A CASE OF THE EXES

It's never good news when all your exes start to reappear at every nook and cranny of your life.

For Dev, he's going crazy. Are they real? Are they part of his imagination? Is he guilt stricken because of the many, many hearts he's broken? Is he just going mental? Do they reappear because they're looking for closure?

Or.

Is it Dev who's looking for closure, that's why they reappear, and it's making him mental, because of the guilt, and so really, it's all just a figment of his imagination, which means they're all not real?

Ash (to Charmaine, who plays Shanice): Are you real?
Charmain: I think I'm real. But do YOU think I'm real?

Shanice - The Forgotten One

Evra - The Vixen

Dev - The Confuddled Anti-Hero

WHERE DO THE GANGSTERS COME FROM?

Victor and Nazim, who play two of the three gangsters John, Paul and Mondo, were in over the weekend to rehearse.

"Where do they come from?"

The gangsters ... how do i put it. Imagine three guys watching a movie. And as they see the movie, they think maybe they want to change stuff in the movie. So they have a chance to go in and meddle with the filmic world. But in order to go into the filmic world, they have to go in as a cinematic type as well: bruce lee style martial artist, frank sinatra style crooner, italian mob boss, the final girl in slasher films, a money-grubbing cowboy in a spaghetti western. They can't just go into a cinematic space as themselves, so these three go in as Humphrey Bogart style gangsters. Maltese Falcon. They've probably watched too much of those films.

So when they go in, they are restrained by those conventions: the hats, the suits, the cigarettes, the talk. They go in and the first thing they wanna do is have a bit of fun, so they go and seek out the girl, try to find out her name and bring her out for a harmless dance. Then they go and do what they really wanna do: kill the villain. So they go and meet the confused protagonist, give him a job and then go out of the cinematic space - perhaps back into their living room - and watch as Dev is now tasked to kill. The repurcussions are beyond their expectation - they probably wouldn't have predicted Lam Tak-Wing hijacking the gun and taking it to the supermarket.

Then again, they probably don't care. As John the gang leader says, "we're just here for a good movie".

CHEF BOY SPURNED TWICE

One boy. Two girls.

Both will turn him down.

"I'll cook you dinner. What do you like?"

Justin rehearsed with Ching Ching and Alice the other night, the girls respectively playing Rosalind and Siao Lian, the two cashier girls who spurn Lam Tak-Wing's offer for dinner. They go about it in very different ways, and it was enlightening for all of us to explore the disparity in their rejection of our poor chef.

Rosalind toys with Lam Tak-Wing

Rosalind was always going to be a bit of a bitch, and we first worked on getting Chingz to play girly girl flirt, and then juxtapose it with sultry seductress. It didn't fully work, of course, and we went with a coy seduction that gives and then holds back, and then gives a bit more. It drove Justin nuts. Which means it worked.

Alice on while developing Siao Lian's character

In the evolution of Siao Lian, she initially spoke mandarin, and then english, and then cantonese and finally a mix between english and cantonese. We finished rehearsal with Alice going for full manglish. Siao Lian is quite poorthing cos she'd actually love to be out with boys like LTW, but she is too responsible, over her sister and her job, to just take off and have her fun.

The night was fairly light-hearted, but i think we achieved a good deal considering it was the first time Justin met with the girls. In the end, they both got picked up by their cars, and any effort on Justin's part to "give you a lift" were spurned as well. Poor boy. No fish head curry.

QUOTED

Fergus, Ben and Shing discuss the relationship between the Old Man and Charlotte.

FERGUS
Okay Ben, does the Old Man love Charlotte?

BEN
Hrm...of course he does. Like a daughter...

SHING
(Nods head)

BEN (continues)
...but with sexla.

SHING
Hahaha...this needs to go into the blog.

QUOTED

After rehearsals, Fergus, Shing and Sen Kiat were sitting around and discussing Sen Kiat's schedule.

FERGUS
Okay Sen Kiat, your first day on set, we're shooting your dead body.

SEN KIAT
Great! Do I get to be naked?

THE WEEKEND THAT WAS

Shing, who plays Charlotte, came up for rehearsals last weekend. We rehearsed all of Charlottees scenes, her song, monologues and voice overs. The bulk of it was the scene where Charlotte "picks up" the unassuming assassin and also all of her scenes with the Old Man. It was a long and exhaustive one, but we all had fun - Fergus, myself, Mel, the assassin and the Old Man. If you were there, you'd have laugh yourself silly in some bits. All in all, it was thoroughly fruitful.

