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Friday, September 28, 2007
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I decided to put up a new post to cover up the previous post because I had the funny feeling that I just killed many furry little bunnies with images of my face.
I'm very sorry for that. Update soon.
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Audi
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
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I called my Mediacorp contact last Monday and asked about the call time for the next day.
The person replied back,"Oh, we dont need you anymore. Thanks a bunch." I replied,"You mean I dont need to come tomorrow?" "Yup." Imagine if i hadn't called earlier. Anyways, I have been allowing myself to go lose and enjoyed myself for a little bit. In a way, I feel very guilty about it seeing how I havent been training and havent been listening to advices given by Uncle Jimmy... like not eating fried food and not drinking cold water. It looks like little things but come to my side here and see it from this angle. I tried a bit of a photoshop job since Daryl was away making love to his spanking new queen size bread. I mean, bed. I dunno man.. but "Queen" + "Daryl" simply gives me mixed emotions. I like the sound of "Super Single Audi" though. Here's what i managed to vomit out:  Kang Sheng's always been saying how my pictures lack color and vibrancy. I keep telling him that's how I see my world. I hate vibrant, bold colours. They remind me of girl-things and my tormented childhood. No... No mommy... Not the pliers again! NNnnOOooooo!!!!!! When I was young I always felt like vomitting when I saw colorful toys. I have no idea why. So there. I'm messed up. I got really bored of idling so i picked up the X360 version of Bioshock and have been having fun times in the late night with Tharik while we chat and listen to each other breathing on Xbox Live. I highly recommend playing this art of a game. It's like watching an art film... but it's a game! I did a little bit of picture browsing in my picture library. It's nice have 20 over gigabytes of random digital photos on your computer. I remember Daryl's little DP that showed him in kindergarden (or pre-school) so I thought i should make my own little cute DP to make him vomit. I did.  I kind of laughed at the end result. Then I looked further, beyond the picture, and thought, "Holy Mother of Pearl... who is this cute little boy?" I digged up more pictures and created this whole timeline of me from 1989 to now. I looked back at the results and then it hit me; I'm like Michael Jackson! I'm a FREAK!  I guess this is life; the fat become thin, the thin become fat, the ugly become the presentable, the cheeky becomes the bastard... For some sick reason, you could download the bigger picture here. And now for something sane, our very own Uncle Leon has burned out the completed DVD of the KL shoot for Biscuit Films. Luckily he did a little teaser trailer so I've uploaded it up to Photobucket. If anyone would like the full DVD which is about ten minutes long and shows the setting up of each stunt (plus, you get an extra stunt not in the trailer for free!), give me a shout and I'll throw one in your direction. I wish you all happy Moon Cake Festival and please clean up the candles that have melted on the sidewalk. Video: The Stunt Production (S) KL Shoot for Biscuit Films Trailer!
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Audi
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Filmmaking
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Jimmy Low
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My Life
Friday, September 21, 2007
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Edit: Video added
Pretty much another busy schedule for me this week. But at least i'm doing something.  Last Thursday and Friday I had the privelege of acting for Mediacorp on a Life Story 2 episode entitled "Quah Kim Song"... some footballer of the 70s.  I got over to the TV builidng in Mediacorp and found the Channel News Asia office so I was like "hahahahaahaha wtf". Channel News Asia has brought me through a lot of rough times.... I saw a group of Malay boys.. plenty of them... sitting around as usual. I needed to find the Wardrobe area so I came up to a couple of them and asked where is it. They looked at me.. in some funny way... like as if I owed them something. One of them flashed his eyes and pointed it to some place behind me. "It's there." he says. I turned around and the wardrobe had this little window and behind it was a HUGE laundry-room-like looking thing.  I met a guy named Fish... yeah.. Fish... and he looked awfully familiar. We started talking about stuff. More boys came in including two other Chinese boys. I asked him who were they and Fish said,"Oh... they're the National Squad..." I was in the same room as the National Squad Under-18s?  I asked Fish if he acted before, since he looked so familiar, and he put up four fingers. "Four years." Then bam.. i knew it was that guy I keep seeing on tv. This episode the main character was played by Randall Tan. I was sitting with another part-time actor and I made eye contact with him. He smiled and I thought he looked like some actor Ting would love to screw over everyday in bed so I smiled back.  Pretty funny guy. He's 34... and doesnt know how to play soccer and acting in a soccer episode.  We had the shoot at a footbal field along Jalan Kayu on Thursday. I met plenty of familiar faces in the crew from the times I've been showing up with Uncle Jimmy on Mediacorp productions. We exchanged nods and smiles as usual. I felt like it was a pretty small crew today... five people... and Fish gasped,"This is considered big already you know!" So we're overdoing it in school?  Having a minor role that day gave me some time to go around nosing about. Randall, Fish and I were hanging about together. Randall is like Shah... so there. Fish and I were talking about the industry and I asked about whatever Mediacorp was. I was reminded of the time Daryl and I were in Tampines, hanging our balls out to dry the day before, and he mentioned how none of the Mediacorp actors can act. So I asked Fish about this and he started chuckling. He gave me some names of people whom he thought couldnt act but are making it big and climbing up the ranks anyways. I asked if they were actually given acting courses of anything and he said it was pretty much training-on-the-job. I get it now.  We had an old man named Uncle Bill, who plays Uncle Choo, come in on set. He seems to be really well-known around the industry, what with a restaurant under his name, a veteran actor and was setting a date for Pat Mok and Michelle Yeoh to come to his restaurant. Michelle Yeoh, wtf? I think i got the name wrong... He was saying stuff about how the new generation of kids in the industry are spoiling a lot of things. Like Kwang Wei said... they come in and get jobs like Assistant Director (I got offered that position already lol) and in this case, Casting Director. Uncle Bill was saying how the people of old would keep records for the actors but the new kids dont. As such, the old veteran actors are forgotten and now they find people like us, poly kids, to act for their shows. It's only by luck that Uncle Bill was spotted on AADB... much like how i was spotted for this shoot.  The Friday shoot was held at NTU's Track and Field area. Pretty interesting morning that time. Before we left I was waiting in the bus for a new friend of mine to get on. I was replying Ting and was about to ask her to set a date so that we can all go meet Sly and Family one day. That was when I spotted Sly's biggest fan - Patricia Mok! Hey I like Pat Mok. She was wearing something really sweet with lots of flesh showing. Those in bus who saw had to admit that she had a nice figure... then *someone* said her face was pretty too... just that her mouth was as big as a whale. I LOL-ed. After that this big guy came walking behind her. I figured it was Julian Hee because I saw the costumes they were gonna wear for "Mission" in the Mediacorp wardrobe and both their names were written on it. On the way to NTU we passed Ngee Ann Poly and I caught a glimspe of Sly's block in Jurong. That was a happy day.  Btw... Fish and I were oogling at some bunch of girls who were going in and out of the wardrobe dressed in really nice black gowns. Some were awesomely hot and others were god-awful ugly. Fish asked one of those in charge of them what show they were doing. She looked back and went,"Oh... Deal or No Deal." Fish and I gave the longest "oooooohhhhhhhh" you can ever think off ending with a knowledgeable nod of the head as we looked at the girls running about.  I see the Metamorphosis posters are out. I remember we had at least 15 ppl on set at any time for any of this show's episode. Now, we only have 5. I guess what people said was right... that Channel 8 has a fatter budget than Channel 5.  Uncle Jimmy called me on Friday morning. Looks like he's back in Singapore. I think he wanted me to do something but I couldnt since I was acting. All he told me was, "Do a good one." I told him before that the director was a Malay guy and he got confused. Now, Kwang Wai says that guy in red is a producer with a Punjabi name and now i'm even more confused.  but in any case... this guy wasnt like most of the directors i've seen. Shoot ended pretty fast. I was there for about an hour and then I was done. Two hours waiting for the bus and an hour later i'm done? I talked to another veteran actor about it and he said that this shoot was exteremly fast. He's had his rough times apparently; nothing happening on set... dragging schedules... characters being cut out.... But we both agreed that this director knew what was happening. I'm cool with that.  Since I finished early I hung around to see the production doing stuff. I asked about the camera... I asked about stuff... I observed the intern doing being the camera assist and using the word "fuck" on the cameraoperator.... I dont think that's nice even if you're smiling.  That's Fish in green and Randall in blue and some guy from NTU in biege. I had my fun time on the shoot. I made friends with one of the Chinese boys from the National Squad and we exchanged numbers. I'm amazed that these guys are at most 18 and their kicks were simple awesome. I heard that the match they did for the shoot went surprisingly smooth - every ball went where it was supposed to. And the build of their bodies makes me look all weak and nerdy... not that I was fit to begin with haha...  I was looking at this girl as well. The devil in me kicked in and I started getting cheeky. I like entertaining girls who look lost. I learned a new phrase from Randall and it's called "Cock Tease"... want to show but dun wan to show (he was talking about the sun, btw). For the sake of humanity, I wont say how I used this on the girl. Uncle Bill was talking to her.. i think it was about her being a model or something. I listened in (I sat next to her on purpose heheheheheheh) and found out she was just right. In the bus I looked and studied... oh nvm. She's Chinese too so I guess she isnt lazy and stupid ahahahahahahaha.  Fine, I digress. I had a lot of beef for dinner last night. The last shoot will be this Tuesday. Seems pretty fun judging from the script. Until then, I need to do my rounds around Yishun. 
