Bukit Timah Day...

Woke up very early today. Something like how I'd wake up for school, just that instead of spending 5-10 minutes getting ready for school I was spending about 45 minutes trying to strategise a way to pack 4 uniforms (Yamashita's, Percival's, my Dad's military and a civilian's), boots, four flags, a Japanese sword, a toy gun, my script drafts, stationaries, a green rag, Tim's 'translator' glasses, a Sunkist 2l-bottle filled with water, a can of H-two-O and a Japanese dictionary into a backpack and a sling bag.

Once I finally found a way, I went down to the bus stop to take a 75 to K.A.P., where I arranged to meet up with the rest of the team for the History project. Along the drive, I made a good eye on all the landmarks I planned to film at, and made a rough plan on how to vist each of them with minimal travel time. I was literally the guide for the Bukit Timah area, and so I needed to know my terrain well before being able to show my cast around.

Once at K.A.P., I met up with Joel at around the same time I sat down at a seat on the bottom level next to the counter. We then discussed on what we were going to do today, later bringing me to the point of sending an SMS to everyone else in the group where their locations might be at the present momment.

We then decided to buy breakfast first while waiting, of which later I recieved a few replies for my SMS and Joel recieved one from Tim asking the same question I asked him. Settling down again, I bowwed down to smell the long-lost aroma of Hotcakes. Mmm, mmm! Saying grace, the syrup was being poured over the cakes, making them look even more seductive.

Joel also suggested using the butter, which I've never tried for a very long time, so I gave it a shot. Splat went the blob as it fell out of the tiny container, and yellowness soon diffused around the surface of the Hotcakes. I couldn't wait any longer, and so I dug into the meal to satisfy my tearful stomach, tearful because it has seen and tasted such wonderful beauty.

I also had a small coffee with lots of sugar, and around this time the rest of thecrew except Peter arrived there. The rest were dealing with their breakfasts, while I was trying to strategise further if there was anything I underestimated for our trip. And once Peter came, we all changed into our first set of costume before leaving - Camoflague.

I led them to the petrol station bus-stop, and we took a 171 to Bukit Timah Hill. On the way, I tok out my compass from my pocket, and Shil and I were imitating Jack Sparow a few times before I finally realised that the compass was really pointing to what I want the most at the time. Tim came close to look, and we all looked up towards the direction of the needle. It was the hill.

We dropped off at the next stop, and made a long walk to the entrance of the hill. At the middle of the road, I reminded them to take good care of their bags, as the area was well-known for its thieving monkeys. (I lost my breakfast and lunch to them once...)

When we were directly at the foot of the hill and ready to hike our way up, a ranger came to us and asked what our buisness was here. We all explained that we were filming a documentary fo our History project, something I'd say the ranger wouldn't half-believe. He told us that the public is only allowed to hike on the hill, and so if we needed to do filming we would have to use the park instead, which was a smaller plot of area just beside the mini-museum.

It was more than perfect, to tell you the truth, bcause at least we're now stationed closer to the exit, and moving to the next location would require less time than what my planned route demanded. Praise the Lord for failing! We went up the wooden path, and we found a nice vegetated spot to shoot the Battle of Bukit Timah.

We had fun shooting this scene. Fon one thing, this is one of the main scenes where you get to use guns. For another, we had to design our own stunts, so it was entertaining doing it over and over again until we got it right, somethinglike a salsa practice. For a final, we always made Joel die somehow, both as a Brit and a Jap.

Once we were done (and covered with mosquito bites), we proceeded down the hill and back to the bus-stop we dropped off at. It was also next to a petrol station, so JKit and Joel went to get refreshments. Once they were done, we headed up the road again for an abandoned street which is now partially underneath Upper Bukit Timah Road and a lot of vegetation.

When we dropped off, I asked them for which end of the street they wanted: One end had the rough figure of walls and would make the scene somewhat fit to its setting, while the other end didn't even look as if there was a street there in the first place, but was a lot more convenient as it was on our side of Upp Bukit Timah Rd.

We chose the end we were presently at, and so Pete changed into Percival while I changed into Yamashita. We then did Journey to Ford Factory (and had a little cheekiness while playing around with Tim's handgun), and proceeded by foot for another half a bus stop to the Ford Factory itself. Once there, we did the second part of the Journey.

While directing the cast on what to do, I realised in my mind I once had a dream when I was a small child that I was also in the Ford Factory doing a film, just that not in my Yamashita uniform. Well, praise the Lord for dream accomplishments! But just as we were about to leave after shooting, Pete found out that his spectacles were missing, and was frantically asking each of us if we had it by any chance.

We tried to help him search through each of our bags, but sadly couldn't find anything. Pete then deduced that it was probably still back at the abandoned street, so he'd check it out later when we had the time. We went on to the next bus-stop and took a bus to the Standard Charter bank outlet just next to the Malayan Railway. No, we were not going to get more funds for the film. We were going to use the railway. For the Death Railway. Railway. Hmm, Railway's a nice word. Try saying it 12 times at a fast pace.

Anyway, after doing the shooting we recieved message from ZWei that lunch was ready at his place already, and so we crossed the road to take a bus to his place. Once at his place, we placed our bags down in great relief that we were finally inside a house after a tirng few hours in the rough terrain of Bukit Timah.

We had a friednly chat with ZWei and went over to the dining area for lunch, which was a rather simple and convenient meal to our favour. Once done, the rest of the crew followed ZWei up to the entertainment room (or at least that's what I'd call it, with the PS [not sure which version] and two computers in there) to relax for a little longer.

