(2nd) Day 4

Today, the place is abuzz with news of Mas Selamat's escape...I walked into 2D Lab to find my groupmates working on the edited script for our new plan. Kez is working on the script, Joel is typing out lines and Marj is working on the schedule for shooting (planning to shoot next week).
Indeed, four's one big, cramped crowd.
I even heard Joel ask Mal of the other team to be my stunt double. Well, just play along...along three weeks left anyway. It's up to me to deal with current circumstances...and terrorist's escape is dampening me more. All the terminals are full; looks like I can't work on animated caricutures today...

(2nd) Day 3

My groupmates are not here...we are planning to recce rooms for our EDITED interview scene. Hopefully, this time we get one with good lighting. I wonder if we are going to do some filming...or at least draw up the storyboard for the whole video...why am I waiting...lalalala....happily watching goth-metal music videos on YouTube...lalalala...wait, is that Joel outside?...wait, Wahidah just told me that she saw Joel and Marj in 2D Lab...no, wait, they're gone...maybe they will come back...just spotted them in the canteen...man, I am so tired of running around just to look for them:P. Hopefully they'll come back up...getting more sicker, worried and nauseous at the same time, every passing second...can we still make it? Or rather, can THEY make it? Somehow, I just...don't belong anymore...What's new? I commited the major crime of existing...deal with it, mates. Maybe, they were right about me not having any initiative. But how do I know if they need my help at all? They don't seem to be complaining...not aloud. Sure, I honestly see myself as the weak link (as everybody does right now)...I should try to do more, especially for this last round...wait....wait...wait...just caught up with them at the canteen. Apparently, since our intro is too long, we decided to srap the whole thing and go with a pan-around-four-of-us-sitting-on-abench kind of intro. The mass interview thing was also scrapped, replaced with individual interviews, each taking place at a different venues. We will just be showing our works; no fancy stuff anymore. Suffice it to say we are back a t Square 1. Kez wrote and storyboarded out our new plan. We decided to start shooting from next week onwards. This time, handling the camera must be precise to make things look subtle and clean. Ideas for the content include something about opening doors and transitions through zooming. Guess that's enough discussion for now...

(2nd) Day 2

We're having a Subway feast, talking about the Academy Awards...while I am happily watching Justice League on YouTube. Then, Wahidah started talking about our NEW script: Still some problem with the 'student', like, what role does he really play? As she talked, she also shared with us some of her own experiences...benefits of 1-on-1. Anyway, I've just heard that Ronald wants us to storyboard his scene...hmm, discipline. We also decided to revise the visuals and script for our oh-so important interview scene: We plan to do our master shot first, then our individual shots. Anyway, we are now planning out our production timetable for this last round...

(2nd) Day 1

Enter the second-and last-block for our project. Although we have done pretty much, there is a lot of things to be done...or cut down. Our ten-minute video became around 16 minutes long, as we found out to our horror at Interim last week. So, today, we are discussing on ways to edit our script, and edit the script at the same time (Marj got her Macbook on). Anyway, since Joel and Marj are re-doing the scripts, there is , like, nothing to be done, so we are going off and they will submit the scripts to Wahidah by tonight. maybe with the extra time left....I can still work on our animated caricutures for our credits...

Day 15-Interim Assessment

Today was D-Day...we have to present to the whole class our progress. We were the third group to present; our presentation went rather well...except...our video was far too long, even without the scenes we haven't shot yet. Other than the length, we have PLENTY of things to work on. Thank God we have one block left; hopefully should leave us ample time.
*Have to re-shoot our interview scene (issues with lighting, framing, audio)
*My real-life scene after my Animation Fundamentals bit...people were like "what the hell is she doing??"
*Have to shoot our Drawing Essentials and Video Fundamentals scenes...if we can still squeeze them in.
*The fast-forward bit of our 2D Art Fundamentals assignments made everyone dizzy.
*Have to improve our script and produce a storyboard.
*Need to work on a good conclusion.
*More enthusiasm, please.
In other words, it's back to the drawing table. We need to discuss a lot...

Day 14

Wahidah wrote this on the board today:
INTERIM ASSESSMENT-THURSDAY 21/2
Present to class:
*Progress of work on an editing timeline
*Final script (updated)
*updated work schedule
*any revelant materials
*storyboard
We decided to work on editing whatever footage we have in the 2D Lab. Strangely, Joel has not turned up...hmmm....after some editing, we found out our video (especially the intro) is far too long, and we may have to scrap one module. Well, we haven't start filming our edited Drawing Essentials scene...how shall we present our Interim tomorrow?? My groupmates say we do not have to do it in Powerpoint...right? Right now, I just want to work on our animated caricutures for our closing...

Day 13

*We would like the viewers to join MOI because in Year 1, we had/it was...
*What will tell/show the audience that we had/it was...
These were the questions we have to re-consider. Wahidah handed us back our script...with marks on it. We really have to work out our script yet again. Bad news...we don't have a storyboard of the whole thing. So far, the only storyboard we have is of the intro. As Wahidah went on, we learned that our role of our camera was pretty inconsistent, and we need more-say-interesting camera angles. Hopefully our audience still gets it. Another thing was the music video we were planning to do for our Video Fundamentals scene. Somehow, there was something rather irrevelant about the visuals. Then, there was our closing: Too abrupt and not a very smooth exit. She then re-questioned us about our Point-Of-View and camera transitions...do we still want to do what we planned to do? Will our audience still get us? Seems like we have to tweak our script again before we can do more filming. Anyway, we are planning to film our Ideation/Public Speaking scene later, after re-discussing our script. Then, Alfie came in and also told us about transition between the roles of the camera. We are stuck...we have nothing to discuss...time is ticking...well, at least we don't have to present the whole thing this Thursday!! Now, Marj is looking through footage, and Jo is offering to think through the transition part. Looks like we have to postphone shooting Ideation/PS yet again...
*UPDATE* We manage to do some editing on our video, and also shoot our Ideation/Public Speaking scene:) *points victory sign*

Day 12

We're supposed to be filming our Ideation/Public Speaking and 3D Art Fundamentals today. Wahidah showed us how to describe a pan ("Pan from 'shot size' of object down/up/left/right to 'shot size' of another object) and asked our opinions in describing a pan. She then explained that the correct term to use is not 'pan', but 'tilt'. We have to be clear and specific in our camera/visual scripts. She also said that when it comes to zooming, the statement has to be 'A zoom to B' and not start with 'Zoom'. Then, I received the message that my groupmates were on the 5th floor, filming our 3D Art Fundamentals scene. However, at the same time, Wahidah wanted to see my group about our script. Hoping to see her at around 2.30pm, I ran up to the studio and proceeded the scene with my groupmates. We were going to make a 50-cm tall clay sculpture for the scene; we wanted to make a gramaphone but we ended up making the Academy Awards guy-yeah, Oscar. Stayed in the studio all day: SORRY WAHIDAH!! HOPE WE CAN SEE YOU TOMORROW!! Since we were so swamped up with this scene (not to mention our second tape's running out), we have to post-phone our Ideation/Public Speaking scene to tomorrow. Sorry, Wahidah...

Filming on Saturday, 16 Feb

We were supposed to meet at 1pm, but I came sooo late. I walked in on my groupmates with our one-man crew, Gary, watching some animated movie. I found out from Kez that before I came, Joel's part of the intro had already been filmed. After looking through behind-the-scenes footage from a certain Disney film, and drawing up our name boards for the interview scene, we headed down to the TP Library to recce one of the project rooms there. So happen the lighting there was too glaring, so we headed back down to those small tutorial rooms on Level 3. Down there, we realised that we didn't have a clock. Crap. One of our interview frames involve panning down from a clock to Kez's face. What to do? We have to fix up the lighting in the room, with the help of the OHP Projecter there. Then, we went through our lines for the interview scene. After that, we applied make-up since the light may be glaring in our faces while Gary went through his lines.
We started shooting our interview scene, with plenty of bloopers. Time seems to be running out...may have to re-do...now, seems to be going well. I dun think we have time to film our Video Fundamentals scene today. I am not very sure when...anyway, I think our interview scene went well.

Day 11

"Okay, I know most of you have to re-arrange your schedule to fit the...getting the equipment," Wahidah said today...okay fine, similar to that. but good news is today our visual script seems to be doing well. We just pass her lecturer Amanda Ma's script and I think we'll be doing well. We are planning to film our Animation Fundamentals and Communicating Design Ideas scenes today...if we can get a camera...WE HAVE NO PLAN B!! I told Marj I will go ahead with doing up the credits/animated caricutures to save more time. We feel we have nothing to discuss today...everything seems to be going well. Looks like our script will be doing just fine...Joel just walked in with the edited visual script. Wonder if I should work on the credits now...hopefully we are successful in borrowing the camera for filming...Wahidah should be coming over soon to check on our script before she can approve...wait, Joel and Marj just went off to get the camera *waits for their return*okay...apparently, the uncle will not let us borrow...well, at east marj is saying something about having a camera. Now they just went back out to get a tripod...okay now they're back with the tripod...still waiting for Wahidah...okay, she says we have to give her a note on what we are doing on Monday (we are planning to do our 3D Art scene) and Tuesday. We will be filming later for Animation Fundamentals and ComDI, and tomorrow, we will be shooting our interview scene. I have just been asked to bring make-up for tomorrow-foundation, powder, eye-shadow and lipstick...wish us luck, and ciao!

Day 10

I wish to express a big thank you to Gary, our one-man crew who assisted us in Boat Quay while we were shooting our photos. Wahidah had taken a look at our visual script. She made some red markings on it, and she went through the whole thing with us: who does our interviewer represent, what mood we want to put forward, our visual aspects for a few modules, etc. She did mention that there were some 'nice turn-around of events' and she liked our idea for presenting our Video Fundamentals. However, she was hinting that we need to improve our visual script a lot. For example, our Digital Photography Fundamentals needed to show photos in both Auto (which we never use in the module) and Manual. Luckily, Marj and Kez volunteered to go back to Boat Quay to do that. After she left, we started discussing. Seems we have to go back to square one; our Drawing Essentials was too casual, so now we are thinking of enlisting Ronald's help. Basically our original idea which we have stuck with needs a total revamp. Not to mention we have to do more re-scheduling of shooting/filming. Thank God at interim assessment, we can still be in production or pre-production. But that will cut down on editing time. We need to cut down after we calculated our video will be 12.5 minutes long. Now discussing on how we want to re-do our Drawing Essentials scene. No, wait....maybe redo just the Drawing Essentials part, and the interview part and the visual script...maybe all is not lost.Now discussing how to make our interviewer-Gary- sound like our audience; make him sound like a secondary school student with a 'young' voice. So now it's a bit of a shift to asking the interviewer about his origins. Now re-doing the script and planning out our new Drawing Essentials scene...CAN WE MAKE IT???

Day 9

As I stepped into class today, Wahidah explained that by interim assesment, we do not have to produce a rough cut of our video. In fact, we could still be in production or pre-production then. And we cannot rent out our video cameras until next week. What the hell...we are too advanced. We may have to re-schedule some of our shoots. Not to mention she is still rather unhappy with our pre-production. I know my groupmates are most hard-working, and hopefully we can get it done. She then asked Raj's group to present their work (they apparently gave her a 19-page visual script) and from there, she started telling us about a 'shot list'. I think it's what the scribe records as he stands next to the cameraman, such as timinig, tape shot description and number of takes. She also gave us how a shot should be run, especially commands and countdowns. Not only that, we may not have to do in-camera editing but may have to edit on paper (play the camera and pick the footage we want, and write it down). Is she trying to say we cannot use editing software at all??? Overall, we really have to be organized with our work, as we have to apply such things in future works. True. So later, we drew up a shot list (see how hardworking we are) while I sketched out our animated caricutures for our credits/closing. We also looked through the footage we took on Day 8.
Right now, my groupmates are drawing up a two-columned visual script, waiting to go to Boat Quay to shoot our Digital Photography Fundamentals scene; take pictures of us taking pictures. :P. Hope it goes well...

Day 8

We shot some of our intro today. Shot Marj walking, me taking bus. We did that in the morning before coming to school. We rented out the school's camera and I brought my own DV tape (hopefully it's not given to the school by accident). We did have to do a couple of takes for each part as I observed. For the Bus part lasting just a few seconds, we took over 30 minutes to shoot a desired result. We also redid the video pan of our 2D Art Fundamentals work. When we went to class, we showed Wahidah what we have taken. Even showed her our edited schedule and even our four-columned visual script. WHY ARE SOME PEOPLE NEVER SATISFIED? She-die,die-wants a two-columned visual script. But anyway, she seem pretty happy with what we have done and she told us to plug in the Firewire so she can see it more clearly. i wasn't very sure how that went as I was collecting my 2D Art work. But when i came in later, my groupmates were playing around with the visual effects to bring out the white balance in our footage. After a while of stoning, we went up to the 5th floor to shoot our Drawing Essentials scene. In it, the camera focuses on me drawing in my sketchbook before panning to Joel and Marj talking. Then, I interrupt and present my own work. Kezia was to be our camera man. We did encounter the common problem of me not talking when it's supposed to be my cue, leaving Joel and Marj most befuddled as they tried to talk some more. We wrapped it up in around 15 minutes and went back to class. But by then, class was finished so we went over to the 2D Lab to do our two-columned visual script (although we have already gone ahead with production) and search for a song for our Video Fundamentals scene (we are planning to do that MTV style). We finally agreed with an old tune (not going to reveal what that it:). By then, Joel and I had to rush to our next class. Will be shooting our Digital Photography Fundamentals scene at Boat Quay tomorrow.

Day 7

Got my Mac today!! Today we presented to Wahidah our progress....she doesn't seem happy. Now we have to adjust our content. What objective we want to put across. What feeling/atmosphere we have to emote. Discuss, discuss, discuss. Have to draw up a visual script/storyboard....and we are not allowed to do any filming until we gave up that!! luckily Kezia came in with a storyboard of our intro YAY!! Anyway, Joel managed to get his hands on the equipment form and we can start loaning out our needed equipment. We discussed a bit more on how to present our Animation Fundamentals, 3D Art (we'll be doing a clay piece), and especially Drawing Essentials, after realising we have not included it in our schedule. Due to time constraint, we have to shift our filming dates and adjust screen times for our on-camera appearance. 

After Design History and Culture, I rushed down to 2D Animation Lab where i saw Kez and Marj writing up the visual script draft. and adjusting the schedule. Will be shooting part of intro later. Wish us luck. 

Day 6

Presentation 1 Day. Time to get graded. We thought our content was good...until we saw the other groups. We got feedback that we need to include some sort of a timeline and make a list of the resources we need. So after presentation, we discussed like hell:
* How to improve our content- we realised that some groups, including us, started out with fast forward. So we decided to slow-mo our tracking to school (part of intro). Maybe since we slow-moing it, those making way to school (me, Marj and Joel) should have some sort of EPIC music, like making dramatic entrance, then cut to Kezia, normal speed, in classroom. Silence. Comic Effect:).
*We decided to start filming next Monday:).
*For presenting 3D Art Fundamentals, we decided to do Joel's sculpture, We decided to make it 50 cm only. We need plenty of materials. Got Zaihan's permission:).
*We need to start planning out our resources...what we need. (SOMEONE GET RONALD!!)
*We then recce rooms for our interview part. After class, we sat in 2D Lab with Gary discussing which rooms to recce, while stoning at the same time. We recce Studio 4 in Arts Space, CDI Seminar Room, and Alumni Lounge. AL got very good atmosphere but we cannot use:(. But Studio 4 and CDI Room not too bad.
* We returned to 2D Lab, supposedly to work on our storyboard, but we somehow ended up stoning instead. Meanwhile, Marj and Joel planned out the schedule while Kezia typed it out on Powerpoint. After which, she printed out and distributed to all of us. Stone some more. Then, at around 7pm, Kezia volunteered to work on the storyboard herself at home (or rather, when she's in KL for Chinese New Year) and we all went home.
This is the schedule we have planned out for ourselves:
* 11 Feb-Borrow resources and equipment
* 12 Feb- Shoot part of intro (me taking bus and Marj walking)
*14 Feb- Meet at Joel's place to film him taking cab
* 15 Feb-Shoot ComDI and Animation Fundamentals
* 16 Feb- Shoot our Digital Photography Fundamentals module at Boat Quay near City Hall
* 18 Feb- Shoot 3D Art Fundametals, Ideation and Public Speaking
* 19 Feb- Do the Survivor part of our intro...and try to edit as much as we can.
* 20 Feb- Touch-ups/amendments
* 21 Feb-Interim assessment
That's all for now...GONG XI FA CAI!!!

Day 5

Today, we were given briefing on what we should have in our Powerpoint presentation tomorrow: How we organise/plan and our design-cum-visual-layout. So, we decided to work on our Powerpoint presentation first, before Marj opened up her GarageBand software on her Mac, and we tried to create music for our video. After that, we felt that we have no modifications to make, so no discussing, and just watching retarded videos on YouTube. I WANT TO SAY A BIG THANK YOU to Alan who happened to walk in with my Digital Media Fundamentals CD in his hand (he seemed to be rather grumpy about it...he must have put in a lot of effort to retrieve it SORRY ALAN!!:). I said my thanks, and we all viewed the contents of the CD together (I want to show my DMFun work in our video because I am pretty proud of what I did, plus I got an A!:). However, a few things did not play properly or show properly...especially my Butterfly!! So, team-mates, this is my Butterfly:


Yeah, you can all start laughing now...still waiting for Alfie to say if he found my Creative Storytelling. Presentation is tomorrow....wish us luck:).

Group Meeting on 1st Feb

Had group meeting yesterday, to discuss what to put in our Powerpoint Presentation:
What's going to be our theme, message, objective, graphic style. In other words, share our progress in the presentation. We basically have to tell potential candidates for MOI about what we do. For graphic style, decided to put animated sequence, interview, photos, text, yadda, yadda...
We can do a skit. Jump from body to closing. Have credits roll, with dancing caricutures. That will be all for now:).