Over a year ago in January 2015, I spent 9 days doing the Behind the Scenes (BTS) photography for a telemovie called October. October was directed by Wee Li Lin who was also the Director for the other 2 BTS shoots I did, CP Kidz and My Autograph Book. Tay Cheng San was the Director of Photography, Chua Seng Yew and Sufyan Sam’an were the Assistant Directors, Manju Balakrishnan was the Production Manager, Hanning Yap and Mya were the Art Directors and Mike Wong was the Gaffer.
The following is the synopsis for October:
“This telemovie is adapted from award-winning playwright Haresh Sharma’s “October” directed by award-winning director Wee Li Lin. A charming and heartwarming story of friendships forged at an old HDB estate and how they are put to the test when a young real estate agent Caleb (played by Ah Boys to Men’s Joshua Tan) tries to befriend the older women and get them to sell their flats. Also starring in the telemovie are: Koh Chieng Mun, Udaya Soundari, Andrew Lua and theatre veteran Padma Sagaram.”
So far, out of all the BTS shoots I have been involved in, October has been my favourite and the most enjoyable. Going through all the images again more than a year later certainly brings back a lot of fond memories. The following are a selection of photographs from my BTS coverage:
For the gearheads, everything was photographed using a Fuji X100T camera. Most shots were taken with the fixed 35mm lens on the X100T. I used the wide angle converter (28mm field of view) and the tele converter (50mm field of view) once in a while if I felt the need to go wider or tighter. The camera was silent allowing me to shoot at all times even while the cameras were rolling. The whole system is small and light weight fitting into a small waist pouch which was great for my back! This is my first camera with an electronic viewfinder. With the electronic viewfinder giving me ‘what I see is what I get’, it made setting the accurate exposure a breeze especially in very difficult lighting situations. This is currently my go to gear for BTS type shoots.