Thursday, April 24, 2003

Behind the scenes

Last night was most interesting. Went to an impromptu lunch with Zona at Pyramid. Well again I ate, she didn�t only because she already did that honour with Adrian. *grin* After that we just strolled around directionless while we caught up with each other. It has been a while since we got together, the last time being the Pancake Caper at 4.30am a few weeks ago. (Opps I forgot to write about that.) Well I�ll tell ya now. I was online and she was online. She was hungry and got me hungry. Then she �nudged� me on msn and asked if I wanted to sneak out for some pancakes. Reminded me of those times at Fast Eddie in the very early mornings in Perth where we would order hot fries and sour cream. Yummy� got my appetite all worked up. So we gave in as gracefully as we could to our tummy rumblings and headed out to the 24hours A&W for waffles. (There aren�t any pancake places at 4am in the morning! There should be one!) So that was the Pancake Caper. So back to the present. Zona and I in Pyramid wondering around. The purpose of going to Sunway Pyramid was to pick up her poor laptop which was in the clinic. After that we pointed the wheel in the direction of home when we passed Vision New Media. Zona decided to turn in to see if there was a Kopitiam studio shoot and there was! So we parked and she introduced me around. It was so darn cool�. Hee hee.

So, Zona brought me along for one of the numerous studio shoots of Kopitiam, the Malaysian sitcom. Zona is one of the seven writers for this show. It was an experience I'll never forget. There are so many people involved in shooting a simple scene - people milling about, people rushing here and there, people talking all at once, the actors rehearsing their lines, and me sitting as muted as a mouse at one behind trying to absorb it all. The Kopitiam actors are quite friendly and not at all snooty or anything. Finally met the director Bong. Nice chap, though not what I expected. Come on, with a name like Bong, I had this misconception that he might be mid 40s, round and florid. Instead he was this silent walking slim persona who wears blue tinted glasses that has this restless energy about him. Total 180 from my expectations. I thought he�d looked like Ken. (The other director of the Domain Myra series.) =P Yeah our great expectations of others are very seldom met in this world, be it accidental or otherwise. Our local shoot is nothing like Hollywood where there are a team of makeup people waiting pensively for the chance to rush in to pat a nose with powder and such. Touch ups were rare except for the scene involving a fake cut and blood. There is no booming of �Lights, Camera, Action!�, just a subdued �Camera rolling, 5, 4, 3��. It was very informal and unpretentious. Ooh ooh, Zona got roped in as an extra! Bong just decided to throw her in. It was so funny coz she has this huge pimple on her nose and the entire cast were teasing her about it. Zona gets on with everyone apparently. But then knowing her, it's her usual. Another writer was present as well, so Bong threw both of them into one of the scene when Rashid was in the middle of a strategy meeting about this inane plan to catch a thief with a box and a string - like a wildlife trap except the baits are a hp, a wallet and a bowl of noodles. Go figure, that is Rashid for you! =P Then Uncle Chan (Manu Maniam) who was on the sidelines remarked "Now that's a writers' block!" Hahaha.... he is sooo funny! Zona introduced me to him and he is very nice. And he remembered my name. *Yay!* Ah well, I'm sure it'll be forgotten soon. =P They can't be expected to remember every little thing...

You can see the bond between the cast and the people behind the scenes. But there was still a gap between the Chinese speaking crew and the English speaking ones. Weird. I thought that this would not exist on an English sitcom shoot. But then we are a multi racial country. =P Diversity doesn�t have to mean cohesion in every sense, eh? But at the end, everything mesh into one cool production.

I should include a link to Zona's blog. I will soon. But here's a link for now. Follow it if you're curious about Zona, my best friend.

Came home and helped sis out with a tech bug then installed my new The Sims and had a few days work of making friends. Had some problems but managed to iron it out. I slept early last night � half and hour earlier. I�m so proud of myself. ^_^

Oh swoon, I'm now listening to my new Henry Mancini CD. Moon River is one of those songs that makes me all tingly and goosebumpy. Finally found a place that sells Mancini today after scouring the whole of KL before this. *Happy sigh*

No comments: