Powerpoint Slides

Just here to upload the slides (in jpegs) from my recent presentation:

What went down yesterday.

English is not my first language, and I'm a terrible public speaker. Having that said, imagine how much worse of a public speaker I am if I'm reluctant? I've always dread the idea of showing anything I'm working on when it's not done. So I've decided to bring in mistakes and out takes, (which was my bad for not telling anyone prior to that). I was nervous of course, being reluctant and all. So when bombarded, I cant even think. And I thought I did a terrible job defending my work. To make it up to Kiamu!!!, (a project closest to my heart among any other) I'll post up my arguments here, not being able to say anything back the other day (which was totally embarrassing...). First off, if anyone was paying attention in my previous presentations, they'd know I was planning to take the documentary-like approach to the film from the beginning. The first line in my proposal actually does say the word "docudrama". And if one reads the script that I've handed in, it should make things even clearer. So when they say that the film is "going another direction", that is just simply not true. As it's going exactly where I intend it to. Maybe it's not going the direction that they have been persuading me to take, that's what upsets them. But I personally think that film school is the only time I'll be able to express myself the way I like most. As this would be almost impossible once I step foot in the industry. Although I was planning to use a boom, the audio levels of the diegetic environment were going to be brought down in the end anyways, giving way to the much substantial voice-overs. Switching mics was a decision made in complete awareness of this. The logo on the characters' shirts didn't mean anything, but the colors do. So to no mislead anyone into believing that I'm going to go with their suggestions again: 1. No, i would most probably not attempt to deteriorate the audio to the cellphone-like audio quality level. 2. No, i would most probably not attempt to deteriorate the video quality as well. 3. Again, I'm going DOCUDRAMA on this!

Kiarite!! Kiarite!! Kiamu!!!

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.