Although the scene between Charlotte and the assassin is a small one, it was nevertheless challenging to block and direct during rehearsals. Mostly because in that scene, there isn't any dialogue. Our assassin (Sen Kiat) arrived shy but towards the end loosened up and provided a bit of comic relief and a cigarette for Shing to work with. Bless his generous soul. (Cigarettes aren't cheap these days).

Fergus going through with Sen Kiat and Shing the journey which the two take in their scene

Introducing: Sen Kiat's cigarette. And Sen Kiat too of course

What was funny during the Charlotte-assassin session was getting Sen Kiat and Shing to switch characters. It was kinda cute seeing Sen Kiat turn on the giggly charm and seduction on Shing. After that, Fergus demonstrated his idea and vision of Charlotte opposite the assassin in this scene to Shing. I had to stomach the laughter and bite my lip. I've been given strict orders not to mention any more than that.

We took rehearsal out of Fergus' apartment for the first time seeing that in this scene, the two walk a very long street. So Fergus did the blocking for that - when Sen Kiat is to pick up pace, turn and look, drop his lighter, stop at the lights, so on and so forth.

The "walk": It's hard to capture walking on camera

We called rehearsals off at 7, had dinner, chatted a bit, said adios to Sen Kiat for the day and proceeded to stick Shing into her hotel for the night. That being said, we continued rehearsals in the hotel. Once again, the change in scenery was much welcomed. Although towards the middle of that session, I had the shivers and Shing gave me a towel to wrap myself with. I couldn't decide if I felt super because I had what could be passed off as a make believe superhero's cape or just idiotic. It didn't matter, the towel kept the chills away.

We did mostly Charlotte's voice overs and monologues in the hotel

It was close to midnight by the time we were done with that day's rehearsals. Tired and satisfied, we capped the night, I said goodbye to my "companion" which kept me warm and promised Shing chicken rice for the next day's lunch.


***


Sunday rolls around and we're all rolling off our beds and into another rehearsal session with Shing, this time with the Old Man. As promised, we took Shing out for chicken rice. Few days prior, Shing was down with a gastric flu. But she made it to KL nevertheless and we were all glad her tummy was feeling much better by the time lunch arrived on Sunday. For dinner, we had wanted to bring her out for Tom Yum and delish curry noodles in KL, but decided not to push our luck for now.

With chicken rice sitting comfortably in all our tummies, we headed over to RSD HQ, pumped and ready to go. We started the session with Charlotte's song. This time, Mel was there and so I had company. Pictures were taken in black and white, in honor of the noir treatment to Charlotte's scenes.

Cold, cold Vagabond girl

Fergus and Shing researching for the best femme fatale representation for Shing

Ben arrived not long after and so they started with characterization. What is the relationship between Charlotte and the Old Man? Why is the Old Man keeping her? What sort of person is Charlotte. Why is Charlotte the way she is? Why did the Old Man pick Charlotte and not her friends? What is it about Charlotte? The Old Man? Is there love? So on...and so...forth.

Establishing character

We got into the lines pretty soon after we somewhat nailed down the characters. We managed to do all of their scenes. It was amazing seeing both of them go in and out of the different feelings and emotions through and within each scene. The read and blocking was smooth and at some point, rehearsals started to look like Calvin Klein photo shoots, seeing that both Shing and Ben were in white and black, and jeans respectively.

Charlotte and the Old Man sharing a tender moment

Charlotte and the Old Man sharing a not so tender moment

The femme fatale and her lover

We called it a night at around 8pm. Mel bought us food and the day was over. We loaded the pictures up and realized a total of 150 pictures were taken over the weekend. Were we satisfied with the weekend's work?

You bet.

THIS IS MEL

Mel and the bean bag.

Mel is a gem. Also known as the director's PA and RSD's little helper =) We give her bits and pieces of information on pieces or paper and she files them all in a little folder, which may or may not grow to be a huge binder someday. She takes notes during meetings and later on turns them to our to-do lists. She comes once in a while during rehearsals to keep me company and I've started to associate her with food because she has on more than one occassion coordinated cast and crew meals. I can only forsee that she'll be the person you go to if you need to be fed. Sometimes, when she sits in the bean bag, you worry it might swallow her whole. She's tiny and cute like that.

