Pre-Production

We've got our shooting schedules finally and I'll be doing my thesis film from the 13th till 20th July. Now I'm crossing my fingers that everything I need will be provided for and that all the requirements will be met. Still that being said, I'm hard at work on my script trying to get it in as tip-top shape as possible.

So here goes nothing, the culmination of this year's (or half-year, rather) work.

BANZAIIIII!!!!!!!

The Moron Living Below Me

I've been living in London for 5 and a half months now, and living in the room below me was an indian guy. Well, he was there for only a month before he moved out. Apparently he was stupid enough to trust a 'guy' he met back home in India to transfer his school fees of 2000 pounds. Now this being India and the pound being the strongest currency in the world at the moment, it was not a surprise that his 'trusted friend' took the money and 'walked' nee 'ran literally. His incensed parents just forced him to fly back home to India. The fallout was bad, with his girlfriend crying and complaining of his actions. Well, can't blame her.

Anyhow, this sets up the scene. Room below me is empty. Who should move in but a couple of Romanians who have been living in the room next to his on the bottom level. They were living under fellow romanians and they complained of nothing but the noise those fellow countrymen of theirs made at night. This being London and him being a workman and all for 10 years or so, you'd expect him to be smarter. London houses are not known for their quality. It's cheap cardboard walls within cold uninsulated brick walls. No wonder people freeze to death in winter and burn up in summer. Frankly, the UK should be carpet bombed. Then maybe, they might have a chance to build some actually decent housing for once. All this talk of going green is a joke because the rest of Europe has done it without all the 'spin' that the UK puts on it.

But that's another issue. Today is about Romanians ie. the ones living below me. Knowing that the ceilings are of wood and that there's no sound dampening in effect, they chose to live under my room. Next they complain about the noise when I move my chair or walk across the room. They complain that they can't sleep. I tell them 'get some earplugs'. No he says. 'I wear them at work all day and I don't want to wear them at home'. Frankly, this romanian is a spoilt tosser who should be deported all the way back. He complains people don't treat him like a british citizen but as an eastern european when he holds a british passport after working here for 12 years. Well with behaviour such as this, I'm not blaming them for that.

Anyhow, I came home after Ocean's 13 last night a little after midnight and tried to cook some food in the microwave. Ah, walking around in slippers is too much noise for his oh, so sensitive ears. So he exits and removes my fuses or circuit breakers from the electrical board so that I don't have any electricity running to my room. Well, he thinks this is going to intimidate me. On the contrary, he's made a stupid mistake.

And Ocean's 13 was great. Typical Ocean's fare. The best part was the Oprah subplot with Andy Garcia at the end for me.

Laters.

The End of All Things

Today's probably the first day we've got free. In theory we're supposed to be using it for 'pre-production' but in practice most of us are probably going to chill out tonight. I've been poring over my script and trying to make it better and more like a script than a school composition - yes, maybe some of you might remember those dreaded monstrosities. So I find myself spending more and more time in Waterstone's and Borders just reading over screenplays and MARVEL graphic novels.

We had our casting session yesterday and it was an unmitigated disaster since not many actors and actresses actually even bothered to turn up. This makes casting people in our movies a total pain because no actors = no movie. And all of us don't really want to act in each other's films anymore. We want to actually do what we are studying and that's direct.

I got my rushes for my Guinness Advertisement back yesterday so we rigged up the projector and watched it inbetween the breaks we had in the casting session. Here are some pictures of the ad after we finished all the shots.





And the rushes looked sooooo good. Man, shooting on 35mm is great. The quality is excellent and so much better than 16mm or digital. If I ever get the chance, I'm going to shoot 35mm whenever possible. It might not be for a few years, but frankly, the finished results are great.

As far as scriptwriting goes, I'm getting lots of inspiration from Lost in Translation. I've been watching the movie nonstop for the last few days and in particular certain chapters just for the music. It's haunting, evocative, mysterious and sensuous all at the same time. But one can't just keep clicking repeat chapter all the time every few minutes, so I went out to buy the music CD. So now, no excuses to writing a crap script. Just going to do my best to make the end better than the beginning.

