I Not Stupid - Production

Production

Jack Neo's inspiration for the film was the Iranian movie Children of Heaven. Neo and his wife were moved to "holding hands and crying after seeing the love shared by the children", which motivated him to make his own movie about youth. After speaking with parents in order to find topics to discuss in his film, Neo learned that due to problems with the Singaporean education system, specifically streaming, students face considerable academic and emotional stress. This problem formed the core of his film, which he called I Not Stupid in reference to the social stigma that streaming places on students.

Neo also drew on a dissatisfaction he felt with the way the school system promoted deference to authority over self-reliance; he wanted his film to tell youth "If you don't want to change or make a difference, you won't. It's all up to you." In exploring these ideas, Neo spent over two years researching and editing the script — checking scenes for accuracy, verifying facts, and drafting dialogue. Altogether, the work went through thirteen different revisions, and saw over 50 children audition for the lead roles, before Neo decided to send I Not Stupid into production.

This production was carried out by Raintree Pictures on a budget of S$900,000, sponsored by Bee Cheng Hiang, Yeo Hiap Seng and Sunshine Bakeries. The production crew included Daniel Yun as executive producer, David Leong and Chan Pui Yin as producers, Ardy Lam as cinematographer and Li Yi as music supervisor. In addition to writing and directing, Neo also composed the theme song, which was sung by Chen Guorong. The actual filming took place at Braddell Westlake Secondary School and Westlake Primary School over a period of 24 days, and the film found distribution through Raintree Pictures and United International Pictures.