3rd-4th Sept - Singapore Writers Festival

This was incidentally a spark of interest when Richard suggested us to join him in the panel talk about graphic novel being the future wave.

Text in the City, the Graphic Novel Way (Talk)
Sep 2, 19:00 - 20:00, Panel Room (5th Floor), National Library
Free admission

Colleen Doran, creator of comic book series, A Distant Soil, and the Sandman artist behind “Façade”, dissects the use of words and visuals in sequential art and graphic novel storytelling techniques.

Even though we were 1/2 late (thks richard..grr), i did learn quite a abit of the going ons of the graphic industry.

Next up on Sat was a workshop on script writing.

Watching Movies, Writing Films: A Screenwriting Workshop (Workshop)
Sep 3, 11:00 - 12:00, Library@Esplanade
Free admission (online registration)

Online Reservations

Andrew Bovell conducts a screenwriting workshop and shares his experiences working on the films Lantana and Strictly Ballroom.

Looking at the amount of info thrown at us, i wouldn't think a hours worth would barely scrape over the interduction to the world of film script writing. Anyhow, it did enlighten me of some aspect of writing and angles to take, sequentials of scenes that make a good story and how film script writing is a combination of rigid technicality and inspiration. Pretty interesting.

Stefan did tell me that good ideas are plenty around us. the problem is, people are not writing them down. Writing seems to be the propeller that will indefinately drive you forward to completion that provoking literary you've always dreamed/imagine all this time. It may be a scribble of a thought, a paragraph of story or a sketch of a charater. Its got to start somewhere right?

So far, i've got:
1) An idea for a 4-part tv series that intertwine 4 housing apartment with interconectng story.
2) A concept of a WW2 local epic trilogy.
3) A begining of a thriller grahic novel (which was done AGES ago and have no clue of its where about..sigh..).
4) A music video for James Blunt, "No Bravey".

Anybody wanna point me to the right direction for my dream come true?

I need to breath. Sure enough, the magazines are already out, FINALLY, but that doesn't mean the shows over. I've been bracing myself for when Joe broke the news that he's leaving for Mediacorp and i'm happy for him. But that would mean all the crap will start falling onto me and i'm afraid if i were to take on this role, i'll end up being bad guy around, pushing to meet deadlines and having to say no to clients requirement when its impracticle. I see everyone's angle and i totally understand every point of view but situations of mindset forces us to react a certain way which just sucks.
Upper management are interviewing a replacement to a position of Senior designer and i wonder, what is my job designation is. As far i'm concern, i was given a graphic designer title. Do they rather trust a total stranger to lead the creative dept instead of someone who has been around almost 6 months? I'm not complaining (oh wait..i am..) but if thats the case..i've got to set my role straight. Hell, i'm not gonna take more responsibility with the same status that i'm in.

Sigh.

Anyway, the battle continues and frictions sparks new comflicts which i don't give a damn. I'm tired. Should i push on and suffer the bombardment in hopes for some light at the end of the tunnel? Decisions afloat and i'm none too happy to make one.

Right now, i just want to curl up in bed and sleep. Or watch a movie. Its my only escapism.

Last tuesday was indeed a happy day for me. Having finish the magazine, burden has finally lifted off my shoulder. I could literally fly now. Even with me having to come back later in the afternoon, there wasn't anything to do ( yes there are side projects to finish but hell with it..). Then later that evening, Stefan and i met up at Orchard to cover the launch party of Eric Khoo's latest movie " Be With Me " at Bar None. The atmosphere was a laid back and cosy one with only invites for the media.

“ Be With Me ” is a tapestry of stories woven around the themes of love, hope and destiny. The characters lead separate lives but are bound by one common desire - to be with their loved one. The protagonists in the movie are fictitious except for Theresa Chan, whose life story inspired “ Be With Me ". Deaf and blind since she was 14, Theresa, now 61, has triumphed over her disabilities to live an amazing life.

