Friday, May 16, 2008

Final Day

ok, we sort of screwe dup our presentation.

as we have really too many frames to colour, we could nto finish. i went to reprint the cd covers and name cards, joel and rae finalized the powerpoint, but the animatics was not done. ok, when it finally was the time to present we did have the workfile but as we had simply too many frames, all the sources files are from 4 different thumbdrives and we could nto locate the files on time. so, after making the lecturers wait, and then we introduce our company, apologise, waive the fees for cd cover design and poster design, explained to them our budget, why we charge at such a flat rate as we are independant company, we don;t hire people, so no tax, show our research, etc, and made the lectureres wait again, until Mr. Ronald finally said "RAYMOND. take this(peer assessment) pass it to your group, do outside, ask next group to come in. they didnt want to see te storyboard and requested to see the animatics first. so, there goes our hard work, and we couldn't show anything. my whole group is very sad.

however, personally i got over it after awhile as i know we did work hard. But the lesson we have learnt is very important. it is managing our time and group. ya. Mr. Ronald said he would look at our animatics when we submit our cd.

so, we went our separate ways and rest. finally, rest. hahaha. haha. ha.
Mr. Ronald sounds very disappointed. =(

Day 05

ok, left school at abot 12 am.
so, that means, presentation and submission is TODAY.
we finished drawing everything basically, but we decided to do mroe for our clients, so we coloured every single frame. apple was suposed o do the animatics, but jing yuan havent finished colouring. we've got SO MANY frames. me joe and rachael did the budgeting, apple did the posters and name cards, joel did the mood board, i did the time chart, jing yuan still colouring. rachael continues on the powerpoint.

I seriously hope that we can finish on time, as we really put alot of effort into it. lalala.oh well.
so tired. left school at about 11 pm. apple jingyuan and joelhad night classes, so rachael and I continued on finalizing the storyboard.I was supposed to do the animatics after jing yuan and rae have finished drawing but i guess i had to help out or we won't be able to finish in time. wow, i can;t believe i can draw so many frames. i improvised on the shots, drew the car driving away (new added idea) and the graveyard scene. We thought that we couldn't finish, but found out that actually we are only left with 1 verse and we can finish it by tmr evening and do the animatics! erm. hopefully la. hahahaha.

Day 03

we had our first presentation today. a few things to take note:

we should not spoonfeed too much
must be careful of the overall environment/setting
framing, don't put things right smack in the middle
character clothing is important

Our idea not really approved at first, but after consulting him again we decide to continue using our idea.

Day 02

oh well, we thought we are going to go on with the person walking and walking and background changing only idea, but we decied to do something more challenging. MO
RPHING! Complex, even some of us don't get the whole picture, or rather everyone had slightly different visualisations.

We felt that recently most mtvs have nothing or little to do with the lyrics itself, or the lyrics itself have no meaning. Since our song, the coward of the county is so meaningful and is actually narrating a story itself, we have decided to make the animation according to the story.

Jing Yuan and Rachael are our storyboard artists! next monday first presentation. i will be doing the powerpoint.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Day 20

Came to school to pass Nafisah my hole punch and blog hard copy. Exporting video to the tape later. Hope it doesn't take too long. Now that MOI P1 has ended, i feel relaxed but on the other hand...some kind of feeling that i cannot explain...the fun memories and lessons learnt.

Day 19

My group had this crazy idea of wearing super formal. Tux, bow tie, Blazer, tie, blah blah blah.
Basically, I am the Boss. Andreas is my Right Hand Man/Butler, Nafisah is my Lawyer, Honey is my Secretary and Gary is my bouncer.
Alan said we will be given credit for reaching on time, and that he will postpone the presentation to 1 pm.
We were then told to do the peer assessment sheet. I thought that A = can work in industry wheres it's A+. This resulted in me undergrading my Andreas and Nafisah. sobs.
I rated myself a C.
I feel that i have not contributed enough partly due to my injury. I also think that i have disappointed my members sometimes. I guess a C would be appropriate. I don;t think i was a good leader. wonder what my team wrote for me.
I was quite moved when there were no questions asked, and despite the drop in quality due to using quicktime to play it the reaction received really made me happy. Thanks all MOI people for the support =) Especially my Team.
Personally, i would Rate Raj's group's video to be the best, followed by Boon Bin's group (although i feel that at a certain point the personal attack was too much and has crossed the line) and third would be Lionel's.
We took a group photo with Mr Ronald. Year 1 is coming to an end...

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Day 18

I reached school at around 2pm to pass Nafisah and Andreas the scripts, storyboard and notes taken during interim. I was not needed anymore so i guessed it's better that i go home...

Monday, March 17, 2008

Day 17

I came late at around 12 plus due to some rendering at home. I joined Nafisah and Honey for a quick lunch and returned to the lab. We all went to return our equipment after that. Well, Andreas mentioned that he didn't look in the tripod bag d\for the missing piece. I did something even more stupid. I checked the bag, didn't see it inside. I went up to 3rd floor, then went up to fifth floor, opened both storerooms, received a call from Andreas it is in the bag =.=/. Went down to first floor to look for my team and they have already went up to the 3rd floor. ARGH.
I humiliated myself once again by doing the voiceover of WINNIE again. In the crowded 3d lab. Everyone who heard it, even those who were not familiar with me, gave me a weird confused funny look. Ok i admit it was quite fun but still a bit embarrassing. HAHA.
Nafisah and Honey had the privilege of having such a voice talent in their group. They were laughing like...on the other hand Andreas found it disgusting as it was directed at him in the video. This made me thought of something. Although our group tend to quarrel, we are really happy when we are happy.
My help for doing the storyboard was rejected by Andreas. Sobs. Okay i think the Winnie thing is getting over me.
Nafisah then asked me to figure out how to do the subtitles. She then went to have a break. I couldn't figure out and asked Sarah for help. Thanks Sarah.
I went for a quick break.
I would say i am quite impressed how honey managed to finish the slideshow in the amount of time given to her.
Ok, this is the most fun part and most retarded voiceover of our project. It is the No - Exams voiceover!!!!!!!!
We went out of the lab, and recorded whatever we recorded, with Honey shrieking at the end of the video. YES. It's now left with finishing the subtitles!
Basically, Andreas got addicted to doing the subtitles. Nafisah and I had a hearty chat with special guests like Sholleh and Betty.
We left at 10.30 pm. Wow.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Day 16