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Audi
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007
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EDIT: Changed a few things and added new video. What multimedia-ic fun!
Though it's still the holidays here for Ngee Ann... and the kids who went for attachment are at home getting fat (except for Kai Xiang... can never go beyond my little finger)... those who chose IBP are already working on their film.  Boring details about what the fudge is "IBP" aside, Don, Rahman, Daryl and I took my dad's car out for a spin around Singapore looking for the perfect location for our depressing 15 minute love between a young 8 year old Indian boy and a 75 year old chinese woman.  This isnt the first time Don and Rahman took my dad's car out for a spin so getting permission was easy. Besides... they're both at least 23 years old. It's not like some 19 year old boy driving...  It's pretty cool going around with the guys in the car and me yapping my gay ass off with hit-and-miss jokes. Somehow i think one day I'll die in their hands. We went around the whole of Singapore looking really hot with our swanky "FMS Uniform" - bermudas and black/white shirts and slippers, going around blasting GOLD 90.5FM in our hip and cool Corolla Altis. The old ladies would die for us.  Our story called for a povert-ised looking flat (that's poverty, btw)and we did find some. We went around the neighbourhoods and sat down, Daryl smoking like the bloody chimney he is, watching the residents going by with their lives.  Most of the residents were very receptive of new faces, surprisingly. I would have thought they'd shake sticks at us but no, they were smiling, they were praying, they were helping their negihbours move things. Its amazing that these residents are above 50 years old. They did ask what we were doing here, getting out of the car looking like CID officers and walking through corridors and staring into their flats. I could understand the tension in the air but it always subsides once we say we're looking for a place to film. Sometimes, though, i think we shouldnt tell them more than we should. Rahman was talking to one of them and it went like this: "Oh Auntie, we're thinking of shooting a film so we're looking for a location..." She smiles and giggles then asks,"Why here? It's so ugly." Obviously she was joking around, smiling and being so jumpy, then Rahman replied,"Oh but our story calls for a depressing place... full of poverty... so we came here." Rahman smiles. I dont think I could say that any better to a 65 year old woman.  Sometimes I wonder what should I do once i graduate. I really dont like being in any of the top positions... i dont like thinking of story or pre-production. What I like is going around with these people seeing all this things... the nooks and crannies of the country. Then I can tell stories and tell of my adventures like Sir Raffles in his little straw cottage in the Singapore Jungles, surrounded by naked dancing monkey boys. I think I should be a blogger! Oh, wait...  We chanced upon a block in Old Toa Payoh that was in the middle of eviction. Some shops were boarded up along with several other units. It was quiet, save only for the residents that still live in that block. Some of the occupied units are so far apart that the could be on opposite ends of the block. I can only imgaine how it's like to live in such a block from the beginning; day by day, you lose a neighbour. It's like a war going on in Nazi Germany. Oh look, cats.  I like the way this three people think. Props to Don and Rahman for influencing Daryl and I. We're like those group of boys sitting behind the class, not the favourite of any teachers, and we're struggling to make it despite our kids at home, our sick parents, allowance from charities. No, wait, that's us. As for Don, he lives alone. Bachelor forever yea. Rahman died.  Seriously, no matter how much we try in school, in the end, the grades in our resutls slip still come up the same; Cs and Ds. I know my parents wont understand my response to those grades, but I do - I've seen it all before. Pretty much why I dont really bother about grades anymore. At the end of the day, it's just a fucking diploma. My experience will speak for me the next time i need a job.  Rahman was driving most of the day. I liked the way he drives. It feels so energetic. He was playing with the gearstick in the car and testing the acceleration and brakes. Not long later he turns the Altis into a semi-auto car. He went from gear L, to gear 2, then D, then down to 2, then back to L. The car sped from 0kmph to 60kmph in a mere second or so. It was fun... Don was going, "RAHMAN! RAHMAN! BEST DRIVER MAN!!!" and cheering him on. At the end of the day, Don was getting restless and went,"Cb la... i feel nauseous.... headache..." He hits the driver's chair,"Fuck you la Rahman, I think it's your driving."  We went over to Bedok Corner after that to grab a bite. Daryl started getting jumpy and all. "I want to drive." Lol. Fine. Daryl passed his driving test about a month ago, before school closed and has been itching to drive ever since. Everytime I have an argument with him about driving he whips out his driver's license and says,"Eh, you get this then talk to me okay?" Apparently the last time he drove was the day after his TP. lmao?  