Onward and Upwards

We wrapped our 35mm ad shoots last Friday and then proceeded to the nearby pub to celebrate with odious amounts of alcohol. Michael tried to get me drunk, but I guess lack of sleep and 7 pints later... he ended up looking like that.



I guess what's left to do is to prepare for the thesis film. We've been studying the entire year for this film. But unfortunately, we're all so tired at this point I'm not sure there's any energy left to actually shoot the thing. The entire year we've been just been bombarded from all sides, if not theory-wise, then project-wise. Anyhow, we end on August 31st and then a well-earned break before deciding what to do with the next step of my life.

Strange thing is, even though it's only been - or will be - 8 months, it feels like a much much longer time has elapsed. Which is good, because I'd rather have done this than spent another year glued in front of the computer playing World of Warcraft or whatnot, wasting time raiding and farming for what essentially is, ones and zeroes resting on magnetic media.

I've got the basic script for my thesis film and I'm excited to shoot it after I've worked out some kinks in the language. Scriptwriting was never my strong suit though I try my best at it. Sometimes I wish I could be like my friends who can actually write decent stuff.

Anyhow, I managed to get a shot of me with the 35mm Panavision Camera so here it is. :)

Finished the Guinness Ad

The shoot is done. Gruelling, stressful but in the end, hopefully, the payoff will justify the amount of money spent on the Guinness we used for the shoot. 1-shot but 1 complicated tough shot. Our instructor told us it wasn't easy by professional standards, and I'm hoping that it'll turn out great once the rushes get back to the school from the lab.

Whoo-hooo! Now to relax tonight and start prepping for my final thesis film script. Work never seems to stop on this course, but it's ok. Bring it on! :P

It's Guinness TIME!!!

We're doing to do the 35mm commercial shoot today. Strangely I'm not too nervous about it. Usually I am a little, but I figure that I've done all that I can possibly do, including running up and down Soho, Covent Garden and into every pub in a 1 square mile radius to find a Guinness Coaster. It's amazing how many pubs don't have any coasters anymore. And Irish pubs don't have any Guinness ones. I consider last night an exercise of willpower and almost utter futility.

Still, it didn't end up too badly as I called Blair out of the blue and we met up impromptu in Leicester Square and moved onto Chinatown for my long-awaited dinner (after that much walking one would be famished). We chatted on about old times in WoW, the world, our lives, mutual friends and stuff. One thing I realized was that how much has changed since I left WoW. I'm doing something I really wanted to do finally in my life, and things are slowly but surely falling into place. It isn't easy and probably won't be 100% easy, but at least I'm moving somewhere and I'm happy about it.

Now to actually somehow get a picture on this blog using a MAC. That would be a great achievment for me. ><

Target Acquired - Locked Down

The results came out last Friday, and somehow amazingly, my pitch for the 35mm advertisement got accept. Whoo hoo! That's a major miracle for me considering I think most of my fellow classmates are more creative and talented than me. So maybe I just have to try that much harder. Nonetheless, I will not deny that God is good. In fact, it's probably the grace factor that carried me through. Now I'm just focussed on getting the props for the ad and running it through my mind. Shot by shot. An irony, considering it is a one-shot commercial.

Why one-shot? Maybe because to me, a commercial is a hit or miss thing. You can have lots of pretty pictures but if it doesn't hit the main goal of the product dead on to the audience, it's just a waste of money and time. Still, it put some of the marketing stuff I learnt from university to good use.

This week we've got nothing but 35mm workshops with the Panavision cameras. I got to get a pic of me with those babies. The day I actually get to shoot on one of those cameras, I'll be so happy. :) Rob's going to be my DP (director of photography) and he's psyched up about it. The class calls my ad the one-shot ad but hey, at least I get to shoot it. And I'm thankful for that, even if it is one-shot. It's better than nothing, and I get to put it on my showreel.

This year I'm learning just to be thankful for the small things. For whatever situation I've been placed in, good or bad, I'm learning lots just in gritting my teeth and going through the journey even though in my guts I'm scared. Inside I'm shaking, but at the end, it's trust that God is faithful to those that trust in Him and so far He hasn't let me down yet this whole year.



PS - New Hillsongs Album - Above All is wicked sick. This is one of my fave tracks 'Hosanna'