Saturday, June 30, 2007 | 0 comments  
EDIT: Added in extra paragraphs.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket



Last Thursday I got up in the morning around 9am. Class starts at 2pm. I looked at myself in the mirror and studied myself.

I'm 19... going 20 in a few months. I'm still short. I look small. I'm not talented at all. And the thought of quitting school has been running through in my head for quite a while; I find that my time in school doesnt serve any real purpose in the real asian filmmaking world besides meeting some great friends and work partners.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Mediacorp Radio Station

I touched the back of my head.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

This is my hair. This is how long it is after two to three months of not cutting the back. It grows real slow. I thought about the period of time to Henry's departure to China. Our little challenge - who will have the longest hair at the time he returns. A childish challenge... but it's one way we could keep each other in mind as friends even though it's a few thousand miles walk to meet.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

I kinda like the style i have. I like feeling it grow over the weeks. After or during a shower I'd have fun trying out different styles... parting my hair this way that way... and I do look kinda hot with it dont you think? lmao.

But then I decided. I'm willing to sacrifice this for the sake of something higher. I put on my shoes and walked to the barber all dressed in my usual "Combat Civilian" attire - Jeans, Converse high cut, a hell of a heavy bag and a hooded sweater to use whenever my tight-fitting singlet isnt enough to keep my warm. I marched down to Uncle Osnam.

"Hello young man! What will it be?"

"Take it all off."

"All off? Crew cut?"

"No.. all off. Number 0 please."

"You sure?"

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

"I'm sure."

I couldnt really care less anymore. I need to shave to prove a point.

Uncle Osnam cleaned his shaver, took off any extra blades, oiled the jaws of his machine and started on his work.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

It's just another haircut for some... but for me it's path to greatness.

No strand of hair was spared. They fell off quickly. A few clinged on to my shoulder... to my chest... to my lap... but Uncle Osnam cleared them all away with on swipe of his hairdryer. They fell onto the floor.. awaiting to be swept by a broom and thrown into the garbage.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

I got out of the shop and walked into a new world. I took my first step in the name of sacrifice and knowledge. It felt right, for once.

In public everyone turned and saw me in a certain way. I dont know why. Probably because now i look like a monk. Thats what i thought anyways. But i didnt mind. I'm glad i look like a monk. Because in a way i'm on a journey.

I thought of the oppurtunity that unfolded before me a few days before.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

My life hasnt been doing good after AFP#1. Although the film turned out beyond anyone's expectation and was mentioned for its "valiant effort". Fuck that. They dont know the word "valiant".

I made my way down for a shoot with Jimmy. Usual thing this time round - carrying weapons, checking safety, supplying ammo, observing a real production shoot and learning from Jimmy about a magnitude of things.

He was giving me the usual lecture that I've always looked forward to. I like hearing it. There are times i think to myself about why is it that i would always end up following what he says rather than what my parents say.

I put out the ciggarette he rolled and gave to me and presented myself to him; the next major step in the name of sacrifice.

"Jimmy..."

He looks at me.

"... will you teach me Kung Fu?"

It was a long silence... everyone else was busy on the set doing their thing. He stood still...

All these while I felt as if I have no direction in anything. One moment I'm a hand-held camera guru. Next moment I'm painting tanks. Next week I'm learning how
to do business. Next month I'm learning Cantonese. Then all of a sudden the next day I'm
thinking of quitting school. I needed a meaning. I need a strong guide. I need someone to
lead me, to whack me and to watch my back as i grow into a man. A real man. A man of use
to society... to a profession... to not turn into a faggot... to have a good marriage... to mature
and be someone instead of being a shadow of my father's success.

Jimmy looked at me for a long while. Finally, he said something.

"You get on your knees and bow down to me before i teach you."

And I, the "stubborn" and "arrogant" Audi, was about to kneel down infront of him in the middle of the courtyard when he stopped me and started to laughed

"Joking la. I will teach you Kung Fu."

This is sacrifice.

"But first..."

Very similar to all those master-student stories you hear, Jimmy presented to me a challenge. A challenge that runs for two weeks. It's simple but requires an amount of discipline that I might have some problems with. But for the sake of learning an art.. to learn something that not many people have interest/bother/cannot handle from a master that even lesser people would have the oppurtunity to be blessed to meet, I took up his challenge and said..

