Final Day, 19.3.08, Wednesday

Woo hoo!! finally it's the end of MOI project 1. This has been a very very long journey for my group and i. From the very start, we had our ideas all thrown in. Then we decided to make it a epic like show. HAHA....all the lecturers were worried that ours might just go in a wrong direction and ending up like a epic comedy. haha...but we're CREWSADE,inc. we know we can do it, we went on for it=) we were really working very very hard together. There were some difficulties where we faced along the way. But we solved it like a team. We had zero, im proud to say, ZERO group conflicts. We just love each other so much=). We're so proud of our group=) we do not shoot down any of our teammates, in fact, we always compliment each other and shower much praises to each other. But, this way we arent arrogant about it, we took it as a motivation and it was an energy drive for all of us each time other group praised our works.

Then it came down to a few problems when our ideas clashed during the brianstorming session of our opening credits. Since there were too many ideas being suggested, it wasnt easy to just pick one and move on. Because our group is very sensitive to how our teamate would feel. So we took a really long time to please everyone. Some people say, its very hard to satisfy everyone. BUt CREWSADE,inc. thinks differently, it isnt difficult, its just tedious. But uf we have the will and the heart to do it. TOGETHER, we can=). after settling on that problem, we moved on to all the shootings. HAHA....we decided that during our opening intro, when our names are flashed out, we want our faces to be there too. SO, we wanted to make it look special. We went round the whole school to look for a perfect locstion to have our individual opening intro shots done. Although the intro would only take 5secs for each of us. We still took the effort to spend about 2 hours plus to scout for locations and camera angles. First up was my=), haha. We did it near the entrance of the school where there is this wall that's pretty high. So my shot would be me sitting on the highest edge of the wall, which was really hard to get onto. Raj had to show me how to get up there, but in the midst of showing me, he fell and got injured. Sorry bro and thanks=). I played the role of the medic at the design sick bay and had the bandage done for him=). haha. So, not wasting the effort of my bro, jeremy took over to demostrate for me how to get up there, in the end i did it. I was up, and guess who came along? haha. THE SECURITY GURADS! because it was really pretty high, thus they were afraid we might injured ourself seriously. But we pleaded to her to let us do it, because we went through so much for it. She was very reluctant, so as she was scolding, we rushed jeremy to take the shot. HAHA, just imagine, the security was nagging away, then we just went on filming, haha. I just had to act cool=) didnt take much effort to act, im naturally cool=p. LOL. then when we were done, haha, we could see how relieved the security was, because she was instructed by the command post to get us down which she failed to do so. haha.

Next is Wendy's, but this shot was done by Jeremy bro alone. Because raj was injured, so i had to give him medical attention. But given Jeremy's eye for the camera, haha, it was easy peasy for him=). He chose a good spot of the school, with an intersting angle and he shot the scene for wendy. Then came Jeremy's shot. HAHA, for him, we did it at the amphitheatre, i was the cameraman=). haha, i did a high angle shot for him from the top, giving it a cool angle. that was pretty difficult to achieve, because i was standing on two chairs on the top of the amphitheatre. So you can imagine how high i actually was. If i fell, woo hoo...SAYONARA!! lol. Wondering where the chairs were from? haha...let me tell you now. Those chairs were taken for Raj's shot. haha...we went to the fountain to have his shot taken, intially we just wanted him to look cool with the fountain behind him. Then, knowing greg, me. LOL...i came out with this crazy idea of raj crossing over to the pond, standing in the middle of it. It was not possible to cross over like that, because the pond was at knee level, and we were all wearing jeans. So we went back to 3danimation lab to borrow 5 chairs. THEN, i went into the water and laid dwn the chairs one by one with the help of raj and jeremy. After that, raj crossed over, then we took the shots=). INTERESTING HUH!lol....at the end of the shot, knowing greg again. HAHA...i wanted to make it more fun. I dared raj to walk round the pond in the middle of the big pond two rounds, if he succeeds i'll buy him drinks. Because if he falls, he is going straight into the water. haha...he went for it and won! GOOD GOING BRO! =). lol

