Rebel With a Cause - Isara doc - Official Announcement

2 questions what did they do with the drapery? I noticed in the bottom picture all you see is the metal frame.
How does this funeral compare to a poor local's?
Thanks and keep the faith!
 
They took the draperies and decorations down before lighting the fire. The funeral was similar to an average Thai funeral; a ceremony with the monks, moving the casket, throwing coins (possibly as a way to show "you can't take it with you"), and then the cremation. There are very few tears shed at these funerals. This one even had an ice cream vendor outside.
 
I was one of the few who were crying, but what was I supposed to do when I was being attacked by a dog? The thing had hold of my pants leg like I was the training dummy for the K-9 Unit. :undecided

ok, ok, I am SOOOOORRY I kicked the dog down the hill during the funeral, but I was rolling tape!
 
Haha, was the dog alright? I can just see it now...

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EXT. THAI FUNERAL - DAY

THARTLEY: "No! You will not get in the way of this shot! Stop it! SIT! SIT! BAD DOG! It is waaaay to hot out here for me to deal with this, now leave before I kick you!"

Dog refuses to disengage. THARTLEY resorts to acting on her threats and kicks the dog clear down the hill. Confused, a group of crazed funeral-goers rush THARTLEY in an attempt to solve the mystery of what the hell all the rukus is during their time of mourning.

FUNERAL-GOER:" What is going on here?"

THARTLEY: "He made like he was gonna bite me, so I made like I was gonna kick 'im and...I just done it, George...I just done it!"

The Funeral-Goers stand shocked, not understanding THARTLEY'S American Cultural reference to John Steinbeck's OF MICE AND MEN. THARTLEY casually scuries away to catch the remainder of the services on video which will enable her to post some still shots on the web so as not to make NICK angry because he doesn't know what is happening in Thailand.

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I would like to apologize for the previous display. Sometimes Nick-The-Writer over powers Nick-The-Casual-Poster and that is what happens. Anyway, on a side note: much to my dismay, ISARA seems to be down! :(

EDIT: NEVERMIND, I JUST CHECKED AND THE SITE IS BACK UP! :)
 
One of the "storylines" we are developing is of Gik and Guk, they are young scholarship recipients who have just been able to register for school for the first time in two years. PK met the family, which solely consists of the dad and the two little girls since the mother is gone and out of the picture, when the father was collecting empty plastic bottles on Mee Chai Road in front of the Isara Learning Center. After a short conversation, PK told the dad that Isara could try to help get the girls back into school if he wanted. And on Tuesday this week, I was able to shoot almost a full day of the registration process....getting them signed up for school, buying their books, and going with the dad to buy the girls' uniforms. It was a pretty emotional day overall, as the girls, ages 8 and 11, have really only been around each other and their dad for so long. It has been slow, but very rewarding to see them opening up to the world around them. And being able to go back to school is going to make their world sooo much bigger very quickly! Here are some shots from the day.



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Those shots are nice thartley! I particularly like the one shot of the reflection through the mirror of PK and one of the girls going down the stairs.
 
We are busy filming and working on B-roll when I can. There is a lot of thought going into how this doc will be presented, how it will be shot, psychological factors of why a certain method is chosen over another. Content is, of course, king. This concept is much more difficult to pull out of the hat when things are not scripted, when emotions run high just when I am out of juice in the battery...or worse yet, when I am knocked out sleeping in the dead of night, and I hear about something that happened the night before...when I wasnt there.

Its hot, humid, monsoon season is here. I carry ziplocs and towels with me everywhere. However, I only get rained on when I've left my rain poncho behind.

Tomorrow, I start another series of interviews with PK. And I am shooting my own "confessional" type of video diary. If it works, then they will likely lend a comedic element to any BTS stuff, and if it doesnt, well....... it will. So no worries.

:laugh:
 
Sorry to hear about all your troubles thartey, you are doing a great job! I want to see these confessional clips whether or not you release them :grin:
 
thartley did an interview with me today, until it started raining, which makes it too loud to record because of the tin roofs. She also did an interview yesterday, for nearly two hours, with my girlfriend. Not sure what they talked about for that long but, needless to say, I'm going to get my hands on those tapes ASAP!!!



Also, a week or two ago we went out and cleaned-up a local water canal that was filled with trash. thartley not only recorded footage of it for the doc, but she volunteered to help clean it up, in the HOT mid-day Sun of tropical Thailand. Thanks, thartley!



Now I know how boom operators feel after a long day of shooting. :)
 
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PK,

Those are some nice pictures. Don't get that big of a head, I am sure Terri and Ming were not talking about you.

EDIT: Who am I kidding? Of course they were!
 
Just a few stills from this week.... again, the image quality is much different than what I see on playback here. No adjustments to the photos, just posting as/is. My eyes are ready to bleed from reviewing tapes. :Drogar-Kriz(DBG): Just talking heads this time, but will be getting out in the streets again this week, starting on Monday. (I just previewed this post and it looks like they are wearing the same shirt. LOL!)

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Just some shots outside of a school near where I am living.


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The child is sleeping soundly in all this chaos. But notice what is on the handlegrip of the motorbike in the third shot. Happens all the time....

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Penguin, no its not alcohol. It was the fact that the guy had a helmet, but chose to hang it on his handlegrip instead of wearing it. :huh: And children so small are just carried like this on the backs of the bikes. I know its pretty much the norm here, but since I am not from Thailand, its hard for me to see it and not shake my head.

Also, today while I was coming back from getting lunch a few blocks away, I saw one of the most gruesome accidents I've seen up close and personal. First, I nearly got whacked by a pickup truck myself when it swerved to avoid hitting two women on a motorbike. (I ride a regular bicycle here). But when I turned into the long drive that leads up to my building, there was a man who had crashed his motorbike.

He couldn't move because he was enmeshed in thick heavy barbed wire and pinned there by his bike. And he was drunk. This is a pretty despicable man who lives in my building, who has shouted the F-word at me, threatened to throw someone's motorbike into the Mekong River because it was parked too close to his own, etc. But still, there he was laying there and bleeding with barbed wire stuck into him like meathooks. I stopped. Lifted the bike off him. He could move both arms and legs but he couldnt move his body because of the barbed wire. I had to peel his shirt off the fence and "unhook" his back from the barbs.

He was bloody from his face, arms, legs and back, as you can imagine. Eventually, a Thai man, an Englishman and a Thai woman showed up to get him off the ground. I did ask him if he wanted to go to the hospital, but he just said "room", although I am sure he probably needs stitches (duh).

I have little sympathy for him. He was driving his motorbike drunk, right in front of the school where I shot all those pics up there. Lucky for all that school had not yet ended for the day. He could have hurt or killed someone.

And no, for all of you who are wondering, I didnt have my camera with me. One of the very few times I have left my place without it. I actually had it in my hand and said "nah, I'm only going to be five minutes"
 
Thartley, I too have witnessed the aftermath of that same persons drunk driving skills. But yours was MUCH more gruesome. Last time he had just banged up his ankle REALLY bad when he hit an oncoming truck at night. The sad thing is, when he was getting into the ambulance all he told me was, "Kirk, get the whiskey from my motorcycle and put it in my apartment." Needless to say the whiskey went straight into the trash.

BTW If that guy doesn't thank you the next time he sees you in the elevator then let me know. Isara is about to start teaching the police, so we might be able to pull some strings and have him taught a lesson in being nice.
 
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