thoughts escaping my mind
I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve written in my blog. I don’t know how people blog about their lives every few minutes or hours. Why is it that they have so much happening in their lives that is worth telling everyone about and I don’t?
Well, just because I’ve not written anything doesn’t mean life’s stopped for me.
So I got a chance to speak to Jason Chan, (whom I’ve just discovered is a Malaysian – thanks to Wikipedia, where I also discovered that Jason Chan has a fan site! Wahhh!) about film / tv sets.
It all started when I told him how much I enjoyed watching his performance in a particular scene (one tiny little scene that would seem insignificant in light of all the others that he did) on Parental Guidance (PG). Jason Chan plays Terenece the ex-fiance of Ling (Jessica Hester Hsuan) in this show that also stars Adrian Pang. Continue reading ‘Calling “Action” : The drama and comedy’
Second last day of shoot with Joan Chen. It was 5th November 2006, a Sunday. It was in Ward 8 of Alexandra Hospital.
We were running a few hours late by this time. Continue reading ‘A whispering “Action”’
I’m currently “set photographer” on a Raintree Pictures film that stars Joan Chen.
The set photographer is like a speed bump on a highway. An inconvenient not-too-necessary evil. Continue reading ‘Acting on Action’
The thing about directing is that you need to have your head in a gazillion things and yet not lose focus on the actors.
This is really hard as delays, mistakes in wardrobe and props get in the way.
But for me, the best part of directing is working with the actors.
In the atmosphere of tight timelines and even tighter budgets, this is, unfortunately, a luxury. Continue reading ‘In a moment: magic and destruction’
Woah! It’s been a while. Finally life is settling back to normal.
What do I mean by normal? No more seven day weeks. 12 to 15 hour stretches of production. No more waking up at 4am and sleeping at 1am. Continue reading ‘Moving on’
Well, after months of writing, auditioning, casting, it now all comes together.
Tomorrow, we start the shoot of our new television show, PG. I get to direct two episodes in this season and it’s my first time handling full episodes of a comedy. Continue reading ‘Guiding a new show’
Today, I was auditioning some more kids for the new show I’m doing.
I was trying to get an eleven-year old boy to relate to me an incident that made him angry. Something that his friend irritated him about. So I could show him how he’d gotten angry a little bit at a time till he flared up and lost it.
But he misunderstood. He said, “Yah, I remember I was very angry.” Continue reading ‘“I woke up angry”’
As I had the opportunity of directing parts of my own script, I began to see what it is that directors are looking for.
When I thought about how to shoot a particular scene, I thought, how can I make this more visually interesting, or visually funny that would enhance what I’ve written. It wasn’t always easy, especially when it’s a talky scene with not much happening. Continue reading ‘Acting is all about giving’
How I wish I could remember what it was like to be a child. Continue reading ‘Kiddy logic’