Last day is for camwhoring

Sun, 4 November 2007Wed, 9 December 2009 - 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.

Flat 7-Up doesn’t taste very good

Fri, 2 November 2007Wed, 9 December 2009 - Sheylara 15 Comments

But never mind flat. I had to drink flat and diluted 7-Up.

Awesome, huh?

Not.

This was my main prop in yesterday’s shoot:

The cup was at first filled with 7-Up. Throughout the day, we had to keep changing the water level in the cup for continuity purposes because scenes aren’t usually shot in chronological order. Plain distilled water was used for refilling the cup. By the end of the day, the 7-Up had become very diluted, plus all the gas had escaped.

I had to drink some of that.

Not that it was gross or anything but, just so you know, diluted flat 7-Up isn’t exactly a great choice of beverage.

We did our filming at East Coast Lagoon. There was sunny rain early in the morning.

It doesn’t look like it in the picture but I was freezing because it was also very windy.

The rest of the day was great, though. The rain stopped and it was nice and cool all day. I didn’t break a single bead of sweat. It was so comfortable filming there with the abundance of food and drink, shelter and seats, and great company.

The weather was also great for tracking shots because laying out tracks for the camera is pretty hard work and something you wouldn’t want to do under a sweltering sun.

Remember I said I was doing two short films for NYU Tisch Asia graduate film students? This is the second one with the same crew, except that they all swap duties in every film they make so that they get to experience all the different jobs in a production.

Nicolas (above, left) was my director in the previous film but now he’s the DOP. Eric (right) is DOP-turned-grip.

That’s really cool for me because I get to relate to everyone differently, so it’s interesting.

You know like how you form different levels of relationships with different colleagues depending on the type of interaction you get with each person?

For example, say, there’s this guy who’s your boss for a week. You take orders from him. Then, the next week, he’s the department secretary. He helps you make appointments or whatever. Suddenly you’re relating in a different way! So it’s kinda like that.

Basil (above, right) is the director of my second film. He was the grip in my first.

The only person whose role never changes is Fish.

Fish always plays my boyfriend. Haha.

Fish was a sad boy during the shoot.

I only had to drink diluted flat 7-Up. He had to face a mug of beer all day without getting to drink it because he didn’t have any scenes requiring him to actually drink his prop. (Beer was poured down the drain when the mug needed to be emptier.)

Poor Fish.

What must it have been like!

Bastard husband, lousy mother

Wed, 31 October 2007Wed, 9 December 2009 - Sheylara 27 Comments

I wore my pregnant suit out to breakfast.

It was Monday morning and The Goonfather was going to drive me to my shoot. Because there won’t be a dressing room at the back alley, I put on my costume at home.

During the drive there, the sky started to darken and I was informed the shoot would be delayed for a bit. I decided to go for breakfast with the Goonfather to wait it out.

We went to a hawker centre, where I had fried beehoon. But I only ate half of it because I didn’t want to overeat. (Toilets at the location are dirty.)

After breakfast, we walked out of the hawker centre. As usual, the Goonfather stopped just outside the building and took out his cigarettes.

“Hey, you can’t smoke here,” I said. (I’m always giving him grief over his smoking habit, so my protest wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.)

“Why not?” he asked perfunctorily.

“Because I’m pregnant.”

He froze midway as he was putting a cigarette in his mouth and stared at me, mouth open, speechless.

“You don’t want people to think you’re a bastard husband smoking in front of his pregnant wife.”

“Damn,” he said, momentarily stunned. Scratching his head unconsciously, he put his cigarette back into the pack.

One point for QY!

We started walking to the car.

“Can you don’t wear your costume out next time??” he complained.

“Hahaha,” I retorted.

Soon after, we reached the car. As we settled into our seats, he turned to me and said, “I may be a bastard husband, but you’re a lousy mother.”

“What?” I said.

“You didn’t finish your breakfast. People will think you’re starving your baby.”

“…”

One point for the Goonfather.

Oh, well, we can’t always win.

I don’t think I’d like being pregnant for real.

And, now, some random photos of the day’s shoot.

[Alexa and Nicolas]

[Eric frames a shot while Alexa takes a light reading off Louis]

[Shivani looks at the opposite wall pensively]

[Nicolas, Basil and Eric discussing a shot]

[Shivani and Basil take a breather while Louis takes a nap]

[Nicolas frames a shot with Basil sheltering Louis and the camera from the sun]

[Group photo!]

