I am grateful for my role as the composer of Asian Persuasion because it allows me the opportunity to show the industry what I can do. With the funds from this grant, I would be enabled to produce a score of a much higher caliber and quality than I would otherwise be able to. It will also enable me to allocate more of the music budget towards hiring other music team members from diverse backgrounds. ie. score mixer, copyists, and orchestrators. Most importantly, this fund allow me to hire live musicians including live string orchestra, which gives more dimension and depth. On top of that, with the help of Reel Change grant, I am also planning to release the soundtrack album of our film to streaming services. I see this film as the jump start I need in my career at this stage and I intend on taking full advantage of it by giving my score the highest level of production possible. 

I envision a sweet, warm tone for this movie. Although I have not begun the actual scoring process yet, I have already started conceptualizing the sound world of the score through sketches of important ideas and themes, and have composed suites based on them. The bulk of the score will be driven by orchestral and rhythm section elements, with a little bit of jazz in certain scenes. I spent a lot of time coming up with the right love theme, as I believe that it is crucial that it evokes the right kind of love and emotion. In this film, I want the music to convey not just romantic, passionate love, but also familial and platonic love. This directly affects the orchestration and texture of the theme, and the shape and compositional approach of key melodies.

Romantic-comedy is one of my favourite film genres. Not only it is fun to watch, but its background music usually evokes joy and humour. I try to create this feeling by making the music sound very uplifting and light. In writing the music for Asian Persuasion, I am strongly inspired by watching many other rom-coms, such as “The Holiday”, “Crazy, Stupid, Love” and “Marry Me.” It is very interesting to analyse and learn how different composers approach depicting humour through their score. On top of that, I am also familiarising myself with music from the Phillippines, such as “Kundiman”, since this film focuses on a Filipino-American family. In general, my music is inspired by different things like novels, nature, and music by other composers including Kapustin, Prokofiev, Bartok, and John Williams. My music often embodies a synthesis of various styles such as classical and jazz, infused with elements of Indonesian heritage and culture.

Eunike Tanzil is a film and concert music composer from Indonesia. Graduated with Summa Cum Laude from Berklee College of Music, Eunike has scored multiple Chinese animations and films. She recently scored Be Somebody (2021), a Chinese feature film. In 2021, Eunike also had the opportunity to work for film composer Jeff Danna, where she assisted him as the score coordinator for The Addams Family 2. In 2022, Eunike will be composing for Asian Persuasion, a feature film directed by Grammy and Tony-winning director Jhett Tolentino. She is also currently a fellow SCL mentee and has received mentorship of multiple award-winning composers such as John Corigliano at the Julliard School, John Debney through the AWFC (Alliance for Women Film Composers) mentorship program, and Pinar Toprak, through the Reel-Change grant.