Mindcrime and I were walking to the MRT station ye…
Mindcrime and I were walking to the MRT station yesterday afternoon when we noticed that several TV satellite vans were parked out in front of Sogo Department Store. Cameramen and reporters wandered around the front of the store. I asked one of the tech guys what was going on. “They might shut down the store,” he told me. They were waiting for the event like the media jackals they are. I’ll bet they hoped to catch scenes of people jumping from windows or the like. Mindcrime was actually thinking about going in the store with the hope that he would be quarantined for two weeks with all of the Sogo perfume ladies, the elevator ladies, a DVD store and some choice TV and stereo systems.
Turns out a couple of people with SARS had shopped at the store, or had been there, or something. I haven’t been in there in weeks in any case (too expensive). No closure order has been issued so far, though. I should add in light of my last rant that the government and lack of enforcement on their part is equally to blame for the disease’s spread, not just The Stupid, but all The Inept Government concerned only with politics. This is a real test of governmental efficiency and social education, and Taiwan, which was given a real good chance of avoiding this thing early on, is now proving how dismally it can perform in both areas by doing nearly everything wrong.
We had to go over the old part of the city, near the train station though, for lunch at the Curry House (where they sprayed our hands) and to buy a cable so I can transfer raw footage to Mindcrime’s Powerbook for safekeeping on a DVD or two. I emailed some stills from the stuff we’ve taken so far so that he can make a webpage for promotion. I’ll let you know when it’s up. For some reason, Final Cut Pro captures the footage with all the audio off by at least a second. Premiere doesn’t do this, thank god, and it’s easy enough to fix, but it remains a curious development.
I went up in the mountains behind Tianmu yesterday afternoon in search of a little platform truck to use for filming this weekend, but I didn’t find anything cheap enough to use, really. It was a nice ride, though, as the weather yesterday was brilliant and hot. I might have to take some time off work tomorrow to search around some more, or else we might end up using Tall Paul’s ride. I’d rather have a truck, but we’ll see what I can find. This weekend is by far the most challenging part of the shoot; just thinking about it makes my head hurt. It’s going into battle with Mr. Murphy, since so many things could go wrong. When I’m on the set I’m concentrating so much on just getting the shot I have very little time to think about actual directing, which is worrying when we’re pressed to time and everyone’s standing around waiting for me to pronounce a shot done or not. I’ll be very happy to have this shoot behind me and in the can.
I have to return to old town tonight to get another battery and exchange one faulty one for a new one. So many things to do, but it beats staying at home and worrying about SARS all day. It’s raining now, but as usual no clue what the weather will be like over the weekend.
