Vincent Lee : My Reelity

“Every week Wednesday between 7p.m.-9p.m. we conduct an actors scene work session. These sessions only consist of between 6-8 actors that participate in scene work; ensuring there is sufficient time and takes to push performance and establish the makings of character in each scene.

We invite film directors with credits to conduct these sessions with us and this is supported by Sinema Old School which is an organisation that is the independent feature film hub of Singapore. They are most pro-active within the arts community here specifically related to film.

We are, for the first time – opening the portal up for other actors out there to join us in scene work. Spaces are strictly limited and the pre-requisite for attending is that this is NOT a session suitable for actors with no experience as it is not an acting 101 workshop. We focus on performance and character and working with real directors so our selection process is based on the work you have done as actors. We invite all those with short film, theatre, TV experience to find these sessions most beneficial.“

When I first received the above email, I was quite excited. It’s not been a good year for me so far and I thought this was the best bit of news I’ve heard so far. I mean you kidding me? A scene work session? I know a lot of actors who would definitely want to be part of this.

So I applied and got in and this is an excerpt from the confirmation email that I got :

“You need a scene partner, and I will match you up with an actor that matches your acting calibre. Each session is $15 per actor as you get to work with a director and the actors attending also provide performance feedback.
Let me know if you will be attending next weeks session by Friday 27th August.
If you have confirmed your attendance and then pull out, you will forfeit the $15.
Please ensure if you are unable to make it that you provide at least 48 hours notice.”

Perhaps in my excitement, I’ve read the email wrongly. But did it just say I would get paid $15 to do this? Yeah, I know, it sounds too good to be true. I wasn’t expecting to pay for the session but was definitely not expecting to be paid as well.

Guess what, after rehearsing a scene with my partner for tomorrow’s session, I found out that it really was too good to be true.

It’s us, the actors, that would have to pay $15 for a 1/2 hour session.

Nowhere in the first email, and in the facebook group which they invited me to join, was there any mention or indication of us having to pay to be involved in this session.

So I asked why we had to pay for these sessions. My partner, who was one of the very first actors to be involved in this, explained that they were told it was for the rental of the place and for the director invited to these sessions. The funny thing was these sessions started out as a very casual thing between actors and it was free, and there was no director involved initially. Then they started charging $8, $10 and now $15 per actor and bringing in directors.

So, let’s see here… the director gets paid? Wow, and here I thought this was a mutually beneficial session between for directors and actors. So how come the burden of these sessions fall on the actors? We even have to come out with our own scripts for crying out loud. If we don’t want a director to be involve, can the price be lower?

To pay for rental of the premise is fair I suppose. If we assume everything goes to the rental, this would work out to be $120 over a two hour session. Which makes it $480 a day and $14,400 a month (8 hr day, 30 day month). When you look at it this way, it doesn’t seem cheap eh?

Needless to say, I am quite disappointed by all this. It’s not a matter of whether I can afford the $15 but more of a sense of actors being exploited again. I mean, they are not even being upfront about having to pay for these sessions at all! It is too late for me to pull out at this point, as it wouldn’t be fair to my partner.

But I will try to gather more facts tomorrow and see if the situation is really as bad as it seems.

Its a real pity though; I truly thought this was a good thing for us actors. Now it’s just leaving an awful taste in my mouth.

So my doctor just called me up all of a sudden to tell me that he saw me on telly last night.

Apparently, they did a rerun of my Incredible Tales episode last year in a brand new rehash series called “The Best Of Incredible Tales”.

He told me he didn’t know it was me at first; in fact he was drawn to the episode because he thought the lead actor was acting very well. He was intrigued and wanted to know who this actor was, and as he watched he gradually found him more and more familiar. So he purposely waited until the credits rolled and lo and behold, much to his amazement, it was yours truly!

He told me my acting was very natural and that I’m really a good actor. Needless to say, by the end of the conversation, he had me beaming to the skies.

Audience appreciation, at a time when I’m at my most jaded, couldn’t be more timely I guess. But to be honest, I don’t know if this is enough for me to stay the course.