"I'll be back in two weeks."

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

That night, Jimmy and me spent a period of time the privacy of his Whompoa office as he released to me knowledge on a variety of things that "no other people know".

That of course has some benefits for others. One of the things - I now know how to make blood and blood effects of Jimmy Low's standard.

It's not up there yet in standards... but i'm still practicing. And my shaven head represents my dedication and submission to Shifu Jimmy.
Posted by Audi Labels: ,
EDIT: Added in another picture. Edited out significant reference to the identity of the lady I fancy after discovering how closely related she is to the people I know and I dont want my ass kicked.
------------

I went around with Jimmy again yesterday (Sunday). His call time was 7:30am and i reached 5 minutes late. I remember him to be very strict with time and told me "If 730 you're not there i cabut (escape) already."

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

When i came to his Ang Mo Kio home he wasnt anywhere. I called.

ring ring...

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

"Audi ar.. i'm in the toilet..."

lmao. But then when he saw me the first thing he did was shake his head and walked across me. :(

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

---------------

Yesterday's shoot was for a commercial and is funded by Dale Carnegie Singapore. That organisation specializing in public speaking and so on. I have a few of their books and have read them over and over again. Pretty cool stuff.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

The production house incharge was Rushes (Ken Lim's company)and I met a few of my FSV batchmates there. It's funny cause I'm always hearing and seeing only people from the other cohort going out for real production shoots. My cohort... not so much.

They were shooting in the Supreme Court. Yea. Heard that they paid SGD2.5k to rent the place for three days. Cheap, I tells ya. Period.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Jimmy was there to supply them with a shotgun and I was told by Jimmy to be in charge of taking care of the weapon and carrying it around.

"If anybody but the director and actor touch the weapon, remember to fuck them." Jimmy says.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Jimmy brought a Mossberg and a Remington shotgun yesterday. The one in picture is the Remington 12-gauge shotty. The crew decided on the shorter black Mossberg since their bank robbery scene called for it.

In school people love to tease me as the ball-licking-cock-pounding-dog of Jimmy Low. Though they could phrase it nicer I admit that on set with him, I'm a dog. But one fucking happy dog.

You could say Jimmy is "using" me because I dont get paid and I'm doing saikang work. But fuck you... what I see when i come on set with him is enough for anyone to say that i should pay him instead.

Everywhere Jimmy goes I'll be/have-to-be behind him following. There were a few times he motioned me to follow him and I did. Then I followed. Turned out he was going to the toilet. So I stood outside waiting. He comes out, I follow. Everyone on set sees this. Everyone on set gives me the oh-so-sorry eye. But fuck that.

It's normal for him to lecture me. For this shoot where all he needed to do was supply weapons and not direct anything we had a lot of time together inside the Supreme Court. He'll always lecture me on everything under the sun and giving me advices.. though for some people eavesdropping on us would think I'm actually getting a scolding. He'll teach me things that the school of FMS cannot teach. Practical things. He doesnt like it when people talk about stuff they've only read in books. I know how that feels like. My class is half-full of those bullshit students.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Rushes were shooting on the SRII 16mm Film camera which is the same as what we used in school jsut that they had some extra gadgets. Among some of the extra stuff i saw is a video assist. I saw them plug the video assist to a small monitor on the camera. Then another wirer ran to a tv monitor sitting on a movable tray some 10 metres away. Then attached to that is one of those little gadgets u can buy cheaply at IT fairs that plays MP4 clips and has a video-in jack. Basically the whole team can watch what is being filmed. But then i was thought by one of our lecturers never to use a video assist in school and to trust our DOP or cam-op or sth along those lines.

So I spoke to Jimmy about it and he fucking yelled,"NONSENSE." His reasoning was that as a director you should know what shots you're getting. Obviously that was a highly summarized version of what he said. Then he asked the camera assistant on set if they ever shot anything on film without a video assist. The experienced fella said no.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

I didnt know what to think so Jimmy asked me to find my lecturers and ask them (politely) to show all of us an example on how to shoot a scene. Which means they write the scene, plan the shots, do the budgeting etc etc jsut like how we do it and then shoot like how they advice us to. And if they say they dont have the money to shoot anything then we, the students, should give them the money.

