On the 20th of December 2008 I was called down to help out in a shoot for Suria. I was briefed on what stunts we had to prepare the day before and it was simple: wire rigs and pyrotechnics.
It was back to work and I relished every moment I spent the night before loading up the van in Whampoa with mattresses, poly-boards and a trampoline. Oh yes, how much of a 'coolie' I was before NS. Uncle Jimmy and I took stock of our explosives and I watched as he crafted effect after effect out of unsuspecting materials.
The shoot this time was for Suria's upcoming serial drama entitled "Nenekku Superspy", or in translation, "Superspy Grandma". The thing about us stunt guys is that we don't usually care whose shoot we're on or what the story is about. All I could gather about the show was that it's supposed to take place in some virtual world where a middle-aged lady is the hero and she kicks virtual ass by using household items as weapons. Like a rubberband.
Normally these film-shoot posts would go on-and-on as I regurgitate sentences in an effort to make walls of text that would allow pictures to be slotted in between paragraphs. Well, to hell with that. No one gives a shit about text even if I said I killed my sister last night and dumped her body on top of fapping macaque monkeys. I'll make a photoblog-post instead.
Getting It Right.
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The film was shot just outside Seletar Camp. It's single storey building and everything inside's a mess. Lots of abandoned buildings in the area. Uncle Jimmy looked at them and shook his head. "If only the government could give me one of these buildings as my workshop." I concur. We need the space.
A look into this room and you just knew shit happened here before. Uncle Jimmy walked in when I took this photo and went,"Oh... this is where I did the human torch stunt a few weeks back. I set the wall on fire." Good lord, for a while, I thought this was a drug den.
Wire Stunt: Twirling Up
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There wasn't anyone around in the stunt team but my boss's son and me. Since he'll be busy directing, the setting-up had to done by me. I've seen a lot of wire rigs, but this was the first time I had to fix it up on my own. I was unsure and got quite a bit of a disappointment from Uncle Jimmy. Two years in the stunt industry and I can't even tie a knot?
I had to stack up and balance two tables that were lying around and stand on a chair and criss-cross wires through funny places of the walls to get this done. But of course I wasn't afraid - I had my SAF gloves. I feel so safe in them.
This wire stunt went well, and Tetris (yes, that's his son's name. 0.o) and I pulled the wire. She had to spin while we pulled her up. I had a go with it a few times before to check for stability. Uncle Jimmy was on the other end of the wire. When the test was done, he said,"You're an elephant." Who knew I was 70-over KG?
Apart from what we had on the project brief, we'd always do some additional low-level special effects on the shoot. It's from these little extras that I learnt many useful things like how to make AND handle an improvised smoke machine. Jimmy Low's a very handy guy and he can make things out of nothing. Then again, I was brought up with a silver spoon in my mouth.
For this shoot, they needed the dust-blowing-from-a-strike effect that's quite apparent in Hong-Kong kung-fu films. I heard the main actress was a veteran. She's middle-aged and a very jovial person. I'm surprised at how energetic she was.
Uncle Jimmy created this effect on-the-fly and it looks great on camera.
Wire Stunt: Flying Backwards
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Tetris and I moved over to another room after taking down the former rig set-up to make a new one while Jimmy was off on a different scene. This was something new. The ceiling... well... there was no ceiling... and we had to somehow hook up a pulley on the iron beam about two-storeys up. All I had was a ladder two metres too short and a crowbar. I don't know how we got it up, but we did. Again, I was safe. Why? Because I had my gloves!
I called Uncle Jimmy for a check during a break and he was quite impressed at what we did. Then he told me,"Could you cut off all that false ceiling?"
There was no way I could do that. So he got four strong men and instructed me to get into my wire harness. I knew what was coming... I had to cut off all that aluminium while hanging from a wire. Needless to say, the harness got tighter as I stayed up there. You know how tight harnesses can get down below.
I had great fun, though, swinging around with the knowledge that at the other side of the line were four men on the floor heaving and maintaining their grip to keep me up. They couldn't keep up after a while so I looked at my boss and we grinned. "Bring the ladder over."
See, there's action stunts, and there's publicity stunts. That was a publicity stunt.
This is probably the only picture of me you'll see in close contact with another girl.
We got the stand-in rigged with a harness and proper padding to get her used to the wires. Till this day, I can never understand why I'm always so afraid of getting hooked on wires whereas the talents are so comfy and jolly about it.
But before we got her up, I had the honor to test the wire out. Which basically means, if shit happens, it'll be a pretty good lesson for me.
