Now Showing : My Reelity
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| Vincent Lee as | |||
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28 August 2005, Sunday
Dark Side of the Farce
A few weeks ago, I went for an audition for a role in an upcoming chinese movie to play this big bad villian's right hand man. Having worked with the production house before during my stint in Durian King, I was of course no stranger to them, and no stranger to the casting director.
So when after the audition, when the casting director pulled me one side and said :"我觉得你好想比较似合演坏人," (I feel you are more suited to act 'bad guy' role) I know the writing's on the wall.
*sigh*
This makes her the umpteenth person to date who has told me that I make a good bad guy. And of course, I am not counting the many, many others who told me I look kinda worrying.
Then again, I have peps like Serena who would beg to differ and thinks that I am well suited for loser-type roles like this one and this one. Basket.
What I really, really want is to be in a role where I am the cool romantic interest, can? Then you can typecast me all you want. Bah.
People often wondered why I resist being typecast so much, especially when being tasked to play the darker roles. Well, of course no actor would willingly want to be typecast. But other than that, a far more personal reason is that playing dark roles can be detrimental to my psychological health.
Although I can't really say that I practise the Method when I act, but having learnt a bit of it and understood its basic principles, I do try to apply it when I act. And the danger of doing this while playing bad characters is that I run the risk of becoming that character permanently. You might say that I fear I'd 走火入 魔. (walk fire enter demon :P)
That is the main reason why I often take a hiatus from these roles after spending some time in one, to get back my bearings and allow the 'real' me to dominate my psyche once more. At least thats what I hope happens (keeping my fingers crossed). Of course, its been a long, long while since I last played a bad guy, so now I do feel 'normal' enough to embrace the dark side once more.
So, bring them on.
I have finally uploaded this for your viewing. This was the first short I appeared in that required me to have almost no dialogue and where I have to bear most of the burden of carrying the show. Yeah, you might say this kinda helped me prepare for "4444". But I think the audio for the important dialogue was a bit too soft (partly my fault :P) and that might have spoilt the whole performance. Have a look if you are bored and nothing to do and feel free to critique me. The file's rather large (80meg) so it may take some time to download.
Watch "I Can't Sleep" here.
Luckily this shot nebber zao geng (upskirtshorts)...Just so you know, when I was collecting the dvd from the director, she also said that I 比较似合演坏人. *SIGH*
是不是演员角色不坏, 观众不爱??!
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25 August 2005, Thursday
Sticking to my guns
My half-past sick body woke up to an email entitled "Star Idol". Just when I was musing to myself that joining a singing contest seems to be the only way to star in a drama series these days, it looks like the powers that be finally launched a competition for acting. Hmm, I wonder if the winner would get to cut an album too...
Interesting to note that in a year when there was supposed to be Star Search (it is held bi-annually since its inception), we now have separate competition for singing and acting. Star Search used to combine these two elements in the past (although it did started off purely as an acting compeition) as it was felt that the competition should be looking out for an "all rounder" artiste rather than just acting alone.
I would like to think that they are changing the format now because they have changed their minds about looking for all-rounders but I really can't shake the feeling that its just all about getting the viewers' money instead.
Four years ago, a young man looking to finally pursue his dreams was musing over joining Star Search. He felt he wasn't ready, he felt he needed more time. But then he realised that he was running out of time and that it was probably his last chance to enter such a competition. Rather than living on to regret not doing it, he plunged head-on with much gusto, so much so he ended up getting mentioned on Today's coverage of the first-round auditions.
He got short-listed for the second round, which narrowed the thousands down to a mere hundred and ergo felt that he really really had a shot at it. Then on the fateful audition day itself, 10 freaking minutes before his audition, they told him he had to prepare a chinese song. He later learnt that some contestants had prior knowledge of this additional requirement and some, like himself, were kept in the dark as well.
