With a press of a button, it was ready to go. The red circle blinked away at the upper right corner on the digital screen, where the actual recording could be seen. The bright red light lit to signify that they had begun recording.
"It's another day on the Velez Jungle..," he said in his fake Australian accent. He wanted to come off as someone adventurous which simply meant putting on an accent resembling the more daring kinds of people in front of documentaries and television shows. But unlike those people, he never showed his face in front of the camera. He held the camera with vigor, and kept saying what came in his mind. Whatever random thing.
The star of his little documentary was Theo Mari, though known more as TM. TM was wearing his plain white V neck shirt and his navy blue school pants, as they were filming inside its vicinity. TM's eccentricities and idiosyncrasies worked well with the randomness of their film as it had worked once before.
Their previous efforts had proved funny enough to garner enough praise from their classmates, enough for their classmates to actually expect a sequel, but not so much so to really see one in the near future, or ever. Their last film had the uniqueness of being very unplanned, just a random afternoon with a camcorder, an willing character, and a crazy director.
"..not just some other day, but the..," he continued on in a mildly English accent. "...day we find out if we still become regulars in the next semester."
His speech sounded controlled, forced. But he urged on, wanting to make the impact his last project came out to be. His last project was made on a whim, something to show before TM's production, similar to movies at the cinema. TM's own project, a simple retelling of Gilgamesh, was overshadowed by the sleeper hit of his "trailer." The three-minute venture was repeated twice more after TM's main project. TM wasn't bothered by it, his ego was large enough to see that he himself starred in the trailer.
"Here are a few tips to survive Judgment day," he referenced his older work. The trailer had given viewers three tips to survive "The Velez Jungle." The school had many trees, enough to get its namesake in the short film. But over the years, the number of flora at the school had slowly diminished due to increasing cases of dengue fever.
"First, you need your admission slip," he started, accent and all. TM in his self, hopped on leg to another and showed the camera his piece of white paper. The admission slip was a piece of paper you had to have signed during your final examinations. It contained all the subjects enrolled in the current semester. Failure to at least bring the thing on that day was prevention of taking the final exam altogether, but some teachers were forgiving.
TM still smiling as he waved the piece of paper back and forth across the camera. He gave a thumbs up sign, gave a large grin, and placed the admission slip back into his pocket where it had come from. It may had been small, but losing it could place one in a very bad position and about twenty pesos poorer.
"Second, you need...a...pen," he was out of words to say and less of an accent to say it with. To put things into consideration, if the teacher somehow manages to run out of ink writing down grades, and is without a new pen to write with, then yours can be the extra one he needs. The teacher could probably add a few points in there which is unlikely, but a student who valiantly gave his pen to a teacher would be no doubt be hopeful.
TM looked at the camera and nodded, with the dumbfounded look on his face shadowed by the pair of sunglasses he used to cover his eyes from the luminescent light bulbs in the small room. He reached down to his pocket and drew out the admission slip, placing it on a table right next to him. He emptied both his pockets, realizing that he had not brought a pen with him. It was understandable, classes were not being held on those days, something the director had not thought to consider.
The camera still focused on TM started to shake, and a pen came in view from the bottom. TM took the pen and held it in front of the camera, and he smiled his wide smile. He quickly replaced all his belongings back into his pockets, the pen with them. The director made no mention about his pen.
"Third, you need to pray," alluding his older work yet again. His older work was made in views that the animals, the students, were savages hunting for prey with the three items being "a spear made out of rock," "protective headgear for the eyes (eyegear)," and the need to search for prey, which was shown as "pray" the first time and corrected into the correct word. All "hunting tips" in his short film were filmed in a sequence of checklists, with the first two having the actual objects and the third, being just the words in the shot. Pray in this sense, had a more deeper meaning in context.
TM in his person just looked straight forward at the camera and gave himself the sign of the cross. The small room they had been was where they had their classes on normal weekends. Just outside and left of the room was a door that led to another classroom. And a few steps more outside the classroom was the faculty room.
The faculty room's double doors opened and the teacher was telling the students to bring their admission slips to him. The camera panned quickly to show the many students flocking around the teacher to give him their pieces of white paper. TM stood up and followed suit, out the door and outside the faculty room. The director slid his paper at the bottom of the camera for TM to give along with his own.
"Now, we wait," he exclaimed, accent and all. Panning from student to student, waiting for their names to be called. "The anticipation could kill a man, they say."
Some students shown in the screen awkwardly nodded.
"Now, we're just sitting here, waiting," the director said, in a mix of English and Australian. TM shown again on the screen, nodded and sat down on the floor. And the camera followed down as the director sat beside TM.
The camera just stared idly on the closed double doors of the faculty room in what they had all felt like forever. TM keeping his smile and talking to others. As one side of the door opened, the teacher went out and stood as to block the door from closing, and started calling out names one by one. And one by one, they all stood and got their papers. The few called first all jumped and screamed in delight. And some waddled and looked down at the floor. "..Theo Mari Ortiz!" the teacher finally yelled.
The camera followed TM towards and the faculty room double doors. TM, still smiling. TM grabbed the piece of paper and removed his sunglasses to have a better look at it. The teacher gave the director's piece of paper and he reached down and took it. He focused the camera on his paper.
"YES!" he shouted, accent forgotten. He panned the camera quickly to TM, to find out he had already left his side. The director ran and looked for TM in the classroom. TM was sitting on a chair on the far side of the room. The camera focused on TM for a moment, and the red dot blinked for the last time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