Luckily, the set-up was stable and I got a kick out of it. The same four guys had to pull me. I'm sorry I'm an elephant, okay? I was afraid I'd miss the mattresses behind and knock the hell out of my head but that's pretty much impossible. I had some fun after a while and did the Matrix bullet-time thing for kicks. Oh, when will the day I could act in an action film?
Spark Effects
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We saved the scene for later, and moved on to the pyrotechnics. Another thing about film shoots is that we have to pretty much think on our feet. On our side, we don't really do location scouting days before. Uncle Jimmy's pretty much a veteran and he knows what to do. He took a look at the location and planned the shots and sequence and where to plant the charges.
I think it's pretty cool to have a father that shows you how to make pyro-effects and that was what he was doing. He ran me through, as well, about the different shapes and patterns to consider for the scene itself. I got to work with setting them up and camouflaging them from the camera with leaves and wood.
This is an example of our set-up. This one's meant for a wide-shot so we didn't really have to hide it much. Uncle Jimmy packs it in such a way that even if you held the length of wire nearest to the charge you wouldn't get pieces of your fingertips flying about the set. It's directional and that means there's a clear danger area that the talent should avoid and it helps for the trigger person on the right timing to set it off.
No one managed to get a video of the effect sequence. The three of us had our own effects to trigger. I was a bit slow in triggering off. It was my first time, though, and luckily, I didn't have to march off the set or anything. Maybe I was scared. But fuck me, how can I be afraid of things I'm in charge of?
The picture above is the result after releasing the charge. The resulting pattern tells a lot about how it was prepared and this one was good. Safe, and fucking impressive. We blew a charge on another shot. It was on the floor, and the actress was a step away from it. When it set-off, the light and bang was so brilliant she jumped... subsequently releasing a fart. Good laughs that time. What's up with all the fart jokes, lately?
Wire Stunt: Flying Backwards 2
Wire Test 2 from Audi Khalid on Vimeo.
It's finally time for the last major stunt of the day. We got the stand-in in her get up of paddings, a winter coat, and the usual things a Malay lady would wear in the hot and humid tropical weather of our country. I should say it was a great transformation. I broke all rules of professionalism when I started to laugh out loud... uncontrollably. Who would have thought they'd see a lady in a tudung fly?
Even Malaysian films have never done it before!
I found out only recently that this stand-in was a university graduate. How cool is that? I'm setting up a lady who's definitely twenty-six thousand times smarter than me into the air and on a pile of dirty sandy mattresses. We didn't do two rehearsals... nor three... we at least threw her back a dozen times, rectifying her mistakes and getting things to the right momentum for that perfect shot.
The cameras started rolling and the scene commenced. Everything went fine and we did a few takes with no issues. We've never had an accident before, and I'd be damned if it happened the first time I was tasked to take charge of one. The stand-in had a great time (Okay, I think she got bored of the stunt after the first twenty rehearsals) but most importantly, the director was happy with the shots.
It's A Wrap!
I'm not quite sure when the episode will be airing. If you do watch TV, or even tune in to Suria, alert me if the commercial for the episode airs. I'd love to see how things turned out.
It was near evening when we were done. I had things packed up and mattresses loaded back into the van. They had more shots to take and I became anxious. Uncle Jimmy saw that and he approached me,"Audi, you have an appointment later, right?"
I nodded.
"Okay, you may leave. Thanks for all your help. I'll handle all these other small scenes."
I shook his hand, bid everyone on set good-bye and thanked the production manager who took some shots for me with my camera. I ran out to the main road when I realized I was in Seletar... there are no public transports, there are no HDB estates, and the main road is about half a kilometer out.
I was running already when a truck came up behind and I hitched a ride out to the main road. I never knew you could hitch a ride like that in Singapore. Whoever was that nice uncle who let me into his truck, I thank you.
That was pretty much my day that day. I got home, washed up, put on my leather pants, singlet, jacket and fedora cap and I was out again to attend Nuffnang's vPost Xmas Party.
So yes, I'm sorry, to whoever that met me at the party, if I stank so much that night.
This is where magic is done.
It was back to work and I relished every moment I spent the night before loading up the van in Whampoa with mattresses, poly-boards and a trampoline. Oh yes, how much of a 'coolie' I was before NS. Uncle Jimmy and I took stock of our explosives and I watched as he crafted effect after effect out of unsuspecting materials.
There are things here that can blow your nose off.
The shoot this time was for Suria's upcoming serial drama entitled "Nenekku Superspy", or in translation, "Superspy Grandma". The thing about us stunt guys is that we don't usually care whose shoot we're on or what the story is about. All I could gather about the show was that it's supposed to take place in some virtual world where a middle-aged lady is the hero and she kicks virtual ass by using household items as weapons. Like a rubberband.