- MovieXclusive.com

Local celebrities slowly flowed into the bar and soon the the place was up and happening with hype, glitz and glamour. Seriously, we felt a little out of place, seeing all thier "Hi there", "Nice seeing you agian" and etc to thier known ones. Drinks was free flow all around so that did help us loosen up. Finally it was time to get on with the show.

A little preview of the movie was shown, like the ones in the cinemas now, with additions of varied shots and alternative trailers.

Next up was the live performance of the movie soundtrack. Good enough to get a hand on one indeed! Very emotional, slow instrumental tunes. I guess you can't really wrong there.

Next was the introduction to the cast of the movie.

Now, these are the moments that i died and went to heaven...

Alas, joy and happiness accends upon me as i click on the last button that ended the unfavourable agony of this scripted routine. There's this change of air surrounding me and finally, i can breathe agian...

Its 630 am, Saturday.

Havent slept since friday morning and the magazine is being far from being finished. I kept nodding off with my mouse in my hand. Thats a sure sign, I. AM. TIRED.

Eventually, we gave up. I couldn't even concentrate on a simple layout and even if i manage to, it ended up something that looked like a kindergarden kid's work. We were practically zombies all complete with slurry speech and random acts of insanity.



Time was 11am. We packed up, along with our iMacs so that we could continue at home, and headed home.

As soon as i reached home, i had a quick wash and off i was to neverland. It was a total knock-out cos the next thing i knew, it was 430pm and finally was fresh awake.

Well, not totally.

Later that evening, met up with the guys to catch "36".

PARIS. For several months an incredibly violent gang has been successfully holding up armoured bank vans. The chief of Police, Robert Mancini (Andre Dussolier) has been quite frank with the two lieutenants under his command, Leo Wrinks (Daniel Auteuil) and Denis Klein (Gerard Depardieu) : whoever manages to bust this gang will replace him as the "Chief" at the Police HG, located 36 Quai des Orfevres. The fight is on between these two super cops, who once were friends, and now are at odds about everything: their private lives, their methods, their staff and a woman, Camille Wrinks (Valeria Golino).

Sypnosis by MovieXclusive.com

Its a pretty engaging movie and if only i wasn't in a bad shape, fresh from the aftermath of exhaution, i could have enjoyed the movie even more. Love the score (although they did keep repeating certain tunes which was kinda irritating.) and the cinematography!


As the usual routine, we soured the area to hang out and Macs was the eventual location where we finally headed back home near midnight. Occationally nodding off agian in the bus, i longed for my bed.



Ah. Finally. A long awaited rest. ZZZzzzzz...

Its been almost a week of late-nights and non-stop pixel starings for us in the creative dept. This month is by far the latest we ever had publishing the mag.

I'm tired.

I want to get it over with.

Sigh.

Wes Craven, the horor master is back, better than ever after a few trips along the way. Ever since Cursed, the thoughts of him retiring soon emerged. BUT suddenly, Red Eye came along and knocked our socks off. This action thriller was a sigh of relief. Finally, something that really engaged me right to the end. Yeah the ending may be a little expected, but the journey was a blast. Build-up was great ( lots were fooled by the trailer that began somewhat like a romantic comedy. Go figure.). Acting from new comer, Rachel Mcadams was great. Think we found ourselves an action heroine here. Slamed against walls, falls flat on her face, head butted and endangered at knife-point, i'm loving her already~ Oh did i tell you she looks oh so lovely...

Watch out for my review of RED EYE coming soon at MovieXclusive.com


My ratings:

4/5

"Nothing beats a good-old-fashioned thriller. It'll start you out sitting comfortably in your seat and will move you to the very edge when it's done. Wes Craven is BACK!"

Its one of those days where u suddenly have a streak of good runs, having things falling right in place and everything works out just nice (Only to realise this would mean all the bad ones to be dumped at once as well someday...damnit...).

Anyway, it was a double-bill for me last weekend cos i had a back-to-back movie showcase.


First up: Herbie, Fully Loaded.

