Reflections 2020: My 2nd drama production in Hope Church

Finally am getting down to penning some thoughts for my role on the big screen last year. In case you missed it, here's the trailer:

 

One of the first few LIVE moments on set

After my first Christmas drama production in Dec 2017, I didn't think I would be involved again since I thought that re-using the same face for the next year's Christmas project isn't ideal? But I did get invited to audition for a role in Dec 2018 Christmas production, by which I was pleasantly surprised. And the role is very different from my previous ah beng role - this time, I'd be auditioning for the role of a singing toy soldier. HAHA.

However, I already had a ski trip to La Plagne, France, all planned out - tickets booked and I was really looking forward to it. So, circumstantially, not possible for Dec 2018. And yes I did have a really good time skiing with Joy Xuan Ni, Jonathan Wong and his ICL gang in France hehe⛷️⛷🎿

Fast forward to October 2019, I received a WhatsApp message from Wei Yeat, our church staff member involved in special creative projects:

I was ok because I thought that I would be casting as a very small role. So in my mind, I was envisioning a quick audition, a few rehearsals and we're ready to roll out my calefare role. Haha. Why'd I think that? Because in 2017, when I auditioned for a role in the Christmas production, it was around Aug-Sep 2017. By early Oct, we already had our scripts and have started with rehearsals already.

This time, the invitation came in mid-Oct 2019. So, I thought, I was only some calefare that they realized they needed as they went along with the rehearsals. I was miles away from the truth. Turns out I was auditioning for the LEAD ROLE!

One of the flyers for Christmas 2019 @ Hope church

I was telling Wei Yeat something like "Bro, mid-Oct already leh. Where got time to do all the rehearsals?" In the previous production, we had 2.5 months of rehearsals and now we're left with 1.5 months!

He then assured me that this production isn't drama-heavy like the previous one I did. This production is film-heavy. So, there will be a lot of pre-recorded segments and filming, which isn't so rehearsal-intensive. Yes we still needed to rehearse for the shoot, but it's totally different from rehearsing for a live drama production.

With this assurance I was like "Ok, sounds good" and headed for the auditions. Since it was 75% on film, I can make all the mistakes I want and we can do re-takes. But if it was a live-act, I only got one shot and I needa perfect that shot.

Rehearsal @ Axis!

I passed the auditions of course, if not there'd be no blog post at all. LEL. Although a film production isn't as stressful as a LIVE drama production, I was about to learn that the stress is in a different form. Yes for film productions you can do re-takes, but there is a limited number of re-takes you can do because of the no. of scenes on the schedule.

If we take too long for one scene, it'll eat into the time for the next, and the next and the snowball just grows larger with each delay. And the sun isn't gonna wait for you - if you take too long, the sunlight in the first scene VS the sunlight in the last scene might be a different hue.

Imagine we're filming a series of fight scenes and they're all to be shown in a 1min segment. Can't be your first few cut scenes show afternoon sun and then the last 30s of the segment shows an evening sun right? LOL. This is where it gets kinda stressful - nailing each take within the shooting schedule.

The first shoot was the most memorable for me because it involved a lot of action scenes and it was the first time I had my hair baptized in coloured wax to turn it silver. Yes, SILVER colour as per my insta story shot below. Lel.

 

If you're wondering "why silver"? It's because I'm playing a character called "IcemanZ". IcemanZ is an online avatar that "Brian" controls. Yes, I also play "Brian" who is the protagonist in this production.

AND, I also play a 3rd character called "Chad" who is Brian's alter-ego - or rather, the voice inside his head. This last character is only revealed at the last scene when Brian has a meltdown and confronts his inner voice and asks him "Who are you?" To which Chad replies "I am you Brian...Who are YOU?"

Yeah, so these are the 3 characters I play:

1. Brian: Typical Singaporean-Asian boy with typical naggy & negative Asian parents. Struggling with his studies but VERY good at games which takes him to stardom
2. IcemanZ: Online avatar for a first person shooter (FPS) game that Brian controls
3. Chad: The inner voice or "person" inside our heads that whispers advice to our souls

Ok so back to my first shoot with the team! It was shot at Labrador Nature Reserve on a weekday morning till evening. Everything was going smoothly - our fight scenes, our shooting scenes, etc. until suddenly 2 NParks officers came and told us to stop. THIS IS WHERE THE REAL DRAMA IS. LOL.

I immediately turned my gun at them and started shooting at them! The rest stared in total disbelief as I continued to act my character out...

JUST KIDDING. HAHA. But I could totally imagine myself doing that LOLOL. So yes, the NParks officers did approach us, but the "me shooting at them" part is the drama that took place inside my head LOL.

Anyway, after some questioning and dialogue, the NParks officers just politely told us to not do our shooting in the forested, off-track areas as they were out-of-bounds. And they also mentioned that NUS is doing some environmental project there so there are sensors and stuff planted in the ground to monitor the area.

The moment the NParks officers approached us, I was already praying in my heart against this "spiritual attack" from the devil. Thank God everything turned out fine and thank God we already done most of the important "forested area" scenes! Hallelujah! Haha

Finished our first outdoor shoot at Labrador Nature Reserve!

The next shoot trumped the first shoot man. The Labrador shoot was from 10am-5pm. The 2nd shoot at Hope @ New Tech Park (NTP) was from 7pm-5am!! Yes it was an overnight shoot!

This shoot was the biggest one already because it involved the most people - full cast: including extras, directors, camera crew, dancers, image crew (to do our make-up & hair), facilities, etc. IT WAS CROWDED! A happy kind of crowded. Haha.

Here we shot A LOT of scenes. I had to change from one outfit & hair colour to another because I was playing 2 out of the 3 characters on this 2nd shoot. Shall let the photos & videos tell the story:

BTS: Xiang Er (Denise) & I (Brian) holding hands scene

Emotionally intense scene after Brian fought off several thugs at a club & rescued Denise

BTS: IcemanZ taking out his enemies

How to achieve smooth videography without a gimbal HAHA @WeiYeat @HorngJye

END OF SHOOT! Time check - 5:42am!

Sorry for killing you guys off so quickly HAHA

So that was the 2nd and most intense shoot of all. And it's also the first time I stayed overnight at Hope Church @ New Tech Park. LEL. And no I didn't have to take leave for the shoot - it was shot from 1st Nov 2019, Fri night till Saturday morning.

The next shoot is only 4 days later on a Thursday evening at CT Hub - which means I gotta prac my lines and memorize the emotions & expressions and stuff by then - or at least get a good grasp of most of it - which is a challenge because I got a really packed calendar ahead of me.

My work schedule - overseas business trips, LG schedule, several weddings to host/attend and MPC stuff. So my schedule is packed to the brim - 50% of it rehearsals & filming. Lol.

The best part is my MPC facilitator is pushing me like an angry sergeant to meet our marriage mentor and I'm like "Yo, what's the deal with rushing to meet them? I've got much more things on my plate than meeting my marriage mentor now?"

Mr. NS then went paggro by saying something along the lines of "It's not respectful to make them wait" and stuff. And I was like "Whoa, I didn't know I had a timeline to meet my marriage mentor?" So, if I don't meet them within this year, my marriage will crumble?

So doing life is by your timetable, not mine? If they can't wait, then just call it off then. We can always find our own marriage mentors who can meet our timeline isn't it?

Zinky & I backstage. She's one of the singers for service 🙌

I really have no idea why is there such impatience in that man. To what end? What was he trying to achieve? Beats me man. Guess we needa put more leaders with proper fruits of the Spirit like patience at such positions? LOL.

We did, however, get in touch with our marriage mentors eventually (not long after) and it turns out that they weren't in a rush to meet us at all. They were just waiting to be updated. So much for "being disrespectful for making them wait"? Haha.

Anyhow, if they had a timeline, they should've laid it out clearly then. Don't start barking when things don't go your way. Communicate things early and you won't needa bark later. And I don't like to rush things, especially if there's nothing to gain from rushing. More so with an insane schedule like mine.

Back to the filming at CT Hub. Was a good shoot because this is one of the easier shoots. Haha. Filmed the talk show scene and the gaming scenes. Ez pz. Lel. Here are some BTS snap shots in between the filming sessions:

Filming done in about 3 hours. Settled. But I remember during this period I was also having problems in my work side of things - my Italian counterpart was giving me problems. He is a cranky old Italian man that works by his emotions and not his brain sometimes. And his emotions had to work out during this period 🙄

My company represents this Italian company called "Quick" and in industry terms, this Italian ah pek is our "principal". So, we are the authorized distributor for Quick's equipment in South-East Asia. So what happened is this:

After we closed a huge deal and settled with the customer the terms of the deal, then this cranky old man told us "Oh, you need to pay for our technicians to fly in from Italy to commission the equipment." And I was like "Why didn't you tell us this earlier? We already settled the payment terms with the customer and now you come and hit us with more charges?"

His reply was something like "This is such a huge deal and the margins are huge! You're telling me you don't have money to pay for 2 men to fly to Singapore?"

Well, that isn't the point. The point is, if you'd mentioned this earlier, we'd have factored in some €4000 for this requirement. Now, you're making us incur a loss of €4k! Which is about SGD$6.4k!

Twinning with Ah Bok - one of the directors for this project

And the thing is, the commissioning has always been done by us anyway. Not sure why this time was so special. If it were that special, tell us in advance then! Seems like this Italian asshole old man just wants to rip us off - it wasn't the first time he ripped us off anyway. But justice belongs to God and I believe it will served back to him in other ways. 

Thankfully, due to several circumstances, they were forced to rely on our Singapore team to do the commissioning anyway. So, we didn't have to incur those expenses for nothing. Thank You Lord. But this whole tiff lasted for about a month and weighed quite heavily on me for a while. But I figured that this dying old man wasn't even worth me getting angry at, so I left it in the Lord's hands. Lel.

Anyhow, the CT Hub filming session wasn't the last filming session. We still had one more filming session at Lavender near the ICA building, by the huge canal. Here's a snapshot of it:

This one was tough because the scene was laden with emotions - there was quarreling, outbursts of anger and quite a lot of lines to spew. Lel. I also remember there was some disagreement between the directors on the filming direction for these few scenes, but thankfully, all turned out well in the end.

By the way, so far, I've only mentioned the filming sessions, not so much the rehearsals. There were also a lot of rehearsal sessions which I didn't mention as these aren't as noteworthy as a filming session? Haha. Rehearsals is where we trash things out and make things work. Filming is capturing the product of the rehearsals.

But it is really the rehearsals that matter the most but yet, it is the least insta-worthy. LOL. Just like in documentaries of successful people, they usually only highlight the key moments - they don't show you a 4 hour long footage of this guy working out his code on his computer and going through the de-bugging process. The real work is almost always boring.

Me with my "younger" self, played by Aloy - the young Brian

Once the rehearsals & filming are all done, what's left? On-stage rehearsals and full dress rehearsals! This is where we get to meet everyone - the sound crew, make-up crew, dance crew, etc. Woo hoo! Make new friends! Lel.

This is my 2nd involvement in Hope's flagship Christmas production already and I've seen the same several types of Christians that you'll meet in church:

1. Mr./Ms. Popular with celebrity-complex: They're generally nice but they only wanna hang with people that are handsome/pretty and popular like them. Won't follow you back on Instagram / Facebook / Twitter. Overflowing with vanity.

2. Mr./Ms. Know-It-All or Mr. I'm-more-senior-than-you with superiority-complex. They're always finding opportunities to correct you and "help you improve". Usually talking down to people of lesser status but pandering to those of higher status.

3. Mr./Ms. Uptight. Everything must be done according to their way & their timing if not they'll be upset. They forget that people have their own reasons as to why they do what they do and they forget how to communicate cordially & positively.

4. Mr./Ms. Naggy. Something like no. 2 but they're doing it not so much out of superiority complex but stems more from their need to just talk, be heard and be recognized. But like no. 2, they like to pick on people with lesser status.

5. Mr./Ms. I'm-here-to-have-fun. They're awesome people to be around. But when the going gets tough, when clashes arise, they take a back-seat and hope things will go back to normal. Not much ownership or conviction about the cause they're serving in.

6. Mr./Ms. Nice. They're always very nice, helpful, nodding their heads and faithfully doing things they're assigned. They're usually bullied & picked-on by no. 1-4. They don't exert themselves and like no. 5, they take a back seat in clashes or arguments as they're conflict-averse by nature.

