For assignment two, I’ll be continuing my > 22 series but I’ll be focusing on one of the occupation that has been here for more than 22 years. I managed to find this gem tucked at a corner of People’s Park Centre, known as the Knife Sharpening Lady. Her shop is called Pow Li (trying to advertise here) and she’s a petite 70 years old lady, and has been sharpening knives since 1970! How awesome is that? And I am so so soooo lucky that she’s such a sweet lady that is so cooperative and enthusiastic when I wanted to film her!
But of course… before I went down to ask for permission to interview and film her, as I’ve shot a picture of her for my > 22 series (I actually forgot to include it in my publication -_-), I developed a photo for her and she loved it! Sigh I love old people (ok not in a creepy way), but she’s really friendly and nice :))
So, 2 weeks ago, I went down on a Saturday to film her. Of course with my Dad, my partner-in-crime who is so so so great of a person to drive me down to Chinatown while helping me to carry all the heavy equipments for the shoot.
The stone equipment she uses to sharpen the knives.
Some buffering machines for polishing and sharpening.
The place was reaaaaaaally warm it was insane. I was perspiring so profusely but oh my the lady didn’t even break a sweat! She also didn’t have a fan installed and she wasn’t wearing a mask while she sharpens the knives and it’s really dangerous because of the metal dust. So my Dad was saying that we should get her a mini fan after this film is done because the place is really stuff and all. And fun fact: her favourite colour is orange, I asked her about it because I realised she’s always wearing orange the few times I visited her before hahaha.
So here are the videos that I took! As usual, being the kiasu me, I took quite alot. And she was really experienced ok! She totally knows how to answer my questions and also gave me some tips on which angle to film her and all. I love her she’s such a sweet lady.
But first thing first, here are the interview questions for her.
- When was this shop established?
- How did this shop started & why was it called Pow Li
- Hong long have you been working here?
- How old are you?
- When did you start learning this profession?
- Describe a day working in the shop
- How’s the business compared to the past?
- How much do you charge per service? (well she charges $8 per knife/scissors)
- Who are your customers?
- What’s the secret for maintaining this business for so long
- Do you like what you’re doing?
- Is there anyone who is interested in learning the trade from you?
But yes. Here are some information that I got after spending a morning with her. She’s Lee Hwee Chin, and she’s 70 years old. This shop was her father’s and she started working there since the 1970s. Her customers are mostly families, market vendors (butcher etc), tailors and there isn’t much of the chefs now as they prefer to sharpen their own knives plus their knives are really expensive $$$.
She charges $4 for her service in the past but now it’s $8. And of course… she not only does small knives and scissors, she even does the sharpening for gardening tools! Like the hugeeeee cutter. But that is more expensive and she mentioned she hates sharpening that hahaha.
Mdm Lee mentioned that there isn’t anyone who is interested in learning the trade from her, nor there is anyone she can pass her shop to. Though she has a daughter, her child isn’t interested in her trade and I don’t think Mdm Lee also wants her daughter to take over her shop as it takes alot of hard work and sweat to maintain this.
After reviewing the videos back home, as there’s a air ventilator near her shop, it was captured in the video as well. I was super stressed over it as I couldn’t take a humming throughout the background so I went to research on various methods on how to reduce the white noise… and managed to find a solution! I’ll post the before and after below.
And also, I’ve finally downloaded Premiere Pro! I feel so legit now because I don’t have to use iMovie to edit videos anymore HAHA. It’s my first time using it so I’m still getting used to it. But the awesome thing is I can finally colour correct my vids omg, something that iMovie has limitations to.
Robert saw the videos on last Thursday’s consultation and he suggested that I should take longer shots of her working so that I can just overlay the audio and there really isn’t a need to show her talking to the camera for the interview. So I took his suggestion and went back there again on the next Saturday, so stay tune for Filming Day 2!
