By Tara Teo (26A01D) and Joshua Gerrard Tan (27A01A)

In RI, legacy is a precise endeavour. Clinch a goal, have your school engraved on a glittering gold cup. Get exceptional grades, have your name carved on a historic wooden plaque. But what exactly is the playbook for an endeavour as intangible as the arts?

The question is one that every member of Raffles Crew has contended with for the past two years.  As the first official batch of Crew, established in 2025 after the merging of AVU (Audio Visual Unit) and Raffles Film, the members are positioned on the precipice of a new era. It is their choices—the values they uphold, the commitments they prioritise, the culture they nurture—that sets a precedent for future batches to come. 

It is no wonder, then, that this year’s film showcase theme, Primaveral, explores that key tension. In the season of early spring, looking back at winter serves as a bittersweet reminder that every season is transient, while looking forward to spring ignites a hope for the endless opportunities of growth. Follow along as we dive deep into the two thesis films created by the Y6 batch, figuring out along the way what kind of story they are seeking to tell. 

2026 Thesis Film 1: Daulat Puteriku (All Hail My Princess)

The release poster for Daulat Puteriku 

No other film embodies the essence of spring better than Daulat Puteriku (All Hail My Princess), a light-hearted romcom following the enchanting love story between a modest rattan weaver, Liyana (played by Myesha Amberly from 26S03A), and Ilyas (played by Akif Rizuan from 26A01E), a charming and mysterious stranger.

From the start, the audience is immediately captivated by the dizzying romance between the two, laughing along to the jokes and physical comedy as Ilyas courts Liyana. Much of the banter between the shy Liyana and the cheeky, lovestruck Ilyas was fueled by the natural humour and easy chemistry between the actors. 

Throughout filming, unexpected improvisation added gems to the film, such as the ‘rock‘ scene where actor Akif cheekily made a pun by interchanging ‘batu‘ (meaning ‘stone‘) and ‘betul‘ (meaning ‘right‘). Chairperson Averidhibra Nurkusuma Nagari (26SO5P), who was one of the directors of the film, remarked: “It was very natural… that really added a lot to the film“. The directors didn’t just draw on the classic cinderella trope for the love story; they made it uniquely their own, allowing it to resonate so much deeper in the hearts of many a hopeless romantic watching.

Childhood staples like P. Ramlee’s films, according to Director Nurul Alya Syakinah Binte Abdul Jamal (26S03A), were truly what set the foundation for the cinematography and sparked the inspiration behind the stylistic and plot choices. By utilising visual vocabulary of these 1960s classics, through monochromatic colour-grading and vintage fonts, viewers were immersed in a “precious art form that is slowly being eroded with time”. 

Nevertheless, film is an uncertain game. Even more so for the newly combined Raffles Crew, who found themselves juggling late-night AV duty and early-morning film shoots. In fact, this year’s showcase was almost cancelled due to the overwhelming commitments and an ever-narrowing time crunch during the Arts season. 

As the teams pressed on, a new host of challenges sprang up. In pursuit of their envisioned Kampung setting, the team had to contend with physical constraints and unexpected weather changes. Through laughs, the filmmakers recounted a time when they had booked a Grab all the way to Coney Island for filming, only for it to start pouring the moment they set up their equipment. Scrambling to save the cameras and sound equipment from the rain, they frantically booked a Grab back to school, watching in vain as the rain stopped just as they reached school.

Yet, the team held on to their vision for the film with unwavering determination. They found many ingenious, practical workarounds like using the school’s eco-garden as a kampung backdrop and transforming the small MLEP stage into a grand palace for the final act. The mind-numbing hours in which Ayla spent switching painstakingly between Google Translate, a Malay dictionary, and her own script. The witty banter and comedic relief were not magical moments of chemistry, but instead evidence of all the effort various members put in behind the scenes. 

In many ways, this film is historic. It marks the first time Raffles Film or Crew has created a Malay language film. Instead of being set in a Westernised world, Daulat Puteriku was intentionally framed within the historical context of a Malay Sultanate, featuring traditional Malay garb and was entirely scripted, as well as acted out in Bahasa Melayu. As one of the few Malay members to have joined the CCA, Averi and Ayla set out to carve their own legacy. 

“We wanted to leave our mark and leave behind a legacy that was truly our own, truly Malay.” 

And carve it they did. With every wave of hearty laughter that filled the PAC, the worries and struggles of the filmmakers faded, and they were able to simply soak in what they had achieved. One of the viewers, a longtime P Ramlee enthusiast, even remarked that the showcase reminded him that he “needed to rewatch those films”. Reflecting on the impact that Daulat Puteriku had, Averi spoke with fulfilment and pride: “It was really heartening to see how our hard work was recognised, and we managed to create a decent tribute towards Malay films“. 

No one but the filmmakers will know exactly how much grit, ingenuity and heart they have put into the films. But isn’t that the whole point? Every film is simply an attempt to tell our own story, no matter how. 

“Film is just an amazing way to spread love and receive love” – Alya

2026 Thesis Film 2: The Countdown 

A-levels are finally over. For Alyssa, the time has come to take a well-earned break and do away with her endless list of academic tasks. But after seeing her older brother burn out from the stress of university, she begins to worry: What if I will never have time again to do the things I’ve always wanted to do?

The release poster for The Countdown

Directed by Tng Shih An (26S06H), The Countdown follows Alyssa (Played by Trina Tan from 26S03N), a chronic hustler, as she tries to accomplish all the things she wanted to do in the break between A-levels and university. Initially, Alyssa begins to fulfil her inner child’s wishes: learning how to paint, reading more books, playing Minecraft, doing arts and crafts, and fun montage play as she checks more and more items off her “Pre-university to-do list”. 

But as the holidays draw to a close and Alyssa begins to run out of time, she starts to stress out over the amount of tasks she has left on her list, culminating in her breaking down. Only after being comforted by her brother does she finally cross out “Pre-university” from the top of her to-do list, at last breaking free of the stress of the hustler mindset.

Picture a montage of Alyssa watching movies: earnestly staring at the screen, cowering under the covers, sprawled over her cushions or jumping up in shock, all while multicoloured lighting blankets her room in orange, blue or red. Shih An highlighted how much the crew members learned from each other while making the film; according to her, despite having camera training, everyone involved needed to learn how to use lighting equipment on the job. Evidently, they managed to work together and pull through, resulting in one of the most aesthetically pleasing sequences in the whole film. 

The careful planning put into The Countdown is more than evident throughout the film, even in shots that, upon first glance, don’t seem to have been too technically challenging. Toward the end of the film, a stressed-out Alyssa is trying desperately to learn how to skateboard when she suddenly falls! The camera then pans and closely follows the skateboard until it reaches her brother’s foot, before panning upward toward his concerned expression. While it might seem like a normal movement to film, Shih An shared how much work went into just that short sequence: “It was hard to get the entire thing to be in focus […] also like the camera movement had to be practised a few times to make sure it was pretty nice.” Clearly, even the simplest of shots required a lot of technical planning on the part of the filmmakers, a testament to their dedication to storytelling. 

The team of The Countdown filming the skateboard scene

In another montage, Alyssa and her friend play Minecraft and beat the Ender Dragon, complete with screen recordings of actual gameplay overlaid with the actors’ voiceovers and live-action reactions. According to Shih An, the editing and setup for that part was one of the hardest for the whole film, despite it only being a short segment. In the end, however, their hard work clearly paid off, with the audience immediately laughing upon seeing Minecraft gameplay hit the big screen. 

When asked about the ideation process behind the film, Shih An shares that it began purely as an idea for a “to-do” list; only after discussion did it turn into something many RI students can relate to–the urge to protect your inner child at all costs. In Shih An’s words:

“Sometimes I just wanna put away all my homework and other worries […] and do things that I find fun about having to think about anything else.”

In a way, the film acts as a coming-of-age story, one very specific to RI students. To be suddenly thrust into the adult world after JC ends is a prospect filled with uncertainty for most of us, and The Countdown perfectly encapsulates that fear: that we will no longer be teenagers anymore, that we will no longer have the time to do the things our inner child loves. 

The transformation of such a simple idea towards a polished final product also signals how much the cast and crew learned from one another. Picture a montage of Alyssa watching movies: earnestly staring at the screen, cowering under the covers, sprawled over her cushions or jumping up in shock, all while multicoloured lighting blankets her room in orange, blue or red. According to Shih An, despite having camera training, everyone involved needed to learn how to use lighting equipment on the job. Evidently, they managed to work together and pull through, resulting in one of the most aesthetically pleasing sequences in the whole film. 

She mentions one more moment that stood out during filming: when her art director suggested adding a simple potted plant in the shot, something that immediately helped to brighten up the shot and “fills up the negative space”. As she sums it up:

“Other people can fill in for my shortcomings, and likewise, I can also do the same for them.”

Some of the production crew behind The Countdown

Just the Beginning for Raffles Crew

For the past year, Raffles Crew’s journey has been a tumultuous one. The result of a merger between Raffles Film Society and Raffles AVU, Crew’s members essentially have to pivot and balance between 2 extremely technically-demanding skillsets for managing AV and for filming; as Averi shared, “it was actually quite tough to balance out the 2 aspects in terms of like time and also like, just like our skills on it because both are very skill-based.”

In spite of these early difficulties, however, the graduating batch of Raffles Crew holds out hope for the CCA’s future, and has readily entrusted these hopes to the current Y5 batch. As Alya states, despite AVU and Film being 2 completely different endeavours, she still hopes that “the batch after us and the batch following us, they’ll be able to bridge the gap between these 2 sides of the CCA to make it really a cohesive crew.” 

Raffles Crew Batch of 2027!

It is these mutual connections, after all, that make any community a meaningful one. Putting aside the technical skills learned and creative endeavours, the core of Crew is its people. As Shih An shared, “despite being a small batch, but among the friends I found in Crew, I feel like they are all really true and […] friendly”. 

And it is these bonds that will be able to push Crew forward into the future: the shared desire to push forward with their craft and learning, to brave wind and rain for the perfect shot, to sacrifice sleep and study time for training and filming, the batch’s push for putting up a showcase despite it almost being cancelled.

Raffles Crew Batch of 26’ and 27’

It is their common love for the CCA that drives them, and is what will continue to drive the next batch of Raffles Crew, for their story has only just begun.