But more on this subject another time. Right now, I just want to bask in the moment a bit.

On another note, I guess this should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt I can do non-villiany roles.

April 2009 will probably go down as THE month to top, and I’m having withdrawal symptoms already.

Free alcohol, free food, partying with Playmates, two heck of birthday bashes and fine, fine company. I seriously think it doesn’t get any better than this, although boo tells me my wedding day will top all this.

That is, if I ever,ever get married.

The free alcohol started with the whisky tasting, followed by the generosity of VIP Magazine that plied us with drinks during the launch and after launch party, followed by the Bar Stop’s 5th anniversary, which handed us free flow of house pours for about an hour.

Gee … I just remembered I’ve got another bottle of champagne waiting for me at Wala.

The sad part about April was of course seeing the last of Shirlyn till 9 weeks later. But I’m just glad that her last two gigs coincided with my birthday and I had an awesome time.

So if I had the pleasure of your company during this time, I hope you had a blast as well (thanks Jeff for an awesome montage!).

My whole body is still aching from yesterday, where I donned on the persona of Black Dragon (literally translated from the Chinese name) for the upcoming blockbuster serial “The Ultimatum”.

Gee, I always thought blockbusters are for the big screen …

Anyhoo, I digress.

It’s been a while since I’ve been back to MCS, so much so that I didn’t even know they have changed entry points for us again. Of course the cool thing now is that they key in everything into the computer, so no more flipping through pages and pages on the clipboard just to prove that we are really here for a shoot.

A surprise was waiting for me in the make-up department in the form of a mole. As if I did not have enough already!! But I had to put on the fake mole as the actor playing the older Black Dragon has this-blink-but-you-won’t-miss-it mole on his chin.

Definitely not a smokin’ moment.

Another surprise was the length of the shoot. Judging from the scenes, I’d really thought I will be done come evening time. But it was scheduled for, and it eventually ended as well,at midnight. I guess the director wasn’t kidding when she told me I had a long and hard day ahead.

Over dinner, she asked me how come I’ve not aged one bit over the years. “In fact, she said, “You look younger and thinner.” I was so tempted to tell her of my vampire origin, but decide to just simply say that I did age and have a couple of white hairs showing already.

The dastardly deed was shot after dinner. And my victim this time round was Cheryl. You would have probably remembered her as the sister of one of the main characters in I Not Stupid back then.

In between takes, I asked her if this was her first time and she said no, it was her second. She asked the same of me, and I bashfully told her that I’ve sorta done this to two other women already. Her eyes then widen and asked if I always played the bad guy. My reply was just a sad smile and a small sigh…

The scenes did turn out to be physically demanding indeed, just like the director had forewarned. If not for my gym hours, I doubt I would have lasted the night.

The last surprise was that this is the first shoot I’ve done in TCS 8 where all the main cast are freelancers. Now, how about that?

Most of the time, this question always leave me in a state of bemusement.

Let’s see what the basic definition is :

ac?tor
? ?/?ækt?r/ [ak-ter]
–noun
1. a person who acts in stage plays, motion pictures, television broadcasts, etc.
2. a person who does something; participant.

So going by the above definition, then I guess I am one.

But anyone can be an actor, you say. True, I mean its not like you need a Masters degree to be one. And wasn’t it Bill (William Shakespeare) who labeled everyone an actor?

I guess why people ask me the question is because I’m too obscure and/or haven’t been featured prominently in anything mainstream. I don’t fault them for that; heck if I’m in their shoes, I too, will have difficulty believing I’m an actor.

But I do get offended by people if their questioning goes along the lines of “Are you pretending to be an actor”. Please lah, I got nothing better to do meh? Why do I want to pretend to be something anyone can be?

And then there are those who differentiate between extras, bit players and main part actors. Most of us have to start somewhere and its just too bad that the industry here don’t really advocate working your way up. But that’s not a reason to condemn those who call themselves actors but have been only doing carelefare work (see definition above).

So am I really an actor? Well, you decide for yourself. But I do know I have a good body of work behind me, so if anyone’s asking, I’m an actor.

And a darn good one at that.