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christmas is in like.. 3 weeks and the weather has been wonderful so far. i love decembers. everywhere you go there’s christmas songs playing in the background and i’m such a sucker for christmas songs. i think christmas has developed into such an exploited and commercialised holiday, but i wouldn’t have a john&yoko calendar if we all didn’t mindlessly buy each other presents for the sake of our yearly traditional christmas party (it’s just between me and my 2 best friends, not much of a party but whooo cares).
no offense but i personally think reflections are starting to be such a bore, we have to write about summaries in class (kinda) whilst the other class gets to talk about ariel and movies and other fun stuff. ohhhwell.
last storytelling lesson we were talking about dialogue. mister leslie pointed out that it’s not encouraged to write a whole load of dialogue for your script because then people will get bored. zzzz. i personally think that there’s really nothing wrong with having a chunk of dialogue. it makes you listen and appreciate the story more. ESPECIALLY if the dialogue is interesting and has a certain degree of wittiness to it. for example, let’s take quentin tarantino films. many of you should know that his films have a lot of emphasis in terms of dialogue. and people still enjoy it. well at least i do.
like recently, i watched Grindhouse. there were lots of speculations being made that Planet Terror is soo much better than Deathproof because apparently, it has more action and less talk. i watched both and i liked them just the same. so really, i think there’s nothing wrong with having alot of dialogue in the movie. well at least good ones. and come to think of it, stupid movies (i can name some) usually have more action in it. i’ve never been a big fan of action movies anyway.
we all had to write dialogues and i do agree people tend to exaggerate in dialogues to make it sound more interesting or funny. sometimes even when not very necessary. there was a stark contrast between the first and second dialogue that everyone wrote though, the second one seemed more mellow and sane but sadly quite bland. i used to think that all the dialogue in movies represented how everyone talks, and now after hearing what mister leslie said about dialogue being the illusion of reality, i felt quite cheated.
the dialogue in autograph book defines the character in a way, like what they saw actually reflects their personality. i guess it applies the same to real life, a ditz would probably go “uh yeah but no but yeah but no but yeah..” (okay i guess if you don’t watch little britain you won’t understand) and i’m sure having a conversation with them is indeed very intellectually stimulating. so my point is, dialogue makes a character more believable and audiences won’t need explicit interpretations of the nature a certain character.
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I’m actually writing this all on word in the train. I think the train inspires me.
Anyway, this week we had to read out our letter to the past in class. I felt quite uncomfortable about it because it’s always been a touchy issue between the person and me and I thought I’d never have to bring it up anywhere and to anyone ever again. Guess I thought wrong. I guess everyone felt quite awkward with their letter because it brings out a side in everyone that they choose not to let others see. It also brings out a past that affected them in a certain way and it probably moulded them to be a different person somehow. It was like how mister leslie said in his letter about him starting to sound like his dad.
The whole assignment was to help us write better through experience and I think we did do a much better job as compared to writing about things we aren’t familiar about. And I guess different people have different experiences, noone will ever go through the same scenario like we did. Like how I will never know how it feels to ever lose a cousin (and I don’t want to even think about it because I love her too much) or to be betrayed by a friend. We all came out of the experience wiser (hopefully) and definitely stronger. In the words of kanye, nothing that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!
After that we all had to watch 2 short films which in my opinion was really really good. The first was about a group of boys who is in love with an older woman. There was something dodgy about the show, something that I couldn’t put a finger on until a couple of days ago when I thought about it again. HOW CAN 5 BOYS LOVE THE SAME GIRL AND NOT FIGHT WITH EACH OTHER ABOUT IT? Because if my friend has a crush on the same boy as me I’ll pull all her hair out. The second show is called Sunat, which is circumcision in English. Since the director intentionally wanted the show to emit an 80’s kinda vibe, I presume that only Muslims and Jews had to circumsize at that era. Nowadays, 80% of boys have to go through circumcision because it’s healthy? I glad I’m a girl. The show was pretty light-hearted and it looked fun, production-wise. I guess we all can identify with the story really well because it embodies the very characteristics that we have in ourselves, whether we’d like to admit it or not. For example, the dad kept insisting to the boy that he should be a man and stand up for himself when he’s only like… 7? And the whole scene where different people kept exaggerating the whole circumcision procedure, it’s pretty much like how all of like to blow things out of proportion.
Oh well, reached my stop.
