Group BLEAH Project Blog ``

Friday, February 27, 2009 { 11:39 PM }

Another day another discussion. And each time we do it, argh its sooo tiring. well, mentally.

Yes. This is how we all should look like...despite all the boring paperwork. Must...survive...only...one...month....NO TIME TO WASTE! I hate doing things last minute. Hate, despise, intolerable...yes, powerful words. Like what i always say, suffer first enjoy later.

Today, we started on the powerpoint. Checked on the proposal and storyboard and did our Gannt chart...which tells us that we already need to start filming next week.

So, tomorrow we're going to go bugis to discuss somemore about how we're going to film and where we're going to go first. Hopefully, the powerpoint would be near completion by tomorrow.

To bugis!

-post by Hana-

{ 12:14 AM }

Heya mates.

There isn't much to blog about today since our group didn't meet up for a discussion. We will be doing so tomorrow and probably again in the next day or so to finish up everything for our Interim One. I hope it all goes well. I'm starting to have panic attacks again and no chocolate or tea (my happy foods) can cure it.

I'm still working on the storyboards (it's so late hoooo shites, but we've done the full layout of the whole story on stickmen-storyboards... I just need to draw it properly on the proper storyboard template) and I feel like breaking my fingers or shooting myself up with drugs just to make myself work. [Don't worry people, I'm not a junkie nor a masochist, despite how unconvincing that may sound, but I'm just saying.] I enjoy drawing, I really do, but I don't like to draw... boring things... So right now I'm trying my best to finish these last few pages up and I'd most likely have to pen it if I need to scan it up so that they can be pasted onto the presentation.

Speaking of which, we are going to complete, hopefully and minus the storyboards, by tomorrow. I think our group have pretty much completed the needed stuff for Interim One (except for the goddarned storyboards, yes I know).

After I do complete it, I seriously have to drag/kick/push/force/threaten/bribe my lazy butt to the 2DAnimation room and start on the animation. Seriously. We. Have. No. Time. Or it's just me being time-anxious again, but it's never too bad to be cautious. I hope I can get some way to have Adobe Flash at home so that I can work on the animation at home too... Aaaaahhhh....!

Kaz is not a happy camper. I think I'll go make myself some tea to calm myself down...

Labels: Kaz

Thursday, February 26, 2009 { 5:18 PM }

yesterday my internet was not working again. and so i'd have to blog today.

yesterday we discussed further on our storyboard, the final last arc of out storyboard; and we finished the discussions on what each of us are supposed to do individually. so i'd have to do the proposal, kaz will continue on the storyboard, hana will do the mood board. we'll do the powerpoint together, i supposed.

overall yesterday's discussion was rather short, and we just decide on how the story is going to end. most probably we'd all finish on saturday and will edit it together.

jocelyn was tad late in posting this. sorry I think im always posting short entries anyway

Wednesday, February 25, 2009 { 2:00 AM }

Oh god, my eyes my eyes. I yawned so hard that I have a cramp in my neck.

Didn't do much today. We just continued from where we left off yesterday, which is the storyboard. So, Kaz started drawing the storyboard, we added a few things here and there. Sorry to Kaz cause she had to redraw some of the panels. haha.

The proposal is partially complete, but I haven't started on the moodboard yet. Still stuck with Hist n cult. Final presentation is tomorrow, so after that I'm freeee to start on the moodboard. Does the moodboard have to be in hard copy? Anyone knows please do tell.
Thx and wow, this is such a short post.

-post by Hana- do NOT call me Siti

Tuesday, February 24, 2009 { 12:33 AM }

Right, finally we started on some work.

Basically all we did today was discuss, write, and doodle. We're actually working on our storyboards, yay! Ah, but just the draft. That would be because of me; I'm a really careful, almost paranoid person who'd do drafts first before doing the real thing... So yeah, I'm gonna draft out everything first before I really draw it properly. Some may call it wasting time, but I just like to play safe.

Anyways, that means I'm in charge of storyboards, Hana's on moodboards, and Jocelyn on the proposal.

So today we've done Part One of our story on our storyboards (still draft though...), and a summarised draft (yet again) of our proposal. We have yet to come up with the script and the schedule chart... Oh boy...

While we were discussing on the video storyboard, we were constantly reminded and limited because of the time constraint. Especially me, the ever-time-anxious one. It drove me nuts worrying about the time limit, so I decided, or all of us, rather just figured we'd cut some scenes from the storyboards out if we find that we don't have enough time. Hopefully we don't have to do that.

Well, we're still developing out story, as we go on in the storyboards, trying to confirm and seriously solidify how exactly we are going to have the video look like. Story is done, just the shots, effects, humor scenes, the style of camera play, etc...

So uh, I feel like sharing a music video, if you don't mind. This music video is a mix of animated effects and live-action video, though there's no interaction between them. But what I like most of the music video is the shaky camera effect... Well just see how it looks like :D

By the way, it's a Japanese heavy rock song, with some low screaming... Just a 'warning' for those who can't take this type of music. It's called 'Adore' by Lynch.

- Kaz

Labels: Kaz

Saturday, February 21, 2009 { 1:24 AM }

we basically did nothing but discuss today.

after yesterday's consultation, we decide to meet today to discuss more on the storyline to make it stronger. so today we discussed and finalized most of things we talked about yesterday. other more detailed stuffs like the style and how to film the video, we discussed quite a lot on that today. we also tryout some simple animation to decide which is the style we prefer. we also brainstormed a little on the storyboard, like the things the characters were supposed to do and such. we watched some examples on youtube like stop motions that people had done.

we are meeting on monday to continue discussion and also continuing out pre-production, storyboarding included.

jocelyn wrote a short post -.-

Thursday, February 19, 2009 { 8:25 PM }

Lamenism is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement and confusion. Lamenism occurs when an alternative (or surprising) shift in perception or answer is given that still shows relevance and can explain a situation. When it comes to explaining something that is lame rather then telling it, it looses it's purpose therefore no longer considered lame. Lamenism is created by elise ng huiyu and belongs to elise ng huiyu.

Just something I want to get off my flat chest.

Yes, today we went to consult with Amanda to see if our idea works...oh the pain. Turns out we need to make a few changes to the beginning and ending animation of the video which I'm not going to provide any information on it further.

We also learnt something very important from Amanda, which I find is quite true. A video or animation, no matter how good the graphics, the special effects etc...if the content or story is not good, the entire vid/animation is then considered a failure.

People wouldn't want to watch something like that. I know cause I wouldn't. I want to say some examples of bad movies here but I don't think I can do that...but what the heck.

This is an example of a bad movie...in my opinion, I don't know if you guys agree with me. Yes, the special effects are nice and everything. but the storytelling is really poor and the plot is corny, with very bad supporting actors.

Yes, tomorrow we're going to discuss some more to make the idea better and improve abit on the story.

-post by Hana-

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 { 9:56 PM }

Hey hey looks like it's my turn to blog. I would have loved to blogged yesterday, in fact, I don't mind blogging everyday, if I could, about Group Bleah's progress. But then, it wouldn't be a nice idea, because the posts would probably be full of rambling.

Anyway.

My individual presentation yesterday didn't turn out so good. I have stage fright, so do pardon me. Being quite unsure about my own ideas are most likely the factor of my stuttery and panic. I had to admit, just like Alvin had commented, my ideas were very similar. One's going into the world of MOI, while the other's popped out of an alternate world, but still gets led into MOI.

How very creative of me.

Which is why having teammates help tremendously. Having Hana's and Jocelyn's idea put together in the same pile of ideas under the same group helps a lot. Integrating the ideas would definitely come up with something original.

Just like rojak:

Now doesn't that make you hungry?

Though admittedly I am not a fan of the dish, I still think the Indian rojak is a very interesting dish; you mix what seems like randomly selected fruits and vegetables (some rojak have fruits, FYI) and mix them together yet put them under the same sauce and it becomes one dish.

Quite similarly like how we came up with our idea today.

We met up rather early (Hana was late though) and we discussed - first sharing the full story of our two ideas and then choose which would be good to mix them together, and add more things to make it a group idea with improvement.

In the end, we mixed mine and Hana's, using mostly mine as a basis for the concept. You guys should be able to tell we're pretty animation-orientated, though I'm not so sure if the other two are going to animation. I have to apologise to Jocelyn though; we couldn't think of how we could integrate her idea into ours, as the storyline of her idea was too distant and strong independantly from our more documentary-based storyline. I hope Jocelyn would contribute a little more ideas in the future 'cause we definitely need it.

So, after a couple of hours of discussion, we have already came up with a pretty rough storyline that we'd be telling Amanda and asking her opinion about it tomorrow. Hopefully it would be a good response. As usual, my only worry is our process of doing it. Gotta rush rush rush.

I'll give a few hints to what our video might be like:

- definitely a mix of animation and video (duh)

- humor would be thrown in most definitely (everyone loves a few laughs, though it's hard to call me a humorous person so I'd pretty much have to rely on the other two on that...)

- look out for interaction between animation and live-footage!

- unusual camera angles, probably

Yeah, that's all I'm sharing - might be too much or too little, I don't really care since we're gonna be showcasing the video at the end of the module anyway.

Sorry for the rambling. I enjoy writing long posts with failed humor.

- Kaz

Labels: Kaz

{ 12:48 AM }

today was second day of presentation for the individual ideas. I already presented on monday and had to comment today. but I not quite good at commenting, I don't really know what to say. overall today's presentation went by quite fast. some of them showed videos, which I thought was great. I can grasp the feeling or the mood of the video they want to make and the videos also kept me awake, because it made it not so boring.

after the individual ideas, the next thing we had to do is to come up with the finalized idea that our group wants. I think it's better to think of ways to combine the ideas and make it more interesting, bet everyone thinks so anyway.

after the presentations, i think that there'd be a lot of competition among but it'd be a good one I guess. I anticipate the final videos of everyone's.

jocelyn.

Monday, February 16, 2009 { 11:24 PM }

After knowing that Obama stutters alot too, I feel so much better.

Still, whenever I blog I was never in a happy mood...such a pessimistic person, yes.

Basically today was the day where half the class plunge into the fiery depths of hell. Actually, it was individual presentation. To present our two ideas to the class and Amanda. I was third to present and was a bit vague with mine because I didnt really have anything concrete to show. Or rather, its all jumbled up together making it rather impossible to explain, nevermind understand...unless you are Huiyu and have lots of time in your hands. Then, perhaps you will be able to visualise what I'm trying to show.

Basically, the others I noticed, some of their ideas were good, some were rather safe and common, some were too extra while some...I think I've said enough. I think the more outstanding one was Caiyun's idea. the animated reporter really left an impression.

Basically, I can't wait for tomorror's half of the class to plunge in hell eh I mean do their presentation. So we can start combining and discussing our ideas as soon as possible. Good luck Kaz!

-Post by Hana-

Saturday, February 14, 2009 { 1:37 PM }

Oops I didn't post yesterday. I got home at about 8pm and was knocked out the moment I fell on my bed. Was that tired.

Well there isn't much to post about anyway, since there were no lessons on Thursday and Friday.

On Thursday, we did get more examples of what was expected of us by the end of the module though. A couple of them were extremely good, especially the most talked about one with the concept of some medieval quest. Really really cool stuff.

Brian said he could do that. I'm looking forward to seeing that.

I guess I've got some ideas from the videos, but frankly, I'm just really scared of the problems that I (we) would face in the process of doing it. What can I say? I'm a pessimist and a nervous wreck.

For some reason though, I thought of making a machinima. That would be totally awesome, but I don't have the skills to do that, unfortunately. Would be great if someone else did.

As for my individual assignment, I'm still thinking, but all I can say is that it'd definitely be a mix of animation and video (like duh, almost everyone should be doing that). Just probably more of animation? Oh you guys know how much I love to draw, hurr hurr. Maya would be pain to use, but so would Flash. So I am really in a fix right now, with me being in my not-so-creative period.

I am looking forward to the presentation on Monday! Gotta rush on mine too...

-Kaz

Labels: Kaz

Thursday, February 12, 2009 { 11:30 PM }

today's class was at lecture theatre. a design brief for our final assignment was given out, and so wahidah go through with us on the important things we need to know.

alfie later on brief us on moodboards and story boards which we haven't really learn. so I thought it was quite useful because he told us clearly what it is.

after that, is the whole string of videos of last year's MOI P1 to give us as examples of good or bad final assignment. some of them left an impression on me, mostly the funnier ones.

there's one with the exaggerated opening of HDB door, and the one with the female long-haired ghost; i think that's supposed to be scary, but everyone was laughing instead. but that was really funny, i thought.

there's an NG scene which the guy who was filming at the esplanade tries to talk but a very loud motorcycle past, just when he was talking.

the good video which left an impression if the one which had a quest theme. but the whole video reminds me of pirates throughout, maybe its because of the music. the video goes on like as if MOI was a quest, it was quite an interesting idea.

a bad example was the one everyone got bored of, which is something like a news show. only the news caster speaking and such. maybe its boring because the monster and doctor MOI thing feels very weird.

today was a lot of videos.

jocelyn.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009 { 10:04 PM }

The stress that exacerbates my stuttering is killing my self confidence.

Yes, and it shows in the presentation today. Anyone knows how to cure stuttering, pls help me.

Anyways, today is the day we present on the 3rd Age Council thing. Once again our fate is determined by drawing lots.

Once is seriously enough. So, we got second last...which is long enough for us to die of nervousness.

I think that some of the ideas that the other groups presented were quite interesting and imaginable such as the bedok reservoir carnival with all the games and dragon boating. Some ideas are quite similar to each other since alot of groups came up with carnivals and funfairs. Our group did too but it was too common so we cancelled it out.

All in all, it was an interesting day. Cause we get to witness a going to be war-like situation between two of the groups whose names I shall not write down here....but maybe in my notebook. Also, the "floor" contributed to this mess. Or more like identifying the problems in each group's design ideas.

Oh ya, did I mention that this presentation is NOT GRADED. ouch ouch...nevermind. It's time to move on with life. The project 1 presentation is next monday. I hope by then I would have conquered this stuttering of mine.

-post by Hana-

{ 1:00 AM }

Though today was both pretty slacked and rushed for me, I think it had been a rather fruitful day. It was slacked because I didn't have much to do after our group discussion for the presentation tomorrow. But we had to finish up everything by today so there was a little bit of rushing in that part. The only problem we had was difficulty trying to choose which of our three ideas would be our chosen two. The three of them all looked good to us, so it got us in a snitch.

The three are:
- Factory tour (frankly I think it's fine, as long as it's not a fishball factory haha)
- Puzzle carnival (I wouldn't mind getting involved in this, but carnivals are too common)
- Soup kitchen (free soup!!)

But thankfully, after much deliberation, looking over the data and asking of opinions from a third party, we managed. It took quite a while and a lot of our brain juices, so that proves that we have a problem of indecisiveness.

So after hours of wasting hours away at school in an attempt to calm myself from getting too panicky about tomorrow's presentation, I got home, propped myself in front of the computer aaaand -

rushed, rushed, ruuuushed.

When I'm nervous, I get real panicky. It's probably some sort of disorder, because I can get all paranoid and jittery and stuff, but by some miracle I somehow get things done. I think. But I rush. A lot.

So I gathered all the data we needed to print and hand in as research, which I think is... I'm not sure if it's a lot or if it's relevant, but I worry about anything and everything, so no worries?
We don't know whether we need to hand in a hard copy of our presentation, so Hana suggested we just print it just in case. I think I'll just print it at school... My printer will suffer if I print the slides at home.

But now I think after all the rushing in trying to get the presentation slides right and look nice (yay I have pretty pictures... let's just hope none of them would be used by another group as well), I'm pretty relieved.

I think I did a good job.

A decent one. Or alright. Or average.

I think.

Ahhh I'm getting a panic attack again. I'm going to freak out in tomorrow's presentation, I'm sure. Good luck to everyone tomorrow...

