Lou Gei and Hoi Pin: The Difference

I felt like continuing my post about the first day of work, actually about joining the night's shooting at Kuala Selangor.

So here goes. Firstly, Kuala Selangor is damn far and I seriously don't recommend anyone to go there except you wanna enjoy the fireflies (I didn't see any) or go Bukit Melawati, where there is a lighthouse. The Props and Set Department which I'm assigned to, typically is not required to follow a shooting team. As such I'm thankful to my Ah Tau (Head of Dept), Fung, for giving me an opportunity to go out on my first day at work. It took us 1 hour plus drive to get there.

The rain is still pouring sparingly when we arrive at the foot of Bukit Melawati. The rest of the team was already there, taking cover along shoplot corridors. There was 1 outdoor scene and some indoor ones that the team was scheduled to cover that night. The plan was to spend the entire night shooting. When it rains, there's nothing much to do but to wait. The agony and helplessness was apparent in everyone's face, as one crew puts it: Its (the rain) not really heavy, but its not light enough too, and thats why its farking annoying.

We stick around with the older adult crew (not including the director) for a round of tea at the local joint, chatting quite about anything, and breathing an astronomical amount of smoke from the cigarettes the big boys spent. Basically the group was a bunch of gung-ho happy fellas. I did learn bits and pieces listening over their conversation, although here and there you may find them cursing, which is a norm anyway. Finally after awhile, they decided to fark mother nature and get on with their job.

The director chose to begin shooting at the indoor locations first. From what I know, its suppose to be at the protagonist's room, and later some dockyard scenes. The crew arrived at the location, a pier usually used to upload see ham (clams). As soon as we set in, we set up. On one hand, a room has to be cleared for the room scene and on the other hand we have to stuff newspapers into gunny bags for the jetty scene. Suffice to say that it was no easy job, but with the number of people we have plus some help from the local kids we manage to prep the set for shooting.

Shooting was really a complex process. Contrary to my school productions, this one seems more like a streamlined sports car compared to the bicycle we had. The director is at the helm of all things, but he doesn't have to make sure of things himself. There are specified peoples for every job. Script directors making sure actors speaking the right stuff, soundman getting every needed sound on tape, lighting guys providing the right shade, PAs and contis keeping not of things, cameraman getting the correct shots, and much much more. The whole process can't be said as precise, but at least it is under tight control and things get settled efficiently.

The director calls off for a bit of supper after finishing some scenes. Hell, how I wished I was able to do that too, the only times we call off a shoot is during weather changes or its time to go home. So while the rest of the crew enjoys some food, Fung, the Art Director, and me decided to go off another place to eat and chat. The Art Director is a really nice guy, already in his 60s. He mostly ranted about how the production could've improved, but he has good intentions. So after our meal, Fung and me felt we had enough of the business already and decided to skip the rest of the shoot. During the journey back, we chatted and I learned some stuff regarding real world production and the likes. I assumed while I was snoring through my slumber, somewhere a few dozen kilometers away the production crew are still rolling, right till the morning.

Lou gei is the Cantonese jargon for 'roll camera', meaning start shooting. Conversely, hoi pin loosely translates as 'open film', which is more used to mean gang clashes. But for me, production itself is metaphorically a fight. Against weather, time, differing ideas, nature, and anything else I did not mention. Its a situation, where only the physically and mentally fit survives.

no-fark!