We spent over 2 hours trying to get the tape, audio and lighting right. We had no experience. Setting up the lighting was painful. Ouch. One of the lights spoiled.
Getting to the point, we finally set up 2 lights and it was actually sufficient.
We gave up on creating a filter for the camera mike and had someone hide under the newscaster table and hide my $6 mike behind the mac book.
Guess what. It worked!!!
We did not know how to use the reflector. Me and Nafisah switched roles on being cameraman and the one that hides beneath.
I told Andreas to try to have more enthusiasm while speaking. WOW. It was marvelous. Best shots taken so far.
We then packed up and went to 3d lab to upload the videos. Had to use other group's camera to upload.
My group members told me i was the one that caused Gary's misery by unplugging his laptop and thus destroying the information in his Zen. But i was stubborn and confident that i was not the one that did it.
After awhile, i thought about it. Oh no. i was the one that did it. Apologised to Gary. Sigh. I feel i am becoming lousier as a leader day by day.
Andreas finished editing the Newscaster segment and sent it to Nafisah, Honey went to fix her laptop, i tried editing my video but got very irritated by the file corruption(AGAIN) and decided that i should keep my blood pressure in check by going home to complete the work instead.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Day 15

I did not sleep at all.
Original plan for the trailer would be using the music clip which i used for my video fundamentals video. However, it seems that it has been taken off all the websites. I can find the websites but all the sites state a missing file for that file.
So, i decided to use Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho's music. Yes, i know, i used it for animation fundamentals cone assignment. But i tell you, it works well...
Original plan was just using black slides with white text and segments of the video with voiceovers(with tones like typical hollywood trailers "This Summer(Low low tone voice)".
However, since i am using the psycho music, i decided to do it the psycho introduction way!
Which means, animation.
Tried using windows movie maker.
Then i thought to myself. Okay it's time i brush up on my Flash skills.
After i finish everything, it's morning! Well i admit in between i got stressed and went to play some online flash games.
And oh ya, alot of time was spent on the green colour ratings screen in trailers.
Further cutting of my interview segment, rendering of both videos, changing fps rate of animation and rendering, i finished work at 11 am.
And we had Interim! Our group came first!
After waiting for a while, Ronald decided to let us consult him first. He looked through everyone's work over and over again without looking at mine to build up suspense in me.
I have to thank Mr Ronald for the help he gave us in our video and teaching us many skills during the interim assessment. He taught us on dissolve, transitions, styles, and many other precious lessons. Our consultation took over 2 hours.
This is what he told us to do:
1. Reshoot Andreas' scene due to audio and lighting
2. Gary's slide transitions to be altered to only a few.
3. Slight changes to animation backgrounds and highlights/shadows
4. Use a few fonts. We used too many different ones.
5. Add in MOI news logo animation in between each segment.
He said my segment was okay, just need to remove the black spaces on both sides, change some of the text fonts, and try removing soem parts of the interview.
And he looked impressed by the night scene...hehehe
We were then told to loan this huge amount of equipment, turned out we don;t have a certain type of tape and we had to return the mike. We called Zaihan to help us keep our stuff int eh 5th floor studio storeroom and left.
They told me to edit the font for my video. But, i am going to K.O.
zzzzzZZZZZZ

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Day 14

We all thought that interim will be tomorrow. turned out that when i asked Mr Ronald during diploma show that it is on Friday. Poor Andreas got so stressed up and wasted so much time trying to export the videos.
Basically, we were supposed to compile everything together today to get ready for the supposedly interim tomorrow.
Original day for interim was past Monday or Tuesday. So, I told my physiotherapist that i will be available on Thursday. After the end of my physiotherapy, i felt that it was better that i go home straight and do my work at home. I don't want to risk corrupting my hdd and i was feeling lazy to go to school anyway. Not needed there too. I finished the interview segment of my video. Called up Naf to tell her i am not going to school and that i will finish the trailer by tomorrow morning.
So, basically, we will show Mr Ronald our whole compiled sequence by tomorrow.

Day 13

Nafisah started on the credits!
Gary tried exporting his video in school! Successful!
Honey combined the girl audio voice i did into her segment!
I finally can start editing my video peacefully. Good bye 2b lab.
And yes, i mean finally. so sick of redoing, re-exporting, re-rendering, re-transferring, don;t know how many times already. Just hope my new hdd don;t give me problems again.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Day 12

There was no meeting today.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Day 11

"wuah. nice. Nafisah you make your advertisement segment so nice to pull down our grades right? wuah.......Oi!!! don't anyhow use MOE logo arh!! They didnt sponsor us, don;t anyhow use MOE logo..." (what i said to Nafisah roughly)
Ok, i was editing my video, but my group had this INNOVATIVE idea of using me for a girl's voice over. So i spent like 2 hours trying to get the tone and everything right.
Basically, i'll try to talk like a girl and set the rate to around 54000.
i went back to edit my video, however shortly after the security guard asked us to leave.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Day 10

Today was supposed to be the day on which we will be compiling all our complete segments. However...:

1. Honey is in Hospital
2. Gary could not export his completed work
3. Nafisah could not finish her super tedious animations
4. ARGH I STILL STRUGGLING AND REDOING DASDHJKASDHFJKSDAGHFSDAGFJLDASGJ

Andreas showed me his completed work. I felt that the slide show could have been longer, but i guess it can be like this for this moment. finally his exported video was okay.

AND. I forgot to bring a necessary file to sch. So how? Go home do. ZZZzz. Waste time go to school. ARGH. Went to Elias to watch my friends play table tennis to get this off my mind. i am really very irritated. Can;t play due to injury. sigh.

Day 9

I came to school seeing Andreas all stressed up. Found out that Mr Ronald wanted him to add tone and highlight to his animation.
In the meantime, i am getting stressed up over why Honey's segment is only 1 minute 35 seconds. Honey was doing her animation at that time. I clarified some questions on the time limit of our video. Mr Ronald said that either everyone's is 2 minutes, or everyone equal length if it exceeds 2 minutes.
In the end, i found out that she left out one whole segment. ZZZ!
It was then decided that all our videos are edited to 2 minutes 20 seconds.
I asked Mr Ronald that if we are allowed to stray from the storyboard. He said no as he wanted us to learn from now that the storyboard will be what we will be showing to our clients in the future. Although i don;t like the idea but i think he is totally right to say this, so i accepted. Haha. See, there is a difference between whether you like it or whether it is useless or not.(refer to block 1 moi p1 day 03 entry lol)
I guess I stressed up Andreas by telling him what i want of the ending slide show for his segment so i offered to help him look for the required sound effects.
Me and Andreas felt that the time lapse needed some background music.
AND. MY SEGMENT IS SO IRRITATING. All because of the computer viruses and soem other technical errors. ARGH.
And retribution has come. Andreas has shown his true colours. He poured back vengeance by irritating me two-folds.
lol. That's all folks.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Day 8

I reached school and Andreas was doing his colour and light assignment. He really looked stressed. So Yvonne helped him out and i tried to help out if i can too. I allowed Nafisah and Gary to stay at home to continue on their own segments. Honey beside Andreas editing her own segment. I guided her on how to edit.
SIGH. Have to RE-SHOOT Andreas' introduction again, as the previous take looked weird and out of place.
Andreas went back to upload the video while me and honey went to have lunch. Andreas finished editing his sequence.
The Seniors had to use the computer that we stored all our files in. We returned the equipment to the store and went home.

Day 7

As usual, Andreas was the first to be there. (Sometimes due to his lecture, sometimes due to his own punctuality.)Somehow the version of Premiere couldn't open soem of the video files due to the type of compression. we got all stressed over it and finally Gary's laptop managed to open it and export using a different compression.
Gary and i recorded some voice while Andreas was transferring some files.
We then selected the voice clips that we wanted and I helped Andreas in some of the editing.
That's all folks. Yes, That all.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Day 6

We met at around 10.30 in the morning (Saturday...sob) and set up everything and waited for Peng to come. While waiting for him, we went to Cheers to buy some food. Peng's scene took less than 5 minutes to complete. Thanks Peng for the time =)
Andreas then continued with his lip sync while i went to the 2d lab to collect the required files. I did some editing.
While trying to clear some misunderstandings, i spoiled Andreas's mood. Really sorry for this.
We then went over to the school gate to re-shoot Andreas' scene as it wasn't satisfactory.
Up next is the main reason why we chose to shoot on a Saturday. It is due tot he fact that there are actually much less people in school on a Saturday.
We proceeded to shoot the no-exams part of our video. As Gary was injured, he became the cameraman instead of me. (i'm injured too...but mine is thumb, his is neck and shoulder, if he acts in this scene, he will be out of commission for quite some time lol...)
Basically, this sequence is choreographed by me with complex camera angles, zooms, timings, but with a totally random concept. To show that we are running around the whole school shouting "No Exams!".
i shall leave this self explanatory and for a surprise during the final presentation.
However, i can tell you it's very very tiring. it was drizzling that day too. We had to throw up old textbooks at the end, and we need to keep retaking this shot to get the dispersal of books right. Due to the rain the books and papers become soggy and muddy. ew.
We then went back to the lab to upload the videos. on the way back Gary randomly took random videos, including a close up of the cctv camera.
I thought work was over, so i started playing some games with Honey. Didnt notice Nafisah was editing and asking me questions.
I think i failed as a leader today as i pissed off 2 of my team members. I hereby Apologise to my tram for the incompetence.
Dat's all folks. Very long nvr say this end phrase.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Day 5

i took the Zen from Gary and proceeded to the 2d lab. There were problems so i kept summoning Nafisah from 3d lab to come over.
Poor Honey fell sick. We were supposed to return/extend equipment today. However the tripod was with Honey. Mr Tay let us extend therefore i ndid not neeed to go take the tripod from Honey...phew. We extended our loan till next Tuesday.
I bought a mike with headphone at the school bookshop for only $6! It's pretty impressive for a $6 mike. Yay. My new toy!
As we had no experience in using mike, we could nto get it working in audacity. So we decided to use Adobe Audition in Naf's laptop. After a few tries we felt that Gary's would be a better voice talent for his reporter's part. So, Gary took over my job.
Nafisah went home to finish her animation as she was facing some problems.
Andreas continued on his animation, while it tried means and ways to transfer the files i need for editing. The school computers are mostly imfected with viruses. I bought a dvd disc and it doesn't work. most of the problems are due to the computers.
I asked Gary top lend me his Zen, but he said he will pass it to me later at night.
He then left without completing his slide show.
I complained and grumbled.
Anyway, since i can't do anything, i tried fiurgin out hwo to use the mike in audacity, and found out it was some setting problem. We finished recording Andreas's voiceovers and we went home.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Day 4

I reached slightly late, and compensated by treating Andreas and Honey some hardcore vegetarian bee hoon. The moment i came, i was informed again that the lab will be used for Toon Boom animation. Therefore, we headed for lunch first. Nafisah proceeded to the 3d lab first.
fter lunch, we migrated to the 3d lab. Honey started to animate her mikes while Gary, me and Andreas went to shoot. It was very sunny and we tried to make the scene as close to the storyboard as possible. Poor Gary had to stay under the hot sun being the cameraman. After shooting for a few takes the camera battery went flat. Sigh...
We returned to the lab and Nafisah showed us her animated clock. It was pretty nice. Andreas started on his animated reporter while i cannot do anything as all the raw files are stuck in the 2d lab. We then decided to store the files in Gary's Zen after the workshop has ended.
Nafisah went around helping the other members while waiting for her animation to be rendered. I admit i was very busy doing nothing. We charged the camera.
After there was sufficient battery life in the camera, Gary, Andreas and me went down to shoot again. We had no choice but top slightly differ from the storyboard.
At around 5 plus, Andreas and i went to the 2d lab, but the workshop is still not over. We also forgot to take the Zen from Gary. So, we went home.
Today is rather unproductive for me.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Day 3

I decided to give Andreas a rest today, so I told him that he did not need to come for MOI P1 meeting today. I let Nafisah stay at home to do her animation. Gary, Honey and I met in the 2d lab. Gary did a little bit of his slide show. After Honey and I uploaded the video we took yesterday, we found out that the 2d lab would be used for Toon Boom workshop 2 pm to 5 pm. We went for lunch and went home. Sigh...

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Day 2

We met at around 9.45am and went to have a quick breakfast. Andreas was still in Colour and Light lecture. As the uploading of the time lapse we took yesterday will take super long, Nafisah took care of the camera while we went to have a quick breakfast. I told my team that today would be a super packed and tiring day as we have to catch up with schedule.

I went up with Nafisah to the E-space after capturing the time lapse video to re-shoot her scene. After some thought i decided to let Honey learn how to use the camera and how to do simple direction. Personally I feel that she is not much of a help in the group, as i seriously do not know what she is good in. Ok, she is a great help as the scribe. She is like a small little girl. It is difficult to get a job well done from her, as she needs a lot of pushing. However from the discussion with Nafisah and Andreas last night I felt that this is not the way to go on. She wants to help but she can't, so what should we do? Teach her how.

I explained to her the buttons on the camera and their uses. I also taught her how to use a tripod stand. I let her be the cameraman/director for this scene. I decided to leave for awhile as she said that she really cannot work with me staring at one side. In the end I still came back to direct Nafisah on what to do. I guess I did the right decision as Honey can now contribute to the team and help us out as camerawoman. Yay.

We then moved on to the auditorium to shoot Gary's scene. Just as i have expected, the Auditorium is not open everyday. I then called Mr Ronald to ask him whether we are allowed to change the backdrop for his scene. He gave the green light and we proceeded on with shooting.

We started shooting, but there were a lot of background noise and people walking pass. We spent quite some time trying to get the camera angle and zoom right. Andreas was supposed to be the cameraman but i took over. Andreas was in charge of all the cues, Nafisah in charge of the camera flashes while honey is our bouncer, telling people to walk past in the correct direction and don't make noise. However there are still people who somehow didn't get it. I appreciate those that automatically asked us for permission to walk pass.

We went back to the 2D lab to upload the video we just took. Nafisah taught Honey how to upload. She then left for home to do her animation. We found out that Honey left the storyboard at home so she went home first to take it while Andreas, Gary and I went to my house first. We were hungry so we bought Indomie and cooked it at my house. After we ate, we let Andreas take a 1 hour nap as he did not sleep the past night. We then proceeded to shoot my scene. Honey set up the equipments, and Andreas will be the cameraman for my scene. Argh, we had to retake so many times due to my bad acting.

After that, I allowed Gary to go home as he said that it has been a long time since he had gone home for dinner. I let Andreas sleep till 8pm. We ate some bread which my Mum bought and we set off for the beach at Pasir Ris Park.

We used the night scene mode of the camera to shoot this scene. We went to the area where we can see the Changi Harbour. I played around with the focus and managed to get a nice effect of slowly zooming out of the harbour lights. Honey will be the camerawoman as both me and Andreas will be in the scene.

We did alot of trial and error trying to get the lighting, composition and angle right. It was pretty tiring. After many takes, we decided to do something stupid since we are already there. 1. Classic Final Fantasy Battle 2. Gay. We recorded these down with no intention of including them in the video or uploading to YouTube.

We started walking off at around 9.45pm. So Tired. Andreas took a cab home as he still have stuff to do. Whew. What a super tiring day!

Monday, February 25, 2008

Block 2, Day01

Today is the end of block one and the first submission.

I had to go for medical appointment today, so i reached at around 2 plus. I was expecting them to have started shooting or near half done, but what i saw was the camera being set-up, everyone having a break, and no progress. Maybe they were tired out in the morning when i am not around. I don;t think the auditorium is always open? Also found out that Gary joined me in the ranks of being injured.
The big humongous heavy cast wrapped around my forearm is removed and replaced with a plastic splint. i tried holding the camera but found out that i can't really hold it.
We started shooting after awhile, had to stop as Gary had not memorized his script, and a worker was vacuum cleaning the place. We decided to move on to honey's part first. (the part which Andreas and I nearly went crazy over msn)
We proceeded to the bookshop and bought mahjong paper. We then proceeded to one fo the tutorial rooms. As this shot involves shooting from the top view, Gary was the cameraman for this scene. Basically, we drew a random character randomly and drew a mind-map randomly too. It was fun!
We then went back to export the video, then went back to the auditorium. Just when we are about to shoot...the worker said that he is closing up the place. We then got out of the auditorium and sang our group's anthem. (lyrics: We got owned, owned owned owned...)
We then went back to the 2d lab and waited for the rain to stop/the time for sunset.
Andreas and I then went to Bedok Reservoir Park to take the time lapse of the sunset. No sun, super cloudy, slight drizzle. Just when we want to pack our stuff and run, the sun came out. We then looked for the best location. We found out that we can't take pictures without a memory stick, so we recorded the whole time lapse as a video.
It was pretty boring and Andreas and me started doing stupid things and talking crap.
The sun did come out eventually. The video was beautiful. We left at around 7.30pm to 7.45pm.
Poor Andreas still got Colour and Light Assignment.

Day 19

We gathered at 2d lab at 9.30 am. After uploading the videos, we noticed inconsistency in exposure. We have 2 solutions. The first one would be colour correction and the second one would to be re-shooting the newscaster scenes.
We proceeded with finalizing the storyboard. I guided him on what to draw while helping Nafisah decide on the audio too. I admit my part of the storyboard was very long, due to many transitions.
Gary was getting gastric already so i accompanied him to buy some food while Andreas draws the storyboard. P.S i can't draw yet, sorry. Nafisah told us that she had to follow her parents to JB. Upon hearing this news, i became very stressed out. I heaved a sigh of relieve that she will be back by tonight.
I came back and helped Andreas in finishing the ending of the storyboard. We went around the school taking photos to confirm and help him draw more precise compositions and angles.
This is the sequence for our ending:
Spiral Staircase -> Jupiter Cafe -> the staircase leading to central area -> Business school's Cheers -> top view from engineering -> IT school cafetaria.
I had a stomachache and so retreated to the gents for quite awhile.
We wanted to do a freeze shot but we were reminded that Hanis' group will be doing the same thing. So we decided that we shoot the ending sequence at the soccer field, with us shouting "No Exams!" and throwing up our old textbooks. We will freeze the books in mid air. I will be the cameraman for the whole ending sequence if my medical condition allows me to do so.
I had to leave at 3.15 pm so me and Andreas met up again at 6.45pm. I instructed Gary and Honey to work with Andreas on the scripts and storyboards after I leave.
He showed me the progress and I was quite satisfied with it. We had our dinner and my friend offered us to work at his place. We discussed and finalized everything, or so we thought. We finalized his segment of out of class learning's storyboard. The sunset at Bedok Reservoir Park would be a time lapse, and the late night scene at Pasir Ris Park would feature Changi Harbour. We left at 9 pm.

The nightmare starts at night. I had some changes for Honey's segment. The withdrawal symptoms were as such, described by Andreas in his blog:

"Sudden updates :
at around 11 PM 13th minutes 10th seconds [11:13:10 {based on MSN time history}]; I've received a message from Raymond that he got a new idea to update Honey's part. Thus, we discussed about this. However, since discussion over MSN is quite hard, we had a hard time understanding each other. I redrew and resent to him until he agreed with it finally. We discussed till both of us almost reached the peak of insanity."

Well, basically he went insane trying to get it and draw while i got insane trying very hard to explain to him, and both of us are actually already exhausted and stressed.


I really would like to express my heartfelt thanks for Andreas. Due to my injury, he has to take up a lot of my work.

Day 18

Today is such a fun day. I had the fun of being Andrea's hairstylist. We shot Andreas as the Newscaster today. He came to school in tuxedo holding camera bag, tripod and his own bag. He sure attracted some girls' attention. He had to comb his hair flat. Wear Spectacles. He actually looked very smart in this dress up.
After uploading and choosing the takes that we want, we spent some time reviewing the script, as we had a better idea for the intro animation. Nafisah seems to really enjoy animating.
I am the main cameraman today. Poor Andreas. There was one sequence which took 9 takes to finish. Halfway through shooting Honey's Mac Book ran out of battery. so we let Andreas take a break after shooting for hours, and to memorize and rehearse the script while waiting for the Mac Book to recharge.
Nafisah and I worked on the time schedule while waiting too.
The main problem with Andreas is his accent, which cracked some jokes that really brightened up our day. Watching him swearing and cursing while rehearsing was hilarious.
We decided to change plans for Gary's and Nafisah's segments as we felt that there were too much formal interviews. Gary's will be speech style while Nafisah's was changed to become a commercial.
We finally finished shooting Andreas, and we worked till about 8.20pm+ on the storyboard. We decided to meet tomorrow morning at 9 am.
Very tiring day indeed.

Day 17

DHNC class ended at 10.45 am. We ate lunch and went to 2d lab to upload the videos we took yesterday. We went for moip1 class, our group the only group which everyone was present, projector cannot work after uploading files into the computer, and we moved to another classroom.
Our group went to present first. Mr Ronald said that our storyboard was incomplete. He gave all of us till next Monday to finalize the scripts, storyboard and time schedule.
Everyone left after that, and we used the classroom for shooting honey. This scene was supposed to show Honey, Andreas, Nafisah and me in the midst of a discussion. The camera will then pan and zoom to Honey after awhile, about 10 to 15 seconds. In order to simulate a realistic discussion, we had to talk about online gaming to make Honey more natural. It will be muted so it's not important what we talk about.
After that, we shot Honey's interview sequence. Me and Gary tried the make her backdrop, which is me, Nafisah and Andreas still discussing while she was being interviewed, out of focus and Honey in Focus, but after awhile and some help from the year 2s we concluded that the camera we are using does not allow this. Sigh. Thus, we made the background lighting dimmer.
We soon found out that we need to rewrite the script to make it sound more professional. Honey had an empty stomach, so we let her grab some food while we edit her script. We squeezed our brain juices for bombastic words.
Her finalized script was then projected on the screen.
After shooting for awhile, the nightmare begins.
Camera went out of batter. Gary accidentally shut down the computer. Script was not saved. Good thing we had some takes. Gary was super apologetic and he offered to go home and sacrifice tonight's sleep by listening to the video and rewriting the script.
Poor Gary. Everyone got so stressed and tired till we were giving silly smiles.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Day 16

Original plan was that I am the main cameraman. Due to my injury, Gary took over.
We shot Nafisah's segment today at the art studio at 5th floor. We dropped the idea of the reporter approaching her. We shot her with Zaihan beside her, fiddling with the clay with her. After that she would be interviewed at another corner of the studio. Footages of the clay works were taken too.
I guess Naf was tired and Nervous during the interview. She couldn't remember the script, so we had to write it on paper and place it behind the camera to let her read.
She told us take she is more of a practical person than theory person. I told her to sound more professional in the sense that when people are looking at or listening to her interview they can see that she is confident and familar with her work.
I tried to make her smile during one of the takes by smiling at her throughout the take. She burst out laughing in the end and i got reprimanded by Gary. I am sad because i got scolded but happy to see that Gary is more serious than me! Wow.
Ya, in the end my team felt that the shot was ok. I guess she tried her best. My team complained that my direction standard set too high. Haha.
We took some still shots for the animated sequences.
Met Justin (lecturer)in the art studio while shooting. He told me he has the same birthday as me. Talking about birthday i injured my thumb on my birthday. To add on to that, Justin told me Paris Hilton also have the same birthday. I groaned and comforted myself that Michael Jordan has the same birth date too.
I had to go for Justin's class, so i left my team.
First day of trying to do production with my left hand only. So sad can't help out as much as i am supposed to.

Day 15

Thanks to Gary and his elder brother i can make it to school without having to squeeze in the bus with my cast on. Really appreciate it.
Reached class to find out that Presentation will be postponed to Thursday. Told my team to push all the scenes involving me to the back of the production schedule due to my hand. We showed Gary some of the videos we took on Saturday.
We did not know which model of camera to loan. Mr Ronald helped us loan a DV cam. We cracked some jokes on loaning out 10 tripod stands in contrast to a group loaning out 3 cameras. Well, in my own opinion using 3 cameras for professionalism is okay, but there are other groups also. So, hope that group make good use of them.
We will charge the battery tonight and start production tomorrow!

Day 14

Yesterday, while in the toilet, was going to pull down my pants when my thumb just snapped. I fractured my left forearm before so i know the threshold of pain for serious injury. It felt like my thumb dislocated. As it was a Sunday, I was intending to wait till the morrow and consult the doctor at my resident polyclinic. However, my friend, who is a sports coach, advised me strongly that i should go consult the doctor immediately after i explained my condition. I was in the hospital from 10+ pm to about 2.30 am. Reached home at about 3 am. Woke up in the morning with a really bad headache, so i informed my team to carry on without me.
Turned out to be MCPJ Collateral Ligament Injury. Put in simple terms, ligament rupture. However this type of condition can only be confirmed if they cut open to see it. I have to visit the bone specialist next Monday.
So, Basically, my whole right forearm is in cast. At least till next Monday. So, i won't be able to write, draw, hold camera. Don't know for how long. Pretty stressed out thinking about it. Did some research and i might not be able to use my right thumb effectively for the next few months, or even permanently.
Called Mr Ronald to inform him. Cause there's presentation tomorrow.
I informed my team to carry on without me. Hope they can do their best.

Day 13

Today is a Saturday.
Feedback from members concluded that most of us will be late. Poor Andreas. he reached there (City Hall MRT) at 10.40 when we agreed to meet at 11 am. he then received notice that we have shifted the time to 11.30 am. I figured I'll reach at 11.45 so i bought Donuts for my team as a way of apology. And yes, i reached at 11.45 am. Gary was not able to follow us today though.
We headed to the Padang first. We were shocked to see that the whole place is set up for the Chingay Parade this evening. However we soon found out that it was a happy accident as there were more interesting things to take. I took a video of Andreas walking down the Chingay audience seats. Andreas and I took some photos and videos of both of us too.
We made our way to the esplanade. We found a wonderful view of the car park walkway. We took a video of me and Andreas walking down the walkway taking photos. We had some technical errors though. We decided to take a few more takes. I was already sweating like a pig.
We took a short tea break and continued our quest. lol.
Initial plan was to take a video of him walking along the bridge, and we shoot him from below. However we changed the plan and shot him sitting under trees and sketching the MerLion and the city buildings behind it(Fullerton area).
We then walked from The Esplanade to the Singapore Arts Museum. I wasn't feeling really well to begin with and the condition got worse. We rested for awhile before shooting Andreas again. This scene shows him walking to the museum.
I was really not feeling well already and the others were tired too. So we separated after this.
It was quite tiring but fun.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Day 12

Our dearest Andreas was appointed a new role today. The ONLINE SCRIBE!!!
Read his blog entries to understand why.
Honey will still be the main scribe though.
It's time to review scripts again!
Poor Andreas had to rewrite his script again as it looked as though the out-of-class learning was a compulsory thing and not something he did out of passion for self-improvement. It is supposed to show that it is initiative.
We decided to include Honey in Nafisah's segment as it might look weird with only 1 person in the art studio.
We improvised Honey's segment by having people in the background discussing while she is being interviewed. She voiced out that she is camera shy, but i really hope she can overcome this. We encouraged her and told her to try her best.
Somehow the supposed presentation today was postponed to next Tuesday.

Day 11

It's valentines day. i got a valentine's day-cum-birthday present.(my birthday is 3 days after valentine's day) However, i am still single and unavailable! My current "girlfriend" is Diploma in Moving Images.
Once again, our class was taken over by a different force today...Alan!
We reviewed our scripts as planned.
In my own opinion,
Honey's script is way too informal and the English was quite broken. It's her natural style of speaking though. However, it might sound a bit too informal.
Andreas needs to rewrite his. He didn't quite get the idea as he is still not familiar with common places in Singapore after staying in Singapore for 7 years. However we are still intending to make amendments to his segment so it wasn't really his fault. miscommunication on my part.
Gary's and Nafisah's was generally okay. Nafisah produced 2 scripts, one formal and one informal. Still keeping in view.
We reviewed more past works today. We chose some animations, mainly mine for intro, Gary's and Nafisah's for ending.
I am quite impressed with some of Nafisah's works. Today's session really helped me understand her better. I only got to know her during this module.
Gary's section will be documentary style with slideshow of pictures.
Honey's will be like Gary's except that she do not want to show her face. i hope she can overcome her camera shyness.
I will be shown filming Gary and a trailer of my video will be shown.
Nafisah's will be showing her fiddling with art mediums and a split screen of her and the reporter.
As for Andreas, we will be shooting him at City Hall, little India and Bedok Reservoir.I was hesitant about Gary's idea of the reporter spotting Andreas at Bedok Reservoir Park. It will seem too coincidental.
I was given the task to distribute the dv tapes, however i didn't know and threw the rest of the tapes back to Mr Ronald, expecting him to catch it. Well, it was embarrassing.
We started working on a rough storyboard. Some of us have 3 pm lessons so we dismissed.

Day 10

Our dear scribe, honey is sick and was not present today. Alan took over our class again. It was past 12.30 and there were only about 7 students. We did not want to wait anymore and proceeded with class first. We were separated into different groups for today for a change.
2 tasks were given to ask. We were to list down what we know about Alan and what do we want to know about him. We were having so much fun, and all sorts of guesses and questions were posted. One fact i still remember about Alan is that he has the most fun job in Design School.
We wrote everything on a big piece of paper, and Alan reads or answers them one by one. Julian came in to see the fun. It was hilarious.
Alan finally revealed to us the big secret of this activity.
He stated that he wants to remind us that although it's propaganda but the lecturers still want to know more about us through this video. This will make the video more interesting. I guess it's supposed to fill up curiosity.
We then returned to our original groups and discussed how we could incorporate stuff about ourselves into the video. We felt that Gary had more insight about the DOC, and i had more on video fundamentals. Thus, we exchanged our topics. i am now in charge of video fundamentals.
Each group member in our group were assigned to write drafts for our own scripts and review them together tomorrow. Honey was notified by Andreas.

Day 09

Not much progress was made today. According to the time schedule given to us, we were supposed to gather all the past works that we are going to use. Basically we showed whatever we had and picked out the ones we felt confident enough to showcase. It was sad to find some of our works missing. Andreas and me went downstairs to take pictures of our own 1m x 1m paintings. As there were many past works to browse through, it took up a long time. We dismissed as some of us had to go for our 3 pm lesson.
We clarified some issues regarding the interim assessment. We are expected to hand in our final storyboard and scripts by next Thursday.

Day 08

We are back from our Chinese New Year break. Mr Ronald asked the class whether we have gathered all the materials that we need. He also gave each group leader a copy of the time schedule for this week.
We are supposed to finish our scripts, storyboard and time schedule by the end of this week. We are expected to start production by next week. This week will be free and easy. As we had not studied storyboarding marks will be based on how well we imagine and picture the actual scenes.
We discussed on the details of the newscaster composition such as logos, headlines, animation, name tag, backdrop details, etc. Andreas will be on the right, screen showing upcoming segment on the left, showing logo when pictures of news segments are not needed. headlines bottom of the screen. "News at MOI" was chosen for the news program's name.
We decided on using an analog clock for the countdown intro.
We brainstormed on how the logo will look like. We took about 15 minutes for each member to come up with a few logos. One of my ideas was chosen.
Nafisah was appointed to animate the clock and logo in 3D.
We then briefly estimated the time taken and deduced that it will take roughly 30 seconds.
That's all folks. Can't think of a new catch phrase.

Day 07

Our group assembled at 12 pm to do a finalization of our presentation. We updated new content. I separated the materials from the slide so that it's much easier and faster to show Mr Ronald the materials we are using. I will present 3 slides, Nafisah 4 slides, Andreas 4 slides, honey 2 slides and Gary 2 slides respectively. It is still fair as content to be presented is the same despite in the difference in number of slides.
Hanis' group was the first to present. I did not quite get the idea. I guess Mr Ronald didn't quite get it too as we saw Sholleh trying really hard to explain. However i have to agree with Mr Ronald that we shouldn't make everyone think that coming to MOI is a everybody-if-you-want-then-can thing.
We were up next. Mr Ronald was worried that ours would be too cheesy. We assured him our idea will be quite formal and humour will be restricted to just spicing up the idea a little, and not the main selling point.
Next was Jakes group. Personally i find him quite a threatening competitor after animation fundamentals. No hard feelings, he really has some good stuff and talent.
However we had to wait for some people to return from washroom. Finally the presentation started. They have 2 ideas, a talk show(Ellen DeGeneres show style) and a documentary(Borat show style). A video clip was shown on Ellen DeGeneres to give us an idea of what they meant by talking about serious stuff in a hilarious way. One thing Mr Ronald was worried about is the excessive or unnecessary use of humour.
Most of us thought that they should go along with the talk show as they seemed more well prepared.
Sarah's group would be a spy and crime style dramatization. It is about a apy sent to spy on tp students doing their work.
Mr Ronald was talking about going beyond expectations and stretching the limits when he got irritated by the noise that has been going on from a certain corner and handphone stuff from the same corner and decided to end the class. We quickly asked him questions to clarify things and make him stay.
He told us that if lecturers had different opinions we should collect evidence and consult them. After an official dismissal, our group approached him again to ask about showing higher level work. He answered our queries and left.
We then briefly discussed on whose works to choose from. We estimated that there might be enough time to include senior's works. However completion of our own will be given priority.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

MOI P1 Day 06

Alfie took over our class today as Mr Ronald was not around. We were briefed on the expectations for the informal presentation tomorrow. Basically we have to show Mr Ronald our idea and show him some of the materials we will be using. Scripts were not expected yet.
Alfie reminded us that the video should appeal to secondary school students. He said that the 2 minutes is a guideline for an optimal time-line in which it is sufficient to showcase and yet be within secondary school student's attention span. He then left our classroom and told us to look for him in the next classroom for further inquiries.

After a short lunch break we carried on with our discussion. We compiled all our past works and self portraits and the powerpoint slides which i did. We took pictures of the hard copies and uploaded them into Nafisah's laptop. We decided to bring the discussion on the sequence of who to present to the next morning, before the presentation.
We then proceeded to another tutorial room to take a picture of Andreas, with the projection screen as his backdrop. The composition of Andrea's Newscaster sequences were decided then.

Friday, February 1, 2008

MOI P1 Day 05

We met at 12.30 pm to discuss about the different styles to be used and the material we are going to use.
We started by discussing about the time taken for the introduction. We estimated 5 seconds and 3 seconds for the clock and intro animation respectively. We will be making use of the projector screen for Andreas' newscaster backdrop in the tutorial rooms. Basically, the newscaster will be introducing the different segments of each individual. We decided that Andreas will wear a tuxedo, a tie, spectacles and have a flat side parting hairstyle. I reminded him not to cut his hair.
I suggested that the hobbies section's sequence should be swapped with the ideation/visual presentation segment. This is because we want to show that after all the school work, we still have our own hobbies and interests.
Therefore, the new order is as follows:
Raymond*(DOC), Honey(ideation/VPESS), Andreas(out-of-campus learning), Nafisah(2d+3d art), Gary(Videofun) and Raymond (hobbies/interests)
There was some communication problems about how the animation will look like. We clarified the doubts.
My segment on DOC would feature a short video footage and a slide show with my voicer over. I suggested that we should choose the audio/songs first, but we felt that we should see our product first, as the storyboard has yet to be finalized.
We planned for Honey's segment for ideation. We will be showing students in discussion, using methods like brainstorming, mind mapping etc.
We will capture moments of Andreas taking photos or sketching outdoors for his segment. Some of the works will be showcased. The idea of using an animated Andreas was dropped will be difficult and most importantly too time consuming. This may cause our work to become tacky.
Nafisah will be explaining about the 2d and 3d arts fundamentals and showcasing her works. Works of other group members might be shown too.
As for Gary, he will be interviewed by his owned animated self. Short segments or Climaxes of videos and animations will be showcased.
Up next will be me again, capturing each individual's hobbies on video.
Hobbies/interests are as follows:
Me : Table Tennis
Gary: Guitar
Honey: Online Gaming
Nafisah: Digital illustration
Andreas: Sketching
The ending was modified to Andreas running around other schools shouting no exams, after the dimming of the newscaster set. Voice will be dubbed for clarity and safety purposes.
Each member is to draw our own self portrait using digital or traditional illustration, and pass them over for me to include them for presentation 1.
yep.