Normally these film-shoot posts would go on-and-on as I regurgitate sentences in an effort to make walls of text that would allow pictures to be slotted in between paragraphs. Well, to hell with that. No one gives a shit about text even if I said I killed my sister last night and dumped her body on top of fapping macaque monkeys. I'll make a photoblog-post instead.
Getting It Right.
-
Wire Stunt: Twirling Up
-
I had to stack up and balance two tables that were lying around and stand on a chair and criss-cross wires through funny places of the walls to get this done. But of course I wasn't afraid - I had my SAF gloves. I feel so safe in them.
For this shoot, they needed the dust-blowing-from-a-strike effect that's quite apparent in Hong-Kong kung-fu films. I heard the main actress was a veteran. She's middle-aged and a very jovial person. I'm surprised at how energetic she was.
Wire Stunt: Flying Backwards
-
There was no way I could do that. So he got four strong men and instructed me to get into my wire harness. I knew what was coming... I had to cut off all that aluminium while hanging from a wire. Needless to say, the harness got tighter as I stayed up there. You know how tight harnesses can get down below.
See, there's action stunts, and there's publicity stunts. That was a publicity stunt.
This is probably the only picture of me you'll see in close contact with another girl.We got the stand-in rigged with a harness and proper padding to get her used to the wires. Till this day, I can never understand why I'm always so afraid of getting hooked on wires whereas the talents are so comfy and jolly about it.
But before we got her up, I had the honor to test the wire out. Which basically means, if shit happens, it'll be a pretty good lesson for me.
Luckily, the set-up was stable and I got a kick out of it. The same four guys had to pull me. I'm sorry I'm an elephant, okay? I was afraid I'd miss the mattresses behind and knock the hell out of my head but that's pretty much impossible. I had some fun after a while and did the Matrix bullet-time thing for kicks. Oh, when will the day I could act in an action film?
Spark Effects
-
I think it's pretty cool to have a father that shows you how to make pyro-effects and that was what he was doing. He ran me through, as well, about the different shapes and patterns to consider for the scene itself. I got to work with setting them up and camouflaging them from the camera with leaves and wood.
The picture above is the result after releasing the charge. The resulting pattern tells a lot about how it was prepared and this one was good. Safe, and fucking impressive. We blew a charge on another shot. It was on the floor, and the actress was a step away from it. When it set-off, the light and bang was so brilliant she jumped... subsequently releasing a fart. Good laughs that time. What's up with all the fart jokes, lately?
Wire Stunt: Flying Backwards 2
Wire Test 2 from Audi Khalid on Vimeo.
It's finally time for the last major stunt of the day. We got the stand-in in her get up of paddings, a winter coat, and the usual things a Malay lady would wear in the hot and humid tropical weather of our country. I should say it was a great transformation. I broke all rules of professionalism when I started to laugh out loud... uncontrollably. Who would have thought they'd see a lady in a tudung fly?Even Malaysian films have never done it before!
I found out only recently that this stand-in was a university graduate. How cool is that? I'm setting up a lady who's definitely twenty-six thousand times smarter than me into the air and on a pile of dirty sandy mattresses. We didn't do two rehearsals... nor three... we at least threw her back a dozen times, rectifying her mistakes and getting things to the right momentum for that perfect shot.
It's A Wrap!
I'm not quite sure when the episode will be airing. If you do watch TV, or even tune in to Suria, alert me if the commercial for the episode airs. I'd love to see how things turned out.
It was near evening when we were done. I had things packed up and mattresses loaded back into the van. They had more shots to take and I became anxious. Uncle Jimmy saw that and he approached me,"Audi, you have an appointment later, right?"
I nodded.
"Okay, you may leave. Thanks for all your help. I'll handle all these other small scenes."
I shook his hand, bid everyone on set good-bye and thanked the production manager who took some shots for me with my camera. I ran out to the main road when I realized I was in Seletar... there are no public transports, there are no HDB estates, and the main road is about half a kilometer out.
I was running already when a truck came up behind and I hitched a ride out to the main road. I never knew you could hitch a ride like that in Singapore. Whoever was that nice uncle who let me into his truck, I thank you.
That was pretty much my day that day. I got home, washed up, put on my leather pants, singlet, jacket and fedora cap and I was out again to attend Nuffnang's vPost Xmas Party.
So yes, I'm sorry, to whoever that met me at the party, if I stank so much that night.
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Audi
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