Nothing Better Than Being Alive: December 2007

Red Romanov: KL - Bollywood TV Commercial

Monday, December 24, 2007 | 0 comments

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!

Sportka Lottery Commercial

Friday, December 21, 2007 | 0 comments

I simply cannot believe where the hell i've flown to within the past six to eight months.

Btw how's the new look coming?

I just got another call from a student film production in Temasek Poly and they'll like me to do some stunts and act for them.

I referred them to Uncle Jimmy because I know nuts about stunt choreography.

Anyways, the Sportka Lottery advertisement has been released and is airing on some tv stations across some country.

Here's a trailer for those who didnt catch it. Props to Leon Lee for editing hours of footages the drunken me took in KL.

And here, on YouTube, appears the final product.

Sportka Lottery: Skyscraper

Sportka Lottery: Helicopter

I liked the Helicopter one.

Enjoy your weekend.

Posted by Audi Labels: Filmmaking , Jimmy Low , My Life

Oak 3 Shoot: Pirates - Day Three and Four

Monday, December 03, 2007 | 0 comments

Well... I think I've had enough of a break for now. Back to normal life.

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

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"

And here's a video.

Posted by Audi Labels: Filmmaking , Jimmy Low , My Life

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		Red Romanov: KL - Bollywood TV Commercial Monday, December 24, 2007 \| 0 comments 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! Posted by Audi Labels: Filmmaking , Henry , Jimmy Low , My Life Sportka Lottery Commercial Friday, December 21, 2007 \| 0 comments I simply cannot believe where the hell i've flown to within the past six to eight months. Btw how's the new look coming? I just got another call from a student film production in Temasek Poly and they'll like me to do some stunts and act for them. I referred them to Uncle Jimmy because I know nuts about stunt choreography. Anyways, the Sportka Lottery advertisement has been released and is airing on some tv stations across some country. Here's a trailer for those who didnt catch it. Props to Leon Lee for editing hours of footages the drunken me took in KL. And here, on YouTube, appears the final product. Sportka Lottery: Skyscraper Sportka Lottery: Helicopter I liked the Helicopter one. Enjoy your weekend. Posted by Audi Labels: Filmmaking , Jimmy Low , My Life Oak 3 Shoot: Pirates - Day Three and Four Monday, December 03, 2007 \| 0 comments 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" And here's a video. Posted by Audi Labels: Filmmaking , Jimmy Low , My Life Newer Posts Older Posts Home	Search Subscribe to this blog. Leave a comment! Or a note at the Chatbox below! Thanks! Twitter Updates Plurk Plurk.com Be a Fan Omg, a chatbox! 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(23) Reflections (22) Travel and Adventure (21) Henry (17) Musings (9) Experimental (8) Events (6) Sylvester Sim (5) Gaming and Tech (1) About Me Audi Khalid 28th January 1988 Yishun, Singapore Currently serving National Service. ! BLOG STATUS !: Upcoming Posts: