Journal: FYP Logbook

2008-07-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

Hello.

Yesterday, 15th June 2008, we officially completed the project part for our FYP.
I understand that we took alot of time to post this. OKay.
We started the editing quite a while ago. Approximately, after 2nd July.

Oh, before I forgot.

1) We did filmed 3 types of Ads.
2) Serene take a look at ALL of our ads. That's when we showed Serene our Rough Cut for the 1st time.
She gave us tips in what we can improve on.
So we copied that.
But then, me and Aini had doubts on the 3rd Ad. I'm not sure if all of us felt the same way.
The lighting for the 3rd Ad scenes were not consistent, and there should be more close up.

So in the end, we had to scrap the 3rd Ad away. Because, we don't have time to film it. We really don't have much time, with all the things that need to be done as well as knowing for the fact that the submission date is coming nearer. We decided to focus on the 1st 2 ads, which Serene also did feel that it's the best take.

Serene's comments, for Ad number 2, she said that a way to improve this is to show more body language and the behind profile of the pedophile when he's offering the girl a sweet.

But, due to some circumstances, we were not able to carry out the re-shoot. So, instead, we have to bang on making the Ad, a bit, artistic as well as adding some captions to relate the girl's thoughts.

After that, I managed to complete fully on the 1st ad. Honestly, at that point, I was mind blocked on starting the 2nd ad. That's why I kind of emphasize the 1st ad, and then showed Serene that ad only.

So, Serene did take a look again as the 2nd rough cut. As usual, it's quite hard to get an excellent comment without having the need to improve on from her. Tips and more tips, like having the audio to make it sound disturbing, and having to re-shoot a scene which sort of complete the whole picture. ( I'm tired typing this post, away at this point )

So, after so much time spent in school...weekends...after school hours.....
We came up with 2 finalized ads.
We have already upload it to our myspace.
And we have been spamming people to take a look at our ad.
Report have been done. Still compiling it, and we haven't burn and print our stuff yet.

So, we hope that we can complete this whole FYP before Friday.

Everyone, pls..pls..pls..just hang on, this is the final lap...well, before we start defending this like crazy for the oral defense.

Let's finish this and submit on Thursday after school OK???!!..... At least ar...

I think, I need to meet the team...
Especially you Mira, yes. I need updates from you.

So,....basically..thats it.
I need to go off now and sleep.

cLa

-------------------

Hey guys!
Just before I forget.
Here's the important Documents that we have.

:)

Budget List
Siti Clothes List 1
Siti Clothes List 2
Hanaan Clothes List
FYP Team 10 Report
Letterhead for Proposal
Proposal for Sponsorship

Hanaan

UPDATE!

2008-07-12T07:02:00.000-07:00

OK guys!

Today me and sila went to school to finish up the 2nd ad in which we did.

Just left with some captions and TA-DA!

And last week on Thursday, me and Sila also went to the vista room to edit the 1st ad.

Later that day, Aini dropped by and lent us a hand.

So far we are on track. I would like to thank those who worked hard for this project.

:)

till the next update,

Hanaan

2008-07-07T06:59:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

These are the topics for the FYP Report.

Please let Hanaan know the topics you want to do IMMEDIATELY.

Please.....

Sila had taken "The objective(s) of our FYP and what it hopes to achieve".
Hanaan had taken "any challenges and Obstacles your team faced and room for improvement"

So there's 3 more left. Which are...

- The inspiration for the project.
- Initial ideas, the process involved and how the finished product turned out.
- What is New Media about our project?

PLEASE CONFIRM BY MONDAY AND SEND TO HANAAN WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN BY FRIDAY.
WITH YOUR TEAM EVALUATION.

cLa

2nd Ad, 11th or 18th June?

2008-06-27T10:16:00.000-07:00

these are some pictures taken during our 2nd Ad about the drug addict mother teaching the boy how to take drugs.
everyone came & successfully finish shooting on that wednesday.

preparation of props & settings by amirah & aini

hanaan- camera, siti- lightings, aini- director

Love,
Mira Malik

2008-06-17T07:14:00.001-07:00

Basically...for this post, I'm posting up the sketches for the storyboard I made for the 1st ad.

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

cLa

2008-06-12T08:51:00.000-07:00

9th June 2008 - Monday

It was the 1st day of filming.
Loan out the equipment and do the filming.
We did filming for the 1st ad.

The people who were there were; Hanaan, Me, Aini and Amira.
Siti is unable to come as she has family personal matters to attend to.

The ad portrays the sadness and upset-ness of a young boy who's being abused emotionally by his father.
He's felt worthless to his father eyes and unloved. And he has no one to talk to.
He loves to draw and spends most of his time drawing. So much drawing that it covers his bedroom wall. Having no one to talk to, he express his feelings on the problems his facing through drawings.
The filming took place in school. We started quite early, bout 10 to 11 am, and we finish the whole scenes by 2pm. Everything went smoothly as planned. Everyone is satisfied and were looking forward for the next filming.

11th June 2008 - Wednesday

We manage to complete our 2nd Ad.
We did the 3rd Ad..well, whichever that is..

It's the ad about children sexual abuse,

It portrays the day of a little girl becoming a victim of a man's pedophilia satisfaction.

With the help from Hanaan's family ; her siblings for the cast and her mom for the support and also being there to help out,

all of us, in the group would like to give a big thanks for all of you. Thank You.
Without you guys, we wouldn't be able to complete the ad or even start on it at all...

Anyway, all of us who were there had fun.

The people who were there were; Hanaan, Me, and Siti Munira
Amira is unable to come due to personal family matters.
Aini is unable to attend also due to personal family matters..BUT..BUT...she sent me all the storyboard via MMS..so thanks, for the initiative, cos, without it, I don't think we can start on it.

Anyway, from what we originally planned, the filming for 3rd ad was to be done on this Saturday..14th June 2008, but since some of us were unable to make it..and also with the fact that all of us wanted some rest badly before school re-open on the following week, we decided to postpone it on next Wednesday, after school.

I think it'll be easier as we don't have to bring home those "luggage" don't we ??

the luggage I'm referring to was the Camera and equipment lah...aiyoooo...LOL

Anyway, lets hope that the last Ad will be another success round, like the previous two ok!

Oooh...not forgetting that there will be lots and lots of editing session after that...hmm..
Guess that the after-school hours, including Sat(s) are going to be burned...

LOL...err....joke only k...

We're in the month of June..soon, it'll be July..and whenever I think about July, I can only think about nothing more than the submission date. Gosh!

Everyone is working hard. Gambatte everyone..

cLa

2008-06-05T08:22:00.000-07:00

Group Meeting

Date / Time : 2th June / 9 am ++

Agenda: Discussion on what we need to do AFTER the Midpoint.

I guess, the stress level of the FYP have kind of like began to test our patience, perseverance as well as the friendship that we built.

Each of us have different goals, different methods and different contributions. I think, its because we just want to get this done and over with, thats why we seem to have problems with each of the members for now.

However, this meeting, we managed to clear all the "bad auras" and having everyone setting the same goal in unison happily...like finally...

Anyway, based from the feedbacks from Serene, doing of advertisements has finalised.

So we conclude that we're making 3 ads in a form of video.

1st Ad - focus on Emotional Child abuse.

where a boy feels tormented as his parents always giving negative and vulgarish comments to him.
He felt worthless to their eyes so,
He expressed his feelings through drawings where viewers are able to see the pain he felt and the illustration of his parents giving vulgarish comments.

2nd Ad - focus on Physical abuse, as well as a bit of Physical neglect.

A boy is being treated more like a worthless rag doll. With no value.
He sleeps alone, with no proper bedroom and lighting. And he's not hygienic as he's always being locked up inside the room.
He was forced to drugs and drink and was believed by his parents that its all a form of " kids happy times ".

3rd Ad - focus on Sexual harassment or abuse

A little girl was being led by a man / paedophile ( from a family ) to the playground.
From there, the man starts to abuse her sexually.

Filming will start on Next Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
And each video are predicted to complete by 1 day.

Yesterday, on 4 - 06 - 08, we book out the vista lab to try our hands on making the background music.
Successfully, we manage to produce at least 2 sound music.

We are also in the process in making props and all for the video.

these are the roles for the project.

Amirah - Find Props and location
Siti - Will do on sounds..sound effects and music..( which we already did quite a bit..but need some enhancements)
Aini - doing on storyboard.
Asilah - will do on the schedule like setting up the location, timing and the dates to shoot the video.
Hanaan - maintain the myspace account and equipment list.

Through that, in god's will, we hope that we can start and finish filming the video.

cLa

(Uploaded by Hanaan)

More Updates on the Website.

2008-05-31T22:36:00.001-07:00

Hi there.

It's been a while.

A month ago, we publish our myspace account in aid to spread the awareness of Child Abuse.

So far, I've managed to get more people to add us. And also joining up with myspace groups that support this cause.

Not only that I've also upload another banner to the account where people can copy and paste it's HTML code on their own account.

And also, I've posted a bulletin about how people can approach us if they have a problem of sort.
Like Aunt Agony. They can either send us a private messages or leave a comment in our blog entry page.

More things to come! :)

-Hanaan

OK..This is it

2008-05-19T09:32:00.000-07:00

FYP Mid point is like THIS coming WEDNESDAY.

21st May 2008.

Time flies really fast.

Okay, no time to lose..here is the thing that we have did, well, we did quite alot..but we didn't took the time to post all up here..so this is it

The Production Schedule for Filming only:

Costumes List:

Storyboard:

Meeting Regarding the Mid-Point presentation

2008-05-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

Venue: Bugis Mac Donald's
Time : 12 noon

Members present: Asilah, Aini, Hanaan and Amirah.

Topic of Discussion

- Redefining our FYP final product.
- Solutions to our lack of resources.
- How will these solutions affect our steps to achieve the final output.
- Mid-Point presentation.
- How to make our presentation interesting.
- Things and information that needs to be presented.
- Rescheduling of production.

What we have decided?

-We have agree that we do not require a sponsorship because we are capable of paying for the expenses.

- Instead of a film, we will be doing a 'modern conceptualize wayang kulit'. Through the use of shadow and lights.

- Selling our idea (copyrighted) to MCYS into setting up their own account just like what we did.

just to prove that Aini was there.

I just set up a myspace account for our project
http://www.myspace.com/headfirstforhello

That is all for now.
Feel free to edit here and there k. :)

Hanaan

2008-05-18T04:10:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
We started filming Scene 21 last Friday in RP.
Below are some of the pictures.

Scene in Rp as a substitute for IMH.

Cla showing the operatings of the cam.

Finding the right white balance.

Adjusting the angles and etc...

Aini familiarising herself with camera with Cla's guidance.=)

foreground:Aini confirming the best angle to take.

Background:Cla getting ready for the scene.

And...

Scene 21 ...

Part 1...

take 1...

ACTION!

Some audio were needed from Cla.lolz.

Scene 21...

Part 2...

take 1...

ACTION!

This time Hanaan was the cinematographer.
lolz.

That's all folks!

2008-05-06T23:33:00.000-07:00

The 5 of us have a meeting, together, like finally.

When: 6th May 08
Time: After School and Uts
Where: Classroom
Agenda of the meeting: events that will happen this coming few weeks with regards on our fyp.

We, girls finally sat down together and discuss about the things that will happen these coming few weeks.

what's gonna happen is that we'll be executing our filming shooting.
Doing of Production Schedule is still on the midst.
Places like School or Canberra Sec School , that we are going to use for one of the few scenes specifically, have all been approached and required a proposal to do that. Shall touch on that soon.
Location have been confirmed 100%.

But the casting part is still shaky...not forgetting the commitment that our cast can give for us as well as some of the members commitments too, is already make me scared enough whether we can finish this shooting or not.
Still, I'm very sure that we can complete this. Yes we can. We won't give up.

cLa was sugsesting for a sleepover for all of the members, since most of the scenes will be held at her place, the, home scenes. Excellent idea isn't it. Hope that we can hear a positive comment by her dad.

Hanaan, is trying hard to do the storyboard. a good start.

Ct / Siti, if some of you readers are clueless, have given us the costumes update.

the rest of the meeting was spent more on setting the dates which are Agreeable with all of us together.

And after that, home .

thats it for now. till then

cLa

UPDATE! Finding Locations

2008-04-27T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hi there people.

Me and Asilah went to reckee for locations in Sembawang last Saturday.

I've finally got the first draft of proposal done and I've just send it out to everyone.

Hope that they will check their e-mails.

Well, that is all.

Hanaan

2008-04-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Well, another update on the progress on our FYP.

What we have already done do far:

- Story have been finalised
- New Media of FYP have been confirmed
- Location of film shooting confirmed...though there are still some location which are still in pending
- with that being mentioned, Recce Location had been done
- Not forgetting that at least..I really mean AT LEAST 60% of the cast have been filled
- Planned to start filming shooting in about 2 or 1 week time
- Proposal had been send out to the respective organization that we're hoping to work closely with

Things that We need to do:

- Finalized ALL location ( Which also mean, contacting the places beforehand, before filming starts)
- Get all the cast being filled up

( Those have confirmed, it's time to get them their scripts, NOT forgetting that we have to know their off day...***We can't get them in trouble with their work or school whatsoever )

- Make a Production Schedule
- Do the story board
- And get, everything that we proposed ; vehicle transportation, budget all confirmed
-Familiarize with all the equipment we're using. And I don't mean DV camera only.

so far, these are what I think that we should get it done ASAP.
I feel that the progress we're in is still good. I can sense that things gonna get very busy when filming starts.

Before I almost forget, Last Saturday ; 26th-April -08, Me and Hanaan, have a small recce to the locations that we're planned for some scenes.
Basically, most of it will be at Sembawang.

C-la

Meeting with Serene

2008-04-04T08:32:00.001-07:00

Sorry for not updating for a really really really long time.

Here's what is going on so far....aka...Minutes of the meeting...

Date: 4 April 2008
Venue: School Library
Members present: Hanaan and Sila.
Members absent: Aini (work), Mira (not in Singapore) and Siti (un-contactable)

Objective of Meeting
-Discussion of Team Members.
-Updating our dear supervisor.

Things need to be done
-Sending out the final proposal before the start of school.
-Have a meeting on the first day of school to sort out any other loose ends.

Anything else?

Changing the name of our team.

Hanaan

2nd Meeting: Script Editing and Finalization

2008-03-06T04:34:00.000-08:00

2nd Meeting: Script Editing and Finalization

Venue: Cafe 155
Time: From 10.15 to 1.30

Members that were present: Hanaan, Sila and Aini.

Members that were absent: Mira and Siti.

Reason for absentee
Mira: Diarrhea
Siti: AWOL and MIA (unable to reach despite various phone calls and sms)

Objectives

-Going over the script and discussing other possibility to make the story ends well.
- Understanding the Characters in the story.

Any Other Business (A.O.B)

- Aini and Sila assign to look for talents (actors for our short film).
- Hanaan, Mira and Siti assign to look for suitable locations.
- Scripts are printed out. Both Hanaan and Aini have the scripts for any references when working later on.
- Aini have sent Serene and everyone a copy of our script via e-mail.

That's all. See you at the next meeting.

HanaanXHarlequin

2008-02-20T11:02:00.001-08:00

Hello guys

cLa is here.

Well..to me, what new media means is a form of media which was newly re-invented.
I believe solely on that.
Speaking of which, I would like to give an example of a video I recently watched on youtube.
Its a song called "Little piece of Heaven" by a band called Avenged Sevenfold.
The reason why, I would say that this video is a form of new media is because, ...
just look at the video.

I really find it interesting and creative that, the visual did not match the audio BUT with they lyrics and the music itself.

Like, look at the part where the "dead couple" are taking vows infront of a priest.
Doesn't it reflect to the song where there's a small dialog (being incorporated with the song).
This could be a new form of new media, by how visual is being incorporated with the meaning of a song or lyrics..

..well..which ever way....

Even though there's no audio and we have to listen to the lyrics of the song, I managed to understand the story behind it just by viewing it one time.

cLa

KONNICHIWA

2008-02-16T02:57:00.000-08:00

Hey Ladies!

It's been a while since my last update.

So anyway, I just wanna tell you guys about this song which inspires me for our FYP.

It's called Hey Jude by The Beatles. Check out the the lyrics.

Basically this song is written for Julian Lennon by Paul McCartney.

The story behind this song is about Julian who was only 3-4 years old when his parents, Cynthia and John Lennon separated and divorced. Julian grew up with his mum in England while his father left them for Yoko Ono and went to live in New York.

Julian grew up knowing that his father doesn't want him and it was difficult for him to get to know his father, John, more.

Here's an interview by him. He talked about growing up and the difficulties he faced.

Why this?

Because I feel that it does have some relation with the character in our story.
It's like trying to understand how a child feel when he or she is being rejected by their parent/s.
Especially in Julian Lennon's case. He's father talked about believing in World peace but he couldn't even love his own son.

Till Next Time,

Harlequin

2008-02-10T00:25:00.000-08:00

hello!
hello!
hello!

been awhile.
seemed like the blog's a little quiet.
anyway guys,i'm still working on the script though.
set a date to meet up in march?
hahaha.

anyways.
i was doing research and i came across something interesting for those of you who are interested in script-writing.

it's a tutorial from this guy,Dave, from Associative Movie Productions at Virginia Tech. He's the head of the screenwrter's group.
so i'm sharing this with you guys because i found it helpful.and he is the head of the screen writers' group;meaning that his tutorial might be trustworthy.
(i guess.hahaha.)

so here's the link:
http://forums.celtx.com/viewtopic.php?t=2744

and see if you guys do find it helpful.

the second link is from him.
it's the proper formatting guide for those who send scripts to Hollywood.
it was sent to him by someone he knows and i thought it was nice of him to share it.
anyway,go check it out yourself(if you want.onli if you reali reali reali want).

http://www.oscars.org/nicholl/format_a.txt

ok.
guys remember how we all wanted to make our film unique?Make it different from those Channel 5's docu-drama?i dunno if this is it.But i've never really seen any docu-drama from Channel 5 that,'make a villain that the audience loves, while making them love the protagonist© '
how?how?
do u think this will make it unique??

till then;

Another Update

2008-02-01T21:02:00.000-08:00

Ok..another update girls!

Aini called me up last evening and we discussed more about our story.

In other words, we developed more on the story and the characters in it.
Along the way, we realized that we were doing what we did in our Character Design and Story Writing classes.

For example, why is the girl in our story neglected? Why did her mother left her? How was she abused by her aunt?....etc...etc...

Each one of this details contributes a lot in the story so that the audience will understand why did the things that happened to character and the reasons why the girl did this and this in the situations she was placed in.

So far, besides developing more on the story, we have also assigned role for each team members.

Here's the role :)

Director- Asilah
Scriptwriter- Aini
Producer- Siti
Sound and Camera Operator- Amirah
Production Designer- Hanaan

I was nominated by Aini to be the leader.
If there's no objection, I do not mind.

Oh ....another thing...
The roles are not assigned anyhow-anyhow-one ok....
It's assigned based on each individual's strength and capability.

If you feel there's in need for us to change your role...please don't hesitate to tell us..
Don't worry, the group won't bite you. LOL.
I want everyone to be and feel comfortable in the roles we will be playing.
Plus, even though we have our specific roles, we still need to help each other.

I do not want any 'But that's not my job, so it's not my problem' bullshit...OK?

We are a group...a team...so therefore we work as one...

:)

Oh...I almost forgot....Everyone pls inform me or aini of your schedule for this holiday.
So we can set up a meeting where everyone of us will be able to attend.

That is all for now.

Another reminder, pls do check your emails constantly.

Thanks!

Happy HOLS!

