English Village Film Crew

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It's Friday night, and it's time to party... to send off a friend who is departing during our 2-week hiatus in Vietnam. Devin, (our neighbor) has finally decided to return to the US to obtain his masters degree. So, we decided to have a dinner and Norebong (karokee) session, to send him off on his merry way.

On this particular Friday, the marketing team, scheduled a film crew to work on the grounds. In 12-months of being at EV, film crews literally work here almost once a week starting in April. And I'd say from April to December, 15 of those crews have obtained permits to work until 11pm. But since no one from the marketing team is ever here past 6pm, the film crews just stick around until they are finished. Sometimes this is 1am, 2am, 3am, etc.

The reason why they just stick it out until they are finished is because no one from administration actually monitors these crews after 6pm. Because none of them lives anywhere near EV.

So, we didn't really think anything of it, because no one in administration told any of the teachers, staff or administrators who deal with teachers that the film crew would be allowed in the village past 11pm. Not only this but we found out at 2:30am (when we returned from our going away karokee session) that they signed a permit to shoot until 6:00 am. Seriously.

The following is an email, I personally sent to the administration about the actions that occurred at 2:30am on Saturday July 2nd. The images and videos all document this occurrence.

Please find attached photographs taken to document the film crew habits over Friday July 1st into the early morning hours of July 2nd. After returning this evening to EV, we found the film crew still on campus along main street with halogen, tungsten and gelled lights on full power.

The problem here is there was zero consideration about how this effects teachers. I realize I'm not a teacher here, but I do live here along with the other 15 staff and family members residing along main street.

Personally, I find it rather disturbing that this behavior continues to be promoted here at EV. If the EV marketing staff believes having a film crew on campus until 6am will garner long term revenue more than keeping teachers on campus teaching then they should just dismiss everyone, hand them a severance package and a plane ticket.

Then they can turn this into a film studio, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week which will not effect teachers perform their duties because there wont be any teachers.

The biggest mistake here is the mistreating of teachers. These are the backbone of EV but you are treating them like they don't matter. In the long run, EV teachers through word of mouth will dismiss the quality of life around EV. And the quality of the staff will diminish in turn as well.

Unfortunately, somehow, I ended up on the phone with Jake/Jay after Shauna because the film crew guy handed me his phone. During the conversation he apologized profusely to me and said he wishes he could do something different to help teachers when this arises again. He did state as well that I should contact both of you, in term of resolving these issues with film crews. And that Rick was suppose to give us all a heads up about the film crew shooting hours.

One final thing he did mention is that EV needs to make money. I replied that keeping teachers happy would help improve EV. And suggested in the future that when they know film crews will be shooting overnight that they purchase blackout cloth and install this into every bedroom along main street.

Or perhaps when this happens EV can charge the film crew or pay themselves to put all the people along main street into a local motel to get a good nights rest.

Blackout cloth will literally reflect the light coming into the room. The worst part about this is the combination of noise from the trucks, snow spray machines, powerful lights blasting into windows, noise of people talking, the litter surrounding the set, the film crew smoking cigarettes on the grounds wherever they feel its okay and the shouting.

Basically, I don't have a conclusion because its 3:55am and I'm too tired to think about what to say that will stop this from happening again.

I can only suggest making arrangements prior to the film crew shoots which will keep the teachers and their families happy residing at EV.

Hopefully, the images and videos will find there way to Jake/Jay's desk and the rest of the marketing staff, so they can see what they put the entire EV teaching staff through every time they sign a permit for filming past 11pm.

In conclusion... we received a very nice letter back from Mike in administration (whose from the US) and he said once again he didn't know this was going on and is tired of having to apologize on behalf of the marketing staff. Plus he's just as fed up with how things are going around here as well. And that they are making a case file to bring to the CEO, so that he will understand what is actually going on around here at night.

He did thank me for all the wonderful photographs, which you can all view as well. And if you are really interested you can check out my youtube channel here;

http://www.youtube.com/user/JacksonCrabb

For all kinds of fun, interesting, strange short videos from around South Korea.
The reason I want to inform the world at large, is if you are interested in working at EV, I think you should have a full view of what life here is really like. And that includes times like these.

But if you ever wanted to know what it's like to live in an Amusement Park or a Universal Studios Film set, then this is a good place to come.

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Photos

From inside our apartment
We are the last apartment at the top of the street. Can you imagine if you were further down the row of buildings? How much light would be inside your apartment?

Studio lights
Studio light without blackout boards before Shauna and I, started raising hell.

Unbelievable
This light is literally four feet away from a teachers' bedroom window. If you look closely, he actually put cardboard boxes into his window.

Looking up main street
Teacher apartments, are on the 2nd floor of every building on the right side of the street.

Distance shot
Getting the shot from 100-yards down main street. Near other sleeping teachers. A Noticeable difference.

Awaiting
Actors and Actresses waiting to be used during filming

Caught in the act
Film crew members caught smoking cigarettes in a non-designated area. We are supposedly a "smoke free campus"