The Goonfather offers an alternative to reading or playing PSP in the toilet.

Presenting his latest toilet hobby…

I am rendered quite speechless.

Categories: Humour, The Goonfather, Videos
17 Comments »

Something funny happened at my shoot today.

There was this part in a scene where the leading boy actor asks a bit player, “Uncle, how’s your hand?” (in reference to an earlier accident.)

And the uncle is supposed to hold up his hand, look at it and say, “Oh.”

For a few takes, the uncle looked at his hand and “oh-ed” before the boy even finished asking his question. (A pretty common mistake inexperienced actors make in their hurry to get their lines over and done with.)

So the director told him, “You must listen to the boy. Hear his words, then respond. Don’t just say your line without thinking.”

Uncle said ok, but he did the same mistake again.

So, director whispered something in boy’s ear and they redid the take.

This time, the boy said, “Uncle, how’s your leg?”

Uncle held up his hand and said, “Oh.”

Director said, “Cut!

“Why are you holding up your hand? You were asked about your leg.”

Uncle said, “I think the boy said wrongly. He’s supposed to ask about my hand.”

Director said, “I asked him to change his line because I want you to listen to his question before you respond. I’m going to change a body part with every take now. If he says leg, you touch your leg. If he says head, you touch your head. Ok?”

After that, the uncle finally responded at the right time to the right body part, although he took a few takes to get used to the idea that he had to listen before reacting.

Coolness. I love this director (incidentally the same director who made us do 40 takes of the same scene on Monday).

Okay, that’s all for today. Super tired after 12 hours of shoot and 2 hours of acting class (with only three hours’ sleep last night).

But I have photos.

Martin, the project manager, has been fiddling with my camera the past few shoots and he’s taken some cool shots. So I have appointed him official photographer for the duration of the shoot! Heheh.

Categories: Acting Journal
9 Comments »

Today’s ABT class was funny. (ABT stands for Abs, Butts & Thighs, which is pretty self-explanatory.)

Our instructor is a kooky uncle type (looks to be in his late 30s) who tries to motivate the class by throwing out random suaning comments at random people such as: “Pretend to move your board around only right? We already started doing three counts and you still moving your board.”

Nanny Wen’s name today was Pink Colour 小姐 (Miss Pink) because she happened to be wearing all pink. Mine was Blue Colour 小姐 (Miss Blue) because I happened to be wearing all blue.

“Pink Colour 小姐 don’t play cheat, move your leg higher.”

“You all har… do properly!”

“See, Blue Colour 小姐 think you all no standard.” (Because I was giggling away nonstop.)

Anyway, today’s class was also a torture. I still haven’t recovered from yesterday’s shoot and I was so tired I kept spacing out and lunging the wrong directions when we did lunges.

On a separate but related note, I WON A LUCKY DRAW PRIZE!!!!!!!!

Well, it’s not a very big prize but it’s always cool to win a prize.

Most Singapore Sports Council classes cost $65 (for 12 hours total), although there are a few $85 and $110 ones. But I’ll probably chose a cheap class because they’re more fun. Like kickboxing and hip hop dance.

The $85 classes are boring. Like yoga. Most boring thing in the whole world. I attended one yoga class at California Fitness ages ago and it all but put me to sleep. How can people do yoga on a regular basis? One class put me off it forever.

Anyway, I cheated in ABT class a lot today because I was SO tired. Which kinda defeated the purpose of even going to class. But I did get a somewhat reasonable workout and will make up for it next week.

Categories: Fitness
5 Comments »

I feel ready to keel over and die right now.

We did this scene like 40 times today. It’s a two-and-a-half-page scene, which translates to about 2.5 minutes of actual running time.

First, we did a wide shot with the camera capturing everyone. Because the director is a perfectionist, everything had to be perfect in the entire take or we had to redo the whole thing from scratch. Because it was 2.5 minutes long and involved many kids and many lines and a high energy level, it was very hard to get it perfect each time. We would play each take till the end and then start over again, hoping that the next take would be IT.

The kids were finally bribed with ice-cream if they could do it perfect. But after a few takes and the perfect take didn’t happen, the ice-cream didn’t happen either. Poor kids.

A long time later, when the wide shot was finally a good take, we went for close-ups on every single last one of us (six). For each close-up, we had to again act out the entire 2.5 minutes, for as many takes as it took for each person’s close-up to be perfect. Everyone else had to maintain the same energy level even if it wasn’t his/her close-up.

