Final Week of Shoot

I seemed to be able to keep track in my blog eventhough I'm on shoot, well, thanks to my BlackBerry with 24 hours internet I can finally blog anywhere possible. Where am I right now?

I'm sitting next to a house here in Block B9, Section 4, Wangsa Maju (the flat that I used to stay in back in my college years), listening to drilling sounds, awaiting for instructions to stop and start the drilling for the shoot. It's raining cats and dogs at the moment and it's such a nice time to take a good nap. It is now the last 4 days of shoot and I just can't wait to the day it is a wrap! I think I learn enough in this shoot; learn to find more places, learn to make better deals with people, learn to make friends with the authorities and learn to not trust a person entirely. Hmm... So much to learn.

Should I continue to work in this field? I wonder. I love my job, I love to do what I'm doing now but work politics just ticks me off. Why must there be favourism around such a small team. Well, it happens and those left outside that circle just have to live with it.

I'm taking a long 1 month break next year, hopefully it will help me start the year on the right foot. Can't wait for my long 8 days diving trip to KK!

2 more freaking huge stunt scenes, 1 more freaking fight scene and it will be a WRAP!

Hang in there!

Changes

It's funny to see the changes in anyone when we are in times of stress, lack of sleep and tiredness. It was a one month shoot and many of us are all drained from the rain, the sun, the hours and the workload. As it is finally approaching the final week of shoot, many things started to change; the people, the environment and many more. Funny right...

I was a little in shock when these changes started early last week. Though I had already closed one eye since the beginning of the shoot, these changes still creep into my head once in a while especially at times where I am sitting at the base, doing just my accounts.

So much effort I poured into the shoot and most of the time, nothing I did is appreciated. Well, I find it useless to try so hard anymore for as long as what I need to do and have to do is done for the shoot to finish. What is the point of making things better but putting myself in a difficult position? Even when I'm so sick with fever, sore throat, cough and flu, I still had to come to work like anyone else. I don't even have 30 minutes to take a nap after taking panadols.

People change, I change too but desperate times change me to a person that care less of things around me for as long as I did my 100%.

How much we see when we are working on tight datelines...

Nikon 50mm

Finally, after almost 4 years, my Nikon D40 is not a virgin anymore! Finally, a Nikon 50mm lens is put into my dear SLR...and I had the most fun time of my afternoon on shoot with my SLR, taking photographs of the crew and production people on set with it! Wonderously amazing (if there's a word like this).

Now, this makes me want to get one of this lenses for myself...but...thinking of the costs to buy one...hmm...shall put that into consideration after buying myself a G12 with underwater casing first lah~

Will post up the photos taken with this lens after shoot!

The Songlap Team...partially

It's the last block of shoot and in another 7 days, we will hear the word WRAP! It was a very long 3rd block with early morning calls and late night wraps with only 24 hours of sleep in 7 days. Everyone was drained and all the weird attitudes started to creep out. Everyone was stressed, that's for sure. Locations in this block were rather easy, with everything in place already before shoot.

I'm glad that 3rd block is over!

Final block to go...

Loosing Side

One thing that I see myself in...is in the loosing side; whether it's in my studies, my work or even my relationship. I'm seriously tired of being in that situation but what can I do to change that? Is it because I give in too much that most people I met used me to the fullest without realizing that it hurts me.

Sometimes I just want to run away; be in a place all by myself, no commitments, no worries. Though sometimes I do miss the company of another but if it hurts so much, why bother?

'I'm running away, I'm leaving this place'(Midnight Hour, Running Away)

I want change...

JCLA eNewsletter - November

I was given the opportunity to write an article about my days in John Curtin Leadership Academy especially in Project Care. It was such a rush for me to finish the article as I was at that moment in the busiest moments on my film project. Lucky for me, I managed to finish up the article and click here for the writeup.

Looking back reminds me so much of what I've been through in JCLA and I missed everyone so much!

Hope to see everyone again one day!

First of Everything

16th November 2010 is just not my day...

First time to get an abandoned location for a large sum of money,

First time to get into an abandoned construction site,

First time to say the rosary on shoot,

First time to deliver notices to mailboxes,

First time to listen to my instinct that tells me something is going wrong with my location,

First time to drive from Brickfields to Jalan 223 to Uptown to SS2 to Kerinchi to Hang Tuah to Cheras and back to Brickfields in 2 hours,

First time to almost faint on set because I saw a whole feet covered in blood,

First time to reverse a 1 ton truck,

First time to drive off while someone is still entering the car,

First time to get stopped by the police...

All the first times!

spirits O spirits

Never expected how powerful spirits are until...

14th November 2010, Bukit Beruntung.

We were shooting one scene that very evening at the workshop which is located at the corner of an abandoned shop lot. It was raining heavily and we had to find shelter for our canteen and our makeup and wardrobe. We arrived; Naz and I went around looking for a place and there we found, just 2 shops down our set, an empty space - so nice, comfortable, clean and spacious - and immediately we went in and set our canteen there. It was only after sun down that we realized something was wrong. The crews helped us to lit the place up with their lights. When they tested it outside at the corridor, the light works...and when they brought the lights in, it didn't work. It took them close to an hour to figure out what went wrong - to changing the lights, to changing the cables, to test it with test pens - nothing was wrong, but the light didn't seem to turn on! It was until Lynn came up to me and asked me, 'Did you ask permission to come in this place?' My heart stopped and I then realized my mistake. I waited until everyone cleared the place and went into the dark empty space, took our my rosary and prayed. As soon as I finished praying, the light went ON!

How powerful spirits are...I wonder.

That night taught me a good lesson.

NEVER INVADE PLACES!

Day 14 of Shoot

Date: 13th November 2010
Time: 10am - 10pm
Venue: Bukit Beruntung, Ulu Selangor

It's finally 14 days of shoot for this film and seemed like everything is going as planned. We covered scenes in the car, on a low-loader, with the BBoys, with 50 extras, in the jungle, in a haunted hospital, with stuntmen and many others. It's been a long 2 weeks with lack of sleep; waking up at 5am and head back to sleep at 1am the next day.

We are now shooting a long 5 scenes in Bukit Beruntung but as usual, it is much simpler when it comes to fix location for me :)

It's a countryside here...

Another 2 weeks to go before wrap!

The Worse Shooting Experience

And I thought, learning from different people will be something good and useful, but then again, learning from idiots will make you an idiot too. It's only Day 3 of shoot and things are breaking up into pieces. All the hard work everyone put in does not make the shoot go smoothly...all because of one person.

It's been 2 months since I started in this project. It was a long pre-production where I went out on my own to jungles, to deep interiors and small towns to look for locations, as far as Bukit Beruntung. I was told many times not to go on my own, but my request to have a Production Assistant was being ignored even until today's shoot. A small matter of having an assistant was such an issue and until today, it was never solved. How do you expect me to work professionally when that one person is being such a kid - making everything so personal just because you are 'DA BOSS!'

There's another 27 more days to go and I wonder how long I can stand working in such conditions. Last night was hell of a night and I don't ever want to have another breakdown like I had last night. Having to slam my fist on the brick wall isn't great. The pain is still there. I had to spend all day, lying on my bed, throwing out after my meals and bearing the pain on my chest...and even so, I had more calls and sms telling me that things are still not settled even though it was apparently 'settled' last night.

Why are there so much lies in this production?

I am truly honored to have friends who help each one through this shoot. Without them, I won't be able to continue this torture. I want to finish this shoot. I want to finish it with a smile.

Is that too much to ask?