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December 9, 2009

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Joyriding pix on the bus

By Pan Zheng | December 9, 2009, Wednesday | Print Edition

TWO very funny public bus drivers have become an online sensation with their staged comedy photos depicting silly situations and titled "Fun on the Bus." Pan Zheng goes for a ride. Two laugh-a-minute bus drivers have turned Bus No. 14 into a barrel of laughs, staging funny situations on empty buses and posting cell phone photos to the Hangzhou Public Transport BBS.

Their five sets of five photos each are titled "Fun on the Bus," with episodes titled "Coins," "Jianguo Gate," "Kindly Reminder," "Sleepy Guy" and "A Bunch of Flowers."

The driving duo are the director called MT online (surnamed Wang) and the leading actor called Yimian online (real name Hong Yimian), They joke that Yimian is the "pig's foot" of the pictures since in Chinese the pronunciation of "pig's foot" is very similar to that of "leading actor."

The two, both drivers of Bus No. 14, have only been at this comedy game since October. It's all DIY, improv on a general idea by MT - no script. Then they send photos to the Internet.

No passengers are involved.

"We take the pictures because the work of a bus driver is too simple and tiring, and we want to turn it into fun," says MT. "I chose Hong as my partner because he's very talented in acting."

Among their colleagues, Hong is commonly called the "prince of fun" because he's a funny guy and makes comic faces.

There is no written script for these pictures. All the scripts stay in MT's mind. "We just have some tiny inspirations, and we make them into photos," says MT.

He uses a Nokia 5800, with a camera of 3.2 mega pixels.

MT does all the shooting, production, PhotoShopping and adding captions on his phone after work.

He sent his first set directly onto the BBS by cell phone, but it took two hours and cost 60 yuan (US$8.80), running down his battery. Now he uses his computer to upload.

Each set takes just five or six minutes to shoot, but because of their different driving schedules they can only get together once or twice a week. That's when they land for a break at the same stop, the Hangzhou Southern Station.

They really have to step on it, find an empty bus and take their pictures.

"Some people even think we are cleaning the bus," says MT.

Each time they take about 10 pictures and decide on five to upload. Time's up and one or both of them has to drive again.

MT calls his style "just like Wong Kar-wai," a Hong Kong director who is known giving his actors only general direction, not much in the way of specifics.

MT never tells Hong his idea or what lines he thinks of adding. He just tells him what to do.

"If I told him the story idea, he might not have acted so well," says MT.

So, despite being the "pig's foot," Hong doesn't know exactly what it's about until he sees the final pictures on the Internet, just like everyone else.

For example, in the first set "Coin," MT told Hong:

1st picture: Walk here, freeze;

2nd picture: Stand beside the door, put your hand in your pocket, like you're searching for something.

3rd picture: Kneel down, pretend to be innocent.

4th picture: Point at me! Stare at me! Look angry!

"If he doesn't act well, I yell at him," says MT.

After MT uploaded the first set, he messaged his friend, "Man, you're somebody now."

"We just want to make people laugh, ourselves included," says MT. "We're just bus drivers."

Hangzhou


 

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