I only had three hours of very restless sleep last night (woke up every 15 minutes to toss and turn), so I was already ready to keel over and die without the added burden of having to act super energetic and happy 40 times 2.5 minutes. It was supposed to be a very lively scene with fast-paced bantering and lots of laughter.

It also didn’t help that it was a supremely hot and humid day and I was in uncomfortable clothing and we couldn’t turn on the fans in the room because it interfered with the sound. I also had blisters in my feet from wearing new shoes.

Can die.

If not for my indefatigable will to survive in showbiz, I would have just died on the spot. You don’t know what is hell until you try acting happy and excited 40 times in a row at a time when your body and mind are suffering major sleep deprivation.

I was on the set for over 12 hours, starting from 6.45 am, filming a total of four scenes.

It’s all over now!! Whheeee! My bed is looking very welcome.

Categories: Acting Journal
18 Comments »

Okay, so I just signed up for a Twitter account. What that did was further my belief that we are now smack in the middle of the Me Age.

Two hundred years later, history students will read in their textbooks: “The year 2000 marked the start of the Me Age with the proliferation of Internet activity. The possibilities for self-publishing created a social phenomenon that took the world by storm as increasing individuals bought a piece of Internet real estate to advertise one predominant product — themselves.”

I mean, this is totally what is happening and I do not exempt myself from this mounting horror.

In 1996, I made my very first website for my IRC community. I had photos and funny blurbs of all my channel regulars. I wrote a witty article extolling the virtues of IRC. The website’s purpose was to show off my web designing skills (which was then a big deal), my writing skills and my sense of humour.

In 1997, I made my first personal website. Its purpose was to glorify myself and shout to the whole world that an individual such as I existed.

And, you know, that tradition of narcissism continues till today. But I think it’s all good because, really, it’s not only about me.

People who have their own websites and blogs aren’t only saying “look at ME”. They’re also expressing their individuality, creativity and talents through the design of their site, through their written words, through the photographs that they themselves have taken. Creativity must be shared with the world.

But twitter is another matter altogether.

What the hell is twitter?

When I first started seeing it on all my friends’ blogs, my reaction was something like, “Har? Can eat or not one?”

I didn’t get an account because it seemed stupid to me. Like, does anyone care what you were doing at exactly 4.26 pm last Friday? Honestly, no.

And if you must tell the whole world that you are, right this very moment, enjoying your char kuay teow, why must you put an extra box in your blog to say that? Why can’t you just post a one-line blog entry instead?

So, I finally signed up today to see for myself what all the fuss is.

I have posted my first update, clicked all over the site and read a few strangers’ rants.

And I still don’t really get it.

Twitter is totally the spokesperson for the “Me Culture”. In the little pink and blue boxes that are fast invading more and more corners of the Internet, we see nothing more than shouts for attention.

“Look at me! I just did my laundry and wiped the kitchen counter clean!! Can you beat that???”

What the hell? What the hell?

Where is the creativity? The entertainment value? The thing that will make people go, “Ahhh… that was worth my two seconds reading it.”?

And you thought the narcissism of personal web pages and cam whoring couldn’t get any worse.

To all my friends who have twitter, don’t fret. Even though I think twitter is stupid, I still love you and I will read your twitters because you’re my friend.

But allow me to ask you this:

Do you think I should just STFU and get with twitter already?

Thank you for reading.

Categories: Social Media
42 Comments »

We are very amused.

Among Singaporeans at least, the tagline for Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End is undoubtedly “Welcome to Singapore”. I suppose it’s kind of nice because it puts Singapore yet again on the world map, but I fear this movie is only going to reinforce the misconception among some Westerners that Singapore is a republic of China.

Anyway, I don’t want to make the usual “OMG it’s such a wonderful show don’t miss it or you’re a goondu” kind of comments because everyone I know is already hyped up about it, anyway.

But I do have a few random other-thoughts.

1. The first five minutes of the film made me cry because the soundtrack, cinematography and editing are that powerful. That alone is worth the price of Singapore’s exhorbitant movie tickets and popcorn. Moments like that make me want to make my own film because I want to affect audiences the same way.
2. Everyone already knows part of the movie is set in early Singapore. When the film went there (you’ll know when you see red lanterns and Chinese junks), I was very disturbed. The film’s Singapore didn’t fit any image I ever had of Singapore. Perhaps because it appears too glamorous. I tried to remember my secondary school history lessons but still had a hard time reconciling the film with my vision of early Singapore. I thought it looked more like Hong Kong or China.

