Shades Of Grey

The good news: we finally got permission to film in OCH! It'll be one day and one night, as planned, and we'll be doing the day shoot this Saturday, in case they change their minds.

The bad news: I'm starting to feel somewhat...disillusioned, I suppose. Maybe it's just that I'm not experienced. Or maybe I'm naive. I'm just somewhat taken aback and quite quite disappointed in the crew's behaviour.

I guess I can understand why they did what they did. The material we got from our interviewee was amazing, substantial stuff that goes a long way towards building our story. We're talking medical experiments straight out of Fringe, and creepy war stories. And he's not lying, either; he lived through it.

Even then, I'm not certain what we did was right. Do I want that material? Yes. Am I willing to compromise my principles for it? No. But it's not up to me, is it? Democracy; it doesn't always lead to the right decisions.

That said, maybe they are right, and I'm just being silly, clinging on to my textbook principles. After all, I've never done this in real life before; student projects are a whole different thing. And for all that we try to cling on to what's "right", sometimes it just doesn't work all that well in reality. If it wasn't for subterfuge and a quest for the truth, some of the biggest news stories may never have broken. It is our job in the making of this documentary to make sure the truth is depicted. I do wish I could've got it without having to resort to this. But it's a learning point. Maybe I just need to be more charming and persuasive.

All Talk, No Substance

All that work, and not much to show for it. Oh, we've got enough ghost stories to compile a Russell Lee book (is he still at it?), but honestly, I'm not impressed.

And I'm exhausted. Doing vox pops kills a little part of my soul, the part that believes in humans being logical, rational creatures. Not everything is about you, people, not in that way. Get over yourself.

I guess I'm just a little disillusioned because I really want to keep this documentary a documentary. Not some salacious piece of nonsense that people will laugh at. I'm a bit worried that Andrew's happy with the interviews we did today; gonna have to talk to him to make sure this is just a small part of the documentary.

We've got another interview coming up on Wednesday. I'm really hoping it'll add more fact and less fiction. Even after today, I'm still feeling optimistic about this interviewee. I take that as a good sign.

First Cuts

So yesterday we had a preview of the introductory montage to our documentary. I think we all went away all fired up and ready to work on the rest of the project, which is great, because tomorrow we hit the streets to interview people. These are a couple of pictures we'll be using for the montage:

Japanese soldiers marching through Fullerton Square.

Japanese troops guarding prisoners from the British Suffolk Regiment.

From what we've seen so far, I really do think that it's going to be a credible piece of work, despite our angle. If nothing else, even at the end we find out that it's not haunted (hopefully), it will be a solid investigative film that can be taken seriously. If nothing else, this opening would be great for me to show potential investors; indie or otherwise, we still need the funding, and if we can get someone to distribute it for us, that would be one kind of awesome. :) I wonder if we can get Canon in as a sponsor, since Audi insisted (as in throw tantrum, bang table sort of insisted) that we use his Canon 7D camera to film the entire thing. Andrew had his doubts, as did Farid and I, since it's...well, it's an SLR camera. But after watching this and Audi giving us a demo of the 7D's capabilities, we bowed to his superior expertise.

I'm impressed by how the depth of field on that thing and how it can turn the background all creamy, very pro-looking. And since it's so small, Audi just does it all by himself, which makes it so much easier for our very tiny film crew; no need to have grips running around moving the camera. It's great stuff for an indie film like ours, where we don't have the budget or manpower to deal with something bigger and much more expensive. I think it bothers Andrew a little bit though, because he doesn't get to see the framing, so he has to trust Audi with the shots. I'm just gonna let the boys have their little contest. This really isn't my pasah. What I do like about the camera is that it takes great stills too.

Andrew wondering whether Farid and I have gone bananas (hur hur)

A decent shot of me! So rare...

No pictures of Audi because apparently his pictures didn't turn out too nice ("I'm having a bad face day!" he cried as he reviewed the photos), so he refused to send to us. -_- This is what the vainpot looks like

I'm not sure if that's the 7D you see lurking in the second picture, but it's a Canon. That guy has a serious fixation with that brand. Which is good, because it SERIOUSLY helped with my budget, him and Farid coming along with their impressive array of gear.

So tomorrow, we'll be doing our man-on-the-street interviews, also known as vox pops, also known as hell. Singaporeans are weird in this way. Based on previous experience in my uni days, they'll stare at the camera like curious livestock, but stay away and REFUSE to help out. At the same time, they'll keep standing in frame in the background and fouling up the shot. Look, you're either shy or you're not. MAKE UP YOUR MIND. I'm gonna wear my comfortable shoes and bring along my Salonpas spray. It's gonna be a loooooong day.

Get The Ball Rolling

We're off to see the wizard! Well, not exactly. But we are off to see Andrew, who's going to show us the intro montage for the documentary!

I kept tossing and turning like a rotisserie chicken last night and only fell asleep way too late. Didn't help that this morning, some neighbour of mine decided to do home improvement works and kept pounding the floor. It's crappy enough that we have to live in subsidized housing without you making the conditions worse, you anti-social crazy morning person!! Am still questioning my parents decision to move; we didn't have problems like that in our old place, where our flat was on the top floor. And who on earth gets up at 8am in the morning to hammer stuff? Grr...

