Paween Purijitpanya. The director of Body#19 adds yet another horror flick to his oeuvre with See Praeng, a combination of hair-raising shorts by the genre’s leading directors.

I’ve always wanted to be a director. Call me crazy, but when I was seven, I started making a UFO from my mom’s clock and a flashlight, then took a photo of it.

The hardest thing to pull off when making a horror movie is to figure out how to make those who, like me, are not frightened by neither ghosts nor darkness fly off their seats.

I started off by directing TV ads and music videos. This experience gave me the opportunity to learn fi lming techniques that proved to be very useful once I started directing movies.

I tend to rely on visuals more than other feature directors. While working, I’m constantly constructing images in my head of how I am going to dazzle viewers with not only the story, but the images as well.

A feature film is much more difficult to make than a short. You need to have a solid plot and work hard on all the little details.

Features are more fun to make, as I am not restricted by time to tell my story.

Some say Body is too cutting-edge for the average viewer. But I say it’s great to take risks and experiment.

I’d rather do something off the beaten path than follow in other people’s footsteps.

Comics and video games are my main sources of inspiration, which is why my work is usually full of fantasy.

I am not an “inter” director as advertized by my production house. I’m not Tata Young! [laughs]. But it does feel good to know that my movie is known outside of Thailand.

As a director, I feel responsible for the company. After all, I use their money to create
my dreams and visions.

I don’t respect directors who make movies simply to indulge their egos using the studio’s money. That’s selfi sh. It’s your job to find a middle ground between your artistic vision and the company’s marketing standpoint.

To truly experience the essence of a movie you have to watch it on the big screen in a theater. It’s just too easy to simply download a movie that took years to make from the internet in a few hours.

Most film critics are no different from bloggers who write about movies they’ve watched. They just present their thoughts through different media outlets.

You can’t judge a movie by what a critic says. Critics can’t tell you whether a fi lm is good or not because there’s no magic formula to making the “perfect” movie. It’s all about taste.

Watch whatever makes you happy. At the end of the day it’s your money, your time and your decision.

I don’t try to find faults in movies. Be it action, romantic or a slapstick comedy, I just sit back and let the movie take me where it wants to go.

After shooting See Praeng, I vowed not to make another ghost movie, at least not in the near future. I need a break to find new inspiration and ideas. I have other types of stories I wish to tell.

I like excitement and adventure. I try to make my life anything but mundane.