Say you don’t know how to do it now, so you run

Silly hole in my sock. 

After a long hiatus from video/acting, last week I managed to squeak my way into a Samsung promo video.  The last video I filmed was the Thai Airways TVC in May when I wed a beautiful Thai woman. Oh lets get the right song on first. 

Like a flash in the pan this job was booked. Within 2 days I had a one to one meeting with the director, and started filming. The shoot took place on Wednesday, a day that originally was supposed to be busy. But, as if there isn’t always a but, Mother Nature decided to sprinkle a dusting of the fantastic white stuff. My eyes began to glisten at the site of snow.

Unfortunately most Korean drivers (from what I see) don’t know how to handle the snow. Hammering the gas and spinning leading to jammed traffic. It doesn’t appear like threshold breaking is taught here either as I everyone’s tires are locking up. I have never seen so many car accidents in my life.

                                              

Zooming up and down, swirling around a camera shot past my face. “Be natural” I am instructed from my booker/translator as I deal with the fear of a camera coming within inches of my face and swinging back out. Maybe it was a bit of film rust? Is that what you call it when its been a while since you  have been in front of the video camera and need to shake off the cobwebs? Either way it took around 5 or 10 minutes for me to fully feel comfortable with the environment and movements I needed to make.  

And as quickly as the job was booked, I was done. With less than 40 minutes in front of the camera the director was ecstatic about my performance and that we had finished far ahead of schedule.  I had fun and can’t wait to do another, hopefully the next one is a big TVC though. 

All Day and All Night ****UPDATED****

 Very last minute last night I received a text about a job. I was wrong about fashion show being today, it was an event.  This morning my job was to walk around the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre and an MRT station to promote overnight service on Saturday. The reason, they are holding the Singapore marathon on Sunday. There are over 70 000 particpants this year doing various distances.

I met up with the organizers around 11, changed into my pajamas and picked up a sign. A counterpart was cast to work with me as well. A probably 18 or 19 year old Ukrainian girl that knew very little English. She was nice, very curious about me and where I am from, although very robotic.

After a few hours of that my day of work was done. Not to bad. Next on my list of tasks for the day was to record a video casting at the agency. I had an extra hour to kill and food to be eaten so I did that before showing up. Maxwell Hawker centre was only a 5 minute walk from the agency so that was my desired food vendor location.  I scoped out some food stands and found one that served Satay Bee Hoon. After some research (on google) I discovered that Bee Hoon is a vermicelli based dish, with a peanut sauce.  Upon my departure I scouted a sign that described some of the local dishes. To my pleasant surprise many are rice flour based. Singapore is getting easier for me every day as I learn.

A quick video and chat with the ladies at the agency and I was on my way home. I was curious about something I saw at Mr. Bean last time so I decided to check it out. 3 in 1 Rice Ball. Made with glutinous rice (basically overcooked rice) and filled in the middle with peanut butter. Hell yeah peanut butter. When I was eating I discovered that the wonderful woman behind the counter gave me 5 instead of the signs indicated 3. Nice!

I relaxed the rest of the afternoon and evening. Tonight will be my first bar experience in Singapore. Lucky for us tall, handsome, white guys, when we bring our comp cards to bars they give you VIP and complimentary food and beverage. Of course being in a foreign city drinking for the first time, I will keep things tame.

I almost forgot about these. The food descriptions: