Making The Monster Mart for "The Teenage Textbook Movie" (1998)

Found the above sketch / proposed exterior design for one of the locations for The Teenage Textbook Movie (1998), where all we were capable of doing was minor facade changes, including setting up of the "Monster Mart" signage (a cheeky nod to the production house producing the film; "Monster Films"), and minor setting props placed outside said exterior, including the "Drinks Vending Machine" - which was actually a sponsored item!

Practical lights (the blinking was not on purpose tho :p), but unable to dispense nor store any drink cans inside - might easier and lighter for deliveries from location to location - which we did not do (We scheduled the sponsor's movers in advance). You would be able to see the machine elsewhere in the film too - including the scene in PJC, before Kok Shuan "saves" Sissy Song in the toilet :)


Featured just above is a snap of the Art Department setting up for the shoot. We were able to schedule in a earlier setting (as the location had wanted to continue their daily business), and we could only do so, along with the entire crew call, just moments before we started shoot -how long I cannot remember now.

What I do remember was blowing a fuse over what I think was the signage not being completed, and we had to spend time sticking on the text on compress poly on set (lightweight enough for double-side taping and easier removal afters). I have no excuse for my unprofessionalism, except that this was my second feature film I art directed for, and my first credited as a "Production Designer" ... "Diva-dom" in lieu of "veiled anxiousness"? Aaaahhhh those heady foolish early days...


And seen above was the Art Department - also realising this was the only group photo I had of the team that I had (although I do not know of others).

Featured below are (specific) conti/continuity-polaroids (snapped off a iPhone and enhanced through image filters) for "Monster Mart"-setting scenes, where it was painfully obvious I did not cater to the existing hanging (postal) signage, obscuring the "Mart", along with my horrendous kerning:






(More BTS images of "The Teenage Textbook Movie" here and on Facebook)