she eventually went on to study Foreign Affairs and Studio Art in university.

“During my final year in university, I failed many job interviews. My Studio Art Professor felt sorry for me, so he introduced me to a short-term job that just required knowledge of English, Mandarin and basic proficiency with the video editing software Final Cut Pro 7,” she says.

As it turned out, the job entailed editing footage for the first season of Masterchef: China and season three of The Amazing Race: China Rush. These projects, which she completed in China, served as a springboard for her into the media industry when she returned to Singapore as an editor. She eventually had the opportunity to write and conceptualise shows, something that she took well to. 

Inspired by life

Sharing about the script for Newton’s Laws of Life which she wrote under IMDA’s WritersLab programme, Priscilla called her work “a coming-of-age dramedy”.

“The story is about a young punk who, by some stroke of luck, gets into a parody of Singapore’s Gifted Education Programme alongside a classmate with undiagnosed Asperger’s syndrome that he used to bully. The punk now gets bullied by another student, who does it as her way of coping with the stress of being hot-housed by her parents,” she says, noting that parts of the story were inspired by real life. 

“When I was pregnant, my mother-in-law warned me that I had to look out for signs of autism as my baby grew up so that we could get early intervention if needed,” she explains. Sharing the comment with her husband, she learnt that her husband’s teacher had once commented to his mum: “I think your boy’s head something wrong”, alluding to learning difficulties.

“My husband is now an astrophysics lecturer,” Priscilla says, adding that she hopes to produce Newton’s Laws of Life one day as a conversation starter about special needs education.

Room for growth

The most important lesson that Priscilla learnt through WritersLab was to write about things from a deeply personal perspective. “Everyone has their own unique experiences and ‘insider knowledge’ to share, and this helps to really give stories their own character,” she says.