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ใครๆก็เป็นนักแสดงได้ ถ้าเขาเหล่านั้นเป็นเพียงคนธรรมดาที่ทำตัวธรรมดาต่อหน้ากล้อง และทีมงานอีกนับสิบได้ โดยไม่เกิดอาการอย่างใดอย่างหนึ่ง หรือหลายอย่างรวมกัน เช่น ตื่นเต้น ประหม่า กลัว ลิ้นรัว หลบตา ขาสั่น เหงื่อแตก ฯลฯ

นักแสดง คือองค์ประกอบหนึ่งของการทำหนังเล่าเรื่อง ในความคิดส่วนตัวของเรา นักแสดงก็เหมือนร่างทรง ผู้กำกับอยากให้ผู้ชมรู้สึกอะไรก็ บอกผ่านร่างทรงไป ถ้านักแสดงคนใดแสดงท่วงท่า อารมณ์ธรรมดาของมนุษย์เราได้ดูเป็นธรรมชาติ เหมือนไม่ได้แสดง จนผู้ชมเกิดอาการ “แม่งอินวะ” ได้แล้ว นั้นถือว่ามีฝีมือเป็นเลิศ ความดีความชอบทั้งหลายที่นักแสดงได้รับเกิดจากช่วงเวลาที่ผู้ชมรู้สึก “แม่งอินวะ” นั้นแล

ปกติวิธีวัดแววที่ใช้อยู่ประจำมีสามข้อ

- ข้อแรก รูปลักษณ์ภายนอก เช่น เพศ อายุ ส่วนสูง น้ำหนัก รูปร่าง หน้าตา ใครมีสิ่งเหล่านี้ไม่ตรงกับบทก็มีแววดับ เว้นทำข้อสามได้เนียนเวอร์

- ข้อสอง รูปลักษณ์ภายใน เป็นสิ่งที่มองตาไม่รู้ ต้องใช้เวลาคุยไปเรื่อยเปื่อย เพื่อให้รู้ว่าของข้างในมีอะไรดี อะไรโดน ความคิดความอ่านคล้ายตัวละครเราแค่ไหน ถ้าใครผ่านข้อนี้แววจับ

- ข้อสาม ลองเข้าทรงตามบทที่เขียน ถ้าสำแดงอาการได้พริ้ว เนียน เหมือนไม่แสดงอยู่ แววตาเราจะมีประกาย แม้ว่าข้อ หนึ่ง หรือ สองจะทำได้ดีไม่เท่า เราอาจจะจัดไว้ในหมู่ แววพิเศษเผื่องานหน้า

ถ้าผ่านสามข้อ แววดารามาทันที

เสน่ห์ของคนส่วนใหญ่ที่ถูกเลือกมันอยู่ข้างใน บอกออกมาเป็นคำพูดไม่ถูกเหมือนกัน แต่คนที่เราเลือกมักมีสิ่งที่คล้ายๆกันอย่างหนึ่งคือ เป็นตัวของตัวเอง ยอมที่จะให้เราเข้าไปทำความรู้จักตัวจริงของเขา ไม่กลัวที่จะเปิดเผยตัวตนต่อหน้าคนอื่น อาจจะเรียกได้ว่าไ่ม่มีฟอร์ม บางคนเจอกันวันแรก ก็กล้าที่จะนอนเหยียดตัวยาวๆแล้วคุยกับเราบนโซฟา ขณะที่เรายังสัมภาษณ์อยู่ เราไม่แน่ใจว่าเลือกถูกหรือผิด แต่เวลาให้ผู้กำกับดูเทปแคสติ่ง คนพวกนี้มักจะผ่านเสมอ

+++ประกาศ+++ รับนักแสดงไม่คัดหน้าตา ใครจะฝึกงานขอหน้าตามาอันดับแรก นะจ๊ะ!

