More Mexico Pics

Jungle Man

We’re here in Dominica, and it is INSANE!!!!
I need to spend a good deal more time here some time in the future. Only next time I need to bring along my love, JaeHee! :D

When we were on our way to our accommodations (Cocoa Cottages) we stopped the taxi along the road and went for a trek into the forest, leading up to magnificent waterfall in a clearly. A sight that words can’t describe! We played around there for a little while, drank from the pools of water, climbed over the hill to another waterfall, explored a cave, and just lost ourselves in awe of the spectacle that nature was presenting before us.

Once at our hotel we were introduced to our living accommodations. Rustic, natural, pristine. Simply beautiful, in every aspect of the word! The girls got themselves shacked up in the Honeymoon suite, the boys in “The TV Room” – an open foyer with chairs facing out towards an large floor-to-ceiling window that faces into the jungle (this window being “the TV”) – and myself, I managed to set myself up outside on a small bed hanging from chains underneath the terrace of an upstairs suite; completely open to the elements of nature. I’ve got no walls enclosing me out here, only the fresh scent of rain, chirp of the tree frogs, and rustling of the wind through the jungle fronds. If that isn’t the exact definition of heaven, then I don’t know what is!

After we dropped our bags off at the cottages we went and had a late lunch at a restaurant with a view to die for. Then it was chilling in the hot springs, jumping into brisk pools of waterfall runoff, and a “shower” under the waterfall adjacent. I defy anyone to tell me how life could get any better, aside from having your number one girl beside you. ;)

Tomorrow morning we’re going to shoot a scene near one of Dominica’s 365 waterfalls and then go scout for a location to shoot one other scene that we never had time to shoot while we were in Antigua. The scene that we’re scouting for has been alluding us for this entire time, so we’ve got this one last chance in Dominica to actually get it done, once and for all! The first day that we attempted to shoot it at Nelson’s Dockyard, we had to throw in the towel due to the relentless onslaught of tourists and cruise shippers who wouldn’t stop waling through our shot. The second day we attempted to shoot in the few hours after the tourists have left the Dockyard, but we ended up in an impossible battle with the shifting sun, with its irregular shadows and rapidly changing light quality. So this time, it’s all or nothing, baby!

-Ocean/Mountains near airport

-That waterfall I mentioned.


-Luke and Shab climbing a jungle mountain


-Beastmaster!



-Our actress, Mikel Bauer, contemplating the ramifications of micro bacteria spreading in rain runoff as a result of global warming...


-Fitzroy!


-A video that Marc-Anthony took with his digital camera of us doing what we do at the falls.

More pictures, videos and other fun stuff to come. Stay tuned!

Lifes a Bitch When Shooting on the Beach

Well it's been a little while since my post, but that's all because we've been killing ourselves out here trying to finish shooting everything that we need to shoot -- oh and I have pics this time! We still have a lot to shoot, and it's going to be tight, but hopefully we can pull this all off in time.

We've been shooting on the beach for the last few days, and trust me that is a much bigger ordeal than you would think! We had one pretty major mishap on our first day of shooting that brought the crisis-stress level to a whole new high.

The day before the beach we just finished shooting a scene at the airport (more about that later) and being the AD (Assistant Director) and the most responsible one to keep track of all the tapes, etc. I have the footage from that day -- a full hour of tape -- in my pockets. Now on any normal day I where a pair of heavy cargo shorts with lots of pockets so I can hold all the necessary materials in them: notes, pens, markers, tapes, other papers, keys, cellphones, wallet, etc. Come the beach day, I toss on my favorite film making shorts for maximum efficiency throughout the shooting day. What I expected from the boat ride there was that we would beach the boat, then be able to hop off the bow onto the beach and never have to touch the water. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case...

We reach the beach. Waves are crashing violently against the shore. Then boat turns into the waves and people start yelling, "Go Go Go!!" like we're the gawdamn NAVY SEALS or something. The driver of the boat is saying that we have to get off the boat now or else it might flip and shit, so what do I do? I jump the F#$@ off the boat, chest deep into water...

That's when I realize, "Hey, don't I have something in my pockets that REALLY important?"... so that was a shitty start to the day... Well what else can you do now right? So we rinsed it in fresh water and tried to dry it out as best as we could to try and get all the salt out of it. Once that is done, we head out to the other end of the beach to shoot what we need to shoot for the day. And when we come back for lunch, Bert is talking with a couple from Holland who are here on vacation, the only other people on the beach that day, and guess what the guy does for a living! He works a post-production house in Amsterdam, and specializes in restoring damaged video media, just like our water-logged tape!!!

Now this is the point in the day where I'm pissed as hell that I didn't buy a lottery ticket that day because god knows that my chances of winning that would have been infinitely high than that! So apparently, there's a good chance that our footage is going to be alright, we are just waiting on a different HD Camera that we can play the footage back on. If it doesn't work on that, then we're going to send it away to this guy to fix it up for us.

Now for an interlude of pictures:


- I sliced my toe on the cupboard...


- Us (Shab, Me, Luke) planning a shot at the Copper & Lumber hotel/Restaurant


- Mr. Smooth


- Marc-Anthony (our lead actor) and I having a heated debate regarding Icecream Vs. Smoothies


- Thumbs up? Thumbs down?


- Our film shoots could be compared to a well choreographed circus act...


- It doesn't matter how busy you are; EVERYONE has to go out for Halloween!


- Natalie and I, thrilled with the anticipation of having another person audition for Memoirs of the Blue, who may, or may not be literate.

And now for the story about the airport! Yaaaayy!!! :D

Ok, so basically, we got to shoot inside the airport, with a 40-foot cherrypicker, to get a bunch of sweet shots of the planes landing and taxiing on the runway, etc. We even got clearance to film a scene where Marc is working as a baggage handler, so that was pretty cool.

That's all I really have to say about the airport though... sorry if I built it up too much and made you all disappointed, but you know how things go... :D
I'll have some pictures from that day up here some time soon though, I promise! ;)

Anyways, that's all for today.
Peace and karats!

Shooting Day One: Report

We made it through, and nobody got killed! By my standards, that's a pretty good day at the office! Even though the odds were stacked against us, we still prevailed. Even though one of our actresses was 20 minutes late, a few of our extras decided not to show up, and our first batch of shots took us a full hour behind schedule with the lighting setup, we managed to get all 16 shots off for the 2 1/2 page scene that we had to shoot. A short scene that required a LOT of coverage and shot variation. It took us a while, but it will be worth it once we bring it in to be edited.

We ended up using my parents as extras, sitting at a table in the background, so it was a good chance for them to see how everything works on set and what kind of business I'm trying to get into.

I'm lazy right now, but I'll have some pictures up as soon as I can find time, and hopefully I can edit together some of the behind-the-scenes footage and post that up on YouTube.

I'm sorry to keep promising and not delivering, but life is hectic... and plus Natalie still hasn't given me those photos, so blame her! If you're really in dire need, then you can check out the Halivantigua site, with PICTURES posted up on there from both Antigua and from each of our final project sets for VFS.

I'll get back at ya' soon!
Peace!
Joki

Martial Arts Pics by Request

Here are a couple photos of me in Thailand while I was training Muay Thai. The first is a frame capture from a short video a friend of mine made so it's not of very high quality.
Believe it or not, these are pretty well the only two pictures I have of me doing Muay Thai! I guess when you spend several months, training 5-6 days a week, 6+ hours a day, you start to take it for granted! :D


I have a couple friends that I trained with who I think have more photos, if I can find any of them then I'll post them up as well.

Peace, All.

Pics

Here's a few photos of (primarily) me, just for the hell of it: