Final post / day 34

FINAL POST OF BLOG. Much or less finished. Currently now at 12.25pm handing up at 3pm we are left with our cd cover and we are pretty much finished. That's about it. Have a nice day. MOIP was fun. Kind of, oh well. Life is life. Tomorrow is presentation day. Hope everything goes well. Heh. Oh well. Thank you for looking at the posts.

Ok, now it's 2:36pm. We are still rendering, over the past hour or so. Something is probably wrong with it and now we are left to wait and stare at the bar that is growing agonizing slow. Think we encoded something wrong. Sound effects not in yet because we are exporting from Adobe After Effects. So, yea. We are pretty much in panic mode but we cannot do anything about it. Team almost quarreled because of it. Still, we know each other. Quarreling is not something we do and should adhere to. Pent up emotions just released in an instant. But, hey. It's better to end the project in harmony than in a rift. Never know who you got to work with next time in the future.

4:24pm. Flim is done encoding. Got to start on sound effects soon. Late submission already. Had some problems with animation too. The clip's animation disappeared. Will encode the original again in a different format. Let's hope it works and able to hand in before 6pm.

6pm. DONE. Handed in to General Office! Late, we are late, at least our last part for sound effects and some stuff are done with pride and not anyhow inserted. Since we are late, at least we hand in the best effort we can put in. Always wonder why we cannot do that from the start. We learnt our lesson this time round. Seriously. There is no excuse.

At least we are done. MOIP is finished. Team got together again. Earlier emotions of frustration not in sight. That's how it should be right? Learn the lesson but not damage the relationships.

I would count ourself as pretty lucky. Certainly from news I heard from other groups and stuff. Loads of things. Negative mostly. This project is supposed to promote teamwork and not talking behind their backs? Oh well. Human nature is just what it is. Wait till they work and get slammed by their bosses and would start blaming their teammates. What disgrace and lack of courtesy. Learn to step back when two leaders are in a group. One has to lead the other to take a more humble approach to say the least. At least that was what our group has in.

We all just have one thing in common in our group. TME MANAGEMENT IS POOR. We learnt that the hard way. But no hard feelings to each other. We all are to blame and we all know it well.
Let us mature and grow from this experience good or bad to take through to our future projects.

Still, I cannot get over how some team treat their teammates. At least, act professionally. Enough.

It is to the end of a great semester, I thank everyone who has went along with us and suffered and joyed with us. I thank all the lecturers for their great insight and advice with sometimes choice words to wake us up.

But most of all, Thank you, my team mates for not giving each other a whole lot of hard time doing the work we are given and not complaining about a LOT of things. But encouraging me and helping me learn. Thanks for cooperating every single time to my tardiness and sometimes bad time management, Vice Versa (:
May I hope to work with you guys again if a chance arises. It was great working with you guys although we have bad days. Cheers.

Nevertheless. Thank you, the readers for reading the posts that we posted together. We hope you learnt something throughout our filming process and blog that we posted. We hope you take away from here something that is meaningful for you in the future. Again, thank you for reading our posts.

We barraged a huge number of posts in a few hours. We done it (the posts), but we did not post. We had bad time management. No more excuses. So, I apologize for it. I take blame.

We may not get fantastic grades for our final video, but the most important thing is not about the grades is it. It's about what we learn from the process.

Our lecturer Amanda, you have been great. We thank you for being teacher in charge of our MOIP and able to tolerate people like me. Although your words can be piercing at times, I deserved it.

Finally, to round it off, everybody that is involved in the process of our film or in others, we thank you for giving your time away to help us do our projects and try to get a better grade.

Have a nice holiday to enjoy, and most importantly, have a nice day every single day (:

FINAL QUOTE OF THE SEMESTER!

“Jealousy... is a mental cancer.”
B. C. Forbes

Yours Sincerely,

B. C.

Day 33

Pretty much finished. Interview is done. Film is now much or less completed. Final editing will commence. So I will keep you guys posted as I pretty much finished my roles.

MOIP is something that really gave me experience in filming and the hardship involved. Helping much on animation for Kenny. He is pretty much struggling to get hold on Maya platform. So, I will spend my time helping him as much as I can and not get involved in the animation parts.

Hao Wei, after some days with Adobe After Effects, created a cool nice opening for our project group name. Fancy opening to look out for!

Sound effects to rush in the clip. And pretty much we are FINISHED! Let's hope we make it in time nice and dandy.

Quote.

“The soul should always stand ajar. Ready to welcome the ecstatic experience."
Emily Dickinson

Day 32

Today was interview day. For our director's cut after our follow your heart part, we would be having a director's cut after that. And much or less everything fallen through.
Much to our own fault by not preparing our scripts and so had to come up with last minute which failed terribly and that we wasted the day away. Oh well we had to do the script at home and hopefully everything will go well the next time.

What's left is now animation and interviewing that we believe for animation it would take quite a while but for interview it would be kind of fast. Let's hope no more delays will be arising from here onwards to delay our scheldule.

Hope to finish this ON TIME. Hope.
Quote of the day.

“Fate, is an excuse for why we end up where we do! Our 'Actions' predetermine our Destiny, our 'Reactions' seal that fate!”
Carl Stoynoff

Day 31

I am finished with the character model. With findings on the internet some free template that is available only for the heart body. Still, I had to add on the limbs of the heart as well as skin etc.

Making the joint tools and IK handle tools that I had learnt during Animation Fundamentals. Still, just touching through the whole of Maya, my skills to say the fact is low. And able to create only simple models and stuff, so, do not expect too much.

I would not be doing the animation but will be helping kenny do if he needs help. That is basically it. Hao Wei was just in school learning how to do Adobe After Effects after he downloaded the free trial off the net. That's about it.

“He who has faith has... an inward reservoir of courage, hope, confidence, calmness, and assuring trust that all will come out well - even though to the world it may appear to come out most badly.”
B. C. Forbes

Day 30

Hello. We got the nod from Alan! So, we can proceed to have consultation with him for Maya. Alright so at first he told us that we could get a model heart for free if we actually look hard enough.

So, that was what we did and proceeded to do so. But, in accordance to him, it was pretty hard to find a heart that is actually free. So, we ended giving up our search and concentrated mostly on the editing part of the video that is available for us. And that we actually are not finding it yet. Probably do it at home since it will not clog up the space in the room that other people needs.
So yea, we just did more editing and planning for the following days to come.

There,

“If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut.”
Albert Einstein

Day 29

Today was rather slack. RATHER. Went on to edit the video and evaluate what we want and which part we are using cutting down from 55 mins of tape to about 10 minutes 5 minutes of what we want to.

Slowly, Hao Wei was cutting the video and I was helping him at the HereAfter.

Kenny had guitar lessons so he went off first.

Hao wei and I was there editing the clip and since I had pretty much rounded everything up. So i went on to do the character modeling in Maya making the skeleton based on kenny's drawings. Pretty hard to make an actual heart out so, I sent an email to Alan asking for consultation.

Pretty much done for the day.
Here it is, as expected.

“Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.”
Mahatma Gandhi

Day 28

DEATH DATE. WE WERE SUMMONED BY AMANDA AND WE ALMOST DIED CAUSE WE PRACTICALLY GOT NOTHING TO SHOW.

Ok, off with the caps. As you can see previously, we only extracted our video this morning. Best of all, we had video fundamentals in the morning too!! So, we are totally screwed with our interim 2! It's not something to be proud off. But it is just how the filming delays caused us to be.

Not that we are lazy or something. It's that we really could not help with how things went. Enough whining. I will simple summarise what happened at Interim 2 without fail.

We had nothing to show, just some in the process pictures. That in turn lead to us being unable to be graded and thankfully Amanda said that she would grade us the next day. So, I guess it is kind of fortunate for us? Oh well, that is about it. Extracted the video, and it seems alright. So, hope that everything works out fine.

Cheers to the death that we face and the new that we hope to shine in.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Mahatma Gandhi

Day 27

Ok, so today we finally finished filming what we wanted. God, we wasted 55/63 minutes of film. What a whole lot. Oh, well at least we are done and dusted with coming to the school. Everything of course did not go according to plan and we had to change several objects, placements to the storyboard because the environment is set.

Breathe a sigh of relief on everybody's shoulders that we got it done and we had some other stuffs too! If we needed to use to be put up. Out of the context contents.

Went and extract from hereafter but was not informed the extracting place was changed. And in the end ended up not extracting anything because we did not know to go to MAC lab to extract and wasted the time. Oh well, at least it's done filming. Interim 2 will be a mad rush in the morning. Probably would not make it but, we were set back by nearly 5 days!!
Breathe the quote of the day of relief!

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.”
Albert Einstein

Day 26

Rushed, tried, did everything possible. Filmed in the morning, only to be denied by the school staff security the school will close at 2pm. Yes, it was a mad rush to get things done. And unfortunately we failed the task. Some of our casts did not come due to certain reasons and some shots could not be taken. However, we still are able to get some though. Need to return again soon to complete.

We have cast's that play GO Chess! I'm interested in it too. Oh well, our casts are secondary school guys all under Hao Wei's tutoring of GO Chess club. Still, what a wasteful day.

Hmm.. Oh well. I do not blame them.
As usual.

“The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in health or we suffer in soul or we get fat. ”
Albert Einstein

Day 25

Finally, we actually did some filming. Today was rather a fruitful day. All the cast turned up and we are able to proceed filming starting from 2pm onwards. Ok. So, rather much we finished half the filming process. Thank god, oh well on the bad side, we are about five days late, so we pretty much have to burn our weekends to catch and and plenty much more to do.

Oh, well. That is pretty much it for the day. Still some more to go. Our new actor, by the way is Named Terry. Not a tall guy but a patience and determined one to speak the least.

So, finally. We are able to get some start in our work. It's kind of nice. Asked kenny to take some shots of us doing the shots to show behind the scene stuff if needed.
Quote of the day below.

“Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.”
Albert Einstein

Day 24

RIGHT, this is becoming a trend not to be. Yes, from the first few words, you probably can judge what happened again. Our film got delayed again because the teacher said that she would find a person from the drama club that would help us film.

So, because he is our main actor to be, we could not start filming because our entire film depended on him mostly. And Hao Wei, our director agreed to it, so we had to wait for him to come tomorrow so we can start filming. Oh well, all for a better cause I guess. Just roughly briefed through the rest of the cast that was there and what was expected while I had the first chance to go to the scene to scout what is wanted from the director and the storyboard how I am going to approach the shooting.

We cannot start animation without any film -_-. So yeah, everything is pegged back because of this.

“No man is rich enough to buy back his past"
Oscar Wilde

Day 23

On to a new day, off to the same old start. Yes, we did not get to film today AGAIN. But, whatever.

Getting sick of the growing trend. Ok, today's problem was basically that the teacher in charge was in a meeting and the meeting lasted throughout the day.

So, ya, we are unable to contact the teacher in charge and we waited from about 2pm through to 6pm when the school was closing and they were not out yet so we had to go home. We had classes in the morning so only able to make it later at 2pm earliest. And hence goes another filming day to the drain. END.

“Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality.”
Abraham Lincoln

Day 22

It's afternoon when we reached at the school for the shoot but, yes, another thing cropped up. We finally got the permission to shoot at the school from the principal. So, Hao Wei asked one of his previous teachers to leave a message that we were to use the room.

But, however the clerk that we met and asked first to open the room for us denied that, and that we were to ask the teacher to tell her a second time. This, unfortunately led to us finding the teacher and after we had confirmation, the clerk was not to be found and may have went home. So, our day just ended like this. With no work done. Reviewed kenny's character designs movement-wise and such.

“I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

Day 21

Today was SUPPOSED to be the first day of filming. And, so we went ahead to Hao Wei's secondary school at Hougang. One long hour trip there. To Montfrot Secondary School. Ok, so, we were halfway there and thought to get the shooting moving. But, Hao Wei called us halfway and told us we needed to get a letter from Temasek Polytechnic to validate sort of like a consent form for attending a trip. And so, we had to halfway return to Temasek Polytechnic to get the consent form from Wahida.

So, pretty much our day ended when we passed the letter to the the principal and he said it will take two days to confirm but we managed to plead to him that he will confirm a maximum of 1 day validation period because we had no time left.

“This leads to the further reflection, that no other human occupation opens so wide a field for the profitable and agreeable combination of labor with cultivated thought, as agriculture. I know of nothing so pleasant to the mind, as the discovery of anything which is at once new and valuable -- nothing which so lightens and sweetens toil, as the hopeful pursuit of such discovery. And how vast, and how varied a field is agriculture, for such discovery. The mind, already trained to thought, in the country school, or higher school, cannot fail to find there an exhaustless source of profitable enjoyment.”

Abraham Lincoln

Day 20

Discussion takes place today on how we are going to approach the film. First and foremost, we decided that a new storyboard needed to be made to make it even clearer. So, we had Hao Wei do the storyboard again, with the new elements of the location we are going to shoot at which he suggested is his school.

So, he did up the storyboarding again and he looked at Kenny's character designs that he did over the weekend and is not that impressed, because the coloring and the shadings was not clear from what Kenny did and so he had to go back to do character designing again. So, I was in charge of borrowing the camera from the design equipment store for tomorrow's shoot. That is about the round-up of today's work.

“The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.”

Abraham Lincoln

Day 19

Today, we had a day off, I and Kenny had to go through H&C so, ya, it came at a handy time for us to finish our final stuff. Just had some more extra time to put into for MOIP1 and fortify our ideas. Hao Wei had no other lessons. -_- so, ya it pretty much sucked seeing him coasting through this block.
But next one, we are all In the same boat of Video Fundamentals and we will all be stuck inside it. Oh well, played a little with Maya as I had time. Not much to talk about today. Still scratching the surface of Maya usage!

“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost. “
Dalai Lama

Day 18

We Had interim 1 today. Pretty much sucks. We were late because we did not get our stuffs printed in time and that deducted our marks. -_-

Overall, idea wise, seems like most of the people agree that our first idea of the follow your heart works. And is rather liked. The rest was not so well received though, in accordance to the contents involved. So, ya we were late, our presentation half-assed. But, overall we still came up something half-decent. So, that was a huge plus for us.

Although we bickered some because of whose fault so and so, we got over that since that is reality for us and we can't change it.
Oh,well. After that we went ahead to Amanda for consultation right after the interim and asked her how can we improve it since she told us that there are several factors to look out for when we plan to do the video we wanted to do like, will we lose track of the brief and the actual objective we are chasing for? How can we integrate it to make a video that actually works since making a wholesome of advertisements would be time costly and that we wont embark it but how can we fufill the 7 minutes of video then.

That, falls on how we can probably insert some sort of a director's cut or something that could use up the time as she told us.

I'd came across this quote and surprisingly, I loved it. Speaks words for me. Oh well, here it is.
“I'd rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I'm not.”
Kurt Cobain

Day 17

Ok, Hao Wei started doing the storyboard, a more in-depth one. So, we would not have troubles fitting the scenes in the middle of so many cuts. So, that was his work of the day. I was the Camera man, so, I was with him while he was doing the storyboarding at school talking about what shots to use and of such. Had quite a lengthy discussion there, all placement wise lighting atmosphere, right about there. But, not being there, I was unable to give much on my point of it, since we had not went to the place before, (except Hao Wei) but what he said was rather alright so, I believed that there is a fair space to work on.

Kenny on the other hand, did character designing and coloring of the animation Hao Wei wanted, ( He is the director by the way. ) and he commented wanted more details and of motion walking jumping kind, so, Kenny had to redraw more. Our character is basically a Heart with limbs moving. That is about it for the day. Interim 1 is just around the corner. Hope we don’t get bombed.

“Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility.”

Pablo Picasso

Day 16

Its day one of productions. We have not started filming yet. We decided today to just discuss what we have and what we planned to do for the fiming days to come, since we did not want to waste a whole lot of time filming but in the end not doing anything.

So, considering the factors given to us by Amanda earlier before, we started looking on how we are able to plan properly and film distributing our strong points on workloads that we are most able to do hence minimising time used to do the work and maximising efficiency.

So, we started discussing and rather so with the location we are to film in the process, equipment needed and of the such. We roughly got what we intended to have for the film.

School location which will be Hao Wei’s Secondary school, will be left to him to get

Equipment which will be me, Boon Chong

And finally Animation which will be Kenny.
That’s roughly what we had in mind and hope everything goes well.

Your quote of the day.

“Art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon. When we love a woman we don’t start measuring her limbs.”
Pablo Picasso

Day 15

Consultation, Consultation.

Today is friday. And, we went ahead to consult Amanda originally at 12pm but we sent it late and our appointment was push from what we wanted at 12pm to the available time slot at 3pm.
Regardless, we did not know until we reached school at 12pm and we checked our mail and found out it got pushed till 3pm. So, whatever. Life sucks. Ok so we had 3 hours of free time in the mac lab, we went there to meet up. And yep, since we got such a huge time available on our hands, we would try and work out our video idea and plan to see how it goes.

First was an initial idea of follow your heart video where the actor actually follows his heart. Including animation involved as the heart. Cannot possibly expect us to use a real one.

Second was a person screaming and the camera zooms out to show he is shooting an advertisement.

Third was a guy that holds his fart in and loses his sense of self and farts because he is caught away in the moment of MOI
Last is basically how we will show a child that is in a library or some sort to actually take a design or MOI book from the top shelf by using other books as leverage.

During the consultation, Amanda pointed out some factors for us. Although she liked the first one, maybe the last one too? The other so was not as appealing. Also she warned us that making an advertisement would burn a lot of time and advised us that making one or two will be tough and hard enough. She also questioned about how we are going to integrate the lives and experience or modules we were taught in MOI to be inside the film as well.

So, Hao wei and I was there discussing. Are we going to maybe input some sort of clip after the advertisement? Or of the such. Consultation ended with Amanda with these few very important issues in mind and after that, we discussed much about it to prepare for our interim One too. Pretty much about it today.

QUOTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

“The Death's Field is the mirror which allows us the knowledge of the world we living in.”Sorin Cerin