Night Owl Cinematics (NOC)

Ryan and Sylvia are the two individuals behind the Youtube channel Ryan Sylvia (YouTube channel) created in 2011 and boasting more than 800,000 subscribers as of February 2019.The married couple had started off by making videos for weddings, funerals and corporate functions but started producing YouTube videos after noticing that their content was well received by Singaporeans. They rose to fame after going viral with their video titled ‘Shit Singaporean Girlfriends Say’. Subsequently, they started their own video production company Night Owl Cinematics (NOC) where they create YouTube videos, corporate videos and manage talents. Ryan is the video director for NOC, while Sylvia handles public relations for the company. Apart from their success on YouTube, Ryan and Sylvia have also been working with welfare organizations in Singapore as part of the NOC Charity Club.

Background

Ryan Tan was born in Singapore on 1 August 1988. During his teenage years in Kent Ridge Secondary School, Ryan was having trouble in school due to the souring relationship between his parents. He was involved in a gang and had been arrested on one occasion. During this period, Ryan sought comfort in his teacher, Mrs Tang, who encouraged him through those tough times. After his secondary education, Ryan enrolled in the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) but left after 6 months. Subsequently, Ryan worked as a model and dabbled into model management. After completing his national service, he started a food and beverage (F&B) business franchising for ‘New York New York’. He also started his own Chinese restaurant but eventually had to close it due to high rental costs and a lack of manpower.

Sylvia Chan was born in Malaysia and grew up in Kampong Saleng in Johor Bahru. She received her early education in Malaysia but subsequently received her secondary education at Nanyang Girls’ High School in Singapore. Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC). However, she was not able to complete her time in ACJC. In the second year of JC, Sylvia was diagnosed with clinical depression after the passing of her grandmother. While undergoing treatment for clinical depression, Sylvia took up a six-months long psychology course. Subsequently, she pursued a private degree in Sociology and Economics from the University of London in Singapore. Sylvia met Ryan when she was modelling part time after receiving her private degree.

Ryan and Sylvia met when they were both working as models for a period of time. Following the falling through of Ryan’s 2 F&B business, the two decided to explore making videos professionally. Their first paid assignment as a duo was a funeral montage. They had then went on to produce videos for weddings and corporate events. During this time, Malaysian YouTuber Dan Khoo was their main supporter as he had taught them the ropes of the YouTube industry. While trying to hone skills for scripted videos, they posted videos on YouTube. Unexpectedly, one of their first few videos uploaded on December 16, 2012 titled ‘Shit Singaporean Girlfriends Say’ (YouTube video) went viral. Following their rise in popularity, they made the switch to become full-time YouTubers with their own production company called Night Owl Cinematics in 2013.

Career highlights

Night Owl Cinematics (Feb 2013 - Present Day)

Night Owl Cinematics by Ryan Sylvia logo.

Night Owl Cinematics (NOC) is a singapore-based production company that focuses on YouTube videos, offline activation videos for corporate clients and talent management. Their first ever client was a local consulting firm RecruitPlus. Currently, their clientele includes notable companies including Daniel Wellington, Media Development Authority Singapore, ASUS and Airbnb. From its humble beginnings in 2013 as a project between two individuals, the production company has expanded to a total headcount of more than 30 people (as of 2019). They had also released merchandise in 2015. Their popular YouTube uploads include series such as ‘Food King’, ‘Do It For The Money’ and ‘Shit Singaporeans Say’. On top of YouTube, NOC publishes articles on their website (official website) which commonly feature their travels, local events and posts that accompany the videos they had produced. Their most popular videos are ‘Dating VS Married’ which garnered 4 million views and ‘7 Awesome Apps We Wish Existed’ with 3.6 million views.

Ryan is currently the cinematographer and art director of NOC. He occasionally appears as the character ‘Xi Guay Ong’ in videos. On the other hand, Sylvia handles corporate matters and public relations, while hosting some YouTube videos at times. They have made it to YouTube’s Singapore list of the top 10 most trending (Non-music) videos in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Apart from being popular for their videos, both Ryan and Sylvia are known for being guardians of the local YouTube scene with YouTuber JianHao Tan speaking in favour of them as they had guided him when he was just starting out. Sylvia heads the NOC Charity Club where they liaise with local charities for certain productions or to raise funds for them. In 2018, NOC had worked with local charity organisation, AWWA Singapore, to raise funds. NOC has collaborated with many local as well as international YouTube content creators. This includes local YouTubers Dee Kosh (Darryl Koshy) and JianHao Tan, and international YouTubers including Ryan Higa, Dan Khoo Productions, The Ming Thing and Steven Lim from Buzzfeed.

TEDxUWCSEAEast (2017)

Ryan represented himself and Sylvia as a guest speaker in the TEDx UWCSEAEast series. In his speech, he spoke about his journey as a videographer and NOC's growth as production company in the local YouTube scene. He shared that NOC produced different segments on their YouTube channel to appeal to a wider range of audiences. 'NOC Travel Series' targeted working adults, 'NOC Plays' targeted individuals interested in gaming, vlogs were produced for fans who wanted an insight into their personal lives and beauty videos focused on makeup and fashion enthusiasts. In addition to this, he stated that the ‘Food King’ series was aimed at increasing awareness and appreciation for local hawker food culture. He attributed the quirks of NOC's YouTube videos to the adaptability of the production company since 2012. He concluded his speech by urging his audience to think of change as something positive.

Awards

Year	Awarding Organisation	Award
2016	Gushcloud	Influencer of the Year 2016
	Forbes Asia	Forbes’ 30 Under 30: Media, Marketing & Advertising (Ryan Tan)
2015	Gushcloud	Best YouTube Channel (Singapore) Influencer Choice’s Award
	Singapore Social Media Awards (SMA)	Best Comedy Video of the Year Best YouTube Channel
2013	The Global Recruiter Asia Pacific Recruitment Industry Awards	Best Marketing Campaign

'Coachella Makeup' video controversy (2017)

In 2017, a video uploaded by Night Owl Cinematics featuring Sylvia and four of NOC’s actresses titled ‘10-minute Coachella Makeup Look’ stirred up negative sentiments among Singaporean netizens. The girls in the video were challenged to create a festival themed make-up look within a time limit. However, some of the comments made in response to each other's looks were perceived as racially insensitive by Singaporean viewers. The comments that garnered the strongest reactions were "She looked like she attending Deepavali" and "I looked like an Indian sia, one little two little three little Indians". Many had thought that these comments showed ignorance.

In response, NOC had taken down the video with Sylvia posting an apology. Some Singaporeans, including popular social media personality Dee Kosh (Darryl Koshy), had voiced their opinions in support of NOC as they felt that many netizens were too sensitive and had mislabelled this incident ‘racist’.