Almost like MTV

Well, maybe not quite... but at least a music video was involved!

Yesterday I was asked to work as an extra again. This time it was about shooting a music video for Jimmy Steel, at least yet unknown Mexican singer and songwriter who is about to publish his first cd.

The shooting of a music video sounds interesting, and at least it was an experience, if not necessarily the most positive one... We had to be already at 12 p.m. in the meeting place, but we were transported to the shooting location two hours afterwards. The shooting took place in an old factory in Ecatepec, not very nice part of the city up in the north. The place was hidious - it was very dirty and you could just imagine that the rats and the cockroaches would come out at any moment (which they luckily didn't do), and there wasn't too many places to sit down. During the night it was also very very cold, and there were little holes in the ceiling, so you had to choose well where to leave your things while it was raining. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, so I can't show you how the place really was. (I have to admit, though, that there was some rough beauty when I saw the moon, stars and the building reflect on the pool of water left by the rain.)

The production was very badly organized. The staff came to the location hours later than us and the shooting started about six hours later than programmed. Besides, the order of the scenes was badly planned, which meant loooong and boring hours of waiting for us extras. For example us girls were needed only in one scene, and that was the one they shot last. Instead of being able to leave before midnight, as we were told, we finally left at seven o'clock in the morning. So 17 hours of waiting and hanging around to work for one hour. I had taken my knitting project with me, but the place was so dirty I didn't feel like knitting at all.

What comes to the video, I think it will be quite good after all. The music isn't bad either, even though the singer's voice isn't very good and his English pronunciation is just awful and many times incomprehensible. We got many good laughs with that... and with his clothes too. He's a kind of combination of Familia Peluche, Jesus of Iztapalapa (In Iztapalapa delegation there are every year Easter processions) and walrus (the moustache is much bigger than in pictures).
But I think he's very serious about himself... He even seemed to think that in the concert scene we were jumping and screaming because we liked him so much, not because we were paid. Well, we'll see if he'll be successful or not.

Even though the shooting was very tiring and mostly boring, and today I have felt as if I had hangover even I haven't drunk alcohol, at least I got some new friends.