Saturday, July 21, 2007 |  
Hello and welcome to Sulaimi's masterpiece production, Do'a!
Do'A means "Prayer", btw.

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Here is Faried, your Public-Relations guy and your fantastic 1st Assistant Cameraman. He does the technical part of the camera.

Saturday morning Sulaimi scheduled the fight scene first. Call time was 8am at Arab street, behind the mosque in Bugis. A few days beforehand I expected that i might need an extra pair of hands for the fight scene partly because I'm still not that clear on what I needed to do as a Stunt Director. Naturally i called in Kwang Wei since he is now Jimmy Low's part-time ginna.

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Me rolling my cigarrette while sitting on a road block. I think this whole shoot I've been doing lots of balancing postures. Damn my white crane kungfu training. (bhb bhb bhb bhb bhb lol)

But of course i had to call Daryl in as well since we pakatpakatbraderbraderforevertogether but at 9am the fella still haven show up.

I planned two shots for the fight scene. Pretty simple and i wanted it handheld since I felt it was much easier to do and had more impact. First shot was a close up of the wall, then the main character is thrown onto it, camera pulls back and the three gangsters rush in and beat him up. At the same time take close-ups of his reaction and all the feet kicking. That one movement can cover three different shots so i thought it was good. Save time.

The second shot was an over-the-shoulder to the main character's face. Then I'll punch him. Finish.

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I went through with Sulaimi the shot and he was all "WAH NICE NICE NICE" and Sammy-boy was there with his camera "YAYAYA GOOD GOOD!"

Too bad in the end the second shot was scraped and Earl didnt wanna do handheld for the first shot so the camera was static all the way. zzz.

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I still cannot believe my forearm looks like that.

After that I got Kwang Wei to help me with the padding up of the actor since Sulaimi, Faried and I will act as gangsters and beat him up. Uncle Jimmy was too kind to lend us the entire body kit pack inclusive of four wooden sticks (props) to use, for free. Normally the cost will come into a few hundreds.

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I got the actor to strip down to his underwear (lucky i warned him beforehand so he showed up in spandex) and started to put on the padding.

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Then took off his clothes so that I can strap on the many layers of padding for him.

I've seen Jimmy's boys putting up all the padding for a Mediacorp shoot so i was simply following. But as usual la so many people shoot their opinions while i'm doing my stuff. Some even said "Dunnit padding la all these."

Lucky i never listen lol. Later you see.

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The Stunt Production, baby.

I made a mistake in the padding. After putting up the armor pads and forearm pads I forgot the important areas which are the armpits.

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Michelle then came in to do on the bruises. She looked so pretty that day under the hot sun. Yishun people forever man!

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Ive gotta learn how to do bruises.

On the other corner Jassel, Faried and Rei were posing around with Jimmy's props.

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Bi-racial gangsters. Sorry to all the indians.

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Shooting was about to start and Daryl still hasnt arrived. Aiya.... brader brader.....

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I went on to lay my blood on top of Mitch's bruises. A few days ago in the library i saw a picture in one of the Hong Kong Action Cinema books of I think Jackie Cheung or Andy Lau in a fight scene and he was bloody. I studied the picture a bit and saw that they added in blood around the ears. Very beautiful. So i tried that effect on this shoot.

I still dont think i laid down the blood correctly. Looks very boring.

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I wonder how my secondary school friends would think once they see me doing stuff like this. Different of the different.

Shoot started and so we started whacking.

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During telecine we were looking at the footage that was processed and we started laughing. For one, Faried was really whacking with the stick. Sulaimi didnt know how to kick and I was kicking like a bloody spring it turned from funny to unbearable to watch.

After every take I checked on the actor to see how he's doing and everytime he either says, "No! No problem!" or "A bit pain la but nevermind."

So i took his word for it. After all i was kicking his ribs and if i kick too hard i dont think the padding can withstand it.

The scene was over.. then Daryl came in. Wah lan deh... if he was someone else i hated (for example.. ppl who can only critic films but cannot make films..) I swear he'll be in hospital now cause i curse him to get hit by ten taxis and one bus. But it's Daryl, man!

Actually i only needed Kwang Wei and Daryl for that scene only but i kept quiet lol. Let them follow the whole day. Kwang Wei was doing a good job already anyways.

We packed up and left for the next location - Tampines Secondary School.

