fri-day

No class today but that doesn't mean we've stopped working.
Nah, it's just more storyboarding today.
We resurrected Oscar, by the way, because we need him for our intro and closing sequences. We coated him with acrylic paint then spray painted him gold. He looks quite good, actually.
Anyway, I was feeling a little short-fused today because of various random things so I was a little impatient. Which is bad. Horrible. Okay.
While I went for class, the rest went to Bedok Reservoir to shoot Natalya's sequence.
I met them after I was released and finished her her sequence. Because of the time, we decided to shoot the intro scene on Monday.
mmhmm.

day nineteen

So, we're in the 2D lab doing up our script which will take most of the day, there isn't much to update for today, really. The script, Kezzy is doing. Typing up the time plan will take pretty fast but still, it's a must-do.
Anyway, talking things about backfired. Don't understand what's the problem now.
Whatever, persevere. Yes, me, persevering .
Anyway, I have to leave for class soon and Kezzy is doing the 2 column-scrip and Joel is doing dialogue. Thanks people.
Yeah, so storyboarding is gonna be done later by them. We'll probably meet up later. Maybe, maybe not.
Mmm. Intense scripting tomorrow as well.
Toodles.

day eighteen

Look, this is getting severely retarded. We're gonna sit down and talk this out tomorrow. And when someone is talking, the other will jolly well just shut up and listen, so that we can all get our pride and working spirit up to par and carry on with the last three weeks of the block.
Yes, surprise, our group is not getting along. I'm sure it makes some people happy.
Existing isn't even a crime. It's what you do with yourself when you're existing that differentiates how everything is honky dory to how it's not. Stop being a victim.
Initiative issues are just the tip of the iceberg. Look beneath, there's more substance below the icy cold water. Anyway, whatever this little conflict is, it will be resolved by tomorrow because we only have a couple more weeks to go and we've all made mistakes regarding this.
Major digression.
For the record, we are doing fine and well with our video and planning and re-planning. So our progress is not hindered.
Because finding a suitable room and an interviewer is insanely difficult, we have decided that we're just wasting our time trying to think of an answer that is not there. What do we do next? Plan B, a back-up plan that has to be there if we fail, which we have.
Kezzy brought up an idea that we thought we could work with. Because sitting down and talking to the camera/interviewer was monotonous and wordy, we have decided to interview each of us individually so that it's not so 'in your face'. Different locations for shooting, we realise, is also a major factor. It not only shows the school in which we are trying to subtly promote, but it also gives our video a sense of aesthetic quality, no matter how tiny or minuscule it may be.
With one person being interviewed at a time, the viewer, we thought, will find it easier to focus and listen to what we are saying. Of course, the person talking has to have expression and a sense of belonging in front of the camera.
Anyway, the transitions are quite intense so we have to be anal (detailed and particular) with how we shoot, the angle of the camera and how we do up our storyboard and script. All of which, including the time-plan will be done tomorrow.
My 3-6pm class is a hindrance.

day seventeen

Again, this is getting boring, we met in class.
Joel and I bought Subway for lunch so we had very nice and yummy sandwiches.
After having our fill and talking about the Oscars, we got down to business, so to speak.
Wahidah got our new script and was going through with us.
There're a couple of things which we needed to correct. The first being 'Get a new interviewer' and how to make him/her fit in with all of us. Is he/she a friend, a stranger? Yeah.
We need to recce a few more rooms for our interview sequence. I think I've mentioned this before but it's pretty important to mention it a few times over.
I got a dog! Yay. I do miss my old one though. He can't be replaced.
Anyway, we were doing up a new timetable which, I hope, we can stick to.
That's pretty much it for today.

day sixteen

Today was quite unproductive.
We met in class, as usual and the only unusual thing that happened today was that I was the first to arrive. Doesn't happen very often. Anyway, journal submission is also today so the majority of the time spent was to copy and paste and touch up the journal entries for submission.
And because I have another class at 3pm and the print shop was packed as usual, I asked Joel if he could help me print.
He kindly agreed, nice boy.
Anyway, other than the journal, we managed to re-edit our script again. Joel did the talent script, which is basically the dialogue with time to follow and stuff because, as said before, our video was far too long.
Bummer.
Anyway, we gotta work on a lot of things. We'll probably be improving our script for the next two or three days to get it right.
I'm still waiting for the current class to start. No one seems to know that this is the classroom.
Haha.

