When the production manager smsed me the call time, I kinda knew we would be waiting around quite a bit. And I was right. So Fish and I exchanged our friendster ids while we waited and I got to see some of his family photos. (Heh, his baby daughter is really cute.) I also showed him the played-to-death “4444” and man, I loved his reaction at the langah scene. Hehehe. He proceeded to ask me more about putting his own stuff on the web, and I basically just told him the tools that I used.
I think I may have appeared somewhat reluctant to explain how I did it, because it seems people always seem to look less of me as an actor when they find outI know more than a typical actor should know. And sometimes, I just want to be look upon as an actor, and not have you judged me otherwise just because I have other different skills. You might say the need for me to feel belonged is great, because I’ve always felt that half the time my acting peers and peeps in the industry treat me as a misfit.
I guess I already had a taste of this way back in my JC days in drama club, where all the arty and the farty people shunned me like bad medicine. And being the awkward teenager that I was, I guess there’s where this need to belong initially surfaced. Eventually though, through time and effort, I manged to win some of them by basically just showing them what I could do. The few that I won over heartened me, for they affirm my flair for acting. And it was then that I realised that as long as I continue to do what I do, I will never be totally acceptable to everyone. And in a strange way, deep down inside, I feel I would never truly “belong”…
The director decided to have me do a little stunt for my scene. Initially, the scene only involved me running away from the ah long (loanshark). Then, at the suggestion of some of the veteran actors in the scene, he asked if I was willing to “fall down as if being shoved hard by the ah long” before scampering away, just to spice things up. I nodded and we proceeded to do a rehearsal. My self styled kamikaze stunt drew gasps of astonishment from the veteran actors, who were then kind enough to suggest to me another method of falling down that would help prevent injury to my fine tush. (伤痕累累 was the term Yvonne used kekeke)
Its times like this that I realised that I’ve got so much to learn still. My self styled stunt was as a result of stage training, but I couldn’t use the usual method of breaking fall with my hands as it will not look realistic on camera. But since my initial position was off camera, they suggested that I fall down from a squatting position instead of standing up; that way, I can minimise injury. Brilliant eh?
In the end, I rehearsed about three times and we took the shot in three takes. I ended up with a bruised spot on my right upper hips, which as a certain cloud would say, makes it balanced since I injured my left hip days earlier in an audition for a TVC.
The end result was that the “fall” looked really nice (managed to see it on the replay). I guess the pain was worth it. 😛