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With my two helpers around, and on a location outdoors that doesnt even need light at all... I felt so dumb sitting around, climbing on vans, looking at Faried changing film stock or going to the toilet pissing on the floor.

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In fact, with the two of them around I was lost because I had nothing to do... they took all my job! LOL

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So i sit down do slate la. Knn sit also like bird.

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Talk cock sing song on the back of the van. Whatever. Anything!

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After on we moved to a coursemate's house to shoot a masturbation scene.

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I'm putting this picture in simple because it's jsut the two of us in a dark room.......... hahahahahhaha.....

My objective in this scene is to make this room look like day time. Sunlight shining through the windows etc etc. Earl told me what lights to use and where to fix it. Simple.

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I think it was fine. Doesnt look like day though to me eyes but it's probably because i knew it was around 9pm already when we started shooting.

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I simply find it difficult to get horny during this production. Only the morning erection gets me horny.

This was when I totally found nothing else to do because Kwang Wei and Dardar filled up my space. The room was fuckingly hot and humid. There were seven to nine people in that little room with two lights and during takes we cannot switch the fan on because of the boom mic. What to do but sit outside in the living room and SLEEP! hahahaha...

But fuck man everyone was so tired already since the morning. We only had two hours of sleep the day before. :(
Lack of sleep makes everyone crazy.

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Lol Earl.

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The side of Earl he wishes to hide. Too bad. ahhahaahaaaha.

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Jassel. Fucking cool guy. Another one of those people i like to sit nearby to listen to his life story. Fucking fun man.

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Monkey God Sammy-boy the Producer. Fella so tiny that he can squeeze anywhere to take pictures.

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Soundman Rei. I think the sound department quite fun because only one person can hear whatever you are doing and that person is you. Then you can just sit one corner and order your boom person around and all you gotta do is wait for sound to clear and press record. And if you have a sound logger to do your timecode then wow.

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And Faried. Nice composition.

Sorry la Janice our Assistant Director no picture. The pictures of her come out either unglam or some part of her face will be out of frame. lol

oh ya oh ya!

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Me! AHAHHAHAHHAHAHA buay hao bai. So fucking short.

The next day (sunday) we went over to Changi Prison Link to shoot a simple scene.
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It was near all those high class terrace houses. I hate most of the people living in all these houses. These fuckers drive their fancy cars (or not so fancy but act fancy.) and go around looking at us with their half-closed eyes and pointy noise. Wah lau. Eh limpei is millionaire son okay but you still see me half naked along the roadside, correct or not? Pcb these kind of ppl.

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Sky shot!

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Shoot bird.

Our main actor came on time in the morning. First thing he did when he saw me was go, "Eh Audi audi! Come see see see!

He took of his shirt and turned his left side to me.

I see already I want to die.

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Apparently the mistake i made in not properly padding him paid off here when Faried used the wooden stick (which is actually styrofoam) to beat his un-padded part. There's actually a proper way to beat someone safely with a stick but i think because of the distance of the wall and the length of the stick didnt allow Faried to do it like i asked him to. So the beating burst-ed a few blood vessels resulting in the bruise.

I rememebr that Sunday morning Sulaimi said to me,"Eh Audi go and tell Jimmy that his padding doesnt work la."

At that point of time i wanted to blow up. How can Uncle Jimmy make stupid mistakes like that? His equipment are all high quality and has travelled on so many stunts and productions. He uses these same padding to do motorcycle stunts so dont say that equipment is lousy, understand!

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So i told him,"Fuck la it's my fault. It's not Uncle Jimmy's. Its mine la i forgot to pad his this this this this." Act very stupid la nevermind. I cant stand it when people shoot Uncle Jimmy. Like just now in the SIM canteen this guy from outside came and was talking with me and my DOP for the next project. My next project will have stunts and he started mentioning Jimmy Low. So i blur blur la ask him how is Jimmy. He started saying Jimmy was this this this this very garang etc etc. I jsut sat down and listened.

Then I told him,"Jimmy ar.... haha.... my shifu. He teaching me all these now." and told him of our adventures.

His direction changed straight away and started saying,"Oh but he's a nice guy la..." this and that. Lol cb cannot cover backside dun say a fucking thing, understand.

But fuck that man. Actor was proud of his bruises ( he was even telling me how we can use the pictures as reference of bruises!) and Faried also was happily taking pictures.