Just one thing to remember when you're around Mel:
You smile at her lots and she'll smile back at you even more. There's no beating this one when it comes to smiling.

JESSY'S TOE AND MIRROR TALK

Jessy and Ash were over tonight, and were doing a focus exercise using the song Dil laga liya (pictured above, and no, those aren't jessy and ash, that's priety zinta and her costar, but i swear we'll get there, i swear).

It was then that our two actors, astute as they were on the floor, got their feet tangled, eventuating in Jessy hurting the baby toe on her left foot. After some tlc that first involved tying her baby toe to her fourth toe (so that it didn't "pop out") and then followed by home-made ice pack, we got back into rehearsals. Jessy did spend the remainder of her night on the sofa, which worked out pretty alright considering that in her scene, she is in a bath tub.

Jessy also brought some really yummy chocolate chip muffins, which she baked till 1am the night before. Thanks Jessy!

"How do you feel if i told you that the whole dev story is a dream, a big conjurance in the mind of sapna, as something to soothe the hurt she feels? like, nothing about dev is real. it is all sapna's extensive imagination, fleshed out to make her feel better about losing him?"

"Dev, for you, it is opposite. sapna is your imagination. both of you believe that the other one is imagined. it's like a mirror image, but the object and the image both believe they are the object. both insist that the other is the image, a mere reflection. maybe both of them are objects. maybe dev and sapna are both in that bathroom. or maybe both are the image, reflecting someone else. maybe neither dev nor sapna are there at all"

HOPE SWELLS

Last week Ash and Bel had their chance to rehearse Videogirl and Dev's scene. As always, it's was a lot of fun. I must apologize for the delay in this blog post. My day job doesn't allow me to slack off, but today I shall! Muahahahhaha...*ahem*

Anyway, Fergus did the usual with them as he did with the rest who've come for rehearsals so far. He made them go through the different energies of acting and got them to role play in different scenarios. The funniest, I think, was the one where Ash played a smooth door-to-door sales man and Bel was the hyperactive home-owner. The situation was this: Ash is trying to sell Bel something, but in the process, he knocks down an urn which houses Bel's dead grandmother's ashes.

So...pics pics pics!

Fergus demonstrating one of the energies.

I can't tell if Ash was in the midst of crossing his legs when I snapped this picture, or if he was goofing around this time.

Ash and Bel paying full attention to Mr. Director Man.

And finally...the read.

I left the session early. From Fergus' apartment door to the elevator, I can't help but feel warm and fuzzy, so much so, a skip threatened to force its way in my stride. Every actor and actress brings with him or her a very different feel and mood to the sessions. Sometimes, it's very playful, sometimes it's dead serious. This time, it was hopeful. Maybe because they were rehearsing the very last scene, where everything comes together.

TABLAS ARRIVE

This weekend i'm getting my* tablas back. i've not seen them since i was ... fifteen? I don't even know if i remember how to play them anymore but i'll sure die trying. surely, it's nothing wikipedia can't teach me. wikipedia can teach anybody anything from scratch.

I say this to mark the beginning of me nosediving into the world of bollywoodia, the concluding of my writing dev and sapna's hindi song and the encampment in an atmosphere of all things Bollywood. I've just spent hours downloading the songs from some of my favourite hindi films and so the impending arrival of the tablas is most timely.

* they're not really mine. they're my mum's. but i did pester her to buy them when i was ten.

QUOTED

This actually took place during an MSN conversation with me. She typed it to me when I was talking about something else I don't know what. For whatever reasons, I don't know that either.

Jin: if you want to buy a drink, you must stay

(two seconds later)

Jin: eh...if you wanna STAY, you must BUY A DRINK.

Jin: aiyah...



It seems that most bloopers come from Jin. Is this cause for concern? Or for delight? Hrm...

"YOU FORGET THAT I'M RESPONSIBLE!"

It was the Old Man and Dev's turn to rehearse.

Firstly, let us introduce Ben Tan who'll be playing the Old Man. He's asked that the Old Man be given a name. I thought Richard. Or was it Raymond. I can't remember. So if any of you have suggestions, do feel free to post them in the comments =)

Anyway, the rehearsal session was intense. Maybe because the scene they were rehearsing was very erm...intense? The warm-up exercises were very different from that of LTW and Y's. It was interesting to see character development based on warm-up exercises. To see each of our cast get into character is amazing.

Fergus made the two men relax to background music which set a mood for them to think about their characters' lives. Their journey from how they started to how they ended up as how they did on script.

Drift...drift...drift away....

There was a lot of discussion during this rehearsal. Mainly to delve deeper into the psyche of both the Old Man and Dev. To see what power games they were playing on each other. In order to get both Ben and Ash to develop that state of mind and be in it, Fergus did a "I lead, you follow" exercise. Both men took turns to focus on the other's body part or object on the other's body part. So with music in the background, the "leader" would move and the "follower" keeps his eyes on the part he was focusing on. The outcome was interesting and to be expected.

It turns out, Ash didn't find it easy to lead but Ben did. So that was cool.

Just the boys discussing the dynamics of the entire scene.

Ash and Ben squaring off in their scene.

That's about it for the Old Man's and Dev's scene until closer to shoot. There's something so sad about this scene, when you do experience it in front of you. You get the impression that there's definitely more than what seems to be heartless and cold. Hrm...

THIS IS JAN

Also known as oomoo. Or as our Production Designer person before she left for the Netherlands to finish her masters in architecture. She's got this cool top with lotsa polka dots. It's a pity you guys couldn't meet her because she's uber cool and funny. Anyway, this introduction is long overdue. The four of us, Fergus, Elaine, Jan and myself brainstormed on the costumes for the cast. Elaine has taken over overall movie design since Jan ditched us decided to pursue her studies. She sent a video wishing us luck etc etc but I'm too lazy to load it =P

That's Jan writing stuff on these sketches she made while Fergus Mr. Director Man and Elaine Ms. Art Director look on.

"Okay Jan, I want Videogirl to be in a pink tutu. No? How about leopard print leotards? Too tacky? Yeah, I thought so. We'll put her in a red dress. Perfect."

WISH I WAS THERE!

bloopers are the greatest...

QUOTED

Scene 777
INT. NIGHT
DIRECTOR'S SOHO

FAI and JIN are sitting on the couch. Paper is strewn across their laps, they are busy perfecting Fai's Mandarin. Or so it seems.

JIN
Hey, do you know how to write your name in Mandarin?

FAI
Yeah sure.

Fai proceeds to write on a piece of paper and Jin looks on. Then Jin takes the paper and pen from Fai and writes something on it as well.

FAI
Hey great. Is that how you write it?

JIN
Yupp. So next time, you can write your name in Mandarin, not draw.

QUOTED

Scene 89
INT. NIGHT
24 HR SUPERMARKET

LTW
Why is it so hard to love you?

Jin: Because got obstacle lorr...

--------------------------------------

Like bloopers, we're starting a series of posts to record zany rehearsal/reading sessions. It may or may not make sense, or come across as funny to you if you weren't there, but I assure you, it's a nice thing to keep around and laugh about =)

DA DUM...DA DUM DA DUM DA DUM...

So...

Rehearsals have begun.

Last Saturday saw Fai (LTW) and Jin rehearsing their lines. Incindentally, Jin plays Y, who couldn't make it to the get together we had Thursday last. Anyhoo, it was good fun seeing Fergus getting into director mode, coaching them and getting everyone to loosen up. Even I took part in some bits, but tired out after our little "energizing pick-me-upper" (*be forewarned actors, physical labor exercises will be included during rehearsals). We also worked on Fai's Mandarin, which was great fun as well. Between Jin, who's also Fai's Mandarin tutor; me, who speaks but can't read or write for nuts; Fergus and Fai who barely understands much less speak the language, we managed to come up with the best lines to capture the essence of LTW and Y's scenes.

That's Jin, whose face you can't really see.

"So okay, guys, I want you to get into character..."

Fergus listening and watching intently as Jin and Fai hash their lines out.

As usual, while everyone's getting into the zone, I naturally decided to goof around midway rehearsals.

Jin: Okay, here's how you say "My name is..."
Fai: Great stuff, write it here

Fai: Ni ke yi zhiau wor Lam Tak Wing
Jin: Mm. Good.

ROTTERDAM

Rotterdam is half an hour away.
The festival is a year away.
It goes to say that RSD will be at the festival.
I will be in Rotterdam in half an hour, in one year. QED.

WORK HARD GUYS