Written by Annabella Ng, Photo by Alex Khaw

The Mid-Autumn Festival is an important festival in Chinese culture, probably right behind the Chinese New Year. An indispensible part of the Mid-Autumn Festival is the mooncake. It symbolises family reunion and happiness, and that is why the Empire Mooncake project is so meaningful to us. If you’re wondering why Empire sounds familiar, you’re right! They’re the same creators behind the legendary Empire bak kwa, the by invitation only bak kwa on the market.

Seeing its significance, we knew it had to be carried out with scrupulous attention to details. When I say scrupulous, I mean two-hours-to-set-up-lighting- type-scrupulous. We also spent day and a half shopping for the right tableware and accessories, and not forgetting travelling to the other end of the island to buy it.

The focus of the video is on the exceptional ingredients used for the mooncake –that’s what makes Empire Mooncake stand out from the rest on the market.

Empire spared no expense when producing these mooncakes; they used imperial grade lotus seeds native to Xiangtan, Hunan province, wild snow chrysanthemum from the Kunlun Mountains, and Chuao Criollo cacao.

The slow growth of the wild snow chrysanthemum on the snow-capped Kunlun Mountains has cultivated a pure and intense flavor because of these tenacious flowers. Any chocolate connoisseur would know how rare and delicate Chuao Criollo cacao beans are. This finest single-origin chocolate is extremely difficult to cultivate due to its fragile nature.

We wanted to do right by the ingredients; to highlight how rare and luxurious it is, we made a creative decision to film it in slow motion, and the results are stunning. Besides the decision to film it in slow motion, we used only prime lenses during filming because we couldn’t compromise on video quality. With prime lenses, we are guaranteed the sharpest images.

The client and us shared the same vision for the video, that it should be produced with cultural authenticity. It was a unanimous decision that the script of the video is written and narrated in Chinese.

The final product is a beautiful piece crafted by the entire team at RMP Films and Empire Mooncake.

Director
Alex Khaw

Producer
Mandie Ong

Assistant Producer
Annabella Ng

Executive Producer
EMPIRE

Grip & Lighting
Boon Wah

Chinese Scriptwriter
Liu He

English Scriptwriter
Annabella Ng

Voice Over Talent
Zhang Ping

Voice Over Recordist
GRYD Studio

Editor
Alex Khaw

Colourist
Mandie Ong