BTS shot: Main cast - Xiang Er & I with our directors Wei Yeat, Faith Bok & Sherilyn

7. Mr./Ms. Try-Hard. They're generally nice and don't attack people like no. 2-4. They will try hard to impress or make friends. They're usually those of a lesser status.

8. Mr./Ms. Legit Absentee. They're usually not around but ALWAYS have a legitimate reason for their absence that you as a leader can't disapprove of - e.g. they're sick/not feeling well, attending to an emergency, family problems, friend problems, etc. They do sometimes come for key meetings and moments where it is to their liking.

9. Mr./Ms. Task-Oriented. They're super focused on finishing their task and once they're done, they're out. They won't bother helping others or getting involved with others not related to their team/task. They make sure they do their job well, protect their turf and lose sight of the bigger picture of working as a team. Kinda like what you see at work. So Church ministry is another job to them.

10. Mr./Ms. Politics. They're toxic and are always playing manipulative tactics. They might do their job really well and then make insinuations as to why this person not doing as well. They do a lot of paggro back-stabbing and suggest things to show they're better or this person is lousy. They do all these to get attention and make the way to the top. Power-hungry people.

11. Mr./Ms. Gossip. They love talking about juicy news about others. They might not be power-hungry but they info-hungry. The "secrets" they hold make them feel important and they enjoy that status.

12. Mr./Ms. Spiritual. They over-spiritualize things. Over-asking questions like "Where is God in this picture?", "What does God have to say about this?" and over-praying super long prayers that traps everybody in a hold-hands position and reducing the group's task-productivity. They might earnestly be (over)seeking God or they might just be hijacking the meeting to feel important by praying long prayers to be heard and seen as spiritual

13. Mr./Ms. Leader. These rare breed of humans are the people we need in leadership positions. They are clear on the vision God has given them in context of the Church & their task, they're also aware of the different types of people they need to manage & know how to communicate effectively to the different people types and lastly, they execute & delegate the tasks effectively. I'll highlight one such person later in my post.

Photo with Zinky before service starts!

There are definitely more categories of such people but I shall stop classifying them here. LOL. You see such people in schools, in your workplaces and in your social circles everywhere. But the key thing is, they're in church - a place where they can learn, love, forgive & be forgiven - outside of the church, they'll probably just continue to fester and eventually die a toxic death. LOL.

This is the fun & not-so-fun part about serving: you get to meet lotsa people - people who'll like you, love you, inspire you, encourage you and vice-versa...and also people who'll piss you off, hate you, discourage you, hurt you...and the best part is? They all do it in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah! LOL.

This is why I wasn't all perked up and ready to go serve in church. Because I know what it's like. But the thing about meeting new people is, for the many that will rub you the wrong way, there's also the priceless few that will enter into and change your life's trajectory.

So, overall, I think it's still worth the risk sifting through the sea of faces to find those few blessings that will warm your heart and remind you that God is still good. LOL.

It's amazing how God can use a bunch of us filled with our different levels of insecurities, understanding of God & His kingdom, different levels of carnality (led-by-the-flesh) and still make it work. It is indeed the hand of God that works through our layers upon layers of brokenness to make something beautiful in the end.

Ah Bok, Wei Yeat, Xiang Er & Me on set

Personally, I think Wei Yeat did an amazing job at coordinating this whole project. He is no. 13 type of Christian that I met! He has so many stakeholders to manage: pastoral team, ministry heads, production team, crew members, cast members, etc.

And in each team or ministry or group, there will be expectations for him to live up to, personality & character problems to manage and timelines to meet. Yet he pulled it altogether and maintained a good posture of positivity and encouragement.

He was always encouraging us with the classic Hope sentence "Thank God for you!" LOL. But beyond that, he does get to know you on a personal level and builds a friendship so the usual "Thank God for you!" statement doesn't feel like a corporate-speak.

It also helps that he's a drama-funny guy because it helps to make us all laugh & ease tensions. But most importantly I think he's a good listener.

The 2 Brians with his parents. They're all fantastic dancers by the way, except me :( LOL

The thing about being a church staff, much like being a PA (People's Association) CC staff (like me, back then) - is that you'll be surrounded by a lot of volunteers that will come with all sorts of agendas, problems and insecurities and most of the time, a lot of them just want to be heard and to be understood.

