A Sporadic Gasp
For the loyal readers of this blog, you may have noticed that I have been posted in sporadic gasps recently. Reason being I am too fucking busy and when I'm not, I'm too fucking tired to write.
Just over a week ago, I went on this shoot for a small production company. I was brought in by a colleague of mine, and I'm grateful for that. It was, quite literally, the largest-budget shoot I'd ever been on, somewhere in the region of S$2 million. While it is propaganda (kinda) meant to drive the message of total defence home to kids and such, it's still pretty cool. Basically we follow some people on an MRT ride, a bomb goes off in the train while it's at Raffles Place Interchange, and the rescue teams swoop in.
What was cool was that I got to operate camera for the first time in a really long time. Yes, it was only an XL2, but even that's pretty fun. I could basically shoot whatever the fuck I wanted, as long as it wasn't a shot someone else was already doing. We had six cameras running simultaneously, 50 extras, lots of blood, gore and smoke. It was fun.
And what was cooler, was that I got an editing job out of it. Granted, I can only go there after my real job, which makes me tired as hell, but at least I'm gonna be cutting some sweet footage. And since it's part of an installation-like piece that's running on five screens simultaneously, it'll be a lot of fun. Unfortunately the deadlines are rather tight, which means I will probably kill myself doing it.
After I got the job, I was pretty happy, since it meant both extra cash and something to look forward too. Casting wasn't exactly my cup of tea, you know. However, last Thursday, my life took a sudden turn when I was put on a S$3 million dollar musical.
Basically what happened was that these people had come to my company and offered to buy the rights to make a musical out of one of the most popular sitcoms on TV. I can't name names, but if you're Singaporean, you'll know what I'm talking about. God knows they run the ads often enough.
Anyway, the powers-that-be had been brought in, and they were horrified at what they saw. Horrified enough to bring in one of our directors immediately and put me on as his AD. We got there and it was literally a huge shitfest to clean up. Their "director" was basically a sleazeball producer who was just out to make a quick buck. He was, in two words, completely incompetent. The actors didn't know what the fuck they were doing, the tech stuff was all over the place, and everything that could be going wrong was going wrong. And yet, he was doing nothing about it.
The people he had were good people, but they could do nothing without his approval, and he was skimping on everything. The department heads, when he could get away with it, were all volunteers with zero experience. He got actors on the cheap, giving some of them only a minimal transportation allowance. He got choirs and kid actors from schools instead of the real deal. Basically he's been exploiting the name of the show and hooking desperate people in on the supposed "exposure" it'll give them. His dancers and orchestra were (and still are) filled with people from China, who didn't understand a word of English. He housed his China dancers in chalets. When I got there the first night, they were rehearsing in an abandoned warehouse with no air conditioning. Catering looked like it was provided by a school canteen. He was going to force a dancer to be a stuntman and fall from the second floor, which is one of the most unethical and irresponsible things I've ever heard of.
And don't even get me started on the script, which had gone through tons of drafts, each one progressively worse than the one before.
Even an idiot would know that this was not the way to run such a huge project. And basically, everyone has this question to ask: "Where the fuck is the S$3 million budget going to?"
I don't have an answer to that, but he's driving a new Jaguar. That oughta say something.
We talked to some theatre folk today, and apparently his entire career is a sleazefest. At this moment he's involved in a huge bribery scandel, and everyone in the scene knows he is someone to avoid like the plague. Unfortunately, someone at my company fucked up and thought it would be a good idea to work with him.
And now we're paying for it. It's been hell, we've had to re-work almost everything, but it's coming along as best as it can be. We only have a few days before the first performance, and hopefully, just hopefully, it'll all work out. In spite of him and his shenanigans.
I may not have any say on this, but I'm definitely advising the big brass on my end to sue. I don't know on what grounds, but I'm sure they can think of something. They are a corporation, after all. And guys like these, they don't deserve to live. I'd run him over any day without hesitation.
So that, in a nutshell, is what my life has been like the past few days. Did I also mention that I've been chain-smoking like never before?
Add the editing on top of this musical bullshit, and you get a very tired Cinewhore.
