Pudu Jail Demolition - 21.06.2010

"It stood for over a century and it took minutes to tear it down..." says SapphireBombay .

Our government decided not to keep Pudu Jail as one of the heritage site although it is more than 100 years old. The Pudu Jail wall, stretching about 300 meters, was demolished at 10pm last night.

I think it is such a waste to tear down the wall, knowing that it was once the world longest mural painting on the prison wall, painted by 3 prisoner during that time. At least I think they should preserve part of the wall because it has such a great history. As for the prison itself, I always thought it is a nice scene for a movie, it looks old and creepy, but now I would never have the chance to be filming in it anymore.

Last night, after I heard about the news, I decided to head over to Pudu Jail with my 550D to film part of the demolition, no tripod, no tracking, no steadicam this time... but just a camera and a lens, to capture what witnessed from my eyes. Leaving its memories and the last few pictures of the wall into a short video.

The lighting condition at the main entrance area was very poor, I got to set my camera ISO up to 3200, even 6400 with 2.8 f-stop. But when I moved to the side where they actually started the demolition, because of the spot lights, the ISO could decrease all the way down to 100, which is alot better. At there, you can see so many photographers and videographers making their chance to get the last coverage of the walls and broken pieces. Big cameras, small digicams, camera lights, external mic... lots of equipments, then I started to regret I should at least bring a monopod to get some steady shots.

After the shoot and supper with Gary, I reached home about 2am. Immediately I proceed with the editing and it's about 6am in the morning I uploaded it onto the web. And now I feel so grateful that this clip has been spreading so widely in the facebook and twitters, receiving lots of comments like I never had from all my previous videos.

THANK YOU very much! Not only for liking my works, but more importantly to spread this to the world, and to many many people who has or has not realized this action of government, who grew up walking by pass the wall, and who would remember the name... Pudu Jail (1895-2010).



Some of the video snapshots:












Shot entirely with 1 Canon 550D + 17-50mm f2.8 Tamron.
Edited and color graded in FCP.

Youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC_ok-NxWw

D1 Production facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/D1-PRODUCTION/117380118293932