I have officially gone into Hysterics Mode because I feel totally unprepared for my performance on Friday and I have 1,360 words to memorise by then.

So, here’s a quick and dirty post before I go back and bury myself into my script (which has been totally rewritten by my mentor-director, which raises the performance difficulty bar of the piece by 3,000%).

Anyway, I went to NYU Tisch Asia yesterday to do ADR. (That’s short for Automated Dialogue Replacement, which is the process of dubbing over voices or re-recording lines for film and TV.)

That’s the ADR studio. It’s also used to record sound effects, so you can see samples of different terrain in the ground as well as random props to create everyday sounds.

It’s dark because I had them turn the lights off so I could get into the mood easier. I was there to do mood sounds — breathing, panting, screaming, kissing — for my two short films.

It’s really weird simulating kissing sounds alone, without the help of a partner. But I enjoyed the challenge of making it sound convincing. I used my right hand. It was a challenge alright because hands don’t kiss back.

Standing in front of the microphone and watching myself on screen so I can synch my sounds to my screen actions.

The lights were turned on for a bit so I could have my photo taken.

Can you see me doing the victory sign through the glass panel?

My directors overseeing the recording.

Previewing my films in the theatrette.

Can’t wait for the official screening on the 19th when I’ll get to watch the final product with the newly-recorded sounds!

Now nursing a strained throat from all the screaming.

Categories: Acting Journal
12 Comments »

I’m now at Holland Village blogging from my Nintendo DS Lite. You just gotta love Nintendo DS Opera Browser!

But Wireless@SG is rather dodgy. The first time I tried to blog on my DS Lite was at East Coast Park. I managed to tap into Wireless@SG easily, but the connection died on me after I typed two paragraphs. I couldn’t reconnect after that and lost my two paragraphs forever.

Hey, two paragraphs is no laughing matter when you’re poking at a tiny digital Qwerty with a tiny stylus. You try it and tell me you don’t develop newfound respect for my two paragraphs.

I know I can always bring my new laptop, which would make mobile blogging so much easier. But it’s like a zillion kilograms heavier than my DS Lite.

I had a rehearsal in the morning and a post-production audio recording session in the afternoon. And, right now, I’m at the Ping.sg t-shirt launch party. It would have been too exhausting to lug around that monstrous weight all day. I wish I had gotten an Eee PC instead, but it wasn’t available when we bought that Asus.

Anyway, gotta get back to the party before I get accused of being anti-social. Actually, they’re holding the lucky draw now. And my right hand is cramping up from stylus poking, lol.

OMG I won a lucky draw prize can you believe it? It’s a VIP card for Essential Brew, which is hosting this event. Seriously weird!

Anyway, thanks Ping.sg and Essential Brew!

Categories: Regular Blogs
20 Comments »

And now, I’m going to recap my past two weeks, in case people don’t believe me when I tell them that I’ve been busy to the point of psychosis.

Starting with a party.

Nov 24 (Sat) — Drunken Guitar Heroes

I organised a party for my delinquent friends, luring them with Krispy Kreme donuts (all 3 dozen of ‘em, courtesy of my favourite Hong Kong-based cousin who goes by the endearing moniker of Monster).

At the party, I made everyone play battle mode in Guitar Hero 3. The loser of each battle had to drink a shot from an unwanted bottle of raspberry vodka that had followed our group from party to party for two years because nobody ever wants to drink it.

We all ended up pretty drunk (because I made sure everyone took turns to play and lose) and had to crash at J&J’s place overnight. Was planning to blog about this (I have incriminating videos! Wahaa!) but haven’t had time to sort out the pics and vids yet.

Nov 25 (Sun) — Free And Easy (Not)

I say free and easy because I had no appointments. But free and easy is not as free and easy as it sounds. It just means I could stay home to nurse my hangover work on any number of things piling up on my metaphorical in-tray — advertorials, scripts, blogs, rehearsals.

Nov 26 (Mon) — New Project In The Works

Met up with some folks to discuss a video blogging project that was supposed to have started this week but got delayed due to technical setbacks. (Which was actually fortunate because I don’t know how I would have found the time to work on it otherwise.)

Nov 27 (Tue) — Playing Truant To Work

I skipped ABT (gym) class for the fifth consecutive week. Not because of laziness (as is usually the case) but because I’ve been so busy meeting deadlines that exercise has to wait.

Spent the day slaving over my script for 3 Men Meet 3 Women, instead, because I needed to cough it out, pronto.

Nov 28 (Wed) — Anti-Smoking Crusade

I’m acting in this anti-smoking play designed to persuade staff in the civil service to quit smoking. Yes, it’s an educational play but we try to make it funny so that it distracts our audience into forgetting to be annoyed by the messagy nature of the play.

(Rehearsal picture taken at Health Promotion Board auditorium)

We go to exciting places like airbases to perform. (Actually, it’s a pain to go to those places because of all the security procedures at entry and exit points.)

On this day, we had two shows to perform at two different locations, one of which was Tengah Airbase. I made a discovery there: If you park your car backside in, it will get towed away. An officer kindly alerted us to that fact when we made the mistake of parking our vehicle like normal Singaporeans do. But he didn’t want to explain why.

Nov 29 (Thu) — First Rehearsal

I had my first rehearsal for 3 Men Meet 3 Women, which I already blogged about.

Nov 30 (Fri) — Trying To Plug Holes

I was able to get properly psychotic today because I didn’t have any engagments. So I was forced to stay home and work on the damn script, which had just been shot full of holes from the previous day’s rehearsal. Spent all day stressing over plugging the holes. Didn’t make much progress because I was too panicky to concentrate properly.

Dec 1 (Sat) — Crying At Auditions And Laughing At Parties

I auditioned for a feature film and cried real tears when performing a monologue which I only had 10 minutes to prepare. It’s really liberating and fulfilling when that happens. Actually, I always find it easier to cry on fresh material than on prepared pieces. I don’t know if other actors are that way.

After my audition, I rushed to Morte’s birthday dinner. (Late again.) The plan was to surprise him with dinner and a birthday cake. But because Morte is an inquisitive dongo who likes to sneak up behind his wife and peek at her MSN conversations, which, during one inopportune night, involved secret birthday party plans, he already knew everything even before the day arrived.

After dinner, we came to my place for Drunken Guitar Heroes Part 2.

Don Juan de Porko (picture, left) showed us the alternative way to mash buttons. (Check out his left hand.)

The Goonfather commented on this photo: “F**king Stamford Raffles or guitar hero, siah??”

Well, I don’t know who or what The Goonfather himself was trying to be when he struck this pose (below).

But I do know it’s the best pose to strike if you’re in the mood for cramping both your arms before the song is done.

Dec 2 (Sun) — Meeting Ate My Social Time

A technical meeting was held to discuss – duh – technicalities and logistics for 3 Men Meet 3 Women.

I wanted to discuss my script with the director, producer and my partner, but there wasn’t enough time and I had to rush off to watch the Slingers. I even sacrificed half the basketball match by leaving the meeting later than I’d planned.

Dec 3 (Mon) — Mission Complete

Today was the ultimate do-or-die day. I absolutely had to rewrite a passable script even if it killed me. Countdown to performance: 11 days.

So I sat down and forced myself to keep working at it no matter how many times I got stuck. I would write one page, then get up to walk around my room complaining, “I’m stuck!” and pulling my hair out, then sit down again and write some more.

Using that method, I finally completed the script despite being horrendously tired from lack of sleep. I did-and-didn’t-die!

Dec 4 (Tue) — Happy Big Project

Met up with a bunch of happy people to talk about starting a new theatre/media group so we can create our own platforms to do the things we love to do. There are already several ideas we want to work on as soon as we have time. This is the way to live life, is it not!

Dec 5 (Wed) — Hobnobbing With Elites After A Long Day Of Work

I had a corporate photoshoot at Singapore Polytechnic. Not for SP but for Ministry of Manpower (related to my Promoting Singapore video). Photoshoots are generally boring because they don’t engage me actively, since I have to stay still in specific poses. Staying still too much makes me want to jump and dance and run around a football field yelling at the top of my voice. But photoshoots are easy jobs that pay well for minimal effort so I like them for that.

From the photoshoot, I had to rush to NYU Tisch Asia for a party. I was half an hour late. Then again, is there such a thing as “late for a party”?

Wasn’t really a party, actually. It was a mixer, the purpose of which was to allow potential future hotshot actors and potential future hotshot directors to network. Many of those potential future hotshot directors came up to me to say they recognised me from the two short films I had acted in for their coursemates, and to congratulate me for doing a really great job. I hope they were all genuine compliments.

Dec 6 (Thur) — Qiaoyun The Blogger, Qiaoyun The Model

Was invited to Samsung office, together with a small group of bloggers, to talk about blogging, new media, gadgets and yet another project, which I can’t reveal now. It was a fun meeting. Strangely, no one took any photos.

Right after that was a 3 Men Meet 3 Women rehearsal. We did hotseating today. In theatre terms, that means an actor gets into character and has to answer questions thrown at him by the director and/or other actors. All questions must be answered in character. It’s a cool way to explore a character deeper and to test how much an actor knows his role.

Throughout the hotseating, my director claimed, the way I physically sat screamed “Qiaoyun the model” instead of my character. Well, I sat the way I thought my character, a high society lady, would sit, like all proper and posey, you know?

Dec 7 (Fri) — OMG Reshoot

We had to reshoot an episode of Snap! (the kids drama now showing on Channel 8, Sundays, 10:30 am) because one episode was dropped for inappropriate content (which is subjective, in my opinion). So we had to shoot a new episode with a new script to replace the dropped one. My hair is now four inches longer than in the other episodes. I hope no one notices.

Today — No Rest For The Weary

Attended a Philips press event for bloggers (I’m really tickled and a little disconcerted that bloggers are more and more being recognised as an alternative for conventional press). I’m sure you’ll be reading about the event pretty soon from some popular blogs in the Singapore blogosphere. I can’t talk about it now because I have to rush off (yet again) for a rehearsal after posting this blog.

SEE I NEVER BLUFF YOU ALL.

I’m working on so many things at the same time that I don’t have time to tidy up my wardrobe, which is now looking like a tornado hit a clothing store and dumped its spoils into it.

I don’t have photos for many of the activities I mentioned above because all the rushing about saps my energy. I don’t have any strength left to even take my camera out. Haha. I mean, I do enjoy every meeting, every rehearsal and every project. But the fact that they’re all clamouring for my attention at the same time is killing me.

I’ve been rushing from one thing to another so much that it’s a wonder I can keep track of what’s going on.

When I bump into people recently and they ask, “How have you been?” I give a tired look and say “Busy.”

If they ask, “Busy with what?” I’m speechless because I don’t know how to start answering.

Next time someone asks again, I’m going to answer, “I’m so busy I’m turning psychotic” and then give them the link to this post.

Categories: Regular Blogs
25 Comments »

First of all, a very sincere thanks to everyone for voting for me in the Guitar Hero pose contest, even though I didn’t request for votes! I’m really grateful for your support!

Secondly, I’m featured in Playworks Magazine December issue!

There’s an online version of this interview, which you can read here.

Thirdly, while you’re in the voting spirit, please cast your vote for me also for GXL Gamer Girl of the Year 2007. (This is separate from the Guitar Hero contest, although it’s by the same organisation.)

I know the temptation is strong to vote for the other ladies because they all look so pretty! And it’s so hard to choose who to vote for, isn’t it?

So, I shall make the job very easy for you. No need to conisder. Just VOTE FOR ME! Hehe.

Don’t be blur, ok? My name is Qiaoyun and I’m at the bottom right corner. I swear this is the last time I’m going to ask people to vote for me this year (which is, of course, ending soon). Haha.

But, seriously lah. I don’t do this kinda thing often, right?

I AM SO BUSY NOW!

I will be totally occupied with rehearsals until my performance next Thursday, while also juggling other events and activities in my life. But will still try to blog daily, even if it’s rubbish.

But sometimes, it seems that my rubbish is more popular than my serious posts.

Tsk tsk. What is wrong with you people?!

But I love ya alls anyways. Thank you for your support, as always!

Categories: Gaming Notebook
43 Comments »

I submitted my photo for the GXL Guitar Hero Pose Contest. It’s a small-scale forum contest — only nine entries, heheh.

The winner wins an Xbox360 Guitar Hero 3 game.

Anyway, this is the picture I entered.

Looks familiar? =)

The result will be announced in a week’s time, after public voting. Cross your fingers for me!

Categories: Gaming Notebook
49 Comments »