Burmese
I was watching a movie at Dean’s Friday night when I got a call. It was the arts theatre where we were hoping to film the prison scene. “Can we film next weekend?” I asked.
“No,” the girl answered. “And we’re busy all December. But you can film this weekend.”
So that was that. Nothing else has come close to this place, which I’d heard about from my friend Bret. Plus the only price for shooting there was a full location credit.
The next day was spent in a rush of preparing for a hastily arranged shoot on Sunday. Dean and I wrote in a cameo for Shirzi, since he was around, though he complained about being typecast as an inhabitant of a Burmese prison.
Dean, Darrell, Shirzi and I showed up at the theater on Guling St. at about 1pm on Sunday, arriving just as a dark blue Rolls Royce pulled out of a building opposite before we had a chance to ask for Grey Poupon. We were the first ones there, but Paul got there in time to help clear out the old jail cells left over from when the theater was some kind of Japanese interrogation ward. The place was full of dust, and soon everyone was sneezing and coughing.
After the cells we wanted to use were cleared out, we took turns drawing the proper grafitti on the walls in pencil that could be washed off once we were done. I’d brought two lights, which turned out to be more than enough. I’m always impressed with how good just a little light looks on my camera. Even my little pocket fluorescent came in handy at a couple of points.
Dean went and got some plain fried rice in a metal lunchbox for Josh, and we started shooting. The most interesting part involved using sparklers that looked quite interesting. Josh did a great job as usual, as did everyone else, though nobody else had to pick a strategically placed cockroach out of their meal. It was difficult to get enough angles in the cramped quarters, but luckily I have a fairly wide lens and don’t mind sitting in a prison toilet to get a good shot.
We’d said we’d be done by 5:30, but as usual we took a bit longer, wrapping up at about 6:30. I think it will look good once I capture, but right now my computer upgrade has screwed up Premiere so captured stills aren’t available. The pictures I do up have up here were taken by Darrell with his digital camera, though, and they turned out pretty good.
Next weekend we’re going to try to get another large chunk of this sequence done, all on the NTU campus once again. That will involve a bit more action and should be a real kick to shoot.