Courtesy from my Chief Editor, David. A grand gala premeire at Cathay Cineleisure it was with kids shows and a wide displays of The beetles showing off its glory at the carpark nearby. It was too bad the display were too far to oogle. They should have lined it up at the walk way. Oh well...



Since its a Disney production, there weer kids galore. But fortunately, the ones unfront of us weren't the annoying ones and did manage to view the movie with peace..at times..but doesn't matter. Oh, and the free popcorn was a nice touch. I wonder how much they spent on this event?

Did i meantion they gave away a goodie pack right after the show? Even when the skies decided to open up alittle to shed some tears, there were people lining to get them. How typical. Anyway i joined in too. Hah.

Fortunately the line did move along rather quickly before i got soaked by the drizzle. Guess what was in the pack? Nothing much really but good enough.

1) Herbie V-neck Tshirt
2) Herbie Notepad

Not bad lah for an event. Free somemore.






Anyway, had a fun time watching it. Herbie still mantained the charming adorable character that he is and even though the plot was as of expected, i can't really blame alot. Its Disney for goodness sake, u can't give rocket science to a bunch of kids to understand.
Well, thats because its an ongoing process. There will always bee a part 5 or 6 or 7 or 132. Thats the beauty of it. Its a cash flow for those filmmakers who have no single creative idea to film and zombies would be the perfect plot to surround with.

Sorry Richard, i know u wanted to make a zombie Singapore movie, but, i think its overated. But if you did manage to film one, do send me a ticket to the premiere yeah?

As playwright/director/actor, I have adapted William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, thrown in a dash of Antony and Cleopatra and adding touches of my own elements here and there. It will be in Modern English and yes, I've stuck to the very core and essence of the original play.
So, if you like Shakespeare, you should come.
If you're taking Literature and learning about the Twelfth Night or King Henry, you should come.
If you're watching the staging of Macbeth and Othello in August, you should see this too.
If you love the stage, come.

- A Life More Than Ordinary

Its been ages since i saw a play and finally i've rekindled my desire of stageplay. For those who aren't really or new to stageworks, its pretty much like a movie, except its live. Nothing really thrills like seeing live acting (or seeing someone fumble up and make a mess + embaressment. Hah). I still remember my very 1st exposure to theater back in secondary school, learning Shakespere's Midsumer's Night Dream. I had a blast.

Ides of March, directed by Shaiful, was a total success. There hits and misses throughout, but kudos to him for setting up a quite impressive production. There were times i cringed whenever the spotlight was on certain people which would cue a song to come bursting out...oh... did i mention it's a musical? A little off-key at times, but it didn't matter. Various acting were rather well protrayed especially "Mark Anthony" incidentally played by a girl~ If only i had a flowers to send it to her at the closing....Swoon~

With compliments from our head of movieXclusive for doing a good job for The Maid review and article write-up, a pair of complimentary tickets were awarded to us. Amidst my bz schedule of my magazine ( which will be freaking late next month..sigh..) i took off during my lunch time yesterday to meet-up with Richard for the movie.

What a hilarious flick. A must watch. Sad to say, towards the end it did kinda spirl down abit with its lovey dovey wrap-up, but as a whole, thumbs up!

Anyway, after the movie, we headed down to Queensway Shopping center to collect the polo. Lo and behold, the end result was pretty not met up with expectation. There were some shoddy stitchings and questionable positioning of logo in frame with the polo. Furthurmore, a portion of the logo that we clearly imformed not to put, was seen stitched. We were shocked to see it there. We requested them to remove the slogan of the entire lot and it be collected by next week. With that, as we left the shop, i can clearly see his dissapointed look on his face. Little did richard know that, he actually called me up to say that it was not a good idea to remove the stitches as it was too small and it'll just create an unsightly hole. He even requested if i could close one eye and buy the lot at a lower price.

"Hey, i'm not going to accept shoddy work here. Its not about the price but of workmanship brudder.."

I told told him instead to redo the whole lot:
1) Remove the slogan.
2) Shift the logo an inch down.
3) Not to do a rush job.

Lets see the result next week yah?