SEPET - little wonders and how we became friends...

If it's not because of SEPET, I would not have become a supporting actor. And now I am slated to be a 'william hung' type character for a small commercial.And guess what? The producer is Ellyna from SEPET, the wardrobe Sharum is also of SEPET and Auntie Zai of SEPET is joining us I speculatively heard. hahahaha. Recently I got a chance at directing a commercial. The actor? Alan Yun of SEPET.

Happy coincidence? Well yes *smirk* :p

...forget the glory of being part of SEPET or the little hellos I get on the street; what I got most from were friends...or more appropriately a family.

At random...Yasmin, Nani, Loong(Choo Seong), Edmund, Karen, Kak cindy, Aunty Zai, Ujang, Mei Ling, Harith, Ida, Adibah, Alicia, Jovein( even though he was unable to make it for shoot at the end) Alan Yun, Karo, Vincent(the sound fella)the list goes on and on...

It's an interestingly simple process to become friends...we just had things to do together and spend time together doing SEPET and in the process of it laugh, cried, and shared. Here's some of the little wondrous things by which we become friends...

1)Choo Seong (Ah Loong) is a cleanliness freak...everything on his table is arranged in invisible grids. Nani and me (his onscreen girl friend and best friend) is otherwise.

2)Edmund (the beautiful one/ the one with the damn handphone) takes a hell of a long time to set his hair and also vainly says outloud to me (almost reciting like a parrot)...my sister (Alicia) is a hottie! when I was going through her pictures on a laptop. He is also the self appointed set massager and gives an awesome back rub!

3)Karo Khoo (the cool samseng) comes onto the rehearsal space and sees me holding a card with cindy and the likeness of a girl on it one day and says eh...where's the chic? I cried out...'kak' cindy? ada orang nak jumpa! and out comes 'kak' cindy crying ' a...siapa nak saya?' to a less that amused karo.

4)I had long hair before sepet...halfway down my back.when I had it cut for sepet...yasmin gave me a 50 cent coin for luck but she had to say don't cry baby! I guess it was prompted when I was looking very worried as 'kak' cindy's chest area was a mere inches of my face when she's doing my hair from the front.

5)A member of the cast who smokes but her parents don't know ran up to me one day as we were hanging out after rehearsal. 'Keong! Quickly! ' she called out in desperation trying to pass me a lit cigarette. I said "no thanks, I don't smoke" ....she flicked it into a bush away saying 'bodohnya keong!' in anguish. I didn't know her mother paid a sudden visit and she wanted me to JUST hold it.

6)Vincent of add audio was adamant that not even a cockroach can pass when sound was being recorded…he would freak out and call another take…now, one day we were all gathered and he was asked in for an important production meeting. They said to him…yesterday the sound department did badly! Just as he had a glint in his eye…everyone yelled happy birthday!

7)On some nights a few of us will be in Yasmin’s room and we just chatted or danced to Sam Hui as Yasmin said she wanted to use the beautiful song in her film!

8) In each rehearsal, Ng Choo Seong (Ah Loong) get two girls; Nani (Orked) and Karen (Maggie)while I get a cold hard floor having to rehearse the scene where I get beaten. It pays to be the hero.

9)Keong was also the director’s of photography’s name so after I answered a few times when they called him, I walked away once when they were calling for me.

10) SEPET was shot really quickly with one or two takes of most scenes. Fearing my acting wasn’t up to par and believing that more takes equals more quality I once said to Nani before a scene… they only take one or two takes…don’t you wish they take more takes…to her reply of yeah…that shot after that conversation we made many mistakes and took a lot of takes! Nani said Chow Yun Fatt was no John Travolta!

11) The inspiration for the annoying handphone gag by Edmund came from us relating to Yasmin that Edmund’s ring tone was annoyingly superwoman…so everytime there’s a call there’s this sudden loud lyrical rendition of I’m not a SUPER- WOMAN…I’ m not the one that you can….At one point, we took to singing along when the phone rang.

12)Me and Ng Choo Seong had to put on high school uniforms with girl school badges and carry school bags to an all girls school in Taman Tun and pose for pictures there to be used as props! After the effort it wasn't even seen!

That’s all for now….SEPET just won the grand jury prize (the top prize) at the 27th Creteil International Women Directors Festival 2005 France.Congrats to Yasmin the mother of the beautiful film and of our little family.

: P ree-bit!