Until the day Freddy decides to return my video camera back to me, I cant pretty do much with editing videos.
On the other hand... I managed to take a few captures the midnight i came back from KL. And here they are for all your enjoyment!
I rented an XL-2 from Bala of Film Equipment Gallery for the shoot. It was a last minute thing because Fred was supposed to return me my cam on Thursday... two weeks ago...
Bala was nice enough to actually rent it out to me for about a week all for the sweet lovable price of SGD150 dollars.
If that is not a mark of nice-ness. I dont know what is then.
I think it was on this film set that my eyes opened up to what really is a big-budget film production.
The client is from Bollywood and the product is a popular vodka drink, Red Romanov or sth like that. Landmark Productions had a crew of about 50 over people and lo and behold, each department has their own van! Even the stuntman has his own room!
I got news on set that our main female lead was gonna be this big-time Bollywood actress. I didnt catch her name... but i bet that if it were converted to English it'll be really easy to remember. I think her name was Shobha-something-something. They said she signed two Hollywood contracts....
More interestingly, her legs were long. Very long! They stretch from here to Johor!
Our main male lead was a South African dude. His name's Levi. I kept calling him Levis as in the jeans brand... Im really sorry. I didnt know. But that's a cool name for a cool guy!
The main stunts for this production needed wires. Uncle Jimmy got a hold of the usual KL stunt group from Singapore. We werent strangers since we met before a few months ago.
I think it's one of those things where you have to be on set to understand the experience. The stunts pulled of on wires this time were incredibly high. But maybe because i'm Singaporean so my definition of "High" or "Tall" is a bit skewed seeing how anything above 3 metres is considered DANGEROUS over here.
Spot the stuntboy!
Uncle Jimmy made a huge impact on many people on set that three days we were working - from Directors to producers to coffee boys to clients. Even the snobbish High Elves Council of Bollywood Celebrity Assistants lost their shine when they noticed that someone else deserved the attention more. Uncle Jimmy was even pulled for an interview immedietely after the shoot and he made sure to mention the work done by the KL stuntboys. I gotta be honest, my balls tore my underwear when he started talking about the elusive "Poly Boy". I got some attention! Whoo!
Uncle Jimmy was talking to me the weeks before about how he wished he could enter the Bollywood market. On set, one of the VIPs came over to him and said,"I'm bringing you over to Mumbai."
Err... can I follow?
Well that was a wrap... I came back to Singapore... had to face a bit of bullshit from the girl and decided enough of this chasing game and pressed the "Fuck It" button, taking along a close friend of mine together with her into the sun.
But it's not like I'll die so I dont really think much about it. So here's to the New Year and Merry Christmas, you goddamned Christians!
Well... I think I've had enough of a break for now. Back to normal life.
The Oak 3 shoot ended last last weekend. Old news, yea, but there are some pretty pictures I'd like to share.
It's been a blast so far... I didnt really have a good week to rest after IBP and I'm glad I went through this Oak 3 thing. It's kinda sad now that I dont have anything to do or look forward to.
Sitting around in my room... every morning it's climbing down the ladder from my bed then planting my ass on the computer chair for the next 15 hours, reading Digg.com, watching TED.com, checking out what's the biggest conspiracy happening now (it's the Gamespot thing now...) and being a prick with other people online.
The last few days I simply had to pick up everything again because... my god... I think I put on some fat. Back to the training.
Hello, monsoon season. How do you do?
We were shooting at Fort Canning again on the third day of the shoot. I hate that place.
It was the usual sparks and fight thing again. There were about 30 people on set that day. I was hanging around some of them for a while and overheard some of their conversations. One of the guys are from the Film Commission Board and hails from Europe. They were talking about the industry and shit. All in all, the underlying meaning of all the conversations I've heard of the film industry, around the world, is this:
"This industry sucks."
Pretty much all that everyone's been complaining about the FIlm industry in Singapore is happening in Europe as well. To that, I think we're boned. Like I always tell my friends, "This industry will teach you everything about living a life. But if you can, dont even enter."
Like Uncle Jimmy says as well - this industry's a drug. No matter how you wanna escape from it.... there it is humping your red swollen butt hole.
But the other thing that's good about this hell hole is the diversity. I met up with an old coursemate, Freddy Wee, yesterday and i told him even carpenters can get a job in this industry - Props Manufacture. Uncle Jimmy did build the muskets from scratch.
Let's not forget DRIVERSSSSS as well.
And yeah... I was driving Uncle Jimmy's van one day (as usual) and rammed it into a concrete seat... twice! Do i get a freaking medal now?
They had a change of camera crew that day. I dont know who they are... never seen them before. Kwang Wei, maybe you could identify them?
The shoot ended with some spare effects left. Props to Uncle Jimmy and his foresighting skillz. I let the Director, Wan, have a play with it. He was so happy.
I think I acted as four or five different characters in this film. Once as a main character, and the others as a stuntman... and by that.. the one getting thrown around.
There was one that I pretty liked and was a new experience for me. They had me dressed up in some thin Malay costume and put on a stubble on my jaw and a scarf on my head. The Spanish are bayoneting us from the wall, then I climb up over it, he reels back, I pick up my sword to slash him and he fires - BANG - two spark effects on his rifle, and one body hit right on my solar plex.
The way that Uncle Jimmy got the body hit to work was to put a spark effect behind a blood pack. That whole entire thing is taped on my shirt, resting against my bare skin. You have no idea how shiok the feeling was to have that effect explode next to your skin. I think I wanna do it again.
The crew really loved the effect and cameras and handphone started flashing at all the fake blood over my shirt and hands. Videos of it were shown around the set. If my balls could swell, they would be as big as golfballs.... that's kinda big already for me.
There's a stunt I did which i regretted not thinking ahead of it first. It was a simple stunt - a backfall. I run up to the fortress gates, the dude fires, I fall backwards and die.
First thing was I didnt have the brain to take some padding out from the van. Second thing was I havent been thought how to fall backwards onto stone ground. All i had was Uncle Jimmy up on the fortress gate yelling instructions at me, 6 metres below, on how to fall. I kinda got the "leap up, throw legs up, fall on back" part of the instruction.
So i did... for every damn rehearsal and take. I think i fell about 5 times. I think the total damage, added to the fact that we were running some 20 metres before doing the stunt, was a few scratched toe nails, multiple scratches and cuts on elbows and knees, a deep knee cut and a bajillion other bone pains right after.
I finally drew the line when I did a clean lep-up-leg-throw and practically powerbomb-ed myself onto the stone floor, hitting my entire back and dropping the back of my head flat onto the ground. I thought that was the end... my eyes were closed... the sun was right above me... my lungs felt like it exploded and all the angels in heaven were giggling at me laughing,"You're going to hell~~~"
The director yelled, "Cut", and the cameraman, who was on me, quickly ran up to me and yelled if i was fine. I nodded my head and he called the others,"That boy was SPOT ON man! SPOT ON!"
I thought i would never hear the phrase "SPOT ON" from other people than Leonard the Leotard.
I watched the playback and it looked very nice - exactly like how CS characters die in games. Director was happy... and i had a lot of attention from the lovely Patricia... what with her and her water and her first aid kit. Whoo!!! She may be 28++ but whoo!!!
After the shoot I found this on my elbow:
It was swollen. It was soft at first... but now, after a week, it has gone down but now there's a callous on my bone. I figured it must have cracked a bit or something but nothing big since it's fine now. I gotta say.. it's pretty fun getting all these surface damage.
DAY FOUR
Day four was by far the most fun I've had.
No more sand being kicked up my nose because I'm a douchebag... but this time Uncle Jimmy was dealing with ASPLOSIONS!
k, fine, I run like a girl.
Learning from yesterday's lesson, I had a knee pad for my right knee since it had a cut from the day before's fall. Sand was my friend this day and Uncle Jimmy had no problems with me doing the stunts on my own. What i did learn that day from him was rigging up an explosion.
I havent really seen much, but I think it's really easy to make IEDs like those crazy Iraqis.
Uncle Jimmy talked to me about the physics of explosions and the vectors of each "spikes" and all the other wave patterns that emit from it. He told where is the safest spot to stand infront of the bomb (or.. "cha dan"...) and how to make it more directional. Being the bastard that I am, ran at the safest place, and let the other stuntman go at all the other dangerous places.
We had six explosions that afternoon. So much sand and powder were laying about that my mind sprouted ideas for my next war film.
The stunt were pretty easy this time... and i loved rolling on the ground. People may call me stupid... or unproductive... or jsut being a plain Malay by doing stuff like this and not even earning money... But well... it's the same as people dribbling balls in the school court, it's the same as Parkour dudes running around Suntec, it's the same as you playing WoW or COD4. It's also the same as you sitting around playing on your guitar and performing LIVE (omgwtfbbq) in a BAND (omgggg!!11!!) with UBER DUPER GUITARS (FTW!!!) and REALISING YOUR ROCK BAND DREAMS (WTF!!!!!).... in a church on sunday. Every Sunday. Rofl?
I'm out of rest already, time to get back to work and see all the rubbish idealogies happening in school. Like Kwang Wei pretty much sums its up on his blog - "Fuck School"
Last weekend there was a big shoot conducted by Oak 3.
The first day we were shooting out at Punggol and the scene called for three malay pirates to attack on a squad of five Americans patrolling the area.
i gotta hand it to the location... Punggol gave me orgasms of unimaginable magnitudes; it was sweet for a war film.
On set I had a friend from Tisch Asia, Ash, come over to help out taking videos and such for us. He was the director for my first film as a stuntman and main actor. He told me his film was "one of the better few" in their school at the moment. I actually did get a few calls from his friends who asked me for stunt services.
In this shoot I was acting as some young enthusiastic Malay pirate who's all raging with hormones and wanting to get his first kill.
We had a shot where the four of us had to run through the forest, seemingly positioning for an ambush and the camera would track us from the side for the whole 100 metres we ran.
They had some steering wheel device that placed the camera in the middle of it. I asked the people around "what the fuck is that?" and it came out to be some sort of steadycam.
Great... now I've got a new project idea...
Uncle Jimmy was very on the ball that day. He goes crazy mad everytime during big productions like this that there comes a point of time it may difficult to rationalize things... but hey I understand what's happening.
We had a lot of fire effects that day including two real Kar 98Ks that were used by the Germans in World War II. They fired blanks for it and I had a fun time cleaning up the sand in the vagina.
So this American would recce out infornt of his squad, then see us Malay bastards ambush him, he lets go a round, kills one of our men (the guy with the big sword) and then we chase him....
... then i catch up to him and unleash my precision keris blading skillz, bringing him down. The rest pummel him with parangs while i get into position and then slice the fucker to death.
Then we all get shot by the other Americans around... thus my first backfall stunt.
I couldnt remmeber how many times i had to rehearse the falling for the director and crew to see... for the many takes... and it was painful when you land the wrong way. Luckily the gorund was soft sand.
Then a stray rock or two appears out of nowhere.
After that there's a shot were the Americans come closer to our dead bodies, and suddenly I rise up from the dead and attack one of them. He blocks me with his rifle, kicks me in the gut, I stumble back and another American comes and swings his rifle butt across my face. I spin around, fall and receive a pummelling from them with rifle butts and the deadly "Kick sand into nose and mouth" attack.
Was a fun day that time... but then we had to skip the explosion scene and schedule it for another day because the production overran.
The next day, we were over at Fort Canning Park to film a fortress fight scene between the Spanish soldiers and Malay raiders.
What a day it was... I spent lots of time driving Uncle Jimmy's van on the hills of Fort Canning, squeezing through other production vans, dealing with security guards and laughing at the joggers as i spew their lungs full of carbon monoxide as I pass them.
The costumes Oak 3 produced looked really cool. The actors playing the Spanish hail from European countries like Mesopotamia and some were hell of tall. It was like a backwards front flip time travel as I saw them walkign around with those triangle hats and carrying the muskets that Uncle Jimmy and I built from scratch. The muskets really do look sweet!
Uncle Jimmy thought the crew how to make a "smoke machine".. which really is just a tin full of incense (BUT, with modifications made to it). The modifications made by Uncle Jimmy had one tin produce so much smoke it blocked out the vision quite a bit... and we had FIVE of them that day.
I was incharge of fixing up the musket effects, the weapons distribution and nosing around.
Uncle Jimmy had cold feet about how the musket firing effect would look like. The night before he sat in his office, thinking over a musket on how to fix up the wires. The weeks before I was a little bitch to him getting particular to the look of the musket, the measurements, the hammer striker and all those little nitty bits right down to the shape and size of the cloud once the gunpowder effect burns.
I showed him You Tube videos, I showed him pictures and all that till he got so annoyed that he went,"If I follow everything you say... i'll go bankrupt."
Lo and behold, the shot came, nine people stood in one line, muskets at the ready. The leader shouted the command to fire. And boom...
Uncle Jimmy was happy as can be. He showed everyone we met the rest of the day the musket effect after that. I think it looked sweet, too.
After that we had a scene of 15 Spaniards and 15 Malay raiders fighting at the same time.
You have no idea how hard my boner was at that time.
But yet again, the production overran again and we to reschedule the next big scenes to another day. So our two-day shoot transformed into a six-day shoot; this weekend and the next.
Next weekend we'll be doing some raging fires. I'm looking forward to it... I love burning things.
So here's the deal about this weekend; Oak 3 contacted Uncle Jimmy sometime during fasting month and he went down for a meeting at their office at Tanjong Pagar. Well I tagged along... only to be delighted to know that they're hiring Uncle Jimmy to help them in their war scene.
