9:24 a.m. - 2005-05-28
freedom of speech on the internet will soon be gone
work has been quite ok, endurable, hectic juggling and funny in a way.
im still getting used to the various production flow and trying to talk to my colleagues in a clearer amicable way so that we can work together happily.
one of my colleagues said dun be timid!
i dun know since when i developed such a habit. shit.
anyway, yea for one of my jobs, i wrote a short script, which was then vetted and discussed over a few times with a script supervisor, after which he rewrote the entire script.
And then i took the script for voicing, during which i was late (because i walked away after seeing that the voicer had a long queu of pple also wanting her to voice scripts, i thought i could return a bit later) and then they had finished and i had to be flustered for a few minutes as i waited for a chance to get the voicer to help me. Thankfully, she was alright with it.
And then i had to visualise the music video images and interview shots that will go with the vo.
Meanwhile, i was busy with some other shit, and running around like a headless chicken, so on.
then a few days later, i went back to the earlier script thing, and talked to colleagues who would be shooting the stars on another day; we sort of arranged the basic shooting schedule. My spot was quite short and so they decided that we would shoot my spot first when the stars arrive.
it was my first production shoot and directing stars. i was quite blur. i thought of michel gondry and inspiration and confidence boosting and then hoped that it wouldn't rain on shooting day. My colleagues were quite encouraging and that was great.
the day at the shoot, we were outside this teenage shopping centre hangout, with the production crew, and just sitting around waiting for the stars to come. I found it quite exciting and better than sitting in the office, facing the computer typing, or in the editing room editing. I guess i dun hate production shoots after all. It's so cool to just sit around and relax.
we had already shown the cameraman cum director of photography about the shot locations and i had drawn little egg diagrams of how the stars would be positioned or walking. i worried over these composition misc en scene shit for some time, about how to get the stars to move around, and about how to get them in the mood, i thought of gondry and journey to the west and came up with this line: "imagine you are embarking on this great rock n roll adventure and just swagger coolly down the road towards the camera." And then me and my colleagues also tried to match names to faces becos we dunno these stars and they look so alike.
finally, when the aliens arrived, there was a fair amount of handshaking and chaotic hellos and the various managers/kar-kias to get rid of. All these was happening right in front of the busy crowded facade. My colleague was introduced as the main producer of the shoot and he shook their hands and talked a bit (30 seconds) and then waved his hand to me and told them, "ok, sh will be directing you guys for the ____ thing we will be doing first."
And so i came forward and shook their hands, they were so tall, i only saw their hands and heard sounds of their names uttered far away. And so i took out my shooting sequence paper and sort of go through with them the few things we will be shooting and requiring them to do. I heard one snigger. I dunno why. maybe becos i was so skinny and unauthoritative. Anyway i just continued and tried talking to them in English but their english is of cos different from ours and so there was a bit of confusion. i talked about the great rock n roll adventure thing and they couldn't get it and so their minder stepped in and said, "just think reservoir dogs."
And so we shoot shoot shoot.
Things happen like in one take and the DOP just automatically shoot with his angles, and i just go with the flow...
when i say automatically, i meant several things all happening simultaneously without my control: my colleague hurried the artists to do the first swagger, the cameraman rolled, his camera, i walked forward to see what was happening, told my camera b lady roughly how she could grab another angle and its all in her hands closeups and stuff, i asked a few questions to the band and my mind just shut out the various karkias and other people behind us watching...
near the end, i asked them to do one line as per the script, but they refused and said why should they do that, i tried to explain the concept/reasoning behind the line but they wouldn't want it and they called their minder over and so that line was cancelled. I guess they found the line offensive to their image and yea ok, i said it's ok to them and so we parted ways.
the line was from back to the future part 1 or 2 :"who you calling a chicken?"
i like that movie, and that scene of who you calling a chicken was quite memorable, because the bad guy said are you chicken, pock pock pock, and the good guy stopped in his walk and turned and we the audience said, dun be stupid dun fall for his taunts! This is one scene that really drew the audience in.
"after you shoot the rooster, you must pluck its feathers and barbeque it."---a colleague said after asking us where we're going.
