As the director of the project, I am in charge of over seeing the quality of the output of the final product. As the editing phase involve very little people directly, i try my best to get team members not involved to view the rough cut and comment on it as they are least attached to the cut (where the editor and director will tend to get attached to the edit after working days and nights on it). My role is also to approve and agree on what the editor suggest to be better than what I originally visualised. As the sound design is always changing, I need to decide on which is the better version of it.

2.What have you learnt in the production phase?

Every shots’ tail is very important. It is important for the DP to cut after the director shout cut, or even better, to understand to leave tail for the perfect shots with editing in mind. Saving film is important, but ensuring the shot is sustained for maximum impact is important as well. Most shots turn out to have too little tail and the editor has problem playing around with them.

Cropping the film from 16:9 to a 4:3 no doubt is painful. But at the very least, 4:3 still work rather good for a nostalgic film.

Locking off the picture early is important for the sound design and I believe this has been the first project that we made the effort to lock it early enough for proper sound design to be done. With the edition of enhanced ambience, the whole film feels so much better.

In every production team, there will be people who complain about people not doing enough. I on the other hand have another theory, if you are able to do it, just do more and do not complain. It is always about getting the things done for production and not about fair and equal treatment. If one is to uphold equal treatment, where everyone do the same load of work, then something will be sacrificed. In this case, production efficiency will be sacrificed. It is therefore of utmost importance to make completion of work as the main objective for everything.

The world is not fair after all.

A dedicated team is what is required to get the production till the end and till completion. When people begins to doubt one another, the complex filmmaking process gets even more complicated. People jumping out to claim credits for this and denies other people for that credit is a horrible sight to see. The process of filmmaking itself make a good literary work as it uncover human nature and serves as a good platform for character study. People’s true nature are seen on set and only for those who truly reflect will improve on their skills and most importantly, to be a better person.

As the director on set, I am required to hold onto the vision of my film as changes are required to be made. Communicating to talents and make them feel comfortable before the lens is what optimise the talent’s performance.

2.What have you learnt in the production phase?

This is the phase where confusion and anger manifest. Anger to myself and my trust. The error of preproduction is clearly exposed here, and also exposed the fact that people did not read and check through the paper work. Things that clearly do not work out and can be prevented long ago happened and we allowed it to happen. People is a resource on set, but when not utilised, a hindrance. People on set should be pro active and constantly see what help is needed and not be ordered around. No doubt the industry works slightly different, but for a student film, everyone is involved in the pre-production and thus people should be on the same frequency to increase efficiency.

I also clearly understand the kind of DP whom I prefer to work with – one who talks to me, rather than one whom I talk to. I find myself always too preoccupied with the talents and often neglects the camera. I need, and lucky enough to have one for my AFP2, a DP who is capable of pulling me back and maintain the balance of the project.

The break of hierarchy problem continue to surface during the production. Many decisions were made without the notice of the producer. All decisions made and or unmade are to be informed to the producer as we do not have the luxury of checking who is in charge of what. Confusion is definitely destructive to the production.

As the director of this project, I was involved with the selection of a story that I feel connected with. Due to my absence in Singapore for three weeks, I was unable to go for a location scout with the crew. I was only able to scout the location chosen by my crew members alone. The shots planned was done through an email exchanging method as I was unable to meet up face to face with my DoP.

2.What have you learnt in the pre-production phase?

Film making is not easy, unable to meet face to face just make everything even worst. A film require the utmost commitment and contribution of everyone. Reading through whatever paperwork done during this face is horribly important. Trust should never be practised during this phase. Things should be changed if required as soon as possible as there will always be too many last minute things and unforseen circumstances to handle. The hierarchy of the team should be respected as it came a time I am no longer sure what issues are being handled by who. To only join the pre-production only halfway through make myself not as credible as a director and reliance on other people is, though wrong, the choice I made.

The role of the director is to convey his message to the director of photography how the end result of the film will look like. At times, the editor will pose with alternative and the director need to choose the better of the two, unbiased.

2.What have you learnt in the post-production phase?

The director needs to be firm and sure of what he wants. When the footages are having problems, the director should call for a reshoot as soon as possible. The director should have the final say on this matter as he should be the one with the clearest picture of the final product in mind.

Locking off picture as early as possible has always been recommended. However, it has been a challenge to do so. The tendency to keep making it better and to test alternative is hard to curb. The later we lock off, the less time we have for audio post editing. Furthermore, we also have less time for troubleshooting (the problem lies in Murphy’s Law – there is always problem when we exports). This always result in a rush for completion which may end up sacrificing quality of work done.

The role as a director on set is a guide for how the shoot proceeds and changes the plan if need to for better result or to minimise the lost of result. I have to work with the talent and DP very closely.

2.What have you learnt in the production phase?

Things always change. People are always late. Bus will be late. Hi there, Murphy and your law.

I have to be very focus and clear of what I want. My description and explanation of a scene needs to be as clear as possible. Nothing ever follow a plan, and this is no news. The line script is what I am very reliant on when shots need to be changed. Communication with the DP must be maintained, but this is what I have not done too well for this shoot. Once communication breaks, all that is left is confusion. With confusion, time is wasted to remedy it.

Preproduction is never enough. It is the best time for everyone to voice out what they think and I am able to think. Once on set, suggestions ,regardless of how good it is, become a nuisance. But then again, nuisance it may be, I still need to listen to them for every suggestions could just make the film better. To carefully select the good ones will require a clear mind. A clear mind will require a good night sleep. A good night sleep will require non-last minute work.

However, many a time, non-last minute work is but a legend.

I am the director and screenwriter for this project. I am in charge of writing the script, breaking it down into shots with my DP, and to come out with the floor plan and storyboard with my DP as well. I have also been involved in the casting and the securing of some props alongside with my team mates and the securing of props.

2.What have you learnt in the pre-production phase?

The earlier the script is done, the earlier we can enter pre-production. The generation of the script this time round is considered fast (within days), but the main problem we face this project is the date of shoot. As we needed a public bus crucially, we have no choice but to bring forward our shoot as it clashes with the NAVY open house and they have fully booked the bus from SMRT. Putting the shoot on a weekday has dire problems. We have a huge problem casting people as many are working (they act part time). Furthermore, extras are even harder to come by (no full time extras/no budget to hire them). Finding the right person is a painful thing. They may fit the role, but they may not fit the schedule. It is always good to do castings as far from date of desired shoot dates as possible so we can still make arrangements (AFP project is a different thing as the deadlines are packed on purpose).

In problem of castings, and due to logistics in our current case that we are unable to change our shoot dates, characters are modified to fit the talent who are available. In desperate times, quality of the character are being overlooked just to ensure “the shoot goes on”.

But when exactly is our life’s end? The day we die? The day we are of no use to the society anymore? The day we give up on ourselves? Or the day when no one no longer remember us? I guess the answer to this question is subjective and as for me, I belief in all 4 answers.

• Death marks the end of life’s exam; no more writing, submit the paper.

• Being useless to the society is like not knowing how to answer a certain question and we just stop there. So, we should move on, be it in life or in exam, do the next question; do something that makes you useful to something or someone.
• Giving up on ourselves means not trying at all, so long there is still time, so long our heart is still beating, there is always a way, just keep trying.

• Ever thought of immortality for eternal life? For me, I do not crave for that, I guess that is a little too scary, to have everlasting life. One day, we will lose interest in everything, and life will become meaningless, and ‘giving up’ is the only option left. Sad isn’t it? So, the kind of eternal life I want is for people in the future will still remember me. In order to make that happen, is make history (positive record, NOT negative ones).

I feel that life is a joke; that is why we have to laugh more and be happy while we can. Doing what we can during this short period of lifetime and receive our result upon death. The more I look at this, the more it is like examination. Education is the preparation for the exam, working is the exam, retirement is the marking period of papers and death is the collection of exam results. Oh, I miss out one more part, National Service is like IS modules, though essential but is irritating and breaks the momentum of everything.

Therefore, when there is a start, there will be an end, a finishing point, a goal.

This is then the REAL last post…

End of storytelling…

Start of life…

REAL start…

Let’s move on everyone, history is waiting for us to make…

_________________________________________________________________________________

There is a chase for something every time. Remember years ago when there is this Hello Kitty craze? People queued up at Mcdonald’s for these cats, making it national news. ‘I see you have, so I must have too’ is the kind of mentality many people have. Hello Kitty is never this popular in Singapore. When the last pair of Hello Kitty is to be obtained by prior booking, it loses its value. How many people actually booked for the cats and end up not redeeming them from Mcdonald’s? We want something not everyone have and we want things that others have that we don’t, even though we do not need them. ‘Needs’ and ‘wants’ is an important issue, but how many people actually give thoughts to it?

Look around us, when we see other people, we start to compare with our mediocre life. We see their good life and oversee their tough work. But when it comes to other people’s behavior and personality, we can see their bad points more easily then their good points. When we talk about complains, we have many. However, when it comes to complimenting others, we find ourselves caught in a tongue-tied situation. Years later, when we look back, only then will the good points become dominant while the bad points subside. Like the situation of when we are envious of other people leading better lives than us, we actually know, just that we refuse to acknowledge that. It takes time for such cruel truth to be embedded in us – there are other people who work harder than us, other people who are more well mannered and well behaved than us.

Why strive for something we like, and end up hating it someday? Why do things just because other people are doing it? Why compare with other people to make your life look bad when your life is actually rather good? Why do we want to be more superior than the others when we are really not?

Why do I want to write this post as my final post for storytelling module? I do not know. Perhaps this is the true meaning of life – a thing that is full of ‘why’s and very little ‘because’. Is all a dream? Is reality surreal, or is real surreal? What is all this? Why is it happening? When will it end? How does it even start? Where is the start? Who am I?

Whatever it is, let’s just live our life to the fullest and be happy. That is the least we should do.

Enough of crying over spilled milk; let’s move on to this week’s post – interesting posts. I am not trying to say that this is an interesting post, but rather, this post is about interesting. Men are curious and are always interested in something. Men are also fickle minded. When we pick up a certain hobby, we might switch to another one very quickly at times. Not many people can stick to one hobby for life. When we are doing something over and over again, we get sick of it. Take me for an example, when I was young, I collected almost everything. Erasers, key chains, stickers, stamps, phone cards… you just name it; I might just have them hidden in a corner of my cupboard. When I grew slightly older, around secondary schools, I start collecting other stuff like Pokemon Trading Card Game. Hey! Why can I feel that you guys are laughing at me?

So you see, people will have a tendency to collect things they like. Are we humans over possessive over materialistic items? When we have one from a set, we have an urge to collect the rest of the series, like that nameless guy from Fight Club collecting IKEA furniture. Just imagine one day, when love become extreme, someone might preserve their love ones to collect… *shiver* ok, this is getting creepy.

Apart from collecting being a hobby, doing something can become a hobby too. Playing musical instruments, cooking, playing virtual games or even playing sports like any ball games (can somebody please tell me why did Mavis appear in my mind when I was typing out the words ‘ball games’? hmm, I wonder…). To me, playing something is a healthier kind of hobby as compared to collecting stuff. I always link collection to that over possessive psychological problem.

I used to help out in cooking when I was in secondary school. Not just home economics, but at home too. But I guess I was only interested in the knife rather than the ladle (too much Chinese kung fu novels back then). I also played basketball during my secondary school days, but only until I injured my right arm. I woke up one morning and realize my right arm wasn’t responding to me very well and that made me turn to a more ‘scholarly’ hobby. This hobby that I turned to is something that I had long wanted to do. It is di zi (or in English, the flute). I remember when I was in kindergarten, I watched this TV drama about the eight immortals crossing the sea. Among them is an immortal that uses the flute as his celestial weapon. Yup, he is Han Xiang Zi. (I thought of putting a picture of them here, but well, since they are part of the Taoist religion, I shan’t use their pictures any o’ how)

So this music instrument I picked up as an effect from the causality of injuring my arm by the basketball, it changes my life totally. Perhaps it’s because it was something like a dream come true. I never got a chance to learn it. As my mother forced me to some organ lesson and I refused to go (perhaps I was already a ‘D’ personality [refer to ‘The One’]), and my mum uses that as a reason to not let me learn, saying that my passion can never last for more than 3 minutes. That was weird, I never remember me saying I wanted to earn organ. So, I gave it all out (like oh Desu giving it all out on Mido after 15 years… darn, why did I even link my hobby with that traumatizing show…) when I touch the di zi and you guys probably can guess that this caused the turning point of my life, but that is another story and it has more or less been told.

Men just take things for granted. We will only cherish things that were hard to come by. So girls, play ‘hard to get’ with the guys you like, so that they might love you more, but do not over do it. Some guys might end up cherishing you so much that collecting becomes the only option…

Human’s minds are just so interesting aren’t they?

screen shot taken from anime: Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. Good stuff, my favourite anime.
coherence: 0/10 unless finish watching the entire season 1 n 2…
intensity of effect: 10/10
originality: 10/10
complexity: 10/10

score is ridiculous, well, it’s my favourite, so cant blame if i’m bias. Go watch it when you are free.

blood and gore warning!

Everywhere we go, there is this one, many ones actually. When in a group there is always people with different traits such as the most commonly seen bossy one, noisy one, quiet one and the complaining one. The magnitude of these four kinds of people will definitely defer from one group to another. When people become over bossy, and controls every single thing, they will look like a tyrant. The noisy type of people lighten mood all the time but when they start to talk nonsense and never seem to be serious even when doing work, they will tend to get on other people’s nerves. The quiet seldom talks and are generally easy going. However, if they are quiet all the time, he/she will look more like anti social. Complaining helps getting the rights we deserve but there is always a limit. If we complain about every minor detail, we will start to nag and of course this is not a good thing.

When these traits of anyone become unbearable, they will become the one, the ostracized one. This is also a phenomenon that occurs everywhere. Like a joker/old maid/donkey card or whatever card games you play, this person will be seen as the extra one and no one wants to keep it in your hand. We will try our best to avoid them at all cost.

However, there is this weird effect resulting from the irritating aura emitted by the ‘outcasts’ – the uniting of the class. The mystical power will somehow unite the initially scattered class. I suppose that with a common target, people unite. Then, among the united clan, a leader will rise… OK, before moving on, i really hope that this poly class can proof to me that this phenomenon does not occur every time…

The One Leading

In a group, someone has to lead or else, the group will be heading nowhere. Leaders will change time-to-time, just like emperors of the past or ministers of today. In small group context, the change of leader may or may not be due to incapability. For instance, when deciding for work related problems, person A will take charge whereas person B will take charge when it comes to recreational events planning. In some cases, all members of the group might have a chance to lead at different times unlike the governing system of a country where leaders lead and followers follow (let’s not go into political issues here shall we?).

Like we have different kinds of irritating people, we also have different kinds of leaders, but its much simpler as there is only 2 types – the good ones and the bad ones. Good leaders lead by example and are open to suggestions. They are assertive when it needs be, speak only the necessary, commanding respect when keeping quiet and never complain about how tough being a leader is. Bad leaders are simply the reverse. I have seen people who literally cannot lead but are being assigned a leadership role (you guys can guess where I saw them right? That’s right, during my 2 years of ‘jail’). They do nothing when they are required to react and complain about how difficult it is to be leading. ‘You try to be in my position then you will know how I feel’, ‘You so good then you be commander lah’, when people say something like that, they fail immediately. These statements actually harbor tones of despising and undermining. When superior look down on subordinate, the trust between them is gone and nothing can work out. The worst statement I have ever heard in my life will be ‘If you do not respect me, respect my rank’. I will always reply back in my heart, ‘Like you respect my rank. It’s not high up, but I take pride in my rank.’

Many a time, leaders forget that their authority lies with the people underneath. If there is no one under them, what do they lead? So the higher up someone climbs, the higher tendency for them to neglect this fact and even good leaders will become bad ones. Whenever we lead, just keep this in mind – commanding respect and respecting command (perhaps this is the only good phrase SAF can ever come out with).

Moving back to the ‘leader’ leading the united clan against the ostracized one, this type of leader belongs to a slightly different type. Some call them comrade leaders while others call them peer leaders. Basically, they are people who lead fellow people of the same level. This kind of leaders can only be one type, the good ones. They will understand the importance of support as the ostracized one will act as a constant reminder for them. Furthermore, if the group is unhappy about this leader of theirs, they can talk to him/her immediately and problems can be trashed out and sorted out quickly. So in this united clan, different people take turns to lead for different issues, while some others will enjoy playing the supportive roles and never take charge. Among the group, we will also have a small group who are in the clan because they do not want to be ostracized like ‘the one’ just because they are all right with him/her. Peer pressure comes into the picture as silent as ever.

We want to be something and do not want to be something else. We choose our own path, but the outcome will defer from others. Everyone is unique and is the one and only.

The one and only

Everyone belongs to a certain story. We are the protagonists of our own stories. People whom we know will appear in our story as supporting roles. Though we are in the story, we are able to play a part in writing our story. Some people like their story to have something big in it, while others enjoy having a peaceful story. In this world of ours, we perceive and react to things in way that others done. This is called personality.

As I have mentioned about the bossy, noisy, quite and the complaining kind of people around, there is actually a personality categorization them – DISC (dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness). Actually, that categorization was taken from a quiz I had taken before.

• ‘Dominance’ refers to those that can be described as a bulldozer. They do what they want and getting rid of those in their way. They are forceful and will do anything so long the goal is achieved.

• ‘Influence’ people are easily recognized by their power of speech. They are able to talk through people and change their decision. However, when it comes to hands on, they might not be as good as their talking.

• ‘Steadiness’ will be a nice word for those ‘quiet’. They will not do much talking as most of the time and will usually play the passive role in a group. They enjoy staying neutral during arguments and are generally peace loving. They are also the easiest going group and the most co-operative kind.

• ‘Conscientiousness’ people are on high alert mode most of the time. I dun mean that they are paranoid but they have a high tendency for that. They are usually cautious, meticulous, calculative and curious. They prefer to do things in a systematic way and sadly, have the highest tendency of irritating other people.

However, one will not belong totally to a certain category, i.e. A is dominant, B is steady etc. Rather, think of it as attributes, like attack, defense and speed. So, everyone will have a core personality supported by one or a few sub-personalities. For instance, take my result. It was something like D 44, I 28, S 8, and C 20. That would means I am very D (back then) and followed by ‘I’ and ‘C’. And I am so not S. Personality change with time, so I wonder how will my result look like if I redo the test.

There is no such thing as the best personality of the four. What we need is balance. Group with a good mix of people of the 4 personalities can have things done efficiently as each of them fill in the bad points of the others. When ‘I’ talk too much, ‘C’ will pull them back. When ‘C’ makes too many alternative solutions for something, ‘D’ will choose one out for them. When ‘D’ is getting tyranny, ‘S’ can tone them down. When ‘S’ is too quiet, ‘I’ can ‘lure’ them to speak up.

In conclusion, everyone plays a part in life, no matter how in significant it is. We are all different; different personality, different IQ, different EQ. Being different, we are unique, we are one.

Ok, this picture brings us back to the 1st topic of my post- the one left. I urge everyone reading my post, be a good leading one, or be a co-operative one, but never, the left out one.

*feel free to leave a comment about your views about me being D,I,S or C*

free online DISC test: http://www.mtselect.co.uk/testing/DISC.htm