Category: Personal Reflection

Talking Pictures Festival – on the road there…

I’m honoured that The Talking Picures Festival co-director Ines Sommer invited me to join her programming team yesterday to review some of the hundreds of entries received from all over the world. And many thanks to Tim for putting the idea in my head in the first place. Sitting in a theatre with other very experienced filmmakers and film enthusiasts discussing each short we viewed was a great learning experience, and tremendous fun.

We saw everything from music videos to animations to experimental shorts from places like Australia, Spain and even Estonia. It’s amazing how being a part of a festival programming committee will bring you the chance to watch thousands of films. And it’s up to us to make sure that what makes it to the big screen is top notch quality.

Definitely not an experience you get from going to film school. Loved having my eyes opened to what goes on behind the scenes when I submit my work to festivals. What a great way to spend 3 hours on a Saturday! Look forward to bringing you more updates on how things are going. If you’re in and around Evanston/Chicago, do swing by! :)

Subscribe in a reader

Bookmark and Share

by Categories: Film Events, Personal ReflectionTags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Learning Quest: Kinetic Typography

Since stepping out of college where life was such a hectic blur I couldn’t even tell you what movies were playing in the cinema that month, I’ve come to appreciate the little pockets of time I can now have with the TV as I cook my meals. I admit… I’ve developed a love for Supernanny, Ellen Degeneres and HGTV. But what I didn’t expect was developing the desire to recreate the various special effects that commercials were laden with. A question that often popped into my mind was “how’d they do that?” What sparked this fascination with motion graphics, i know not.

What I do know is that I shall teach myself to use After Effects beyond whatever basics i used for I Found A Tiny Starfish. First step… Kinetic Typography. A quick search on Youtube brought me enough examples (like this and this) to get my creative juices going. I love how easy it is to find video tutorials for almost anything online, just like this one by crookedgremlins.com:

Shall give it a shot while editing for Kartemquin the piece on the No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson sneak peek. We’ll see how it goes… :)

Subscribe in a reader

Bookmark and Share

by Categories: Learn Something New, Personal ReflectionTags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Film Club: Things are rollin’!

Michael, Melissa, Reggie, Brittany and Karl share a laugh during snack break.

One of the best feelings in the world comes when your students are able to explain a concept that you taught them a week ago, in their own words. There I sat, glowing like a proud mama, as I listened to Brittany and Reggie explain to the entire group why they made the decision to fade off the audio while allowing the video to play on in the final edit.

It’s difficult to tell when your students fully comprehend what you’re trying to teach. They don’t always ask questions if they’re unsure of something, and they often get distracted by their cellphones or each other. That’s why I’m so glad things went the way they did at tonight’s session with the Cabrini Connections Video and Filmmakers Club. We screened the different edits each of the 3 groups did with the same footage we shot a month ago and followed up with discussion and critique of each one. They had intelligent insights on why certain editing decisions were made and asked each other great questions. You can tell the students feel a sense of achievement when they have their work screened for others to watch.

Well, they’ve got something even bigger to look forward to. Come April, the Art Club’s gonna have a showcase of their work in a gallery and they’ve invited us at the Film Club to show some of our work there too. The showcase has traditionally been a crowd pleaser and a successful fundraising event for Cabrini Connections. A brainstorming session had all our film club kids throwing out all sorts of exciting ideas.

A comedy act! A cartoon of ourselves! A news report! A documentary of the prep work leading up to the event! The energy they had in the discussion showed just how eager they were to do this.

Young minds with big ambitions. It’ll be up to Michael, Karl and I to help them get there. It’s going to be an exciting road ahead!

Subscribe in a reader

Bookmark and Share

by Categories: Personal Reflection, Social ChangeTags: , , , , 1 Comment

The chance for an education.

I’ve always seen Creative COW as a hugely popular information source and discussion venue for all things film and media. Apart from it being reliable, it’s always had a vibrant community. Now there’s 1 reason to like them even more – The Creative COW Foundation.

Launching this April, the Creative COW Foundation will be helping deserving film and media students cover the costs of their educations, not just in the US, but around the world. Fantastic. (see full article on their newsletter)

As a scholarship recipient myself, I know how much of an impact they make on a student’s life. These opportunities open HUGE doors. I remember receiving an email a year ago about Grace Teng, a Singaporean girl who was so determined to study film in NYU, she started her own fundraising campaign and website to raise money. Through her site called ‘Dreaming Big’ she introduced herself as an “amatuer filmmaker and future NYU undergraduate film student”. She knew she was going to make it happen. The money, she hoped, would come from selling her short films on DVDs and appealing for donations.

I don’t know how her campaign’s going today, but I remember being moved by her fierce determination. Not many youths know deep in their guts exactly what they want to do, let alone work so hard to pursue it. Those who do deserve a shot at it. There is no way I would have been able to get the solid education I did at Northwestern if it weren’t for Ngee Ann Kongsi and the Media Development Authority of Singapore. Seeing Grace’s story, I understood the need for funds and I understood that burning passion. So it was really frustrating for me that there was little I could do to help her out at that time.

That’s why I’m so excited for this. Here’s to more foundations funding education like this. I’d love to see more students, like Grace, being enabled to get that education they so deserve and desire.

Subscribe in a reader

Bookmark and Share

by Categories: Personal Reflection, Social ChangeTags: , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments