Saturday, May 26, 2007 | 0 comments  
And that's it. It has been done. Over. Zippy. Zoppo. Zoozoo and whathaveyou.

This shoot cannot be appreciated by anyone without the knowledge of whatever happened before it and what happened on it. Like our main actor, Nader Tadros, said,"If anything, we should be making a story on all of you instead of us!"

Screw the others if they get an AD. Screw the others if they laugh at our SGD1,500 budget while they keep their SGD200. My team members have suffered because of my faults.. because of my story... because of my script... but god-fucking-damn... they never fucking gave up. And they made this happen. Respect? Jowell, Gabby, Rahman,.... they deserve it.

I'll update more once i get the pictures from our production stills guy, Kai Xiang. I really do hope he managed to get plenty of pictures (that are interesting) before he left all of a sudden. Seem to be having some problems to meet him now, tbh.

To later!
(p.s. Oh yeah.. the gunshots... wow.)


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UPDATE


I'm not gonna wait for Kai Xiang to hand over the pictures so that i can update this little blog of mine.

So here's two clips of the gunshots that we all wanna see. I think there's more floating around....


Here's our bad guy, Samy, about to shoot our hero before reaching for the bag of money. Our assistant director Shaun says, "Mark it" to initiate the clapper board clap, Rahman, our cinematographer goes "Frame", which means all i gotta do now is say, "Action!".

This was our bad shot btw... didnt like the part he got shot.

Jimmy Low was on set and he was particular about the real weapons. Firstly it's a real weapon and even though it's firing blanks, the air pressure itself could tear clothes apart. Andy Lau shot the butt portion of his jeans out one time. Another thing was we must never drop the gun.....

... well we dropped the gun and I got the knock on the head. Ever had a 50 year old man call you 'fucker' 20 times in a row? This shot required Samy to lay off a shot, grab the pouch, then BAM.. shot in the leg, drops to the floor and hides to the van. In order not to screw up a real weapon, we had to freeze-act in the middle to be able to switch to the dummy glock. I dont like freeze-acting the actors but well...

(fucking christ i couldve said all that in jsut one sentence couldnt I...)

This is the second clip. It's our hero, Nader Tadros (real name), hiding behind a wall, peeking out, gets back in cover, cocks the beretta, and BANG down to the leg of the bad guy.

You can see me hiding behind Rahman in this clip and if you dare question my manliness in the face of staged gunfire by the body posture I am in then I shall curse you to have a fetish for dead snails.
And there in the blue jersey holding the boom is my mental support, Daryl. Whoo! Without you bro i wouldve felt so lost. (I know what you're thinking. The answer is 'Yes')



During the shoot we had a crowd of people behind the camera, outside the fence, looking out of the windows. Everyone was watching. I was afraid. Afraid of what? I dont know. But just afraid. My talents were having fun though. In between shots when Rahman was moving the camera to the next set-up, Nader had to go back and forth to the crowd to sign autographs and take pictures with the aunties there.

There were some fake blood used in the shoot as well but it seems like noone found that special enough to film down. We also had a body hit effect planned but due to time constraints and the powers of the universe against us, we didnt use it. I regretted.

All in all these special effects alone costs SGD500 dollars. And that explains why nobody wants me to sit in the director's chair again (amongst other, more serious issues).

The film has been sent to be developed already and this Thursday the team and I are going down to watch the telecine process. It's basically where we see what we shot and tune up the image before sending it to the editing suite.
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I called Jason this afternoon. A very good friend of mine.

The conversation went like this.

"Jason, wanna go eat?"

"I cant...", his tired voice echoes silently.

"Why not?"

He pauses.

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"I can't walk."
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Its the fourth week of the semester already. Time flies.

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Busy with productions as usual. Am I tired? Yes. Am i stressed out? Yes. Am I complaining? Not really. Do I feel like quitting school and all that? No....

We've seen a lot of people who start breaking down whenever a slight bit of pressure is applied to them. I dont know about you.. but one way i prevent myself from buckling under pressure is to think of plan B.

