5/2

Just when I thought I no longer had to bother about the traffic noise and could finally have a restful sleep. I was wrong.

I got woken up at 4:30am today. First, a rooster decided that he had a very important announcement to make. Then, a family of birds disagreed with him and offered their ideas. That woke up the whole neighborhood of bird relatives. Soon, everybody had something to say. Finally, a bullfrog (or whatever that was) decided to do a protest 24/7!

I rolled my eyes and told myself to enjoy this symphony of nature. But with the lack of much needed sleep, I couldn’t help but to curse at the birds. They were really not so cute when they started to chat away so early in the morning.

“Someone please arrest those birds and kick the bullfrog into the ocean.” I thought.

Anyway, it was impossible to sleep in. The sun rose at 6am. Then, the sunlight started to beam through the skylight in my bedroom. By 8am, the sun was at 70degree position. How could the sun rise that fast??

Did you know that Hawaii doesn’t observe daylight saving? So, the time difference between the mainland and Hawaii could vary throughout the year.

Anyway, today was the first day of shoot.

It was not my job to shoot. I was simply tagging along happily and helping out here and there when I felt like.

We get in the car and started driving north.

10 miles later, we reached Kualoa Park.

“Let’s check it out.” Radim said.

This park wast not crowded at all.

Kualoa Park parking lot

It is primarily open lawn with some palm trees. As you can see, there was someone camping there.

Radim and Karan immediately spotted a good place to shoot.

Mountains with low hanging clouds, pond with clouds’ reflection, some palm trees, simply perfect.

Karan and Radim were setting up the video equipment.

Apparently the video equipment, a.k.a RED Camera is all capitally VERY EXPENSIVE. We’ve been told that the car break-in rate in Oahu is high. So, we never let the equipment out of our sight.

I also had a very important task at hand –setting up the … beach chairs and umbrella (got them from the cottage). 🙂

The park with Kualoa Moutains in the background is stunning. The mountains are so majestic.

I have never seen something like this. They are so different than Bukit Matang and the mountains in Boulder.

Wait a second. Don’t you think these mountains look somewhat familiar?

Where have i seen these mountains before?

Hmm… where???

Think harder….

Where???

…….

…

Bingo! It was the Jurassic Park!

Did you know that part of Jurassic Park was shot at the Kualoa Ranch? 🙂 Who doesn’t love dinosaurs? 🙂

A family came here for a picnic. I love the mountains in the distant.

Ok. Ok. Back to setting up the camera.

Getting ready

Checking the microphone

Checking the sound

Scouting

The thing about outdoor shooting is that we can never know how the clouds are going to look like today. Clouds are constantly moving and changing. As for today, as soon as K & R finished setting up the equipment, the sky started to turn a little gray and drizzle. 🙁

We had to protect the camera with the beach umbrella. The one who brought the umbrella must be a genius. ^_^

At the end of shoot, I volunteered to jump in the bush to retrieve the microphone. While I was in the bush, I “kindly suggested” Karan to snap a few photos of me. Oh, what I wouldn’t do for a good photo.

I jumped out from the bush. More photos, please, with the mountains!

“Mountains! Mountains! Make sure the mountains are in the photos, okay?”

And all Karan had in mind was “turkey”. So, I was reluctantly crowned Miss Turkey (not the country, think turkey the bird). Thanks, Karan. “Great shot.”

We were pretty much done with the shoot by 11am. Not bad for the first shoot!

We came back to this park on another day for a beach shot. I will cover that in the next post.