The reason why I did well in my job as a constituency manager in my CC is because I listened to my committee members stories and rants - even when it isn't linked to work. It is simply because I took the time to listen to them - that they felt understood and most importantly they felt valued - that they threw me their best support.

Same for Wei Yeat I think he did a great job listening and asking a lot of us the right questions and because of that, we in turn threw in our best support for him.

The stress-level is sometimes really great on him but he always maintained his composure and positivity even in the face of criticism and expectations. So kudos to you Wei Yeat!

I've no idea what happened here but seems like those 2 wanna lick me LEL

The next hero of this production is definitely Horng Jye - the video champion. He not only shoots the videos, he also does the editing and caption-ing! SUPER HARD WORK BRO.

Horng Jye's the boss in the army sniper hat

I've had a my fair share of doing video editing for my company and IT IS UTTERLY TIME CONSUMING. Some more mine is just a 1-2 minute marketing video versus this project - about a 30min worth of video footage to edit?

By "edit", I don't just mean adjusting the colours and all, I mean adding the sound effects, adding the video effects in the action scenes - zooming in, slowing things down, adding emphasis elements like bullets flying, explosions, etc. Dayum, one hell of a Hollywood-level editing there.

The best/worst part is the tight timelines he has to meet because not all the scenes are shot together. They were all shot (by him) over the course of about a month I think. And he has to get the footage ready before Christmas service on 21st & 22nd Dec!

Really hats off to Horng Jye man. The stress level is so damm high. If I can't finish editing certain parts of the video by a certain time, I'd probably be not able to sleep LOL.

Yep, where am I at now? Probably at the on-stage rehearsals, full-dress rehearsals already? LOL. Ok so here's more snapshots:

Brian struggling in his online game competition

Brian reacting to his daddy's stroke

The choir members doubling up as actors cheering for IcemanZ in this online competition

All these rehearsals and filming culminates to this moment - DAY 1 of the actual performance/production! I didn't break a sweat because I've rehearsed my parts on stage several times already. Now, it's just about not missing a beat and maintaining my act.

Here's some BTS footage of us on the actual days of the performances. I plural-ed "days" and "performances" because we performed 5 times over 2 days. Yes we have 5 services - 3 on Saturday, 2 on Sundays. Lol.

One of the dancers' warm-up routines: PLANKS. DED.

Yes, it all culminated to those few moments on stage. All the many hours of sweat, filming and rehearsals is all for the audience. And I don't mean it in just a purely production house or drama artist context, but I mean it in the Kingdom context as well. We all did it for the lives & souls of the unsaved that will be walking into the church doors to witness this miraculous story of Christ through a production-storyline.

I don't know how God will use the production to speak into the viewers' lives, but I know He will. We'll probably hear the stories of transformation in a campfire session by the shores of heaven. But for now, all we need to do is to avail ourselves and arm ourselves with the full armour of God.

To all my friends/family who came to watch me (LOL) / watch this production, thanks so much! You are why we do what we did!

The most important visitors that day - Zi Ying's fam & My fam ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ♡

With da Tampines North badminton boys

Thanks Joan & Ryan for coming!

Yay thanks for coming Marcus & Gary (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ

Thanks Aixin & David for coming (ᵔᴥᵔ)

Also, thanks guys for all your insta-story tags LOL. Hope my acting wasn't too bad or too good that it took your eyes of Jesus HAHA.

All in all, had a good run. Made many new dancer friends since there were many dance scenes and also made several new choir friends.

May God continue to use Hope Church to reach out to the local community and the larger Christian community at large through their productions 🙏

Hope has several testimony videos that have clocked like 500K+ views on Facebook/YouTube and I pray that we will continue shouting His name in hostile times like these.

Shall end this post with a group photo of everyone who was involved in this Christmas 2019 production. Each and every one of you made this happen and I pray that as we serve and as we rub shoulders - as iron sharpens iron - may we sharpen each other to be an even more effective tool for His Kingdom against the kingdom of darkness.

Group photo of everyone involved in Hope Singapore's 2019 "A Fun-Filled Christmas" production!