Hmm... I realised that a lot of people may not know what I'm making reference to in my first blog or any ones after this since they don't know what went down in Sydney so I figure I should give a brief summary.
After a crazy morning back in Brisbane packed with bad traffic, sleepy students (and tutors), and a late flight, I arrived at Sydney a little before 4pm. Met up with Laurent who caught an earlier flight at the airport then caught the train to Central Station. We hung around for a bit til Maria picked us up... boy was I happy to see her.
We were taken to see Tim who was waiting to get into the sound studio for an ADR session with Maria and Brian, though at the time, I had no idea who anyone was, where we were going or what we were suppose to do. I had no idea what to expect of Tim since the only thing I really knew about him is from what I've seen in the videos on youtube and the little that Maria told me about.
He was a little quiet at the start but because of that, I was a little more comfortable. I don't know what Laurent was thinking though... he looked more star struck than anything else... even with Maria (though who wouldn't be :p).
I met Tim's sound guy (sorry, forgot his name). I have used ProTools (sound editing application) before but I had never seen a physical sound board with it. It was quite amazing. What was even more interesting is when he started to get into the editing. I'm not a sound engineer so when he was doing what he was doing, I tried to ignore how excited I was so I could take in as much as possible.
First up for the recording was Maria. Now this was fun(ny) :p I think after watching Maria get into the voice recordings, we all have a new found respect for voice actors. The actual lines are the hard part since sync is such a hard thing to achieve. Another huge factor was attitude... it was certainly more difficult to get the right attitude through sound. Though once we got onto sound effects, she got a little too into it by stomping on the ground and acting in real life... in that little studio. I enjoyed the show anyway :p
Next up was Brian. Now this guy has crazy good timing. He sync'd most of his dialogue first go. Of course we did double takes just in case, but generally, his timing was spot on. During his recordings, Maria took Laurent and I out to eat at some Indian place. When we got back, there was only a little more of the recordings to go before Tim took everyone home.
Sydney city to Canley Vale is a bit of a drive (about 30~40 minutes) so we had plenty of time to get to know each other. Tim asked Laurent and I about our aspirations and dreams and what lead us to Sydney. For Laurent, he's just really excited to be apart of this. He's reliable, energetic and always puts in 100% into his tasks. I don't think I've had that sort of determination for anything really. I've followed my interests and this is where it's gotten me.
Anyway, by now it was rather late so we got back to Maria's place and crashed there. My first big big shout out and thanks goes to the Tran clan. Maria's mum and her sister, Elizabeth had to put up with Laurent and I for a few days without notice. Her mum even made us curry (though Laurent couldn't handle it :p)!
It is now Friday and after getting a call from Maria, we went to Tim's place to help him with some choereographing. I feel that this is when Tim really started to trust us a little more after seeing what we were capable of. I had heard about the auditions for Downtown Rumble how some people who auditioned didn't actually produce the skills they said they possessed. Both Laurent and I have a background in TKD (Laurent since he was 5 and myself since 2002) so at the very least, we could follow simple instructions and do what was required.
We did a bit of a training first where Tim took us through some basic movements with both our arms and legs. It made for a good grounding to choereographing. We did a short little sequence that was really fun. Everyone started to get a feel for what we were all potential of. It's something Laurent and I will further develop for our own choereographed fight scenes in the future.
After a short food break we started on the final fight scene between Ali's ninja boss character against Maria and Tim's characters. Tim was Ali, Laurent was Tim and I was Maria. In this short exchange, it really set the pace and emphasized how powerful the ninja boss really was utilising a mixture of martial arts and acrobatics (with the help of Ali's parkour skills).
Tim's choereographing for me was mindblowing. Having creating some of my own fight sequences, I know how tough it is to develop something new and fresh that can captivate the audience. Tim's sequences does just that. The ideas he gets simply outclasses most of what Hollywood produces. If you think about it, there really only are a few decent martial arts based fight scenes with most of them coming from the likes of Jackie Chan.
Tim friend, Wayne, was there since we got back from lunch so we had a dedicated cameraman for the recording. He seemed impressed with our abilities so it made for a really fun afternoon.
Satisfied with what we had done so far, Tim got into the staff scene where Ali gets a hold of a staff. I never really worked with props or weapons before so this was pretty new for me. Man, the finale of this scene was brilliant. WIth a bit of practice, Laurent and I were getting much more proficient with the scene and got a lot faster at it. When we demonstrated all of this for Ali (when he arrived), he said, "Oh man..." with a concerned look on his face as his character had to deal with a pretty huge barrage of attacks at the scene's ending. Everyone was impressed and enjoying it (even Ryan who was there before I knew it).
Anyway, we went back to Maria's place to prepare for the night shoot. Everyone was to meet back at Tim's place for make up and final touches before heading to the dojo (I forgot what it was called). This is where I actually met pretty much everyone on the production team including "Double the First" star, Craig Anderson! He's a great person whose just like anyone else. You normally hear stories about actors and other celebrities who are very stuck up etc... Craig is nothing like this. In fact he was really funny and very comfortable to talk to.
Amongst the crowd I met (in no particular order) Tan (1st camera assistant), Quoc (actually, what did Quoc do?), Elanor (assistant producer), Michelle (hair), Sarah (err.. OK, I have no idea if this is actually her name, but she was the make up artist), Rudge (not just a DOP... THE DOP), Julian, (1st assistant director), and lastly, Ryan (director).
Laurent started doing some interviews that was a little different for him since it's not an area he has a lot of experience with. Meanwhile Rudge was running through everything a camera assistant does with me. It was a little overwhelming at the start since I had to deal with logging for two cameras, but once I started, it was fine.
Finally everyone arrived at the dojo (a little) but we had to do further preparations for the set anyway. Though it felt casual, everyone knew what they were doing and got onto it reasonably quick. I even helped out a little with the props and set. I generally like working with my hands so I got to work in my own element a little.
Julian made the call for filming to start as we were doing the last finishing touches on the set. While everyone was in a mad rush to finish up, Rudge asked if I could be the slater/marker/clapper person as well. I agreed not knowing what that role actually was :p The slater is the person who writes down on that little board and says "Scene 2a take 3" (or something of the like), then claps that little thing at the top of the board.
From here on, it was a bit of a blur filled with logging timecodes, chasing up two cameras, flipping between three different forms and doing whatever anyone said. We finally got a break after the first bit was done. I got to chat to a lot of the crew, Tan especially. Without him I would've been completely lost. Both Rudge and Tan actually.
I spoke a little more to Craig and Elanor just joking around for a bit. Also a little with Stephen (who works at Channel 9 I think) and Quoc. All really fun to hang around since everyone just jokes around and is generally comfortable with each other. This particular cast and crew was so relaxed and fun.
Finally finished up at about 3:30am. Everyone started playing around with Tan's display swords he brought along as props. At almost 4am, I don't think I was in any shape to be swinging swords around though Laurent was in front of the mirror having a bit of a play :p End of the first day of shooting. ~phew~
Holy huge post... more when I get back from uni later tonight.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment