咳唔，拖了差不多一個月，終於有興緻把一直「待續」的一篇給補完。

也是為了不改日期，想看的請roll到下面去看吧～～～～

Production Diary 5

this two days was busy working with the sponsor stuff. just got the news yesterday the sponsor had turned down the offer as they dun accept we only can offer to thank them by printing their company name in the acknowledge column in the house program. they said at least they would only hope to get the show photos to put on their website as a portfolio. however the school just cannot let them to use the photo, so they just decline to sponsor us.

when mandy know about the sponsor would no longer sponsor us the gowns, she phone me to said the reasons are as follows:

1 we occupy the dresses too long period

2 its not a fair deal of getting a sponsor but not giving sth out. it should be a kind of give and take. they give us service, we give them non-monetary stuff in return, this is sponsor.

3 their company and their stock is not big enough to offer us sponsor in such a long period. they use the gowns to make money, if big companies would have enough spare stuff to lend us

mandy also said if another one cannot offer us, we can just pass the ball back to wardrobe to let them solve as plan b. teby said the budget should be fine as she can control a less expenses till now.

then we approached another sponsor this evening, the attitude is quite different from the previous one, they said they can just lend us the gowns, but also wish to have even one photo to see the outcome, and just of reference and portfolio. well it comes to second company that ask for the photo, seems it's a reasonable offer huh?

i also went to david today, he said we still need to put some budget even we choose to find a sponsor for the gown, otherwise what if we cannot find a sponsor? actually i still ask teby to put some budget for the gowns (although not big money), but david also wants to know the reason behind of why we cannot let the sponsors have the photos.

the new bamboo colours can came out today, just saw it in the paintshop with joanna and thomas (oh thomas gave me red pocket!!) they also chosen the white colour for the floor and portal etc. thomas bring a light to look at the colour testings as the colour temperature in paintshop was not exactly as theatre lights. he said we gotta educate our eyes to see the colours.

www. i LIKE this generator .com

Production Diary 7

such a day of 7....... aiya

going to our second sponsor for male wedding suit this morning, directly go to their stock to find the suit. but they only offer one rack of suits that we can choose, just simply, they dun have white suits that we need! omg just ask less jor one question, that is super odd of calling mandy to go with us for a whole morning just stay there only for 5 mins and leave....... so waste of mandy's time aiya super super 7............

then we immedately try to find another sponsor (in a cafeteria), but still try to find the marketing ppl (but not the one we met in the stock) of that suit company, to see if they interested to sponsor us by tailor making the suits by a cheaper price, but unluckily they are too busy at the moment. then start searching for another sponsor, CE found a dance school graduate on facebook (but actually she dun know this person but that graduate added her facebook and CE saw she own a bridal shop then add her), we phoned her to see if she is interested, then she offered us a chance to meet in her shop on this friday. oh another sponsor seeking on social network website again.

in the afternoon, we got the bamboo delivered. the thick ones are okay (although JJ said they looks very "curve", but it is just designer choose so that's fine. as we gotta keep them as a natural resources but not 搭棚 ah ma), but i just the thin ones order wrong lor!!! originally the thin ones should the same length as the thick ones ga ma (7.6 - 8 metres), but it came with only half long wor, and finally i found it on that invoice it said we really ordered the thin ones for 8 FEETS!!! omg firstly i remember i told them we need long ones ga wor, but how come the lady would get me wrong of order 8 feet but not 8 metres??? but how come i didnt see any problem with the invoice by writing 8 feets......... =_= too careless la!!!!!!! super-daper 7777777!!!!!!

okay, what should we do with the short ones then? we may use it for the burish bamboo panels lor... but not sure if it is fine lor......... will be discussed tmr.........

and the bamboo ladder, the lady suddenly called me this morning and said they dun have the stock we ordered lor!! need to order after lunar new year if we need one. but dance 2 need for rehearsal with chreographer in these few days, so we still order for dance 2. but after measurement, actually this one should be sufficient to use, lets see if set designer would accept this one so we dun need to buy another one lor. i can see david really 睇緊 each dollar we spend, all money should be spent in a 值得 way although the ladder only cost hkd$200.

the last 7 thing is, i got the quotation of the green can op carpet, it was far away from we calculate by ourselves, as the original carpet is 4m封, but actually we need only 2m long, but the supplier need we "eat" that remaining 2m lor... so it cost a double price that we expect!!! wtf!!!!!! do we really 值得 to purchase a hkd$6xxx carpet for only 1 single scene????? ummmm maybe tmr afternoon ask ask if ctt can lend us carpet as well............................ although it is not梯形.............

how come it is such a day full of 777777777777777777!!!!

say sth about yesterday then, we went to wedding dress sponsor and choose a few dresses, but i need to tell we cannot offer the photos for their portfolio on website as the concern of school, how can we tell them lei aiya........ but seems the sponsorship could bring them business, mandy seems like their crafts and may hire them to work next time. seems this is the point of offering sponsorship........

and cat said it is so waste of time and $$ to let the theatre vancant as we dun have any crew on monday and tue morning, maybe we can spend a bit money for hiring crew to fill the sessions then we can finish the set on wed. ummmm actually i understand the rational behind, but for the set i think we need to build some pieces, then lx rig, then another pieces, then lx rig again, keep looping like this, but all department need to have crew sin can do things lor. but you know, ppl always have lesson. if we really push the set to compete on wed, then the crew really can join in nothing and their crew head would cut me into pieces......... david still didnt have chance to talk to ceri about the schedule yet. he thinks my production schedule is so so weird that another opera companies thoughout the world wont work like this......... ummmm actually i just copied from previous year's opera schedule..... but it's okay for me, just see how can we improve our working process to make it more efficient. david said when came to this stage we may just follow the old schedule for this year, but they gotta expect a change in next year's production. david also said music school seems a bit nerve on this stage, as the students seems not up to standard yet, but seems you should very clear about their standard la how come they would choose a play that they cannot cope with due to their ability? they have only 1 opera each year so why dun they just design and expect sth happen in a rush way? should they start planning one year in advance?

oh one more thing today, neighbor school suddenly informed us the cast indian boy need to change to another cast as that boy need to perform in another show in our closing day......................

Production Diary 3

just got the on-scale drawings for bamboo panels in the morning, and immediately gotta go to the warehouse in yuen long to purchase the bamboo! quickly measure and calculate how many to buy, hope it wont go too wrong...

traveling by the school bus to yuen long, so lucky that can have the bus to go with david (pm) and thomas (set designer), originally wanna bring along the stage manager as well, but suddenly there is a call for music run through, she better stay with the dsm for counting the music time.

unlucky that there was a heavy rain when we was in the warehouse, but we can still lay down one of the bamboos to measure and make sure it is long enough, but i dun have one extra hand to take some more photos... good to have the set designer to go with us to choose his bamboos, and we dun need to guess if it looks like with the designer thinks... kate said she is not looking forward to a fairy tale in our graduation essay, but (till now) it is still a fairy tale for me of meeting such a great designer, thoughtful and willing to communicate. (hope i do get the correct bamboo and enough to execute his design properly!!! please please please) he said i have a 'quiet fire', did i? he said he can give me the quote about my grad essay about the chinese style set design from the original set designer for AMSND after knowing i would write sth about it. [what about "The process of a representation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream"? can it avoid a total through research and understanding of the story and msg behind?]

smoothly ordered the bamboo and waiting for delivery on wed afternoon, they also selling bamboo brooms and ladder which we need as well.

getting back to school, then have tea with david and thomas. got the information that we gotta postpone one week to begin the staging rehearsal as they would rather make the singers confident to sing the songs first, oh well, it's a problem but david just told me not to worry the things that we cannot take care, just focus on the things that we can do. okay it's right.

meeting (again!!!) with conductor and director and samantha after finding out the updated orchestra rehearsal schedule does not fit the content that we talked about yesterday, originally they wanna call the singers from 1030am to 1030pm is it crazy??? is it too tiring??? they said they would slip and swapping calling different ppl for sitzcrobe in morning+afternoon in concert all and some other cast for piano rehearsal in afternoons and evenings in drama theatre. (they need 4 days (morning+afternoon for sitzcrobe!!! is it too many???) okay lets see if we can do it so ideally.

Production Diary 2

the 'final' final design meeting

it is such a meeting that, without a full set design presentation (just a design update, anyway we just print out the previous ppt slide of the prelim design meeting for the conductor), a budget breakdown (i always dunno why we need to show to everybody that how we distribute the budget? and for this time, the breakdown was not real enough, i believe so, i dun wanna disclose anything which are not confirmed), a production schedule (oh well, i have to say i really under-estimated the complication of this production schedule. i drafted the first version on monday, as i still wish to publish in on thursday, i firstly went to david, he said it looks okay, then i went to ask john philip to reconfirm the time we need for building the set and get some slightly changes, then i went to samuel showing him i had tried to fulfill the sessions he need, he said it was fine, then i went to the director, he said he needs 6 piano rehearsals instead of 4 even there is no crews and no technical involves, then i went to TD, they suggested a different sequence of rigging and build set schedule (with picking all sessions and ask for reasons) (but omg they really have lots of lessons... when can i have the rigging finish without the crews then?) , then i went to meeting with conductor and director, they suggested a 5-hr piano dress rehearsal for technical stuff before the open dress rehearsal.... so seems we cannot make the dress rehearsal "open" anymore... then after the final design meeting, it was a meeting with ben, nancy, conductor and director to discuss the call time for singers during production period, but actually the changes they suggest are acceptable... therefore we gotta have a meeting sitting with lx, TD and the pm (with their superlala) to talk about how can we use the time. i just never came across with such a complicated schedule, it just doesn't look like any of the opera schedules i had before.) we dun have those things that appears in a ordinary design meeting (a classmate even ask me to bring the camera to take model box photo, i said we dun even have a model box yet! the set model box photos were shown in the prelim design meeting ppt already, okay the designer insist to take the photos by himself even not his assistant. i still think it is fine, why we need to insist "helping" him to make sure our value of staying in this production? we are going to have loads of other stuff to do in the foreseeable future!

the meeting takes just 45mins, wa it was so so so quick then i could imagine (i am not sure if "efficient" is a reason?)

the meeting after the final design meeting, just becoz i asked ben if we are using harpsichord during piano rehearsal, then he started asked me about the production schedule... anyway i never imagine the conductor would have some other idea... anyway, after the meeting, meet a2d again, wondering if the sm team can arrange the reh schedule as long as the a2d can help to get the singers' n/a, i think it's okay as the a2d have too much to do already (even translations and alignments of surtitles), and why those meetings she cannot see the dsm? oh well......

props meeting before the final design meeting, the most importantly is for mandy and dingding can talk about the 要求 of those costume props -- masks of lion and ass's head, LV suitcase... mandy asked about her timeslot for searching in wardrobe stock, she thinks they seems treat her as a student here... ummmm actually i still cannot understand why they can let the designer to buy cloth and material by herself.... anyway i can just help to raise her problem, the solver obviously isn't me. anyway the problem is solves by my boss so it is fine now.

we are going to pick the bamboos for the set tmr. ummmm but i still dun have a on-scale drawings of the bamboo panels yet.... aiya

Production diary 1

Meanwhile, let's switch to the English channel. It officially commerce the war with fighting with my 5000-word graduation essay, but starting to write my production diary. Alright, i wont care much about organization here, as these are just for my own use for a convenience of putting into my real essay afterwards.

For the day before the final design meeting, I went to Cat, my grad project superlala to seek her advice. (She asked me to record for all meeting with her from now on, but i just didnt found the recording app in my iphone at that moment, its rather embarrass to hear the recording again with my voice in that isn't it?). The most convincing point that she told me in the meeting was she is expecting that she can see my management characteristic throughout the production process, she really much wanted to see i can find my own way to go, starting from this final production in school. I just thinking of, what's my own personality? What makes a successful PM? Making everybody happy? A commander rather then a follower? How to over-ride the whole process? the trust between director and me? how to build the relationship makes he believe i am helping him but not pushing him to make choice? (maybe too early for him?)

The title of the whole essay --> The representation of a Chinese-Western Shakespeare play?

(oh yeah i can write everything in such a broad topic lol) gotta start with set and rigging

With raising the importance of 2-way communication, i found it would be a succeed that if that particular production team member would find you in a active role whenever s/he face a problem or something you can help. I think i quite successfully developed with such a working relationship with Mandy (costume designer), as not only i would find her for information or meeting or deadline, she would also find me if she found there is something between wardrobe and her or budget or embroidery factory or sponsorship or so forth. she also told me when she will going to see the director. she is really a very good working partner, she is very willing to share her thoughts and experience (we always have over 1-hr telephone conversation). she will also ask questions for anything she dun know (i am quite sure not all designer could really ask questions but not yelling why nobody come to tell me blah blah blah)maybe this is the reason that she is "expensive" apart from her design talent (expertise)?

sponsors seems very smooth, even not asking any 著數, maybe they really understand our school practice so there wont request much?

then, i want to CE (she was working in pc lab) for seeking her help in indian boy's cloth. luckily she can use photoshop.

then, i went to ceri's office, originally i just wanna meet A2D in person to let her recognize me, but just found that the DSM was sick and cannot attend the meeting, therefore i just stand in the meeting (without any preparation) (alright i know the meeting is for master rehearsal schedule anyway as i pushed them to have the meeting ga wor)

all rehearsals are actually devided into 3 rooms at the same time - singing/ dance/ staging, actually very huge logistics involved

ceri also suggest to have 15 mins to work with music in every stage reh, and 15 again after a break, to enhance their confident (as singers should know singing the best then staging)

4 times for each scene before getting into the theatre (a jigsaw to schedule like "moviemagic")

language coaching is important, esp for mainland china students -> speaking out 1950s british english

percussion for faeris -> asked ben for a teacher already

cantonese opera movement -> asked jones for a teacher already

make the speaking puck to sing -> conductor working with this already

oh well, such a couple of different elements in a opera!

gotta check the contract to see any guideline for translation? would it be better for 音譯 or 意譯？audience gotta see the word that they are listening

request again for 6 piano rehearsal -> went together to see the conductor

-> a piano dress rehearsal (5hrs) for final pick up with technical stuff and reserve energy for singers, Lx designer can sit with ceri

-> piano rehearsals in afternoons, fine if there is no crew and even DSM (shall i approve this request??? but he really wont have enough time if we are not doing this in such a long opera)

-> conductor request for a 3.5 hrs for each orchestra rehearsal rather then normally a 3 hr call, he will speak to the orchestra by himself

-> suggested by ceri and agreed by conductor, sitzcrobe in concert/ recital hall but not in theatre, therefore we can keep on with no crash with techical session in theatre in move-in week 1 saturday

then, went to lisa for junior music school student (omg we still cannot get them to measurement yet)

they never apply in labour department for their performances or concert, as these are one of the practice in the learning, with under the family as a APA part-time student -> most importantly they have insurance covered by school

wondered of excel or youth dance would also apply? just references to similar cases

good to leave my contact to her as well, she will release parent letter with more details to those kids later with theatre rehearsal calls

then, i went to TD, they suggested a totally different rigging sequence which affects lx the much, also TD's class schedule have lots of lessons to attend, lack of manpower leads my set keeps waiting to be finished, lots of compromise that i could imagine

(who said we only need to write a few sentence everyday =_= how can we control and just write a little???)

2011小事回顧

2011年可謂是有如過山車的一年。正所謂「有危便有機」，總之這一切也都托頼托頼，絶處還算可以逢生，大歩檻過就是了。

有些人曾經以為會陪著我走到最後，卻在2011年裏開始愈走愈遠；有些人好像已遺忘了一段時間，卻在這一年內重新拉近。

這一年呢，在一月一號當晚就摔了很大的一交（噢我發誓我不要再在一月一日跟我媽單獨上街去了）（不知道詳細發生了甚麼事的人請翻看之前的日記），之後整個上半年就處身了一個不知道幹甚麼的狀態，簡直是病入膏肓。天天哭哭哭到自己都覺得好煩。後來哭到都乾了，以為可以再站起來繼續向前走的時候，卻又碰上另一關口，連升不升得了班也要重新給審視（唉為甚麼我到degree 2還要擔心升不升到班呢），因為實在太擔心，便四處跟友儕們談一下「啊如果我休學一年好不好」的話題（甚至連我媽也知道了，話說回來，好彩我媽沒跟我要學校老師的電話就要跟我老師談一下．．．不然就大件事了）。到最後好不容易（好不容易～～～～）把事情終於搞定，後來卻發現有許多人仍記掛住我的事，到九月開學後又走來問我「你不是說要休學的嗎？」噢我才知道原來我沒再update大家我的近況，唯有說一句「no news is good news!」就胡混過去了。（事實是，他們見到我時見我沒提起也怕我不高興就沒問了，其實真的十分謝謝大家在仍不明確的期間陪我吃吃喝喝和聽我訴苦啊，只不過把事情弄明確的那段期間我也忙得很踢腳，來不及喘口氣又要回去掉進追功課追project追proposal的沒日沒夜才讓大家白擔心了）

不知道為甚麼，我犯太歲的苦命完全濃縮在一至三月，三月過後竟然事事暢通到令人咋舌（起碼在我眼前看見的都事事順暢啦，看不見的就由他去好了反正不知道有不知道的好）做了一個我個人很喜歡（雖然每次撿props都問自己為何可以做一個這麼多零碎道具的show）的作曲畢業演出，明明唸的是管理卻在自己的case study裏只負責當演員傳聖火和跳舞還有只剪了一下的剪片手的陸運會等等。最緊要的，是順利升上了畢業班，當了我之前想也沒想過的final year學生。

下半年開始簡直是我的旅遊年，夾夾埋埋一共住了一個半月的酒店，實在是我出生二十四年以來的首次。六月初跟全班同學一起到南京蘇州交流去，因為沒事可做所以實在是一個悠閒的旅程（每天在搶的士的那部份時間除外，國內的的士實在每人太氣憤了。），最喜歡的行程是在蘇州第一天在平江路見到有樹和有河（嘩就是在postcard和travel guide裏看見的蘇州耶！古人下江南為的就是見到如此的水鄉啊！）不知道幹嘛其實明明有事可做的，但最後一天下大雨所以一整天都窩在咖啡室裏這事也超經典。不知道有沒有機會再到蘇州去，希望將來有機會啦，我還沒有好好走一下那兒的園林。（南京？算了吧，最令人難忘的是十一人上館子吃飯卻叫了四十四個item [一籠小籠包也算一個item啦] 的事，誇張到早幾個月因受壓而瘦下來的十多磅也能一次過吃回來了）

從南京回來後還不到兩個星期，丟在客廳中間的行李箱又再給我撿起來收拾，出發飛往杜拜去展開一個月的中東冒險之旅。臨出發前還特意的約了好些朋友出來見個面（喂明明我只去短短一個月而已），朋友就她們好久沒搭飛機說不如相約一起去個旅行（我到現在都不明白，明明這幾個人畢業後還不斷出國旅行去，說甚麼好久沒搭飛機？！），我卻只能說「不就是一種交通工具而己」．．．也跟同班同學好好的拍了畢業照，有些朋友最後還是約不了所以沒拍到我便飛了。

說回杜拜，真的想不到真的被我撞彩完成了我的國外工作的夢幻之旅，雖然目的地跟想像中的西方國家有點出入，但總算超額完成了（我也第一次這麼受小孩歡迎）。原本想像的是自己一個人去的嘛，但有多一個人跟我一起去做些瘋狂的事也是不錯的，例如如果只得我一個就不會去帆船酒店吃我這輩子最貴的自助餐，到戲院去把「哈利波特十年賽跑」完滿的結束。呀還有，值得一提的是這一個月以來我竟然不用在商場裏奔跑都完！全！沒！有！遲！到！！！利害吧？（我指每天叫我起床的那一位）

返回屬於自己的time zone後，正式開始我的「米蟲一個月」，每天窩在家當宅女享受我人生中最後一個月的暑假（嘿想要畢業後立即便讀master就在這個懶散時期產生的），甚麼都不做真的好爽，竟然還有時間回舊公司找前老細吹水聊天呢。

開學後同時做街show和學校一年一度的gala。就是說從哪裏跌倒就從哪裏站起來，這一年我自己選擇「鐘個頭」進之前跌的很痛的這個show，經常都覺得自己選的不知道有甚麼魔咒都令我做得一把汗一把眼淚。可是這是雖然是我自己選的，卻托頼這次還好，也聽到了一些讓人感動得飛上天的說話，還御賜在lyric theatre裏喝紅酒！！雖然把這個show完成後還沒有砍到窮根（還扭到腳唉），但這實在是好幸福的一個production啊。

我發覺如果在跟的那個show的期間如果有人讚你漂亮的話，多數都在那個show裏都是有運行的了，因為走起運上來，是「有樣睇」的。真幸運在這年裏我有兩個production都聽到這句話。（雖然說我其中一個志願是當花瓶，但當一個有腦的花瓶也是不錯的。）

說回那個街show，雖然不能說很滿意，但難得地當了cue show那位，過了一下癮又沒啥大錯就好了嘛，而且我做喜劇喎！真的是太難得了。而且當dsm原來有好多事都不用我去理的（幫忙找sm的那一段除外），真的好爽！（我還在inter-com裏說這一句，弄得有人立即想闖上來觀眾席打我）

在以上的那一段時間裏，我的世紀大grad pro也悄悄地開始了（其真一點也不悄悄，只是有許多人想也沒想過我9月已經開始做事了）。發展到後期，也跟11月底的那個show變成雙線行車。

12月開始了我餘下的一個月intern，當dresser在office數衣服數到我快瘋了，加班加到想死，還經歷人生第一次overnight setup。說老實，我到現在仍不覺得我們有這麼多東西要setup，只能說我們都對處理衣服沒有經驗，我非常相信是有一些更聰明和efficient的方法。（只有說是太累沒想到）唯有是經一事長一智了。北上廣州住了三天兩夜的五星級酒店，還是完show後才享受到它的好啊，show之前跟本連飯也吃不下，我以後也知道了真的寧願沒飯吃也不要沒得睡。

剛好在聖誕前後加入這家公司，還騙來了參加公司聖誕派對的機會，氣氛好得連我也差點以為自己是剛留學回來說著流利英語的鬼妹呢。

於是我的2011年就在一個又一個好久不見的朋友飯局、別人的婚宴，還有沒啥事做的intern裏結束了。這一年要感謝的人好多，要數算的思典也即使借上別人的腳趾也數不完。今年的願望沒有另一個，就是請讓我順順利利，大步檻過的畢業就夠好了。如果不嫌麻煩的話，也請讓我拍一堆好好睇睇的畢業照片讓我將來再拿出來的時候仍有臉把它們翻看一下。（也順便讓我繼續向「成為有腦的花瓶」前進！謝謝！）