我最近在想我們製作公司的中文名稱. 英文就是 Renegade Province Productions. 但是中文呢? 以下幾個那一個最適當:

叛徒

叛徒之省

叛徒省

叛亂…

叛盜省

…還有沒有更好的名稱翻譯法? 我還要

It’s been a long day. Not that I mind too much after two typhoon days in a row, but I’d gotten out of the habit of getting out of bed at 6 a.m. The reason for this was that I had to go to the office and finish the translation of a Really Important Document that could have Extremely Serious Consequences. As I said, my new job entails a level of responsibility that initially seemed frightening, at least until I realized that I was the only one there taking it so seriously.

Movie rehearsals on Sunday again, followed by more rehearsing with the Ramblers at Dave’s place. The last rehearsal was a lot of fun, with just enough new material that I have a reasonable hope of recalling next time. It’s interesting figuring out the dynamics of the group and how it operates. I need to get back to Corbett about rehearsing with them, but everything’s been so busy lately with my new job, the movie, etc. that I haven’t been able to work it in. I know, excuses, excuses.

In other news, we won two gold medals at the Olympics! Huzzah!

I walked over to the Huashan Arts Village or whatever it’s called these days after work to check out a possible location for one of our “recruitment” scenes. As it turns out, most of the buildings there have gabled roofs, and the couple of places where there’s cement ceilings are blocked off due to safety concerns. I did find an interesting hole in a wall that we might be able to use somehow, but the underground scene needs something larger. Does anyone have a nice large, rather decrepit looking basement in their building we can use to film? You get to see Dean and Maurice wearing hardhats…no, it’s not that kind of film.

This is simply one in a long list of locations we still need. Others include an aircraft interior, a series of leapable rooftops, a couple of castle-like interiors, the north pole and the insides of a blue whale. Ok, I’m kidding about the last two. The insides of a sperm whale would be ok, too.

We have rehearsal on Sunday at Dean’s, and tomorrow I’m going to try to get some surveillance photos of Rowan as he’s being fitted for a Nehru suit or whatever he’s into lately. I’m trying to come up with some namecard designs in the meantime so we won’t have to hand out our own personal cards to people we approach about movie-related issues. Otherwise we just come off like sleezy salesmen: “I’m about to offer you the opportunity of a lifetime…in the movies!”

Dean and I discussed a few changes in the script last night. I think it’s an improvement, but I also wonder just how big this thing’s going to get before we’re done with it. It should be interesting to find out, at least.

The weather had cleared by the time I got out of bed this morning, despite indications from the satellite picture that we were still well inside the typhoon. After lunch I went out to take a look and take some pictures now that the rain wasn’t coming down so hard. I found that the river was still quite high, although about a meter or so lower than it had been, as evidenced by the detrius stuck in some half-submerged playground equipment. More people were out and about, pointing at the river as it rushed by.

I walked down to the floodgates, where the water was still a roiling brown torrent. The riverside bicycle path below it was obliterated; it’s going to take a while before it gets cleaned up again. I’ve enjoyed these two unexpected days off, though I lost money because of it. Tomorrow it’s back to work. Also, I need to look for some new shoes, since I now know my current pair, which I bought on Thursday, February 07, 2002 (thanks to the wonder of archives) has finally lost their storm-defeating magic.

I’ve added a new page to this site, called Accomplices, so I can link to the people who are attached to RPP in some fashion. So far I only have four links, but if you have a website and want some linkish goodness, just let me know.

There’s a typhoon ravaging the island at the moment. So far it’s not so bad; I just hope it leaves us enough beach to film our scene with Dolly.

The government, having apparently lost faith in the power of my water-resistant shoes, cancelled work and school in Taipei today because of the typhoon currently passing by our north coast. I was thinking the storm would veer off at the last minute like every other storm since Nari, but I guess my shoes are showing their age; it got through anyway. It’s been raining heavily with occasional gusts of strong wind all day; the worst isn’t due until tomorrow.

I spent the morning cleaning house and doing online stuff, but this afternoon I put on the most waterproof get-up I own –my old TVBS raingear– and went out to take a look.

The Xindian River was almost unrecognizable. The usually placid Bitan stretch was now a rushing brown torrent. The wind was shaking the suspension bridge in disturbing ways as I walked along. Below, the water had consumed the steps and was lapping along the promenade. All of the swan boats were up on the side of the levy. A couple of guys with nets were trying to fish along the riverside. Branches blown off trees littered the ground.

I walked over the bridge and back, passing a couple of people along the way. Then I walked along the bank towards the temples up the river. A police cruiser was driving around with its lights on, seemingly to warn people about walking along the banks of the river as I was doing. I kept an eye out for any sudden rise in the water. Just yesterday a student died in a flash flood.

I walked back along the promenade, pausing to allow a nervous cat to pass under the eaves of the shut cafes. Down by the RT mart I watched the water shooting over the damn. Either the floodgates were open or they were overwhelmed; I couldn’t tell which. I wanted to take pictures, but it’s so wet my camera would have been soaked the instant I took it out.

It’s dark now, and the rain and wind are still lashing my windows. I just heard that work is cancelled for tomorrow as well. I wonder what kind of scene I’m going to wake up to tomorrow morning.

We were thinking of shooting tomorrow (Saturday) morning up at Fu-gui Point, but Dolly’s on standby duty for China Airlines until 9am, and the weather’s been a bit iffy lately, so we decided to call it off. Dean, Paul and I got together in the West Gate District this evening to look for props at the military supply store in the Wan-nian Bldg. After that we retired to a nearby restaurant where I doodled out some rough storyboards for the first scene, and looked at some maps to see what the best way to Fu-gui Point is.

It looks like there’s no easy way to get there; it’s located on the very northern tip of Taiwan, so it’s either a long drive over Yangmingshan or a long drive around through Danshui. If it were easy to get to, though, it would be full of tourists, so I guess it’s just as well. I must have looked at 20 places last weekend before I found that one.

As for props, all we need now is a diving knife, sheath, and a black equipment bag, like a tote bag. And possibly shark repellent.

I thought it might be a good idea to seperate my filmmaking-related blogging from the everyday drivel I usually write, so I added an as yet sparsely decorated production blog to my site. There’s a link from my films page as well.

Thanks to Wayne‘s recent exploits in digital photography, I’ve been looking at relatively high-end digital cameras recently, a true exercise in torturing oneself in a manner akin to calculating one’s hourly salary and comparing it to that of your friends. If I were to blow a wad of cash on one of these babies, it would be on either the Nikon D70 or the Canon 20D. Probably the Canon, as I’m very happy with my little S300, and I’ve always liked Canon’s digital images a little better than that of other brands. Imagine what I could do with one of these things, though. Then again, if I had that kind of dough, there’s a lot of other, probably more useful things I could do as well.

Welcome to the Renegade Province Production Journal. Here I’ll be writing about the production of the sequel to Clay Soldiers. We’re doing this with no budget to speak of, with only the tools and equipment we already have or can fashion with crude lathes. The movie will probably end up being feature length, chock full of action, special effects and exotic locations.

I have no idea how we’re going to pull it off, but somehow we will, and this is the place to find out how we do it.