Jez and I went up to Tianmu on Thursday morning to…
Jez and I went up to Tianmu on Thursday morning to see just what is up with Mister Donut. I brought my video camera with me for interviews. As usual, there was a line stretching down the block, even though it was a school/workday. So I started asking people what I wanted to know, mainly whether they’d had the donuts before, what was so good about them, and didn’t they have anything better to do?
An employee, a young girl with a microphone tasked with keeping the line orderly, warned the would-be customers of our presence. “Look out, there are two foreigners with a video camera. If you don’t want to be filmed, please turn away.” It because immediately apparent that she was the one who didn’t want to be filmed. As we approached the beginning of the line she strode up to another employee, a guy stationed just outside the doorway, and said, “They can’t film here. Do they know they can’t film here?” I was thinking of challenging her, as I was standing on a public sidewalk and could film any damn think I pleased, but we just nodded and went to another section of the line with our questions. At one point we actually cornered one person who had actually bought donuts, and so I got a look at them. They look and smell really good, I must say. I would have bought a couple off of her if I didn’t think the crowd would have rioted.
What did we find out? Most of the people in line had not indeed ever had the donuts before, which is amazing since they place has been open for over a month, and the lines have been just as long each and every day since. A couple of people had had the donuts before and liked them enough to line up again. Most of the students readily admitted to skipping class, and many of the older people were skipping work as well. One answer I hadn’t expected but makes sense was “I’m getting them for a friend/client/family member.” This came up surprisingly often, and I wondered if it were true, or if they were embarrassed to be caught standing in line for half a day. I tried to get the manager to admit arranging things so that the line would be as long as possible, but he wasn’t having any of it and kept insisting that it had to be that way.
I haven’t looked at the footage yet, but there was a lot of wind and most of the audio is most likely unusable. Still, I might be able to put a li’l sumptin together from what I do have. I thought it might be nice to invest in a wind sock for the camera mic, but I went to the digital video expo today at the TWTC and found they were really expensive. NT$2700. They also had 16:9 adaptors for NT$30,000, steadicams for NT$18,000 (NT$45,000 with the flexible arm) and cranes for NT$110,000. I had contacted the guy at the booth before about equipment before deciding it was too expensive, and he said he liked my movies, at least the bits that he saw on the website.
This weekend’s forecast: busy as usual. We’re filming the kitchen scenes we didn’t get last weekend at Bongos early tomorrow morning. Then in the afternoon/evening MBR practice at the Sandcastle. Harry wants to go to the hot springs later tomorrow night, but I’m not entirely sure I want to go. Then on Sunday afternoon we’re meeting for more filming. And, of course, there are people coming to look at the apartment.
