October 4, 2005 [Tuesday] 1:40 pm
A Slice Of My Life As An Actress
[Thurs, Sep 29]
7:00 am
The alarm wakes me up. It's the start of a really long
day. I get ready to send the Goonfather off to work.
7:45 am
We leave home.
8:05 am
I bid the Goonfather goodbye and drive off to a corporate video shoot.
They had wanted me at 7:30 am but I told them I can only make it at 8:30
am. It's supposed to be a short shoot because there is only one scene
left, which we couldn't complete the day before due to rain.
8:25 am
I arrive at the set and the makeup artist gets to work on me.
9:00 am
Makeup all done and ready to go, but they are not ready for me. Duh...
10:00 am
They are still not ready for me. Zzzz....
11:00 am
The location is a primary school. I walk around reading notice boards
while waiting.
11:30 am
Finally! It's my turn!
11:40 am
I am melting. The sun is super bright, there are no clouds, four of us
actors are out in the open and I can hardly open my eyes. On top of that,
the set reflectors throw even more light glaring into our eyes. We go
through several takes while we melt and get blinded.
12:00 pm
There is an unwanted car in the background. A crew member has to run in
to notify the school to page the owner to remove it. Another crew member
sees us suffering and comes to our rescue with a styrofoam reflector to
shield us from the sun for a bit.
1:00 pm
The shoot is over!
1:30 pm
I arrive home, have some lunch and try to go to sleep. Need rest for late
night shoot tonight.
2:30 pm
I start to doze off but the whole world is trying to stop me from sleeping.
I get several phone calls interspersed within the next few hours.
5:30 pm
I have to finally wake up after a series of eventful sleep-and-wake cycles.
I have an hour to freshen up and surf the net a bit before leaving home
to pick the Goonfather up from work.
I'm supposed to be on the set for a short film at 11:30 pm.
9.30 pm
It is now after dinner and I've had some Internet time clocked. Starting
to feel sleepy.
10:00 pm
I shall take a half-hour power nap.
10:20 pm
Power nap is not working because I'm a super light sleeper and the Goonfather
playing EQ2 in the room is not helping. I get up and take a shower. It's
almost time to leave for the shoot, anyway.
11:15 pm
I arrive at the film set and find out that they haven't started filming
a single thing. Oh, great. They were supposed to have started around 8
pm and make it a wrap by 3 am.
11:45 pm
My makeup is done and I discuss a few things with the director before
settling down for a long night of waiting. I decide to pass my time by
playing with a fellow actor.
[Fri, Sep 30]
12:00 MN
There's Killer the doggy actor. He is so cute. He is shy and dainty, unlike
his name. He reminds me of Scruffy. I start a doggy chat with his owner.
1:00 am
I am done playing with Killer and chatting with his owner, so I check
out the scene in the set. We are filming at Cheers, Aljunied MRT, a squeezy
place to film in.
I grab a moment to take a picture with another fellow cast member.
I don't remember her name but I acted with her in the Ch 8 drama, She Is The One. Killer plays her pet in this short film.
2:00 am
We are allowed to take any food or drink we want from Cheers and the production
crew will pick up the tab, so I grab a curry puff because I'm starving.
2:30 am
It is my turn, finally! All the other cast members have gone home, leaving
just me and my co-star. We get into character.
I am rejuvenated because the scenes are fun. Even having to do take after take of the same shot is fun. Sometimes, I don't want it to ever end.
4:30 am
I am starting to get sleepy because there is quite a chunk of waiting
time between takes. I read magazines for free from the Cheers magazine
rack.
5:00 am
I have to operate the cash register for a scene, so the real cashier shows
me how.
5:15 am
We have several NGs because the cash tray refuses to open at times. Maybe
it doesn't like having some newbie touch its buttons. The real cashier
has to keep coming to the rescue.
6.00 am
I sneak outside the store to check if my makeup is still intact. I find
the makeup artist asleep on a portable chair.
Makeup artists have a tougher job than the rest of us because they have to stay on set the longest (till every actor has left the set) and they have the most waiting time. After the initial round of makeup at the start of the day, they don't have much else to do besides the occasional touching up... especially when they get actors like me who don't perspire.
7:00 am
It is a wrap!! I rush home and tell the Goonfather that I can't drive
him to work today because I am stone tired and I have an audition at 12
pm.
8:00 am
I finally get to sleep after washing up and patting Scruffy on the head.
10:45 am
The phone alarm goes off and tells me that I have to wake up to get ready
for my audition.
12:00 pm
I arrive at the audition nice and early but realise that the director
is not there yet, so I take some photos from the sofa that I am waiting
on.
I'm in the office of a new theatre company called Cake, which explains the interesting choice of deco.
12:15 pm
The director arrives and apologises for the delay. I find out that my
audition today is not really an audition but more a chat about an upcoming
project. It sounds really fun and interesting so I tell her I'm interested.
We talk about it some.
1:00 pm
Back at home. I have half an hour to surf the net and check my e-mail
before having to zip off to the next shoot.
1:55 pm
I arrive at the office of the production house doing the short film, ready
to be made-up again and complete some more scenes for the film.
2:45 pm
My co-star arrives and we realise there has been some communication error.
He thought it was a rehearsal, not a shoot, so he didn't bring the right
shoes. He is sent home to get them while the crew prepares the set.
3:30 pm
We are ready to start the shoot but a very important prop is not cooperating,
so the shoot is delayed. The crew works on setting things right while
I loiter around the studio.
4:00 pm
Someone gets bored and starts scribbling on the "white board".
4:05 pm
The tittering falters and I settle down on a chair to rest. I start falling
asleep.
5:00 pm
I did manage to catch a few winks in the last hour so am now feeling a
tad more refreshed. The prop is still not ready and I see the director
discussing some finer points of the script with my co-star.
Outside the studio, some of the crew members are having coffee and snacks. I join them.
5:30 pm
The shoot begins. It is another fun shoot, even though I have to smoke
in this scene. I am still not a very convincing smoker, but I am getting
better. I don't really dare to practise, for obvious reasons.
Between takes, there is more waiting while cameras are shifted, lights are adjusted, script is refined, props are coaxed back to working order, and so on.
But all the waiting is worth it because acting and being in front of the camera is so much fun.
8:00 pm
It's a wrap for me. I can go home and get some rest before reporting to
Cheers again later for another night shoot. The producer estimates that
they will need me around 11 pm or at midnight, but they will call me just
before they need me so I don't have to hang around the set waiting.
8:30 pm
I arrive home and have a very small dinner.
9:00 pm
I get on the net again. Getting on the computer is like being home. It
gives me a feeling of warmth and security and contentment, the kind of
feeling one gets when one comes home after wandering the lands.
10:00 pm
I take a nap, estimating that I will have about two hours to sleep before
they call me.
10:45 pm
I am rudely awakened from my dreamless sleep by the cheesy ringtone from
my phone. The director tells me I need to come to the set now because
they are just starting to set up. There goes my two hours of sleep.
11:00 pm
I arrive at the car park. As I get out of my car, I notice that the crew
has also just arrived and are unloading equipment from the truck.
11:02 pm
I arrive at Cheers and see that the other half of the crew are already
there, getting ready props and things. The producer seems surprised to
see me. "Wah, you come so early ah?"
I sit on the floor outside Cheers to wait and chat with a few people.
[Sat, Oct 1]
12:00 MN
They don't need me so soon, after all, so I get inside
Cheers and start reading magazines again.
12:30 am
I suddenly notice my co-star beside me also reading a magazine but he
is seated on the floor while I am standing. I feel slightly foolish for
punishing myself so I sit down beside him, even though it makes us look
like delinquents.
1:30 am
We are on. They are filming us from outside the store today, so we go
through the exact same motions as we did the night before.
2:00 am
I can go home! Wow. I am surprised. My part in the film is over, but the
rest of them still have some more scenes to go.
2:15 am
I pack up my things and bid everyone farewell.
The relief of having everything finally over is very quickly replaced by a feeling of sadness and loss. As I walk away from the set, a piece of my heart stays lodged in the film set.
I hate it when a production ends. The character I have been for the past two days (or past few months if it's a drama serial) is dead. Although it has been immortalised on film, it is still dead, so it gives me the feeling that a part of me has died.
And as I walk further and further away from the set, the bittersweet knowledge that I might never see some of the crew or cast members again almost makes me want to turn back and sit the night out with them.
I don't, of course, because that would make me look like a complete idiot, so I take a slow drive home and look forward to sleeping like a pig for the next 10 hours.
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