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Archive for October 2007
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Day 8 and we are still in the Tiny Village. The big celebrity on set today was our sacrificial goat. In the script Melissa and Yul venture into the Tiny village to find Ping. The art department dressed out the set magnificently and Lam and his crew pre lit the entire village during the day. We were able to move three cameras following or leading the couple in one long take. They end in a court yard where mysterious angry voices shout at them from different directions and animals are tied up to be sacrificed. Later we shot a scene where Melissa makes her way down a candle lit creek.  It takes place in the third act of the film. All in all it was another good day. I have to go down and stock up on groceries today. In the bottom level of our apartment complex is a grocery store. Actually we have just about everything you could possible want connected to this building – grocery store, a full mall, a movie theatre! It’s amazing. Every day I try a new Asian brand that I am really not sure of what it is! Even some of the American brands are completely different here. In the pic below Amy and Tim are munching these Oreo things that are unlike any Oreos I’ve seen state side. Good stuff. Pizza Hut for example is actually really good here! And yes there really is a Starbucks here on every corner. Still I like the Asian food best. Sushi is to die for and there is every other kind of food imaginable. I have not had much success with Mexican though. In fact my Mexican fish taco looked more like a Japanese seafood salad! Day 9 tonight. We are going to do a little more pale figure action tonight. It will be my first time seeing the completed pale figures. I am very much looking forward to it. 
Village People
Day 8 and we are still in the Tiny Village. The big celebrity on set today was our sacrificial goat. In the script Melissa and Yul venture into the Tiny village to find Ping. The art department dressed out the set magnificently and Lam and his crew pre lit the entire village during the day. We were able to move three cameras following or leading the couple in one long take. They end in a court yard where mysterious angry voices shout at them from different directions and animals are tied up to be sacrificed. Later we shot a scene where Melissa makes her way down a candle lit creek.  It takes place in the third act of the film. All in all it was another good day. I have to go down and stock up on groceries today. In the bottom level of our apartment complex is a grocery store. Actually we have just about everything you could possible want connected to this building – grocery store, a full mall, a movie theatre! It’s amazing. Every day I try a new Asian brand that I am really not sure of what it is! Even some of the American brands are completely different here. In the pic below Amy and Tim are munching these Oreo things that are unlike any Oreos I’ve seen state side. Good stuff. Pizza Hut for example is actually really good here! And yes there really is a Starbucks here on every corner. Still I like the Asian food best. Sushi is to die for and there is every other kind of food imaginable. I have not had much success with Mexican though. In fact my Mexican fish taco looked more like a Japanese seafood salad! Day 9 tonight. We are going to do a little more pale figure action tonight. It will be my first time seeing the completed pale figures. I am very much looking forward to it. 0
The conversation went something like this:
Gregg: We need Amy on set right now.
Amy: We ready to go?
Gregg: Ummm, no. We need to know where you would pee?
Amy: What?!
Gregg: Yeah – where’s the most logical place you'd go if you needed to pee?
Amy (squatting): Well...I guess over here.
Gregg: Yeah...ok...let’s clear out the brush over there so she can squat easily.
Such is the grace of film making! We're at the location we call the Tiny Village. It is the first location I saw when I first came to Hong Kong back in June. It is literally an abandoned ghost village. The set dressing guys did an amazing job of cleaning it up and putting every kind of cool small village type thing up. Most of it was crumbling and decrepit when I first saw it. One man actually still lives there with his 2 mangy dogs. We built one fake exterior wall and a  roof to hide some of the ruined part of the village. In this scene Ping abandons Melissa and Yul and leaves them parked outside this very remote little fishing village. Melissa has to pee and as she’s doing it she hears an ominous gong – freaks out and wakes Yul who has passed out in the back seat. We shot all the stuff that was up away from the village last night and are going back tonight to do the interior area of the village. Curious Yul and Melissa venture into the village to see if they can find Ping. The place is locked up and all they can hear is the villages chanting very strange stuff. We’ve got a bunch of lives stock and plenty of stuff to shoot through the village. It is a really creepy location. Two potential investors came out to set last night so that took up a good portion of my time but unfortunately there is no cell connection and I had to come back to town to get any work done. It is weird working nights because it always seems to be dark. Works well for me calling back to the States because I am 12 hours ahead. We made our day comfortably. We are shooting with 3 cameras – Gregg and Ed are operating one each and our Director of Photography Lam is operating the third. Because we are not using any dollies or cranes and we are shooting digitally we can move very quickly. Ed is really able to get a lot of coverage- multiple camera angles on the same scene. Our assistant editor Killer digitizes everything at night and in the morning John Rice – the editor- has 3 synched shots for every take. It really works very nicely. We use an editing software called Final Cut Pro – made by Apple – which allows you to see all three cameras simultaneously and John can cut from one to the other with a stroke of the button. It makes it easier for actors as well who don’t have to worry so much about doing pickups out of sequence. So tonight we are back at Tiny Village and tomorrow we shoot our second pale figure sequence. I hopefully have finally gotten into the night shift swing my body keeps on waking me up during the day. Such is life.
Where would you pee?
