The Wandering Monkey

I filmed a TV show today with my friend the actress from Beijing.  I have been used to being a night owl, and today's TV show began filming at 9am.  I came later, about 11am, and I didn't know exactly what to expect.

 

The location of the shoot was the historic Paramount Ballroom -- the same place at which Shanghai Swings had the 1930's Christmas party last year.  The actress whom I had been training for swing dancing was working on some dance moves with an instructor when I arrived.  I sat back and waited for her to take a break from her dance lesson, then I went to see her to figure out what my involvement would be.

 

The director for this episode of the TV show is apparently quite famous in Shanghai.  He had been brought in for this specific episode only.  My friend said the director did not know exactly what he wanted, and we changed from swing dancing to a variety of Waltz on that day. 

 

There were two Chinese dance instructors there to show us the moves.  We trained for about two hours, and most of the time I was thinking, How am I going to learn this new style?  Then I'm supposed to dance a scene in a style I never tried before today!  At times I was nervous, concerned.  But this was not like a live performance.  As the director said (translated): "Don't worry.  After editing and framing I'm going to make you look like master dancers."

 

It was about 3pm when we began the scene with the dance shoot.  There were at least 30 Chinese people dancing, all dressed up in 1930s era clothing.  There was also a band on the stage pretending to play along to the music, waiters, and a few extra foreigners as party guests.  Plus at least 20 people handing cameras, props, and so on.  And a few more in charge of makeup and costume.

 

When the music began, at first I tried the moves which we had been taught.  But when we began our planned dance, we kept on bumping into people.  The floor was pretty crowded, and the waltz we had been taught was full of big movements and reversals of direction.

 

In time the director told the extra dancers not to dance in a specific area so that my partner and I may dance freely.  In the second dance scene shoot, a camera was placed on a small portable "train track," and it moved with us while we danced.  At the end of that scene, we were to dance in one direction, parallel to the track, then turn in front of the camera and move towards the center of the dance floor.  I can imagine this would look pretty cool on film.

 

We finished the scene, I had used very little of what I'd learned from the teachers.  It all should look pretty cool, though, because my friend was in a very nice flowing gown, with hair that must have taken hours to put together.  I was wearing a tuxedo, with my hair slicked back and the usual makeup to hide those nasty zits and dark eye circles from last night's hangover. ;-)

 

It finished off pretty well.  I think it took about 90 minutes once we started, and about 12 different takes.  Every time we did a shoot all of the extras took to the floor dancing and the band did their mock-playing.  I kind of felt a little pressure to do the scene properly because so many people were involved, but fortunately this was not too nerve-wracking because this was not too very different from the the television commercials I'd done before.

 

I didn't have any lines, but at the end of our dance there was a closeup where my friend said she was feeling tired, and thanks for the dance, and I kissed her hand and tried to look a little longingly as she walked away.

 

There were many more scenes shot that day, both before and after we danced.  I have to give big, big credit to the actress. She was in most of the scenes all day long, and she had had to learn a new dance style, go through all the makeup, plus memorize her lines and babysit me whenever I could not understand what the director was telling me.  She got there at 9 in the morning, and it all wrapped up at 6.

 

Tomorrow is the first day of the rehearsals for the movie shoot.  This is completely unrelated to the TV show.  Just a massive coincidence both came on at the same time.  I have three days of dance rehersals (or more if desired) then six days of filming.  This is going to take over my life pretty much for the next couple of weeks, but it's just as well.  I'd just have been blowing my time watching DVD's or playing computer games or drinking with my buddies.

 

All for now. More updates as it happens.

-J