As for me, I quickly got to work to search the house once more and see which room is best for filming, and if there were any props along the way which we could use. In the end, I used an abandoned room in the grandparent's half of the house and added tables from ZW's sister's room, which I covered with wooden panels I found in his driver's room to make them look more oldish.

Once I finished setting up, I called for the rest of the group to film the Surender. But before that, we listened to a nice French song on YouTube which Pete found, hehe :). Once done with the songs, we first did the Japanese half of the scene.

You see, there was a fixed closet in the room I found, and as far as I've seen in the Memories of Ford Factory (that's what they call the museum) there WERE no closets in the office they surrendered in. So we'd have to film both ends of the arrangement at the same edge of the room with the clear wall, just that from different angles so it'll look like we're filming from a clear room.

For the Japanese half, I was again in my Yama, and the rest were in Camo and Jap caps. We did a few trial runs to make sure we had the angle correct. Now towards the ending part of this scene, Yamashita is to suddnly burst in a fit of anger after being annoyed by the translators. I

I was at first not sure if I would be able to sustain an angry look or voice. I mean, those who know me don't know how I'd look like if I end up fuming mad. But it was just a practice so I just tried what I could, and when it was my que I gradually raised my voice and slammed the table, sending the Japanese mini-flag jumping in the air by a short distance.

Everyone appeared shocked, and I was afraid I did something wrong again. But thankfully they started laughing, which I could infer that they were surprised that I could pull off something like that. We then proceeded with real filming. For a sneak preview, here's the order of events as in the film (and my personal comments);

-Yamashita shakes hands with Percival. (Hmm, there's no one there...)

-Yamashita tells Brit translator to tell Percival to stand down all hostilities, but gets annoyed at the fact that he has to look at the dictionary every 2 seconds. (What translator?)

-Yamashita orders his journalist to translate instead. (Hi Tim, nice spectacles...)

-Yamashita gets annoyed at the fact that journalist doesn't know military terms. (Man, I scrooled my eyes too much. Ooo, but here's teh fierce part...)

-Yamashita gets furious and displays his anger in a front.

I did what I thought I did the time before, and again the flag bounced on the table as I slammed it in 'fury', sending my translator in a fearful bow of apology (sorry, Tim). Then when 'Percival said 'Yes.' (Where's Perci?), I sat down and paused for 3 seconds before whispering, "Cut."

Instantly, everyone including me started laughing again, this time Shil caught this in a blooper. I sat back on my seat and had my head on the table, banging my right hand and saying, "Sorry." a few times in slight embarassment. According to them I did fine again, so I relaxed with the thought that it was over.

Now for the Brit half. This scene only required Pete (Perci) and the two flag holders (JK and Joel). All we needed to shoot was just Joel trying to translate the first part of the conversation with Yama (Where's Yama now...) and later Pete acting shocked at Yama's outburst. Was funny watching Pete fearful of no particular thingy in front of him, and for the first take he forgot to say, "Yes." so I told him something like, "Say yes! Say yes! Will you marry me? Say yes!"

It was then done for that scene, and we moved onto Surrender Conference, where Perci discusses with officers whether they should surrender or not. By now, we knew for certain that Tim's dad's uniform's sleeves were too big for Joel, so we decided to give the uniform to Shil and make him a star for once. We filmed a couple of shots before calling it a rap (yo, yo, wazzap...).

Almost finished, we filmed the Final Line of Defence, which involves Perci, Gen. Heath (JKit) and a messenger (Tim). At first, the front part of the scene went well, with Perci and Heath finalising what is the final boundary of British defences on Singapore. But when it came to the messenger arriving into the room with the formal draft of surrender from the Japs, it was just hilarious.

And why? Because either Pete or JK would end up saying something like, "At ease, Private Part." We kept on going through this cycle until Tim called for a switch of actor for messenger. And when I took over, I ended up saluting Percival with, "Private Part, we've just recieved a documen...ghahhhh!!!!!!!!" for the next couple of cuts, and the following I ended up sliding into the room instead of marching in. At the sucessful one, I didn't really salute Perci properly with my hand, but I guess it was a rap.

And finally, the last scene for the day (if it weren't for the fact that we skipped MacRitchie...). The Alexandra Hospital Massacre. I got up to the attic and kicked the cussions down to the second floor, where I found another room with enough space to accomodate the matresses. We then got Shil, ZWei and JKit to act as patients, and Pete to wear a labcoat and be the doctor. Tim and I were the invading Japanese, and Joel was the cameraman.

This one took many shots, since the patients fell at awkward angles when shot so it makes the scene more comical than dramatical. But we soon achieved a nice shot and called it a day! Yay! We went to the entertainment room and played around with the computer and the PS. And when Joel and Shil finished transferring the videos into Wei's tablet, we previewed the shots and took the perfect ones out to be part of the real film, leaving the rest as bloopers.

After sorting out which film goes where, I watched the film agai and again to make sure everything was more or less at a good angle, and later watched it in fastforward to give myself a cheap-thrill. Haha, it was funny watching us charge into battle at hyper speed! But when all was sorted out, and when Tim was dressed in his robes and had to leave for TKD, we all left as a group.

Although I had some trouble packing my bags so I had to be lagged behind along with Pete thus separating the group into two, yeah we left as a group. Pete's following me because I was to help bring him to where he lost his glasses, just to let you know. So we went there and did a 5 minute search before I found the glasses under a tree. Returnign them to Pete, I was given a squeeze hug before we went our separate ways and I went home.

And now that I'm home, things are starting t feel as a blur. Hmm, hopefully I don't sleep while standfing up or something. I'll find out tomorrow, I guess. God bless y'all!...