hole in the wall

Hole Series: Battle scars

- Sheylara 17 Comments

Here is my most recent collection of battle scars.

Except they’re not really scars since they’re not permanent. And it wasn’t really a battle, was it? But what does it matter, I show them off as proudly as I would battle scars, if I were to have them, although I hope I never do.

I collected these within the week of filming Hole in the Wall.

What can I say? I bruise easily.

First off, after practising and performing ballet moves that required me to put weight on my knees, I collected bruise upon bruise.

Some of them have turned black with age while the red ones are newly-acquired ones – if you can see clearly.

Left knee:

Right knee:

Another picture of right knee:

There were also other kinds of “scars”. Can’t just have bruises in a decent collection, can we?

Mysterious random scratch on left arm:

Bad rash from bandages:

I hope these are disgusting enough to turn your stomach and throw you off breakfast.

Ok, then, here’s something to take your mind off disgusting pictures.

Me in goofy, mismatched getup at
home practising ballet:

Nanny Wen, Elyxia and Wang Wang, my lovely faithful friends, came around to help me practise so that I can pass off as a half-decent ballerina for at least a few seconds at a time.

They were the first witnesses to my battle scars!

Me in tutu during shoot:

The “scars” are long gone by now, although I’ve got a new bruise on my right knee right now. It’s another one of those mysterious bruises I have no idea where from.

Well, what can I say? I bruise easily.

Hole Series: Making of… the cleavage

- Sheylara 13 Comments

So, pregnant mums are supposed to have beeg beeg boobies, right?

If you’re my regular blog reader, you’ll know that I don’t even have normal sized boobies, much less beeg beeg ones, and that I’m still awaiting donations for my Breast Endowment Fund, which, today, still stands at the paltry amount of $0.00.

Unfortunately, the world loves exposed breasts, especially now, compared to, like, five, or 10, or 50 years ago. You can tell by checking out several random boutiques in Orchard Road. Ladies clothes are getting more and more revealing by the day. Like 90% of clothes on sale today are cleavage revealing.

It severely limits my shopping options. That’s why I wear kiddy-style clothes all the time. Not that I want to act cute lor. It’s that adult-style clothes make me look like I’m a kid wearing mummy’s clothes pretending to be grown up can?

Anyways, thanks to this annoying boob-exposing trend, all the maternity clothes acquired for me for this film were, indeed, very boob exposing.

Drastic measures had to be called for.

Extra-size bandages, masking tape, lots of gel padding, maximiser bra.

I will leave it to your imagination what we did with those – we don’t want to get too graphic here, do we?

The first day, Jann (producer) and I spent an hour fixing up my boobs and managed to get them to fit quite decently into the annoyingly sexy clothes.

For the next seven days, it was a ritual we had to go through first thing in the morning and then once or twice more in the day because the bandages constricted my breathing and I had to remove them during meal breaks or die of asphyxiation.

By the end of the seven days, Jann got to be really expert at it and we managed to complete the ritual in about 20 minutes.

One night, when Justin (special effects makeup artist) was there to dress up the ghost, he did some cleavage-enhancing special effects makeup on me.

That was really awesome!

Between Jann’s bandaging and Justin’s makeup, I looked like I had breasts for the first time in my life!

Wow.

But now I understand how women in the Victorian era suffered from corsets and why wearing them could cause fainting spells.

What a horrible price women pay for beauty.

And what horrible people who set the standards for beauty. I have a beeg beeg bone to pick with society.

Anyway, I don’t sport a yummy cleavage throughout the film.

Sometimes we didn’t have enough time to fix me up properly and sometimes Justin wasn’t there to do his magic. (Jann and I learnt how to do the makeup from Justin, but we couldn’t do it as well.) So, during those times, I just look deflated.

Oh, well, we can’t always be perfect.

Well, of course, there are perfect women out there, but I’ll just pretend that they don’t exist.

La la la la la la.

For now, I’m back to wearing my kiddy clothes.

Too bad!

Hole Series: Not a fashion show

- Sheylara 14 Comments

Remember I mentioned that Jann (producer) managed to procure clothing sponsorships for our film?

Not counting the ballet outfit, which was tailor-made, they got me about 11 outfits from three different boutiques.

Unfortunately, I only got to wear five of them because Jon (director) didn’t want the film to be a fashion show.

Outrageous!!

I didn’t get to wear my favourite outfit for the film and I forgot to take a photo wearing it. Sad~~~~~

But here are those that will be seen.

Oh, yeah, if you noticed, I’m kind of a sad person in the film. Some of these pictures were taken on set by Edric during camera rehearsals so I’m in character.

Did I also mention that I’m pregnant in the film?

It’s my third pregnant role to date. How cool is that? I’m beginning to notice that maternity clothes can be really cute. So, I guess it mightn’t be such a bad thing being pregnant, after all.

Then again, maternity clothes are freaking expensive for something you’ll outgrow in less than a year.

I think if I ever get preggers for real, I’ll just stay home naked all year.

Hole Series: Post-production blues

- Sheylara 8 Comments

Filming for Hole in the Wall is over and I’m caught in the grip of post-production blues.

I am relieved that I can finally take a break after seven extremely exhausting days of filming, but I also feel lost, not being able to step back into the world I have been living in for the past week.

I feel like a wandering ghost trapped in a strange plane of existence, not knowing where to go and not really belonging anywhere.

This feeling will pass, of course. Especially since I only have one day in which to rest and feel melancholic being going back to day job reality tomorrow.

In the meantime, I have re-activated my EQ2 account. =D

I will start posting up production photos over the next few weeks once I receive them from my co-star Edric Hsu.

I found out over the course of filming that Edric was trained in photography and he takes really great photos. I think he took like 2,000 pictures over the week and I mean literally.

He has also very generously agreed to give us all a copy of all the pictures, so I left my camera sitting in my bag all week and just let him take all the pictures. Heheh.

Well, watch this space, then. I won’t be blogging every day since I still have about another month left in my day job and there’s also EQ2, but I’ll try to post something up once every few days.

It’s been an awesome shoot and I can’t wait to talk about it!

Hole Series: Adrenaline rush

- Sheylara 5 Comments

Filming hasn’t even started for Hole in the Wall and already I’m dreading the end.

This is one short film that’s uncharacteristically demanding in terms of pre-production preparation, but I’m loving every moment of it. Rehearsals, costume fittings, styling, research, dance practice.

But because it’s so involving, I predict the aftermath will be all the more unbearable. Many actors know the feeling of abject loss and emptiness following the end of an acting project. The longer and more involved one is in the project, the worse the effect.

I suppose it’s something like what druggies term the “crash” after the “high”. Or something like what a person who gets dumped might go through.

It’s a horrible feeling.

You live in a totally fantastic world for a period of a month to a year, depending on what kind of project it is. You fall in love with the people around you, the sets, the story, everything. And then, one day, it just ends. Everything you hold dear is wrenched away from you, and your loved ones walk away from you forever.

Terrible, terrible.

And then you start craving more. MORE. MORE!

But why am I even thinking all this? Duh.

Let me enjoy the high first and later will take care of itself. I suppose.