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| Robert Raymer, Pixbugs Studio |
Two days before my audition, Alex contacted
me, asking me if I was interested in the playing the role Brother Patrick,
headmaster of St Joseph Secondary School.
He was auditioning for Brother Charles, a stern class teacher who carries
a cane. Alex and I had previously taken
part in the Road to Nationhood: Sarawak that was aired on the National
Geographic channel.
Alex passed the
phone to Michele who works for Film Makers Company who in turn was hired by
Pixbugs Studio, in charge of Production, to do the casting and wardrobe. She informed me that auditions would end in a
few days, so I made an appointment for Thursday afternoon. I dropped off one of my sons at St. Joseph
Secondary School, slipped on my Covid-19 pandemic face mask and arrived at
their office.
After filling in my personal details and measurements, Michele passed me my lines. A lot of lines. I had a moment of panic. Although I have been an extra in four feature films, including Indochine, which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, I’ve never had to interact and exchange lines with other actors before (not even in plays, although I’ve been a stage manager for several Penang Players productions).
I did take part in two French documentaries, one on Somerset Maugham and the other Joseph Conrad. For both projects, I extensively researched my subjects and expounded upon what I had learned, their ties to Sarawak.
Exchanging dialogue with another actor is quite different. You have to listen closely, react accordingly,
and speak your lines on cue. The church
scene was a very long dialogue sequence between Taib and Brother Patrick at a
crucial junction in the film.
Not sure I was up to it, I considered
bailing on the project, but Sam, who was Michele’s boss, came over and gave me
a pep talk and encouraged me to try out since I was there. Due to Covid-19 there weren’t that many expatriates
in Kuching in my age category who could (or wanted to) act. Ok, so maybe they were desperate.
Michele gave me some time to memorize my
lines. She then filmed me as I stated my
name, age, height, and previous acting experience. I then had to act out four emotions: Happy,
Sad, Angry and Excited.
“Have you ever done this before?”
“No,” I replied, but found it fun. The less fun part was remembering my lines
which I kept flubbing, even skipping whole paragraphs, but eventually I got the
hang of it. After a few takes they
convinced me that I did fine.
At home, I still contemplated bailing since I was in the middle of a long writing project and didn’t want to break my momentum. Then I figured someone else would get the part. That didn’t happen. Late Friday, I got the call. I was in. So was Alex.
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| Pixbugs Studio |
I had to break the bad news to my two sons, Form Four and Form One, that I would be acting as the headmaster of their school, although the year would be 1955. I also had to learn their motto, Ora et Labora (Latin: pray and work) and their school rally song. Two of my scenes would be set at their school. As a father, now and then, you need to embarrass your children.
I arrived at Pixbugs Studio at the same time as Alex for the briefing, rehearsals and costume measurements, where we met Alester Leong-Director, Bernie-First Assistant Director, Shawn-Director of Photography, Liew-Cast Director, and a handful of other actors, many of whom were students, including from St. Joseph private, plus the two main actors, Ezmir who plays Taib Mahmud and Adhwa, Taib’s friend Annuar.
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| Pixbugs Studio |
Jocelyn-Art Director and Melissa-Makeup Artist studied my face—an unnerving experience having two young ladies conferring back and forth on the flaws of my face up-close and personal and what they would need to do to make me look more like Brother Patrick since a total facelift was out of the question (and out of their budget). Alex got the same treatment.
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| Brother Patrick |
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| Brother Charles |
Rehearsals went well since we could look at
our scripts if necessary. The school
rally song went horribly wrong. Some of
the students knew it by heart, the rest of us were clueless. Someone found the music and the words on YouTube,
so we tried to follow along. Later I
asked my son if he had a copy of the school rally and he passed me a notebook
that had the words on the back, so I cut it out and kept a copy in my car. Turned out there was more than one version,
so I had to amend it accordingly.
A Taib Production Talent group was set up on WhatsApp to keep us informed of production details and shooting schedules. Plus, a second group, Cast for Untold Story, to ease communication between the director and the principal cast, which included updated copies of the script and video references for the main characters so they could see the facial expressions and mannerisms of those whom they would portray.
I suggested a few editing changes in my lines
to improve emphasis, which were readily accepted and caused additional updated
scripts. Alester and Bernie were very accommodating.
Filming would take place on Wednesday, Sarawak
Day, at Carmelite Monastery, and then on Saturday and Sunday at St.
Joseph. By Tuesday most of the lines
that I had memorized got changed. They
were changed again when we were handed the new script on Wednesday.
I was told to bring black shoes, not to
wear my wedding ring, and was given a pair of round glasses, which made it
difficult to see, but gave me a rather nice Harry Potter look.
No one said anything about a white t-shirt to wear underneath the white cassock. For some reason I thought the cassock would be dark…burgundy perhaps. Luckily, they had a spare t-shirt. Later, I realized that I had overlooked that detail buried within all the other messages. I then brought a spare t-shirt for Garrett, another Brother involved with the Sunday shoot, who was under the impression he was to wear a white dress shirt, not a white t-shirt. Miscommunications happen.
Melissa slicked back my hair and did the makeup. Meanwhile Ezmir and I ran through our lines. Once we were ready, we were driven to the set, to the chapel at the Carmelite Monastery. For the shoot that morning there was only three actors, but 30 for production! Most were from Pixbugs, some from Film Makers, others were freelancers.
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| Pixbugs Studio |
Amos-Sound Designer fixed me up with a microphone hidden underneath my clothes.
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| Pixbugs Studio |
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| Pixbugs Studio |
Later, I found a secluded place in the
monastery so I could practice rising from a seated position and saying my lines—out
of eyesight and earshot of everyone else.
Or so I thought. Suddenly a door opened,
and I found myself face to face with an elderly nun who gazed suspiciously at
me dressed in a cassock. She said she
heard someone talking and thought I needed to be let in. I apologized for disturbing her and explained
my presence. I hoped that I had her
blessing and not a curse for disturbing her peace as I went back to rehearsing
my lines.
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| Pixbugs Studio |
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| Pixbugs Studio |
Finally, I was allowed inside the chapel
and guided to the second pew and briefed. For
effect, smoke was created by waving a carpet, which added to the
stuffiness inside. With the cameras
rolling, I would start by kneeling, then I would sit back in my pew. Two students would appear at my side.
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| Pixbugs Studio |
Surprised at seeing them, I would stand to
greet them and then listen to their formal request to leave classes early on
Fridays to attend prayers at the mosque.
Three paragraphs had been cut from Ezmir’s dialogue, but I felt they were crucial to convince Brother Patrick to grant Taib (and the other Muslim students) permission since the lines also cited the school motto to great effect (a nice tie in to the school assembly scene, shot later, but would come sooner), since this was a pivotal, dramatic moment in the film.
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| Pixbugs Studio |
I had expressed my concerns to Ezmir and others earlier before I finally approached the director on the set. Alester readily agreed, so he asked Ezmir, who also agreed to re-insert those three paragraphs back into his already rather long dialogue (and thankfully he could still remember them!)
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| Pixbugs Studio |
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| Pixbugs Studio |
Ezmir and I then took about nine takes. Ezmir, who did an excellent job of acting throughout, kept stumbling over his lines (he had an awfully lot to say and those three paragraphs taken out and re-inserted thanks to me didn’t exactly help). Then it was my turn to stumble a few times. One take was going rather well for both of us until a passing ambulance blaring its siren drowned us out. Finally, it looked like we could both make it all the way through in time for lunch, but half-way through my final sentence I blanked out.
“Take five!” Alester called out.
Everyone cleared
out of the chapel for some fresh air, but I remained behind, sitting in the
pew, stewing.
The next take we nailed it! We needed another take as backup, and then, ran through it few more times for close-up shots. By then, no problem.
Problems for me came later when they filmed me
kneeling, saying my prayers.
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| Pixbugs Studio |
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| Pixbugs Studio |
It was past 2 p.m. when we finally finished shooting at the chapel. Although I was done for the day, Ezmir and Adhwa still had filming that afternoon that would last late into the evening. On Saturday and Sunday, Brother Patrick would return for two more scenes in Part II.
—Borneo Expat Writer
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Joseph Conrad and Me
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