November 16 - 29, 2008 

After a long week of shooting everyone was quite happy to have the weekend to rest up. The crew members who lived in New Mexico took the opportunity to drive home (many of them live in Santa Fe) while the rest of us stayed in Albuquerque. Jackie caught up on some sleep, but as soon as he woke up he was off to plan and rehearse some action scenes at a nearby location. Jackie met with Brian and the American stunt team to discuss the action for the upcoming scenes. It is fascinating to watch the process that the guys go through to figure things out. Since I can't show you any video of the meeting, I will try to describe how it works.

Planning the Action Sequences

Brian (the director) begins by walking Jackie around the set and describing the storyline of the scene they need to plan the action for. Since the walk through takes place on location, Jackie is able to assess the environment and begin to think of action that fits both the storyline and the surroundings. While Brian is talking, Jackie's face is a study in concentration. He's thinking, planning, and working through his ideas. If you chose this particular moment to talk to Jackie, I can absolutely guarantee that he wouldn't hear a word you said to him. Even if he were looking you right in the eyes, he would not see you. All he would see was what was going on in his head.

As Jackie and the stunt team walk through the set with Brian, you would be able to see Jackie's ideas come together and soon he would begin to describe them to Brian. You'll be surprised to learn that the final action sequences that you see on the screen in the finished film are extremely close to Jackie's vision developed during these very early planning sessions. The reason for this has to do with Jackie's extensive experience making action films. He knows what is possible, what works, and what he wants. Therefore the entire process is quite efficient.


Once Jackie and the team were done planning the action, Jackie wanted to go shopping to one of his favorite places in America - Lowe's Home Improvement Center.


You might wonder what it's like to go shopping with Jackie and I will tell you that it's not any different from a shopping trip you or I would go on. In fact, when Jackie is not on a film set or making appearances, his life is much like yours or mine. He likes to hang out with friends, watch television, go shopping, exercise, take a walk....all the things that regular people do. In fact, since Jackie spends so much time working and doesn't take any vacation time, he tends to spend his leisure time relaxing in very casual ways instead of jetting off to exotic locales.

In the evening we went to dinner at Chopstix; Jackie had invited some of the cast and crew to join us. By now our group was a regular fixture at the restaurant and they knew what Jackie liked, so it was just like eating at home.

After dinner Jackie got it in his mind that he wanted to go to the supermarket. However, he didn't seem to be in the mood for dealing with the inevitability that people would recognize him and so he told us to go without him; he would return to the apartment. As it turned out, Jackie's desire to go shopping was greater than his need to avoid being recognized, and at the last minute he decided to come with us after all.

Since it was relatively late in the evening, there weren't that many people in the store, so we stayed for quite some time, walking up and down the aisles, looking at all the different products. For most people, the idea of spending time in a supermarket might not seem like fun, but for Jackie it was quite relaxing and enjoyable.


Alan and the Social Security Office:  Who's On First?

After a relaxing weekend it was back to work on Monday morning. However, while the rest of my colleagues went to the set, I spent most of the day at the local Social Security office with JC Stunt Team member Alan Ng. Although Alan speaks a bit of English, he needed someone to help him deal with the Social Security administration, something that's difficult to do even if you're a native English speaker.

I couldn't have asked for a friendlier guy to spend the day with. The first time I met Alan was on the set of The Forbidden Kingdom, and I saw him a few times at our office in Hong Kong. He even came to a couple of our Mandarin classes (Jackie has a tutor come to our office so staff members can learn Mandarin). Of course I'd gotten to know him a bit during the filming of The Spy Next Door, but this was the first time that we'd spent so many hours one on one with no one to help us communicate if there was a problem.


If you are familiar with American comedy team Abbott and Costello, then you probably know the "Who's On First?" routine. (It's a comedy sketch that is all about misunderstandings in English.) Well, if you know this routine, you will have some idea of what the conversation was like between Alan and me as we tried to find our way from the apartment to the Social Security office and then to figure out all his paperwork once we'd gotten there. If you've never seen the sketch, just imagine trying to communicate with someone you met on the side of the road in....say.....Mars. (You can see the Abbott and Costello skit on YouTube. Just search for "Who's On First.")