And of course, I was also there to witness Low Shifu walk straight into a glass door that caused him a cut on the bridge of his nose.
This war scene would be against the Spaniards and Malay pirates in the Phillipines sometime around the 1800s. The location we'll be filming will be at Punggol for the beach war scene and Fort Canning Park for the jungle war scenes.
What's involved currently are sixteen odd weapons, mostly traditional malay swords, including 8 Spanish muskets built from scratch.
The usual special effects follows; gunfire, explosions, fires and fights.
Over the past month, juggling IBP int he afternoon and sawdusting myself in the night building the weapons (all from scratch!) with Uncle Jimmy, has been a pretty interesting experience.
We went nuts a bit and whacked up a real metal sword. We have 8 metal swords in out inventory now. Never have my hands been more veiny than my penis after a midnight hard wank.
Today, we went over to Certis Cisco at Paya Lebar to draw out two Mauser Kar 98Ks for the shoot tomorrow as well. It was fun seeing his armory over there and looking over all the weapons he has in that small cupboard. I took some videos too.
Well enough talk... the first day of shoot is tomorrow and I'll be damned that I'm gonna act as Uncle Jimmy's assistant AND actor-cum-stuntman for Oak 3.
Hope the special lady in her room could be a little bit more patient. After this weekend Ima take you out for a looooooonggggg ride, baby.
I'm currently really busy with many productions so update's gonna be pretty sparse for now.
IBP Shoot is over and I gotta say it's one hell of an experience. But not because of what we shot or whatever the story was... but whatever crap that was thrown at us by either our producer or our Art Director (me) or the entire Henderson community itself.
I thought I had seen the lowest of the lowest of society in this country but I was proven wrong at Henderson road. It's also a funny thing to note that these people are the most humblest and cooperative people I've ever seen. I was talking to Don about it and he replied,"This people probably think that they have nothing to lose."
I think that way, too. I guess that the more we have the more paranoid we are. Maybe that explains the fucking phenomenon called "Political Correctness" and all those defamation crap flying around these days.
Anyways, there'll be a major update sometime at the end of November... right after this big shoot with Oak 3 in Punggol.
Bombs, fires, artillery, rifles and swords.... all in one scene, on one beach. How can you not love it?
At the same time, I've been receiving quite a lot of audition offers from production houses that, I admit, have never heard of like Triple X and Wreck Focus Productions.
Wreck Focus pulled my attention and I took a visit to their site here. They asked me to audition for the role of "Shifty Eyes".
Currently, Rahman and Daryl have been having only a total of nine hours of sleep since Day Zero. I gotta hand it to them: driving for most of the night and morning and getting about three hours of sleep a day... unpossible!
It's been a blast so far... not because of our fantastic shots or our fantastic Art D that screwed up badly today (me) but the fact that I've seen the best of human beings so far.
Don's just fantastic. I think some would agree that he's our bitching post... like a father figure... in this production and beyond. It came to the point that he suddenly snapped and said,"Stopped asking me to solve things! Settle your own problems!"
It's not like we were asking for help to finish our work, but we're asking for help because some other person isnt doing HER work.
Rahman's the big brother of the team, as usual. Daryl and I are like his little baby brothers following his tail and learning how to walk. Putting Don and Rahman together is like putting salt to acid - boom! Or whatever chemical reaction that makes the sound 'boom'.
While there, then here's Daryl and I still learning how to walk. I'm learning to walk while Daryl is learning how to jump on one leg... always trying to go higher and higher. You know, behind that bastard of a personality sometimes is a really cool and nice guy that i wouldnt mind trusting my porn passwords to. We spent quite a time together in the truck acting as dispatch boys over the past few days and that softer side appears out of nowhere. Pretty cool.
Forgive the patronising but i'm having and itch about the east side of my asshole so i had to scratch it.
Kang Sheng spoke to me once about my blog. He said,"Stop your blog. It isnt serving you anymore."
I would hate to stop blogging... I've too many stories to tell!
But time goes by and I figure out that I have friends who prefer listening to them in person.
Well, here it is. After three years of standing up to the politics in Ngee Ann Poly FSV, my final final final project is going into production.
After this, I'm pretty much left with nothing else but Doc Pro, which i had to retake.
I did a bit of a ritual tonight. I called up the special little girl and we had a chat on the phone. I told her I'd be gone... toiling around in the sun... with a tool kit box and walking around half-naked. How sweet of her to then reply,"By the end of your shoot, you'll probably forget about me already."
Not quite sure about that. I dont think I will. Audi Khalid is here to disturb her every night!
I thought of calling Henry up. Just to say hi and stuff. I remember what Kang Sheng and I discussed about him... for the love of god I think KS is right... I gotta break the news some day. For the sake of friendship, I guess.
I called up my NCC officer, Mr. Latiff, too. I heard he was ill so i called to nose around abit. He seems pretty glad I called.
At the back of my mind sticks an image of Uncle Jimmy, bandaged and alone in his office, trying hard to finish up his big project. It's empathy of sorts... I cant make it any time this week because of the shoot and the deadline is the 19th of October.
I spotted my two other good friends, Donald and Javis, online as well. Kinda sweet to see them online again.
Well, enough emo shit. Seriously, I hate to think I'm dropping back to this love crap thingy but there you go. Here's to a good production ahead.
Wish me luck.
Thanks to Kang Sheng, Kai Xiang and Kwang Wei for agreeing to help us out.
As you all know, Uncle Jimmy had an accident last Monday.
..... ....
Here is a picture:
It was a pretty surreal moment. It was the only day I could come over to office to work on our super big project that-i'm-not-telling-what-it's-about-yet aside from the circle jerk IBP has become.
It was then that I saw the router, that Uncle Jimmy simply didnt want to handle but was forced too after all his tools didnt work, flipped out for the second time that day and sliced a bite out of his finger.
Next thing I know was I was yelled at by him when he noticed I was cleaning up the blood from the sink and floor and switching off the radio and lights in the workshop while he's at the front door of the house ready to run to the hospital.
His old friend, Uncle Leow, fucked his meeting and came down to send Uncle Jimmy to Tan Tock Seng. For a moment, I thought Uncle Jimmy would pass me the keys to his van so that I can send him to hospital. Oh well.
I remember while waiting for Uncle Leow to come, the ah ma ah pa from all over Whampoa came over like a pack of zombies on LSD, crawling all over his finger asking what happened. Uncle Jimmy received a free bandage service from the clinic below and a new box of tissue was passed to me from the uncle at the econ-mart. Sometime he took off the tissue and wiggled his finger to see the skin loosely clinging off whatever that was left.
What was more intriguing was the fact that he was air-writing some chinese characters on his finger.. like prayer. I asked him what was that for and he said he was writing a talisman.
Cool.
When Tan Tock Seng took over my place and served Uncle Jimmy and Leow in the clinic area, I was stuck outside, waiting. I could go off.. but I didnt think that was right. All I could think about was the dripping blood before I cleaned it up and his face, still smiling and laughing in the car. For some sick reason, I imagined the router cutting through the side of my cock. I've no idea.
I sent out sms-es to the others to inform them of what just happened... not because I wanted sympathy... but that a lot of things had to be pushed back now like Mitch's revolver she's booking and some Art Direction stuff I had planned for my IBP.
Btw, thanks Kai Xiang. Heard about the SMS.
I needed someone to call... So who else but..... hauahuahauha.... Yeah man... The very thought of her makes me giggle like a little girl getting a tickle from Kang Sheng before he eats her whole.
Oh, cheesy emotions, thy name is Audi!
Uncle Jimmy came out after a while... and complained he was sleepy after those jabs they gave him. That's when I knew he was back to normal... when the bitching about how fucked up the Tan Tock Seng reception system began. I gotta admit that the two fat ladies at the reception were pretty fucked up. They're slow, unthoughtful, ask stupid questions, dont use their fucking brains and I'm not even sure there was even a system enforced. A system! Yeah.. like.. you know... something Hanna doesnt have.... HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA
We got back to the office after that (I had lots of gore thrown at me from other patients and their stories that night) and cleaned up the blood all over the place.
I might sound liek a stupid fool, but we were pretty damned sure that someone up there is doing something.
Just a few days ago, when i was left alone at the Whampoa office, a few strange things happened. I kinda figured out what was happening so didnt really bother about it.
We spotted a few signs as well as the days went by. It was kinda cool seeing things happening infront of your eyes.
ok, whatever.
Spot the half-made musket!
It's Thursday now and my IBP shoot starts this Saturday all the way till Friday.
Uncle Jimmy's doing fine. He didnt even take a day off and instead continued working all the way into the night. What was even more sick was that today I found him knocking on his bandage with a pencil while he was talking to Leow. He said it wasnt painful anymore. Then yesterday he met Adrian Pang... and I'm like... like totally!
He showed me a picture of an indian man with him. I asked who was that. "Do you remember the M1 IDD commercial? The Mumbai prata one?"
"yeah why.."
"That's the actor. He jsut gave me a job for Vasantham yesterday."
Looks like I'll still be working way after IBP is over.
Thanks to all who were concerned... and i think I just made a new friend. His last name is Phobia.
