Well, tomorrow’s the Big Day. Or a Big Day, anyway: the start of principal photography. It’s hard to believe that May is already at the doorstep. I admit I’m a bit nervous; so many things could go wrong, but at the same time it’s also a bit of a relief to be actually shooting instead of just planning and working out details all the time. If things go smoothly I’ll be very happy. It’s been a bit drizzly today, but the rain has stopped. Hopefully the weather will not deteriorate any further, but if it does we’ll just reschedule. We did lose our still photographer Peter Ma, who got caught in the Hoping Hospital Quarantine (though he is quarantined at home). Lessee…limousine: check…lights: check…microphone and batteries: check…bribe money: check…

I did get some wierd news today concerning the last shoot I was on. It seems our esteemed host, who was nothing but gracious the whole time we were there, thought very little of my “abrupt” manner. Just when I thought I had my manners under control, too. This comes as no surprise, though; I’ve gotten such reactions many, many times in the past. One time I turned around in a store, caught myself in the mirror and thought: Damn, I look like one mean son of a bitch. And I wasn’t even in a bad mood.

Perhaps I should just effect a British accent, and people will think “He may seem mean, but he’s British so he must just be sardonic.” If they call me on the fake accent, I can always say, “Well, it’s either this or giving everyone an uncontrollable urge to hate me.” I think my father may have had a similar problem, which probably explains why he became an engineer. That and a predilection for cold, hard physics. I lack such ability in the hard sciences, though, so I just have to keep from giving a shit what people think. I’m happy, damn it!

Speaking of my sparkling personality, I got two more requests for radio interviews today about the damn book, one from CBS and one via Nelson Wu of the China Post from ICRT, which is somewhat strange since fellow filmmaker Jacques Van Wersch works at ICRT; all they had to do was ask him how to get in touch with me. I don’t know how I’m going to fit any interviews in with this filming schedule, but we’ll see what can be worked out. Actually, I’m surprised they can fit any non-SARS programming in their busy schedules.

I met an old co-worker for lunch today. His name is Cai Sen-tian but everyone calls him “Cai Tou” or “Vegetable Head”. We talked about the production and he gave me some hints and advice, as he is still a cameraman. He might also be able to help us get some fight choreography, since the film he’s working on at the moment contains a good deal of fighting. I also called Steven the Mover to ask about borrowing one of his little blue trucks to film the car chase. He said it shouldn’t be a problem. Things are slowly coming together.

哇! 這麼久沒有寫在這裡了! 我最近好忙準備拍片, 找演員, 找拍攝地點, 找器材之類, 都沒有空寫日記. 拍片的過程實在是很複雜, 但是來不及退出比賽, 只好盡心盡力得去做吧! 還有組小卡車, 輪椅, 準備燈光與收音工具, 還要支導演員設計鏡

I’m so tired of hearing about SARS. My co-workers have talked about nothing else; people on the streets are all talking about it, the news anchors are all practically frothing at the mouth over it…I realize that it’s serious and we all need to be on guard, etc., but what exactly do they want me to do? It seems that some people won’t be satisfied until there’s full-blown panic and everyone is as hysterically miserable as they are. And that’s not going to do anyone any good.

I paid a visit to the formal National Science Museum this morning to find that it’s officially closed, but I did have a nice chat with the people next door at another museum. It’s possible we may be able to sneak a scene in there during a performance, but we’ll have to be quick. Earlier this morning I also confirmed our shoot at the Yongjing Temple after sharing tea and Buddhism Tips with the old caretaker there, and picked up some props we need. It’s going to be a bitch, but I think we might just be able to pull this off (knock on wood). I need to go get some test shots and copy our storyboards.

I know, I know; you don’t want to read a production blog, do you? Fair enough, but I’ve been doing little else lately, so it’s all there is to talk about besides yet even more “Another Idiot Spreads SARS by Taking Crowded Train Entire Length of Island” stories.

It’s been a busy weekend. On Saturday I asked some fellow students at Tai-chi practice at CKS Hall to be actors for the film. I got three guys. One of them, a reporter for the China Times, seemed rather reluctant, which is worrying. Another one is a policeman, which is definitely useful. My teacher also found an old man, but he called later and cancelled, claiming that his wife wouldn’t let him do it. I have no idea what these people are afraid of. People are irrationally afraid of appearing in the media, even if it’s just a small Internet deal. Shops and bars are afraid of being shown, people don’t want to be filmed, public places demand permits…what is up with that? Of course it’s much worse in places like New York and LA as far as the permits thing goes, but there’s plenty of other obstacles here. Luckily my friend Tony, the former Eva pilot who now works at Subway, is pretty eager. Not only that, but he has all sorts of interesting guns we can use.

After practice I rode Gendouyun (who has a starring role in the film by the way) out to the flood control region that runs between Sanchong and Xinzhuang. I found a couple of long, empty roads that are just about perfect for the car chase scenes, and met some interesting people who run restaurants out of old cargo containers next to construction sites. Something tells me a good dentist would have a lot of business in that area. When I returned to the city we held out first rehearsal, which went extremely well. We’ve tried to keep the dialogue down as much as possible, distilling everything when we could, and it sounds very good. I’ve got a group of good actors which I am very thankful for.

Today Dean and I sat down and worked out storyboards, me drawing rough sketches and him transferring them to more detailed depictions. Then we made blood, or tried to. The mixture we came up with looked more like that of a very sick Klingon. Better ingredients should get us something a bit more human-looking. We’re still looking for a martial arts consultant, and I need to spend tomorrow morning checking other locations. Da Shan called and said he’s available for lighting on Friday, but I’m going to have to shoot the night market sans lighting I’m afraid. All of these shoots are going to be extremely challenging; it will be a miracle if we can get through them all. I feel like I’m about to jump out of an airplane.

There is a bar in an alley near where I live called the Elvis Bar. I had walked past it several times, but I’d never gone inside until the other day when I was looking for bar locations.

My first impression upon entering the place was “Shit, that’s a lot of flags.” American flags were draped from the ceiling and used as chair covers and tablecloths, and eerie blacklights highlighted ambiguous images that might have been Elvis or possibly a young Caspar Weinberger. The owner, an aging hippie-type Chinese-American man with near-native English, said he got a deal at Wal-mart for a huge load of unsold flags for only 20 bucks. He pulled out a suitcase stuffed with even more flags. I guess there’s only so much you can do when you’re decorating with a national symbol. If you’re dead-set on doing so, though, you really should choose a flag that doesn’t look like it was cut from a circus tent.

There was a small stage and drumset for a band in the back. The owner, who seemed somehow disconnected from the rest of the world, said he was a musician. He was extraordinarily mellow. He said he lived in Arizona and also had a jewelry stand somewhere. It was all very Twilight Zone.

More shooting with Tall Paul aka “Norman Szabo” last night. The location was a swank apartment on Ren-ai Road near Yen-ji Street, and we were out of there before midnight, much to the relief of the person who lived there. I think most people don’t realize how tedious filmmaking can be; they seem eager to be part of it because they think it’s really exciting all the time. This is useful when acquiring locations, but occasionally this tactic can backfire.

I’m going to see if I can recruit some actors from my Tai-chi class on Saturday morning, and then it’s off to follow the river in hopes of finding a broad, empty, rarely used stretch of road for the car chase scene, which is easily the most challenging set of the film. The other locations shouldn’t be too difficult, though lighting will be a problem if we can’t find electrical outlets. I was up until 3 a.m. last night working on the script, and I think we’re going to have to lock it at this point because if we don’t we won’t have time to actually make the movie before the deadline. I think it’s ok; it should work well in fact, and I’m looking forward to making this film. It’s going to be a hell of a ride, though.

Funniest thing of the day so far: This letter, written in stilted, awkward English, to the Taipei Times from CTS crying foul over a previous letter criticizing their English news program for having stilted, awkward English.

Well, it’s been two years since my first entry in this account. I know I said I’d do something special to celebrate, but I’ve been too busy lately to do much of anything. Perhaps I’ll get another News from the Renegade Province edition up for my 100,000th hit, which should be coming up soon as well.

What have I been busy with? you are no doubt asking. Mainly, the film. I would take some time off work if my financial situation weren’t so tight at the moment. We’ve got a month to make this movie, and the schedule is ambitious by any standards. In the meantime, we’re still quibbling over script details when we need to have it locked down. I need to be in several different places at once: I need to be out looking for actors as well as locations, while at the same time I need to be finding props and wardrobe items, and I also need to be creating the storyboards. And, of course, I need to be at work, eating, sleeping, etc.

I took time out this afternoon to give a radio interview about the damn book for a station in Tainan to be broadcast in the early morning hours on whichever day they didn’t have enough songs to play, and tonight I went to sword practice just to work out the kinks. When I was there a guy came up and started talking to us. Turned out he was Taiwanese-German. Born in Germany, just back in Taiwan to advocate Taiwanese independence, after which he plans to return ‘home’ to Germany. He’s not even an ROC citizen, but that’s pretty typical for many Taiwanese independence supporters. The most ardent TI advocates tend to be citizens of another country and don’t even live here. Why? The reason’s obvious: they don’t have to live with the effects of their efforts. They’re just here for their ’cause’, and fuck the people who actually have to deal with the results.

Anyway. I have a film to make. I talked with Da Shan a bit the other day; he says he can get me all kinds of actors, props, etc., but I haven’t heard from him since. Looks like I’ll need to do it myself in any case. Da Shan looks suitable for one of the roles, actually, as does his friend Xiao San, who is a cameraman. We had lunch together, and it turned out that Xiao San and I had quite a few mutual acquaintances in the industry. He even knew (and almost got into a fight with) “Assassin”, with whom I worked as a camera assistant back at TVBS.

Due to the Amazing Vanishing Typhoon in the vicinity, the weather’s been brilliant and hot. Reminds me of the weather when I first got here; could have been right after a typhoon I guess. Lovely, searing summer days. They’re welcome now, and will likely stay that way until I get my electric bill.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect at the Chinese Star Wars book intro celebration my friend Azuma was doing on Saturday. When I got to the Youth Activity Center on Linsen S. Road I was blocked by security guards from even entering until I fished out my silver-plated pass. Inside a large room were a stage, a suspended platform, a bar, large arrays of Star Wars toys and posters, and a bunch of reporters wandering around. Dean, Kay and Random Gavin were wandering around somewhere, but I couldn’t see them.

When the event started, the room went dark and a huge laser show began, shining right into the audience’s eyes. Avert thine eyes! the show seemed to say, as two rows of Jedi Knights lined up on the stage, fragile glass-tube lightsabres held aloft. Azuma presided over the whole ceremony from the elevated platform, reading the Star Wars-intro-like lines in Chinese and English. The Jedi on the floor repeated after him. Then the lights came on, the Cantina Band struck up its famous theme, and everyone went to munch on free sandwiches while they looked at the toys and took pictures next to various storm troopers, imperial guards and Darth Vader, who seemed to hate keeping his helmet on for more than two seconds at a time. Probably afraid of “Helmet Hair”. The lightsabres were cool, but I know if I had one I’d break it almost immediately.

Afterwards we went looking for locations and found a nice antique shop on Jinan Road for a certain scene. The owner was an 80-year-old man, sitting in the back next to a walker watching TV. His Indonesian caregiver was hanging around but didn’t know anything about any of the products on display. We asked the old man if we could film in his shop, when could we film, should we call, etc. Through all of this he just nodded and said, “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Don’t call, just come. It’ll be fine…”

I think we’ll call. He would make a good actor, but I’m not sure he can stand up. Still, the shop’s almost exactly what we’re looking for. Later on that day we met up with Maurice, Dolly and Tall Paul at an Italian restaurant off Anhe Rd. It was a beautiful day, and the place had a nice big balcony out front. As is always the case when Maurice is involved, the food was excellent. We discussed the film, and I am happy to say that both Maurice and Dolly want to be a part of the production, so we now have their excellent acting talents to add to the mix.

We were having such a good time sitting out on the porch, talking and eating, we ended up being late to the Urban Nomad thing and missed a good portion of “Redneck Vampire”. Still, we did see a few interesting things. The venue this year, while still a warehouse at the Huashan Art Center, was at least better than last year’s. I talked with a member of a band who might be interested in doing music for the film; hopefully she or someone else will get back to me on that. The Ska band Walltigers was also suggested. I know Berta’s in tight with them; perhaps she will know how to get in touch with them. At the end of the event they handed out awards to the films involving surfing, skating, and Bobby-McFerrin-style body music. I spent the walk home putting all that shit behind me. Alphadogah, I’ve decided, is to be used as a diversionary tactic to make people thing I don’t know what I’m doing.

After a late lunch today at Jake’s, Dean and I went to look for Chinese actors at a rehearsal at the very IKEA-inspired Odeon II, and then over to an equipment shop. The rest of the afternoon was spent going from place to place in search of miniature Terracotta warrior replicas, of which we found five at the National History Museum. We then spend several hours looking for a cheap tuxedo jacket, but that search proved fruitless, with the exception of discovering pictures of our old co-worker from the paper modelling tuxedowear in a store catalogue. However, even the suits at Sogo exceeded NT$50,000! Anyone know where we can find a cheap tux jacket?

Needless to say we were tired and ready for dinner. We went to Friday’s for dinner, but we were told the wait would be 15 minutes, so we went up to put the Terracotta warriors away. When we got back to Friday’s the dimwitted girl at the door looked at us like she’d never seen us before. “Is our table ready?” I asked, but she just stared at us. It reminded me of one of those Mutual of Omaha shows where Marlin Perkins comments on the stupidity of, say, a yak while we watch it stare dumbly at the camera, chewing a piece of grass or something.

“Table?” she replied. I swear I could see her jaw moving in a most yak-like fashion.

We ended up having an excellent dinner anyway at Mr. Fish, where we ran into another mutual former co-worker (they’re everywhere!) Peter Parker Ma, who is still at The News. It was hot and muggy, our first real summer day. Everyone looked slightly flushed, and even Lipton Ice Tea tasted good.

I’ve been watching the BMW films lately. While I enjoy most of them, particularly Guy Ritchie’s Star and John Frankenheimer’s Ambush, my favorite by far is Ang Lee’s Chosen. While the former feature exciting car chases, Lee put together a wonderful little story and accented it by sending the cars and characters into ballet-like choreography; the music is also extremely good. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of giving a set of filmmakers a set of parameters and letting them go at it. BMW did it, Lady X is doing it, and I think we might be able to put something like this together for local filmmakers as well at some point in the future.

In other news, there was an article in today’s Taipei Times about the damn book. One point I should make: The words “Shock and awe” never passed my lips during that interview. Just so you know.

Tomorrow I’m supposed to meet “Da Shan”, the big brother of my friend “Xiao Shan” (of course). Da Shan is involved in filmmaking. I don’t quite know what he does yet, but he seems to be in a position to help us out with the film. “So, Da Shan,” I’ll say,”What exactly do you do?”

“What exactly do you need done?”

I guess I’m going to find out.

Oh, those silly politicians! I was reading the China Post website today when I saw this gem: “DPP caucus secretary general Chen Chi-mai went on to charge that the Lien-Soong pair would revive the “black-gold” power and “old-man politics” as well as ending democratic reforms. Another DPP legislator Chou Chuei-chen said he hopes that the pair will stop smearing the DPP so that Taiwan’s democracy would not go backwards.”

Further down, in a story about the Ministry of Truth -I mean the GIO: ‘Claiming he would “defend press and speech freedoms to death,” Iap said it would “not be a bad thing” to scrap the GIO.’

I’m sure I could bring you equally interesting quotes from the Taipei Times, but they typically don’t have the day’s news up on their website before noon. As far as the political stuff goes; I’m disappointed but not terribly surprised the Lien Chan has decided to run again. You’d think he would have learned his lesson after the 2000 election disaster (yes, Taiwan had one of those too). Well, he learned a lesson, but apparently it wasn’t that he was a drain on his ticket, but rather that he needed Soong to draw votes. What he’s probably going to learn this time around is that this will only confuse potential voters who originally would have voted for Soong but now have reservations because Lien seems so slimy people shrink from shaking hands with him. At least that was my impression, though during the interview we did with him he never actually offered to shake hands with Lowly Cameraman TC.

I do find it amusing that the DPP is making fun of the Blue Party for “Old Man Politics” while they still pay homage to Lee Teng-hui, who ain’t exactly a spring chicken. I haven’t decided who I will vote for yet; it depends a lot on who Chen Shui-bian chooses as his runningmate. If he chooses Sisy Chen I’m going to have to abstain simply on the basis that having a “Vice President Sisy” is entirely too demeaning, especially after four years of cringing every time Annette Lu opens her mouth.

In the meantime, I talked with a friend of mine who is into filmmaking last night, and he said he could probably help me out on a number of fronts. I hope he comes through because we could really use his assistance. I’m not going to discuss specifics too much here, as I’ve been bored by other “production blogs” in the past.

I was in the mood for a movie last night, so I stopped off at the Estrogen Mall on my way home from work and bought a ticket to see Solaris. I thought, hey, George Cloony, spaceships, wierd planet, sci-fi…how bad can it be?

Answer: Jaysus. I can’t remember the last time I’ve walked out on a movie after laying down good money to see it. I was the only one in the theater; I even tried to take a nap, but after an hour of watching George tip-toeing around a space station designed to look like the inside of a Mac computer inhabited by people with a strong fear of that little crust that develops on ketchup caps, I couldn’t take it anymore. I walked out and told the attendent they could turn off the projector, as no-one was watching the film any more. I should have waited the extra hour and gone to see The Core instead. I went and rented Simone, which is not a great movie itself (he’s still useing 5.25 floppies?), but it seemed a good sight better after watching an hour of Solaris. It made me realize that, no matter how deeply symbolic you feel your film is going to be, all of that means precisely bollocks when it comes to the actual entertainment of other people. Whenever you feel I’m getting too philosophical about the artsy nuances of film, just bring up Solaris; that should cure me instantly.

There’s a nifty picture of my friend Azuma in today’s Taipei Times. In the picture he’s performing a “force push” maneuver while surrounded by battle droids who are remarkably indifferent to his presence. Perhaps they’re asking him where he got those cool shades. Dean and I are planning to see Azuma and others at the event tomorrow afternoon, as I said before, and we’ll be seeing Azuma again that night at the Urban Nomad screening of Alphadogah. If last year’s event is anything to go by, a couple of people might look up from their conversations and watch it for a couple of seconds or until they realize how silly it is, whichever comes first.

I’ll be looking for thugs, myself. No, not for dating, although I’m not averse to the idea. I’m actually looking to fill about four roles in Episode IV of Lady X, an older Chinese man, a head thug and two mini-thugs. I’d get Sho and Little P to play the mini-thugs if I thought I could depend on either of them to show up. But we’ll see if I can’t find some connections at the festival.

I was going to go location-scouting again this afternoon but a surprise pop translation job has kept me in the office far longer than I’d planned. I did get a call from a radio station in Tainan of all places, requesting a phone interview next Wednesday. Odd. There’s supposed to be a review of the damn book in a prominent Chinese literary journal out today; we’ll see if that makes any kind of prominent Chinese literary splash in the prominent Chinese literary pond.

Speaking of splashes, does anyone know why streakers are all white? Is is genetic? Or cultural? There’s a master’s thesis in there somewhere, I’m sure of it.

It’s coming up on this site’s second birthday -well, it’s third if you count the original one. I really should do something, but I can’t figure out what. Any suggestions?

I was watching this video (which is, be honest, one of the best music videos ever), recommended to me during a chat with the BWG hisself, when I noticed it was a .fm site. .fm? Huh? Turns out it’s the country suffix of the Federated States of Micronesia while that country is still above sea-level. The website says “If you are part of the broadcasting industry and you want to take full advantage of the Internet, a .FM domain name is essential.”

.fm is essential to remain competitive? Why, because it’s only two letters and people can reach your site that much faster than they could a .com or .org address? If I could choose, I think I’d rather have something more suitable, like .doh or .huh. Or, for the ultimate in sarcastic domains, there’s always .not.

In other news, the first typhoon of the season, Ex-Super Typhoon Kujira (sounds a little too much like Godzilla for my comfort) is heading this way. This is the same typhoon Dean scoffed at when I mentioned it to him the other day. Apparently typhoons aren’t currently a part of Dean’s worldview.

Granted, it’s still a long way away, and the air’s still not hot enough to sustain it much longer, but we could be in for some much-needed rainfall if it comes anywhere near here.