Monday, November 25, 2013

Day 328: Day 3 of Shoot - Temples, Muddy Paths, Cycles and Strangers Turned Actors!

Once again we woke up before dawn for the last and final day of shoot for Aravindum Aarumughamum. Honestly, I was already rather tired after the two hectic days of shoot and realized that I have maybe half the stamina as before. The before-dawn rising, the long day of standing in sun and the rain, the disturbed sleep at night thanks to the little one who kept waking up - all of it was taking a toll. But tired as I might be, I was still excited about the shoot because we were to be shooting in a few brand new locations today.

However the day started with a bit of a hiccup. We needed a cycle for the shoot and one of the team members were supposed to get my cycle from my house and bring it to the location in his car. As luck would have it, my cycle didn't fit in his car and he didnt have any of the clasps required to fix it to his car's trunk or roof. However, he said that he will find a way to get his brother's cycle down to the location somehow, because his place isn't too far away.

Fully assured by him, we made our way to the first stop, a temple. I asked for permission to shoot there which they kindly agreed to and we went around tip toeing and taking a few quick takes so as not disturb anyone else there. It was a great start to the day, starting with a shoot in the temple!

Post the temple, we went to the super pretty Punggol road, a bylane of which gave us our very important requirement for the day's location - a muddy, motorable path - not something that you see in Singapore often.

And we had some very interesting experience there.

Firstly, we were surrounded by dogs barking at us (at a safe enough distance thankfully). They came from the few sheds or warehouses that were in the area and were soon taken under control by their masters.

Then the friend who had gone to get the cycle told us that the new cycle also didn't fit in his car, so now he is gonna simply cycle all the way down (we are talking several kilometres). Meanwhile another friend who has been assisting in the production and also been helping out with the transport with his car,  had to leave for his workplace.  Which meant that we were about to be stranded on a muddy motorable path, in a remote location in Singapore, without even bus shelter to take cover from rain or sun, and more importantly nowhere for the cast to make their costume changes (which, until now, they were doing in the car) and with the only other team member with a car now cycling his way down.

So I did the only thing that could be done at that point in time. I called our dear cyclist to drop the cycle and come in his car instead. The poor chap was apparently half way down already and had to go back to get his car.

Soon we carried on with our shoot. Just as we were in the middle of it, I noticed an uncle pass by on a cycle. Then it struck me that maybe, just maybe, we could get a cycle from one of the warehouses for our shoot! I quickly got one of my crew to go check, and lo behold! He returned with a cycle, victorious!

It was a great relief!

Then we had to cross the next bridge - which was to find a suitable guy to ride the cycle in the scene. It was a cameo role which was supposed to be performed by the guy who had gone back to work. While we were wondering what to do about that since none of spectators we have for our shoot, consisting mainly of old Chinese uncles, were suitable.

And again, as luck would have it... two guys passed by us on a motorbike and stopped ahead on the path for a while. They were both Indians and I realized that one of them could easily play the cameo we wanted. Once again, I sent my crew member and this time too he returned back victoriously with my cameo actor!

What an awesome stroke of luck!

By late afternoon we had canned almost all the shots we needed, save the last few and moved to what was supposed to be the last and final location for the day - a marshy land also near Punggol. The guy with the car left to buy a few props and we continued with the shoot. Just as we were wrapping up the scene, it began to pour once again. And this time we were drenched. We used one umbrella to protect the camera and tried to keep all the four human beings dry in turn with the other spare one.

After a while the car came and took us away from there to another location also near Punggol, where we finally wrapped the whole shoot. After a few major "wrap up" speeches and such, we drove back from the location and treated ourselves to some great Indian food at Dawat Tandoor.

The evening was spent in uploading all the video, sorting them out, reviewing a few, looking at the behind the scenes stills, and generally feeling good about wrapping up the shoot. There is still a lot... and I mean a LOT of work - editing, sound design, background score, dubbing (the live sound was not up to the mark thanks to the heavy traffic), so on and so forth. But at least one - the key part - is over and am thankful for that!






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