On the verge of finishing the FORCED LABOUR shoot

13th of April= Did a quick shooting of two assassins answering phone calls. It was shot in Justin's kitchen. Pretty scary cos' I only had 15 minutes to get them done.

It's Like 'A Boring Story' Again.

Holy crap. 2 week break has begun, and I predicted that I would have some difficulty trying to finish shooting the entire flick in a week.

Exclusive Pics of Forced Labour!!!

Yeah, just to let y'all know what I've been filming during the past few weeks.

Streetfighting Streetfighters

Yes, have filmed another fighting scene for Forced Labour. The one's different from the previous scene I shot cos' it involves only two combatants (the previous one has five). In terms of coolness, I would say that the previous one is better, but the scene I shot today is more realistically brutal. It's a good thing cos' both involved different characters (or actors). It's a strange thing, cos' I really felt that I was shooting a few different movies at once, I'm sure I've mentioned it before. But it also kinda provides a competitive feel for all cast members, with the cast of one scene wanting to outdo the other badly and such. Interesting experience, might actually try sticking with it in the future. (as in shooting separate scenes with entirely separate set of actors)

Saw Robots and The Ring 2 respectively during the past two days. The latter sucked massively. Not a single scary scene, and found myself having trouble trying to keep awake. It's disappointing that the director of Ring 2 happens to be the director of the original Ringu! Maybe the dude's just not THAT good when it comes to shooting Hollywood remakes of... well, his own movies. Robots is enjoyable, but I think Ice Age (also from the same creators) is better.

Gunfighting Gunfighters!

Finished shooting another scene. Really tiring. Will talk about it in future entries. The above's a picture taken after the shooting. One of the people above's obviously NOT in the cast.

FORCED LABOUR shoot, watching BE COOL, other school stuff

Yes, I'm seriously running out of titles for my entries. Here's what happened during the past few days, to those who cared.

18th of March = Shot the second scene for 'Forced Labour'. Wonderful session, everything needed only one single take. Managed to wrap up shooting within 10 minutes. Not bad.

19th of March = Hm. Not much.

20th of March = Yeap, saw Be Cool, starring John Travolta, Uma Thurman, The Rock, Cedric The Entertainer, Vince Vaughn, etc. Really really funny shit. The Rock's the highlight, man. Andre Benjamin (from Outkast) too.

21st of March = Mid-term test for Advertising Law. Ouch.

22nd of March = Oral presentation for International Marketing. Should be fine. Finished storyboarding a sequence for the gunfighting scene in Forced Labour. Yay.

Shooting Has Begun!

15th of March. Shooting for Forced Labour has finally begun. Everything went pretty well. Since I've not shown anyone the script, it's pretty pointless for me to comment more. Anyway, special thanks to Ipoh Garden (a wonderful Chinese restaurant) for allowing me to film our scenes there. The photo below's taken before shooting commenced. Yeah, they are all mobsters. The guy with a wig is the craziest, most psychotic of them all.



16th of March. Dad's birthday. Also, more people are agreeing to appear in the short film. Drastic changes will be made upon the gunfighting scene. Instead of having a small four against four fight, it'll become four against a shitload of people. Yay.

Preparing FORCED LABOUR

"WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? YOU MEAN, YOU HAVEN'T SEEN MISS CONGENIALITY?????"
- Some guy to Justin, 11th of March

The above quote wouldn't be that ridiculously funny if the guy speaking it didn't make it sound as if Miss Congeniality is Lord of the Rings or something.

But anyway, been too busy to post anything on the blog these days. What have I been doing? Ah, yes, hunting for toy guns. Went to do that with Justin on Thursday, and believe it or not, I COULDN'T FIND ANY!!!! Tried Toys R' Us, Target, and other shops, but nope, no toy guns (Well, there are some futuristic ones in Toys R' Us).

I almost cried like a child. Even though I did buy a flash light for my camera so that I can have an easier time shooting night scenes.

In the end, I managed to find some guns at Fremantle with Josh's help (one of the actors) and *cough* the person who was quoted above! They don't look too real, but according to the kind people of the Fremantle Film and Television Institute, I need to get police clearance for gun replicas used in films... only if I do the shooting at public places. Scary.

Yeah, so things are kinda ready. I've got some toy guns, and I've received permission to film the very first scene in a Chinese restaurant on Tuesday. Great fun!

Going to start shooting FORCED LABOUR soon!

Swifty's Filmmaking Progress

Had my very first meeting with the cast last night. Shooting for 'Forced Labour', my next short flick, will begin next week. Yippee!

Turned 21. Birthday contemplations

"Goddamn it, I feel as if I'm trapped in a freaking daytime soap opera."
- Me to Justin, 7th of March

"Relationships, friendship, romantic, family, anything, obviously have their ups and downs. Without the 'downs', there's no way we can ever cherish the 'ups'. Right.. right?"
- Me, 7th of March

"At moments like these, I think friendship is the most important. TOMODACHI, BABY!"
- Me to Chimari, a dear Japanese friend, 4th of March

6th of March was my birthday. So many things have happened during the past few days that I didn't even feel like blogging. So, I'm 21 now, and for the first time ever, I celebrated my birthday without my family.

Sony Tropfest 2005, Oscars, starting a new short film project

Goddamn it! Had lots of problems trying to get into blogger. Right, so, what have happened during the past few days?

On Sunday night, I went to the Fremantle Outdoor Film Festival to check out the Sony Tropfest, which is supposedly the world's biggest short film festival. 16 finalist films were shown, and the winners were announced later. What can I say? All of them blew me away. Some were funny like heck, some were really thought provoking, some were really cool, some were realy sweet, yes, this sounds like asskissing, but I sure as hell had a great time there. Definitely none of those 'bah, I could've made greater stuff' feeling at all. (and because of that, I'm given more pressure with my upcoming short film... shit)

Right, yesterday's Oscars. Seems that I've gotten 8 out of my 11 predictions correct. If I've followed my mind, instead of my heart, I think I would've gotten 10 out of 11 (I was pulling too hard for Sideways). But during the first half of the Oscars, judging by its momentum, I really thought 'The Aviator' would really win the big one, despite me feeling that it doesn't really deserve it.

What else? Yeah, my upcoming short film is titled Forced Labour, and it's going to be 24308208208205205820 times more ambitious than A Boring Story. Already been getting some actors for it, like Justin's cousins (one was really a theatre actor, I believe), a guy from my literature class last year who is studying acting, some guy Justin knew, and Tenzan (yep, of CosMas and formerly of Comic Fiesta). Will need a chick to play the lead, and also another fat guy. Difficult.