The "confabulation" shot!

Yahoooo!!!! I am now living my single life again. Well, I'm doing nothing wrong, man! I'm a Vietnamese girl and I'm just doing what my Uncle Ho has taught this nation: "Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom!"

Making detail plans for what to do in the next 4 months, I found myself getting more and more excited even I havent done anything yet! Well, first of all, I will quit this stupid hotel that I been working for the last 2 months!

A trip to Laos is being waited as I know for sure that I will have a lot of fun there. Come on ladies, let's check these Laos guys out! And it looks like the biggest reason for me to come back to Laos is their silk! I remember the silk scarfs that I bought when I came to Laos last time! They are so nice and soo cheap too! I bought 4 of them and now I have none! One is for Rose, one for my grand-ma, one for my sis and one for Donna, Scotty's mom! I want to have at least one of them or if I can, I would buy one each colour. Funny reason ehh?

Well, then after the Laos trip, I will be working with James Carman, the photorapher from NY. The first time I worked with him, I had no idea who he was. Thanks to Google, I found out that he is a huge name in photography in NY.

He's having an idea of coming to Vietnam to do a pirate shot! Dont go, stay with me!

He came here last time to do a talent survey to see what Vietnam can offer him to do this shot. We met a whole bunch of people and worked a lots out even though I had no connections nor experience in this industry. When I came to pick him up at the airport, the only thing I know is he is the photogarpher and he wants to do a pirate shot! That's it!

About him? He has no more than me. He has only one thing in his mind! He's doing a pirate shot! That's it! So here we come, the photographer sitting on the front chair and talking like hell about what he wants to do, without knowing that his assistant (it's me here) has no idea what to do now as she's never done this before. Anyway, thanks to the technology, I made some phone calls and in the afternoon, we were flooded with meetings and a whole bunch of models.

Oh God!!! I am very short! That is to be honest to admit! And now I'm working with models. They are freaking tall, man! Dont ask me to describe it! I jsut felt my neck so sour after a working day ( for looking up for a long time!)

Anyway, I managed to get things work around the project without any connection but the mobile phone. It's fun working with him though as he really knows how to see if that make-up artist or that stylist or that model is good or not. One more thing I like from him is that he really shows the respect to me. Whenever a meeting was done, he always asked me what my thinkings and feelings were about it and about the model or that person we met in that meeting.

He also always consulted my ideas while we were working together. We went to Cat ba Island to look for boats to play the pirate boat. However, there was no boat which is old and beat-up and fucked up enough to be the pirate boat. So we ended up looking for boat which has that traditional and old looking and put some shit, err.... I meant mud, on it to make it look as dirty as we can. The theme is the pirate of 17th century. ........

Now, talking about personel, we are still looking for actors to play the following characters: Captain, first mate, sailors, witch, beautiful got captured, a monkey and a parrot.

Ofcourse, we are looking for people to play human characters only and we are gonna hire the monkey and the parrot from a circus in town. No worries!

Now, everybody, if you think you have enough evil inside of you, give me a call for a casting then we can work together for this shot.

Ahh, talking about James's first trip to Vietnam for this shot, he met a very bad and funny cultural shock on the last day in Vietnam.

This is the story. We were on the way to a meeting and looking around the streets, we saw a little girl who looks like a student in her school uniform biking to school. Stopped the car, jump off the car, stopped the girl, talked with her about our reason to be here. And told her that we were looking for actors for the shot and asked her if we could take her to a place to have a mini shot with her. ( ofcourse not immediately) She gave me her number and added that"You gotta talk with my parents first!" Sure! No problem! You are under 18, so ofcourse we will have to talk with your parents first.

We left for Cat Ba Island for two days for the location and boats scout and came back for more meetings. In the middle of the day and from the middle of nowhere, James told me in the most spontaneous voice I ever heard: :"I want to shoot that girl!"

Ok, ok!! Let's find her then! I called her. No answer. I called her again! No answer again. I told James that she might be busy and she didnt pick it up. Fine, we have so many other things to do anyway! Back to a whole bunch of meetings, James seemed to be obssesed by that girl. So when we were done with the meetings, he asked me to call her again. So I called again. No answer! Again!

When we were thinking of another choice ( another girl, if we could find one nice looking enough), Linh - the student girl called me in my cell. Just like finding a gold mine, we agreed to come over to her house right away. To talk with her parents!

The mother was cool but she insisted that we gotta talk with the father as well. Got into her house! A nice house actually!!! And the shock came when James asked the parents to sign in the agreement about how and what James is gonna do with her daughter's pictures.

"The only condition for you to take pics of my daughter is that you have to ensure our family that you will not use any of her iamges for political purposes against Vietnam in any context!" her father said, as solidly as the wall of brick!

Oh my God!!!! I soooo wanted to burst into laugh but ofcourse I couldnt!!! Looking at James, the only thing I could find on his face was his mouth opening as wide as it could and not a word said! I know he's experiencing a freaking huge cultural shock. Take it easy, man! It's the first but not the last one in this communist country!

"I myself would never even think of this, either before or now or later!" James's surprise came out finally.

Anyway, after a few minutes, with my "translation skills", they agreed with each other of the shot. That the mother will follow the daughter and be with her when we do the shot to make sure that there would be nothing bad could ever happen to the princess. That James would not ever use any of her pics for political purposes. However, we made one thing clear with the family that we would not be able control how the buyers would use these pics later ( if the pics are interesting enough to get sold!!!)

Fine! The father got what he wanted and so did James. So..... what the hell are you waiting for? Let's do it!!!

Here we come, the rice filed on the way to airport. I managed to hire an old Vespa for the theme of "confabulation". He saw the rice field with some advertisement signs on the way to the hotel from the airport, so the idea of "confabulation" came! That's it! Oh God!!! Sorry my beloved artists but I dont think I would be interested in an artist in a romantic way! Too much up and down with all the suddens!

So, we headed to the airport from the Vespa shop with the girl sitting in the Mercedes with her mom following us.

After figuring out a way to get down to the path next to the rice field from the high way, we found out that the path was not really connected to the rice field, or in other words, there was a small river between the rice field and the path. So! Now what? How to get in?

The wind was pretty strong and the words flied pretty fast. In about 10 minutes, we had about 50 people stopping and starring at us like we are the craziest people in the world that they ever seen in their lives. Fine! The dedication for art needs some emotional support to get the feelings anyway !!!

But, still, how to get the girl and the Vespa into the rice field? Ahh, there we go. Some nice and "strong" looking guys are in the crowd starring at us too. Why dont you use your girlie attraction, Moony????

My soft voice and "dental" smile made them agree to take the vespa into the rice field through a very very narrow path connected to it which was a few hundred metres away from where we were standing.

Now, show time!

Shoot, shoot, shoot James. Oh yeah!!! Yeah!!! Smile, girl! Talk to the phone! Yeah, standing in the middle of the rice field, riding the old Vespa and talking the cell? That's the " confabulation" we been talking about!

Ok, now, let's change some other costumes to make it more interesting! What???? In the middle of the rice field with almost two hundred eyes starring at her and not a fitting room around? Out of your mind? Pervert? Sexual pics photographer?

Right!! Nothing above was true as we got into the truck which was used to take the Vespa here and get changed in there.

When I was almost done helping her with the dress, we heard someone shouting for " the in-charge person" (it's me!!!!) for the shot!

Got out of the truck, found two guys with red faces and alcoholic breathe waiting for me. Great! The care from local authorities!

"Yes! It's me who is in-charge of this shot! How can I help you, sirs?" - the softest voice inside of me said.

A half of second later, I felt a little shower on my face at the same time hearing the thunder from the man standing in front of me ( I'm talking about his saliva splashed into my face like a shower rain!) : "How dare you shoot on the rice field here? Where is your permission paper work? Do you have one? What advertisement company is this? What are you doing this for?"

Ok, ok!!! Five questions at once! A little too many! But I can handle them all! No worries!

The softest voice got job to do again: " Oops!! Soo sorry that we did not go through the local authorities first about this. I know, I know that we should have talked with you about this before doing anything on the rice field. We were totally wrong! Well, actually, we are not doing any thing for any advertisement company as you thought. The truth is this little girl is going to study abroad in the next few months and she is from a very wealthy family. Her parents want to keep some of her pics then they would not be too sad for being far away from her daughter! So please do understand that it's just the love from the parents to the daughter. There's nothing related to any commercial purpose as you thought."

"Well, well, if it's true like that, that's ok. But you stepped on the rice field of a farmer, you would have to pay for the damage!"

"Sure sure! We will work with the owner of the field about the compensation! No worries! Where is the owner, sir?"

Here come the owner of the rice field! A farmer! He ran like hell to us, screaming like his father just felt down the will in the yard in front of his house "Oh my God! My crop! My crop! My rice! You gotta pay! You gotta pay!"

Dont be hurry here people! He's not that poor and the rice field does not decide whether his family will be able to stay alive or not. The only thing here was he wanted to get as much money as he could out of us! A funny and sad fact!

After a screaming, and then a crying and then a shouting, all from him, we came to the agreeement that we gotta pay 200.000 VND ( about 12 bucks) for the damage, not for the whole field as we were standing on not even a quater of the field!

I did not have a chance to breath out after the shit I just handled ( then James could have his mind free to work on the art)!!!Exactly one minute after giving the owner of the rice field the money, he ran like hell (again) to me, sputtered in a mumble voice:

" My wife, my wife.....!!!"

Thinking that he didnt want to get his wife upset about the damage of the rice field and about him getting not much money out of us, I interupted in the middle of the sputter " then I would tell her that I gave you 300.000, not 200.000, right?"

Another shower dropped on my face when he showed his emotion and anger at my answer "Noooooooo! You would tell her that you gave me only 100.000, not 200.000, ok? If you say 300.000, where can I get the rest of 100.000 to give her? But this way, I can have 100.000 for the beer or the wine for few days! Stupid!"

Hahahhahaha!!!! Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!!! Hahahahhahah!!! I cant! Sorry but I just cant hold it anymore! Ok ok ok ! I'm gonna tell your wife whatever you want! Poor guy with the tiger wife!

Well, the laugh was followed by a sad thinking that VNese people are too controling to each other and there's no freedom at all in this country. No wonder why people lie to each other even about such small things.

The trust is like a crystal vase, soo beautiful and soo breakable! And soo expensive to get too! And no one in this world can invent any kind of glue which can help to put the broken pieces of trust together again. The scar will be there.

That's it!

Well, anyway, had a lot of fun working with James. Lots of things learnt, by eyes and by heart! He's gonna be back here late May for the real pirate shot. I will be busy like again! Well, much better than sitting around and doing nothing.

Now, get a sleep and get a mental rest too. Things been sooo crazy and sometimes out of control. Me deserve a deep, long sleep.

Nighty nite!