Chapter 181 - March Again

March 2, 2013 – Saturday 7 AM – Ironstone, Ouigab

*ding* *dong*

"Hey… Lady… and gentlemen. Sup? Y'all look like crap." Payew says as he welcomes the rugged – looking members of the Percussive Corrections in the living room.

"Shyeah. Long f*ckin month. Long f*ckin trip too. I need to crash. I'll see you guys when I wake up." Ike says as he listlessly drags his luggage to his and Bay-an's room upstairs.

Bay-an nods at Payew and proceeds to follow Ike with his own luggage.

"*Yaawwnn* I slept 10 choppy hours on the bus… I miss my bed!…" Jenna too seems too tired to talk too and does the same.

"UIhh. Bed sounds great. The bed at the dorm was too small for me." Ramil says and also proceeds to his room.

Payew can only look at the band in sympathy. 

In the past three weeks, the band members spent their time on their internship which is based in the outskirts of Biongo City, a coastal city which is at least a 10-hour drive north of Ouigab. They have served under various civil engineers of their company. They also gained valuable field experience as the engineers actually treated the band not as kids that gets coffee and lunch, but as real assistants that were helpful in the actual job.

"At least we'll do some office work starting Monday. Nice to see you man. I'll go to bed too." Hoon tells Payew.

"And, oh! Inson has the souvenirs we got for you." Hoon says before climbing up the stairs.

"Here they are. Nothing much, just some specialty snacks from Biongo. At least you get a taste of Biongo and Japan." Inson says as he draws a paper bag from his backpack and hands it to Payew.

"Man. You guys didn't have to…" Payew is surprised as this is the first time he is receiving something from the band.

"Nah. The snacks there were awesome and I don't even know where you can find them here." Inson says before leaving the living room to his room. 

Payew, alone in the living room once again, can only shrug his shoulder and heads to the kitchen. After drinking a cup of instant coffee and eating a left-over dinner for breakfast, he proceeds to the studio in the bas.e.m.e.nt to play around with the instruments.

Unlike his usual post at his study table, Payew is planning on lounging around today. Even though he has stuffed himself with textbooks all school break to prepare for the upcoming semester that starts on Monday, and also to study early for the HedSATs, Payew feels that his brain needs resting. 

*Ring* *Ring* While Payew is playing the acoustic guitar, he is disturbed by his phone ringing.

"Agew. I thought you were still sleeping." Payew answers, surprised at unusual caller.

/You know I don't wake up late./ Agew says.

"Hm. It's Sunday? Anyways. What's up? You don't usually call." Payew asks.

/Yeah. I was gonna ask to talk to the band. Is the band there?/ Agew asks.

"Yeah. But they just arrived from Biongo through a night shuttle. They're sleeping." Payew says.

/Oh, okay. Wait. What were they doing in Biongo?/ Agew asks.

"Well. They spent the past few weeks on a job." Payew explains.

/Oh. I didn't know … I don't have their number./ Agew says.

"Well, it's not like you have a lot to talk to them about anyway?" Payew says.

/Hehe. True. But I really was gonna talk to them about something. It's why I called./ Agew says.

"Oh? Why were you looking for them?" Payew asks, curious as Agew was never curious about the band. 

/Okay. They're not making a lot of money from their music, right? / Agew prefaces.

"Wait. How'd you know that?" Payew asks.

/Well. They're not famous. Only REALLY famous bands make money from music, right?/ Agew says.

"Hm. That's true. So?" Payew asks.

/Okay. So. I was thinking, right? What if they don't just sell music but something else? You know what? Go online, I'll call you. It's better if I show you./ Agew says.

"Okay…" Payew rushes back to his room, turns on his laptop, and soon, he is on a video call with Agew. 

"You were saying?" Payew asks.

/Okay. Look at this./ Agew says as he shows to his webcam a black t-shirt with Jenna's face on a front-side-angle view, painted on it.

The face however is not realistic, but is painted comic-book style. Jenna's face on the shirt, looks almost like some female character on a random romance comic book. But to those who are familiar with her, would obviously recognize that the painting is her. 

"Whoah! T-that's… That's Jenna!" Payew exclaims in recognition.

/Yes. How does it look?/ Agew asks.

"Looks great. But… what's that for? You like her or something?" Payew says.

/Uhhh. What? Okay. It's not like that and she's too old for me... wait a minute, look at this./ Agew says, quickly picking up another shirt, with Hoon's face on it this time and shows it to the webcam, clearing Payew's misunderstanding.

"Shit. That looks great too! You wanna sell those to them?" Payew asks. /No. Why would someone buy a shirt with their face on it? I want them to sell these to their fans./ Agew says.

"OhhH! Holy sh*t! That's a great idea!" Payew exclaims in understanding.

/Meh. I was washing an old 'Red Skirts' t-shirt of Tayaw's. That's where I got the idea. / Agew explains, but glad of Payew's opinion of his idea.

"Oh. That's right. Well. It's not as fresh of an idea as I thought then." Payew says.

/Hey. At least, my art work is fresh. The t-shirts of those rock bands and rappers all look generic. They all look the same./ Agew says. 

"Now that you mention… Wow. Your designs really stand-out." Payew says.

/Thanks./ Agew says, flattered.

"Okay… Those might actually sell… but they probably have hundreds or so fans who will buy those. Will you paint them all?" Payew says.

/No bro. Why would I hand paint everything? I paint the artwork or template, then print the rest on the shirts, or even coffee mugs./ Agew says.

"Oh…" Payew almost slaps his face.

/Anyways. These though are gonna be handmade by me./ Agew pulls out a white porcelain vase with a Jenna playing violin, painted on it. Unlike the colored comic book style of Jenna's face for the shirt, Jenna is painted on the vase in simple black paint, line drawing style, outlining only some important details like Jenna's hair, posture, her body figure, and her violin. 

"Damn… That looks great. And! Classy." Payew is impressed again at the shiny handiwork.

"Why didn't you color it though?" Payew asks.

/It wouldn't be as , like what you said, classy. And… Jenna looks mysterious with only black paint and the shiny white porcelain background./ Agew explains.

"Oh… No wonder." Payew nods in understanding.

"hey! Wait a minute. You said porcelain, right? You made those?" Payew asks, as he noticed shiny and smooth surface of the vases.

/Yeah?/ Agew says, confused at the reaction.

"I thought you said porcelains are a lot harder to make than your regular ceramic stuff?" Payew asks.

/Oh. Yeah they are. But I've learned the feel after failing a lot.  I can't make them perfectly yet like those Chinese ones Tayaw gifted me, but they look fine./ Agew says.

"I see. Well. Damn. I wish I could make something to sell too." Payew is tad bit envious of Agew's handiworks.

/At least you're smart./ Agew says.

"Heh. Whatever. Okay. I'll give you the band's numbers. You can talk to them. Hey. Reserve me one of each of those the next time I come home, yeah?" Payew says.

/Sure./ 

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

10 PM, Villa Dei Principi di Sorrento – Sorrento, Italy

It is March again and that only means one thing for many film industry professionals around the world : it is the time again for this year's season of the Sorrento Film Festival.

Just like any year, the judges for the film selections are still comprised of some of the most influential people of the film industry. The current jury includes the following: Maximo Moya, 46, an Argentinian screenwriter; Kenneth Green, 52, a British – African film director; Eleanor Riley, 64, an American film actress and producer; Madhuri Bhavsar, 30, a famous Bollywood actress; and Yuji Maeda, a Japanese film director.

The rest of the jury have loose ties with the industry, but they represent the opinions of industry outsiders. 

"Hit pause please." Maximo orders their projector operator.

"Thank you. Can we all agree to skip this film? It's been 20 minutes and I think there's nothing more to see and I bet it's gonna get even more horrendous than it already is." The man says to the group he is watching the film with. 

Sorrento has over 1,500 film submissions on average yearly. To process such number, the festival has a two-step process.

The first stage is the filtering process by the festival's 'programmers'. The 'programmers' are various credible professionals that would see the submissions first before anyone. After discarding what they judge to be bad movies, they would pass the submissions they approve of to the hands of the official festival jury for the second stage.

The second stage involves the jury watching the watchable submissions and voting which are to be selected for the competition of the festival's awards. However, the hundreds of films that make it to the juries, are still too much for its 10 members to go through. This led to the practice of the jury, of any festival year, to not finish certain films they see as lacking interest. 

"Thanks for stopping it. I thought I was the only one. The camera work makes me dizzy." Kenneth says as he rubs his brows.

"Agree. It's confusing to watch." Madhuri says.

"*sigh*. The camera work and the acting style just doesn't go well." Eleanor says.

The rest of the jury also agree.

"Great. We've all seen other films like it since we started anyway. I feel like a teenager me wrote this thing. I know where it's going." Maximo says. 

"Eugh. I love 'September Ninth' but that movie started this mess." Yuji expressed his frustrations.

"Right? These… directors. If they don't know how to do it well, just stick with what they know!" Maximo says in annoyance.

"Look on the bright side. At least not every submission is experimental." Eleanor says.

The film they just saw is not the first film that tried to adapt Tayaw's cinematography and acting. The camera angles used by Tayaw, while put in practice by other directors, are executed poorly and destroyed what otherwise could have been watchable movies had they stuck to the convention. 

"Damn. I just had to be jury this year… *Yaaawwn*… What time is it?" Kenneth asks the group as he stretches on his reclining chair.

"Uhh. 10 PM." A young female jury member replies and also stretches.

"Plenty of time for more. I hope we can discard more movies before bedtime." Eleanor tells the group. The group can only hope as well. 

"Alright. My turn, right? Let me draw the next one, if it's unwatchable, we skip it too, then we take a break." Eleanor says and one young attendant in the room walks towards her with a jar full of folded strips of paper.

The group watch in bored anticipation as Eleanor draws one strip and opens it. Their boredom however is replaced by curiosity as they see the expression on Eleanor's face while she stares the strip of paper. 

"Aherm…" The Eleanor recovers her composure.

"Speak of the devil… Okay. Next up. 'Gold, Blood, and the Deer' directed by Isaac Yawat.'" The Eleanor reveals to her group.

"Isaac Yawat?" Kenneth perks up.

"He's finished it already? I thought it was just a rumor." Yuji says, dumbfounded.

"Ohhhhh… Whatever. I can't wait." Madhuri says in excitement. The rest of the jury also start chatting with each other in anticipation. 

"Alright. I am excited too but I'm craving a cigarette. Let's take 10." Eleanor tells the group.