day fifteen

interim assessment. our group presented with our very, extremely rough cut video. I emphasize on rough. Like, really rough. Anyway, editing was done the day before. As addressed yesterday, I felt that our interview was very long and draggy.
When it came to Q&A, Lionel brought up a couple of issues that we have already decided that we are going to correct. We need better aesthetic for our interview room because it was too boring.
It was a relief that everyone got our introduction and wasn't confused with the first and third-person role that the camera had.
Our 2D art sequence had to be slower because it became really fast an headache-y when it was approaching the end. The same goes for our ComDI sequence.
We also have to work on our transitions between the interview room and the video for our modules.
On a more personal level, our group is facing some problems regarding initiative issues which we will discuss later.
Furthermore, I don't get how, after meeting for just 15minutes, that someone can blog about their day already when we've not done anything else yet.
Weird, huh. Something to ponder about.

day fourteeeeeeen

we edited the video but while editing, i wasn't exactly happy with the outcome of the video for many reasons.
There were a lot of jump cuts, the interview portion was messy and I felt that there were too much talking and quite hard to follow. I thought our video was quite messy overall but we have decided to work on our interview portion again to better it yet again.
Our script is undergoing yet another construction, nevertheless, there are a few weeks more till final submission so we can still work on our mess.
We had a good dinner yesterday. Late dinner but really good.

day thirteen

We met in Wahidah's class and Joel and I were shamefully late. We went on a food run for our starved friends.
Anyway, when we've all arrived, Wahidah brought us her concerns about the role our camera will be playing. The point of view of the camera might be quite difficult to follow because we are alternating between a first person view and a third person view.
She recommended a couple of shows for us to watch. Shows which have the same theme. We have yet to borrow.
We also have to work on our ending. Our conclusion didn't flow with the rest of our video. We also have to work on establishing the role of our camera.
After discussing if we want to keep staying on track, I uploaded the 3Dart sequence into my mac and edited the introduction of the video.
We added music to the intro as well. The introduction is quite long but I'm sure we can work with it.
It's currently rendering and uploading as I type this.
We're going to be shooting Ideation and public speaking later.

day twelve

Okay, so a day late with the blogging, nevertheless...


Kez and I had morning class so we were in the 3D lab finishing our projects for that class. Gary came then Joel and we decided to move up to the studio to shoot our 3D art fundamentals scene.
At the same time, Nat sent me a text saying that Wahidah wanted to see us. Hoping that we'd be finished by 2.30pm, we told her if it was possible to see her then.
The time dragged on and after setting the camera angle and stuff, it was close to 2pm. We started on our 50cm clay piece. We wanted to do the gramophone from the Grammys but we had problems with the top part being heavier than the bottom so we decided to do the Oscar guy that Joel ultimately named him Oscar.
We took 6 hours finishing up dear Oscar and by the time I packed up the camera, it was close to 6.30pm.
Wahidah came to talk to Kez and I during the 3-6pm period. She was concerned with the role of the camera. Kez and I were talking about it and thought maybe we could just put the video together and see if it all works out.
Oscar stood on the little clay wheel he was on and listened intently to us chat. His expressionless face was mocking us.
Today, when Joel checked on Oscar, he found, to his horror, that Oscar's legs are cracked.

satur day

I refuse to procrastinate for more than three days to blog. I'll just get lazier and this blog will be stagnant which is a no-no.
Anyway, on Saturday, we met up to shoot the interview sequence for of our video. Joel finished his APEL 1 earlier than planned so, staying relatively close to school, I volunteered to go down to shoot Joel's intro sequence which was supposed to be done last Wednesday or something. I told Joel to meet me at Tampines Subway. There, we walked further down to try to flag a cab. Typical that there was none.
After half an hour of not getting a cab, we decided to walk to another road and try our luck there. Luck, it seems, took pity on us and a cab came almost immediately.
We reached school and I uploaded the clips to my laptop. Kez came a couple of minutes later then Gary. We were watching an overdue dvd from the library when Nat came. So anyway, we went to the library to recce the project rooms. Before that, we went to the counter to return the 2 dvds and to pay the fines.
We assumed it'll be a dollar a day max, but when she calculated, the two dvds came up to $14..
Kez and I were stunned and Joel said the one thing that was in our minds "Excuse ME?"
Gary, needless to say, was laughing his butt off. Very sympathetic, that fella.
Anyway, the project room was too small and the lighting was way off so we trudged back to the 3-10 rooms. After fiddling with the lights, setting up the camera, going through the lines and putting on make-up [kezzy insisted], we began shooting. Bloopers were, well, bloopers.
We took several takes and by the time we were done, it was close to 6pm. We wrapped up and decided to shoot the video fundamentals video another time since it was late and Joel hasn't choreographed the steps yet. Off we went to have lunch + dinner at the kopitiam opposite school.
Yup.

day eleven

We managed to borrow the camera today, along with a tripod. Thus, we managed to film animation and com di modules. Yay!
We feel particularly proud for transforming an ordinary room into an extraordinary one. Okay, not that extraordinary but better than ordinary. Kez's hair was flying all over because of the wind. Yes, wind in a room with closed windows. Magic, in this case, resourcefulness - as in the room not us, the room was resourceful, we were just fortunate that everything we needed was there and that I discovered the light-adjusting function on the camera. Noob, I know.
Anyway, we also filmed Natalya who was jumping towards a window one floor up. It was sad, no matter how high she jumped, how hard she tried, she couldn't reach the window. How devastating.
Com DI was quite a challenge for Joel. He had to hover above me, following my agile hand as I mind-mapped. He lost about a hundred calories just by doing that. He lost a couple of hundred more by walking towards Safra then gained a thousand calories by eating Hokkien mee and fried oyster.
We got to send Wahidah a note to tell her what we're going to do on Monday.
uh-huh, uh-huh.

day ten

There were a lot of things to discuss today. The inability to borrow a camera is quite frustrating because it throws us off schedule. Nevertheless, we can always RE-schedule.
We emailed our updated script to Wahidah the night before and she was very kind to go through what she thought of it with us in class today. There were a few questions raised, one being the role of the interviewer. We all decided that the interviewer is a secondary school kid that we are of acquaintance with. While going through what we're going to do for photography, Kez realised that we all forgot to take a photo of a picture in both manual and automatic mode. Initially, I thought of going back there but, Nat's suggestion of taking a photo of a sort of flower or plant sounded feasible so I conveyed the suggestion to Kez.
We have yet to find a nice plant/flower.
We had to clarify certain pointers that were vague and misinterpreted and we had to clear up some minor problems within our script. We then shared our inspiration for the video fundamentals module to Wahidah.
After which, Kez brought up a very good point about our current video of drawing essentials and for the interview bit. We decided to change the entire sequence for drawing essentials. We spent a couple of minutes working on the new script for drawing essentials. Then, we decided to better our interview section by zooming in to a person when he/she is talking as opposed to a long-shot of the four of us.
The task went down to Joel who didn't mind correcting the existing script that night.
Unfortunately, we spent the night watching mindless television and eating tasty, low-calorie, home-cooked food at Kez's place. Joel and I left late. Like, really late.
He's going to do it tomorrow.

Day nine

Good evening fellow homo sapiens. Actually, it's close to midnight but no one really cares.
Today, in class, we were taught how to draw up the table-thingy to record our takes, shot description etc. While doing it up, I came to a realisation how useful it really is. I'll print a couple of copies before shooting our next scenes.
Also, our script wasn't technically correct. Sure, we did the 2 column visual script but it was lacking the questions for the interviewer and our vague answers. Joel had already done the dialogue at home so all I had to do was to pull up the already completed visual script and incorporate the completed dialogue. With the help of Wahidah, we managed to successfully come up with a template. I completed the visual and dialogue part of the script in an hour or so and Kezia took over and did the Audio part.
We waited for Joel and Natalya to end their class before heading down to Boat Quay to complete our photography module. Gary came with us, mostly for entertainment purposes but he helped us take a couple of crucial 'boyband-ish' shots. So, many thanks to the big friendly giant.
We went for dinner at Lau Pa Sat where we were greeted by line dancers who were strutting their stuff in the middle of the food centre. The lead dancer had a minnie mouse ear on top of her head and when she sang, her voice squeaked in a most unpleasant way. Seems we found out the significance of the pair of extra ears. Anyway, the seafood there was a rip-off [we already knew but couldn't help ourselves] but it was quite nice. The ice kacang was weird. It had pineapple flavoured syrup. Really gross.
Hmmm. I believe that's all.
Toodle-loo.

