Here is some of the floating feeling during the shoot...
This film is shot a la Reuben Foong's style - wide and medium shots with long takes, and lots of retakes till the director's heart's content. In a good sense, as concern for details is a definite quality of a successful director in the making.
Long take films are piece-wise smooth and continuous, allowing the audience to immerse more easily. For the actor, it is closer to real life, not having his scenes fragmented by short takes and editing inserts.
I performed this with the staff of SK Construction, as part of the 17th LTA Singapore's Annual Safety Award Convention (ASAC) at the Singapore Polytechnic Convention Hall on the 15th of September 2015. It was also the first time that I am singing on stage. The script and rehearsals are organised and supervised by Sundance-Sahara, an events company in Singapore.
In this gig, I am a civil engineering project manager for the SMRT Downtown Line tunneling project, what I actually studied for in real-life during my university and polytechnic days. During those good old days, I was also part of the Singapore Polytechnic Welfare Services Club which served welfare homes every weekend. It was also the time when I started performing several sobbing stories on stage to recruit student volunteers. That was thirty-seven years ago! Yes, you read it right. Time flies.
This looks so last century isn't it? lol
This is an old sketch performed in 1978. It opens with the song, "Now the story starts with a family: father, mother and their five children...". We composed the lyrics to tell the story of broken homes, broken families and social issues. :)
During those days, facilities were not as brilliant, so we had to improvise and stack tables up in a tiny lecture theatre to build a stage. Now, fast forward four decades and we have a full fledged glamorous convention hall built on the same spot we used to have our makeshift concerts.
The worksite dining room as the rehearsal hall.
Now back to the present....
All the actors in this gig are real construction workers and a very enthusiastic bunch. For them, it was a pleasant break from their daily routine. We had many rehearsals together, and that was by itself, very different from my usual gigs elsewhere.
Backstage - waiting for our turn.
On the day of the performance, civil engineering and acting came and met one full circle for me. It was a surreal and nostalgic experience. I am thankful for the experience.
The rehearsals...
PS 1: I have also performed in other community gigs, like the SAMH Charity Dinner 2014, but I do not have the video. Will search them up...
PS 2: A Hokkien Rap for Safe Sex Education. Click here.
