Junctions DVD-ing

So i finished editing the interactive project i was working on. Believe me this is without a doubt, one of my worse, narrative-wise, I would like to dis-own it. But knowing that I must, however submit something for my degree grading process, i figured that i dont have any other choice.

Editing Junctions:



Well I have been asked by many people - Apakah Interactive?

So I might as well explain it here.
Interactivity

interactive |ˌintərˈaktiv|
adjective
(of two people or things) influencing or having an effect on each other : fully sighted children in interactive play with others with defective vision.
• (of a computer or other electronic device) allowing a two-way flow of information between it and a user, responding to the user's input : interactive video.

meaning that the user (whoever is playing the DVD) has the power to make decisions for the character in the video. And that the video has various turns and junctions that the user is allowed to make decision for. Thus, re-enforcing the idea of 'The Death of the Author'

Now I'm working on the process of actually making it interactive, you know with menus and stuff. So this here is the background for the main menu:

The two boxes indicated with arrows are to be filled with text from the menu buttons, you know, like one you find in a DVD. The production design of this DVD is inspired fully from no one other than Fatin herself. Her habit of scribbling everything that passes her mind inspires me to create 'The Notebook" theme.

Interactive DVD-ing Junctions


The thing about this project is that i would LOVE to disown all of the narrative content, but still take credit for all the other production values (except the narrative.just re-emphasizing).

Talking about credits; Junctions also have the longest credit i have ever included in a video. And a montage I'm pretty proud of. I would love to include the montage in here but since it would ruin the element of surprise for some people, I wont.

The other day i was watching one of Kak Siti's video and then I realized that she crams all her thanks in all of her videos. So being a good fellow Astro scholar, i decided that I should do the same from now on, as it feels incredebly good to do so!

So here is the GOOD end credits (being interactive, they are two end credits)



So yeah, the only part that i like about "Junctions" is it's production value; Montage, Menus, Styles, Credits. I HATE the story!

I'll post more up (montage, clips, pics etc.) after I submit it to the lecturer, so until then, itu saja yea murid2? =)

Happy Birthday My, Dearest.

Look at the date. Today is mid December, that practically makes it, "Tengah bulan, hujung tahun", her exact words when i asked her birthday many years ago, back then we were just friends, not even close friends. But I always felt comfortable whenever i'm around/conversing with herl, she's like this close-female-batchmate I never had (knowing I'm from such a homoerotic institution, SAS). It always felt good talking to her, sharing things, bitching about others (don't give me the stink stare, we ALL do that) and we also help boost each other spirits up when SPM (Severe Pain in My ass) came close.

And then after a few turbulence(s) in our relationship, we gradually became fond of each other, and the result is nothing else but what you see now. The typical, heterosexual 'Wari & Fatin' stereotype.

Since then, she has been every single thing to me; lover, friend, sister, pillowtalk mate, saviour, arch enemy, shoulder, strengh, weakness, total pain in my neck and always there, she's the most there person I ever met.

She often thinks that she always troubles me, and that she is too dependant of me. But the way I see it, I'm the one who's actually the burden, I've done so many horrible things to her that I despise myself everytime I even think of it. But the great thing about her is that, she never really blame me for anything that I do, even when she does, time would erase it off her memory permanently (unlike myself, who is a dreadful kaki ungkit). She looks up upon me as this 'Great Guy' I am not, as she honestly put my flaws aside. So far aside that when I ask her what she don't like about me, she can't really answer. But if she asks me; I have this pretty lengthy list of such things. It's not because I'm a better person than her, its because of the absolute opposite.
And when we argue who loves who more (sentimentality alert!! sassians beware), I often try to argue that I'm the one who loves her more, but I was kidding no one but myself, as I know, I could'nt match up to her love. (jiwangness, harap maaf ya)

Just look at those cheeks, dont you just want to bite them off? (not that any of you can la (including myself k?) but still). I can bable about how she's this super cute girl for hours now, so i wish to stop here.......................................................

(Awkward pause)

(Bunyi Angin)


I CANT HELP IT!! SHE"S SO CUTE!!

I always feel awful that since we've been together, I never actually had the chance to celebrate her birthday there, beside her. Which again, proves the point that unlike her, I'm not a very there person to her, then she is to me.

For your birthday my sweet, selfless, cute, loving, caring little angel, I wish nothing more but to be beside you, holding your hand, as you blow off 19 candles off your creamy, creamy little birthday cake. I will make my amends when my time here is done, when that happens, I'll make sure you'd be the happiest person on God's earth.

I love you my!

My

I Love You

Editing Myself

I've finally started filming for my interactive project. Yesterday me and two good friends of mine, Hani and Kak Siti went down to one of the locations to get started with the shoot. The thing about this shoot is that it requires me to both act and direct at the same time. It was weird shooting with Kak Siti, an established Assitant Director in Malaysia. I found myself intimidated since there are still lots that i need to learn, and that what i know is nothing to what she does. The weather was a bitch yesterday, it was cold and windy. It is bad enough that it is cold and we had to stay outdoor for hours, and the wind just had to spoil my shots as it screws my captured audio on the recording. Now i have to do dubbing and foley works.

So i just finished editing the scene we shot yesterday (what i was able to edit; note that i still need to edit the sound adn record ambience and do foley works). But that's not the real point of this post.


The thing about editing this is that this is the first time i had to edit myself (a video in which i'm acting). Which is way different that editing a trip video of yourself or a birthday video of yourself. This is editing yourself ACTING.

I felt weird doing this. This is the first time I've done such a thing, before if there were any acting that I did on video, Siddiq would be the one who edits it.

It was weird, like twilight weird.

Quarterlife - If anyone means to ask what type of films I aspire to make

Well a few days back i was pretty free, well actually I'm not supposed to be cause I have something that's due pretty soon - But hey; what can i do when I haven't even start shooting yet?

So being this carefree pain in the neck to myself, i started to wander around the net, like any other worthless 21st century teen would. So i was on youtube, browsing a few videos. And you know how it is on youtube; first you were looking for some Sasquatch videos, then one video led you to another and at the end - You end up wasting like 2 hours doing so.

So yeah, that happened to me (yet again, shocker!) and i end up reuniting with the cast, and the filmmakers that touched me once, as a film student. "Quarterlife" an online series about a group of young artist facing their quarter-life (20's or so). Ever heard the term; Mid - life Crisis? Well, this is a series about a group of artists facing their Quarter-life-crisis(es). Which I, personally extremely relate to.

Quarterlife Part One





Well I'm posting up the first episode up here so that later people can go follow the series (now cancelled). A bummer, but understandable since it was getting bad by the episodes. Watch part 1 to 7. Those were my favourites, cause later it started to get a little bit more and more ridiculous and populist from my point of view.

But while it was good, it was really good; for me that is. Notice the witty, charming, yet not trying-too-hard dialogues; it makes you feel..feel..well it does just that; It makes you feel . It's being very philosophical but yet, without cliche. Imagine a Malay film being philosophical; "Hidup ini mmg palat, tapi esok masih ada" wth? How cliche is that? I mean, yes it tries to improv what typical Malay novels like Budak Setan would write and make it look a bit more today by putting a swear word (which I believe they didnt even know it truly mean) in it. But still, you don't need to feed us with that, not anymore; we're sick of that shit. Instead, we used the same peribahasa's in our UPSR BM penulisan paper.

The dialouges in Quarterlife are real; and it touches you. This of course is helped by the fact that it is also enacted by some really talented young actors and actresses. I mean look at them! Are they acting? No they're not, they're being what the script requires them to be, and does even more with it. Acting and being are two different things whatsoever.

The camera work; well yeah, it's amateur, a bit shaky - makes you dizzy, screen-sick and it just irritates our eyes. right?

WRONG

Cause from where i observe, the hand held camera motions helps you feel more. It makes what's real to the character, real to you, it's sensual, it's gentle and it's natural. It evokes more emotions than a tripod can. Proving again, that what Allah s.w.t created (two hands) is more artistic than a three legged tripod.

The Foley (sound); listen to the every detail of the sound piece, the sounds the characters make as they embark into what's real to them. It could be as simple as the sound of footsteps, sheets rumbling, clothes, or a plastic fooze-hockey game. It all contributes to the gentleness of the film piece. Sub-consciously, it's lending the character's ears to us.

Editing - the gentle colors used as it color scheme is very identifying. Again, subconsciously, it delivers the emotions that we are expected to get while we, as the viewer from another end of the screen identifies with these people we see on screen.

Try and watch the first episode, if you can't find to like it, i apologize.

But to me, INI SENI

I soo want to change my Module!!!

Aku benci class orang Singapore itu!! Why the friggin hell did I even select it as one of my modules?!! Wargh!! I dont friggin...urm..ehem2..correction; NONE of us friggin understands what she says and yet she treats us like idiots! (well, maybe we are; TO SELECT her module). I was mistaken and fooled by the name of the course; namanya sungguh indah dan nampak macam best dan sesuai untukku. Namun Hakikatnya; Hancus!! I'm not sure if were allowed to change our modules up to this time of the year, but if we can.. I'm soo outta there! I hate writing essays!!

Yes, I'm updating. So enough sarcasm kay?

So recently i looked back at a few things that i made back when i was in high school. Thinking back, i used to call them masterpieces, now i realise i'm just another teenager who found video editing to be fun. But looking back, i was a bit more ambitious and talented for my age, and for that time ( i know i'm being perasan; but bare with me as it's a form of self-motivational thing for now that i'm here, doing film seriously)

Anyways, what I'm really meaning to revisit here is that over-rated video i made for teachers day back in 2006 (All because of Amin putting it up on his blog; real embarassing). If you guys still dont get what i mean, can't recall such video, or don't even understand what i'm talking about since you weren't even there.

This piece of scrap is what i'm talking about



Rings a bell? No? Whatever..

Well to those who are getting it, or at least deja vu's of it, did you guys remembered what kind of hit it was? Coz i remember feeling like a rockstar when it premiered in our tiny little Dewan Putra Perdana. I also remember having a hard time backstage when the time to fire it up on screen closes by. Since I was using Cik Maryam's laptop (gosh, to think i was pretty close to her back then..urgh) back then, it had a problem projecting video using a projector because of insufficiency of codec (bloody acer!) so we had to go all trouble of finding a new machine, transfering all the videos and so on so forth. I even had my boys to go and grab the towers (desktops) which we used for the work. After all the trouble, our darling Miss Marwani ended up being the life saver since we used her codec sufficient hp laptop to broadcast all the shit we had to entertain the crowd.

Urghh!!
I'm drifting away again!!

Well i realized that i was ambitious enough, at the age of 17 to try chroma keying. For those who aren't familiar of this, chroma keying is the typical green/blue screen technique filmmakers use to superimpose image. Notice the green background of the video; it was meant for chroma keying. Well it didnt turn up all so well because the subject matters i'm superimposing are stickfigures - they have thin edges. I end up spilling the background all over their bodies! That's why the green screen stays.

Notice the animation too; it was purely drawn frame by frame in a 3rd party application (i.e. powerpoint kahkahkah how lowly software provided we were back then). The frames are then arranged one after another in a video editing application (i.e. back then - Ulead Video Studio) and then played in a timeline against the soundtrack. Pretty neat huh?

Well now that i'm far ahead of where i was back then, i thought that i could enhance the whole thing all over. So, the very keen me started the whole thing from step one:

Drawing new full fledged (well, almost) 2D characters.

Using Flash for the Animation (Notice The Green Screen)

And Using Final Cut Pro 6 to superimpose the animation on top of an actual footage of a location i shot.

This way I can get a more stylistic video when I'm finished. I already have some test clips up and running, and I'm really pleased by it. It rocks! But i wont post it up anywhere yet, not until it's done 100%. I really want to continue doing this little project of mine, but it seems that i can't since i'm still in my writer's block state and am coming close to a deadline for an interactive narrative piece. Heck, when can i start doing what I want?

And guess what? None of this would happen (with much reduced stress taht is) without my new machine:

Owh I just LOVE my macbookpro!

1st to say - CANT BELIEVE I'M BLOGGING!!

well a series of exposure to the 'chronic-boredom' radiation has finally dragged me towards the ever-so-famous blogging plague.

i dont really know what i'll be blogging about after this first post.

i would so LOVE to talk about my life, things that happen to me, people around me, and so on so forth, but i believe in respecting other people's privacy (and my own of course). because honestly, the things you wanna tell around most is the things you cant.

so i'll figure out later what will become of this blog, with hopes that it doesn't contribute to the over-crowded state of the world wide web.

till then, cheerio.