Nevertheless, we had a good time practicing our respective skills in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English.  After spending the day at the SS office, we went back to the hotel since it was nearly night time and filming would be over soon. While waiting to hear from Jackie about dinner plans, I took a walk over to the ABQ Uptown mall; a place that Jackie had grown to love. The November air was chilly and the sun had set when I finally met up with the others to have dinner at one of the restaurants at ABQ. Jackie always invites different people to have dinner with him -  he feels that it's a good way to get to know each other. Being on the set and sitting around a dinner table are two very different situations after all, and our nightly dinners in Albuquerque were always wonderful gatherings.

Albuquerque Weather

The weather in New Mexico is beautiful and after you get used to the dry air (this took us about a week), it's hard to find anything to complain about. During the November daytime, it can be quite warm, depending on whether you're standing in the sun or in the shade. As soon as the sun goes down the temperature drops dramatically. 


When Jackie realized how cold it got in New Mexico, he called the Hong Kong office and had them send hats, coats, and gloves for the cast and crew. He also had them send dozens of the Jackie Chan Design stunt bags. Jackie observed each of the crew members to see what kind of bag would be best for them and then gave them the one that was most useful. (I will show you photos of these in the next Scrapbook.)


The filming location for the next few days was a very large building at an abandoned rail yard. Because the sun cannot warm the cavernous building, during the day it feels exactly like a refrigerator inside! Many people complained about the raw cold in the building but I never once heard Jackie complain. Come to think of it, I've never heard Jackie complain about any of the environmental conditions he encounters on film sets. When we were filming The Forbidden Kingdom in China, we dealt with incredible heat and humidity in the bamboo forest and suffocating dust in the temple sound stage. Jackie never complained - he just dealt with it. If it was hot, he sat in the shade and fanned himself. If it was dusty, he wore a mask over his nose and mouth. In New Mexico it was the same situation. If Jackie was uncomfortable, no one knew about it.


Actually, Jackie is kind of a curiosity when it comes to temperature. He is one of those people who generates heat - - kind of like a human radiator. In the mornings when Walt picked us up to drive to the set, Osumi, Jack, and I would be wearing heavy coats, scarves, and hats while Jackie wore a light t-shirt. One morning it was so chilly in the car that I had to say something to Jackie about what he was wearing; I asked him if he was really comfortable without a coat. He grabbed my hand and held it flat about an inch over the bare skin on his arm. "You feel that?" he asked. "I am a radiator."  And it was true. Jackie was warm as toast and was giving off heat even in the cold car.

After a few days of filming at the abandoned rail yard, the production moved on to a housing development in Rio Rancho, about 10 or 15 miles from our apartments. This is the location we would spend most of the next month at. I was happy to move to this location for several reasons. First, it was nice to settle into one place and establish more of a routine. Second, the production rented four of the model houses in the development - two for filming and two for the use of the crew members. This allowed me to set up my laptop in a more convenient place and therefore it was easier to do my work. Up until this point I had been setting up my "traveling office" wherever I could find an Internet connection - - Jackie's trailer, crew trailers, the makeup trailer. It was nice to be able to use the office in one of the model homes. I kept a radio (walkie-talkie) with me so I could keep track of what was happening on the set and when I should go outside to take photos of something interesting that might be going on.


On the movie set, the communication between crew members takes place almost entirely over the radios (walkie talkies). The production assistants, assistant directors, and other crew have a radio with an earpiece and microphone and they talk back and forth constantly. Listening to these communications is quite educational (and often amusing) and it's something Jackie liked to do while he wasn't on the set. While he was relaxing in his trailer between takes, he often kept the walkie talkie nearby to listen in and keep tabs on what was happening and when he'd be needed on the set. Occasionally he would pick up the radio and talk to a startled crew member:

CREW MEMBER:  Anyone got a 20 on Jackie Chan? (Translation:  Does anyone know where Jackie is?)

JACKIE:  Jackie Chan is in his trailer watching television. He's a very lazy guy.

CREW MEMBER: (Recognizing Jackie's voice) Uh....okay....copy that.

Or:

JACKIE (on radio):  Jackie needs ice cream.

CREW MEMBER:  Oh...uh...craft services!!?  Jackie needs ice cream!

Of course Jackie was just joking with everyone (we all know he's not lazy and although he loves ice cream, he wouldn't interrupt crew communications to demand it).  If you know much about Jackie, you know that he is completely devoted to playing pranks, making jokes, and generally keeping everyone around him in stitches of laughter.


So we spent the rest of the week up at the development in Rio Rancho. The local high school was nearby and every day a group of kids came over and stood on the edge of the location trying to get a peek at Jackie and the other actors who were running around the set. A few of the students were rewarded for their patience and got to see Jackie scooting by on his Segway PT. Several times Jackie stopped to say hello to the kids and even took some photos with them.


Waiting, Waiting, and More Waiting 

During the filming of any movie, there is a lot of down time; time spent waiting while cameras, lights, or props are set up. There is also something that the crew has to do for many scenes that are shot and this takes a lot of time.  Picture this:

Jackie is filming a scene with another actor in the living room set and the two of them are having a conversation. The cameras and lights are set up so that they are pointing directly at Jackie, looking over the shoulder of the person he's talking to. Once the scene is filmed so that we see Jackie's face, the entire set up must be turned around to film the other actor or actors.

During the down time, many stars go back to their trailers and wait for the call to return to the set. Jackie tends to stay on the set and visit with crew members or hang out with the stunt guys. Of course, if there is a long period of time when Jackie isn't needed on the set, he will go back to his trailer and take a nap, watch television, record his diary, or take care of other business. So if you look at the photos from the filming and see people playing soccer, riding bikes, eating, or playing around with their cell phones, you know that it's just one of those times when that particular person is not busy. The people on a movie crew work very hard and certainly put their time in. Some days on a movie set last longer than 14 hours!


Weekend

Over the weekend Jackie spent a lot of time catching up on sleep - - it had been a very busy week with many late nights and early call times. On Sunday we took a walk around a nearby mall, but Jackie was not really in the mood for buying anything and we spent most of the time window shopping. We ended up in the Borders bookstore where we had coffee and browsed around.



Short Work Week and Thanksgiving Weekend

It was hard to believe, but we had been in New Mexico for a month and it was time for the Thanksgiving holiday. After a short work week, on the last day before the holiday we held a Five Dollar Friday (even though it was actually Wednesday). Incredibly, the same thing happened that had occurred for all of the other Five Dollar Friday drawings we'd had during this filming. This time it was Alina who, with her eyes closed, reached into the bucket and drew the same names that had already been drawn over and over again. There were over a hundred people on this film set, yet the names that kept being drawn were those of Jackie's staff, and certain crew members. It was very mysterious.


Unfortunately for Jackie, he had many commitments in China, so he would be flying back there while the rest of us stayed in New Mexico. Since many of the cast and crew members were away from their families for the holiday weekend, several impromptu gatherings were arranged to celebrate the holiday. Jack Tu and I joined Will Shadley and his parents along with Alina and her mom and had dinner with the assistant director Scott August and his family at their house in Albuquerque. It was a great day and a great holiday weekend. Since Jackie was back in China, the rest of us were on our own and as you can guess, we spent much of that time catching up on our sleep and taking a look at the sights in Albuquerque. Poor Jackie had to fly to LA, then to Hong Kong, then on to Guangzhou, Beijing, and back to Guangzhou before returning to New Mexico for the continuation of filming.

Here are a few photos from Thanksgiving. Sorry that there are none of Jackie....he was in China working hard!