After the Hope Comes the Rub

So over the weekend I was shooting: Tony's scene on Saturday (an incredibly quirky performance) and the girlfriend scene on Sunday (with newcomer Sarah) followed by make-up and night scenes after that.

I won't go too much into details because I'm sure most of you guys don't read the length production diary part (mostly due to my often dry recap of the events), so I'll keep it simple: on Saturday we had no DOP so my girlfriend took camera duties; in the scenes most serious moment, Tony could not help laughing for over seven takes because I looked 'funny'; Sarah was incredibly nervous (probably the most nervous person on set) but did her best; we only had an hour and a half to shoot the cafe scene so I did all my scenes in one tight close-up with no re-takes or coverage; the catering bill came up to over 260 bucks; during the night scene we ad-libbed a possible new ending involving a 'berhenti' sign and there's a good chance those bastard crows that shit all over Taman Tun will be making an appearance in the movie.

There. That's it in a nutshell.

During yesterday's production, over dinner (go to the new Mosin in Taman Tun next to Pizza Hut and order a Mumtaj naan. It rocks balls) I decided to ask (CENSORED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT AND SHALL BE REFERRED TO AS 'DEEP THROAT') about the process of getting a telemovie or TV show done. They were already in the industry so they should be packed with information. The knowledge I received from this discussion was not as positive as I hoped.

"You need to get 'hours' from the TV station," said Deep Throat.

"'Hours'?" I asked, "What do you mean by 'hours'?"

"'Hours'," replied Deep Throat, "as in the hours on TV. Let's say you want to make a telemovie. Telemovie's are an hour long, so you need an hour from the TV station."

"How do I get these 'hours'?"

(PART OF TRANSCRIPTION MISSING DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE WRITER'S A PUSSY. HE DOESN'T WANT TO GET INTO TROUBLE WITH WHAT WAS PREVIOUSLY WRITTEN HERE.)

"Or you could buy hours from another production company."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, sometimes production companies already have hours from a TV station, but they don't have enough budget to make anything, so you can buy off their hours and stick 'Produced in Association With...' in the credits."

"How much would it cost to buy the hours off another company?"

"About RM$7-10,000."

Hmmm...

"How difficult is it to get hours from the TV company?"

(MORE BITS TAKEN OUT FOR FEAR OF BEING ATTACKED BY PEOPLE IN THE INDUSTRY WITH POINTED STICKS.)