Day 44

Friday was a day I felt relieved as all of the assignments had been handed in and I’m finally free of all the workloads. I really need a good break. The screening of videos was very successful and I think that a lot of them had done a great job and I have to admit that a lot of them did better than us. However, my group members and I have also put in a lot of effort when doing this video. Although it is not as good comparing to some other groups but I think we really did a great job and I have to say I am very proud to show the video as I know it is a video that we produce from scratch, starting from the brainstorming of ideas to shooting and lastly editing. It was everyone in the group who made it happen and I really have to thank everyone who have helped us and gave comments in order to make this video happen. Last but not least, I hope everyone is going to enjoy their holiday to the fullest and stay healthy!

Zhi Yong

I was watching the works of others during the presentation, and some was quite animatic, some with lots of nice effects and some with lots of humour. As compared to us, I think we may lose out to them. But come to think again, what was the objective of this video? I realised maybe we had reached our objective, that is to tell our MOI story. Our audience? Our parents and potential MOI student. If we just focus on potential MOI students, we will neglect our parents and thus the objective is not met, and it is true vice-versa. Even though ours may not as interesting as others, but we did achieve the objectives, which may make us on par with others. Anyway it is up to our lecturer from here now.

Yanjun

It was a great feeling able to see my group's video finally shown to our fellow classmates and lecturer. As our video was being screened, I felt my heart thumping rapidly as I was keen to know the reaction from the audience. The moment the video had ended, the applause from the crowd was simply breathtaking. It was when I knew that all our efforts had paid off.

After working with Zhi Yong & Yanjun for the past 2 months, our friendship bond became stronger. As I had worked with Zhi Yong during our Video Fundamentals module, he was already someone I was rather familiar with. Whereas for Yanjun, I did not even know him at all. Like any other group, we had argued at times, but we also had fun together. Filming at places such as Chinatown & Boat Quay allowed us to reminisce the memories we already had when our classes were conducted at these locations as well as creating unforgettable experiences while we were filming there.

No doubt our video may not stand out as compared to our peers, but what we have achieved as a group was something money could not buy. I felt that I had also matured not only as a friend but also as a person. There are times that we have to be understanding when group members are not able to make it for our meetings or work slower than expected. However, this is a deep insight on an example how the working industry would be like when we enter it in the future.

Last but not least, I would like to thank both Zhi Yong & Yanjun for understanding and tolerance throughout these 2 months. Whether we would work together again or not, I do not know. But what I can sincerely say is that I enjoyed creating this video with you guys! Even 10 or 20 years down the road, when we all had grown up, I can still look back and proudly say that this video was done by the three of us.

Shaun :)

43rd Post

Alas! Its officially the end of MOI Project 1!!! Two months of battle and now ( I mean as of 9:07p.m.) is rest and sleep. Well, till now we have endured lots of suffering and all those shooting and editing really took the spirit out of us. But today was quite different from the past few days, as today is the day we need to submit our finished video.
In the morning, we were trying to finish up all those unfinished task like adding background music and refining our DVD cover. However, we met quite a lot of problems like audio footage being overwritten and having the wrong dimension for the DVD cover. Because of time shortage, we decided to distribute the workload instead of our usual "do-it-together" way of working.

Shaun went down to the 3D animation studio and edited the credits for the video. Zhi Yong stayed at the Mac lab to fine tune the audio and I took up the task of preparing the disk cover. We took quite a long time to finish up, plus the fact that the printing shop was having its monthly "traffic jam" around the last 2 days of the block.

It was quarter to four and we were ready to submit. Actually we were being "kay poh" at the General Office and discovered that quite a number of groups had not submitted yet. Maybe they were really having problems in rendering and burning, and some of them were having problems with their work a few days before the deadline. I was reflecting, it is very challenging for a film-maker to meet the deadline, especially when problems come in unexpectedly. A number of my coursemates had gone through this experience, even our group got that too. Maybe this is a lesson learned that we need to back up our data frequently, and not to procrastinate at the start and rush at the end. Surely, P1 is something that we will always keep in our heart.

Yanjun

Entry No. 42

Today is the last day before submission date. It was quite a tiring day as there is still quite a lot of things that we still need to edit and put into our video.

Firstly, we finally finished editing the Video Fundamentals trailer.
Secondly, we finished inserting the slideshows of our exercises for Drawing Essentials and Fundamentals of Digital Photography.
Thirdly, we finished adding subtitles to the video.
Fourthly, the volume of the video is somehow balance.

However, we still need to add the background music and also edit the credits to credit the song providers and the artist of the songs.

Zhi Yong

Day 41

It was the first time I felt Yanjun and I became so serious in doing our work. As time was running out, as well as Zhi Yong rushing on his Animation Fundamentals final assignment, we had to trust each other in doing our job as a group member. Hence, Yanjun & I assigned each other with tasks to fulfill and constantly checking whether we are not behind schedule.

Yanjun was extremely hardworking today. As I was helping out Hazziq & Hana's Video Fundamentals video, he re-recorded his disapproved parts and started on the subtitling. He actually read the Final Cut Pro user manual to find out how it is to be done and we managed to finish most of the subtitles for today. At first, we thought it was tough as we heard from seniors and fellow classmates that we would have to export to iMovie or use LiveType to get it done.

Yanjun even completed the Fundamentals of Digital Fundamentals slideshow with Adobe After Effects and finished designing the disc cover. As for me, I felt that after all the hard work we had put in, I look forward in presenting our video on this Friday.

Shaun =)

40th Post

Today was another time for consultation and it was quite productive. Though we need to re-shoot one of the scene, it was not that troublesome and we could finish it under one hour. Wahidah had heard of our voice over and from there we carry on with our editing.

Things that we had done includes voice recording and re-shooting and further editing. We changed to another script as we find that some of our footage did not fit into the original one. There was a part in our rough cut that has a missing link. It was the part where the book dropped onto the protagonist head . We re-shot that scene, and found ourselves in a joke when the book was stuck on the ledge on the fifth story of the HDB flat opposite TP. Luckily there was a friendly uncle willing to lend us a bamboo pole so that we could trip the book down to the ground floor.

We went back to further edit our video and we used LiveType to add the intro into the video.

Well, I just hope we can finish up before Wednesday.

Yanjun

Entry No. 39

Today we went to Bedok library to work on our final assignment.

Firstly, we discussed our script for the voice-over for our video. It was a tough process as the lines that we are going to say needed to be related to the video and also be kept within the time frame. We will be consulting Wahidah tomorrow to approve on our script before we proceed to voice-recording.

Secondly, we had also written down the subtitles in a document that I believe will be put inside the video latest by Tuesday.

Thirdly, we brainstorm our ideas on how we are going to design the DVD cover.

As this coming week is the last week and I have 2 modules going on, I'm afraid that I will not be able to do as much in the last part of the editing as I still need to work on my final assignment of Animation Fundamentals which is quite time consuming.

Zhi Yong

Day 38

Reaching school around at 9-am, we scanned most of our works into JPEG files. They are then compiled in accordance to the modules and made into a few slideshows.

Even thought that it is a Saturday, we had to re-shoot the missing parts of our video as it was the only time our protagonist was free. We had to ask him to wear back exactly what he wore in our video. This taught us the lesson of confirming that every shot of every scene being taken, otherwise, causing us to waste precious time of both the actor & production crew.

Furthermore, Yanjun had outside commitments that he had to attend to this afternoon. This resulted in the crew to be short of manpower. However, we managed to to pull through this problem by filming the scenes that required more labour when Yanjun was around.

When Yanjun came back in the evening, he created the Fundamentals of Digital Photography slideshow. On the other hand, I managed to do a rough cut for the Credits. Both of us used Adobe After Effects. By putting the slideshow & credits into our unfinished video, it made us felt much closer to completion.

Shaun :)