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Sunday, January 09, 2011

Girl in shower meets a slasher

Yesterday, Kong began to shoot a new short film (it's for some event in Thailand called the Postcard Cinema where a couple of chosen Thai filmmakers have to make 60-second short films, or 'video postcards').



One of his scenes was a parody of the infamous shower scene in Psycho, and also melodramatic Thai soap operas where heartbroken (... fully-clothed) young women often cry in the shower. He was looking for an actress, so I suggested Tao Sha.

Tao Sha encounters a slasher

Tao Sha meets a slasher


Last July, Tao Sha had worked with me in a (now-aborted) video art project that I was helping someone else with.

Tao Sha during the video shoot


Last November, she interviewed me for some web program, wearing a maid costume.

With Tao Sha (in maid costume!)


A perfect candidate.

I called Tao Sha a few nights earlier, the conversation was like this.

Me: Hey, Tao Sha. You mind helping my friend with his film project?
Her: Sure!
Me: All righty, I'll keep you posted!

Two nights before the shoot, I called again.

Me: Okay, I'll explain to you the scene he's doing. Have you seen PSYCHO? With the famous shower scene?
Tao Sha: What? We're doing a shower scene?
Me: Oh, you'll be fully-clothed, but has to cry in the shower.
Tao Sha: Oh, okay.
Me: So, yup, be prepared. Your clothes are going to be wet. (in Mandarin, 'wet' is 'shi')
Tao Sha: What? My clothes will be torn off? (in Mandarin, 'tear' is 'si')

Thanks to my Malaysian-accented Mandarin, 'shi' sounded like 'si' to her.

But finally, we cleared things up and headed off to Kong's place for the shoot.

Girl in shower meets a slasher

Kong directing Tao Sha

Tao Sha suffers in shower


It was a harrowing scene. A girl weeping in a shower (Tao Sha) meets a slasher (Teng Fei). Violent girl-on-girl action ensued. This is a poetic tale that meditates on human psychology and its relation with the inevitable.

I have documented the entire shoot on video. (the film was shot with my Canon 7D, so I had to shoot the shooting with my new iPhone 4, it's my first attempt, I later edited it with the Edius, also a first)



VIDEO PAGE


I didn't bother to subtitle the thing, but it begins with the two actresses discussing about the scenes, asking about the cues and timing (Tao Sha asking when does she react to the slasher, Teng Fei asks when and how she's gonna stab the victim etc.) before the number of takes taken to get the scene done.