WEB SERIES ON GUARDS TRAINING

These guys are tough as nails. And they're just the trainees.

Meet the 122 soldiers who graduated from the Guards Conversion Course (GCC) in July. And in the words of trainee 3rd Sergeant Elamaran s/o Ambalagan: "It's tough. And only the tough ones will be able to complete it."

For example, while most men get a taste of route marches at some time in their National Service, few experience the kind these guardsmen-to-be needed to complete: a 12km fast march in full battle order within 108 minutes.

Explained GCC sergeant major 3rd Warrant Officer Johan bin Kassim: "Guardsmen are all-rounders; we are trained in coastal hook and heliborne operations... The GCC is a course to mentally and physically prepare the trainees to become guardsmen. As a guardsman, you are expected to walk faster, run faster, think faster, and even in the worst situation, you should be able to think out of the box."

Rappelling off a cliff six stories high, performing a 2km coastal swim, executing a helicopter live descent, being out in the field for three whole days with little rest - the trainees did all this and more in their journey to become part of this group.

Tagging along in this intensive three-week course was Lance Corporal (LCP) Jake Nam, a full-time national serviceman from the Defence Media Centre (DMC) of the Ministry of Defence's Public Affairs directorate.

Titled Making the Cut, the action-packed series filmed by LCP Nam will be a grittier series compared to the Basic Military Training series called Every Singaporean Son.

"The GCC really tests the trainees to their limits, and viewers will get an up-close look at the hardships the trainees go through to obtain the right to be called Guardsmen," said the 23-year-old video journalist.

"Watch all the way to the last episode and you'll realise that all the tough training was worth it and none of them had any regrets. It's a story of how strangers from different units, both the specialists and officers, come together and manage to get through seemingly impossible missions.

"Though I was only carrying a video camera and tripod, following them almost every day throughout the course was really one of the most exhausting and yet fruitful experiences of my life," he said.

On the challenges he faced filming the trainees, LCP Nam replied: "Any producer knows that no matter how much you plan, things will always change, especially when it comes to reality-type shows and documentaries... Some things just happen, like the turnouts at night when instructors wake the trainees up for physical training."

He added wryly: "Once, I had to run up five storeys to the trainees' bunks just to catch a glimpse of their last-minute turnout. Don't blame me if the footage seemed a bit shaky, I was out of breath!"

LCP Nam working with Mr Mahendran on the latest web series to hit the cyberpioneerTV channel.

LCP Nam worked on this video project together with and under the mentorship of former DMC video journalist Mano Mahendran, who had gone solo in Afghanistan in 2010 to capture the Singapore Armed Forces' (SAF's) soldiers in action in a combat zone.

"There was hundreds of hours of footage, so piecing the series together wasn't a simple task, but Mano really helped me out a lot. The way he crafts a story is something that I really respect and admire," said LCP Nam.

He added: "I came from a film commercial and advertising background, so switching to a documentary format was really a big change for me. I couldn't really plan the story beforehand, so I learnt to improvise and think quickly if the scenario changed. I used to think that I'd never do a documentary since I love to tell my own stories, but now I'm thinking of making one on my own!"

Catch the trailer of the seven-part series, Making the Cut, on the cyberpioneerTV channel on YouTube at www.youtube.com/cyberpioneertv. Look out for the first episode on 29 Dec!