Thursday night in Toronto

I'm starting a petition to get new video camera batteries at my school. You can sign the petition at www.HumberCamerasAreTryingToRuinMyWholeLife,GradesAndFutureCareer.com

Though I still hate the camera batteries from my school's video cage, my group was able to film for the project! Make-a-Wish's outdoor festivities froze us and the batteries, so we decided on an indoor event - the Amnesty International Reel Awareness Film Festival. The event turned out to be far smaller than we expected, but we still got some good shots of people mingling and going into the theater. We got some great clips of a speech and two interviews with some of the festival founders.
When we arrived, we were warned that filming the attendees probably wasn't a great idea because some had spouses stuck in foreign jails. Naturally, we filmed everyone and everything anyways. No one cared one bit and the organization had a photographer there getting shots of everyone. Don't bring us down, Amnesty.
The first battery died within minutes, so we all got incredibly worried. The battery that I had been keeping warm in my pocket lasted all night though. SUCCESS!
We finished all of the inside shots and decided to do a sign off/exit shot outside the building to have a change of scenery. This time, the battery worked with us, but Torontonians heckled us instead.
While filming our 30 second shot, we had TWO people bother us. Two in the span of maybe five minutes of actual shooting. The first man was somewhere in his forties or fifties and I'm pretty sure he was drunk before 9 p.m. on a Thursday night.
He said, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure."
At this point, we all figured he'd ask what we were shooting for and wish us luck. Of course not.
"Do you care that no one gives a shit?"
"Uh....." *blank stares*
"No one's even here. You're not filming anything."
"Everyone's inside, watching a movie. We're just filming for an assignment."
"Yeah, well... Good luck with that," he said as he stormed off.
Sorry for interrupting your drunken stumble around Toronto with our innocent, out of the way filming. Stay classy, my friend.
The next guy was around my age (early twenties), so, needless to say, he was probably also drunk.
"Why are you zoomed in on her chin? Stop macro zooming! You're on her chin."
Uhhh... What? We had perfect framing with our on-screen reporter showing from the waist up to the top of her head. Does alcohol mess with your vision to that extent?
As soon as we finished that shoot, we booked it. We did not want any more crazies approaching us, so we packed up and left. A short while into our walk, a man started to walk beside us. He joined in on our conversation like normal, so we weren't too worried. All of a sudden, he raised his hand and told us about his watch. Apparently, he bought a $3 underwater watch that only half works, whatever that means. His mind told him we'd be interested in knowing this, I guess. I walked ahead so he wouldn't notice the fact that I was laughing like crazy. Another girl slowed down so she could laugh behind us. The last girl was stuck in the middle, listening to a story about the watch.
Soon enough, the man walked ahead, but we were all going to the same subway station. He turned around and asked if we were following him. Not on purpose, bud. Not on purpose.
He proceeded to say, "look at this" and he flashed a blue laser pointer onto his upper arm, showing off some buttons.
Uh...Congrats?
We parted ways and the girls and I went to wait for the next subway train. We just missed the last train and a random woman did too. She used all her strength to smack the support pillars with an envelope full of something hard, making a pretty loud noise each time. THE TRAINS COME EVERY 2 MINUTES, WOMAN. Calm down.
We took the train and a bus (that was SO LATE) back to school, but only got there at 10:05 or so, so we missed the 10 p.m. closing of the camera cage. I only got home around 10:40 or 10:50, but I did get a ride home, thankfully.

And that was my Thursday night in the journalism program.

This week on public transit...

Well, would you look at that. I haven't posted in a good while. Surprise, surprise.

Because I'm so busy/unmotivated to do anything I don't have to right now, I figured I'd combine a week's worth of crazy bus stories into one post. Surprisingly (or not?), there were plenty.

I got on the bus to go home after class and dug around for my iPod right away. I was done with people for the day and wanted to hide in my own little plugged in world for the one and a half to two hour ride. While I was looking down at my purse, a person sat in the seat directly in front of me. They had broad shoulders, a plain, white shirt and short hair. From behind, this person was androgynous, to say the least. Looking at the hair, I decided this person was a male. I started wondering if this guy was attractive (don't hate... I'm single; I can't help it). I decided to look a bit closer. There wasn't any hair/stubble on the section of the jaw I could see.. Many guys can't grow a beard. Suddenly, there was a noise near the back of the bus. The person turns around and, of course, it's a pretty girl. I swear I'm straight.

When I was nearing my bus stop, a man got up to get off a stop or so before mine. He was in his forties or fifties and was going for the tough biker look. You know the one - all black, denim and tees, tattoos, facial hair. His shirt had motorcycles on it and said "Hard and loud. It's a guy thing," for goodness sake. Thing is, if you're going to go for it, go for it. This man got up, using the overhead, horizontal pole to assist him. To my surprise, on his right arm is a tattoo of a unicorn... Let me repeat that: A majestic, in-every-little-girl's-dreams, mystical, fairytale UNICORN.

While waiting for the bus, one young man took out a guitar and started playing and singing out loud. Congrats on being able to play and I'm glad you're having fun singing your little heart out, but I'm not really interested in listening.. Thanks. He wasn't even busking! There was no money, just noise disturbance.

After getting on the bus to go to school, I looked out the window. Standing there was a young man (in his late teens or early twenties, I'd say) with a girl of similar age. Both looked completely normal except for one thing: the guy was holding a big, ratty-looking stuffed animal beaver.. As far as I remember, that was all he had with him. I thought this was just strange and mentioned it to a friend. She told me I had been looking at Mel Gibson.

(pic from popcrunch.com)