Splash of Color Pilot TV Diary - Day Fourteen

Alan Veitch — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 11:27:35 +0000

DAY FOURTEEN: Feb. 13. All too soon it’s time to leave Siem Reap and the enchanting temples so we set off on an “interesting” five-hour drive to film street scenes in Cambodia’s capital city Phnom Penh. The road to Phnom Penh is only just wide enough to cope with two way traffic, but with the sides of the road continually jammed with motor bikes and pedal cyclists, to say nothing of the constant problem of stray cattle suddenly appearing directly in front of us, we came perilously close to a head on collision at least 50 times. Perhaps “interesting” isn’t quite the right word to describe the trip!

The Completed Work

That night, with all the filming for the Angkor edition of Splash Of Color completed, we boarded a plane for Bangkok and then drove on to our home base in Pattaya. Now for a well earned break before we move to the next filming location. So it’s goodbye for the moment, but just keep hitting on the Splash Of Color website - we’ll keep you in touch with all developments in Robert Hagan’s exciting new TV series..

Splash of Color Pilot TV Diary - Day Thirteen

Alan Veitch — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 11:10:23 +0000

DAY THIRTEEN: Feb.12: At last we visit the famous Angkor Wat, largest and most impressive of all the Angkor temples. Angkor Wat was the only temple not engulfed by jungle growth in the four centuries following the collapse of the Angkor empire after losing a battle with Siamese (Thai) forces in the mid 14 century.

The Causeway To Angkor Wat

The temperature today is in the high 30s (Celsius) and it’s not too comfortable carrying heavy camera gear across Angkor Wat’s long bridges and open spaces, but we’re so overawed by the spectacle of the five towering spires and massive sculptures we don’t seem to notice the heat. Incidentally, these five towers are so revered by Cambodians and so symbolic of Cambodian history they are represented on the country’s national flag.

Splash of Color Pilot TV Diary - Day Twelve

Alan Veitch — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 10:34:57 +0000

DAY TWELVE: Feb. 11: At the Ta Som gate entrance, with the two monks in position in front of Jayavarman’s enigmatic smile, Robert commenced the painting and at the same time, with a piece-to-camera, he talked about the long and bloody history of the Angkor temples and how ruthless kings such as Jayavarman V11 captured countless thousands of slaves in their battle victories over neighboring states. Slaves were used to build the temples.

The Artist At Work

Filming The Monks At Angkor

Preparing To Paint

Robert also talked about the architectural, engineering and artistic skills involved in the creation of the temples and suggested that Angkor could rightly be considered as “The Athens Of South East Asia” during Jayavarman’s brutal but undeniably productive reign..

Gathering Speed

Onlookers Checking It Out

Painting Up A Storm

Splash of Color Pilot TV Diary - Day Eleven

Alan Veitch — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 09:56:32 +0000

DAY ELEVEN: Feb 10: With invaluable help from our erudite and multi-lingual Cambodian guide Mr.That Seng we visited a local monastry for Buddhist monks on what seemed for sure to be a Mission Impossible. Our mission was to try and persuade a couple of the monastry’s monks to come with us all the way out to the already chosen Ta Som location and pose in front of the Jayavarman face sculpture for Robert’s painting.

At The Wat

Meeting Monks At The Monastery

With Mr. That acting as interpreter we talked to the monks inside one of the monastry’s classrooms where, believe it or not, they were studying complex mathematics. After about an hour of discussions we felt we were getting nowhere, but then Mr. That suddenly informed us with a beaming smile that the monks had agreed to go along with us the following morning. Well done, Mr. That!

With Monks At Angkor

Splash of Color Pilot TV Diary - Day Ten

Alan Veitch — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:28:12 +0000

DAY TEN: Feb 9: Robert visits some of the biggest temples in the complex and quickly realizes they will make a difficult subject for the painting he has to make. The problem is that the architectural features of the big temples have been terribly distorted by the ravages of time, plus the horrendous damage caused by being swallowed up by the jungle.

What And Where To Paint…

What About Here?

However, when we were walking through a quite small building that is actually just a gate entrance set in the Ta Som temple’s surrounding walls Robert found his subject. He literally stopped in his tracks when he noticed the large and virtually undamaged 13th century sculptured face of Jayavarman V11, the Angkor king responsible for most of the temple buildings.

The Crew At Ta Som

Western Entrance Ta Som

Jayavarman’s enigmatic smile somehow reminded Robert of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and he immediately decided that the king would be just perfect for the upcoming painting.

The Chosen Spot….

Splash of Color Pilot TV Diary - Day Nine

Alan Veitch — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:20:17 +0000

DAY NINE: Feb 8 : Late last night we arrived at the friendly and very comfortable Golden Orange Hotel at Siem Reap, the closest city to the Angkor temples, and we were all so dog-tired the hotel’s large and genial American host Doug Lorber just about had to carry us over his broad shoulders to our rooms. But next morning, revived and refreshed after a hearty American-style breakfast, we packed our camera gear into a large combi-van and drove out for a study tour of the ancient temples.

Local Activity

These unique temples were erected all over a 400 square kilometers area from the 8th century to the 14th century and were rediscovered in the 1860s after being hidden by jungle growth for 400 years. The temples are adorned with giant faces of gods, goddesses and kings and exquisite bas relief stone carvings. If you’re a fan of Hollywood star Angelina Jolie you’ll be aware that these temples were the setting for action scenes in her 2000 blockbuster movie, “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”.

Unrelenting Jungle

Splash of Color Pilot TV Diary - Day Eight

Alan Veitch — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 10:41:46 +0000

DAY EIGHT: Feb 7 : Last day of shooting for this edition of the show and we’re visiting Bangkok’s famous Floating Market, one of Thailand’s major tourist attractions, and it’s a mind-boggling spectacle. The countless canoe-style crafts, laden with all kinds of meats, fruits and vegetables, clothing items and all manner of trinkets and novelties, somehow manage to edge their way through the narrow and incredibly crowded canals to conduct their trading activities, much the way they’ve been doing it for centuries. Except, of course, that tourists from all over the world now hire motorised canoes to photograph this timeless market scene and at times it seemed there were more tourists riding the canals than the traders!

Floating Market Bangkok

In the late afternoon we drove through the endless gridlocks of downtown Bangkok traffic to the city’s new airport and at 8 pm we finally boarded a plane for Siem Reap in Cambodia to start filming the temples at Angkor for Splash Of Color’s third edition.

Splash of Color Pilot TV Diary - Day Seven

Alan Veitch — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 09:24:22 +0000

DAY SEVEN: Feb 6: We drove north towards Bangkok to film the co-called Ancient City, another gift to the people of Thailand by Khun Lek Viriyaphan, who was also the financial benefactor behind The Sanctuary Of Truth project. The Ancient City is a vast collection in miniature of Thailand’s historical monuments, temples and cultural icons set out in 320 acres of beautiful parkland and lakes, roughly in the shape of Thailand itself. It’s definitely a must see for anyone visiting this country.

At Ancient City

Spectacular film footage again and The Ancient City section will be included in the opening scenes of this Sanctuary Of Truth edition of the show. Weather continues to be kind to us. We stayed overnight in a small hotel in an outer area of Bangkok near the Floating Markets which we’ll be filming tomorrow. You can find out more about The Ancient City here.

Filming Buddah Statue - Ancient City

Splash of Color Pilot TV Diary - Day Six

Alan Veitch — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 09:22:39 +0000

DAY SIX: Feb 5: Last day of the Sanctuary location shoot and weather again perfect as it has been all week long. We did more exterior work on all sides of the massive Sanctuary building, including several piece-to-camera inserts with Robert.

The Sanctuary of Truth

Generally, it all went well, but as it was such a pleasant, windless and sunny day there were jet skis galore whizzing about on the calm seas surrounding the Sanctuary promontory. The noise of the jet skis caused frequent cuts to shooting, but happily the jet ski maniacs all disappeared around lunch time, so we were at least left in peace for a couple of hours. All things considered, another fruitful day’s shoot.

Towards The Western Wing

Buddah Mountain

Splash of Color Pilot TV Diary - Day Five

Alan Veitch — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 08:51:58 +0000

DAY FIVE: Feb 4: Robert set up his easel on the northern end of the Sanctuary Of Truth building and commenced his painting. The sun is quite strong today so he had to have a specially made canopy rigged up over the easel to give him some shade while he works.

Bob Painting At The Sanctuary of Truth

Filming The Painting At Sanctuary of Truth

Inquisitive tourists kept peeking over his shoulder to look at the painting progress all day long, but he’s used to this and managed to keep slapping the paint on the canvas. Two art loving ladies from Denver,Colorado, stopped to have a peek and were both surprised and delighted when they immediately recognized Robert .They had read some of his art books and seen many of his paintings in Colorado art galleries.

With Supervisor Pong At The Sanctuary

The Sanctuary Of Truth is an extremely difficult painting subject, but Robert was quite pleased with his work on it today..

A Job Well Done