day eight

I have a habit of taking a nap before getting down to work at night. It's a bad habit and I find myself having trouble waking up early the next day. It's a vicious cycle.
Anyway, we shot part of our introduction today. The one where I'm walking to school and the one where Natalya takes a bus to school. All in all, it took us over two hours or so to complete shooting the two scenes.
We went to class after a very healthy bottle of iced cold water. We showed our progress to Wahidah and she told us to script out our questions and incorporate it into the 2 column visual script. The task went to Joel who bravely took it on.
We had some problems connecting the firewire to my mac but after much frustration and hard work, we managed to import the video from the cam to the mac.
I just found a pimple in the middle of my forehead. Oh no.
After fiddling around with the video effects and stuff, we headed down to espace to shoot the part for our drawing essentials. Natalya, Joel and I are chatting amiably, talking about how crappy our drawing was when we first started out and how we've learned through trials and tribulations. It was just a casual conversation between friends and I thought our conversation was comfortable enough. Although there were a couple of false starts and we had to wait for a couple of people to move their heavy butts away from espace, we managed to wrap it up in about half and hour.
We headed to the 2D lab, technically to do some work, but we did some relaxation instead. We headed off to our afternoon classes. We're taking photos at Boat Quay tomorrow.
So, I came home and imported the rest of the video to the mac. It's quite late now and I have a morning class tomorrow.
How nice.

day seven. eight? uh. seven.

Hello to you!
Because of my incapability to hear my phone as I watched the Grammy's, I missed out on an important call regarding adopting a dog and now, I must wait a full twelve hours to call the guy back. Not very smart on my part.
Anyway.
We met in class and presented our ideas and what we have to Wahidah. She pointed out a couple of things that we needed to do. One was to show our storyboard, another was to pick a director, producer etc and lastly was to provide a list of the questions for our interview session.
Basically, we thought we were screwed because we were planning to shoot our introduction the next day. But because we are all so very hardworking, we managed to complete them before the day ended. Awesome.
It was a relief when Kezia walked in the door at approximately 2pm. She had a halo hovering over her head and she looked positively angelic. Even more so when she whipped out the storyboard for the introduction.
Kezzy, the saviour.
She took 3 days to complete that and we didn't really have enough time so we decided to write out our plan for the rest of the video in the 2 column thingy that Wahidah showed us.
We just worked our way through the day, wrapping up most of the planning process to begin shooting.
Lets pray for good weather for tomorrow.

day seven

Alan took over our class today because Wahidah was out sick. We took turns to present.
While watching the other group's presentation, I realised that their presentations were very well done. Ours was black and white and very simple Vintage, as we like to call it. Vintage is the new 'in', if you didn't know. Then again, a lot of things are the new 'in' so it doesn't really matter anyway.

Anyway, we had some very good comments from Alan. Our presentation lacked the timeline and resources. Resources meaning the locations, extra people needed and the equipment. We got down to work after all the presentations were over. We did a timeline from the 11th onwards. Our timelines included when we needed to shoot our introductions and each module. Also, we listed down the rooms we needed and what equipment we needed.

We went to recce the places that we thought suitable as well. The places included are the fifth floor studio and a room for our interview (studio at TCC and the room next to the ADM showcase).
We wanted to use the Alumni student lounge but when we asked for the procedures to book the room, we were given a firm 'no'. So far, what we have is the fifth floor studio.

This week will be packed with Chinese New Year activities and when then next week arrives, we will be packed with shooting our video, meaning early mornings and late nights.

Surprisingly our timeline took a very long time to complete.

day five & six

Day five was Friday and we had a group meeting. The meeting was short and quite unproductive therefore I've decided to combine day five and six together in one entry.

On Friday, our scheduled time to meet was at 9am but everyone was late so we pushed the time back to 10am. Being a nice group leader, I called everyone to see if they wanted nourishment while we had our meeting. Joel met me at the nearby McDonalds and bought food for Kezia who was already in school.

Eventually, we arrived at our meeting place and started our meeting. We discussed about our introduction, going through and reconfirming what we needed to do. We also vaguely discussed how we are going to present each module. But we didn't really get into details with that because we were all distracted by something or another.
Kezia and I had to go to the museum after that.

Day six was yesterday. We met in the classroom and listened as Wahidah was telling us what we were going to include in our presentation the next day. We got together as a team and discussed about our presentation one. We did our powerpoint there and then. It includes our skeleton for the whole video. The introduction, body and credits. While doing so, we were able to go through again on what we needed to do. We still have to go into details on how we are going to present each module in our next meeting.

Because Kezia is going to a family reunion during the holidays, we will find a way to discuss before she leaves. Hope she has fun!