Monday, March 10, 2008

Beeline "Drums"

Was probably the craziest thing I've ever done in my entire life.

Connie and I took turns sleeping. Two shifts - Connie goes home at 1am and comes back at 9am, I go home at 11am and come back at 5pm. We did that for a full week. I hate the office couch now.

We had a bunch of Inuits bundled up in thick woolly clothing in our studio. They looked like yetis.

The miniature igloo set and landscape of Antarctica that KL built with Jimmy.

By far the nicest and most canggih studio that I've ever shot in. Even colder than Green Cow, if that's even possible.

This is what a tracking vehicle looks like in Thailand. Very impressive. So Transformers.

On recce day. It finally felt like we all could breathe. Everything were just right. In place.

We even had the time for a jump shot. Hurray to Baan Krut. You saved our sorry asses in KL.

Day break in Baan Krut. And everything is calm.

Thai prop master. I think his name is Not. Speaks no English, funny guy. Always asking us to take pictures with him.

This is how sand is levelled in Thailand. So much faster, so much more efficient. So impressive.

I suspected that the Assistant Producer from Moscow took a liking to me, which, unfortunately cannot be said the same for myself. He takes pictures of me on shoot when I'm uber stressed, like, when I'm ready to bite heads off. And when I glare at him, he started taking the liberty to sneak pictures of me. So who could really blame me, right?

Zainal's first trip to Bangkok. He babysat the Malaysian talent, all the way. I wouldn't have done that myself.

Whether in KL or in Bangkok, I'll always be an umbrella girl. The tattoos on these gentle giants took all night to paint. And they never once complained.

Casting director, Oil, asked me if I was from Hong Kong. A little glamorous for a KL girl, he says. Coincidentally his sister shares my name.

Producer at Matching Studios, Tone. An unbelievably nice person, has never said no to me. We emailed back and forth for a week before I finally met him in Bangkok.

We had an audience. And they enjoyed the show as much as I did.

The GF-9. An impressive piece of equipment. None of us had ever worked with it before.

This is what a toilet truck in Thailand looks like. It's like a hotel washroom in there. They even have butlers in uniform handing out towels to us.

Junior Steadicam Operator. I don't know her name. But she's hot. She's also one of 5 female camera operators in Thailand.

The Master, we call him. He's a choreographer, stuntman, rigger, performer. He gave Nick and the guys a crash course the Haka dance in half an hour. So polite, so smiley, so soft-spoken.

It felt a lot longer than the 2 weeks we all spent on it. So many arguments, so much shouting, so many threats. But we pulled through. All of us did.

The Malaysian contingent and the Indonesian. We made it through, together.

And I have enjoyed the shoot in Baan Krut. Who cares if it's a 5 hour drive away from the city?

The company was good. The shoot went well. The camera assistants are hot. I can't complain, really.

It just irked me a little that some people are in this picture with us.

Only half of the people who worked on Beeline are here. I wished they were all in the picture with us.

6 nationalities, 3 vignettes, 3 days, 2 countries.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love at first sit LOL! I so want to go to thailand some day :) how come this place is only a few hours from KL? I though u have to go via Kedah?

Disco Ball Pixie said...

it's 5 hours away from bangkok ;) and bangkok is a 2 hour flight away from kl.