Casting

We held casting sessions for two days; 25th & 26th of December. We initially planned to have only one casting session, but the turn out was crazy! We had about 80 students & actors that signed up for auditions. There were so many of them that I was afraid I'm not gonna be able to audition them all in time. We barely managed in the end.

I met so many different characters, recorded them too! Some were downright hilarious, some were talented but had low confidence level, some were slapstick and over the top. Even the kid who did the Malaysian voice-over of Squidward came to audition! I wish I could post the auditions up here but I am currently fumbling with time that I haven't got the time to capture, edit and upload the footages yet.

We've got the final cast line-up now, here are some of their mugshots:

Che Ku Ashraf as ADHI

Ewan as Johan (Joe)

Joe Haziq as SENIOR 1

Akashah Basharudin as SENIOR2

Zuheir Zulkiefly as SENIOR3

They are now going through rehearsals and getting ready for the 4th January shoot.

Meeting with Sponsors

We had a three hour meeting with the sponsor today. I would say it went pretty well. Just got an email attached with the minutes from Fatin. Have a read, it says every single thing that went down.

(You might wanna enlarge them by clicking on them first)

I think I've got a pretty damn good Production Manager working for me!

Location Pictures are Here, But...

It's not exactly what I wanted. These random shots were recently send in to me from my Production Manager (PM), Miss Fatin Humaizah. It was my own fault really, I told her to take a few snapshots of the location she's currently scouting and trying to get approval from, but I didn't tell her that I wanted extra shots of the dorms, as it would be the primary shooting location.

So she ended up having only one shot of the dorms:


While the other shots were exterior shots of the school's infrastructure:

And some classroom pictures:


I have to admit, that is one decent looking school.

Kiamu!!! - Step Outline

Scene 1
Introduction of Adhi, who is undergoing ‘disciplinary’ actions by his seniors. The narrator (Adhi in the future) introduces himself. He is forced to do push ups, panting.

Scene 2
An establishment shot of a dark dorm room, while the seniors continues to abuse him. The narrator then explains that it is a boarding school.

Scene 3
A back-story of the boarding school. It’s history, it’s reputation, how prestigious and elite it is.

Scene 4
Back to Adhi, now standing in a weird manner, his knees are bent 90 degrees, and his hands are stretched straight forward.

Scene 5
An animated short montage of him explaining the pose he’s striking, called the Njet-Steng - also explaining the pain it can inflict.

Scene 6
A flashback on what caused him to deserve this disciplinary action – He forgot to switch off the lights.

Scene 7
One of the seniors switches the lights on, and asks Adhi to blow it off like a candle as they hit him hard when he starts hesitating. The narrator explains why he chooses not to report what is being done to him.

Scene 8
Introduction of Joe, a fellow junior that once faced the same fate as Adhi’s. Unlike Adhi, Joe reported everything that was done to him the day after. Which caused the seniors that abused him to get expelled.

Scene 9
Having fellow friends expelled, the seniors weren’t happy and tried to brain wash Joe into dropping out of school. They use various methods, which mainly involves forcing everyone to alienate him. And eventually Joe dropped out.

Scene 10
The narrator explains that being the prestigious institution it is, no one wants to leave the school without graduating.

Scene 11
Adhi being beaten very badly, his expression clearly demonstrates how much pain he’s going through but the narrator tries to convince the audience that it didn’t really hurt. Except one, that caused him a broken rib.

Scene 12
Despite that, the narrator tries to convince the audience that he was lucky and points out real cases (shown by actual newspaper cuttings) of people getting paralyzed or even die from seniority abuse.

Scene 13
The Seniors leaves the room, a friend escorts Adhi to the warden room, with hopes to be brought to the hospital.

Scene 14
They meet the warden, the warden asked Adhi what happened to him. He says that he fell down the stairs.

Scene 15
In the warden’s car to the hospital, with Adhi sitting at the back seat, the narrator says that if he would to do high school all over again, he wouldn’t change a thing as it made him who he is today. But still prefer to have his ribs intact.

Sponsor

TiCP never disclose what the initials means. All we know is that they are an organization recently founded by a group of teachers, parents and other individuals who unite and fight for boarding school students well fare.

They wanted to further publicize their newly founded organization and suggested me to make a film under their organization's name and sponsoring.

We discussed earlier on what should the theme of our first of many films (if I turn out to be good enough, that is) should be, and when I suggested Kiamu!!! they immediately agreed.

I'm scheduled to meet representatives of TiCP for pitching and discussions on the 22nd of December.

Actual Cases

This is a list of actual cases recorded by the media throughout 2002-2004 relating the subject matter

29 March 2002: A private school student in Johor Bharu, Gan Bo Teek,15 was badly injured after being beaten by 10 other students for refusing to get involved in a gang crime.

25 July 2002: A form 1 student in NIlai was taken into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Seremban Hospital after being beaten by his senior.

23 May 2003: A form two student was injured in the waist and leg after being beaten by 5 seniors in front of the school mosque.

14 August 2003: A form four student at, Sekolah Menengah Teknik Batu Pahat, Mohd Hafizi Jamhari lost a kidney after being beaten by a group of fifth formers at the school.

29 August 2003: 20 students of Sekolah Tunku Abdul Rahman, Ipoh, Perak was expelled for trying to revive a gangster culture called “High council” at the boarding school.