I laughed my ass off.

"All these fuckers only know how to get a fucking a book and teach what they read. Everybody can read a book and be very clever in theory. But when they come for practical they will fucking die."

p.s. When i quote him, it's not exact but only along those lines.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

We were there for 12 hours. There was this girl called (BLEEP for security reasons) and I was checking her out. Jimmy noticed (he notices everything i do. Even me crushing my cig box after i took the last stick. And i was standing 12 metres away and he was talkign to someone.) and nudged me to go for it.

Then he gave me the best advice. Ever.
"Now you're still young... I encourage you to fuck around. But fuck smartly. Dont get the girl pregnant. Dont be stupid."

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Of course, I couldnt care less at that time to court the girl because i'm on set and I have a strict policy of no.relationships.on.set. Well Jimmy couldnt care less and managed to talk to her a bit and came back to me telling me this this this and that that that about her. Turns out she's also in FSV, just a year my senior. Interesting.

Well... I'd love to hit her all over the floor. She has a (BLEEP - for security reasons)!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Jimmy got bored int he afternoon so we went down to the streets to smoke. A few weeks ago I sms-ed him if he knew any Kung Fu masters in Singapore. He told me he'll talk to me the next time i meet him. The next time i met him and he raised that question again he started laughing to himself.

"Do you know who the f**k I am?"

Turns out Jimmy is a master in the White Crane style of Kung Fu. Makes sense since his father ran a martial arts school in Malaysia and he has been learning since three years old. He started teaching others at the age of seven. With Jimmy's track record in gymnastics, diving, stunts and very crazy stunts... I have nothing to say.

I asked him one simple question at the Supreme Court.

"Do you know the Drunken Fist style?"

He got up. And got into the drunken fist stance.

"Now you punch me."

I think i'm smart enough not to.

"Nevermind! You come slow, I come slow also. I wont hurt you."

I've got that a lot of times from all my previous martial arts masters. And all the time i walk out regretting.

"PUNCH LA!"

I swung one. All i could remember feeling was two stone block hitting me forearm and chest... all in a split second. Slow was slow. Yes. His movement was slow like he said. But the power was aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

After that, we spent quite a lot of time talkign about Kung Fu and how he trained when he was younger. I dont wanna say... cos I'm very stingy with martial arts. But after that Jimmy showed me another example. This time he challenged me to make a move and he could stop it before i could do anything.

It turned out flawlessly. Before I could even transfer my body movement into something normal people can see he already stopped me with a quick jab with his fingers. He knew where i was THINKING of moving - I wanna swing my right arm he stabs me at the right shoulder socket in an instant. And so on.

So that's my first Kung Fu lesson. Sure was a shock.

A few hours later I spotted Jimmy sitting on the parapet of the Supreme Court.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

After a while he lifted his leg and rest them on the parapet, outstretched and over each other and then went on to drink a cup of water.

If he falls down, I die. The film industry will be damaged. And i wont have anything to look forward to. So i gathered my courage, walked to him.. and said....

"Jimmy.. err.. you not scared ar?"

"Nevermind la."

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Another shoot is coming up this wednesday. Dont think i could make it though. But he told me there's this other shoot coming up and it requires an explosion.

"I want you to come with me and I'll show you how to handle a gas explosion."

Yippy-kay-yay, motherfucker.

Posted by Audi Labels: ,
Sorry Ting... but i still have nothing else to write about that you would like (girlfriends, boyfriends, who slept with who, who died who got lucky etc etc). But what I do want you to know is that I've borrowed your name for one of the main characters of my IBP group's story.

And Henry... I'm sorry, man.


---------------

A lot has been going on amongst everyone in school, now that they've shot a few times on 16mm film, about how to achieve that almighty film look. It doesnt help that now HD/HDV is rearing its premature-soft-supple-baby-head at every oppurtunity it could.

We've also been made to believe that film is 4 TEH WIN (!!) and anything lower is just bullshit.

