My Camera Crew

I’m a producer in the media line. And I have a mad camera crew. Most of them are in their late thirties or in their forties. Now, my camera crew has a serious tendency to do crazy things.

For example, during our most recent shoot for the National Parks Board, we were at a particular playground at Punggol that area. After shooting some shots, we were about to leave the place. Then, my cameraman, whose nickname is Ah Pek, saw a slide. Ah Pek wanted to go down the slide with the camera so that he could get a particular view. Now, the thing is this. The slide is a covered slide and frankly, I didn’t think at that time that the Ah Pek could slide down without help. After all the slide is meant for KIDS!!!!!. I wasn’t the only one who thought so. And then, one of the crew, I don’t know who it was, actually suggested that I, me, the traveling turtle, go down the slide with the camera and they’ll pull my legs from the bottom so that I could slide down… I was like, no way José!!!!!!!!

My boss used to work at a major cable company located locally. She was telling me about her experience with the camera crew.

There was one time whereby my boss had to go to Thailand’s Chiva-Som for a shoot for her company. Apparently. Chiva-Som is this world famous luxury health resort. This place is sooooo not cheap, as 1 night at Chiva Som will set you back by about US$1000. Yuppers, it’s a playground for the rich and the famous.

Anyhoos, the camera crew and my boss were at the world’s most expensive detox place. The food that they had there was pretty bad. There was no meat at all, only vegetables. And I heard that the portion was small. So, when the crew saw what they had to eat, they were pretty miserable at every meal.

One of the shots that Ah Pek had to capture was this huge statue of Buddha. When the day had come to shoot Buddha (pun not intended), Ah Pek told my boss to go and do some spa thing; go, relax and have a good time. My boss had worked with them for a rather long time, hence she knew that she could trust them.

A few hours passed. My boss had come out from her relaxing spa experience. Some of the Chiva-Som’s distressed staff came and told my boss to quickly come with them. All they could say to her was: “Madam, quick, come… Buddha’s head.” They went to where the crew where and my boss nearly got a heart attack.

Ah Pek and some of his assistants were on top of Buddha’s head.

Seeing that, my boss just started screaming that them, telling them to quickly get their backsides down.

The crew then started to scurry down, but halfway through, they stopped. Then my boss asked them: “why did they stop?” Then Ah Pek said that having eaten only vegetables during mealtimes, they suddenly feel very weak and without strength.

By the time the crew got down, my boss was pretty miffed with them, as Buddha is a religious figure in Thailand. When questioned, the crew said that they did pray before they climbed onto Buddha…

All my boss could do was shake her head and roll her eyes.