That was the last day of shoot, so there will be no more back alley pictures.

But there will be beach pictures next because I’m shooting the next short film with this same group of filmmakers. (Sorry, guys, no bikinis. It’s not that kinda film.)

Fish will be my co-actor. Yeah! Fish again!

Like Louis, Fish is my many-times co-actor. The three of us seem to cross paths a lot.

We had a rehearsal at East Coast Park today and we’ll be there for the next three days.

Filming takes place at the Lagoon Food Village. Wheeeeee, yummy food!

An umbrella for the pregnant lady, thanks

Tue, 30 October 2007Wed, 9 December 2009 - Sheylara 24 Comments

On the second day of my Tisch Asia shoot, we hailed a cab to take us to our shoot location.

The location was 300m away.

I think the cab uncle wasn’t too amused, especially since it took us five minutes to load the vehilcle with film equipment and props. He stood by the side all the while, giving us dark looks.

Maybe he didn’t like us bringing dead plants into his cab.

After dropping us off at our location, he didn’t drive away. He got out of the car and spent five minutes going around it with a cloth, wiping down the passenger seats and the boot.

I swear we didn’t puke or yell or do anything radical or, in fact, do anything at all other than be model taxi passengers.

Well, there was the fact that I was pregnant. About four or five months along, maybe.

But I’m sure pregnant ladies get into cabs all the time and don’t give anyone a hard time, unless you’re talking about women who jump into taxis because their water has broken and their husbands are in Timbuktu or something and they need to get to the hospital pronto but on the way they make a mess in the taxi or, worse, deliver their babies right there and then.

That could be traumatising and, I suppose, understandable if a taxi driver develops a phobia of pregnant women after something like that happens to him.

But I’m sure I didn’t look like I was gonna pop a load anytime soon.

It’s fake, anyway. My foetus is a Mickey Mouse pouch stuffed with cotton wool and secured to my belly with bandages.

The red umbrella is our only insurance against skin cancer during the three-day shoot under the loving caress of the sun’s flaming fingers. I’ve never known Singapore to be this hot.

But I had to put the umbrella down many times, during actual takes and when having light readings taken off me.

Louis (my many-times co-actor), had many scenes lying on the ground. He especially needed the umbrella to avoid having his face barbequed.

The crew also carried umbrellas whenever possible.

It was so hot that an umbrella was needed even in the shade.

And even the camera needed one.

Anyway, since Louis was on the set, I had a little more time to take photos (like when they’re setting him up and don’t need me).

But I took advantage of a brief lull to take a quick self-timered picture of us. I love the timer function.

Then, I moved on to catching people unawares.

It’s weird. Everyone’s wearing some shade of blue. It makes the set so… blue.

Of course, the mood was anything but.

I like the pace set by this team. Not too slow but not breakneck fast, and something’s always happening (unless we were waiting out the rain).

At about 4pm, a thunderstorm suddenly broke so we were forced to wrap for the day.

But we still had one more day to finish up, so I guess it wasn’t too bad.

It’s always nice to dance in the rain right after being barbequed alive.

Perfect way to fall sick, if you’re not already totally cooked.

It’s fun to shoot beautiful people

Sun, 28 October 2007Wed, 9 December 2009 - Sheylara 17 Comments

I am now working on two short films by a group of future hotshot filmmakers who are so good-looking they could be actors or models themselves.

The first time I stepped into the Tisch Asia campus (Tisch being that famous arts school from which hotshot directors like Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone and Ang Lee graduated), I thought I had blundered into a casting call for fashion models.

But the charismatic and attractive people I saw there were just film students.

Of course, they aren’t just any normal film students. I was told the criteria for selection into the Tisch program is extremely stringent and only the most talented individuals are admitted.

Anyway, I had my first shoot today. It was awesome, but I am now tired out of my skull, having woken up at 5:30 am.

So, this is going to be a quick pictorial blog because I have to wake up at 5:30 am again in less than five hours.

It rained nonstop this morning, so we lost four hours of shooting time.

When the rain stopped, the wind machine was employed to dry an area of ground we had to shoot on:

Notice a big dry patch at the bottom half of the picture?

An umbrella was employed to protect the power plug of the wind machine from remnants of a drizzle:

I took a photo of myself while waiting for the ground to dry… and while my makeup was still fresh and as yet unmolested by the scorching sun that was to present itself later.