Lune making her first ever guest appearance in this blog

It does make your head feel lighter to be a guest on someone else's blog. It's as if I'm one of those Backstreet men, or Tom Cruise doing a heart to heart with Oprah, with the exception of tears or monkey antics, but I wouldn't be so sure after that long 24 hours on a drawing sprint. I might even rival Tom's vulgar outburst, shed some tears of joy, trash my room. Who knows? The excitement is buzzing in blogland, and I am estatic to be part of it. It's just one of those crazy things that one has to do before turning 21 (in Eliar's case, he's already reached the big two one, so that doesn't count).

CRASH by Paul Haggis

For reasons I cannot comprehend, I have fallen in love with the feeling of wandering by myself in the city late at night, when the streets are almost empty, and all the shops are closed. In the distance, Northbridge, also the place where the tiny Chinatown is situated, comes alive with its colourful pubs and their patrons. The newsstand remain opened, but empty without customers, a place for me to buy the latest issues of Inside Film (a magazine for filmmakers), Empire (a film magazine) and Electronic Gaming Monthly (video game magazine).

The finest writers are those who read a lot

Oh well, the last movie I saw was 'Crash', I'll write a review about that soon, also, I'll attempt to continue that feature about the console RPGs I've completed thus far (which is a much arduous task than originally envisioned).

Found a partner-in-crime for Blogathon!

Yes, I have decided to participate in Blogathon as well, and I've dragged a partner to suffer through this with me. The charity organization we want to blog for will be Book Aid because both of us love reading, and we feel that more people around the world should be given the chance to read as well. According to the Blogathon website, 'Book Aid International works in partnership with organisations in developing countries to support local initiatives in literacy, education, training and publishing. We provide relevant books and information to those in greatest need–to enable people to realise their potential and contribute to the development of their communities.'

Filmmaking Dilemma, Suggestions needed

Right. This is a complicated little situation. I made a short film last semester, from February until May called 'Forced Labour' with the intention of submitting it to film festivals and the like. Now, the first version I edited during the end of April (early May) was 18 minute long, which is way TOO long for a short film with such a simple story, besides, more than half of this is dedicated to the fighting scenes, which feature characters not originally in the script.

Realizing that the fighting scenes are way too long, and take too much attention away from the main plot and the theme. I decided to re-edit the whole damned thing (I've already mentioned that few weeks ago, actually). And re-edit, or remade the film I did, snipping it down to nearly a third of its original length (ideally, this new short film will be between 5-6 minutes, I think), lots of scenes were sped up, most of the fighting scenes were removed, and the characters not originally in the script did not make it past this version either (thus any scene with them in it are gone).

The results thus far had been stellar, and it's totally something that can be sent to film festivals (if they look past the fact that I'm using a cheap-ass camera, and that the film's sooooo low budget). I've reached near the ending, all I have to do is reshoot one more scene with my main actress and things will be completely done.

Now, I feel pretty guilty that the five characters didn't make it past the final cut, and wanted to make it up to them by including them in the credits. For example, I shall do what the Farrelly brothers did with 'Me, Myself and Irene', and inform viewers that 'some characters and scenes were removed due to time constraints', and then show snippets of scenes featuring these characters and then give them credit.

Wonderful solution, right?

HOWEVER, this is best used for a jolly little comedy... what if the ending of my short film is meant to be pretty dark and angsty (bittersweet, kinda), and I try to toss that in during the credits? Wouldn't that mess things up?

So, what do you guys think? Any suggestions? It was suggested to me that I shall put them in the 'Special Thanks' section during the credits, which is something I will most likely do.

Console RPGs I Completed Throughout The Past Decade (1994-2005). (Part 2)

I was rewarded with a Sony Playstation in 1996 (I was 12 then) due my flawless results for the UPSR (a government exam you have to take in Malaysia during the end of primary/elementary school), and thus my long love affair with it began.

Console RPGs I Completed Throughout The Past Decade (1994-2005). (Part 1)

I have wanted to write this since early last year, when it was exactly a decade since I started playing console RPGs (role-playing games, to the uninitiated), but I decided to let the year went by first so that my list of completed RPGs in 2004 can be complete as well. Note that this feature is only for console RPGs, and not the PC ones (or I'll have to elaborate on the months and months I've spent on Morrowind, my god). For Part 1, I shall focus only on the 1994-1996 period, when I was only 10-12, and was just starting to play console RPGs. Young and idealistic, it was this very period where I fell in love with console RPGs.

Nora Ephron's BEWITCHED

I went off to see Bewitched last night, which was based on an old TV series of the same name.

I've never watched a single episode of the Bewitched TV series, I'm not even sure whether reruns of Bewitched were shown in Malaysia before or not. But from what I know, Bewitched is about some normal guy marrying a witch, and goofiness ensues during their married life.

SEPET by Yasmin Ahmad, an important film in the Malaysian New Wave

One of the movies I heard most of when I returned to Malaysia had, strangely, been a local film, which is something unheard of considering that at this time of the year, summer Hollywood blockbusters are the ones that rule the box-office. This local film is Yasmin Ahmad's 'Sepet' which had been making waves at some foreign film festivals, and became quite a subject of discussion among Malaysians, not just the Malays, but also many of the Chinese I know. Finally got to watch it during my flight from Malaysia to Perth.

'Sepet' depicts an interracial romance between a Chinese guy and a Malay gal. And being an interracial romance, it obviously shows the complications involved in interracial romance, like the clashing of cultures, the condemnation of narrow-minded friends, the inability of acceptance by parents. Can true love transcend all these barriers?

Michael Bay's THE ISLAND

In the not-too-distant future, the world had became so polluted that many of its surviving inhabitants have to stay in a facility monitored by kindly scientists and doctors, and all of these inhabitants with weird names, Lincoln Six-Echo(McGregor) and Jordan Two-Delta (Johansson), are waiting to go to 'The Island', said to be the only uncontaminated spot on the planet.

PREMONITION 予言 by Tsurata Norio

I haven't heard anything about this Japanese film until I went to the cineplexes today. Saw the poster when dad called and asked me to buy the tickets for tonight's show and immediately had my reservations.

"Oh god, not another Japanese horror flick." I whined, seeing the creepy pale-faced bald guy on the poster.

Of course, dad maintained that it wasn't a horror flick, thus I bought the tickets in the end.

Re-editing and revamping 'Forced Labour', figuring my next project

I've mentioned numerous times that I was going to re-edit 'Forced Labour', the short film I made earlier this year due to the fact that I wasn't entirely happy with its end result.

Can Local Malaysian Stars Become Internationally Famous?

I've originally wanted to post more of my wonderful haiku I wrote yesterday but since I ain't using my comp, I'll just bring up another topic for discussion. Building upon an entry I wrote last week regarding the problems of the local film industry heard in the seminar, I now wonder wistfully how can our movies reach the international stage.

Turning my story, Snow Kiss, into a webcomic!

I've spoken to this young girl, Kat-Chan, from Comic Fiesta Forum and she's possibly going to collaborate with me next year into turning one of my works, Snow Kiss, into a webcomic, which is something I've wanted to do for ages.

Just to clarify some things from my previous entry

Whoa, I didn't know that Sebastian actually posted the link to my previous entry on famed director, Yasmin Ahmad's blog. And therefore, I would like to take the opportunity to reply to hdoong, a person who took the time to make a rather sensible and thought-provoking response to my entry.

The following is from him:

The Malaysian Chinese Filmmaking Scene And Its Many Many Obstacles.

EDIT: I didn't specifically pointed out that I was ranting about the Malaysian Chinese filmmaking scene when I first posted it, and not exactly the Malaysian filmmaking scene in general. So yeah, remember, I was ranting more about the Malaysian Chinese filmmaking scene.





Yup, went to this Q & A session at a film academy today with my dad, and I had the fortune to meet James Lee (top photo), a famous local independant filmmaker who is considered as one of the pioneers of the current Malaysian independant filmmaking movement, and Chan Jin Quan (that's what his name sounds like in Mandarin, I'm not too sure what his actual English name is, bottom pic), a veteran TV actor who had been around from the glory days of Chinese Malaysian television to its fall, and he had managed to stay tough and continued the career he had loved... despite this, he looks really young though.

The local Malaysian filmmaking scene is being discussed today, the industry, the regular cinemagoers, the numerous obstacles and restrictions preventing filmmakers from succeeding, many things, therefore, I'll try to speak out about the numerous things that caught my attention today. There had been many issues in our local film industry that makes aspiring filmmaker like me want to stay overseas instead of here, because I knew that there are more opportunities in, say, Australia, than here. So, enough talk, here are the crucial flaws of our system that leaves me rather apprehensive about pursuing my passion here.

Coping With My Retirement From Fanfiction, Future Plans For Both Writing And Filmmaking.

I am still utterly blown away by the fact that I've finished a fanfic I've spent three years working upon. Post-creativity depression is sure to settle in soon, but I seriously doubt it. Yes, although I'm done with Slam Dunk: Inside Stuff, this is just the beginning. From now on, I will attempt to promote it like I've never before, I'll attempt to make it accessible from anywhere. I'll make sure its URL will be on any anime fanfiction site, search engines and everything else. (insanely active forums are perfect for this)

Retiring From Fanfiction,

Oh my god! OH MY GOD! I've just finished writing the Slam Dunk: Inside Stuff epilogue! This is nuts! This is insane! I so totally didn't expect this to happen that easily! So soon!

Special thanks to Yuan-Yue for helping me out with the very last line in that chapter. I will upload it soon, once I've done my acknowledgements and stuff.

My fanfiction career is finally over. I'm speechless.

Live-action adaptation of INITIAL D

Despite being an ardent anime follower, the whole Initial D craze didn't hit me a few years ago. I watched the first few episodes and the last few episodes for Initial D Stage 1 (there's seem to be a shitload of seasons...) and despite the horrendous character artwork, it IS an addictive anime, hohoho. Just that I couldn't convince myself to spend that much for the series.

So yeah, I went for the live-action version of Initial Day last night, despite it being directed by the directors of the Infernal Affairs trilogy, I wasn't looking forward to it cos...

Steven Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS

Yeap! Managed to go to the national premiere (or was it worldwide?) premiere of Steven Spielberg's 'War of the Worlds', starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning.

So here are my thoughts, I just came back minutes earlier, so pardon me if I don't sound intelligible enough.

BATMAN BEGINS

Wasn't originally planning to go for a movie today since my very last exam paper is tomorrow, but ended up going. So here's my thoughts about 'Batman Begins'.

Some Random Conversation With Some Random Guy At Some Street.

17th of June, 2004. Friday. Was at Perth city, buying a small cake for someone's birthday. Despite buying merely a small slice of cheese cake, accompanied by two small chocolate muffins, I was given a large box because they ran out of small boxes. Holding the box with both of my hands, I trudged through the busy streets of Perth... and ran into some random bearded guy. I was concentrating mostly on trying to balance the box perfectly so that everything in it could be presentable at night. Our conversation went like this:

MR AND MRS SMITH

Mr and Mrs Smith have been married for 5-6 years (He says that it's five, she says that it's six), and they are pretty bored with their domestic lives. However, they are both assassins, and they've been hiding this from each other successfully throughout their marriage until they were finally sent to kill each other. Dum dum dum.

The Injustices Of My University Life.

Imagine this:

You're a university student, and this is the final semester of your course. You have been studying pretty hard to ensure the fact that you can graduate in time. Now, there's this girl (whom I will refer only as Miss O as I don't like to name names much), an acquaintance you knew back in your college in Malaysia, who had just came to Perth during the beginning of this semester, who isn't really pretty, in fact, she resembles a weasel, but that is not the point. What she likes to do is to hassle you weekly, begging and pleading for you to lend her the notes you have done for your Marketing Law subject, and better, she begs and pleads for the answers of the tutorial questions because, for reasons that can never be comprehended, she seems perfectly incapable of doing her homework without relying on you.

THE LONGEST YARD and A LOT LIKE LOVE

As I've mentioned in my previous entry, I was planning to go for a rom-com today, 'A Lot Like Love' cos' I figure that 'The Longest Yard' would be funner to see with other people.

However, when I reached the cinema, 'The Longest Yard' was just about to start while 'A Lot Like Love' had started for ten minutes, so I went for the former. After finishing it, I figured that 'Bah, I can just sneak into 'A Lot Like Love' without anyone noticing and save myself the $6.50'... and that's what I did. Hah, I think I might start doing this in the future, for the sake of ahem, saving more money.

So, here are my reviews for the two films.

THE LONGEST YARD



Adam Sandler's latest film. I always felt that Adam Sandler's films are pretty solid, despite the mauling he usually gets from critics (Little Nicky is the only Adam Sandler flick I haven't seen though), and '50 First Dates' is a romantic comedy I enjoyed immensely last year (I think it was in my top ten of 2004). And Chris Rock's in it too! With this comedic duo, things would be really funny, right?

To my surprise, this is a more serious film than I've originally expected. Yeah, there are some funny scenes, but overall, this is not a laughfest, especially when a major character actually dies in the film. Whoa.

'The Longest Yard' is about a former NFL star (Sandler) who got thrown into jail after wrecking his girlfriend's car, and when in prison, he has to assemble a team to play against the guards in a game where they were 'fixed' to lose. So it's another one of those generic underdog films where you get to see a bunch of likable misfits facing impossible odds to achieve glory... well, I happen to be a sucker for such films, so yeah, I enjoyed it.

There are cameo roles of WWE wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kevin Nash (both as the evil guards), and Goldberg (as a player in Sandler's team, his role in the movie is way more likable than his wrestling persona). And the wrestlers, technically being 'actors' for years, did pretty well in the film. Nash turned out to be really, really funny. Guy seems to have acting skills not seen during his days as a wrestler in WCW and WWE. Ah man, I would've liked seeing Austin and Goldberg's characters facing off in the film, unfortunately, that didn't happen cos' Austin's character seemed to focus more on tormenting Nelly (guy was okay in his role too).

So yeah, if you're into Adam Sandler films and underdog type films, go ahead and check this out. Won't really waste your time. It's entertaining, just don't expect anything more than this.

Now, for the second film...

A LOT LIKE LOVE



This romantic comedy stars Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet as the protagonists, Oliver and Emily, and follows their relationship in a span of 7 years where they spend most of the time navigating between the line of friendship and romance. There are numerous chance encounter and abrupt separation throughout the film.

All in all, despite its attempt to be more mature and serious than most of its peers, it's still a pretty unremarkable romantic comedy that failed to grip me that much emotionally, but one thing it succeed was to make me relate to Ashton Kutcher's character. An idealistic young man who chose to concentrate on establishing a career and put aside his desire to get romantically-involved. That's pretty much the story of my life right now.

'A Lot Like Love' is a rather forgettable film (I can't remember a single line from the film now, even though I've just finished seeing it few hours ago) with a weak script, but Ashton Kutcher deserves more credit for this. (in my opinion, the guy has more range than what Orlando Bloom is showing thus far) Ditto with Amanda Peet. I guess both are decent actors, just that they were given very boring and pointless characters to deal with. I don't really recommend this unless you are desperate for some romantic comedy, even so, I think Ashton's earlier feature this year 'Guess Who?' is more entertaining than this one.

Musing about my soon-to-be concluded fanfiction career.

"I love watching romantic films alone by myself. They make me feel... empty." - me

Holy crap, I've finished writing the final subsection of Slam Dunk: Inside Stuff Episode 22 in two freaking nights. I'm really surprised by how quick I got to finish this, and how simple it ended up becoming since this was supposed to be the most ambitious chapter of them all. Ah well.

So, this means that there's only the epilogue left for me to write. And once Slam Dunk: Inside Stuff is done, I will finally be able to do what I've actually set out to do when I started this fanfic nearly three years ago: to retire from fanfiction. When I finished writing that chapter last night, I had this weird tingling feeling within me. And I tried scanning through the chapter over and over again, wondering whether they are any necessary changes that have to be made.

Crying For Love, In The Center Of The World 世界の中心で、愛をさけぶ

Watched Crying For Love, In The Center Of The World 世界の中心で、愛をさけぶ couple of nights ago with family. I have heard many good things about it, like how this film how successful this film is in Japan last year and how it became a pop-culture phenomenom. Also, director Yukisada Isao's previous feature, GO was pretty incredible.

So, yes, based on the plot, this movie SHOULD reek of melodrama and manipulative tear-jerking you see all the time in Korean dramas. You know, the ones where the girl suffers from terminal illness, and how her poor boyfriend has to cope with this, and how their pure and strong love triumphs over everything in the very end.

I just saw REVENGE OF THE SITH for the 3rd time...

Family (parents+little sis+grandmother) came to Perth to visit me, so didn't really have much time to go online.

Can't believe I saw Star Wars 3 for the third time two nights ago. Went to the cinemas with dad and little sis, they were going to see SW3, I was planning to see Madagascar... only to realize that it ain't actually showing. The other choice I had was Wedding Date, soooooo, I had to choose between some B-list chick flick, or Star Wars 3 for the third time... I ended up going for the latter.

(The only movies I've bothered to see three times in the cinemas in recent memories were the first two Lord of the Rings movies. But the third viewings came during the LoTR Marathon I went through for the premiere of Return of the King, and the third viewing of the Fellowship of the Ring's extended version in the cinema came after I've watched it NUMEROUS TIMES on DVD)

Still a fine flick (especially after the Mace Windu vs Palpatine fight). Though the question my dad asked after the movie ended is same like what I've been discussing with some of my friends after seeing the film during the two previous times.

"How did he sever both the legs AND an arm with one swing?"

Attempted to write something in Chinese two nights ago, let a friend of mine proof-read it for me just now. I might put it up on my site sometime soon. But hopefully after someone has turned it into a short flash animation or something.

On a funnier note, my little sister told me that she found out her IQ was around 120 after taking this IQ test, so I told her that she was less than average because the 'average IQ for everyone is 150). Poor girl ended up believing that she had a less-than-average IQ for the next few days.

Final Thoughts On My Recently Completed Short Film, 'Forced Labour'.

Okay, I've just finished burning DVDs of 'Forced Labour' (my short film) a week ago, and I've also sent my submission to the Euganea Movie Movement 2005, a film festival in Italy couple of days ago. And now that my parents, my little sister and my grandma have seen it, I think it's time for me to give my second feature a proper send-off, and my thoughts regarding the entire experience. (my speech during the celebration party back then was too short)

Here's a summary of the 'Forced Labour', to those who don't know yet:

Conversation with a Star Wars (original trilogy) virgin (or dumbass)

Yeah baby, I've just returned from the second viewing of Revenge of The Sith. Still an entertaining movie. Not entirely perfect, but a movie worthy of my enthusiasm and recommendation.

What I've forgot to mention in my previous entry was the fantastic performance of Ian Mcdiarmid as Emperor Palpatine. My my, what he gave was quite truly, an award-worthy performance. If anyone in SW3's going to get nominated for next year's Oscars, he has a good chance (but highly unlikely *sigh*). So yeah, you people can say all you want about Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, Obi-Wan, but to me, the Emperor's by far the coolest character in the movie. Even one as manly as I would sway to the Dark Side immediately if I am convinced by him. Long live the Emperor.

(In the past, I always thought that the Emperor was pathetic, since he couldn't even kill Luke with his lightning powers in Return of the Jedi despite zapping the bloke for more than ten minutes. Of course, it occurred to me that he was TORTURING Luke, not attempting to kill him.)

Oh, and here's a conversation I had with a supposed 'film student' (some random guy introduced to me by a friend of mine) in cafetaria of my university today that left me very much perplexed.

Stars Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith + my flatmate Duane Semini is the best!

"So this is how liberty dies... to thunderous applause." - Padme Amidala

**THIS CONTAINS MINOR STAR WARS EPISODE 3 SPOILERS, BUT IF YOU ARE WELL-VERSED IN STAR WARS LORE, THEY AREN'T REALLY SPOILERS**

Yup, I've just came back from Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith moments ago. It was unexpected, I had the greatest flatmate in the world, and when I ran into him in university this afternoon, he handed a ticket to me for tonight. How much cooler can a flatmate be? Who else can wrestle the 'Flatmate of the Year' award from him when he's such a great and honourable man? He rocks, man! He is the greatest flatmate in the world!! Oh, wait, I'm repeating myself.

Remember how I was talking about Star Wars few entries ago?

Bidding Farewell To Reggie Miller, NBA Legend

Reggie Miller, NBA's all-time leader in 3-pointers made, the greatest Indiana Pacers player ever, the best clutch shooter ever (I never really witnessed any of his heroics against the Knicks, but I can still remember vividly the three-pointer he made from the half-court in 2002's Game 7 against the NJ Nets to force overtime, that was nuts), will be retiring.

He was one of the earlier NBA players I could remember when I started watching NBA back in 1993, along with Jordan, Shaq and Barkley. I could still remember how I've always wanted to imitate his shooting form when I started playing basketball back when I was a kid. And now that he's gone, things will not be the same again. *sigh*

See ya, Uncle Reggie.

Star Wars Episode 3. Playstation 3.

Well, what can I say? The entire world's gripped by Star Wars fever, and I was seriously naive back then to think that I would actually stand a chance in getting a ticket without making advance bookings. I ended up not going for the movie cos' most of my friends are busy today, and I'm still busy burning 'Forced Labour' DVDs (that's the title of the short film I've just made, to those who had just started reading my blog).

After watching the news, I realized that there's no way I'll be able to watch Episode 3 at all during these few days since there are shitloads of people who had set up camp outside the theaters. Damn, there are even some chicks who were wearing that Princess Leia bikini slave outfit too. Argh, should've made some reservations last month.

Pondering The Future Of My Film Career

I am still attempting to burn 'Forced Labour' onto a DVD so that I can submit it to various (obscure) European film festivals out there. Despite the fact that this short film's been completed, I think this is just the beginning of everything. I will now see how it will fare in festivals, competitions and such. ('Forced Labour' probably has a better chance in Europe and Asia, I think, though I might still submit it to some Australian film festivals if possible)

Even so, I'm already making preparations for my next film project, which will be a more intimate, sentimental piece that will take a much shorter time to complete (since there will only be two people in the cast). But that is something I'll think about when study break arrives. I'm in the last three weeks of the semester, two of my three main university assignments have been submitted, so I gotta concentrate on the last one too.

'A Boring Story' Returns!

Yes! I've finally uploaded 'A Boring Story' onto my site, the 5-minute short film I made last year for a competition.

Feel free to view it

Retiring soon from fanfiction. Planning next short film projects.

Seriously, this blog of mine deserves more updating. After all, how could a soon-to-be legendary filmmaker like yours truly ignore his blog like this? But then, I've never really been the type who writes diaries.

FORCED LABOUR done, picking up the pieces of my life.

Many things have happened. Forced Labour's complete, I've just finished making an 'outtakes' feature for the upcoming DVD, and also, I threw a party to celebrate the completion of this movie two nights ago.

Besides that, trailers of 'Forced Labour' are available at http://www.swiftyworks.com

I'm currently suffering from post-creativity depression. Feeling kinda empty that I ain't doing anything anymore after working on the short film for more than 2 months.

Uuuurgh.

"FORCED LABOUR" Editing Done.

22nd of April, 2005. Editing for Forced Labour is finally complete, with the opening sequences being one of the most bizarre thingie I've ever attempted. Sound editing will begin soon.

Oh, and also, I must remind myself that another few anime I've finished recently are Rozen Maiden and Genshiken.

Finished Forced Labour shoot

It's official, I've wrapped up shooting. Everything's done. In fact, there's only one scene left for me to edit, and it's the opening scene. It's weird that I actually started the editing of 'Forced Labour' with the ending scenes, and end with the opening sequences. Anyway, sound editing will be trickier. I have no deadline anymore since I can't submit this to the Kurosawa Film Fest (the thing's almost 20 mins long, possibly more. That's twice the length allowed by the film fest. Damn). But I'll be able to submit it to the Singapore film fest, I think.

On the verge of finishing the FORCED LABOUR shoot

13th of April= Did a quick shooting of two assassins answering phone calls. It was shot in Justin's kitchen. Pretty scary cos' I only had 15 minutes to get them done.

It's Like 'A Boring Story' Again.

Holy crap. 2 week break has begun, and I predicted that I would have some difficulty trying to finish shooting the entire flick in a week.

Exclusive Pics of Forced Labour!!!

Yeah, just to let y'all know what I've been filming during the past few weeks.

Streetfighting Streetfighters

Yes, have filmed another fighting scene for Forced Labour. The one's different from the previous scene I shot cos' it involves only two combatants (the previous one has five). In terms of coolness, I would say that the previous one is better, but the scene I shot today is more realistically brutal. It's a good thing cos' both involved different characters (or actors). It's a strange thing, cos' I really felt that I was shooting a few different movies at once, I'm sure I've mentioned it before. But it also kinda provides a competitive feel for all cast members, with the cast of one scene wanting to outdo the other badly and such. Interesting experience, might actually try sticking with it in the future. (as in shooting separate scenes with entirely separate set of actors)

Saw Robots and The Ring 2 respectively during the past two days. The latter sucked massively. Not a single scary scene, and found myself having trouble trying to keep awake. It's disappointing that the director of Ring 2 happens to be the director of the original Ringu! Maybe the dude's just not THAT good when it comes to shooting Hollywood remakes of... well, his own movies. Robots is enjoyable, but I think Ice Age (also from the same creators) is better.

Gunfighting Gunfighters!

Finished shooting another scene. Really tiring. Will talk about it in future entries. The above's a picture taken after the shooting. One of the people above's obviously NOT in the cast.

FORCED LABOUR shoot, watching BE COOL, other school stuff

Yes, I'm seriously running out of titles for my entries. Here's what happened during the past few days, to those who cared.

18th of March = Shot the second scene for 'Forced Labour'. Wonderful session, everything needed only one single take. Managed to wrap up shooting within 10 minutes. Not bad.

19th of March = Hm. Not much.

20th of March = Yeap, saw Be Cool, starring John Travolta, Uma Thurman, The Rock, Cedric The Entertainer, Vince Vaughn, etc. Really really funny shit. The Rock's the highlight, man. Andre Benjamin (from Outkast) too.

21st of March = Mid-term test for Advertising Law. Ouch.

22nd of March = Oral presentation for International Marketing. Should be fine. Finished storyboarding a sequence for the gunfighting scene in Forced Labour. Yay.

Shooting Has Begun!

15th of March. Shooting for Forced Labour has finally begun. Everything went pretty well. Since I've not shown anyone the script, it's pretty pointless for me to comment more. Anyway, special thanks to Ipoh Garden (a wonderful Chinese restaurant) for allowing me to film our scenes there. The photo below's taken before shooting commenced. Yeah, they are all mobsters. The guy with a wig is the craziest, most psychotic of them all.



16th of March. Dad's birthday. Also, more people are agreeing to appear in the short film. Drastic changes will be made upon the gunfighting scene. Instead of having a small four against four fight, it'll become four against a shitload of people. Yay.

Preparing FORCED LABOUR

"WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? YOU MEAN, YOU HAVEN'T SEEN MISS CONGENIALITY?????"
- Some guy to Justin, 11th of March

The above quote wouldn't be that ridiculously funny if the guy speaking it didn't make it sound as if Miss Congeniality is Lord of the Rings or something.

But anyway, been too busy to post anything on the blog these days. What have I been doing? Ah, yes, hunting for toy guns. Went to do that with Justin on Thursday, and believe it or not, I COULDN'T FIND ANY!!!! Tried Toys R' Us, Target, and other shops, but nope, no toy guns (Well, there are some futuristic ones in Toys R' Us).

I almost cried like a child. Even though I did buy a flash light for my camera so that I can have an easier time shooting night scenes.

In the end, I managed to find some guns at Fremantle with Josh's help (one of the actors) and *cough* the person who was quoted above! They don't look too real, but according to the kind people of the Fremantle Film and Television Institute, I need to get police clearance for gun replicas used in films... only if I do the shooting at public places. Scary.

Yeah, so things are kinda ready. I've got some toy guns, and I've received permission to film the very first scene in a Chinese restaurant on Tuesday. Great fun!

Going to start shooting FORCED LABOUR soon!

Swifty's Filmmaking Progress

Had my very first meeting with the cast last night. Shooting for 'Forced Labour', my next short flick, will begin next week. Yippee!

Turned 21. Birthday contemplations

"Goddamn it, I feel as if I'm trapped in a freaking daytime soap opera."
- Me to Justin, 7th of March

"Relationships, friendship, romantic, family, anything, obviously have their ups and downs. Without the 'downs', there's no way we can ever cherish the 'ups'. Right.. right?"
- Me, 7th of March

"At moments like these, I think friendship is the most important. TOMODACHI, BABY!"
- Me to Chimari, a dear Japanese friend, 4th of March

6th of March was my birthday. So many things have happened during the past few days that I didn't even feel like blogging. So, I'm 21 now, and for the first time ever, I celebrated my birthday without my family.

Sony Tropfest 2005, Oscars, starting a new short film project

Goddamn it! Had lots of problems trying to get into blogger. Right, so, what have happened during the past few days?

On Sunday night, I went to the Fremantle Outdoor Film Festival to check out the Sony Tropfest, which is supposedly the world's biggest short film festival. 16 finalist films were shown, and the winners were announced later. What can I say? All of them blew me away. Some were funny like heck, some were really thought provoking, some were really cool, some were realy sweet, yes, this sounds like asskissing, but I sure as hell had a great time there. Definitely none of those 'bah, I could've made greater stuff' feeling at all. (and because of that, I'm given more pressure with my upcoming short film... shit)

Right, yesterday's Oscars. Seems that I've gotten 8 out of my 11 predictions correct. If I've followed my mind, instead of my heart, I think I would've gotten 10 out of 11 (I was pulling too hard for Sideways). But during the first half of the Oscars, judging by its momentum, I really thought 'The Aviator' would really win the big one, despite me feeling that it doesn't really deserve it.

What else? Yeah, my upcoming short film is titled Forced Labour, and it's going to be 24308208208205205820 times more ambitious than A Boring Story. Already been getting some actors for it, like Justin's cousins (one was really a theatre actor, I believe), a guy from my literature class last year who is studying acting, some guy Justin knew, and Tenzan (yep, of CosMas and formerly of Comic Fiesta). Will need a chick to play the lead, and also another fat guy. Difficult.

My Oscar 2005 Predictions.

All right, here are my Oscar predictions. Like the Golden Globes, I'm only going to look at the major categories. One is my prediction, the other's my preference.

Allen Iverson Is God!

Today is historic, man! Allen Iverson dropped a career-high 60 points on Steve Francis and the Orlando Magic.

Just yearning to make another film.

A couple of weeks before my departure to Perth last year, I was visited by a high school friend who's also an aspiring filmmaker. The guy was collaborating with another friend of his to work on something for the Astro Chinese Short Film Competition, so he came over to pitch his ideas to me, and also wondered whether I can help them out as well. Alas, I was going to Perth, so I had no choice but to turn down his kind offer, even though I was very tempted to join them.

Alexander Payne's SIDEWAYS

Most films that are nominated for the Oscars are usually not shown in Malaysian theatres. In fact, among the five films that were nominated for this year's Oscar (Ray, Finding Neverland, The Aviator, Sideways and Million Dollar Baby), only one, The Aviator, was shown in the cinemas, probably because it had a star-studded cast, and a pretty huge budget.

Books and CDs I bought in Singapore

Books

Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco - Always wanted to read a book by Umberto Eco, so I picked up the very first book he wrote.

A Heartbreaking Work of Overwhelming Genius by Dave Eggers - Was attracted by the title. Obviously.

Kelly Chen, Ronald Cheng, Grasshopper. 1996

More personal memories from Cantopop of the mid-90s.



The lady beside me is Kelly Chen. It was 1996, there was a celebration after an award ceremony in Singapore, but she was also celebrating her birthday.



Ronald Cheng and Calvin Choi (one of the guys from the pop group, Grasshopper) were there too.

My 10 Favourite Films of 2004

Swifty's Top Ten Films of 2004

Here are my favourite movies that I saw on 2004, not in any particular order.

Golden Globes 2005

Yay, last night, right after I finished my entry, I continued writing the subsection 2 of SD:IS's Episode 22, and I think it's shaping out to be pretty well. But enough with that.

Just watched the Golden Globes just now, and see how did my predictions fare.

My Golden Globes Predictions.

Eek, suddenly remembered that Golden Globes is tomorrow morning (Malaysian time), so I'll be making my predictions right now. Yep, I love keeping track on these award shows that lead to the Oscars, been doing that ever since I was a kid. So... here we go!

Leon Lai in 1993. Jacky Cheung and Alan Tam in 1996.

I went to scrape through my old collection of photographs. These stuff were taken AGES ago, when I was still a young, weird-looking little kid.

Cantopop in the 90s.

With Leon Lai. 1993. A press conference in Singapore before his concert.



With Jacky Cheung and Alan Tam. 1996. A celebration after an awards ceremony. It was also pop star Kelly Chen's birthday.

Soap Opera Alert! Kimi ga Nozomu Eien!

Finished Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien in one sitting last night (watched everything except the last episode in double speed though, so characters were speaking quickly in high voices). What can I say about this anime? Hmm... it's not exactly what I would consider entertaining, but it's compelling enough to keep me awake from beginning to end.

Evaluating the heroes of PS2 RPGs

Okay, I did finish Lord of the Rings: The Third Age as I've promised. But the story of the game got so retarded in the end that even though I had a faulty copy (after beating the final boss, me cannot see the ending), I was too indifferent to care already.

I've started playing Shadow Hearts 2 right after that even though I've never played Shadow Hearts before (it's a direct sequel) because it's getting better reviews than Star Ocean Story 3, and it's seemingly more... different from your generic RPGs (The Third Age really left a bad taste in my mouth, I shit you not). I'm currently loving the game even though I'm just two hours into the game. The hero's a badass dude who can turn into a demon and already I can declare that he's BY FAR the coolest PS2 RPG hero ever. Really, I shit you not. Look at his competitors (just the main male characters in RPGs, not the female ones, so Shion from Xenosaga is excluded):

Lord of the Rings: The Third Age

I'll probably finish the Lord of the Rings: The Third Age by tonight (I can actually do it now, but li'l sis wants me to wait for her before I lay the smack down on Sauron, so...) and makes it the very first console RPG I've completed for this year.

Death In Venice Expert?

Man, I've been doing so many things about Death In Venice for European Mythologies(one of my literature units in uni) that I feel like an expert already. I mean, not only have I done an oral presentation about Thomas Mann and his novella, I've also written a 3000-word long essay analyzing the 1971 film adaptation by Luchino Visconti (just printed out the whole damned thing just minutes ago, it's due on the 15th of November... er, that's today).

I'll be putting up the essay onto my site, cos' I'm pretty damned proud of it, and it's film-related, and also it's rare for me to write something that goes THAT deep into a film and its source material. Just let me look for some screenshots first.

Novel Update

Yes, I'm going to talk about my novel now, a writing project I haven't touched (excluding the time when I brought the rough draft onto my site, and also a short chapter I was writing 2 months ago which was meant to be a meeting between two major characters) since Alanded went off to Sydney on February.

As many of you should know now, the entire project's going to undergo one MASSIVE overhaul. It's going to be VERY different from before, even though many of the characters who appeared in the rough draft will still be around. But everything else, the main plot, the settings (especially this), the tone, the mood, everything will be pretty damned different from before.

I'm bringing this up after having a pretty short conversation with Alanded this afternoon regarding the new direction our novel will be heading. And I think I pretty much like what's going on. And yes, once I'm done with Slam Dunk: Inside Stuff, I'm going to concentrate fully on this novel as my one and only writing project, and nothing else anymore. So, basically, once Slam Dunk: Inside Stuff is done, I will move it to another section on my page, and then start expanding the section that was for my novel (and we'll probably try to come up with a name for the series by then).

We'll put up lots of stuff, flash animations, games, blah blah, for the novel, hopefully. So yeah.