In planning for the photo shoot for the AV Storyboard (see the big screen on my Home Page) I wanted to keep the whole production – the location, the sets, the props, and logistics – simple, and the costs down to bare minimum.

ACTING TALENTS

I had some friends to help me with this production.  Darius Jano Oliveiro handled the camera.  He also provided the wheels which came in handy when we were moving the entire crew and props from location to location.  And three other friends – Josh Fikhrie, Fabian Chan and Maryann Palunday – lent their acting talents.

Most of the shots were done within the little green lung in the Tanjong Rhu area alongside the Kallang River.  It was a picturesque spot with cobbled paths lined with park benches and pretty lamp-posts.  And there were grassy slopes and many different types of trees including several “bearded” Banyan, offering a rich variety of shapes, sizes and leaf textures all within the 150-metre stretch.  So after shooting one scene, all we needed to do was turn around and there was our next location.

In brief, the screenplay (A Kristang Wedding) I wrote is a Love Triangle story about a young man (Gideon) from a dysfunctional family who pursued this beautiful girl (Marina) right to her hometown in Malacca.  Little did he know that she was once in love with an artist (Ramon) from her village.  Unfortunately Marina’s gangster-chief father had blocked her and her relationship with Ramon has been hanging in the air since way back then.  When Gideon appeared on the scene, a whole chemistry change took place.

I was lucky to know some very talented people to help be flesh out my story characters.  With her natural good looks and Filipino charm Maryann Palunday, 26, came ready made for my Marina character.  She is photogenic and could be Miss Philippines as far as I’m concerned.  Maryann was game for anything and no complaint escaped her lips throughout the full-day shoot.  What she was willing to do to move the shoot along I will not mention over the Internet.  Unfortunately, the five-minute AV Storyboard does not allow a full expose of Marina, the character Maryann was playing.  For this shoot, Maryann got to play the object of desire of the two male characters.  The Marina character demands sensitive acting and the ability to express multi-layered emotions.  Marina is torn between her brash, weird, new found love and the passionate and the sincere old flame.  In the short storyboard, my concentration was on the rivalry between the two men, so all the interesting details of the Marina character in the story had to be left out (or was purposely left out for strategic reasons!).

Josh Fikhrie, 25, is an ex-DJ from KL.  Although he never was a full-time actor, he has been in the entertainment business all through his short but eventful career after completing his Mass Comm course at Uni, and was not fazed by the photo-shoot.  Josh has a natural bounce in his walk and has presence.  He could well be burning the catwalks in New York, Paris and Milan.  Josh played the Gideon Oliveiro character, a go-getter who started from zero and had nothing to lose.  Josh was easy to direct, partly because the Gideon character was open to interpretation and because Josh had plenty ideas of his own.  I suspect the Gideon character was a bit easy for Josh.  He is capable of more.  In retrospect, Josh looked too “clean” in the pictures.  As the director, I could have done a better job of pushing him to the edge and made his life more challenging.  But that’s what you get for a quick, low-budget production.  So for now, what you see is what you get.

Finally, Fabian Chan, 27, was the surprise package.  If there was a prize to be given for guts, I’d hand it to Fabian.  I’ve known Fabian for some years but it was mostly in a family-social situation – never on a shoot.  So it was with some vacillation that I said to him “Fabian, here’s when you get down on your knees and beg.”  He was doing this shoot gratis and I half expected him to cop out.  But without flinching he got down to the ground and we shot the scene where the Ramon character was begging Marina not to leave him.  Later, at the drunken scene shot outdoors and at the erasing of the tattoo (shot indoors), he again had to emote.  And he did all this with curious onlookers hovering nearby.

Of the three main actors, I have to say that Fabian had the most challenging role because the Ramon character he played is angst ridden.  And the interpretation of this Ramon character was narrower and more specific than the Gideon character.

There is only so much you can put in a five-minute storyboard.  It is unfortunate that viewers have to be contented with seeing Fabian in uni-dimensional portrayal of Ramon.  There is much more to the Ramon character than just the angry, frustrated, angst ridden character you see in the AV Storyboard. Ramon is also the man of principle and the self-sacrificing hero.  All this only serious Film Producers will get to see at the pitch, and everyone else when this screenplay finally gets made into a movie.

I believe Fabian has the capability of playing a wide range of characters.  If he does finally get into acting, I am taking the credit for discovering him.

Darius, Maryann, Fabian and Josh, thank you for helping me flesh out my characters.  In fact I’m going to write Version 7 of this screenplay – this time with the inspiration I got from you.

PROPS

I spent no more than thirty dollars on props.  The most expensive piece of prop was the six-dollar felt hat which I bought from a party supplies shop in Lorong 7, Toa Payoh.  I thought it came close to looking like the hat worn by the Kristang men in days past.  That hat is now immortalized by Josh in the strolling scene (maybe I’ll speak to some Milliner companies about product placement opportunities).  I also bought a bunny ears hair band at the same shop, which I meant for Josh to be playfully putting on Maryann in the frolicking scene.  But I later decided it was too kinky and Bollywood-ish.  All the way I struggled with the temptation to make the set more sophisticated.  I was determined to keep the scenes simple, even a bit retro – reflective of life in the nineteen sixties.  For the same reason, at the last minute I threw out the confetti cannons and theatre masks.  Luckily they cost just a few bucks each.  What we did use in the end was the straw mat, paper plates and cup-cakes in the picnic scene.  The fight scenes required no props at all, except a bit of bruise marks using face paint.

Later for the drunken scene, I used chrysanthemum tea for beer.  The beer bottles, the big Milo tin and some empty condensed milk cans, I borrowed from the coffee-shop near my house in Toa Payoh.

What I overlooked was hair gel or hair spray.  More than once while Darius was shooting the fight scenes, I’ve had to intervene and ruffle up Fabian’s hair because it kept falling neatly into place – which does say something for the hair conditioner he uses (more product placement opportunities?).

I hope to get more people – particularly Film Producers – to view my AV Storyboard.  Your critical comments will be much appreciated.