So yes, finally the day was here. My much awaited shoot after a 2-year hiatus!
I was up at dawn, ready and fresh, had a quick breakfast that my kind helper prepared really early for me and the cinematographer, prayed, checked one last time on all the million bags of equipment, props and costumes that we were carrying, and finally made our way to the shooting location together with the lead lady and her husband (who also helped with the cinematography and production), who came over the pick us in their car.
I was pretty much a nervous wreck all through this because it had been raining cats and dogs throughout the night - together with a thunderstorm no less, and there was no signs of the weather clearing up. It was dark, gloomy and drizzling, even as we set out. The weather forecast also predicted consistent rain in every single part of the Singapore throughout the day. Awesome.
But as luck would have it and I thank God for that, by the time we reached the location (after losing our way and having to take a few detours) and set our equipment up, a couple of hours had passed and the rains cleared up. It was still dark with no sign of the sun but it was good enough to shoot. In fact, the location looked pristine in beautiful with its rain kissed look. I loved it!
Soon we were all set and the shoot began. And I found out that I will have a nightmare working the sound design for this film. When I had gone to the location on my site recee, there were hardly any vehicles and it was pretty quiet and nice. I was happy at the thought that I will be able to work with live sound, something that I always look forward to as it avoids the headache of dubbing and sound design to a large extend. But on this auspicious day of our shoot, there were vehicles left, right and centre - and mostly trucks at that. They made it a point to pass by making as much as noise as any vehicle could probably do.
It was disappointing to say the least, but given that we weren't left with much choice, we proceeded with the shoot anyway. Soon we felt like celebrities, because every passer by (there were a few) and every traveller in every bus that passed by (there were several) were staring at us wondering what was going on.
With three cameras on three tripods set up simultaneously with three crew memebers manning them donning caps, umbrellas and shades, clothes being changed on the side of the road (by the male cast, of course), cast and crew standing in the middle of the road and running off just in time to save their lives from the rushing vehicles, we would have made quite a sight.
In the afternoon, it started to drizzle again, but it was just nice because we had begun to wilt in the sun which was now shining with all its might and we needed a lunch break anyway. Lunch mainly consisted of McDonalds burgers that were ordered to be delivered to the location as well as all the snacks that the cinematographer had brought over from India.
Post lunch we restarted the shoot and kept at it up until 5pm. By then we had canned three whole scenes and were well on track on our schedule. We packed up and got home to start the next set of work - recharging the batteries of the camera, copying all the files, doing a quick review, and packing everything for day 2.
By the end of it, I was thoroughly exhausted but I was extremely happy and thankful - for the weather that cooperated, for the great team I get to work with and for making so much progress on the shoot within one day.
Tomorrow we get back to the location for a more challenging day of shoot - the one that involves the steadycam!
I was up at dawn, ready and fresh, had a quick breakfast that my kind helper prepared really early for me and the cinematographer, prayed, checked one last time on all the million bags of equipment, props and costumes that we were carrying, and finally made our way to the shooting location together with the lead lady and her husband (who also helped with the cinematography and production), who came over the pick us in their car.
I was pretty much a nervous wreck all through this because it had been raining cats and dogs throughout the night - together with a thunderstorm no less, and there was no signs of the weather clearing up. It was dark, gloomy and drizzling, even as we set out. The weather forecast also predicted consistent rain in every single part of the Singapore throughout the day. Awesome.
But as luck would have it and I thank God for that, by the time we reached the location (after losing our way and having to take a few detours) and set our equipment up, a couple of hours had passed and the rains cleared up. It was still dark with no sign of the sun but it was good enough to shoot. In fact, the location looked pristine in beautiful with its rain kissed look. I loved it!
Soon we were all set and the shoot began. And I found out that I will have a nightmare working the sound design for this film. When I had gone to the location on my site recee, there were hardly any vehicles and it was pretty quiet and nice. I was happy at the thought that I will be able to work with live sound, something that I always look forward to as it avoids the headache of dubbing and sound design to a large extend. But on this auspicious day of our shoot, there were vehicles left, right and centre - and mostly trucks at that. They made it a point to pass by making as much as noise as any vehicle could probably do.
It was disappointing to say the least, but given that we weren't left with much choice, we proceeded with the shoot anyway. Soon we felt like celebrities, because every passer by (there were a few) and every traveller in every bus that passed by (there were several) were staring at us wondering what was going on.
With three cameras on three tripods set up simultaneously with three crew memebers manning them donning caps, umbrellas and shades, clothes being changed on the side of the road (by the male cast, of course), cast and crew standing in the middle of the road and running off just in time to save their lives from the rushing vehicles, we would have made quite a sight.
In the afternoon, it started to drizzle again, but it was just nice because we had begun to wilt in the sun which was now shining with all its might and we needed a lunch break anyway. Lunch mainly consisted of McDonalds burgers that were ordered to be delivered to the location as well as all the snacks that the cinematographer had brought over from India.
Post lunch we restarted the shoot and kept at it up until 5pm. By then we had canned three whole scenes and were well on track on our schedule. We packed up and got home to start the next set of work - recharging the batteries of the camera, copying all the files, doing a quick review, and packing everything for day 2.
By the end of it, I was thoroughly exhausted but I was extremely happy and thankful - for the weather that cooperated, for the great team I get to work with and for making so much progress on the shoot within one day.
Tomorrow we get back to the location for a more challenging day of shoot - the one that involves the steadycam!
No comments:
Post a Comment