..you agree to an all-night print ad photo shoot for RM300.
And it's all Eleena Tong's fault. She was down from Saturday 'til Wednesday, so of course us Melbourne-ACCF-starved folk really wanted to meet her. So Tuesday night, I went to pick her up from her cousin's house in Taman Seputeh, and drove her to the Curve, where the YG were. It was going to be a deep and meaningful time of sharing over a plate of
roti bom.
Just so happened, however, that Y was working in the Curve. He was shooting a print ad for Citibank, and obviously wasn't able to join us for supper. So he suggested that we could become extras in the print ad. Nothing much required, just standing around like lamp-posts, and it would end by 3.30am. And we would get RM300.
Being the lazy bums we are, me and G were pretty hesitant. Especially since I was working the next day. But man, ET was super enthusiastic! She was up for it, and since she is a really effective influential representative of a greater cause, me and G rode her zesty wave too. We thought, hey, should be easy money, and we get to be in an ad! Plus, we get to do it together. Sounds simple enough.
Right.
We started pretty high-spirited. All we had to do was stand at our designated spots, then at the count of "1, 2, 3!!!", we just had to strike a running pose. It's kinda hard to explain, it's like in this pic:
Now, it was alright for the first 20 times. But after we did it for about 100 times, and as the time soon passed the ridiculous hours of 1am, 2am and 3am, it was evident that RM300 surely wasn't enough for our efforts. We also had to jump on each other, walk on the first floor of the mall for background shots, and change into three sets of clothing. G was so zonked out, he almost fell asleep on the centre court of the Curve. Which not many people can say they have done.
We ended our session by 4.30am, and by the time I fetched ET home (another adventure in itself, since the road to her house was closed, and we had to figure out another way), it was already 5.30am. Which meant I would definitely hate working a few hours later.
But what we did enjoy, however, was doing it all together. Sure, me and Sophia were walking zombies in our movie screening the next day (which maybe contributed to us hating the show - Underworld 2). And Greg pretty much wasted his off day by sleeping until 2pm. But I guess it shows that in life's ups and downs, it's only made bearable when we are not going through it alone. I have a gut feeling that though there were people in the shoot who were paid more handsomely than us, I think they kind of envied this bunch of extras dancing the ballet in the middle of the Curve, and laughing at each other's stupid poses (G apparently was pretty good though, according to the art director).
One huge regret: we don't really have any pics to show. Guess we have to wait for the Citibank advertisement to appear.
j
