Breast Cancer Foundation (BCF) is a social service agency and registered charity in Singapore, which advocates for breast cancer education and support for the breast cancer community in Singapore. This includes early detection awareness campaigns, support groups, befriending activities and subsidy assistance to support low-income women.

With this film, Ahead of Time, BCF's ask was for a creative but emotional and evocative film to that would compel Singaporean women over 40 to go for regular mammogram screenings.

'Ahead of Time’ follows the story of a mum relentlessly pushing her pre-pubescent son to learn everything, from household chores to driving. As the film unfolds, it's revealed that she is not preparing him prematurely for the future, but specifically for a near future without her as she's dying of cancer. At the end of the film, she's hopeful that she's taught him everything he needs to be an independent and strong young man.

Rather than the typical cinematic/orchestral underscore, we wanted to contrast the mom's cold instructions and discipline with a warm song, from her perspective, as if it were a letter of last words to her son.

Our strategy was to follow the storyboard and later animatic and imagine what the inner thoughts might be running through the mind of the mom in those moments. For example, at the scene when the son runs his burn under cold water, we wanted the lyrics to mirror with a line like 'you're hurting', referring to both the physical and emotional distress.

But we didn't want a literal play-by-play of the narrative, either. To heighten the emotional response, we would create a paradox between musical mood and the visual where we could. We synced the pivotal moment, when the a tired mom is revealed to be bald for the first time, with the uplifting build to a hopeful chorus. Similarly, at the end of the film, as she watches her son, we contrast her warm smiles with a solemn, melancholic and haunting end: 'You won't be lost

We crafted this bespoke composition over one month. We first deliberated style references for our composition, before settling on a contemporary acoustic ballad. We chose piano as the foundation of the track to deliver a solemn gravitas that would contrast with our bright and emotional female vocals.

We referenced the storyboard and animatic to mark which instruments and lyrics would enter where, so that we could follow the narrative closely during our composition process. We then collaborated with our female composer on the piano underscore while we wrote the lyrics and recorded our vocalist who added a mature and soulful sound to our delicate piano and cello.

After creating visceral sound design to match, we made the final mix. Our final film opens with environmental sound only, then dialogue, before the solemn piano eases its way in. The song unfolds as a saudade sojourn through bittersweet motherhood.

The campaign garnered at least 15,000+ views across social media, primarily on Facebook which suited the target demographic of older women. Comments were disabled across some of the platforms but gathered positive reactions through the like/love buttons.