Which reminds me, video are a given. We found the locations in the end and have prepared the photos and stuff to be submitted to our Producer, Hannah Banana... err.. i mean.. Hannah Angsana...  Uncle Kam seems to be really happy with the four of us going all around for location scouting. Of course he should... I mean.. we make the Corolla Altis look cool!  Rahman got me home really quickly from Don's place in Pasir Panjang. Honestly the Altis sped like never before. I think it felt happy, at last. After all, the Altis has now been replaced with a Honda CRV just this afternoon. I believe we gave the car a good run that day after three years of serving this family.  Somehow I feel like i'm a frigging newscaster with a blog. *Turns to camera 2* In other news, Mediacorp sent me the email consisting of the shoot schedule and script for the Life Story episode I had the privelege of acting in. Apparently they didnt like me playing a Chinese (what? too dark for you?!) and set me into a Malay role. Luckily I dont have to speak to gibberish... i mean, Malay... otherwise I'd screw everything up.  The have a scene where I'm the supporting character and I'm supposed to run down the left flank of a soccer field with the ball and do a cross over to the actor playing Quah Kim Song. I play soccer like a Kang Sheng in a china shop so...... merry christmas? Shooting starts this Thursday and ends next Tuesday. Should be cool. I wanted to bring along a friend with me to act like my assistant (hey, some actors have assistants...) to carry towels and water.. maybe learna few things... see a few things... earn a few things... but too bad man... fella disappointed me AGAIN and still hasnt waken up his idea.  Till next time... and have you seen Kang Sheng? Fucker slimmed down! p.s I found this video and thought it's a pretty good example of real-life drama. Just look at the blocking!
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Audi
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My Life
Sunday, September 16, 2007
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I spent my day in Hong Kong yesterday...
 ...Hong Kong street, that is. There was another Mediacorp shoot yesterday for god-knows-what-show and they needed some firing effects. I arrived at Sim Lim Tower in the early afternoon to look at some recent developments Uncle Jimmy was doing and then we went over to Chinatown for a while to do some shopping. On this shoot I was the weapons handler again.  Mediacorp called up and pushed the call time back to 4pm, instead of 3pm. Fine. So we arrived at 4pm. We arrived and the whole street was empty. "I knew this would happen..." breathed Uncle jimmy. "They'll only come at five." We spent the hour talking about stuff. I had the time to play around with my sister's camera that she lent me.  I like playing with cameras + Photoshop. Makes me feel useful. All these while I've been taking pictures with my handphone camera (surprised?) and finally a proper camera lands in my hands.  Hong Kong Street looks a lot like Kuching... except it wasnt filled with Malays and Dayaks littering and walking-so-slowly along the sides of the street.  The sun these few days felt pretty new to me. I dont know why... but it seemed brighter and more refreshing. i like it.  I stood beside the van, waiting for nuts to drop from the sky, and then from the end of the street I saw the Mediacorp truck making a sharp turn into the street.  The camera crew got out and were quick in setting up whatever they needed, not wasting any time like how some of us KIDS would do on school productions. Not long after the other buses came and the film crew started to sprawl over the streets, attracting passers-by and residents, no less.  The show this time seemed to be another cop drama for Channel 8. Well, duh, isnt that what they always make? Btw... i saw the Metamorphosis commercial on Channel 8 these few days. Apparently that was the one I had a hand in at Hendon Camp and Teck Lim Road.  It's pretty cool for me to go out on other people's productions just like that. I saw them make up TWO police cars from some generic white car. I looked at the sirens... the lights... the decals... then I asked Uncle Jimmy where to get this this this and he's a directory on his own.  We had plenty of fake policemen on set. I've never seen policemen laze around like drug addicts... lol. Every single time I go on productions I cant help to think about whatever politics that has come on is school the past semester. The talk about professionalism.. the talk on Mediacorp sucking THAT much... who won this award.. who won fucking gold... who did this and that. i guess it's pretty lucky for me to be so ignorant about school politics. They talk about who's good or who's not or who's made it.. all off-hand. Like they're fortune tellers. I ask myself, "Why do you even bother?"  I got my results slip a few days ago. It was the usual Cs and Ds. I expected it. I figured out long ago that school results are jsut an excuse for an easy way out... a sort of.. recognition in the beginning of sorts. But this borderline-student of yours pretty much has his feet in the industry already. I think about the other kids in school who scream for "professionalism" and the way things should work. Don and i sit back and we shake our heads. It's pretty obvious these people have never been outside before.  