The conversation went something like this:
Gregg: We need Amy on set right now.
Amy: We ready to go?
Gregg: Ummm, no. We need to know where you would pee?
Amy: What?!
Gregg: Yeah – where’s the most logical place you'd go if you needed to pee?
Amy (squatting): Well...I guess over here.
Gregg: Yeah...ok...let’s clear out the brush over there so she can squat easily.
Such is the grace of film making! We're at the location we call the Tiny Village. It is the first location I saw when I first came to Hong Kong back in June. It is literally an abandoned ghost village. The set dressing guys did an amazing job of cleaning it up and putting every kind of cool small village type thing up. Most of it was crumbling and decrepit when I first saw it. One man actually still lives there with his 2 mangy dogs. We built one fake exterior wall and a  roof to hide some of the ruined part of the village. In this scene Ping abandons Melissa and Yul and leaves them parked outside this very remote little fishing village. Melissa has to pee and as she’s doing it she hears an ominous gong – freaks out and wakes Yul who has passed out in the back seat. We shot all the stuff that was up away from the village last night and are going back tonight to do the interior area of the village. Curious Yul and Melissa venture into the village to see if they can find Ping. The place is locked up and all they can hear is the villages chanting very strange stuff. We’ve got a bunch of lives stock and plenty of stuff to shoot through the village. It is a really creepy location. Two potential investors came out to set last night so that took up a good portion of my time but unfortunately there is no cell connection and I had to come back to town to get any work done. It is weird working nights because it always seems to be dark. Works well for me calling back to the States because I am 12 hours ahead. We made our day comfortably. We are shooting with 3 cameras – Gregg and Ed are operating one each and our Director of Photography Lam is operating the third. Because we are not using any dollies or cranes and we are shooting digitally we can move very quickly. Ed is really able to get a lot of coverage- multiple camera angles on the same scene. Our assistant editor Killer digitizes everything at night and in the morning John Rice – the editor- has 3 synched shots for every take. It really works very nicely. We use an editing software called Final Cut Pro – made by Apple – which allows you to see all three cameras simultaneously and John can cut from one to the other with a stroke of the button. It makes it easier for actors as well who don’t have to worry so much about doing pickups out of sequence. So tonight we are back at Tiny Village and tomorrow we shoot our second pale figure sequence. I hopefully have finally gotten into the night shift swing my body keeps on waking me up during the day. Such is life.1
When I first read Seventh Moon one of the concerns I had was the amount of driving in the 1st act of the film. I wanted to know from Ed how he would keep these pages interesting. They had great story and character content but visually I was worried it might be challenging. Last night I saw the answer first hand on my first day on the set.  The answer - blood and bumps!
One of the difficult things about doing car work is that you are traveling a large area that needs to be controlled, lit, and finely coordinated. Having actors concentrate on their lines and navigate difficult terrain can lead to subpar performances and frankly make it dangerous for the actors and crew. One of the ways film makers solve this problem is by actually towing the actors and having them pretend that they are driving. You have probably seen the bad version of this in many films – it simply does not look convincing. I used a shot maker on my first student film and I never could get it to sell the right way.
Gregg came up with the first part of the solution. We took over this large parking lot out in the new territories. We placed  large potted plants (small trees)  in a large circuit and lit the trees from lights placed on top of the vehicle itself. The actors actually drove the course and because it was so dark only the occasional blur of tree created the illusion that they  are driving in the middle of the woods. Then Ed added bumps – pieces of wood wrapped in black cloth. We attached two platforms to either side of the car and had two cameras shooting through the windows at the actors. In the story the actors have just found their car covered in blood and the shaky frenetic scene shot through the blood created this really interesting visual feel. I was really impressed how such a simple trick added a whole new feel to the scene. That was the result but in the process of shooting the scene I quickly discovered one of the true challenges of shooting in a foreign country – language!
One of the reasons I liked Hong Kong so much when I came on my first visit scouting for the film was the fact that here English is almost a common second language. Unlike the other cities I had visited like Shanghai – Hong Kong’s roads have English and Cantonese on them. In general it really is easy to get around in this city. But what I did not realize is that when it comes to the complex workings of a film set even English as a second language can create challenges. The crew really is terrific. There is an amazing feeling of will do/ can do anything. At one point even our hairdresser was sawing wood to help create bumps!! Everybody helps everybody else do their job. This is vastly different than American sets where territories and responsibilities are very clearly defined. Both systems have pluses and minuses. The Hong Kong crew is very fast but if they are pointed in the wrong direction it is easy for things to fall apart VERY quickly. Getting the bumps to actually work last night proved to be a classic example of this communication gap. Somehow the size, placement, frequency, and quantity of these pieces of wood along this track had to be explained and coordinated. It seems so easy but when you are working through this broken telephone type communication the results can be frustrating and hilarious. At one point Gregg and I were frantically pulling pieces of wood off the track while the crew (unbeknownst to us) where frantically putting pieces of wood onto the track! After further conversation with Four (the assistant director) we finally were able to regroup and coordinate what we wanted. Who would have thought that bumps could create communication problems? This afternoon I watched some of the footage with Johny Rice the editor and it looked great. The first week of shooting has yielded great results and I am really happy with what I have seen. There are many, many challenges ahead.
