Far Away trailer shoot at 西貢

Far Away trailer shoot was a fun shooting project on a little island off of Sai Kun.  It was an experimental film shoot spending one Sunday afternoon. The trailer was inspired by FAR AWAY By Caryl Churchill. The location was so amazing. The island had such a great characteristic. There were many abandoned houses and no one lives on the island. The atmosphere of the land was great for the story. Sense of lost, search, and unknown path... 

photo by Felix Chan

The island was facing another much smaller island and during the flow tide hour, the little path way appeared between them. It was such a magical moment to see it happen.  Breathing was all I could do. 

Cannot wait to see the trailer :)

Red Dragonflies in HKIFF

I am in the film called Red Dragonflies, which will be screening at HKIFF. :)) very exciting.  The whole thing was a very interesting experience for me.  It took me a while to figure out what my part meant to the story. The crazy thing was, the director had the story line, but not a script, which made me even more nervous to figure out if I am doing my part right... But Jie Kai wanted to get as naturalistic (conversations and reactions) with it  as possible. Now I can see why he chose to do it the way he did. 

I flew to Singapore for ten days, and though it was a short time, I met many warm great people there and experienced a bit of everyday Singapore life. They were some of the most surreal days of my life. I woke up, went to the Botanical Garden by myself, drew and painted. I hadn't had alone time for a long time, so it was funny and strange how I met many people on the street and had random conversations. An old gardener who told me his whole life story in Singapore, a lady in a restaurant, a group of sweet people who I met in the church,etc... Going to a place where I didn't know anyone, and working on a project that now will be screening in a theatre. I believe, anything can happen in life. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0Mtm-Eprmk

Red Dragonflies by Liao Jiekai

Along an abandoned railroad running through dense forest vegetation, housing backyards, and unseen settlements, three youths retrace a trail of iron and wood. At a different part of the island, Tienwei rekindles an old friendship with Rachel – a meeting littered with incongruence, absences and traces of childhood dreams. The title RED DRAGONFLIES is taken from an iconic song by The Little Tigers and uses the flight of the red dragonfly as a childhood icon, metaphor for the process of growing up and pursuit of dreams.

http://www.hkiff.org.hk/eng/film/title/34167-red-dragonflies.html

My Website

I made this website last year.  what do you think? 

http://www.wix.com/harukaostley/harukaostley

YOU ARE HERE

Again, a bit late update of my last year painting. ;) 

 WHITESPACE invited HK local artists to join the art exhibition  YOU ARE HERE. There were over 80 artists participated in this group exhibition under the theme of YOU ARE HERE.

So, I made a painting, dedicated to the watch-man who has his wooden-box stand near Hung Hom Station . He has no store, no roof, no set working hour posted, but yet everybody knew him in his neighborhood.  Gabe and I were struggling to find a place to fix a simple watch problem. After getting rejected from number of watch stores, finally we were directed to him by several people in the neighborhood. Finally we got to this watchman. In the end, he only charged $5.... His dedication, old-style skills and his personality definately struck me. Thank you! Watch-man. 

"YOU ARE HERE! "

(NO)REGIAN WOOD - Production photos

It was a long journey to explore my character Naoko for (No)regianWood. Even though it was a revival of my last production, there were many things that I discovered as an actor.  One thing I really learned from this experience was that I should not have any judgement for the character before I learn about them.  I remember my acting teacher once told us we cannot act "feeling".  A sad character or depressed character or to have any stereotyped impression of the character I thought was very dangerous. What do they believed in and the reason the way they act certain way, or say certain things are far more valuable things to explore. I used to carry my character in my personal life as well. So,  I spoke less in my off time when my character was someone who hides her feelings. Subconsciously probably I was trying to get used to the type of personality. But from this production, I realized that I do not have to act like a person who is depressed or have a problems. So in other words they were just being in the moment thinking a specific things which made them become quiet or depressed.  A super happy person can be depressed or speak less when they are upset, and thinking about a certain thing. But there are always reasoning behind. 

I discovered many things that she believed in.  In many ways it was not how I personally think in many things, but I understood her way of thinking as well.  I learned her idea, "understanding" of moral, social norm, rightious, friendship, love, death and life. The rest was simple. I didn't have to "act".  I was there in each scene, and I expressed what I believed in as the character, and reacted from the reaction of my partner.  So many crazy emotional roller coaster happened because of how vulnerable I was as the character. Many times it suprised me a lot as well. 

It was so blessing to have co-actors, director and the team who I could trust and get a lot of support and feedbacks from.  In a way, ending the production is to say good bye to your best friend you share the time with, including my character.  So a little bit sentimental. 

However, I am excited to move on to the next character! haha~  yes, no more train of thought to kill myself. I had enough death experiences on stage now.  Working on the film production next!!! Another exciting challenge ar~ 

will miss you all!