So now, thanks to my own physiology and my insane neighbour, I'm all bleary-eyed and cranky. Andrew will probably ply me with Milo Dinosaur again, but I'm thinking I need something more. Like a caffeine drip or something. Hopefully the sheer embarrassment of hearing my narration will shock me out of slumberland.

Old And New

Going to the National Archives never fails to depress me a little. It doesn't have much to do with the Archives, but the fact that the old National Library isn't there anymore.

I remember during my uni days I would go to the National Library every so often to do research. It wasn't so much that it was better, but that I preferred the old red brick building. It felt like what a library should feel like, with the smell of the books sunk into the very walls of the place. Now that there's a gaping tunnel where it used to be, I can't recognize the place anymore. Well, that and the fact that there's a spanking new university in the area. Come on man, you can't be a uni kid without making the journey to the West. What's this city campus nonsense? Ah, those were the days. Hell, if SMU was around when I was applying to uni, I probably would've gone there, just because of the location.

I digress. The National Archives is a very strange mix of the old and new. The building, thankfully, isn't new and doesn't feature all that funky glass that all new buildings love. But the tech inside is very up to date. Searching through the archives isn't as painful as it sounds, though it still takes some finagling to get the info you want. Andrew confessed that one of the main reasons he got me to be the producer has to do with the fact that I'm good at research and he isn't. Gee, thanks, boss. I suppose in a way, I'm responsible for that; we used to take a lot of the same classes, and usually did project work together, so while I did the research, he did the execution, be it writing the paper, editing the film, or drawing up the storyboards.Even when we weren't taking the same class, he'd occasionally bribe me with baked goods to get me to find stuff for him.

Well, all that training helped. I managed to find some 16mm films from WWII days. It's unbelievable footage, of the Japanese invading from across the Causeway, that sort of thing. Whoever shot that must've had balls of titanium. Andrew was so ridiculously happy about it he actually picked me up and swung me around. At 1.69m tall and single, I am not accustomed to being picked up, much less swung around. I also found some old photos of Old Changi Hospital, or OCH, as we've taken to calling it. He's going to weave that all into the documentary, to add more credence to it. Important, since we're really going with the haunted angle. -_-

Voicing Out

Today, my job scope was expanded to that of narrator. It was a bizarre experience, with Farid, Audi, and Andrew grinning at me like Halloween came early from the other side of a glass pane and me feeling like an idiot trying to sound "more spooky", as they kept encouraging me to do.

My new goal for this production is to get enough funding to pay for an actual narrator. I sound like a constipated bean with a horrible flu.

Red Tape

I guess there's an excellent reason why "going postal" has ties to both a government body and a very frustrated person snapping and killing everyone. It's amazing how much tai-chi can happen for one simple thing, like finding out who to get permission from. Just give me a name, dammit! What's wrong with you people?!

So getting back into the producing gig hasn't been particularly fun or easy so far. Thankfully Andrew helps out, so I'm not alone. He keeps feeding me Milo Dinosaur whenever I get stressed out about stuff, and it's increasing in frequency. I have a horrible feeling by the end of this, I'll be twice the woman I am now. -_- Still, chilling out with him at the prata shop near his place with a big mug of Milo Dinosaur helps.

The great thing is, our very skeletal crew of just the two of us has expanded. We've gotten Audi to be our camera man and Farid to be our sound guy. We're (ok, I'm) trying to rope them into helping out with production side stuff, but it's actually faster if I just do it myself. Farid told me, "Eh, kak, I tell you what I'm good at. You find one corner for me, and I'll relak in it one kind of good." I didn't know whether to laugh, raise an eyebrow or smack him. Is it considered racist if it's your own race you're making fun of? Having them on board will be...interesting. They're great at what they do, and they're professional when it comes to crunch time, but more often than not, they'll just be goofing off. I'm really not sure what's going to happen when we actually get to shoot on location. REALLY don't need to get the crap scared out of me, I have enough fibre in my food, thank you very much.

I just realized that I haven't exactly revealed what the project we're working on is about. Andrew approached me a couple of months back and said he wanted to do a documentary about old places in Singapore and that he was looking for someone to help produce the film. So we refined the idea, researched more on the topic (which involved way too much cardio from trekking up the hill to the National Archives), and decided to pursue the history of *drumroll* Old Changi Hospital.

At least, that was the original plan. Somehow, Andrew got it in his head that to make the documentary more exciting, that we should put a spin on it and explore the stories of it being haunted. I swear, he did it to annoy me. He knows I absolutely refuse to watch ghost movies because I'm scared of that sort of thing, and now here I am, somehow producing a documentary about the haunted past of Changi. FML. In truth, he has a point; Asians generally do have an obsession with the supernatural, and this should really help our cause in the distribution and funding side of things. But still. Now he wants to film in there. At night. Lagi more FML. I'm almost hoping we can't get permission.