After all this things were done, it was animation time for wendy and i. HAHA, wendy was doing a wonderful job. But i havent even started, i was only at the stage of drawing on paper itself. So wendy came with her animation ready, and we saw something wrong with the animation, we asked her to change and she changed in on the spot making it look perfect and flawless. WELL DONE WENDY!! HAHA. so for the second interim, only her animation was ready to be seen. My, was a badly done rough animation. The seconf interim with wahidah was good. She gave us good comments on our works and flow. But she had issues with our audio, which we know was our weak point then. But since we were inexperienced and not equipped with the required tools to aid us. We had to just stick to it. Thwn she was talking about the shots and speeches that wasn't clear. SO we went on to edit it. Thanks wahidah for taking so much time and effort to help us. Thanks to our classmates too which have always been supporting and praising us=). After this, i went on to further improve my animation. i stayed up for 2 nights to have my animation completed, this time i deleted the old one and re-did everything. This time round, i was serious about it, and it turn out well=). My group mates and lecturer liked it=) so di i. haha, but of cause i cannot be too complacent, i have to learn more and improve better=). For the final screening with wahidah, we made the full length video, still without my animation, because it still wasnt ready. But all our stories and effects were done. It was suppose to be viewed smoothly so that one can enjoy it. But wahidah stopped many times to correct us. We really wished she could watch the video twice. First time, just watching it full without stopping. Second time, with critic. Because we were really excited about her viewing it, it was really epic, But she stopped it too many times it lost that feel .I meant no offence wahidah=) just a suggestion that u could critic the seond time u watch it, and leave the first time solely dedicated to just watching it. Anway, apart from this, this means that my animation would make its first appearance on the actual day itself=). haha, cool =D. lol.

Today was the final showdown, it was screening session for everyone=D. i think all the groups did well=D. To us, no one fared badly, we could see we all had fun and were really serious into doing this project. No doubt, this is by far our biggest project we were tasked to do, it really felt like we were working in the industry where planning and time management played a major role to success. But for my group, CREWSADE,inc. CONGRATULATIONS AND WELL DONE! we did it!! haha...everyone were very impressed with our works=). haha, thank you people=). SPECIAL THANKS TO: Wahidah, Mr Ronald, Alfie and Alan=D.

A few words for my group mates=)
- Raj- Bro, you make a great leader in guiding us and making us stick to the schedule. U listened to everyone's ideas and think about how we could apply it. Without any doubt, your visual effects were awesome, needless to say ur brilliant lamp=) WELL DONE!

Jem- Bro, haha, indeed you have an eye for the camera. haha, our Director of Photography and Cinematography. Our video could look good all because of your interesting shots and angles=) WELL DONE!

Wendy- HAI!! lol...nice working with you, although ur the only girl in our group, you did well working together with us. haha, ur animation work is great, good job and WELL DONE!! haha. go on and entertain the world with ur animation=) lol.

To everyone, i assure you that CREWSADE,inc. will not stop here. We will continue to bring you more works that will amaze u all, more stories that will capture you tight=). CREWSADE,inc will be a name heard here and now, and further down our days of design and our lives. TO CREWSADE,inc. CHEERS!! =D

Day 42, 10 Mar, Mpnday

Hello everyone, haha. ARH!!! During this period we’re all very stress and tired. My animation is very stressful, procrastinated alittle, because I underestimated the effort and time needed to do it. So, im currently struggling like mad to get my animation done=(. I’ve done a very very rough one for tomorrow’s interim. Its very very sub-standard. I’m going to edit it totally after interim, because this is DEFINITELY not the best Greg can do!!

But for my other group mates, they’re doing great=). We are going to shake everyone’s balls off their undies tomorrow, but take note people, what you see may not be what you see, its going to be much much better=). Wendy’s mushi, her animation is awesome=) great job! Haha. I have to be as least as good as her’s or even better=). Confident I may be, but the truth remain, im running out of time=(. I cannot dissapoint my group’s expectation of my work, so greg! GOTTA DO BETTER=D. haha…..i love my group, you can feel their encouragement, their always there for you-=). But a note to all my groupmates, no matter what happens, dun get too stress till we strain our health=). We gotta work smart, not hard=).

Jeremy bro has done a wonderful in designing a new map for the ending. Its really close to perfect, we spend time to burn the map he designed to give it a old and rugged feel of how an epic map would look like. The scrolls where we’re using for our opening introduction have all gone through the burning process too. We’re all satisfied with the result of its look, its really a scroll you’ll expect to see in any epic films. CREWSADE,inc. is using all their effort to make this to industry standard, because we’re pros-wanna=). That’s why, to all other group, LISTEN. Our interim’s show is not just that, we’re going to make it a lot a lot better, embrace yourself of an impact so strong that its going to stun you for a moment and leave u thinking, OMG….how did they do it? =). Haha…..CREWSADE,inc. yeah….that’s what we call it=).

All our filming were directed by Jem bro on camera angles, which makes everyshot very very interesting. We have used locations in our filming, where no one will ever think of. We spend great effort, and even had injuries in the process of getting access to that venue, but we did it=). HAHA….all the angles you see are handled by Jem, Raj, and I. Wendy didn’t do much on camera handling because she didn’t know how to do it well, but on her animation, we all gotta learn from her=). HAHA…coming back to our camera angles, our high angle shots are really high, we really go to the extreme to get that height, because we aren’t any other group, we are CREWSADE,inc. It’s a name that you’ll see a few years down the road as a production team that has the talents of the society to ENTERTAIN THE WORLD WITH OUR ANIMATION=). LOL….sorry wendy, copyright a bit. HAHA. Raj bro, he did all the video editing to make it look all so different and special, its no longer just special base on Jem’s skill, its perfect and awesome with Raj’s help in it. =D…im so proud of all of you=). Our soundtracks are carefully chosen by the four of us, through trial and error to see which songs suits the epic theme we’re heading towards. Story conceptualizing was handled by me , and am I glad that they’re well-liked by my group=). Haha…WELL DONE GREG!! =D. you see ar…without the story guy…heyhey….nothing can proceed. LOL….right crewsades? HAHA.

Day 37th, 5th Mar, Wednesday

Hello people, havent been blogging for the past one week. Because i have been very busy with productions and animations. HAHA.

Just to update all of you what we've done. We have more or less finish all our shoots. All our shoots are hilarious, haha...we have lots and lots of bloopers. lol...i am the main contributor to the bloopers=D. HAHA....we have no group conflicts at all till now, if anyone has any problem or disagreement, we settle it straight. lol....crewsaders...we rock=D. But sometimes, we might have slight arguements because of too many ideas, which is good=D. lol...which means everyone is contributing. Haha...still conflict or no conflict, crewsaders will always stay together. Raj, Jem, Wendy and me=D. Groups out there, haha...we'll shake your b*lls off and blow your 2 * off. haha...CREWSADERS will know what im saying.

Then, we had shots taken for our opening introductions, we want to show our faces as our names are shown. Then we thought of not using still shots, we are using clips that run a few seconds as a picture appearing with our name. HAHA...wait till screening day, you will get what we mean. Because of this, we have done the things that no one would thought we would. We really try the extreme and think of the extreme, thats what makes crewsade,inc. Raj bro had an injury too, haha...another accident on site. But he is one strong guy..haha...nothing wrong. Jem bro is not feeling well, get well soon yea=D. But even though he is sick, he still shows 100% energy in his work and attitude...you go bro!!! LOL.

Now for me, lol...im a little late and slow at my side, havent completed my animation=(. Because of my stupid laptop that is giving me problems, BUT..haha..its done now. So greg is going to rumble=D....and you know...SHAKE YOUR UNDIES OFF!! HAHA.

Day 28th, 25th Feb, Monday

Today was fun. haha....had shooting at my house=). First we went to school to submit our blogs. Which, once again i reached class late=(. haha. But anyway, yeah...i went school to print, but XOREX WAS SUPER LONG QUEUE, haha...so i went to print at the library. SMART greg. lol After that, i went to submit it to Wahidah.

Then we went to have lunch=) haha...and headed down to my house. On the way back on the MRT, we were like thinking of so many crazy ideas to do animations and visual effects after MOIP1. haha...so people, crewsade is not only stopping here, we're moving on!! LOL. Soon, we reached my home=). Then, Raj and Jem bro always has a mission to do once they get into my room...they will.....haha....transform my optimus prime figurine=) lol. Then after which, we began shoot. It all started at 5.20pm, and ended at about 6.30pm. HAHA, i would say that was fast, because all our previous shots were shot over 2 hours plus. hahaq...and i mean, every. Then after shooting, because of certain details thaqt was newly introduced, It resulted in me changing my character design. haha, my character will now look like an army guard=) more details about it coming soon=)

haha...tomorrow, we'll be shooting at wendy's house=) so, we'll see how she plays host. LOL =D GD NITE

Day 27th, 24th Feb, Sunday

Hey hey=), lol. I've only started to blog today, beecause my group was having day off from thursday till now. haha, thanks Raj bro, for letting us REST =D.

The interim on Wednesday was good. But, we were pretty upset with Wahidah penalising us for being slightly late. I am trying to be offensive, but the thing is, we were not warned at all about being penalised. And it seems so unfair, because after all the hard work we have put in for the interim, we were marked down for being a little late. I thought i could have been flexible for all. But, since Wahidah has decided, what can we say? HAHA. Oh well, just got to accept it. But still, you see ar, yes we may be late, but this is our first major project, first interim in our entire schooling life. haha...we never had something so big, i mean to us its big la. First timers, what do u expect. So Wahidah, i still think you should not penailse us. You can do so on our second interim, caused you've just WARNED us.That is why, i strongly think you should not penailse us for the first interim. Thanks=) hope u dont take it to offence, im just voicing out my thoughts, and some of my frens, your students. sorry =)

But, CREWSADE'S will not be affected by this little setback. Its nothing to us=D, NOTHING. haha. we still blowed everyones balls away from our video, and we'll still continue BLOWING!!, sounds wrong but yea. HAHA...we'll blow everything off you, RAJ and JEM bro, lol... you should know what i mean, lets blow 2D*** away!! lol. Thats our primary objective. haha....Wahidah wanted to see more of how we're going to present our work in the video, and she wants to see how the entire transition will take place. No worries, CREWSADEs' will work on it right away=).

OK, now the timeline. By this week, we will finish our shooting for everyone=) so that i may start animating my character in my interview, and so can Wendy in hers. Then for Wendy and I, will be completing our character animation by next week, latest next thursday. From there, we'll start with the early post productions editing, then we'll be having our own team's screening session. It works something like an interim, but its only within our group. Through this screening sessions, we'll be putting ourselves in the viewers position, so that we'll know how thet would react to our video. IF all seems fine, haha..CREWSADES' will move on to perfecting it, then we shake leg. LOL....so other groups had better beware, we may not seem to be what we are yet, but do not assume what we are, for its not what we are. LOL...damn confusing right? haha...greg bored mah. LOL...alrite, gd nite=D.

Day 23rd, 21st Feb, Wednesday

Today was a very very long and tiring day. Not because of MOIP1. It was all because of irri*****g module called, you should know by now. HAHA…Design History and Culture. I am, or should I say everyone is so freaking frustrated and busy with an extra load of unecessary burden by this module. Its taking up too much time and hindering us with completing our P1’s work. To everyone, I am sure they share they same thought that MOI P1 is definitely our priority compared to that module.

Anyway, I was very angry today with my DHC lecturer. I took the initiative to call and ask if I could just hand in the work and go off for shooting with my group, because we’re really press for time. Then he said I was placing my priorities wrongly. Imean, come on man, if you have something you think is much important, you would placwe that before you right? And at least I took the initiative to call him and ask. Yet he still thinks I am delibrately skipping his class. Anyway, enough of him for the day. Nest up, when we were in class, he told us about another assignment that we had to finish off first. Because why? HE FORGOT TO GIVE US on the first day. WTH!!! Ar!!!!

Anyway, after class, which ended like in 1 hours time. I went on to do my animation in the TV studio with jake’s group, because my group went off to film at jeremy’s place without me. THANKS TO JUSTIN!!(sarcastically). I don’t mean to be rude or offensive, I am just voicing out how I feel. OK, back to P1, I did my animation on andrea’s laptop, because I do not have flash in my laptop. SO IRRITATING. All was going well…UNTIL the programme quited unexpectedl.y, I have not saved my files yet!! OMG!!, First was DHC’s problem, now this.

I had to redo eveything in 3D animation lab, by then I was already like so tired!! So I rushed up one short 3 second animation as a rough one for tomorrow’s presentation. Sorry guys, I had to do such sloopy work, I will redo the whole thing after tomorrow.=) I promise. OK, that is all for today, I am really tired, good night.

