shake your coconuts

Poolside shoot - and even though the weather now in the afternoon is cooler, it was hot as hell at the site this morning. The beautiful cool water beckoned to those of us who thought it would be nice to be out in the sun. The reality is, the heat got the best of us, and before we had started shoot, we were sweating like the metaphoricals.

Here's how you make a tiny kid's pool and a small sunbathing area look like a place in Miami or Mauritius - a crane shot.





First, you lay down track, which are those smooth metal rods you see on the floor. Then you lift a dolly on to it - the big heavy thing with wheels on it. This allows you to smoothly roll up and down the track.





Now, why would you do that? Well, it would only be for fun unless you were mounting your Arriflex on the dolly. The Arriflex is kind of the standard in film cameras, though not the only one.


With the camera mounted, you can then track up and down the tracks to create a smooth left-to-right sensation in your visual image.

But we have up-and-down too! and that is why before we mount the camera on the dolly, we put a crane on it, the long thing, sometimes referred to as the jib arm or jib. Don't know why.

























And as you can see, there is space for the camera guy to sit. His name is Helmi and he is the Director of Photography.









As you probably realise, because it's supposed to look like somewhere like Miami or Mauritius, we need extras in bikinis. You might think our crew are having a field day surrounded by such leggy beauties. But trust me, they are all courteous, professional guys who simply have an eye for healthy youth and beautiful lines (and I couldn't agree more with them).


Sorry to say, I didn't get a picture of Stephen, whose flashback scene this is (where we find out how Dick Johnson's life was back when he was with his wife). But pics will come in shortly.


I omitted to mention yesterday that we had the prodigious talents of Rashid Salleh and Douglas Lim on set, who spent most of their free time trying to beat a computer at a football match. No, it wasn't playstation, it was a computer game where they guessed the performance of their players, bet on scores and on and on, then sat back and watched the possible scenario play out. I mean, how un-macho a game can that be? Still, they were mostly excited whenever they came close to beating their microchip.

More to come...

Ass Prod