Just over a week ago, I went on this shoot for a small production company. I was brought in by a colleague of mine, and I'm grateful for that. It was, quite literally, the largest-budget shoot I'd ever been on, somewhere in the region of S$2 million. While it is propaganda (kinda) meant to drive the message of total defence home to kids and such, it's still pretty cool. Basically we follow some people on an MRT ride, a bomb goes off in the train while it's at Raffles Place Interchange, and the rescue teams swoop in.
What was cool was that I got to operate camera for the first time in a really long time. Yes, it was only an XL2, but even that's pretty fun. I could basically shoot whatever the fuck I wanted, as long as it wasn't a shot someone else was already doing. We had six cameras running simultaneously, 50 extras, lots of blood, gore and smoke. It was fun.
And what was cooler, was that I got an editing job out of it. Granted, I can only go there after my real job, which makes me tired as hell, but at least I'm gonna be cutting some sweet footage. And since it's part of an installation-like piece that's running on five screens simultaneously, it'll be a lot of fun. Unfortunately the deadlines are rather tight, which means I will probably kill myself doing it.
After I got the job, I was pretty happy, since it meant both extra cash and something to look forward too. Casting wasn't exactly my cup of tea, you know. However, last Thursday, my life took a sudden turn when I was put on a S$3 million dollar musical.
Basically what happened was that these people had come to my company and offered to buy the rights to make a musical out of one of the most popular sitcoms on TV. I can't name names, but if you're Singaporean, you'll know what I'm talking about. God knows they run the ads often enough.
Anyway, the powers-that-be had been brought in, and they were horrified at what they saw. Horrified enough to bring in one of our directors immediately and put me on as his AD. We got there and it was literally a huge shitfest to clean up. Their "director" was basically a sleazeball producer who was just out to make a quick buck. He was, in two words, completely incompetent. The actors didn't know what the fuck they were doing, the tech stuff was all over the place, and everything that could be going wrong was going wrong. And yet, he was doing nothing about it.
The people he had were good people, but they could do nothing without his approval, and he was skimping on everything. The department heads, when he could get away with it, were all volunteers with zero experience. He got actors on the cheap, giving some of them only a minimal transportation allowance. He got choirs and kid actors from schools instead of the real deal. Basically he's been exploiting the name of the show and hooking desperate people in on the supposed "exposure" it'll give them. His dancers and orchestra were (and still are) filled with people from China, who didn't understand a word of English. He housed his China dancers in chalets. When I got there the first night, they were rehearsing in an abandoned warehouse with no air conditioning. Catering looked like it was provided by a school canteen. He was going to force a dancer to be a stuntman and fall from the second floor, which is one of the most unethical and irresponsible things I've ever heard of.
And don't even get me started on the script, which had gone through tons of drafts, each one progressively worse than the one before.
Even an idiot would know that this was not the way to run such a huge project. And basically, everyone has this question to ask: "Where the fuck is the S$3 million budget going to?"
I don't have an answer to that, but he's driving a new Jaguar. That oughta say something.
We talked to some theatre folk today, and apparently his entire career is a sleazefest. At this moment he's involved in a huge bribery scandel, and everyone in the scene knows he is someone to avoid like the plague. Unfortunately, someone at my company fucked up and thought it would be a good idea to work with him.
And now we're paying for it. It's been hell, we've had to re-work almost everything, but it's coming along as best as it can be. We only have a few days before the first performance, and hopefully, just hopefully, it'll all work out. In spite of him and his shenanigans.
I may not have any say on this, but I'm definitely advising the big brass on my end to sue. I don't know on what grounds, but I'm sure they can think of something. They are a corporation, after all. And guys like these, they don't deserve to live. I'd run him over any day without hesitation.
So that, in a nutshell, is what my life has been like the past few days. Did I also mention that I've been chain-smoking like never before?
Add the editing on top of this musical bullshit, and you get a very tired Cinewhore.
posted by cinewhore @ 12:38 AM
2 mindfucks
2 Comments:
Poor MX, having to clear up such shitty work... *sayang*
ya while reading your entry, i was wondering where the hell did the $3m go to? i think an actress mentioned in the papers too...
after your shitty committment of this CMI play, we shld jio you out for some activities for relaxation siah... ;)
-ww
On one hand, congrats! u got a good part time job. on the other hand, oh dear! What other shit can be worse? So do they have to cut their spending for u since its invested in that ostentatious vehicle?
-dreamer
gimme some mindfuckery
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