“ที่รัก” หนังยาวเรื่องแรก ของ กานต์ (ศิวโรจณ์ คงสกุล) เริ่มแล้ว

พี่รื่นเริงกับชีวิตในเมืองมาพักใหญ่แล้ว นับแต่นี้ขอกลัับไปใช้ชีวิตที่บ้านบ้าง บ้านพี่อยู่ลพบุรี หน้าแล้งปีนี้เห็นบรรดาพี่น้องที่บ้านบอกว่าแดดร้อนมาก แต่ถึงที่บ้านจะร้อนจนรักแร้เหม็น ก็ไม่เป็นไรเพราะอยู่ที่ไหนไม่สุขใจเท่าบ้านเรา เวลาอยู่บ้านคือเวลาที่มีแต่คำว่า ชิล กับ ชิล ชิล

นานแล้วเหมือนกันที่ไม่ได้กลับบ้าน กลับบ้านครั้งนี้ไม่ได้กลับเพราะมีเทศกาล แต่เป็นการกลับไปเพราะความคิดถึง คิดถึงกลิ่นดิน กลิ่นหญ้า  ท้องฟ้า นาข้าว และขี้เป็ด เวลานึกถึงภาพที่บ้านทีไร ก็จะนึกถึงภาพเหล่านี้เสมอ วันนี้พี่อยากชวนเธอกลับไปไหว้พ่อกับแม่ด้วย

ใจมันตื่นเต้นยังไงไม่รู้เหมือนกัน แต่หวังว่าเธอจะรักพี่ในแบบที่พี่เป็น ตลอดมาและตลอดไป

เกาะแน่นๆนะน้องนะ พี่จะพาซ้อนมอเตอร์ไซด์ไปด้วยกัน

แด่ซูซู “ที่รัก” ของ ไมค์

Appropriately enough, our last day of production (day 26) was a party scene.  If the Suvarnabhumi Airport scene was the one that changed the least throughout the writing process, this was the one that changed the most.   Basically, party scenes are very difficult to shoot.  They have everything that causes problems:  lots of people, expensive locations, night shooting, the need for music, the need for alcohol, and most problematic, the need for fun.

Fun is the tricky one.  It’s very difficult to fake.  If the actors aren’t really having fun, you can tell.  The challenge is to create an atmosphere where everyone is relaxed enough to feel like they aren’t in a movie.  That’s the reason the scene changed so much over time.  It went from being in a disco to a bar to a house, from techno to hip-hop to whatever we could afford, from dancing to running on rooftops to drinking lots of whiskey.

The crew is also rushed.  People can only have fun for a certain amount of time.  After that, they start to get drunk and want to move on.  The paramount importance of filming exists only for us;  for the partygoers in the scene, it’s like “okay, that was cool, but how about we head over to a real party now”.  Everything needs to go just right, and it needs to go just right fast.  So you gotta throw a good party…but not let it spin out of control.

Bob Hoskins once said “directing is like being pecked to death by penguins”.  He was probably shooting a party scene when he said it.  You want to avoid penguin death?  Don’t write it into the script.  Writing is easy, almost criminally so, like playing cards with your grandma.  The repercussions of your writing however, only reveal themselves a year later when you’re sitting there on set trying to shout direction to 20 drunk people over really loud music.

It was a total mess, but in the end, we finished on time and against all odds, it was fun!  So at midnight on February 14, we officially wrapped production on Hi-So!  We were all so tired we didn’t have much energy to celebrate though.  We cleaned up the mess we had created, dragged ourselves into the vans, dragged ourselves home and into bed, and only the next morning did we realize we forgot to wish our loved ones Happy Valentines Day.  Whoops.

Anyway, a job well done!

Our second to last day of shooting (day 25) was at Suvarnabhumi Airport.  Through all the different drafts of the script over the years, this was the only scene that never changed.  The image of the airport at night was always a key image of the movie, and to finally come out and shoot it was very satisfying.  We needed only one single shot but it had to be in the right light.  So we set up the camera at 4 pm and promptly took a two hour nap, waking just in time to press the red button at sunset. 