Hanaan

2008-02-01T08:09:00.000-08:00

k updates k guys.
we need to re-work our re-worked proposal.
lolz.
serene needs the details.
so meet up this monday,4th feb 2oo8 at 8.30 am at E1 canteen.
anything holler k?
u guys should know my no.
teehee..
k go..

2008-02-01T02:48:00.000-08:00

erm guys..
schedule pls..??
i'm sorry if i'm being a nag.
but i feel that we should set a timeline so that we won't be rushing to complete everything or doing anything at the last minute.
it'll make everybody's life easier ok.
and i do hope that in the future, everyone of us are present for the team discussions.
this is the foundation.
and i feel that our foundation has to be concrete & everybody has to agree on it.
coz once we kick start..there's no turning back & i dun want any blaming on each other or any animosity if (touch wood) anything were to happen.

and i do hope that for this fyp;

we're able to help express/encourage each other's talents.
we'll be open-minded & accept criticisms from each other without bearing grudge.
we'll enjoy the experience

thanks.
sorry if i'm being too harsh.=(
and oh..enjoy your hols!!
till then;

aini.

2008-01-30T23:18:00.000-08:00

Hello,
This will be the 1st entry from Asilah.
But I'll be commonly known as cLa. Short and sweet nick for myself, just like the person itself. =D
Today is the last day of January. And tomorrow is the 1st of February.
Since Serene encouraged us to give any feedbacks or thoughts with regards in fyp, i shall try to do it here.
Honestly speaking, all of us are rushing to complete our work by the end of this week as this will be our last week in school as year 2 students.
However, for now, there's alot to think and do. But I believe that, whatever it is, we can't complain and give excuse but try to manage time well.

I don't understand why the faci(s) in sta emphasize more on New Media for fyp 1.
To be honest, coming up with a great idea is hard, but having to come up with an excellent idea of what New Media means to us, not forgetting that, we have to be very different from our competitors, is more difficult.

The comments we get from the advisors regarding on our proposal is that they said that our story content is not unique and our proposal lack of components of New Media.

So, okay, we have to work on these 2 areas.
Story content and our definition on New Media.

Our definition on New Media would be:
trying out something which that have not been experimented in terms of audio, visually, technologically before.

We wanted to stick to the Lolita theme but in order to make the story more dramatic and flowy, the theme Lolita had to be cancel. Moreover....I don't think that we can continue in doing a music video.
Hanaan suggested that, it'll be cliche to have it in music video.
Therefore, the closest that we can bring our story alive is through film.
But how to make the film as New Media and according to our definition. That's hard.

Really hard.
How to make our film fresh and new in terms of the media being used...
Suggestions anyone??

After research, we decided to have a combination of documentary+ drama..
Yes..I've sent the proposal to Serene. Lets hope that this will be accepted..

yours truly
cLa

Rework of Proposal

2008-01-30T07:14:00.000-08:00

How blond can we get?

we were so focus on EOF that we forgot about FYP!!!

Anyway, we managed to come up with a whole new and better concept.

:)

I read the final proposal re-submission e-mail this morning and I was like oh shit.

Despite Aini, Amirah and Siti not present in school, we were able to discuss and agree on the new concept.

I sent an SMS to everyone to have a mass MSN conference. Thank God it went well.
But unfortunately, we couldn't get in touch with Amira because she changed her number.

Anyway, I've sent a pdf.format of our discussion to our mail.

(fyplolita.2008@gmail.com)

Just to keep as a record. You can download also...if u want...

:)

I bid you goodnight!

hanaan

2008-01-29T16:43:00.000-08:00

hellooo..
hanaan this blog is a great idea for a logbook..lolz..
anyways..
if u guys dun mind..
can i ask when u're free during the month of february?
then we can plan up when to meet & discuss..what's needed to be discussed.
just send ur schedule latest by this friday, o1.o2.2008.
do send your schedule to this email.
fyplolita.2008@gmail.com

and yeah..we have to think of what new media means to us..

till then;
aiNi =)

The Start of Something

2008-01-27T17:14:00.000-08:00

Hi guys!

This blog will be serve as a logbook for our FYP.
This way, our supervisor, Serene, get the update on us and our project.

Mucho love,
Hanaan