Filed under: reflections
it’s week 5.. right? damn time passes wayy too fast.
we had to watch election, which i already watched but channel 5 cut practically a quarter of the show and it’s too disturbing to be watching some of the explicit scenes in class, it makes me feel very uncomfortable. reese witherspoon’s character is quite likable, at least for me, because i empathise with her. it is really NOT her fault for what happened to mcallister because he brought it all upon himself. who asked to sleep with Linda (who is not at all attractive, i agree with mister leslie)? who asked him to meddle with the vote counts? NOBODY but himself. there is some fault on tracy’s part for tearing down the posters but tammy ultimately turned herself in, despite it not being her fault. yes i know some of you might say if tammy told on tracy she would be kicked out of the election and not win at all BUT she worked hard for it and i don’t even think she stepped on anybody to get what she wants. everything was sheer hard work and mcallister tried to ruin it for her solely based on the grudge he had against tracy because she caused his friend to get fired. it was really quite stupid of him actually to dispose the votes in his wastepaper basket. i always believe that if you want to commit a crime, do it right!
speaking of movies, i just watched the trailer for p.s. i love you. i still can not believe they’re making a movie adapted from the book! i’ve made up my mind not to watch it since i’ve never read the book anyway and i don’t intend on wasting $9.50 on some fluffy chick-flick movie. i’ve heard of many girls who cried over that book, still makes me wonder why. stephen king’s IT made me cry (it’s a childhood fear, don’t ask), but i highly doubt cecilia ahern will have the same effect on me. speaking of which, i need to start reading again. the last book i read was friedrich nietzsche’s (he’s another philosopher, just not-so-boring as aristotle) thus spoke zarathustra and why i am so wise and that took me a month to understand.
i’m still wondering who to write to for my letter to the past. i’ve met lots of people and most of them come and go, none of them not really worthy to be written about. or to. whichever way. was thinking about writing it to my grandfather but he died a long long time ago, even before i was even “produced”. but i’ve heard nothing but great stories about him. maybe that’s what happens when you die i guess. people never have anything bad to say about you.
i’ve heard about his fishing skills and to me it sounds as though he’s really quite good at it. maybe my 2nd brother took after him in that area (if you’re wondering why i number my brothers, that’s because i have 3 of them). and i also heard about how he used to work in some movie theatre that the rich british people always frequent and he loads the film for them and my mum will always tag along and on their way home, they’ll have to drive pass the bidadari cemetery and he’ll ask my mum to shut her eyes and hug him tight. he is a brave man. and although i’ve never met him i feel as if i knew him as a person and sometimes i do wish he was still alive because i know i’d be really fond of him. (this is making me really really sad, why did i subject myself to this in the first place!)
oh and my mum tells me they’re going to dig his grave because apparently the government wants to make some building. how disrespectful. and to think that i’ve never visited him once throughout my entire life.
YOU KNOW, i should have just convert my reflection into my letter to the past assignment. gee.
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and not to be anti-climatic or anything, here’s my true&false stories;
• She stands rooted to the ground, a rush of emotion suddenly overwhelming her entire being. She takes the nearby bag and swings it across the room. Blood rushed to her head and in a split second she could feel the rage thumping in her temples. She starts overturning random chairs and tables, anything that got into her way. His stare hit her from across the staircase. She walks slowly towards the windowpanes, pounded it shut as shatters of glass pierces her palms.
• Hit her hard. Harder. She heard cries of pain coming for the girl lying on the floor, who iscwrenching in pain. She glances around the measly toilet cubicle and instantaneously decided she wanted out. Right now.
who guesses correctly will get a years’ worth of bragging rights!
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today i had to pee in a cup, tell the doctor i am NOT planning for pregnancy and also convince her i am not sexually active. it’s quite funny actually, having to pee in a vial. i need to suggest that they should colour their vials in black or blue or something because it’s really quite rude to walk around with a container that is yellow and warm. and urine tests only costs $3.40?? i am quite amazed right now. okay drowsy.
Filed under: reflections
Been listening to In Rainbows for the past hour, trying to make myself like it. Finaz says I’m the third person she knows to not like it. I do kinda, if their songs weren’t so long. I tend to like shorter songs.
Okay I’m going to start reflections proper.
Our people watch was due but less than half the class posted it up because of certain unforeseen circumstances, I got mine up before 1230 and had to do it on the 8th floor with people walking in and out alone and risk looking like an idiot talking to my laptop. Marjie’s people watch was hilarious, the digging nose apek. The part where he was staring at some girl’s boobs was very subtle, to say the least. If I was her I’d knock the lights out of him.
I was still quite clueless as to why he had to go through all that trouble for a dead man. Yes, Aristotle. Other than the fact that he was born in the country I would die to go to, I can’t give a flying fart about him. Adee (my powerpoint partner) insisted that it was about the quality of the powerpoint presentation and how well we presented it and not exactly the content. Boy, was I wrong. So after the whole ordeal of presenting (which I did a crappy job, no self-pity involved here), I found out that all mister leslie wanted out of us is The Greek Tragedy. So isn’t my experience about Aristotle himself a tragedy? The whole self-discovery thing? Beats me. I still don’t understand him, complicated man. Did he ever get married? Just a thought.
Oh yes, before i forget. Aristotle mentioned that the plot more important than character, and I disagree. TET TET TET. WRONG. *buzzer sounds* simply put in layman terms, BAD CHARACTER = BAD PLOT. And vice versa. I always believe a good story has to have a character that correctly personifies the plot. There is really no point if a there is an amazingly fantastic plot but character is shitty. Or non-believable. Or fake. Then it completely defeats the whole purpose of creating a unified story. Everything has to be.. in moderation. Yes, you can choose to disagree.
Mister leslie showed us Terminal Bar after class which was really nice and it was a waste for those people who left. Who would knew a gay bar could survive for so long and everything that it’s been through. The simplicity of the black and white pictures were stunning. I think I might want to just photograph people using a Hasselblad camera all my life and set up photo exhibitions where noone will come and live off my parents. (:
Anyway, I’ll end off the reflection with the storrrry i wrote about marjie’s pervetic uncle (who I’d like to punch) and Jiayi’s suicidal lady at spotlight.
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SUICIDAL SPOTLIGHT & PERVY UNCLE
Pei Si’s thoughts wonders as she sits outside of Spotlight alone, waiting for her date to arrive. It’s not the first time she’s been set up on a blind date, and it isn’t exactly the first time she’s been stood up either. She slumps in her seat, hoping to hide from all the embarrassment she willingly puts herself through. Her face grew scarlet and warm, her eyes unexpectedly brimming with tears. “Maybe I’ll wait for another 15 more minutes. I’m sure he’ll come”, Pei Si tries to convince herself. She pictures his face from the photograph given to her by the agent and a smile slowly spread across her tear-stained face.
On the other side of Singapore, Pei Si’s “hunky” date was sitting in a bus, yawning his life away and staring at busty girls lustfully. He was 62 year-old Low Kim Kok, and his idea of a practical joke was to send his 25 year-old son’s picture to a matchmaking agent.
Filed under: reflections
Last friday was the 3rd storytelling lesson and some of us had to read out our 50-word stories. I did have alot of difficulty writing the 50-word stories at first because of the word constraint and I had to ask farhan for help (i cheat alot by asking for help here and there) and he told me to just write whatever I want and not worry about the word limit so much because I can always modify my stories later. So I did just that and when I’m done with all the stories, made some changes and voila! everything was peachy and dandy and i managed to get it all done in less than 2 hours. I am certain I work extremely well under pressure.
This week’s assignment is people watch and I totally missed my chance on Tuesday because in the morning I saw this lady, in her mid 50-s, who was dressed to kill (LV handbag, high waisted pencil skirt, brown snakeskin stilettos, extremely heavy makeup.. the whole enchilada and I pay extra attention to people on the train especially since I spend almost 2 hours on it every single day) and she kept taking out her compact mirror every few minutes to dab her eyes with cotton bud. Weird, I know. She looked as though she’s been punched in the eye though. And then a few minutes later she took out her Guess wallet and fished out two 50-dollar notes and three 10-dollar notes and stuffed it in one of her bag compartments. Damn, if only it wasn’t 8 in the morning and I wasn’t sleepy, I would’ve recorded her. I think I observe people too much.
I’m way behind time this week, been really under the weather for the past few days. Gah. If I don’t come to school tomorrow, you know why. And I still owe Bedok Polyclinic $5.55.
i just ate magnesium carbonate and it’s not very nice.
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oddly enough, my last opener happens to coincide beautifully with sarah jessica parker’s new advert for her latest fragrance. farhan says i have her soul, whatever that means. or maybe it was too much sex and the city during the holidays. 5 whole seasons. i would like to think i have her soul. (and samantha is another character from sex and the city)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTtUCUZzii0&NR=1
Samantha gazed longingly into the store, her eyes fixating onto a pair of shoes located meticulously on the shelf display. “I have to have it, I have to”, she mumbled to herself forlornly.
{edit: i’m done with my 50-word stories btw.}
i figured if i got my reflections done by the weekends i won’t have to worry about not having time to do next week’s discussion board and etc etc.
last friday was storytelling lesson 2 and as soon as we stepped into class, mister leslie greeted us with another 20minute writing session. not that i’m complaining. we had to pick someone’s opener and i picked marjie’s. since mister leslie said it’s highly recommended to put it up on our blogs, that’s exactly what i shall do.
Emily continues to pour water into the pot of the drowning plant, as if waiting for something miraculous to happen. She glances at her watch for what it feels like the hundredth time, wishing that the damn day would pass by faster. Slowly she puts the watering can back down onto the rough, graveled ground of her super duper expensive-looking mansion and sighs to herself. Her life is becoming too much of a routine. Emily hungers for the action and thrill in which her life is desperately lacking of. Instincts tell her that her husband, Tom, is definitely in the midst of an intense orgasm with a hot young’n. A model perhaps. But Emily is too emotionally distracted to even care. Her thoughts suddenly drifts to her children. They are all married off, spawning their own perfect, cookie cutter children. So much for the ideal American family that everyone blindly presumed they were, Emily thinks to herself.
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if it sounds quite familiar to you, that’s because it was inspired from American Beauty. it was one of the many many movies i watched throughout the 2-month holiday. damn, holidays.
zidd wrote on my opener about fabrizio and his bass and i openly admit that was one of my worst ones. i was listening to Vision of Division when the guitar solo played, resulting in the opener. and i didn’t really have a story in mind for it. okay sorry moving on, after mister leslie picked some of us to read their openers we got to watch 2 shorts, The Secret Heaven and The Call Home.
I was seriously going to fall asleep during the first short because the build-up was so boring(understatement) and some of the shots were pretty redundant, to say the least. it wasn’t bad, but it was too much of a bore for me. i’m an action kinda girl. i do think that the climax wasn’t really impressive, i was expecting something to be blown out of proportion or at least something more riveting that what was shown. but it was quite a let down. like what mister leslie said, the build-up did not fully pay off the climax. i agree wholeheartedly. the second film was really good in my opinion, i think the director had everything worked out. there was a solid storyline that slowly unravels throughout the whole course of the film, actors that emit very believable emotions. that’s the point of every story/book/film right? the success of a story actually depends on how convincing it is because it gives more credibility to the audience. and while watching the film, i could relate to the little girl’s hatred for piano and her rebelliousness towards her parents. i should really stop rambling.
i still wanted the girl to die in the end though. not because i’m sadistic or necrophilic, but it would be fun to see the reaction of her family members, especially her mum who mister leslie has a strong fixation for.
we were asked to think about whether everything that is made is original, or just an improvisation of everything else. to a certain level i think that most of our ideas are inspired by something. be it a childhood memory, or after reading a book. basically our ideas tend to form by random thoughts. last sem, my cats teacher patricia told us to bring a small notebook everywhere we go in case an idea pops us along the way we can write it down because by the time we get home, the thought will go kaput. ever since then i never looked back. everytime an idea strikes i’ll quickly type it down in my phone and then develop on it. it helps a whole lot.
i tend to drift alot. i hope that’s okaaay.
i guesss, that’s my reflections for this week! i’ll get the 50 word stories done soon, i hope. for now, planet terror!
before i officially start my reflection thingamajig, i want to say that quite upset because i handed over my ibanking device, raya money and posb card to a much more reliable person because i’m doing major damage to my money. grr. i just saw something nice. okay, self-control. that shall be my resolution for this semester. madhan is off to a bad start i see, absent today. STRIKKKEE ONE. okay reflections! *hops around*
last friday was our first storytelling class and mister leslie made such a good first impression by forgetting that he HAD class. so me and marjie went to call him although some people expressed some discontent about it *shrug* and we had to play this game where we had to use an adjective (is that the right word even? i think we learnt it in writcomm just that i perpetually forgot) to describe ourselves but the catch was that we had to come up with a word that starts with the same letter as our name. it was hilarious and i think the whole class could tell i was going crazy because i was tripping over boxes and bumping into everyone. so yes. i love jordus’s one though, his face expression is priceless.
we also had to play this big fat lie game and damn! i almost got a chance to come late to class (although it’s pretty ridiculous because i have intro in the morning oh well.) but the summer movie question totally bust me because it’s pretty obvious. speaking of which i think it is really a bad movie. storyline wise. okay so to sum it up it’s a french movie, a paedophile dude who is obsessed about this girl’s knees. and he got to touch them in the end. i know it’s deeper than that (people succumbing to their desires and such) but all the small talk throughout the whole movie pissed me off. i’ve never been big on small talk anyway. but then movies have always been subjective, it doesn’t really matter whether someone likes them or not. i personally believe everyone is entitled to their opinions.
after all the hoo-haa, we got settled down and mister leslie started teaching us about active vs passive voice. basically in storytelling, we just have to inject a whole lot of drama to make it sound.. dramatic. and everything has to be in present tense. that’s basically what i could remember because my brain has the memory capacity of a rat. the slides will be up on mel… right? no, seriously.
everytime i think of reflections i think of the times i had in secondary school during my NCC land camps (you can scoff now) and everyone DREADS reflections because it’s soo.. boring. everyone will end up saying the same thing. “I came out of this camp learning new things and exploring new boundaries. and made new friends!”. and everyone will nod their heads in unison. and my teacher will lap all that nonsense up. oh the torture i had to go through for 4 years of camps, and more camps, and more camps.
this surely brings a whole new meaning to reflections. YAY! *hops away*
okay i’m really sleepy.