21 September 2003: A male matriculation student at Masjid Tanah, Alor gajah, Malacca was badly beaten by 12 other students for exposing the secrets of their “Peeping Tom” activities on the female hostel.

23 October 2003: A form four school student at Jalan Jelutong, Pulau Pinang was badly disfigured after 10 seniors beat him up.

31 October 2003: A student, Ahmad Firdaus Zakaria,15 died after being in a coma for three days after being hit in the head by a blunt object at the Port Dickson Hospital.

9 November 2003: Five student at Kolej Yayasan Melaka (KYM), residing at the Pantai Feringgi Hostel, Malacca was badly injured after 8 other students beat them up for asking them to stop playing noisy fireworks.

18 November 2003: A student was badly injured after being beaten by 20 other students in a fight straight after the last SPM paper at Kuala Terengganu.

28 March 2004: A student, Muhammad Farid Ibrahim of Sekolah Menengah Agama Dato’ Klana Petra Maamor in Negeri Sembilan died after being beaten by a group of seniors for refusing to lend them his electronic boiler.

27 July 2004: A student at Seri Rusa, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, broke two of his right ribs, damaging his lungs after being beaten by 30 other students.


And these were the ones that actually caught the media attention. Imagine the actual number of injuries and deaths that were kept silent?

Updated Proposal

Name: Anwari Ashraf
Date: 6 October 2009

1. Proposal
A docudrama on seniority abuse in Malaysian elite boarding schools, in which has recorded numerous cases of severe injuries, disability and even a few deaths.
A student undergoes a ‘disciplinary’ session from his seniors. While being physically abused, he narrates a documentary on the nationwide problem of seniority abuse among boarding school students
2. Initial Plan
Have the finished product to have both drama and documentary feel, with a combination of enacted scenes, found footage and newspaper cuttings.

Objectives; A film that could open the eyes of the Malaysian public about a truth that has been kept secret, and as an informational material for new enrolling boarding school students; helping them get ready for such environment

Resource requirements; A linear part drama/part documentary single screen short film. Needs found footage, actual case studies, newspaper cutting to help the narration.
Schedule; Needs to be shot in Malaysia, so any filming must be finished during the Christmas break.

3. Initial Bibliography
The Edukators (2004)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2004)
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2004/03/joy-of-public-school.html
http://www.limkitsiang.com/archive/2004/apr04/lks2949.htm

4. Dissemination

A fast paced documentary accompanied by witty narration.

The Idea

Kiamu

A docudrama on seniority abuse in Malaysian elite boarding schools, in which has recorded numerous cases of severe injuries, disability and even a few deaths. An insight to the darker culture of their “excellence” and “discipline” and how the institutions maintains that side of them a secret.

The film opens up with the main character, Adhi in a dark dorm room surrounded by three seniors. He is standing weirdly; knees bent 90 degrees and hands stretched forward. Future Adhi narrates the events of the film. The narrator begins by giving answers to the assumed questions the viewers has in mind.

Who? – Himself, a while ago. Where? – A dorm room, Alam Shah School for the boys, probably the best boys-only boarding school in Malaysia. He then begins to give a little back-story about the institution, from it’s history to it’s excelling overall academic achievements. What? – What is that hideous pose he’s striking ? The Njet-steng, a form of punishment that is practiced there, he then admits he has no idea how to spell it even after all his years there. How? – How did he get himself into this situation? – He was the last to leave dorm and he forgot to shut the lights, and what his going through is a form of disciplinary action. Why? - Why didn’t he report this? – He gives an example of another student who reported seniority abuse to the principal. The seniors that abuse him got expelled from the school. Thus their unhappy batch-mates did everything in their power to brain wash him into dropping out. They turn the whole school against him, making him feel alienated, they ransack his locker everyday, and many other things that eventually led him into dropping out of school. He later explains that no one wants to leave the school without graduating. Being an elite school, a graduation certificate from the institution can guarantee them a lot of things – Scholarships, Guaranteed places in local Universities, Guaranteed SAT results and such.

He then continues and mentioned that most of the blows he got didn’t really hurt as much. Except one, that caused him a broken rib. Even so, he still thinks he was lucky, and points out that a few true cases (presented through actual newspaper cutting) of people that have gone through his similar situation, only with much worse consequences – Permanent immobility, Comas, and a few that even resulted to the death of the abused.

A friend escorts Adhi to the warden’s room. When the warden asked him what happened to him. He said that he fell down the stairs. The narrator then stops the film for a while and tells the audience that the warden wasn’t necessarily stupid either, but since he has chose to shut up about it. There is nothing the warden can do.

He then says that if he had to go through high school all over again, he wouldn’t change a damn thing, because it made him who he is today. But still, prefer to have his ribs intact.

Fragility

This was a film that I did for my 2nd year in FVIA. It got a 4, it was also the piece I've submitted for the degree show. So yeah, enjoy?..



Send me feedbacks on what you think!

Back in London

So I finally flew back into London, and today was my first MDA3909 class. So when the dudes in class were talking about a blog for class, I had absolutely no idea what it was about. It's bad enough I wasn't in for class last week, I just HAD to misread the schedule and turn up into class at 2:30. Half an hour late.

Well that wont be happening again tomorrow, hopefully.