-Kaz

Labels: Kaz

Tuesday, February 10, 2009 { 1:31 PM }

I couldnt blog yesterday because there's a problem with the internet.

we had indivdual consultation for the 2 ideas for our final yesterday. I only had confirmed one idea so ive to think of another idea as soon as possible before the presentation.
i was late for the consultation, and i think amanda didnt saw me when i came in the room too. so i have to wait, & was last to consult.
Hana asked amanda thru email about our another idea on exerise 1 (senior citizen). she reliped that the idea was good but we have to do some research more relating to the idea. we have to improve on the idea too. i was researching halfway then the net decided to fail me at this time. so Im going to continue the research on fishballs today.

we planned to do powerpoint tomorrow because there's no class tomorrow, which means it's today.

jocelyn.

Saturday, February 7, 2009 { 12:40 AM }

Argh...let's see. We didn't really do much today. I was busy with my other group doing history and culture. Kaz went to call the Apex Harmony Lodge to ask some questions. What they say is a bit of a disappointment. Turns out their answers are the same as what's inside their website. So, we might as well just ask the website. We expected more as we were talking to an intelligent homo sapien and not a modern piece of technology holding information electronically. So our plan to let Joycelin call another old folks home has been cancelled.

Here is the link of the modern piece of technology holding information electronically.
http://www.apexharmony.org.sg/

So we did nothing but ponder upon the many rejected ideas that lingers disturbingly in our minds. Chatting with my friend on MSN, an interesting discovery was made. She was actually the granddaughter of a VERY ACTIVE elderly community club member. Like a hungry cat who saw a fishmonger walk by, I springed at the chance...questioning her and grandmother, not letting them escape from my grasp. Once I got what I wanted, I decided to let them go but leaving a tiny chain around their necks. Juuust in case I need them again. Assemble we must on MSN. After a long discussion, we agreed to email what we have to Amanda....and so the wait begins.

-post by Hana-

Friday, February 6, 2009 { 12:15 AM }

Today was our consultation day with Amanda on our Group Exercise. Before it was our turn, we met up early so that we could further discuss on our ideas for the exercise. By then we already had confirm on the first idea, and truthfully, we were struggling to think of a good one on the second. We tried getting ideas from the surveys we conducted with the elderly, and since their answers were quite vague, we had trouble thinking up of a good one.

During our meeting, we thought up of 7 other ideas, crossing out 2 from it via votes and the other 5 were thought out further.

When it was our turn, we told Amanda our ideas, and she said that it feels like our ideas seem rather strenuous for the elderly, so she told us to make it less so. For the rest of the ideas, she pretty much suggested that we should take them further, to make it more interesting so as to really attract both the youngsters and the elderly.

Both Amanda and the group did have an interest in one of our ideas for the second programme, and we decided to tackle it - a Soup Kitchen programme.

For now we are racking our brains to make the idea even more appealing. We will be conducting more surveys, and need to get more research and facts to back-up on what we already know.

- Kaz

Labels: Kaz

Wednesday, February 4, 2009 { 10:11 PM }

We planned to do the elderly survey by today because tomorrow is consultation for exercise 1. we need to conclude the survey and do more research. We needa get the number of the tampines old folks' home from the research.

-jocelyn

Tuesday, February 3, 2009 { 9:39 PM }

Today, Kaz and I compiled a lot of ideas for the Third Age Council exercise. So many, that we forgot the first important step which is reserch, to back up our ideas. So, we started making questions for our survey to find out what they might enjoy doing etc. We hope to finish it by today so that we can go surveying tomorrow. We wanted to do an online one but most senior citizens aren't IT savvy.

Amanda also recommended to us an old folks home in Tampines. So, we are now having plans to go and bombard them with some questions. Hope they don't mind.

-post by Hana-

Monday, February 2, 2009 { 11:18 PM }

This is Group 'Bleah' and our members are:

-Jocelyn
-Hana
-Kaz

We got briefed on what to do for our assignment and will update on the progress of our work when we officially start our discussions tomorrow.

[post by Kaz]

Labels: Kaz