Yesterday’s pillow fight went amazing. Jakob was great on camera and I got everything I needed. I watched some of the footage I shot early this morning and it looks pretty good – I can’t wait to start on post-production!

So yesterday, I met up with Jakob at 5PM, half-an-hour before the start of the event. By then there were already about twenty people waiting outside the IMAX with their pillows. The interview progressed quite smoothly and I’m happy with the result. We had a few feral pillow fighters interrupt us midway through the interview but it made for good television and I will probably be using it in the final cut.

530PM soon rolls by and the crowd is slowly building up. I’m pretty sure that we’re up to a few hundred people by now. Soon a whistle blows, and Jakob’s crew starts counting down. “5, 4, 3, 2….1″ I know I had signed up for a pillow fight, but I am completely unprepared for the madness that ensues! Hundreds and hundreds of people just bashing away – all in good, clean fun. Some hold pillows like nunchucks and were twirling them around a la Bruce Lee. Others have pillow substitutes like soft toys and foam pads (?). I will not ask where they got those from. Within five minutes, the floor is covered in feathers. People are starting to rip open their pillows after they realise how difficult it is to get feathers to fly simply by bashing someone over the head with it. Feathers are everywhere – in our mouths, noses, hair. Everyone’s coughing and choking, and the madness will not stop! While all this is happening, I’m holding on to my camera for dear life. I copped a few hard hits on the head and stomach and few times, but that wasn’t too bad because a kind soul lent me a pillow mid way to take revenge.

I see people of all ages joining in the fun: there was a snowy-headed grandfather cheerfully bopping people on the head, and a couple of five year olds playing with feathers. People are starting to get tired, but still they won’t stop! I spot someone trying to make a feather angel (like a snow angel, only.. without snow). People are starting to gang up on their friends and I see groups start attacking a single person. No tears though, everyone is smiling and happy.

The mayhem continues for a full hour-and-a-half before it gets really dark and Jakob and his team start cleaning up. People slowly start joining in the effort and together, everyone helps to clean up the mess that the pillow fight insanity has left behind.

It truly was a spectacular sight. A full 1.5hours of strangers coming together for pure, clean fun. It was interesting to note though, that while 2,600 had RSVPed on Facebook (that was, their main source of marketing) less than 20% of that actually showed up on the day. However, Jakob did make an interesting point in the interview (of which I hope to do a proper transcript in the next couple of weeks), about their community being organic, and how they never can count on the number of people that actually turn up. I will be revisiting this when I shoot more events in coming weeks.

All in all, it was a pretty fruitful day. I got what I wanted, and as I said earlier, I’m excited to start editing!