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Ting's one weird case though. She's also as busy or even more. Thing is... instead of taking a ciggarette or a nap she's wanting to "fuck some one so that she could sleep". I'm not so sure what's that supposed to mean....

Well i took the chance... ehhh didnt quite work out.

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I hate that msn pic of hers. I love this one better:

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"Deep in thoughts" yea... ii lurbb eeu eeuu lurbb miie...

A few rough rides for AFP Film one these few days. A bit of a management problem and the overall morale and bonding of the team wasnt quite where i expected it to be. Pulled up my socks over the weekend and
did what i could to organise everyone and give out tasks. I could go on and on about the mental breakdown i had over the weekend but i'll save it for Henry lol. He's my bitching station at the moment.

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Met up with our superstar Daryl in the library today along with Jowell. Actually had classes on then but was sent off to do some printing and you know how stupid school librarians can get with maintaining IT equipment. So i gave up hope that our printers will ever be in working order and it's then that Daryl asked me to go for a smoke.

Half and hour late for class.... smoking's gonna take 15 minutes... hmm.... Conclusion?

Smoke....

If there's one thing that keeps me going on and on everyday and never end up blaming everything in the world for all my misfortunes are the guys around here. It's different when you're hanging out with 20-26 year olds compared to lets say... err.. first year mass comm know-it-alls.

Daryl and i walked out.... then he handed me something. It was tobacco.... as in... tobacco tobacco in all its naked glory!

He bought one of those 3.90 packet things that comes together with cig paper. Looks like he ran out of cash.

"You're not a smoker if you cannot roll your own ciggarettes", he says.

That's a fuckin challenge. You're on, buddy.

We got out of school and sat down near the drain with the banglas walking around us doing the construction thing they do.

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Turns out none of us could roll at all. So much for being best friends with Roy.... Viceroy.... menthol... menthol light... for me and him.



So this month i've gone on a bike thrice.... learned how to bully Mr. Lincoln... take a role as a director... and now i'm rolling ciggarettes! What could be next? Being the best man for Gabby and Hyde's wedding?

So we sat there.. classes were running... and we're figuring out how to roll this fucking thing.

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I guess the ten bucks a packet seems more value-for-money to me. Cig rolling's for girls. They have the little slim fingers.

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Its the little things like these that keep me going on and on and on. Experimenting... taking risks... etc etc. Stuff you hear about in sec school that sounded all too idealistic and holistic.

I realised that i'm a workaholic... just itching to be always working and i dont seem to bother about whatever gossips are going on around me. That guy slept with this guy.. meh ok... This girl dissed this other girl... hhahaah ok.... This girl is with this guy and this guy is a good friend with this guy but this guy like his girl and likes to look at her butt and they're both flirting..... i think i jsut described myself.

Another thing i'd start doing is photoshopping. Nah i dont put in much thought when i start editing photos. I'm not into all that artsy fartsy mentality.... in photo editing at least. At the same time working without a direction is just mental masturbation (something i gotta stop doing so often too hehe) so i come in with a look in mind then work towards that. If you were to look at my photos recently you'd see some formula in the way i edit. It becomes muscle memory after a while and i start churning out a lot of edited photos with the same technique applied to all of them. Becomes kinda like playing a game...

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Tomorrow's another day. Gotta send out emails and digitize videos from the location recce i went with Rahman just now.... though i thought there were suppsoed to be about four people at the location today. Hmm.... I wonder what i should think....

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Kinda irritating isnt it to see Daryl's face so many times in a single post? lol.
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God... i miss Sly.

Hello guys and here i am blogging again, proper. Like i've mentioned before it has been a busy week what with all the pre-production duties i gotta do and travelling.... i could kill myself for failing my driving test.

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My advice to all of you who are intending to jump into the filmmaking bandwagon is to think twice. Not only is money and finance an issue but also time and commitment. I think i'm putting in more energy and receiving more abuse than the business and engineering kids next door. There are times when i decide to take a rest from work and play some Armed Assault and i feel GUILTY! Jowell and Gabby are probably working their asses off with their producer-jobs and stuff and i am shooting the sky with Aussies.