Well we've seen people who've made film look like video (and more to come), and some made video look like film (hopefully more comes).

i dont really bother about this elitist fiasco. To me its really fruitless to discuss all this. I mean they're just tools not a fucking badge. I can go on and on and give both sides of the story but I wont want to. I'm just gonna say that you fuckers sound like fucking Apple fanboys and the Microsoft Cavalry together with rear end support of the Linux Geeks taking it all out in some random blog.

So instead of riding around on some imaginary high horse (The ground is down here, dude.) like a fucking queer I took it on myself to research this elusive holy grail... the FILM LOOK. Fuck theory if you cant do practical. Am i right to say u gotta fuck first to know what the fuck sex feels like?

Throughout the years (yea surprising isnt it.) I've boiled down the film look effect to just a few points. I cant say it out yet because i'm still experimenting. Even so i wont wanna tell it out so openly because douchebags will think they've known everything already. Bullshit.

But here are a few things i managed to come up so far with the help of other people who were willing to let me in on tips and tricks. I'll let pics do the work.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
This is the original snapshot i got from recordings i took.
.
And here it is after a bit of tweaking....

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Meh... could be improved.

I tried this simple method I came up with after a bit of common sense and reading up on a few more stills and showed them around to Kwang Wei.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
It's quite obvious i've been going around with Jimmy Low a bit lately. I like this picture, too.

I tried this method on other conditions as well.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Not sure whether its because of the effect but i think it looks pretty nifty. Definitely not for all situations.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Beauty and the Beast. Left to Right. In case you're wondering; yes, that is my sister. And none shall speak ill of her but me because i'm teh brother, BIATCH!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
I just gotta put Daryl. Btw, it's Daryl's birthday today (22nd June). Happy birthday, bro... and so on and so forth like i sms-ed you this morning lol.

I'm still experimenting more on getting that film-look. It's pretty fun. At least i'm doing something instead of being a poser all my life.

Some may like the effect. Some dont. Some go "WOOO!!!" and some would go "Meh i can do better but let me eat my big fat turkey first and get AIDS from fucking this monkey I call 'Mother'."

In case you're wondering, yeah.... i did all these effects in video. MOOOOVVVIINNGGG IMAGES!

P.S. There's a secret video hidden in this post somewhere. Go look for it.
Posted by Audi Labels: ,
Our AFP film, Black and White (lame title, I know), seems to be doing pretty good so far. Sure it isnt the best and sure there is no story and whatever bullcrap that has been flying around these days but currently it seems to be standing on its own new-found/realised merits. Many thanks to our buddy the editor, Yi Chang, on his effort.

We added in a couple of special effects three days ago and among them were sparks from a ricochet. A bit of eye candy for us since we were waiting for our soundman to come down and bring the edit up to the soundroom to do his magic.

The footages i gave YC came to good use and i find the results pretty nifty. And here's a video. Just a couple of minutes long.



Today's the screening for Leonard. Gonna come down in the afternoon with YC to add in the sound effects, listen to the improved audio (Soundman went "You go and listen to it" so it should be good) and the music he did since the original person tasked to do it shrunk on his balls.

And of course, finally, a little visual touch by me since i hate the look of it now. I love destroying things.
Posted by Audi Labels:
Saturday, June 16, 2007 | 0 comments  
It's been a while since I made my own short film. One thing about studying film proper is that the technicalities of what's supposedly right or wrong bugs your creative process and hinders anything short of original. Sitting down with Kang Sheng for the past few days had me admitting that in all my time spent in FSV I have never liked any films that i have made. Seems like the only film I hold true to myself is the Battle of the Field video that i made in 2004... my only ticket to FSV.

This next docu/drama film that I've done is a mish-mash of videos I recorded over the past two weeks on which i then tried to piece them together to form something of meaning... anything.

I think what turned out was a social commentary of sorts. It's not the best but who the fuck cares. I did this to proof myself wrong... that the feeling of me dropping in standard was just a result of situation.

Turns out I failed myself.

Film: Happy School
Director: Audi Khalid
Cameraperson: Audi Khalid
Running Time: 21:42 minutes

Film also available for download at ninxmz.org.
Either right click and "save as" or click on it to let it stream through WMP on your computer.



