My blog
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6 - 11 - 09 : The Blood Bond Saga (part 31)
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009 4:13PM / Standard Entry
More radio days, and the Captain investigates...
Today was a crazy day with too much to do between sunset and sundown.
MB was set to direct the opening monologue delivered by Simon Yam, as rebel leader Lompoc. The interior of the radio station where this was meant to take place is actually the interior of the recording facility at the back of the studio. It was nowhere near ready for primetime, leading to a mad scramble to put the set together. Simon watched all this patiently, with his usual good grace.
Note to all you budding screen stars: the crew never forgets if you're a trouper, and they also never forget you if you're a prima donna, and they're the ones you need to actually put you on the screen. For some reason, in my experience, its been those performers with the least to offer who've tended to make the process painful!
Of course, once all was in readiness, Simon was wonderful, as he always is!
Meanwhile, our schedule being as tight as it is, I was planning to shoot a scene at a sewing factory where Captain Trayng (Lin Dong-fu) and his aide Wuchi (Pete Wong) go to find one of the prospective blood donors, only to find that... well, I won' t spoil it!
MB had either never been told or had forgotten about this (or both!), and expressed concern that Lin's first scene in the film would be shot by... me. Michael hadn't yet screened the 2nd unit fooage I'd filmed of the evil nurse (Lily Xue) in the marketplace, and did not express the utmost (or any!) confidence in my ability to shoot the factory scene.
The great thing about being (kind of) the boss is that you can (almost) always do what you want. I grabbed the camera and crew, promised Michael I'd do my best, and set out with Lin and Pete for the factory. (I figured the worst that would happen is that we'd have to reshoot it later if MB hated my footage...)
The factory owned greeted us with open arms. There was even a sign outside welcoming us to the place!
I was mid-way through shooting the scene when I got a call from MB. I half expected he would demand that I down tools and return. Instead, he told me that he thought the nurse footage was great, and to keep shooting. The best review of my professional career!
The scene in the can, I returned to the studio, where Michael was still shooting Simon's monologue (perfection takes time...). We were also scheduled to shoot the denouement of the factory scene, in a set built in the studio staff quarters. You got ahead and shoot that, Michael suggested. I was proud that I had his confidence (though he still came to look over my shoulder a couple of times, and adjust the performances to his liking!).
That evening, the might Kong Sifu returned, bearing gifts. He'd had photos of himself the other two leads framed as presents for the key players, and explained to everyone that you could either hang it on the wall or else use the plastic 'leg' attached to stand it on your desk. What a sweet man he is...
(Cease, our set photographer was an actor in the radio station scene, and then took sick, so we don't have the usual quality of photos for today's blog. We'll be back up to speed tomorrow!)
Next :
Night on the water...
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2 - 11 - 09 : The Blood Bond Saga (part 27)
Wednesday, Nov 4, 2009 8:44PM / Standard Entry
Rumble in the jungle (part one)
As regular readers of the 'Blood Bond' blog will know (have you nothing better to do?), we were prevented, by bureauracy, from beginning our 'Rambo'-esque jungle action sequence on the appointed day. Undeterred, we badgered the relevant division of the Nanhai forestry division, and were finally given permission to shoot on our preferred stretch of woodland.
The local park rangers imposed very strict restrictions: no smoking anyway around the set, only ten crew members at a time in the woods, limitations on the pyrotechnics we could use...
Regardless, our director, Michael Biehn, mapped out and executed a terrific sequence where his character, Tremayne, must engage in some jungle action alongside Deva (Phoenix Chou) and Ding (Kong Kwok-keung).
A veteran of the Hong Kong martial arts movie scene, Kong Sifu hadn't appeared in a film for several years, and his enthusiasm at getting back into the fray was infectious. He stayed on the forest set every minut of the day, even when he wasn't needed. MB suggested that we shoot 'Ding : The Movie' as our next project, to fully exploit the potential of the character.
Though the land itself was untamed, it had paths running through it that allowed us to set up a command centre, including a video monitor so we could check playback.
The only building in the region was an electricity sub-station that we had to hide with camouflage sheets and netting.
This sequence marked the first time we really let our leading lady loose with a cannon. Hmmm. There's just something about girls and guns!
She totally took to the 'gun fu' as she has to the gung fu, though her character has to be coaxed into action by Tremayne.
In this scene, four of our 'bad guys', a quarter PLM rebels, are hunting down our heroes, when Tremayne manages to out manoeuvre them.
Three of them were played by our stuntmen, and the fourth by Francis Kao, a wonderful actor we had cast out of Hong Kong. Francis was called on to perform more of an 'acting' scene, besides the gunplay action, and acquitted himself really well. I look forward to working with him again.
Between takes, Kong Sifu, concerned about lingering effects of Michael's fall down a hole (see earlier blog!) applied some chi gung treatments to our overworked helmer and leading man. Michael gamely went with the flow, but he's by no means a true believer in the chi!
I had anticipated that this first day in the woods would be extremely challenging, but, working in sync, Michael and DP Ross Clarkson got off shots at a rapid clip. It was a huge plus that the weather had cooled, meaning less bugs and humidity for the cast and crew to contend with.