After that, we moved inside and shot in international terminal F.  Fortunately, it was a quiet night for flights so nobody really bothered us.  It probably helped that foreigners don’t recognize Ananda because had this been at Mor Chit bus station for instance, the crowds around him would have made it impossible to shoot.  All in all, it went very well which was a relief as this location was initially very worrisome.  We wrapped at 4 am at which time you could hear a pin drop inside the terminal.

Suvarnabhumi Airport is very beautiful, especially at night.  The pride of Bangkok (and the Thaksin administration, which for all its faults, you still gotta thank for completing the thing), it has a futuristic cathedral-like quality about it which we wanted for the film.  Why do airports figure so prominently in so many movies?  Maybe because they’re places of perpetual transition:  nameless people coming and going, the ultimate metaphor for modern life etc.  Or maybe they just look really cool.

Anyway, it was nice to be there but not actually be going anywhere.  At 5 am we packed up the vans and went home, slept in our own beds, knowing there was only one final day left of production.

The Bangkok shooting will be remembered for the flu that went around and decimated about a quarter of our crew.  This was no doubt caused by the entire 40-person team being crammed into one small, hot, dusty apartment together.  Which organism thrives in small, hot, dusty places?  Yes, ladies and gentlemen…a virus.  What follows is an account of how the flu spread over the course of one single week:

Fern / Actress / Phayathai 1 / Flu

The first person to be taken ill was our main actress, Fern.  We rushed her to nearby Phayathai 1 Hospital around 11 am because her temperature rose so high she couldn’t continue shooting.  She popped some pills and slept like a baby.  Her fever broke and by 5 pm she was back on set to finish her scenes like nothing had happened.  But that wasn’t the end of it.  In fact, that was only the beginning.

Tip / 3rd Assistant / Phayathai 2 / H1N1 Flu

The very next day, Tip, the 3rd Assistant Director, developed a raging fever and had to be taken to Phayathai 2 Hospital.  The doctor’s pronouncement?  Full-blown H1N1 flu.  She blamed Fern as she had been the one who had to look after her the previous day.  Anyway, Tip was told to stay home for the entire week lest she infect everyone else.  She only rejoined the production on the very last day. 

Nui / Production Manager / Chulalongkorn Hospital & private clinic / Glandular infection

Nui, the Assistant Production Manager, was the next girl to go.  She waited 3 hours to see the doctor at state-run Chulalongkorn Hospital only to be promptly misdiagnosed.  After two more days lying in bed suffering, she checked herself into a private clinic and was told that her fever was caused by a glandular infection (or the other way around).  So she got a big fat shot in the arm and stayed home to rest for another day. 

Goong / Camera Technician / private consultation / flu

Then the virus spread to Goong, the RED Camera Technician.  In the small, hot, dusty apartment there was an even smaller, hotter, and dustier room where Goong had set up her computer station.  This room also doubled as the sleeping and changing room for the actors which meant that Fern was in there coughing up a viral cocktail for days.  Goong received private consultation and wore a face mask for the rest of the shoot. 

Nuttorn / Behind-the-Scenes / Phayathai 2 / flu

Around the same time that Goong fell ill, Nuttorn, our Behind-the-Scenes guy, noticed that his own head started to feel like a baking oven.  He checked himself into Phayathai 2 Hospital and was told he had the flu.  But luckily, just normal flu, not H1N1 flu.  So he was out for only a day.  Nuttorn and Goong are best friends and were always together in the computer/sleeping/changing room.  So that was fitting.

Nam / 2nd Assistant / Maenam Hospital / Flu

Finally, Nam, the 2nd Assistant Director, showed up on set with a fever.  She didn’t know who to blame as she was in contact with all of the above walking virus bombs.  At the appropriately named Maenam Hospital, the H1N1 test cost 5,000 baht.  Deciding her health wasn’t worth that much, Nam forked over 500 baht for the regular flu test and like Goong, spent the remainder of the shoot in a face mask. 

Beyond these six people, a further six also suffered from fever and cough, though not to the extent of having to visit the hospital.   So that makes 12 people out of a crew of 40 which works out to about 25%.  That’s almost on par with the Bubonic Plague of the 1300s which knocked out an estimated 30% of Europe.  So this could be called the Hi-So Plague of 2010 which all of us will surely hold dear in our memories. 

Ahhh…art is life.

In the era of digital filmmaking, you have the ability to watch the footage you just shot, literally in the time it takes for the actors to get up and walk over to the monitor.  This is called playback.  Everyone loves playback because they can fix whatever wasn’t right, or if everything was perfect, they can be certain of it and move on.  This goes for the actors, the director, the cinematographer, the costume person, etc. etc.

It’s one of those advances in technology that is both a super convenience and a super time-suck at the same time.  Just like we spend hours surfing around the Web, the film crew spends hours watching and rewatching playback.  Though it’s true that you can fix every little mistake before moving on, is it worth all the time?  Maybe we’re starting to miss the point.  After all, people made good movies in the old days too.

It’s an interesting question.  Above all else, a good movie is alive.  And many alive movies have boom shadows, light stands, loose framing, mistimed acting, various continuity problems, all sorts of so-called mistakes in them.  It’s part of their charm, that you can feel the craftsmanship behind it, like a piece of ceramic contains a dimple from the maker’s hands or the uneven ash distribution from an uneven fire.

Should a work of art be a specimen of digital accuracy?  For all the little problems you can fix, do you lose some of the haphazardness of thinking on your feet?  Often times, you think the last take was the best one because you got everything perfect.  Then when you get into the editing room, you end up using the first one, because…um, no idea why.  It just seems to be fresher or messier or somethinger.

Maybe films benefit from unpredictability and imperfection?

Karn - First Assistant Director

Most people have no idea what a First Assistant Director does.  The title sounds like the person is the assistant to the director, like he or she gets coffee in the morning or something.  But in reality, the title shouldn’t even have the word “assistant” in it, because the person isn’t really an assistant at all.  The person is actually a director.  Think of it this way: the Director is the Creative Director, and the First Assistant Director is the Crew Director.

The position is extremely important because the First Assistant, in essence, tells the rest of the crew what to do.  Their main responsibility is to decide what to shoot each day, and then to make sure all the shots are completed as originally planned.  And they have to do this day in and day out for the entire production.  If there are one or two or six shots left uncompleted, it’s not only their fault, they also have to be flexible enough to schedule it over to another day.

This means that the First Assistant needs to know everyone on the crew really well.  Which department is fast, which department is slow, which actor performs best on take one, which actor performs best on take ten, which scene the director is likely to complete in an hour, which scene is going to take six hours etc. etc.  The First Assistant must absorb all this information and produce a realistic shooting schedule that can be completed as planned. 

Why doesn’t the Director do this?  Because it’s a totally different job.  The Director needs time and space to think about the creative stuff - how fast or slow should the character be talking?  How angry should the other character get when they start to argue?  Too passive and the scene won’t work, too aggressive and the film will peak too early.  The Director can’t think about all these subtleties if he or she also has to bark orders to everyone to hurry up.

So the barking is left to the First Assistant.  All day long on a film set, you may never hear the voice of the Director, but you will not be able to avoid the voice of the First Assistant - “Are you ready yet?  Hurry the hell up!  You have 30 minutes for lunch so be back here by 1.45!  We will shoot this angle first to wait for the sun, then we will turn around and shoot that angle.  So move the equipment out of there now!”  Or on our film set -  Leddy too choot!

There is a saying that the reason so many First Assistants are women is that if they were men, they would get punched out by the other crew members.  This is probably true.

There are many different ways to shoot a person driving a car.  And none of them are enjoyable.  Driving a car is enjoyable, and writing a scene about someone driving a car can be enjoyable, but shooting that scene is like sitting on a sofa with a couple of circus bears.  You feel squeezed in, restless, glum.

1.  There’s the side-mount rig where the camera is hanging off the side of the door.  This doesn’t sound like anything special until you get out on the road and realize your car is now a meter wider than it really is.  So from the persective of other motorists, your car is the size of a ten-wheel cement truck.  This is very dangerous for everyone and requires a police escort to block two lanes of traffic while you’re shooting so no unsuspecting speedster swipes the camera trying to pass you.

2. There’s the front mount rig where the camera is attached by suction cup to the hood of your car.  Never mind how the suction cup thing works because that’s it’s own separate mystery, but in this configuration, the driver (your actor), has to drive with a huge camera blocking the view.  Obviously, they have to drive real slow.  The police escort should really be behind them to prevent other cars from ramming their rear, but they can’t be, because then you’d see them in the camera.  So they lead in front.

3. There’s the driver’s-POV-shot which means the camera is now in the backseat of the car shooting straight out through the windshield (POV means point-of-view).  This is actually the easiest of the car configurations and on a quiet road, you probably don’t even need a police escort.  The main problem is where does the crew sit?  You at least need a director and a camera man, the first to judge the acting, the second to press the red button.  So those two have to squeeze into the backseat along with the camera.  That’s not easy when it’s a Nissan Presea.

4. Finally, there’s the car-to-car shot.  This means while your actor drives the car, the crew piles into the back of a pick-up truck and shoots them on the open road.  Technically, this is not even a car rig.  In fact, it is wild wild west and probably the most dangerous configuration of them all.  Because the actual shooting space is as wide as the space between the two cars, which could be ten or fifteen meters.  Both cars are moving, changing the spatial shape constantly, and the poor police escort has to keep everyone safe and stay out of the camera’s view. 

After all that, sometimes the footage still ends up on the cutting room floor. 

- “Hey man, what happened to all that car stuff we shot?”

- “Oh…I cut it out…the scene wasn’t like, necessary, you know?”

That’s when people start to get really pissed off.

     Pom

Our art team is called the Sur-lao art team.  It consists of 3 people: Pom, Oom, and Pond.  And all three of them are very Sur-lao.  This means they are very blur and very sur (as in surreal) and very lao (as in pitched too far towards the sentimental end of the emotional spectrum).  Does that make sense?  Probably not.  Whatever. 

Anyway, despite being overly Sur-lao, they still warrant their own journal entry today because they also happen to be the best art team any production could ask for.  What does an art team do?  Basically everything that involves objects and things that can be seen in the frame, excluding the actors and what they’re wearing.

For instance, here’s a list of stuff they did today:

1. Poured water onto a perfectly dry parking lot to match a rainy parking lot we had shot a few days earlier.

2. Ate half of several red bean buns because the actress had to be holding a half-eaten bun at the start of the shot.

3. Went shopping for a deer’s head, found one, then got kicked off the BTS skytrain for carrying it on to the train.

4. Bought an electric piano for the set, then spent all night playing it themselves (this is very very Sur-lao). 

5. Chose both dark and translucent curtain fabric to help the cinematographer control ambient light in the room.

     Pond

People often watch a movie and assume the director thought of everything.  In truth, the director just begins the story.  But everybody else finishes it.  So even though the above list sounds a bit ridiculous, it isn’t.  For what the art team is actually doing is defining the character’s personality by choosing the objects the character would have:  car, red bean bun, dark and light curtains, beds, deer heads, cans of beer, brands of cigarettes, electric pianos, laptop computers, posters on the wall, magazines on the floor, shampoos in the bathroom, and on and on and on…the list is endless.  Somebody’s got to think of all this.  That’s the art team.

     Oom