My Reelity

Eh I just got wind that the chinese version of this will be showing on 2 January 2007, Tuesday, Channel 8, 10:30pm.

Part two will be shown the following week, 9 January 2007.

Intrigued and inspired by Terz and Tym‘s entries…

A banged up toe that is. Especially by one of my favourite Japanese singers (Aikawa Nanase). After a much needed rant in the last post, I stumbled upon this via LMD and Xena’s blog. Over the weekend I had my first rehearsal for my first role in my first motion picture! The election fever is now on. With your reply, I confirmed what I have been feeling for the past few weeks; that things aren’t the way it used to be. Got this off naeboo. FRENS is the guild I belonged to, and they can be found in the Khyber server. You can now contact me at vinceli.com again. I met my screen wife again last weekend at a pub which my clients dragged me along to, after we had finish a small party. Not yet on national television anyways, and perhaps not anytime soon as well. For the past few weeks, my 2 and a half year old monitor has been giving me problems.

Heh. Doesn’t make any sense does it? Oh well, I think I will do a proper one later.

I’ve just finished shooting my last project for the year, a short film final year project by NTU students.

But more on this another time.

As I was waiting for my tah pao (takeaway) dinner to be ready, I turned my attention to the big screen tv which was just showing the opening minutes of the 9pm show on Channel 8. That’s when I noticed the wardrobe donned by the lead actors looked familiar and thats when I realised they were showing my episode tonight.

Thankfully, my order arrived shortly, but had today’s shoot overrun a few minutes later, I think I would have had the unfortunate experience of being in a coffeeshop with everyone looking at me weirdly.

Phew. 😛

“I know I’m not one of your favorites, and I’m not welcomed in your house, but I could really use some attention.” John Constantine, in “Constantine”

The best Christmas movie, I feel, by far, is not “The Holidays”, “Deck the Halls”, “Nativity Story” or any of the current fare in the local cinemas.

It is “Constantine”. Really, go watch it again and tell me it doesn’t embody the Christmas spirit of giving and love.

“I guess there’s a plan for all of us. I had to die – twice – just to figure that out. Like the book says, He works His work in mysterious ways. Some people like it. Some people don’t.”

On another note, looking through the deleted scenes, I’d realised that Michelle Monaghan actually had quite an interesting character to play but the scenes were deleted to make the pacing of the movie better. As an actor I can understand how sucky that is. But look where she is right now, in spite of that. 😛

Six years ago, I was stuck in a rut and was wondering if I should ever pursue this passion of mine. I didn’t think it was much of a sign then that my very first foray into screen acting would be a featured extra part in an evangelistic true life story about how an ex gangster turned over a new leaf.

I actually played two roles in the short film, first as the main character’s henchman, and then as a gangster who was killed by the main character.

That day, I lost quite a bit of my ego as well as one half of my sandals to that big longkang (drain) we were filming in. My dying scene, which I have always prided myself for doing well on stage, required about seven takes, and I even had the director suaning me that I was the “star” of the show. And on top of this, I had to limp my way home with my wounded pride because one half of my sandals was stuck somewhere at the bottom of the longkang.

But strangely enough, I wasn’t disheartened by it. In fact, it just made me more determined to get the hang of it. And by the many doors You’ve opened for me ever since, I reckon You approve as well.

The going was definitely tough and time and time again, I’ve wondered if maybe I had deluded myself into thinking this was all part of Your plan. And I guess I felt this even more strongly this year. But just when I’m on the verge of really calling it quits, lo and behold, You stepped in and encourage me again. I take my recent change in grade as a sign of encouragement from You to keep on fighting the fight.

People have lauded me for my perseverance, but you know what, its really, really Thy faithfulness instead.

Happy Birthday Lord.

And to all my readers, may you all be blessed with the merriest of Christmas.

Yesterday, I’ve finally finished shooting my first “A” role. My delivery of the lines I was struggling with wasn’t really as good as I hoped it will be, but the director seemed satisfied.

In fact, he was really much more friendlier to me this time round, which was a surprise as I thought he was quite upset with me the last time. Maybe he was in a Christmasy mood. We did finish the scene in record time and I guess I’m just glad my first outing as an “A” ended on a good note.

I can finally concentrate fully on the short film now.

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Best damn article I’ve read in the local press by far this year. Full article can be found in the 20th December issue of Today.

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“你好吗?”(How have you been?) asks the wardrobe guy, as I collected my suit for today’s shoot.
“还好” was my reply, which directly translated should mean “still ok”.
He wagged a finger at me and said, “还好就是不好囖”… (Still ok means not ok lor)

Pretty perceptive of him I must say, for I have been quite out of sorts over the past week.

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Sometime, just sometime, I wonder if this is the real reason why I got the role :

Heh, I guess I’m not really ok now.

Got a call this evening from J, one of the rare few peeps over at the chinese drama casting department that has stayed on as long as I have in the business. She chided me for not returning her call after my colour wolf performance, and judging from her tone of her voice, I thought I have ended up in some kind of hot soup.

Just as I was trying to figure out why and when she called me, she must have heard the worry in my voice and know that I have fallen for her trick, hook line and sinker.

“I just want to tell you that they liked what you did for the scene and have upgraded you to A!”, she blurted out. “They were especially impressed with the fact that you could come up with the actions of your character for that particular scene on the spot without any direction.”

So 3 months after my previous bump, I’m no longer bearing the unbearable lightness of “B”‘ing”, but finally, much finally, I’m finally A (pun intended). Woot!! 😀

Like I’ve blogged before, this does not make me an “A lister”. And neither does getting the highest grade of A+ makes me an “A lister” as well. It does suggest better roles will be forthcoming, and I guess thats what matters.

But you know what, I’m just bemused that they would look over my performance with Anita Yuen and have seemingly preferred me leering at Fiona instead. I mean. not that I’m complaining about leering at Fiona of course … 😛

If I were to look at this positively, it would be that they preferred the comic over the bad guy. And if thats really the case, I can look forward to more comic roles in the future. Which would be great, cuz like I said before, I really miss doing comedy.