More of my filmmaking activities will be chronicled now. Especially the making of my upcoming short film.
This all happened back on the 31st of August, the fabulous Murdoch Malaysian Association (that's the Malaysian Club in Murdoch University, if you haven't figure that out already) threw a party of sorts called 'Merdeka Night' where everyone was invited. It was a great event, Malaysian food, Malaysian dances (well, dances from the three races), a quirky presentation of our history et cetera.
At that time, some people were dressed up in traditional garbs, Chinese in Chinese Cheongsam, Malay in Baju Kebayu, Indians in Sari, and even Japanese in Yukata (a Japanese ended up winning the best-dressed contest). And THAT inspired me to have people dressing up like that in my sci-fi film. But that's irrelevant.
Anyway, the female emcee of the event caught my attention, besides being severely charismatic whilst emceeing, her participation in a string of performances showed that she's very... VERY multitalented. A good voice in singing, her rapping, a songwriting skills, her creativity.
She weaved out a hip hop version of a Malay folk song, just like how I intended to update an ancient Malay folkore into a noirish black and white sci-fi film, thus, a massive lightbulb appeared beyond my oversized head, and immediately, I was hit with the idea of seeking the help of this girl. Since I was going to make a Malay film, wouldn't it be appropriate if I use Malay songs? And if I were going to ask that gal for help anyway, wouldn't it be better if I offer her the role as the love interest of the main character as well?
And thus I did. Finding out her address (she lives in the student village too, don't be shocked), I visited her. No luck. I visited her the second time. No luck. Then the third time. No luck. Realizing that she could be rather elusive, I decide to leave a message on a whiteboard:
"DUM DUM DUM! A filmmaker will visit you at nine thirty tonight. BE PREPARED!!!!"
And she was there at night! Yaaaay! And thus, I started pitching her my idea, telling her which particular Malay folklore I intend to update, how I would like to update it, giving her a rough outline of my short film, pointing out the limitations of my production (I'll be using a simple video camcorder, but making it black and white so that the weaknesses of my camera wouldn't be that apparent), and best of all, presenting to her my last short film, Forced Labour, which did impress her (mentioned that in my last entry). Of course, not to mention that I emphasized on how HER family friend Johan is (aka Tanahashiba_Atwood) MY buddy too. (a fact I didn't know during Merdeka Night)
And thus she agreed, even possibly letting me use her song. I cheered silently at my success, and silently congratulated myself for a difficult job well done.
This all happened back on the 31st of August, the fabulous Murdoch Malaysian Association (that's the Malaysian Club in Murdoch University, if you haven't figure that out already) threw a party of sorts called 'Merdeka Night' where everyone was invited. It was a great event, Malaysian food, Malaysian dances (well, dances from the three races), a quirky presentation of our history et cetera.
At that time, some people were dressed up in traditional garbs, Chinese in Chinese Cheongsam, Malay in Baju Kebayu, Indians in Sari, and even Japanese in Yukata (a Japanese ended up winning the best-dressed contest). And THAT inspired me to have people dressing up like that in my sci-fi film. But that's irrelevant.
Anyway, the female emcee of the event caught my attention, besides being severely charismatic whilst emceeing, her participation in a string of performances showed that she's very... VERY multitalented. A good voice in singing, her rapping, a songwriting skills, her creativity.
She weaved out a hip hop version of a Malay folk song, just like how I intended to update an ancient Malay folkore into a noirish black and white sci-fi film, thus, a massive lightbulb appeared beyond my oversized head, and immediately, I was hit with the idea of seeking the help of this girl. Since I was going to make a Malay film, wouldn't it be appropriate if I use Malay songs? And if I were going to ask that gal for help anyway, wouldn't it be better if I offer her the role as the love interest of the main character as well?
And thus I did. Finding out her address (she lives in the student village too, don't be shocked), I visited her. No luck. I visited her the second time. No luck. Then the third time. No luck. Realizing that she could be rather elusive, I decide to leave a message on a whiteboard:
"DUM DUM DUM! A filmmaker will visit you at nine thirty tonight. BE PREPARED!!!!"
And she was there at night! Yaaaay! And thus, I started pitching her my idea, telling her which particular Malay folklore I intend to update, how I would like to update it, giving her a rough outline of my short film, pointing out the limitations of my production (I'll be using a simple video camcorder, but making it black and white so that the weaknesses of my camera wouldn't be that apparent), and best of all, presenting to her my last short film, Forced Labour, which did impress her (mentioned that in my last entry). Of course, not to mention that I emphasized on how HER family friend Johan is (aka Tanahashiba_Atwood) MY buddy too. (a fact I didn't know during Merdeka Night)
And thus she agreed, even possibly letting me use her song. I cheered silently at my success, and silently congratulated myself for a difficult job well done.
