Greetings from a film shoot

Posted by tsubaki | Filed under Film, Personal

Me, totally T.T-ing

I finally can breath for a bit. Hi! How is everyone? I see DarkMirage has made a new site, tj han’s still making lame nyoro comics, LianYL’s BRstick still going strong, bj0rn still hopeless in love with a girl that doesn’t know he like her and some of you people got so excited over giving roses to the girls at cosafe. If I miss anything out, that’s probably because I haven’t read your blog. Pimp the links on the comment if you want to. Oh and yesterday I got k-lined from Rizon, so I can’t get on #sganimebloggers now. Fucking netsec banned me for 4319 mins. God knows how long that is.

I’m currently now on Day 6 of my film shoot, and it’s been a crazy madcap shoot so far. Sometimes I wonder why I chose to leave my cosy computer chair where I can either watch anime all day long instead of doing anything productive, but I guess I want to make something out of this boring life we’re all given. So instead of escaping to a fantasy world, I’m creating one, albeit in a language I don’t understand.

I promised pictures from the shoot, but I only have pictures from Day 1. The past few days have been moving so fast and they are all lined up back to back with 12 hour shoots, I’ve been having as little as 0 to 3 hours worth of sleep in order to prepare for the next day’s shoot. Being the AD (Assistant Director) is difficult, especially when you are new to the industry.

My boss, Director Eric Khoo

This next film that Eric Khoo is directing, is a Tamil film and I don’t understand a single word other than “Yuan de bu nen na” or “curry” or something Indian. It’s not entirely set in Tamil though, it’s got Hokkien, a little bit of Cantonese and a couple of Malay. But no English!

We have to rely on a Tamil translator for the dialogs in Tamil, and thankfully she’s very good and anal about pronunciation to tonals and whatsnot. The most important thing is that the film must be believable to the India audience. There was a local Malay film that was directed by an American (I don’t know how this is consider local since there’s an American involved, but oh wells, this is Singapore. We love our foreign talents) and they didn’t have a translator at all, and when it was screened to the Malay audience, they found out that one of the actor totally screwed up his Malay. Liek ugh.

Little India on a Sunday = insert racist joke here

Anyway, I’ll let just a couple of pictures do the talking. We shot in Little India on a Sunday on Day 1, and it was so dark. It also rained so heavily, but they never got fairer. I wonder why. Oh and the past few days have been pouring so heavily, but for some ironic twist of fate, the rain actually works well with the film’s mood. I have not been made to sign a none disclosure agreement, but I don’t want to take my chances so I’m not revealing anything other than just some behind the scene pictures.

It’s hard to shoot in a crowded environment, especially when these people have no qualms about standing around and watching you from a nose away from the screen. It’s bloody annoying. Bear in mind that the above picture is a road, and the people there practically blocked the whole road and as a result we had a shitloads of car honking and fucking up the dialog for us. Way to go!

Okay I have to run now. The work’s piling up. I won’t be seeing you guys at EOY, so bring back as many pictures as you can. Liek thankyou!