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Poke the bruise also not pain. So i guess it's only a surface vessel tear. Nothing big la.

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Superstar. I've always said that the best lighting is natural sunlight simple because it's God's creation.

The next location we went over to a coffeeshop at the industrial park near Tampines Ikea. Not a bad place. A lot of banglas and very quiet. But the toilets felt very funny. We were shooting in the female toilet and i was looking at the ceiling when suddenly i felt like something was there. Nothing to be afraid la. Just say sorry for staring can already.

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Gaffer resting. I still cannot get horny no matter how hard i try.

It was a pretty pleasant shoot. Earl did his thing. Faried did his thing. Sound crew did their thing. I did my thing. While the creative-section of the team were sitting around doing all the creative stuff the technical people were setting up. I had a lot of fun figuring out how to coil wires and then lay them nicely on the ground. I felt like an electrician for a while. After that my job was done and all was left were to creative people to finish their thing. I sat back in one corner, enjoying the breeze, eating biscuits and admiring my handy cable-laying work.

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Examples of the Malay race.

lol i should that pic on wikipedia.

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Joking la.

Halfway through the shoot Faried noticed that the camera lens was dropping by a few milimetres. This was bad because the focus would definitely by off. They started making a jumbo-ball of gaffer tape on the lens to try and hold it in place with the adapter but the lens started falling off. I went in to look around and see what they were doing.

Then i think think think... "Eh... use chopstick la."

I borrowed chopsticks from a stall nearby and I helped Faried tape the thing up to the camera. By the time the other team members came scurrying back with rafia string borrowed from some monkey nearby everything was okay.

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It worked pretty well. Back in telecine we saw the focus of the camera degrade as the film went on and got to its worst when we started the coffeeshop scene. After the chopstick fix everything was in clear focus. Lucky the group was cool and steady. I know of other group will start doing some funny funny thing with the camera or worse.... cry on set and cancel the shoot. Kudos to Earl and Faried!

That night we shot at a mosque in Pasir Ris. Call time was 10pm and aimed to wrap up at 4am, monday morning. Daryl was kind enough to come back for the shoot (say already what.. braderbradertogetherwhateveranything).

This was the last scene of the film and Sulaimi wanted it to be all magnificient and beatiful.

Now you see the pictures and tell me if the lighting is beautiful.

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Monkey God in a mosque?!

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Police drama lol.

We had the whole mosque to ourselves and that was some cool producing done by Sammy. At this point of time i was already burnt out. Nothing i was doing was concious and everything started to become really blur. Faried will call me and before he finishes his sentence i'm already walking away because i know what he wants. So all the time it was automatic. Even with Daryl around all i could do was sit in a chair i took from somewhere and sit down. After a while Jassel disappeared. We found him sleeping soundly later ahhaahah.

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R.O.C - Relac One Corner.

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DOP and Director discussing shots. We only had 6 minutes of film left.

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Rei touching up the actor's "tattoo". Our graphic artist came for only a day and the rest of us didnt know how to do tattoos. If anyone had that kind of ugly blotch of ink on their arm i dunno whether to laugh or be scared shitless of his stupidity.

Daryl started playing with the camera and I'm impressed that he managed to capture some good shots.

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For example, me. AHHAHAHA knn i shld stop this.

i sent that photo up to my AADB.com.sg profile.

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And a shot of my lovely long neck. The Rock says.......

too bad my skin condition is fucked up.

In return I shot one of Daryl.

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yee haw!

Then I posed for him what has become the "Audi pose".

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White Crane style! Actually I do this on set when they start rolling. Useful for crowd control so that they dun walk on set. Since i dun speak Hakka or Hokkien and i definitely dont speak Bangla, this pose alone stops people in their tracks. I'm so glad i shaved my armpits before the shoot......

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And the final shot... pray for the film!

We have a reshoot of the masturbation scene and prison scene this coming wednesday because of the lens problem.. everything was out of focus. But shouldnt be a problem, really since we know how the set up will be like and stuff. i'm looking forward to it.

Tomorrow I'm going off for Don Aravind's shoot. They have a couple of dickheads in their group so i'm coming in to fill up for them... as a GAFFER! WHOO!!!

I'm acting as a bodyguard too tomorrow so yeah baby!
Posted by Audi