Day 22nd, 19th Feb, Tuesday

Today was one long tiring day. I reaced scholl pretty late today at about 1pm, sorry guys!! =D. haha. In class, we showed Wahidah our script which Raj bro spent so much time to edit on it=), and it was now fully approved by Wahidag! Thanks!! Haha, she was being so picky about our scripts, which we thought was really frustrating and irritating. But guess what, lecturer’s always have to sacrifice their first image, now we understand why Wahidah was being so hard on us. Thanks!! =) After showing her the script, I showed my group mates the works I have done for my character for it to talk. They liked it=) woo hoo…great job greg. HAHA…I told you I’ll have more self-praises. LOL, but I still cannot start to animate my character yet=(, because we havent took the shot at my house where my character will be appearing. In my room, interacting with me during the interview. But, till then. I’ll keep drawing new poses for my character to achieve the best result. Meanwhile, I am also practicing on my After Effects which Raj is teaching me. This way, I may be able to assist in the visual effects too. Wendy is doing great on her mushroom, she has started to animate on flash already. GOOD JOB!! Jeremy, haha….you deserve the title of director of photography and cinematographer. Those shots that he chose, and the angles used during the interviews were great. He had the longest duration of pain to endure during the shots, because of the many many NG’s, he has to re-position himself once again, assume that many many positions he had on all the previous NG’s, it was totally not easy at all. Thanks bro!!!

Anyway, after we had showed Wahidah our stuffs, we sat down for a pretty long talk with her, it lasted for about 20mins. LOL, we then had better understanding between each other, on why somethings had to be done this way, and not that. OK…what I meant was that, we spoke to her about how we feel for the 2mins air time per person, we really find it too short a time, and its causing too many limitations on our works. But, she explained to us till we understood, haha. She is a good lecturer, she beliefs that there shouldn’t be a gap between lecturers and students, because eventually we’ll be working together in the same industry, hlping one another, and learning from one another=). Wahidah then talked about what the previous previous MOI seniors did, we were really inspired, because last time, technologies were not as advance as now. Those editing that can be done on our computer now was not available then, many things were done manually, not like all the presets effects we’re enjoying now. I raised to Wahidah a request on if my group wants to start an animation film on our own, how do we go about getting sponsors or getting approval. I know this is very ambitious, but look at how competitive the market is right now, it leaves us no time or reason to slack on. HAHA, she found it a brilliant idea, and allowed us to talk about it over coffee after our P1 is done. Thanks=)

Then, soon it was evening time. Which is filming time for us. HAHA, we were suppose to film Jeremy today. But we overlooked certain details which were not available yet, haha. SO, Jeremy dressed up for nothing. Sorry bro=), but, he should thank us, because we made him look good, haha. So we improvised, and moved on to shoot on shots that were available. Finally, we then decided to film on Wendy and ME AGAIN!!! Lol…this time, the module is 2D art fund. Today had lesser NG’s than yesterday. Thank god!! Haha…but we were really really irritated by the students around us. We shouted”silence on set, filming in progress” they didn’t bother. We were sure they heard us and knew we were refering to them, because when we “sshhhh” them, they “ssshhhh” back. They delibrately shouted and made lots of noise to irritated us and show their attitude. But, come on man, they would not want such things to happen to them when they’re filming too right? Well….all we can do is to endure. At certain times, Raj, Jem and I got really angry and shouted. But to no avail, so we just stopped shouting and just endured. Painfully…we finished our shots which lasted for 2hours plus. Wendy’s father had already come to pick her up, but we hqad to let her father wait for another 30mins, because we had to finish the shot. Thanks wendy and thanks uncle!! Haha, of cause, we quickly filmed wendy’s part first so that we could let her off early. After we were done, we let her off, but just when we thought we were done, we remembered there was still another ending shot that needed wendy. HAHA, so we quickly called her back, she was already at her father’s car. Awww…..haha. Thanks wendy!! But, we only took 15mins, haha. Then all was well and done. So we packed up for the day.

But not everything was over yet, we still had to stay in school to do our irri*****g module, Design History and Culture, which we think is really a redundant module. I shall not go into details about that, might sound offensive, but I mean none=) good night people, just for your info, Raj, Jem and I are still in school now, doing DHC!!!