Working with talent

Hey, I'm back with some interesting story of some people I worked with.

This lady focused on her script is Sophie Cairns, a Hong Kong-born British. She was an experienced journalist for Reuters as well as South China Morning Post and more importantly, an amazing person I got to meet.

She's a very sweet person with a keen sense of perfection. During the shooting, she always insisted on the best performances, carefully preparing her speeches between each takes. She's very polite, for she repeated her apologies once he made NG takes.

She spoke fluently in English, Mandarin and Cantonese(there may well be more languages as shown in her profile online). Yet she was still very humble and always eager to learn more Chinese.

I asked why she thought it was necessary for a foreigner like her to learn local tongue? She put on a serious expression, saying:"I did not want to be taken as an exception locally and I think picking up local accent is respecting the local culture."

But what impressed me more was her personal story that she was telling in front of our camera.

Sophie's beloved father succumbed to cancer in 2008. She then decided to climb one mountain a year in his memory. Long suffered from asthma, she conquered Kilimanjaro (Highest volcano in Africa, 5,895 meters above sea level) with helps from her friends.

She told us that it was the hardest thing she'd ever done, yet once she submitted she was overwhelmingly excited and made a huge decision on conquest one highest volcano in each continent in 4 months, chasing the existent world record of more than two years. She also planned her "7 volcanoes project" for the sake of raising fund for Cancer Research UK.

She prepared hard for this project for three years, including taking professional courses in Scotland, seriously building up her body and gaining 4 pounds weigh (she was skinny, so gaining weight can help her stand against freezing temperature).

Started on December 2013, she set off from submitting Mount Sidley in the Antartica(4,285m), then Pico de Orizaba in Mexico(5,636m),
Mt Giluwe in Papua New Guinea(4,368m), Ojos del Salado in Chile(6,893m), Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania again, Mt Damavand in Iran(5,676m), and finally Mt Elbrus in Russia (5,642m). Although it took her more than one time to finally mounted on some of the mountains due to exhaustions and illness, she at last preserved until the end in 5.5 months.

She said she wanted to give in from time to time back then. But once she thought of the humility on the apices and what originally drew her en route, she just could not resist her steps onwards.

She is still working for raising the cancer fund. If you feel interested in her 7 volcanoes projects, or even want to contribute a bit, pleach click here.

Working with Sophie, though just a short period one, was the best experience as grateful as a gift for my Thanksgiving.

(Sincerely appreciate that you finally finish this long article anyway. XD)