Photo taken by Nur Elmyra Farhana
Inside the mind of this 21-year-old, lies a surge of never-ending passion and a thirst for success. His aura never lets down. Elmyzan Farhan is a final year broadcasting student and theatre actor with big dreams of becoming a filmmaker across the spectrum of various genres.
It was a rainy, Wednesday afternoon when I spoke with Elmyzan. He sat next to his desk in his room, contemplating the answer to his next question. "Was film always the course I wanted to study?". He took a brief moment to answer. "No. Initially, I had many options. I wanted to study several things, but I couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted to study,". A shocking answer for someone who appears so passionate and determined on his chosen path.
"But the one thing I knew was, I wanted to do something around film. I was thinking about majoring in literature, I wanted to become a writer, but I also wanted to be an artist, a fine art artist.", he added.
When answering questions, he spoke with such eloquence. As though, he'd always known what to say to every question you had for him. But still, the tone in his voice was enveloped with wonders of empathy and compassion he holds. In the end, Elmyzan made a choice for his studies and went to major in communications. He believes this will ensure him a stable life for his future. As well as acknowledging the fact that communication will always be an essential factor in our daily life and its service will never fade away.
When noting his love for theatre, he harkens back to the days when he first started in the field. In 2014, it was his second last year from high school, and it was the same year he auditioned for a school play. "It was my final year before I had to focus on my IGCSE, so I decided to make the jump, shoot my part and just go for it," he said. He had never intended on being cast as one of the leading roles on his first try. But in the end, he claimed the part of Oliver Warbucks in the musical, 'Annie'.
Along with his charismatic personality and friendliness, luck always seems to be on his side. His experience in film seeps into what helps him create his personal films. He states that his mindset and work ethic has its roots in theatre. "When you're on set, you have to stage everything the same way you stage theatre. Everything has to move, nothing can stand in one place and look dumb. Every character makes the scene more dynamic," he says.
Elmyzan learned the crafts of directing from his theatre director, Scott Mcquaid. He takes a lot of his personal learning experiences from other people, even sourcing knowledge from YouTube. "Learning to direct made me learn to take charge," he stated. When he expressed these words, he sounded more down-to-earth than ever before, he humbles himself by learning from other directors and even self-learns from other sources.
His ambition and curiosity trickled into the way he carries himself as a person. So how does he keep this never-ending passion alive? Has he ever faltered? Well, yes. He states that there were many instances where he wanted to give up. But he harvests his energy from watching films he finds inspirations in. "It doesn't matter if it's stupid, because the more I watch those sorts of movies, the more I realise this could've been done, that could've been done and so on," he says.
He recounts the time he almost gave up on his ambition for the film. "I had to help out in my school's short film competition. I didn't know anything about how to make a film or anything like that. But after that, I learned a lot of lessons. It proved I couldn't do anything, but because of that, it made me realise what it actually takes.' When asked what his favourite work that he's done is, he talks of a short film called 'The Envelope'. He admits it isn't a good film, but he learned a lot of skills from making it.
Although there is so much more to his complex and fun-filled experiences, his human and humbling sense of self is what should inspire the youth to keep on chasing their dreams. Elmyzan is a person we should all look up to. Ambitious, vulnerable and compassionate.
By Nur Elmyra