My hands after a session of punch strengthening. I find punching with my backhand more efective than a normal punch though the reach isnt there. I burst a vessel on my right hand as well so i guess i'm doing it the wrong way.
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Another weekend and another film shoot I go as a stunt assistant. It's starting to settle in already.
This time round we attended a Channel 8 shoot at Hendon road. A bit of checking the map revealed that it was rrrrrright beside Old Changi Hospital. Nice.
Jimmy turns on his radio and it plays a prayer song. I actually find it nice. Then says, "This place dun play play."
My job today was the usual weapons handling. The guys ordered for a Glock 17 and a .38 Revolver. It was quite fun.
I'm not sure whether its just that time of the day but I remember receiving quite a number of stares... angry/pissed stares like "What are YOU doing here?" kinda look. I dunno maybe because i'm not Chinese...
The female actress was kinda hot i guess. She was nice too. She hated holding the gun cos it was too heavy for her. Well i can let her hold something which is much more heavy. hahahahhahahahahahah.
Again, the usual downtime as Jimmy and I wait for things to happen. They always put the call time 2-3 hrs earlier than needed. So what else to do but to talk about things.
Well we touched on Global Warming this time round. Quite a weird topic....
One thing i noticed is that Chinese Drama actors are so much better than Channel 5 ones. Maybe its the language. Like one of my old lecturers whome we all lovingly call PCC once said,"Chinese drama actors are the best. They can be happy one moment and then angry the next. They can cry on the spot just like that!"
Jimmy told me the reason was because "these actors are all old fucks. They've been in the industry for over ten years!"
But also because they were fulltime actors unlike Channel 5's variety of part-timers and one-off-hits.
I ran out of cigarettes that day. My money was running low (1.5k burnt within 2 months). And all that boredom was killing me. Jimmy knew what was going on and rolled me one stick with that funky cig roller he has.
I asked him why does he smoke this kind of cigarette.
"Because it's CHEAP!"
He smokes the Butterfly tobacco brand and they cost from something like SGD18.80 or SGD9.90 a packet, depending on the color(red, yellow or green... i found out). The paper itself is negligible and come in a packet of 60 and the roller costs between SGD25 to SGD6.
"My twenty dollar tobacco can last me for two weeks!" Then he looks at me and gives that trademark, "YES!" to confirm his seriousness.
"Do you know what rubbish goes into YOUR normal cigarrette? POISON! They add in cardboard... paper... rubbish... anything... just to save cost and add revenue. Have you seen how they make cigarettes?"
I heard about the rubbish part of things going into my fags. But then Jimmy told me that the loose brand of tobacco that he smokes are stamped leaves.
"These are stamped leaves. They're still not as healthy as real leaves but healthier than the usual ones you buy."
"So real leaves are actually the healthiest?" I asked.
"YES! That is why once you smoke a cigar it means the end. Once you stop, you stop. There is no withdrawal or whatever."
So that night I went and bought my own set of rolling machine and tobacco and paper.
On the second day of the shoot Jimmy told me to get his Body Hit box from the van. I wasnt expecting a body hit that day.
I stood by him and watched as he took out all these wires and two detonators from the box. He started to coil the ends together and tied them in a certain way. He then walked to the "Actor Car", which i think was rented from somewhere, and started to fix these gadgets onto the windshield.
"This is the spark effects."
Nice. I was recording the whole setting up of things but in the end felt so useless that i stopped recording and finally LOOKED at what he was doing. I was thought how to coil the charge and detonator together. How to tape them. Where to put them. What to do to protect the car from the explosion, etc etc. Kinda funky. Each spark is detonated manually so we're gonna have this actor roll over the hood as the ricohet effect lets lose.
But accidents to happen. In the next frame....
.. and Wang Tian Cai gets one in the face. But he turned out okay and instead went over to Jimmy and asked "Are you okay?". Lmao. One spark lasted about 2 frames. That's 1/12 of a second. No big deal.
After that i had to dismantle the charge and wow... the amount of gunpowder residue left. But that was easily cleaned off with water.
We had one last spark that didnt ignite. Jimmy got into his box and started to dismantle a blood pack that was meant for a body hit effect.
"This blood pack... my children made...." Jimmy says as he rips the masking tape off the gadget. Ouch...
"Take... you keep..." Jimmy hands to me the blood pack, without the charge, to me. Then he walks off.
The spark ignited, though is smaller because it wasnt meant as a ricochet effect and everybody was happy. Our job is done.
We got into his van and drove off. He ran the prayer songs again right until we exited into the expressway.
"Audi..."
"Yeah?"
".... this tuesday and wednesday i have a car explosion to make. I want you to follow me and do the wiring."
Sweet.
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Audi
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Filmmaking
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Jimmy Low
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My Life
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