BILIK NO. 13 - EPISODE FIVE (FOTO)

Since RTM has not been promoting this series, or maybe they are of the opinion that Bilik No. 13 is no better than TV3's Kekasih Ku Seru, I have no choice but to plug and promote the series in my blog.
Tomorrow night (Thursday 9pm TV2) is the series's fifth episode. The title is Foto.
It stars Melissa Maureen and Aidyl Abadi. Yes, Aidyl Abadi my son (That's him in make-up on my right in the photo)The story is inspired by the famous Picture of Dorian Gray but with a twist.
Aidyl or Buddy, plays the role of the young director who is an upstart. He has a hobby - collecting antique picture frames and fotos.
He happens to come by a frame that appeals to him - with a picture of an old lady. Strange things begin to happen after he purchased the foto. Somehow, he begin aging rapidly. Stranger still, the old lady in the foto gets younger everyday.
Unknown to Buddy, the lady in the foto is a vampire or an aswang. She used to be a beautiful woman in the Philippines who was abused and ill treated by her aged husband. After many years of abuse, she hangs herself and her ghost is trapped in the foto.
Once Buddy brings the foto back to his apartment, the vampire is freed to feed on his soul.
Buddy gets older and she gets younger until she is released into the world once again.

The episode was shot in Melaka (Mini Malaysia). This is Aidyl's first lead role after having previously acted in minor roles in my other dramas. Can he act? You judge. It's a tough role.

My only disappointment in this episode is the special effects make-up. It was a mess.
Good effects make-up needs a lot of money and the series, cannot afford Hollywood class make up effects.

As it is, the second series was paid less than the first series. Weird huh? The first series became a success clocking in a million viewers which was why RTM ordered a second season. They even asked me to make it better and scarier. So I did. I spent a lot of money getting top artistes to act in the series. We shot in many locations KL, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan and Petaling Jaya. We lavished on some sets. And then in the last third of the shoot, fuel prices sky rocketed causing our funds to dry up very fast.
And yet, they paid us less at the end of the day. Meanwhile, untested new series by other producers get offered more.

Sakit hati betuiiii.