Blood and Bumps
When I first read Seventh Moon one of the concerns I had was the amount of driving in the 1st act of the film. I wanted to know from Ed how he would keep these pages interesting. They had great story and character content but visually I was worried it might be challenging. Last night I saw the answer first hand on my first day on the set.  The answer - blood and bumps!
One of the difficult things about doing car work is that you are traveling a large area that needs to be controlled, lit, and finely coordinated. Having actors concentrate on their lines and navigate difficult terrain can lead to subpar performances and frankly make it dangerous for the actors and crew. One of the ways film makers solve this problem is by actually towing the actors and having them pretend that they are driving. You have probably seen the bad version of this in many films – it simply does not look convincing. I used a shot maker on my first student film and I never could get it to sell the right way.
Gregg came up with the first part of the solution. We took over this large parking lot out in the new territories. We placed  large potted plants (small trees)  in a large circuit and lit the trees from lights placed on top of the vehicle itself. The actors actually drove the course and because it was so dark only the occasional blur of tree created the illusion that they  are driving in the middle of the woods. Then Ed added bumps – pieces of wood wrapped in black cloth. We attached two platforms to either side of the car and had two cameras shooting through the windows at the actors. In the story the actors have just found their car covered in blood and the shaky frenetic scene shot through the blood created this really interesting visual feel. I was really impressed how such a simple trick added a whole new feel to the scene. That was the result but in the process of shooting the scene I quickly discovered one of the true challenges of shooting in a foreign country – language!
One of the reasons I liked Hong Kong so much when I came on my first visit scouting for the film was the fact that here English is almost a common second language. Unlike the other cities I had visited like Shanghai – Hong Kong’s roads have English and Cantonese on them. In general it really is easy to get around in this city. But what I did not realize is that when it comes to the complex workings of a film set even English as a second language can create challenges. The crew really is terrific. There is an amazing feeling of will do/ can do anything. At one point even our hairdresser was sawing wood to help create bumps!! Everybody helps everybody else do their job. This is vastly different than American sets where territories and responsibilities are very clearly defined. Both systems have pluses and minuses. The Hong Kong crew is very fast but if they are pointed in the wrong direction it is easy for things to fall apart VERY quickly. Getting the bumps to actually work last night proved to be a classic example of this communication gap. Somehow the size, placement, frequency, and quantity of these pieces of wood along this track had to be explained and coordinated. It seems so easy but when you are working through this broken telephone type communication the results can be frustrating and hilarious. At one point Gregg and I were frantically pulling pieces of wood off the track while the crew (unbeknownst to us) where frantically putting pieces of wood onto the track! After further conversation with Four (the assistant director) we finally were able to regroup and coordinate what we wanted. Who would have thought that bumps could create communication problems? This afternoon I watched some of the footage with Johny Rice the editor and it looked great. The first week of shooting has yielded great results and I am really happy with what I have seen. There are many, many challenges ahead.
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DAY 05 - Dragging ass
DAY 05 went well, except for the fact that I was sleepy as hell and dragging my big, tall ass around all night long. And I got horribly nauseous after shooting the first scene crammed into the back of that Lexus picture car. The scene was terrific, Amy and Tim building up into a wonderfully bitchy explosion that we hadn't really planned but made a lot of sense to all of us. Great improv. Then they were done for the night and felt like I was going to hurl the rest of the night. Maybe I shouldn't have eaten so many of those delicious little Indonesian peanuts that Bang Bang gave me a whole bag of. Bang Bang is our tea lady and mother-figure on the set, the Hong Kong equivalent of craft services. She's a great presence on the set, always coming over every once in a while with my little thermos full of cool water. She's awesome. Anyway, once the actors left we did some second unit shots that we had planned on doing later on in the shoot. Then we did a mini company move to a mountainous park to shoot some stuff of the car winding its way through isolated roads. It was like 2 am on a Thursday night and there were actually some people up there in their cars, doing who knows what in this completely isolated area of Hong Kong. Headed home and crashed until 11 am. Getting ready for some more car stuff tonight, but at least we won't be inside anymore. Lam and I will be on platforms on either side of the car looking through the windows at Tim and Amy. Should be a short night again. I'll try to shoot some random second unit stuff but we'll be home early. Hopefully. And then two glorious days off! Or mostly off. I have to continue work on the re-write, adjusting the script to what we shot this week, and then finish my shot sheets for next week. Gregg, Lam and I are also going to visit the Tiny Village location that Lau has been renovating for us for the last two week. This is the location we lost and had to scramble to find a replacement for. Should look very different than what we saw the last time we were there. I hope those freaking ants are gone, at least. Craziest infestation of big-ass ants I've ever seen in my life. Note to self: Flip flops not good when walking ant infestation. Rob Cowie, the third producer and chief money-raiser on the film is here. Will be nice to see Cowie. DAY 06 awaits! Here's to a great ending to a fantastic first week. -ed SEVENTH MOON0
