My First Movie

Okay, so I was just a non-speaking extra, but this is my first movie exposure ever, so bear with me for feeling happy about it. People have been telling me that I belong in the movie industry, though not necessarily as an actress, and maybe they’re right. Maybe this is the start, who knows? If it isn’t, who cares? New experiences are always fun.

But let me start from the very beginning. I guess it all started when I attended that talk given by Li Lin Wee a month ago. Li Lin Wee is a Singapore-based award-winning director of short films who shot on her first feature-length film, Gone Shopping, a couple of years ago. At the end of her talk, she asked all participants if we would like to be extras in her second feature-length film, so we could have a first hand experience of a shoot. I eagerly scribbled my number on her notebook.

Yesterday, I got a call from her assistant Samantha, who asked if I still wanted to be an extra. I said sure, and she said my role was a teacher and I should bring three clothes to choose from. “Neutral colors. No brights, no stripes, no prints,” she emphasized.

This noon I went to St Andrews Secondary School for the shoot of the movie titled Forever. Samantha met me at the gate and introduced me to my “co-teacher” Wee Kiong who turned out to be another director-writer whose steady job is as a documentary writer of his own company. Sam apologized that the schedule for shooting had to be shifted around and we would have to film much later than expected.

So we had lunch and hung out at the music room and I finished reading the book I brought, Chasing Harry Winston. I watched some students rehearse a musical number involving violins and cellos. Li Lin came in and gave me a hug, then scrutinized my outfit. I had worn a dark gray collared button-down top with a dark purple pencil-cut skirt. She asked if I could change into the white collared long-sleeved polo and brown blazer instead, and I obliged.

I also got to watch two actresses and an actor being made up and outfitted. I didn’t know any of them, though, unfamiliar as I am with Singapore celebrity. I wasn’t even sure they were actors and just concluded that they must be, because of their looks. Especially that brooding cute guy, whose facial expression and the way he carried himself reminded me of that leading man from the Korean series Spring Waltz. I still can’t get over him smiling at me first. How nice is that? Later I snuck a glance at one of the papers lying around and deduced that they must be the main actors Sarah, Joanna and Xiao Mo.

 

I spent a lot of time chatting with my fellow extra Wee Kiong, who told me he had attended an indie filming workshop in the Philippines taught by Nick de Ocampo, a well known director. He said ten directors from different ASEAN countries had attended it and each of them was given a budget of 7000 sgd to come up with a short film based on the theme “rice.” He told me the story of his movie, which he would start shooting on Saturday. He said Nick was coming to watch him shoot it. I asked if I could come watch, he said sure, and handed over his calling card.

We finally got to shoot our scene after 5pm. The scene: Xiao Mo aka Mr. Brooding Cute Guy is seated at his desk in the teacher’s lounge, and I walk past him with a bunch of binders at the crook of my elbow towards Wee Kiong, who is seated a few desks behind him, then lean over and pretend to engage him in conversation. Just then, Xiao Mo’s cellphone rings, and he yells a bunch of Mandarin words over and over, prompting us to turn and look at him. Then I shrug, turn on my heel, and walk on. And that’s it. 5 seconds of my fat behind and 2 seconds of my shocked face.

After the shoot, Li Lin asked if I could come back and be an extra two more times. I said yes, of course, because it means I get to see my brooder again. After our shoot, I had met him in the hallway and smiled at him. He smiled back and said something in Mandarin, which I can’t understand. Is it possible to learn Mandarin in 4 days, so I’ll be ready when I see him again this Saturday? XD