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We're working on our biggest film budget so far, SGD$1,350, all payed by us in the team. It's a huge thing we're undertaking even though we arent really required to spend that much. Some peeps could have a SGD$500 project and come out with something impactful. But... well... my vision with this project is to set a standard for action films in the School of Film and Media Studies. I wont even bother trying. I'll just do it.

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There are perks of working in film school. And i like those perks. For one, i get to see many pretty girls who think they can act..... then the Singaporean gene kicks in.....

Last Friday i was tasked, together with Rahman, for location scouting. All we gotta do is go to certain designated locations to take pictures so that on the next meeting we can decide which place we wanna shoot at and then the location permit form can be sent out.

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Our script this time takes place in a warehouse. It's another one of those tried-and-true formula of a standoff between the good guy and the bad guy. I dont think we can come up with anything blatantly original in the action genre especially we're given only three minutes of screen-time.

It was an experience... Rahman rides a bike... i ride a bus... we're low on time... The solution?

A ride around Singapore on a motorbike!

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It's my first time in Singapore to ride a motorbike. If my parents knew ive been pillion-riding on a bike they'd kill me. Cause Rahman's doing all these 30-40 degree turns and going at 110kmph on the expressways... and there i was working the camera with two hands. Look, Ma! No hands!

We went from Ngee Ann to Bugis to Tanjong Pagar to Dhoby Ghaut to Yishun to Sembawang. Quite a ride. At the speed he was going there were times i almost lost balance cause my visor wasnt down.

I got to see the Singapore skyline in all it's naked beauty, void of the constraints of wound-up windows and aircon in a car. On Benjamin Sheares bridge.... with all the wind, speeding cars and roaring cement trucks... everything feels new.

Actually.. i think i'm interested in bikes now lol. Great! I smoke, and I ride a bike! What else can be worse?

We found the perfect gem in Yishun, not surprisingly... cause Yishun's full of wonderful treasures. I lead Rahman to a multi-level warehouse/factory/workshop on the edges of Yishun called Yishun One.... for the lack of a better name.

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We scooted around the lower levels and werent that pleased with the place. It was dark... very noisy with all the workshops... and was aesthetically un-pleasing. I thought to myself, "Once again.. i've wasted my time location scouting in Yishun."

Then i decided to just go up to the highest floor.. just for the thrill.

Then BAM...

We hit the jackpot.

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The view was breathtaking... in it's own sense. Not Grand-Canyon-ish breathtaking but yea.... breathtaking. Or maybe i was having another asthma attack. But still....
We could see the CBD area... we could see Sembawang Wharves... We could see all over Yishun.... We could see Malaysia!

Rahman then asked if we can shoot here. Why? Cause freaking Malaysia is there! Dont we need a permit from them if we're gonna shoot something and Johor is in the background?
Well if those Malaysissies ask for a damn permit then wow... what assholes. It's not like Johor has anything valuable to bomb. Your freaking customs people are sleeping on the job for the love of god!

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Yishun One has that kind of Hong Kong-y feel to it. Not sure whether it's because of the amount of laundry hanging form the windows..... But i like that feel anyways.

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We're still contemplating whether to shoot at night or day... due to prodcution costs (hiring professional actors at 80 dollars per day. We have three characters....) but either way.... i think level seven of this place has some very beautiful industrial traits to it.....

Best thing is.....

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... i can see my house!

Well that's just in one afternoon of my day last Friday. I've got another two projects running along and it's pretty similar in both roles and product. So you can imagine how fucking full my hands are.... what with boobs and vaginas....

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I'll see you guys pretty soon... After Thursday, when the pre-production file has been turned in, I'm having Mr. Lincoln down for an interview in school for Documentary Production. Should be interesting.

I'd like to take this oppurtunity to thank Aik for his company last Saturday too. Brader brader forevar!!!!

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Sunday, May 06, 2007 | 0 comments  
My sincere empathy goes out to Kwang Wei for losing someone he knows, even though briefly, in a car accident.

At the same time his blog is playing "Without You", played by Yoshiki after the death of Hide.

I'm gonna share it with you, until i get another post coming along. Things have been busy.

It should be playing now.

Makes me wonder how far a guy can go to express his feelings for his friend.
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