   

3. Chow Yun Fat’s “Welcome to Singapore” was greeted with a small smattering of twitters and giggles and a few hearty laughs. Honestly, I kept hoping that he wouldn’t say it and that the trailers we’ve been watching were all fake. When he did say it, I rolled my eyes to myself in the dark.
4. I hate to say this of one of the most respected veteran actors in all of history, but I think big brother Chow kind of overracted in this film. I mean, Pirates is a quite a fantastical film and most of the acting is over the top, but I think Zhou da ge went just a bit over and above the top, especially with the facial twitches.

   

   I say that because if anyone had done something like that in all the acting class I’ve attended over the past year, my teachers would have pounced on him mercilessly and asked him to stop acting (I mean not stop as in quit forever, but stop “acting” and be natural).

   But I have also learnt through personal experience that, most of the time, when you think an actor is bad, it’s not always his fault. Sometimes the director wants him to act a certain way. Just to let you know.

5. There were so many twists and double-crossings in the three-hour film that my mind reeled. Didn’t help that I’ve forgotten most of what happened in part 1 and 2. But I still think the script is very, very clever and the dialogue is very, very witty. This is one of those movies that gets better with every sequel.
6. Johnny Depp is god among all actors. He is so good that my awe-struck mind has yet to recover enough to provide me with apt words to describe just how good I think he is. I am totally, wretchedly, not worthy.



7. Orlando Bloom sends my heart all aflutter.



8. Four of the six people in my movie outing group fell asleep at various times during the film. What the fuck is wrong with them?!!
9. I didn’t want the film to ever end. I hope there’s a fourth.

You know, I’ve never reviewed a movie in my blog. The reason being I hate doing it. I used to get paid for it so writing reviews is work. Well, this isn’t exactly a review, just random thoughts, so it’s a different. But, you know, I try not to talk about movies in my blog.

So I don’t know why I wrote this. I wasn’t planning to. I wasn’t even planning to blog because I have many pages of script to learn and a looming writing assignment deadline.

But here it is. You never know who’s controlling the mind and body you think you own.

Categories: Movies
25 Comments »

Day 3

Name of outfit: College Days

Self-Rating:

Destination: VivoCity GV Cinema

Notes: Today’s outfit is rather normal because I was only going to the movies for a few hours (midnight show). Also, it’s very tiring to dress outrageously every day. Sometimes I need a break!

But I get to wear my favourite jacket today because VivoCity is cold. The second picture is to show off the lace on the hood. I so love lace detail!

Categories: Fashion
7 Comments »

Okay, I feel like such a bimbo.

Last night, I was at BlogOut 2007, right? I was surrounded. SURROUNDED by entrepreneurs and technopreneurs. What were these future Forbes 500 doing at a blogger’s convention??

I mean, you go to a blogger’s event expecting to meet tons of bloggers but nooooooooo what you end up getting instead is a whole bunch of entrepreneurs and technopreneurs who blog. Whoopie.

Every single last person I met either owned a dotcom, or co-owned one, or is in the process of owning one. I felt like a Nemo among whales. And by dotcom I mean one of those that can potentially make the owner the next Internet billionaire like Google’s founders. See, technically, I own a dotcom too (sheylara.com) but I am so totally not on the same bandwagon.

But I’m into positive thinking these days, so I didn’t let it get to me. Since I was an odd sock, I decided to revel in being an odd sock. And I met lots of fun people. The new age entrepreneur is not a stuffy suit anymore. He/She is very young, creative and has a good sense of humour.

The first of these I met was Nuffnang co-founder, Ming.

Ming saved me from a wasted walk in my party heels by calling out to me in the nick of time. I was feeling lost at the bottom steps of the venue because I couldn’t see a Geek Terminal signboard (yes, the venue is called Geek Terminal, a kind of high tech chill out place), leading me to think that I had perhaps walked to the wrong place.

So, I was about to move off to find this Geek Terminal when Ming popped out at the top of the steps and called out, “Sheylara!” That was almost as welcome as finding an oasis in the desert, so I put on my brightest smile, turned towards the voice and said, “Yes!”

To my horror, when I located the voice, I found that I couldn’t place the face. It was, like, hahaha cool someone just called my name but I don’t know who he is.

You must realise that I have never met Ming. Have only seen a picture of him in Cowboy Caleb’s blog.

To be fair, I think Ming has the upper hand in facial recognition in this case since my blog is so liberally plastered with my own pictures that probably even the curtains in his bedroom can recognise me if they spot me.

So, Ming was wearing a Nuffnang tie. I totally flipped out when I saw it because it was so cute and in my favourite colours.

I wonder if I can have one made in girl size and in cotton. I am so into ties these days.

I also met lots of other cool folks.

There’s Mr Walking Camera Guy.

He is cooooooool. He was carrying this backpack thing with a video camera strapped on his shoulders ALL NIGHT and he was like filming the room as he walked about.

I’m sorry I can’t remember his name, but he has a very nice nose. And very nice red eyes.

Okay red eyes is totally my fault because I forgot to turn on the red-eye reduction on my camera.

Next up is Nic, who plays Xbox for a living. How cool is that?

Nic is from Microsoft and he has an audience enthralled with his speech about the blogging culture in Microsoft.

There were several tables set up with every table discussing different topics. I kind of didn’t really join in the discussions because most of the topics weren’t up my alley. Most of them were quite businessy and technical.

So I went around getting to know people who were also not into the table discussions. Haha.

Like Piotr here, who is Polish. (His name is the Polish version of Peter and is pronounced Pee-oh-trr.)

Actually, Piotr was a member of Nic’s entralled audience but he got hijacked by Peter and Ethan (below), both of whom I had been introduced to earlier.

There was a lot of hijacking going on at the party — people were hijacking other people’s conversation partners and speech audiences, left, right, centre. I also got hijacked alot, which was cool and fun.

At the time Piotr was hijacked, I was just a few metres away, chatting with a nice Malaysian lady named Emily and a nice Australian bloke named Todd.

So then, Peter and Ethan, the two crazies, got it into their heads to hijack me into having a conversation with Piotr. And, they were like, Piotr meet Qiaoyun, Qiaoyun meet Piotr, okthxbye!

Huh?

I rolled my eyes at them and HELLO????ed at them until they stayed to enjoy a verbal lashing from me.

But I did get to know Piotr, who is very cute and has a cute accent, but who is also going back to Poland soon, so I didn’t get his number for you ladies. Hur hur.

And and AND….!! Guess who I met next!!

My husband (of one day)! Yeah, that’s what he went around telling everyone.

He was in the funny Kao Magiclean commercial with me playing my husband. When I spied him last night, I knew I’d met him before but I couldn’t for the life of me remember where and when. LOL. I have such a terrible memory.

Go check out his dotcom, IConnectE. I’m giving him a little plug because I’m trying to wrangle 50% of his earnings since we were “married” and “divorced”. Haha.

Oh, and I must also say something about Yvonne, who was the second person I met at the event (the first being Ming).

Yvonne, like me, came to the event all alone (but she’s actually an employee of one of the sponsors so she had a better reason than me to come alone). Anyway, I struck up a conversation with her because she was sitting next to the only empty seat left in the place, which I gravitated towards because when you go to a party alone and don’t know anyone, it’s always better to be sitting than standing.

It was a good choice on my part because Yvonne turned out to be really nice. She’s also a blogger, which is of course not surprising since it’s a bloggers’ event.

So, the event was really, really good. There was free dinner and free flow of drinks and wine, and I learnt that Web 2.0 technopreneurs can be very fun people to hang out with (except when they start talking about too technical stuff).

When I left the event finally at 10.30 pm, the hijacking didn’t stop. The moment I walked down the steps out of the place, I got hijacked by another two crazies. They said, “Excuse me, are you a celebrity blogger?”

Which was kind of stupid because if someone were a celebrity, wouldn’t you recognise them? Duh.

I don’t know where they popped out from. I thought they were from the event and were just chilling outside, but then they started asking me funny questions like were there any celeb bloggers in there. They reminded me of the teenagers that hang around outside MediaCorp waiting for their favourite TV celebs to appear.

Anyway, this is one of them.

His name is Name Tag Stealer because while I was having a conversation with his partner, he ninja’ed my name tag right off my shoulder.

But at least he’s brave enough to be photographed by me, unlike his camera-shy partner, so I give him credit for that. But I still have no idea who they are. Haha. If any of you readers happen to know this lunatic, please give him the narrow eye on my behalf.

Categories: Events, Social Media
26 Comments »