Written by Who is he: Ryan Tan
Role: Founder of Overkill and Remake
Age: 34
Ryan Tan is no stranger to those who regularly binge travelogues and food reviews on YouTube. The entertaining content creator is not one to shy away from being vulnerable and honest with his many followers. Today, Ryan grants us that same privilege and answered 20 questions we fired his way from his favourite movie to the one piece of equipment he can’t film without.
1. What are your hobbies?
My hobbies are playing Dota 2, watching movies/shows/series, and editing videos. Nothing too weird or extraordinary.
2. What is your favourite movie and why?
Anything by Edgar Wright, Guy Ritchie or Wes Anderson. It used to be The Grand Budapest Hotel for many years!
3. What is your favourite local production, and why?
I like watching Sneaky Sushii’s Crimewatch Cringe series hahaha. I just think it’s good satire!
4. What are three words people would use to describe you?
Scary, unapproachable, and jaded for those that are not close to me. Friendly, generous, and loyal to those who are close to me.
5. What are three words you would use to describe yourself?
If this is based on a personal aspect, it might be jaded, lacking confidence, and guarded. During work, however, I would think I’m approachable and good-humoured.
6. Who are some of your peers in the industry that inspire you?
Many of them to be honest. They all excel in their own areas – I don’t have one particular answer cause there’s something to learn from every one of them.
7. Tell us a fun fact about yourselves that your viewers might not know
I absolutely hate going out, I hate sweating, and I shower 3 times a day (at least). I only don’t mind travelling or going out if I need to do work.
8. What was the most memorable moment of your career?
Memorable? I think the saga left a pretty big impression.
9. Why did you come up with two agencies, Overkill and Remake? What’s the difference between the two?
Overkill is a multi-content YouTube channel that combines organic advertising, entertainment, and good production value to basically, entertain the audience and let audiences see the world through our eyes.
Remake is a brand experience and design agency. We help our partners and brands connect better with their consumers digitally, from designing a logo or website to social media content and pop-up physical experiences.
Image credit: Ryan Tan
Fun fact about Remake: Edmond [Ng] is my partner, and REmake actually makes Ryan Edmond Make. We met in World of Warcraft when we were 16.
10. What challenges did you face while starting these two new agencies?
Lack of capital, an unknown future, and recovering from an unstable mental state.
11. What was your favourite video to produce?
A couple of videos actually. The videos that are not available for viewing online will be “Zijie’s Short film” and also “Singapore Like You Never Seen Before”.
The video that is available for viewing would be “Sydney Like You Never Seen Before” which I directed, shot, and edited sleeplessly over a couple of weeks. This is also the first project we were commissioned for after the restart [of travel] so a lot of effort was put into it and definitely not in vain because it turned out amazingly well.
All parties involved in the project, specifically the clients, were extremely happy with the result.
12. Are there any videos you’ve made that you watch over and over again?
That will be again “Sydney Like You Never Seen Before” haha – I’m really proud of this. As well as most of the old Food King videos too; those were my best memories in my career [back] then.
Image credit: Ryan Tan
13. How do you think your content creation/production has changed from the first video to your latest one?
I like to think it’s less “sell-out” and a lot more organic and authentic. And we are thankful that both our audiences and clients appreciate the vision we had in our content as it turns out to work very well for everyone.
14. What’s your favourite piece of equipment to use for filming?
DJI Ronin 4D – it gives me unrestricted freedom to do whatever movements I choose to.
15. What is one piece of advice you have for aspiring content creators?
Give it all, or nothing at all.
16. How do you think your personality differs on- and off-screen?
The real me is a lot more pessimistic and worried, but otherwise nothing much!
17. How do you deal with haters?
I don’t. The best way to deal with them is usually to ignore them. If it’s annoying I’ll just block [them].
My channel, my rules.
18. Which content creator – one local and one international – do you want to collaborate with the most?
Locally, probably Sneaky Sushii. Although we are friends, I wish we can work more together. Another one is Ben Kheng. His vast set of talents and respect for production really earned my respect. I’ve reached out [to him] but we have yet to come to any form of arrangement. But I understand as everyone has a really busy schedule.
Regionally, probably SoImJenn; she’s really talented. And internationally, probably Benn TK, a travel vlog enthusiast. There’s Sam Kolder and Benn TK and there’s us doing cinematic travelogue, as it requires an insane amount of production and technical knowledge, so it’s not very common to find such videos)
19. Any exciting projects that you’re currently working on that you’d like to spotlight?
We are heading to Japan and Switzerland for a travel video soon! We are also continuing to expand our content streams so we can produce different content such as gaming, tech, beauty, wellness, etcetera.
We are also constantly improving our currently best-performing content stream – our lifestyle vlog “Get Busy” – to ensure it continues to entertain while staying authentic and organic.
20. What do you hope to achieve at Overkill and Remake over the next year?
I honestly just want everybody to be well-fed and happy at work. Everything else is secondary 🙂
Related links:
Ryan Tan’s Instagram
Overkill website
This post is part of our larger feature on content creators. If you’d like to be featured, or have a nominee in mind, please drop us a note at group@thesmartlocal.com.
Cover image adapted from: Ryan Tan
