Ward 4A

Notice how quaint the office is, with a typewriter, antique phone and clock! 

This is a Lasalle short film. It is about a patient who believes that he is wrongly institutionalised and tries to escape from a mental hospital with the help of other patients. 

The location - a disused Singapore Land Authority building - reminds me so much of 'Hentak Kaki'.

I love playing the role of the fictional doctor - the one that is allowed to be snobbish and overpowering. This contrasts with the other doctor role I have in the TV Drama Tanglin, as a Specialist Doctor in Emergency Medicine, that speaks in unusually long convoluted lines with bombastic medical jargons expressed in deadpan emotion.

I have also acted as a mental patient, so I have experienced it from both sides. :) See "Checkmate".



Here is the trailer:

The full film is not released yet. I think it will go around in the festival circuit first. I will post it here when it does get released.

The location is a disused school, built by the Singapore Government in the 1950s to prepare for the post-war babies that needed schools. Many of these buildings are now demolished to make way for bigger and better schools - those complete with covered assembly halls, computer rooms, hockey fields, running tracks,...etc. Such luxury compared to my time when we had to stand on the basketball court under the hot sun during assemblies and rushed for places in crowded canteens. These buildings bring back memories.

For other 'Psycho' short films, click here.

Locations

I have posted the following photos to help location directors seek out-of-the-beaten-track places in  Singapore; so that they can shoot somewhere different and save the other lovely, but over used spots like Pulau Ubin, Lorong Buangkok, Arab Street and Chinatown for some other time.

If you are not a locations director, then just sit back and enjoy the pictures - dwell into the history and charms of the locations, by clicking on the links. 

12 Mount Sophia Road 

This building constructed in 1892 by the Crane brothers, and bought by the Methodist Church in 1932, became part of Methodist Girls' School. It was affectionately called the "Tower House". In 1998, the building was acquired by the government is now leased by a Mr Bettin who used it as a pre-school called "The House on the Hill". For more about this lovely house 'on the hill', click here.

Hong Lim Police Station  

This old world colonial style police station still sits by Hong Lim Park and operates as one. It goes almost unnoticed amid the hustle and bustle of the city and could well be used as a backdrop of some romantic stories set in the 1960s.

Aloha Changi Chalet K 

I like this one as it exudes the colours of autumn. It is also snapshot in a virtual time capsule, as it is very unlike elsewhere in Singapore. For more details about the bookings, click here.

National University of Singapore (NUS) Bukit Timah Campus 

The Bukit Timah Campus was the site of Singapore's first tertiary educational institution, Raffles College. It is now occupied by the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, the Bukit Timah Campus and has been home to generations of students for more than 80 years. For more details, click here.

Aston Mansion, Lorong 42 Geylang 

This modest lorong in Geylang is surprising and regal looking entrance to this mansion. With the yellow car in front, it even looks a bit like New York! :)

Sian Keng Tong Temple, Changi Road, next to Lorong 107 

This is one of the few Heng Hua dialect (a southern Chinese dialect in the province of Fujian) temple in Singapore. Very ornate. For more information about the temple, click here.

Yan Kit Village Chinese Temple, Mariam Way, Off  North Upper Changi Road

This temple worships Matsu, the Goddess that fishermen pray before they go to sea. Which means that where it is now used to be very near the seashore. For more information about this temple, click here.

Kushu Island Chinese Temple 

Kusu Island is one of the Southern Islands in Singapore, located about 5.6 kilometres to the south of the main island of Singapore, off the Straits of Singapore. The name means "Tortoise Island" or "Turtle Island" in Chinese; the island is also known as Peak Island or Pulau Tembakul in Malay. From two tiny outcrops on a reef, the island was enlarged and transformed into an island holiday resort of 85,000 square metres. Story passed down by both Malays and Chinese in Singapore says a magical tortoise turned itself into an island to save two shipwrecked sailors - a Malay and a Chinese.

This location has the advantage of housing a Chinese temple and a Malay Kramat (shrine) all in convenient reach,. Being an offshore island also means that sound quality is clean.

For more about Kusu Island, click here.

Kushu Island Chinese Temple 

Kushu Island Malay Kramat  

http://www.streetdirectory.com/asia_travel/travel/travel_id_47475/travel_site_1/

Somewhere along Race Course Road, Little India 

This almost look like in India isn't it? This is a backdrop in one of the feature film, "Back Alley Bulls", by Naicoman (US) Inc, which I acted in last year.

9718 Upper Changi Road North (Opp the Prison) 

Old coffeeshop charm like this is is fast disappearing. Where life is still unhurried in this corner of Singapore.

9718 Upper Changi Road North (Opp the Prison)

9718 Upper Changi Road North (Opp the Prison)

Sim Choon Huat Temple at Moonstone Road 

Former Aerated Water Co, 1177 Serangoon Road, 328231

Former Aerated Water Co, 1177 Serangoon Road, 328231

In 1929, three businessmen Yap Shing Min, Cheng Sze Boo and Tan Kah Woo established the National Aerated Water Company at Hamilton Road, off Lavender Street. It was 1954 when the company moved its premises to the new $500,000 factory near Moonstone Road, off Serangoon Road.

For more details, click here.

The backyard of National Aerated Water.

Former Aerated Water Co, 1177 Serangoon Road, 328231

National Aerated Water, view by the river.

Whampoa River where the National Aerated Water is along.

A quaint house opposite block 2 of Haig Walk.

This very odd zinc house sits in between two condominium properties. It is a village house in the unlikeliest of places.

Same quaint house

Along Balestier Road 

For other posts in this blog that are useful to the production team, click here.