Production Diaries:
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
Recent Entries:
HUNDREDS GATHER TO PAY TRIBUTE TO THE LATE MAKO IWAMATSU IN CAGES!
Wed, 14 Nov 2007
A SPECIAL TRIBUTE SCREENING OF MAKO!
Tue, 16 Oct 2007
Perles Acquires Cages Distribution!
Wed, 01 Aug 2007
"CAGES" RUNS 4TH WEEK IN THEATRES!
Fri, 13 Apr 2007
IT'S MY TURN TO FLY!
Mon, 09 Apr 2007
"CAGES" SURPRISES MANY AS IT ENTERS THIRD WEEKEND IN THEATRES!
Fri, 06 Apr 2007
"CAGES" ENTERS THIRD WEEK IN THEATRES!
Tue, 03 Apr 2007
LOYAL FOLLOWING TO THANK, AS "CAGES" ENTERS THIRD WEEK IN THEATRES!
Mon, 02 Apr 2007
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The big bus ride
09/29/04
This week is one of the biggest scenes we have in the story. The big bus ride! For those of you who don't know the story...you'll have to see it in the theatres. For those of you who've heard about it...well, you know how tricky it might be.
When you do a scene like this, the most important thing to know is you have to talk about it. talk talk talk!
The scene is between Tan Kheng Hua and Mako Iwamatsu. Both are very talented actors. So talented that they have the ability to spill all their emotions out on command. But emotions can run dry. They have to be timed perfectly.
The challenge of this scene is that the bus is moving. When a location is moving like this...there are sound issues, lighting issues, framing, focus, blocking...well, you get the picture. Anything....a little thing...a big thing can go wrong. And on the big screen, even the littlest thing wrong will scream out at an audience.
We continue talking about the scene regulary. Blocking is one of the things we know we can lock down conceptually before riding. Interpretation and exploration of the meaning and emotional paths of the journey..well we can talk and talk about it.
The hard fact, however, is that this is a scene that has to be organic. It has to be spontaneous. It has to be genuine. This means, once the characters are engaged in the moment, they may or may not hit their marks. We can only hope.
We can only hope that the camera can follow them. And they will be lit. And they willl be in focus when we try to capture the energy that is released when these two actors become other human beings on the bus.
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Two or three takes later. they will be dry of emotion. Talking and talking about it in advance, working with my director of photography on the blocking, breaking the scene down into beats, and assigning emotional movements to the actors according to those beats will hopefully impress a logical and natural motivation as a result. A result that we can predict and capture before it becomes too late and the performance has lost it's magic.
Wish us luck.
Graham Streeter
Director
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