Bangkok Day 2 – The Art of the Deal

Well, I have spent 2 full days in Bangkok. It has been an interesting experience to say the least. Bangkok is a huge city without any emissions laws. All the pollution here has likely turned my lungs from a healthy pink, to something resembling an 18% grey card (there is my filmmaking reference for the day.) There are street vendors EVERYWHERE. These vendors completely over take many of the sidewalks and the only way you can pass is by putting your life at risk by taking a small detour into the busy street.

The cab rides have been quite interesting. You basically haggle with the driver over a price to take you somewhere. You come to an agreement, hop into the cab, and you are on your way. Suddenly he says something like, “Instead of pay me 100 Baht you pay 50 Baht. Must go somewhere else.” Then you say, “No, please take me to where I asked you to go.” Then he says, “No, must go here.” It took me two cab rides to figure out what is going on, but from what I can tell if the driver takes you to a shop he is in cahoots with and you buy something he gets a percentage. So, they just take you to these shops and the high-pressure salesmen try to sell you something. So far we have been taken to a jewelry store and a custom clothing shop. Of course my wife is a willing participant in this scam and ends up buying all sorts of stuff at these places. LOTS of stuff. Is it really a scam if you know they are taking advantage of you, yet enjoy the experience?

The first cab ride cost us about 35 bucks for a ring worth $2 and the one last night cost us about $100 because she bought a kimono. Granted it seems like a nice kimono. Aleksandra also has an interesting bargaining strategy. I ask how much something costs. They say 1,000 Baht. I say, “Are you kidding? That’s way too much. I will pay 500 Baht. That’s all we have.” Thai merchants LOVE to haggle. It is expected. That’s part of their culture. Immediately my wife interjects with her best Polish accent and says, “OK, 1,000 Baht. We have money.” I nearly spit up my Pad Thai as I look at her with a “WTF??????” look on my face and she says, “These people are poor. Let’s give them our money. Don’t be so cheap Bill.” Thai people LOVE my wife.

West Harrison -> Bangkok = 29 Hours

That’s right. From the time I left my door to the time I arrived at the Twin Towers Hotel in Bangkok 29 hours of my life have passed. I actually feel pretty good, but I have a feeling the jet lag will rear it’s ugly head in the next couple of days. Bangkok is 12 hours a head of NY so I arrived here at 12:30am on the 29th, but it is 12:30pm on the 28th in NY. How was I able to manage such a long journey you ask? There answer is on the label of the medicine bottle sitting next to me. It reads, “Clonazepam – may cause drowsiness - ALCOHOL INTENSIFIES EFFECT.” That’s all I have to say about that ;)

Time to get some much deserved sleep in a real bed. I leave you with this photograph of the sun rising over Siberia – yeah, Siberia.

oops, can't load the photo due to technical difficulties here in Thailand. stay tuned

Laew phob gan mai

That means “see you again” in Thai. And I will see you all again in 2008. But in a few hours I am making a 26 hour journey to Thailand. I am celebrating my 5th wedding anniversary with Aleksandra and going to our friends’ (John Roper and Paninat Indranak) wedding. It should be a grand time. As it stands now I will head to China from Thailand to shoot Nike content for the Olympics and Aleksandra will fly back home solo :( I will be in China for 2 weeks, fly home for 2 weeks, fly to LA for a week, and then out to China for 2 more weeks. Needless to say the first 2 months of 2008 will be quite an adventure. Be sure to stay tuned to The Captain’s blog because I will be sharing my experiences with you whenever I have an internet connection. And please post comments or send me an e-mail. I might get lonely over there! I miss my bike already.

P.S. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!

Life at 1,000 FPS

I recently re-united with director and good friend, Daniel Leeb, of Cinecycle fame. Dan was hired to make more content for PUMA. For this round we were shooting a project with dancers from STREB. STREB is basically Cirque du Soleil meets Stomp with some Brooklyn flav-a thrown in. These performers are AWESOME! We shot a bunch of different stuff, but the highlight was shooting “Crash” at 1,000 frames per second. During the “Crash” piece a dancer (Fabio) jumps through a plane of glass. We shot this with the new Phantom camera that shoots 2K resolution at 1,000 frames per second. To put this in perspective, normal speed is 24 FPS and the faster you shoot, the slower the motion. So, a 5 second clip is turned into approximately 3 minutes. It is absolutely beautiful and I would love to share it with you right now, but I can’t post anything until the composite and edit are complete. For now all I can share is the production still above. So, please stay tuned to my blog for some slow motion goodness!!!

The Hottest Commercial on TV

Well, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but my latest spot has been getting some serious airplay. It has been on ESPN, MSG, YES, SNY, and many other stations. Last night I was sipping a Murphy's and eating some nachos at Gordo's when all of a sudden it appeared on all of their TV screens. It was rad. The commercial is for Foot Locker's Zipways pants and features John Starks and Tyreke Evans. It was directed by my friend Sean Durkin and produced by Josh Mond. Joe "Laser Beam Focus" Anderson was the Assistant Camera. Here is a link to a very small version of the spot. When I get a better copy I'll upload the link.

If you feel compelled to rip your pants off after watching this spot you have my complete support.

Foot Locker Zipways Spot