Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Assign 3 - Valentine Day Video - Edited



Phew! Finally did some minor changes to my Valentine Day Video =)
I inserted one more picture as the conclusion (just before the credits) to make the video seems more complete, as I gave received some comments on it been 'abrupted' during the tutorial presentation. The last pic was actually showing 2 plastic cups of plain water on a table. It does carry some symbolic meaning as in the initiate part of the video, the beverage enjoyed by the couple was soft drink, then later to wine, and finally it was plain water. It was not just by coincident that the relationship between them had become bland as time passed. However, plain water was actually healthier (compared to soft drink & alcohol) though it was very inexpensive. I guess most couples would find their relationships getting 'stable' or rather 'stagnant' when they have been together for decades, just like how plain water is to us - important enough to keep us alive but pretty unexciting and bland...

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Final Proj - "Gimme A Break" MTV

If I have remembered correctly, this NM3208 final project was one of the most time-consuming & tedious projects that I have done in NUS.

Way from the beginning of brain-storming for the ideas, the process was never easy. Our group had started meeting since week 4 to discuss what kind of genre we wanted our MTV to be. Initially, we had settled for the sad-love-song melody, which was fairy common in the commercial markets. A love song MTV was thought to be easier to make as it usually only involved a couple doing silly things together. However, we later then realised that it was pretty difficult to match with the title "Gimme a Break" for the love song. That meant the initiate discussion & ideas were abandoned and time were wasted :~(

We got the S'pore theme idea from the Channel U program "S-Pop wan shui" and thus derived our song, targeting the local S'poreans. Making the song itself was not easy but thanksfully, we had Jieying in our group, who is talented in composing music. After listening to the song for a few times, one could easily sing along with it. The lyrics were fairly "localised" as well, and the scenes of the MTV emerged vividly in our minds when we were coming up with the lyrics. The image of Ah-Kun Kaya Toast, etc etc etc...

After settling with the song came the worst part of the production- shooting. Our group had 3 hellish days of shooting the barely 3 min MTV and I gave up the aspiration of becoming an actress thereafter too! Carrying the heavy equipment (camera & tripod) walking from Esplande to Fullerton was exhausted and numerous rehearsal of the actions & dance-steps were maddening! The sun was scrotching hot on the first day and all our skins were burned at the end of the day. The shooting process was severely energy-draining. Phew! Thanks God it's over...!

The editing was held in the PlayLab, which was a heaven, at least there was air-con. But it was no less tedious. Perhaps the shooting was physically tiring, the editing part would be considered as mentally-exhaustive. We were straining our eyes to the maximium when we cut and edit the video. At one point, I almost thought that I would go blind! (-_-)"

In short, making the MTV was really tedious & time-consuming. I would probably no longer involve in any similar production in future but I would say that it was indeed a very valuable experience. A lot was learnt and at times, it could even be quite fun! \(^o^)/

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Assignment 4

Assignment 4 was uploaded into Youtube [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3U7mYhJ4A8 ].

Doing Time Freeze is quite tedious because of the "masking" work. Due to several lack of experience in shooting using professional video-cam, the end-product is not too fantastic. During the shooting process, the brightness was very difficult to control as the scenes were taken separately at different period of the day. The outdoor scenes were especially problemtic as that day was super hot and sunny, thus making the video too bleak. Several attempts were made to improve on the end-product, such as changing positions & angles. Editing the video and adding "time freeze" were time-consuming. =(

The video shown during tutorial seems abit abrupt to some classmates, it was actually due to the limitations in shooting the scenes. I felt that in future, especially in making MTV (final project), planning was really important. What sounds good on paper might be extremely difficult to be done in reality. Hence, it was also important to realise the limitations, and if possible, work around the limitations. Using those experience in Assignment 4, I hope it would help in making the MTV.
\(^0^)/

Monday, February 25, 2008

Assignment (2) - Just Another Day Edited

Just another dayJust Another Day...


Monday, February 18, 2008

E-week Assignment (3)

Hi classmates, here's my proposal for the assignment 3... As mentioned during last tutorial, my storyline seems to short to make up a 2.5min video... Hence, I decided to 'expand' on each anniversary, for instance, I include pics showing the process of buying the gift or the places that the couple went to celebrate their Valentine day... But I have a slight problem with the 'last anniversary' and hope you guys could throw me some suggustions regarding what I can show to represent thay the couple no longer celebrate their Valentine day eventually... Maybe a broken heart or torn photo??

P/s: Please don't not get mistaken that I'm portraying the girl as materialist or anything, but it just happens to be my personal experience of how guys (some but not all!) change so much after they have been together with their girlfriends for several years. It might not be the gifts that they are giving becomes cheaper or what, but more on their attitudes and behaviours... However, I find it abit hard to portray the changes in emotional sense so have thus adopted the material way of bringing my idea across....

Lastly, thanks for viewing my blog and all comments would be appreciated... :)

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Assignment 3 - Valentine Day
















































For this Assignment (3), my story line goes something like this... On 14 Feb, it is not just Valentine day to Jane (name has been changed to protect the real person), but also the day which she started dating with John. Hence, they could celebrate their anniversary on this special day too! As shown in the first pic, Jane is marking tat special day don on her calendar... At their first anniversary, John gave Jane something 'sweet' and cute, as they were still students and John could not afford to buy Jane much...By the 2nd anniversary, John had bought 99 roses for Jane to express his 'everlasting love' (represented by 99 roses).... The gifts that Jane received in subsequent years got more and more expensive because they both had graduated and John was able to her expensive gifts.... Finally, by the 5th year, John decided that it was time for them to get married and thus bought Jane a ring on that Valentine day... In the 6th year, after they had married, John gave her a much-less-extravagant bouquet of flowers. By the 7th year, John gave Jane a cheap auntie-looking Batik wallet (strong contrast to the LV one on 3rd year)... The gifts seems to get worse in the following years and at the 9th anniversary, John had bought a Slimming product for Jane... Jane's weight might have gone up after their marriage, perhaps due to givig birth etc.... And I don't think John still bother to celebrate Valentine Day or their wedding anniversary thereafter...





Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Assignment 2 - Just Another Day


Just Another Day...







locker


Choose a lucky number.




open locker


Open the locker.



take book


Choosing the reference materials...



Writing


Start writing...



books


Bury in book...



more books


Bury in more books...



struggling


...struggling...Need a Break!



one coffee.


Kopi-O Please.



two coffee!


One more Kopi-O pleasseee!



give up


I give up.



open pouch


Something more interesting.



nds


My favourite Nds.



happy


Happily playing :)














locker



Choose a lucky number.







open locker



Open the locker.






take book



Choosing the reference materials...






Writing



Start writing...






books



Bury in book...






more books



Bury in more books...






struggling



...struggling...






one coffee.



I need a coffee.






two coffee!



One more coffee pleasseee!






give up



I give up.







open pouch



Something more interesting.






nds



My favourite Nds.






happy



Happily playing :)