Needless to say, he didn't make it to the final cut and the rest of his story kinda goes on in this blog you are reading. :P At that time, the competition wasn't really fully reality-tv-esque yet, but they were exeprimenting with certain elements of it, and I remember feeling so uncomfortable with those elements that I swore I would never have anything to do with reality tv again. (Serena always felt that it was foolish of me to feel this way, saying that I would be ignoring this global phenomenon at my own peril)
So now, I'm sticking to my guns, even though this is one competition I really should be going for. To all aspiring actors out there, I would strongly encourage you to go for it, coz win or lose, I know the experience would be good for you. Take it from one who has been there and done that.
Oh, and it just occured to me that my nick would be very apt for their yet unnamed gorilla mascot. :P
Brain juices are currently leaking through my nose... |
20 August 2005, Saturday
4 the win
We waited with bated breath as the trailers of the nominees trailed off and the presenter was handed the envelope for winner of Best of Show. From what I have seen so far and from the positive reviews we have gotten so far, it seemed like no contest. But in the end, we lost it. As Liz have put it, we lost to a short film that had a guy dressed up in a cow suit.
I thought she took it rather well, (I was to find out later in her blog she didn't) so I insensitively bomabarded with questions like "This is the biggest prize right?", "What is their criteria man?!!" and "How come they announce the winner of the biggest prize first?!" Questions whose answers she must be searching for herself.
I guess if we had lost to a more credible production, the taste of defeat wouldn't have been so bitter. To me, it was like The Lord of the Rings losing out to VR Man for Best Picture. (I'm sure the winner may beg to differ, but I'm entitled to my opinion) I wanted to know why and how the hell they chose over us, dammit. I started to question if the judges were qualified to judge in the first place.
As the ceremony went on, I caught the trailers of the shorts in the other districts that won the Best of Show. I can't say for sure if they were deserving winners in their own district, but at least they looked better than the winner in our district.
And I asked myself the question again, in what way were we inferior man? (I came back home and watched the winning entry. I am still scratching my head)
The other two awards, Best Direction and Best Technical were not awarded per district and only had one winner each. As I have not watched the winners, I shan't comment if they were deserving winners. I mean, at the very least, the one with the cow suit didn't win again.
I started wondering if the other losers were as disgruntled as we were. I can tell you filmmakers can be pretty egoistic, and can treat peeps who don't like their films as asshats who just can't see or understand their vision. I wondered if they also felt that their own short should have won instead of the competition.
The Audience Choice award was up next and goodness gracious, they revealed they had received 2,000 votes in total! They then flashed on screen a still of another short, and at that moment, I thought we were going to go home empty handed.
But it turned out to be us and a very flustered Liz went up on stage. Looks like my incessant pestering, soliciting votes on the bar (Thanks MG!) and being tomorrowed (Thanks Lancerlord!) helped us tip the scales for this one. Either that or people really, really liked our short. Thank you you for voting hor!
Belle, The Doc, Liz and Yours Truly
To my surprise, they proceeded to screen "4444" and it was the only short film screened in its entirety during the ceremony. I must say, it was a strange but nice feeling, seeing my name in the credits on the big screen for the very first time.
Of course, you might say we "pulled strings" and ergo this award is quite "kelong" one. But I like to think that if we had pulled any string, we pulled the one that mattered most. And that is the audience.
I now understand why filmmakers go on doing what they do, regardless of whether they win awards or not. It is not about winning awards. Sure, its always nice to have some kind of accolade, some kind of recognition. But at the end of the day, the awards don't really matter.
Coz if the film mattered to you, the audience, then it mattered the most.
Hmm..., maybe they did gave out the best award last after all.
Thanks for voting again everyone! |
18 August 2005, Thursday
Happy Anniversary!
Yesterday was vinceli.com's first anniversary. This entry was supposed to be up yesterday but I was kinda celebrating the anniversary. (Actually I was attending a birthday party. So 巧 hor?)
One year ago, I jumped on the venerable bandwagon. Its been quite a ride so far. And I hope it was good for you too. When I first started, people ask me what my blog is gonna be all about. Will it be a diary? Will it be a social commentary? WOT?!
The truth was, I didn't really know at that time. The main purpose of this website was to *koff koff* plug myself and give my friends a chance to watch some of my better performances that they didn't manage to catch (despite my frantic and urgent pestering). I just tried out the blogging part for the heck of it.
And I guess it showed. But one year later, and especially after I decided upon the title for the blog, I kind of got my direction. (Goes to show the importance of a good title. :P) And I think I will continue on this direction; blogging about my misadventures as an actor. Well, at least for the most part, it will be that.
Over the next couple of days (or weeks), I will be doing a major facelift to the website. At least, I hope I will be able to do a major facelift to the website.
Thank you you for reading hor. :)
Reelity bites! |
16 August 2005, Tuesday
旧的不去, 新的不来
Everone say hi to Elektra, my new wet electric dream :
Top view and side view
As you all know, I'd spent the better part of last week putting her together and getting to know her better. Like how some of her orfices can only be filled in a certain way. Like how she likes to be interfaced that way. And like how her juices can only flow with that motor action.
And after hours of back-breaking action and many intimate moments later, I think I finally got the hang of her. I now know her naunces, her preferences and her peculiar habits.
Sigh, don't you just wish women can be like computers so you can figure out a way to figure them out? :P I just had an epiphany; maybe if I put one together, I, too would be able to figure her out.... hmm.....
Anyhoo, for those interested, Elektra's vital statistics are :-
AMD 3000+ (Venice) on an Asus A8N SLi Premium,
Coupled with 2x1GB Patriot CL3.0 PC3200 Rams,
Fueled with 250GB (SATA2)Western Digital HDD and a 120GB (IDE) Hitachi; and
Spiked with a Sparkle Geforce 6800 UltraAnd this was how she fared in the beauty paegent :
3dMark2005 score : 5,543
Still staring at the abyss in my wallet @@ |
14 August 2005, Sunday
Its not what you think
As you can tell by now, dear readers, rumours of my demise has been greatly exaggerated. But I must apologise for the long absence; I have been missing in action because I had underestimated the time needed to put this baby together (of which, specs have somewhat changed since that entry). Greatly underestimated. But that will be an entry for another day.
For now, I am proud to announce that this has been nominated for not one, not two, not three, but (ahem) four awards (namely, Best of Show, Best Direction, Best Technical and Audience Choice) in the Canon DV Festival, under the Northeast district. The screening and results will be out on Saturday at Suntec City Auditorium. I am not sure if the screening is free for all, but if you are headed there and happen to see me around, don't be a stranger ok?
In the meantime, you can catch it here and at the same time vote for your favourite short for the Audience Choice awards!
4444 4 da win! |
1 August 2005, Monday
Who would have thought?
I didn't find her familiar till we started shooting. Maybe its because when she was casting me, I only saw her for a brief moment. But as I saw more of her during the shoot, the more I find her familiar.
I knew her by a different name when we were first introduced, a chinese name. Though it was the briefest of moment when I first laid eyes on her, it still left an impression on me. I'm like that; I almost never, ever, forget a face. Names, on the other hand..., not so good.
She goes by an english name now, but there was something about her that triggered my memory. As I was mulling over the "cannot be, cannot be" in my head, I overheard the crew teasing her about her age.
Her age. The number broke through the swirling mists of "cannot be" and then I knew. It had to be her, coz it fits. It all adds up. But strangely, she didn't recognise me. Or if she had, she was doing an Oscar winning performance of not knowing me. But perhaps it was better this way. Our acknowledgement of each other may cause awkwardness on the set, which may in turn affect the shoot. Yeah, its better this way.
A few months passed before the series screened its first episode. At the end of the episode, the final damming evidence was laid bare for me : her screen credits, with her name in full. The dialect name fits the chinese name. Sometimes, I really hate being right. Really, really hate.
Who would have thought, about a year later, I would meet her again, in the unlikeliest of places? This time round, probably due to the influence of a hoe lot of garden, I decided that its time to stop the charade.
It turns out that I was partially right. I was right about her identity. The thing is, while I recognised her, she didn't recognise me. Dammit. Had I known this before, I would never, never have brought it up. For she looked really pleased to see me. But now that she knows who I really am, the silver lining in the clouds just got a little darker. Which just makes it more awkward for the sun to shine its loving rays through.
Who would have thought indeed.
You thought, I thought, who confirm? |
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