Next : Rumble in the jungle (part two)
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Blood Bond Casting Call
Tuesday, Nov 3, 2009 1:37PM / Standard Entry
The Blood Bond Casting Call
For all you AnD members, friends and fans who have been following these manic missives, now you can actually be on camera in 'The Blood Bond'!
Between the 11th and 14th of November, we are shooting a party scene here at Ace Studios, and we need a few larger than life personalities. (Simon Yin, this means you...) Big guys, biker types, gangster style, smoking hot ladies...
You would need to come by train from Hung Hom station to Guangzhou, all transport, accomodation and food costs borne by us. You get a screen credit, and a chance to work with major stars
(though, in this case, Major Stars is a retired army man who does our catering...)
If you're interested and available between these dates, please send us your headshot and contacts to:
Christine Ip, at ip.christine@gmail.com
or
Pete Wong at petekwong@gmail.com
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1 - 11 -09 : The Blood Bond (interlude)
Tuesday, Nov 3, 2009 1:21PM / Standard Entry
Sunday in Hong Kong, plus funny photos continued...
Our night shoot in the woods having wrapped, myself, Michael Biehn, Phoenix and various others all bundled into a van to take us to the border, and into Hong Kong. For several of the team, this was a visa run, for DP Ross Clarkson and myself, a welcome chance to come back and see our families for a day.
Phoe fell asleep lying on me. As we crossed Tsing Ma bridge, I looked down at her dreaming away, and thought 'what would my 20 year old self say if he knew my 50 year old self was crossing a bridge at dawn with this gorgeous creature on his lap'? Ya gotta love this business...
MB was so exhausted, he had climbed aboard in his costume, and arrived on Prince's Terrace in full John Tremayne garb (to the consternation of my neighbours...)
After a shower and a change of attire, he joined us at Starbucks on Caine Road for a much needed jolt of java amid much hilarity. We subsequently relocated to Soho's Peak Cafe (one of my home's away from home!) for brunch.
All too quickly, this rare day of freedom was gone, and we were en route back to the border, for a few hours sleep in Nanhai before the next day's shoot.
Funny photos continued
Next: Casting Call revisited
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29 - 10 - 09 : The Blood Bond Saga (part 24)
Friday, Oct 30, 2009 8:32PM / Standard Entry
No rumble in the jungle!
We all work up this morning thinking we were going to be shooting two days of Rambo-style action in a near-by 'rainforest' area. I was having breakfast at the Fontainebleu with director/star Michael Biehn, star Simon Yam and co-producer Seth Scher when we got word that our production had hit its first major roadblock. The permits needed to shoot in the area we intended had not gone through as planned, and we would have to reschedule those scenes.
On every movie, we have what we call 'cover sets'. These are usual interior, studio-set scenes that can be shot in bad weather or when, as in this case, something else falls through. In this case, our cover set was the interior of a boat on which our heroes John Tremayne and Deva travel down a river.
Though we have a full sized boat that we're going to launch and sail on a real waterway, the interior drama scene was always meant to be shot at the studio. The real boat didn't have sufficient space to allow for us to set up the necessary cameras and lights to shoot the scene on the river itself (or, rather the, reservoir standing in for a river.)
As DP Ross Clarkson and gaffer Eric Boland set about lighting the boat set, the studio took on a campus feel. With no specific scene to film, everyone was doing their own thing.
Simon Yam went down to the stunt studio to train in Tai Chi with our resident master, Ocean Hou. Afterwards, he had a massage from our in-house masseuse, then donned his space age jogging suit to run back to the hotel. Simon's only slightly old than me, but he has waaay more energy!
Emma Pei trained, diligently as ever, for her final fight scene with Phoenix Chou. None of us could anticipated that someone could make the move from catwalk to catfight so readily.
When the scene was lit, Michael and Phoenix had to get themselves 'into the moment' to shoot one of the most dramatic exchanges in the film. I was particularly impressed with Michael's ability to be directing one minute, and then summon up real emotions, and really dark and deep ones, the next. Though this is her first film, Phoenix followed his lead beautifully, and I thought they were both terrific in the scene.
After this scene was wrapped, Ross and Eric lit the car used in the chase so we could shoot 'pick up' shots (ones we'd been too busy to get out on Thunder Road) of Phoenix's hand working the gear stick, her foot on the pedals...
Cease took some photos of this that came out looking very LA noir!
Meanwhile, as Michael was delayed on his set, I was dispatched to a near-by market to shoot second unit shots of our evil nurse (Lily Xue) making her way through the crowd to deliver a key document to a rebel agent.
I had to race to get the scene set up and executed before we lost the light, but got got done just in time. (I just hope MB likes the footage, and doesn't pull a James Cameron on me!)
Back at the studio, I watched Kong Sifu helped Phoenix get her kicks higher than humanly possible. Kong, by the way, is a master of Latin dance, as well as movie action and his own Circle Propeller style of kung fu.
The day started with potential disaster, but our film-making family pulled together to turn the tide!Next : Death in stone followed by drama on the highway
Stats
- British-born Bey Logan began his professional career as a magazine writer and editor, editing the martial arts magazine Combat for five years before launching the action film publication Impact...
- Occupation: Film/TV Producer , Screenwriter , Martial arts
- Gender: Male
- Total visits: 103,816