FreeVideoCoding.com


Directed, shot and edited by Audi Khalid. If only things were this simple.

Enjoy.

Special thanks to our good friend in Canada, Manas, for hosting the video file. Youtube can kiss my ass with its 10 minute limit.
Posted by Audi Labels: ,
Friday, June 15, 2007 | 0 comments  
TINGGG!!!!

AUDI MISS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Audi
The shoot for AFP Film #1 has passed on for about three weeks now. I finally managed to make my way down to Jurong West to meet Kai Xiang under his block for the production stills.

I wished i was living at his house... his block is beside Sly's! I had great fun sitting under Sly's block for the next two hours while whining and cursing about school to KX.

There werent that many stills taken it seems. Maybe its a blessing. Funny how the stills turn up much better than the footages from the film camera....

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
The day starts of well.... nice clouds and Rahman got me horny with his whole Egyptian headress thing.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
...and here I am pretending to not notice that I'm about to slap Daryl's butt.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
All's smiles and laughs for the afternoon... until the generator failed. I dont wanna talk about whatever happened on set because I'm afraid of myself.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
FSV's Best Director doing his job... i wonder why KX decided on the sneaky point of view. I dont think I feel safe around him anymore. Maybe there's a reason why he was wearing short shorts when i met him??!?!!?!!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Directing was okay for me. Apparently one of the best lessons i've learnt from this shoot is that having anyone from North View Secondary to help out in productions is comparable to killing yourself slowly with a dead cat pretending to be knife. It's a whole mess. I'm not sure if it's something the school didnt teach us but everytime I have someone from NVSS to come over a shitty attitude greets me in the face.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Waiting for nightfall. I love these three people. If any team members deserve a medal, i'd pick these three.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Night falls and we're ready to shoot........ NOT. /sarcasm

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Master Jimmy Low. Sometimes i find myself defending him no matter what whenever a negative comment is being thrown about him. Why?
Glad to have him on set. I remember that next day we had coffee and teh at Ang Mo Kio where i sat with him for the next two hours talking about the shoot the day before. Then of course.... this.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
The Arriflex 16mm camera. I dont know the specs but all i know it costs forty-five thousand dollars and I'd like to buy one by the age of 35.
I call this the "Spider Fuck" position.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
My name is Earl!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Finally. Getting jiggy with it. I like KX's framing on this.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
We had a crowd watching us. Nice. But i'm sorry aunties and uncles... you wont have the chance to see the product of this shoot anywhere else but the FSV dustbin.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Daryl... I was wondering how he got such stable shots with my video camera....

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Nader Tadros. We found him on AADB.com.sg. It's a database webbie for asian actors based in Singapore. I suggest you go look around that site... you might find something interesting there (hint hint).

Have you ever noticed how productions crews tend to smoke religiously on set? It's even worse when your producer STEALS your cigs because of some funny rule and we gotta bring in contraband cigs to calm us down. Piracy FTW.
Please, do not touch a man's cigs.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
"How many film students does it take to set up a tripod?" - Sulaimi.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Waiting for shit to happen. I should have left our beloved actress in that set-up till the next morning....

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Or maybe lock her up in the van and sent both of them back to the rental company.
I wished we had this kind of lighting appearing in our film. But not that i can blame anyone. It was divine intervention that day.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
I wonder what happened to the Rahman's camera team...... ah.. oh yes now i remember. Was he pissed that day...

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Nader again. I kinda like working with him. Things clicked and he knew how to think things through. I'm glad he actually put up with us and all our blunders.

Performance was a bit flat (as in... angry all the way) and i wasnt too happy with that. But I spotted the flaws in my direction and did a bit better for my Directing for Camera shoot the weekend after this shoot.

Directing isnt exactly an easy job. I'll save my breath because i've ranted on it a lot to Daryl, Don, KX, Kang Sheng, Michelle and so on and so forth. I wish aspiring directors good luck because you're gonna need it. For now i'll follow Jimmy's advice and stick to lesser roles and learn the basics before thinking of putting my balls through a stress test.

All pictures credited to Kai Xiang..... who live's beside Sly. ZZZZZZ.....
well we had fun trying to point out Sly's room... I couldnt find it.
Posted by Audi Labels: