location filming

Last day is for camwhoring

- Sheylara 16 Comments

You would think a morning shoot at the beach would be a pleasant way to spend time. I suppose it is, except that there’s nowhere to sit if you’re wearing a dress.

So I kinda just stood around while the others sat all over the place.

On a tree root:

On the ground:

On the camera case:

It wasn’t too bad, really. I had a tree to lean on. My scene at the beach involved leaning on a tree with Fish.

The guys went to check out the tree and the scenary before the shoot started:

It drizzled a bit in the middle of the shoot, so the umbrellas came out.

Thankfully, the drizzle petered out after a while. I was worried about having to lean against a wet, slimy tree trunk.

Fate was in our favour. The tree didn’t get wet and our scene went smoothly. We were able to troop back to the food centre by noon to avoid being sand-baked on the beach.

Somewhere to sit down properly!

Of course, being perverse, I didn’t really sit down during the times I was able to rest between scenes. I went off to the side with Fish to camwhore while they were shooting Jan.

This is Jan, with Alexa:

This is Fish and me:

Next, me in my full costume, which I think is a little large for me, but which I quite like because it’s different and I think it makes me look more innocent than I actually am. Haha.

Fish in close-up:

Fish and me again:

There was so much camwhoring because it was the last day of shoot.

Fish even got a picture of me photographing myself. Duh.

He said he was very impressed by my camwhoring skills. Double duh. I don’t know if I should feel flattered or embarrased.

But camwhoring is tiring, to be honest, so I didn’t do it for too long. I turned my camera towards the set and got a picture of Shivani holding out the slate and grey card in front of Jan’s face.

Heheh. She looks a little harried.

I think it was because, at that time, a huge mass of dark clouds was seen heading our way and the crew went into a mad rush to finish up before the looming storm broke.

It was a sad time for me. The end of last days of shoots always is. I’ve gone on about post-production blues enough times, so you know what I’m talking about.

It was fun while it lasted, but that’s the whole problem.

The more fun it is, the harder to say goodbye.

Star treatment in Singapore?

- Sheylara 11 Comments

In Singapore, actors (including A-list celebrities) don’t get star treatment like we hear about in Hollywood. Personal trailers, personal assistants, personal stylists, that sort of thing. If we want personal assistants, we have to employ them ourselves. If we want chairs to sit on at location shoots, we have to bring them ourselves.

So, let me illustrate what passes off as “star treatment” in Singapore.

This kid in the tree costume is our lead actress (for the kids’ drama I’m doing):

According to her, being a tree is very hard work and it’s too damn hot in there.

So, during a camera setup break, our sweet producer gave her some windy relief.

Yup. This is as much star treatment as you can get in Singapore.

Not only is star treatment a rarity, sometimes actors have to multi-task.

Here is a boy actor (one of the main characters), receiving instruction from the soundman on recording audio.

Because he has to be soundman for the coming scene!

Okay, I was kidding about that one. Our kids are not being tortured here. The soundman was actually very sweet to let the boy try out his job.

The kids on this drama are very happy kids, indeed, because although they are incorrigibly riotous, the crew takes care of them really well.

To be fair, kids can be really fun to work with… when they’re not being hyperactive.

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: First project of the year

- Sheylara 15 Comments

I am sacrificing one precious night of EQ2 play time to write this blog because I’m afraid my dear blog readers will delete my URL off their bookmarks for lack of updates.

So, come back, y’all, I haven’t died yet.

I have been busy working (boring temp job) during weekdays, playing EQ2 weeknights, and going for rehearsals weekends.

I feel stretched really thin.

Despite that, I think 2007 started on a very good note.

On New Year’s Eve, I attended a rehearsal for my coming short film (Hole in the Wall).

On New Year’s Day, I had a costume fitting and a photoshoot.

It was kind of a bummer not being able to spend the long weekend hanging out with my friends, but I love rehearsals and costume fittings and photoshoots, so I guess it was an excellent tradeoff.

This is the first short film I’m doing in which I get to wear sponsored clothes (with at least five sets of clothing changes) so I love my producer to death for procuring the sponsorships.

I also get a ballet dress and ballet shoes custom-made for me. It’s so exciting. I’ve always wanted to be a ballerina.

To top that all, my co-star is that funny cute StarHub commercial (among countless other commercials) guy. (You can read Edric Hsu’s blog here.)

We were taking a wedding portrait to use as a prop for the film.

I repeat: THIS IS A BOGUS PHOTOSHOOT I AM NOT REALLY MARRIED TO THIS GUY.

I received a phone call from a dear friend yesterday. She said, “Qiaoyun!!! Are you pregnant?!”

“Er… no,” I said, “Never been.”

I was bewildered because this is a friend I hang out with a lot.

She said, “I just read your blog and you said you’re practising being pregnant!”

Ha ha ha.

I realise people have a tendency to misread things or jump to conclusions, so I feel a need to stress that this is not a real wedding photoshoot.

Anyway, here’s another photo with the director and producer.

The streets were teeming with locals and tourists on New Years’ Day, enjoying their long weekend. We saw a real marrying couple doing a real wedding photoshoot by the One Fullerton merlion. At least, I think they’re a real couple, just like how everyone probably thought Edric and I were a real couple (save for the more perceptive ones who recognise us as actors even if they don’t know our names).

When we were at Telok Ayer Street taking photos outside a temple, a tourist on a trishaw went past us. He smiled broadly and waved at us, and then he shouted, “I’m really happy for you!”

That was cute.

The shoot starts at the end of January, but we have rehearsals every weekend till then.

This was taken at our first rehearsal, which wasn’t so much a rehearsal as a session for exploring character and dialogue. Which is really cool. I love doing stuff like that.

Well, although I talk about having a good start to the year, I predict this will be a slow year for me.

Since I have to do real work to pay for singing and acting classes, I don’t really have time to get involved in too many acting projects, unless I can get long-term projects that pay at least as much as regular day jobs do. But that’s a luxury reserved for the lucky cream of the crop.

Low-fat nobodies like me have to rough it out and wait for a lucky break that may never come.

To look on the bright side of things, it makes life unpredictable and interesting.

But that is not to say that I am happy with the status quo. I am certainly not adverse to receiving my lucky break.

See, here is my practiced beseeching look.

“Please…?” it says to anyone who cares.