It seemed like a very big production this time round. There were about a few dozen people on set with two cars are props. I saw a group of young boys and then I saw a boy who looked like Joshua Ang from I Not Stupid Since Joshua was Clara's friend I thought hey why the fuck not go up to him and say hi? Then I remembered he was 18 and in NS and not 13 years old on a bloody Mediacorp production.  I got called up by Mediacorp again a few days ago. The girl on the other line called me by name. She asked if I could come down for a casting audition for Life Story 2 and it was gonna be the episode on some guy named Kim Song. I said, "Sure, why not?" and agreed to come down the next morning. Then she asked, "Can you play soccer?" I paused... and remembered the days I scored many many many goals.... own goals... and i was the goalkeeper. "Yea.. a bit..."  I went over to Mediacorp the next morning, the Annex Building. I like doing this when I'm alone - I'll go up to the receptionist, who normally's a very friendly middle-aged woman, and started flirting. I've no idea why but I like poking fun at them and playing like a little kid. Most would laugh and smile but those who dont.. who seem like the world owes them everything... are the younger girls who think they have cunts of gold.  Even in the audition room I found myself playing around with the little audition lady.. who should be around my age. They had the betacam camera on me against a green wall and a softbox shining on me. The room was small and bright so I felt comfortable playing around with her. But when the camera started rolling I lost it all and became a robot.  I find the scripts Mediacorp writes are pretty decent. Very nice to read. But then why the toot does every episode come up so bland???? Probably because of the actors...  That evening I was at Uncle Jimmy's place trying to fix his printer (amazing we can never get it fixed. Some serious problem going there...) and I received a call from Mediacorp again. They went,"Hi Audi... you got the part. We'll email you the details soon." Oh, fine. They didnt tell me what role I'm getting... or i missed it... but during auditions I was playing two roles - Kim Song's brother, and Kim Song himself. So, I'm playing a Chinese? As Daryl would say when I told him about it,"WHAT THE FUCK???!!" lol.. daryl..  Yesterday's shoot had a part where the guy commits suicide with a shot to the head. Then his son comes crying. It seemed pretty dangerous because we're firing blanks at such point blank range. The crowd got bigger and bigger and the evening traffic rush was building up just outside. I positioned myself as close and safely as i could to the gun because I wanted to get a clean shot of the firing.  The gun went bang... and the actor fell off his chair... dead. No, wait. Everything went fine. The board seperating his head and the gun barrel blocked the gas flying out of the barrel. It was pretty cool to be so close to a live gun. I made a video of the whole shoot too... There were a few more live firing shots after that. It was a nice ego boost after that for me to go up and take the gun from his hands, check for ammo, then put it into my pocket like it's a harmless handphone. I turned around and the crowd had it's eyes following me. Who is this little boy? What an ego-boost.  Uncle Jimmy and I hung around a little while longer, awaiting for the cue for us to leave. I had the oppurtunity to shoot some nice shots and see those young boys in action. What paedophillic fun!  My dad seems to be having some sort of problem with me in this industry... or me under Uncle Jimmy. I dont blame him. I dont tell him much about whatever I do anyways. I dont think he'll understand. I dont think he'll understand why I can stand being in a community where everyone speaks Cantonese and old men talk about sex. Well, I dont think there even should be a reason. Why the prejudice and the color bar?  While editing the video I was looking at the clip of the boys acting. I was brought back to the time yesterday night when I caught a glimpse of a familiar figure waving at me from far across the bus interchange in Yishun. It was Henry.  I didnt think he ever knew anything about whatever was in my chest so i went up to him, for old time's sake. We talked, and i noticed some sort of happier air around him. He seemed interested in my days with Uncle Jimmy and productions. It's the kind of bittersweet feeling; he wants to know, I thought i shouldnt talk about it. I left after his bus came and headed home; I had work to do. In a way, I was glad he asked so much. Then I saw that there's a new email in my account... I opened it...  ... it was an email from him, sent a couple of hours earlier. I understand everything now. :)  Uncle Jimmy will be out of the country from tomorrow till the 22nd. As fate would have it, I'll probably be out on that Mediacorp production that I'll be acting in. And just nice, Kang Sheng is back in Singapore and it's high time I whack his fat ass back to Slim City.
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About MeAudi Khalid 28th January 1988 Yishun, Singapore Currently serving National Service. ! BLOG STATUS !: Upcoming Posts: 
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