MOI P1 Day 04

We had a combined class. We watched Capturing the Friedmans and Bowling For Columbine. It was an interesting exposure to further documentary techniques. It has given us new ideas too.
We were later separated in our own classes again. as Mr. Ronald is back in the Philippines, Alan took over our class. He went through our idea and discussed with us the things that we overlooked or didn't think about.

1. Video will be shown next year, so spoof will not work. Target Audience.
2. Too many animation, might not be able to finish.
3. What we are supposed to include in the video.
4. More detailed list and planning.

so, we removed the spoof part.
We cut down on the animation, and decided that the Newscaster would be a real life person. We chose Gary at first, but after some discussion we change the Newscaster to Andreas. This is due to the fact that Gary will already be interviewed in the video itself. We can also picture Andreas in spectacles and suit. His accent will make him interesting.

Raymond got carried away at some point. Was physically abused by Gary for this.

We decided that we will still animate the animated little figures of ourselves. However we will try to cut down on the animation.

We have decided on the topics.

1)Design Orientation Camp - Me
2)Hobbies - Me
3)Out of class Activities - Andreas
4)2dartfun + 3dArtfun - Naf
5)Anifun and VidFun - Gary
6)Visual Presentation + Ideation - Honey

Although roles are set like this, everyone would be involved in most of the stuff most of the time. However the names stated will hold a larger responsibility for what they are in charge of.

We also decided to do a "Design School Has No Exams!" propaganda at the end. We were laughing sinisterly. However it takes guts to complete this the way we discussed it. Well, I'll leave this to your imagination.

Thats all folks.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

MOI P1 Day 03

Today is a combined class. Alfie cleared some misunderstandings and reinforced on what we are supposed to do. We were shown various video excerpts.
As usual, from the start of my poly life, whenever something which is not mainstream is shown, or anything that some ppl have not seen before, or something that is old, or not to their liking, think it is stupid and pointless. When i say it's not crap, i will try to explain but most of them will still think it's crap. I not quite sure how to explain also, my bad. Although some do not like it they keep quiet. i appreciate that. But come on man. We are in MOI, and what alot of us are lacking in is exposure. We don't need 100 new Michael Bays every year to make 100 new Michael Bay movies every few years, and have Michael Bay videos everywhere in YouTube. I am not saying Michael Bay is not good, but he can be considered to be an icon for more modern styled movies. What they do not understand or want to understand is that many of the movies nowadays have many traces of the old movies. And some of the media shown to us is so well-known that it is really a shame for a designer studying in a video/animation course not to know about. COME ON. It's already MOI PROJECT ONE. A movie that you do not know or do not like does not mean it's crappy. There's a difference between "you think/I think it's lousy and It's lousy". look, i don't like some of the stuff too, but there are definitely things to be learnt too. And i remembered one of the lecturers saying sth like if you just want to hold camera shoot/technical technical, then no use coming to poly. Quite true. I am not referring to anyone specifically here, and i mean no offense. I am saying these to my friends for their own good...please learn to appreciate.
Sorry for being such a whiner, really really sorry. it has been great working with you guys. Really. Sincerely.
We were shown the making of lord of the rings, iron man animated movie, monsters inc, fog of war, shoot em up, hostage, some mount everest thingy, and maybe some others which i had forgotten. quite inspiring.
i hope that none of you who read my blog are offended by this post.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

MOI P1 Day 02

Group leaders were asked to present our ideas. Our group only had a very rough idea. Initial idea was to just film different people doing different modules, showing the process, then the product. Fast catchy music to be used to make the video look as if the work we do is cool, happening, and exciting. However we thought that it is quite a challenge to make the pace fo the video fast and exciting when we have to make a 10 minutes video.

We separated into our own group and began discussion. We decided on Honey to be the scribe. I had some communication problem with Andreas HAHAHAHA (let me be informal for awhile thanks) lol but Nafisah sorted my cranky brain out.

We came up with alot of ideas: (Credits go to Honey, as she is the scribe, the ideas are copied from her blog and pasted here, but i edited them.

1) Create an animation that goes around filming the video in our place, instead of showing a video that shows us animating.

2) Video filming during the animation process [Example one of us are filmed while drawing the animation out and the other is filming us. Slowly the animation goes into transition into a video. The transition part is somewhat like what we did in Animation Fundamentals final project( 3d animation as background for 2d animation, so that we know where to animate.)]

3) News reporter who is a animation character reporting news. The small television will be zoomed in, then showing us show casing our best works. We will be using animated characters to portray us. Also we will include an interview session to make it more news-like, interviewee will be Gary since he can act XD but he is interviewed by his animated self ~ To make it EVEN MORE news like, we are going to include the ticking clock before the news start (just like real life). The news reporter will also be saying a few words before actually reporting our news X_x But we needed to make the introduction LONGER so we are making an advertisement like TP's open house ad. The ending is decided just like real life news as well like the old times where the news reporter says byebye, credits are shown at the same time as the lights are dimmed and workers are putting away the equipments .

4) All of us are at a museum which displays our work piece and when we open a door, a bright light shines on us and turns us to animated characters. Personally I found it to be too cheesy and cliche.

5) A small animated character for each of us and it is going to present our works (one for one) (video mix with animation)

We then decided on idea number 3, the newspaper reporter idea. That explains the amount of details in the idea compared to the others. We spent time developing the idea. As you can see, the idea contains parts of the other ideas.

To add on to Honey's details on the chosen idea, the character of the new reporter will be slightly plump, and we plan to include random fidgets/actions to make it amusing and show that we animators from MOI do not just animate the news reporter to just open and close his mouth. He has to be slightly amusing and appealing. We got carried away on making him amusing, but i reminded that it should not be overdone as parents might be looking at it. We decided that the random actions will be decided when we are animating.

We discussed on how to end it. initially we wanted to have a weather forecast, and TP is always having good weather, or follow recent news programmes where at the end of the show credits were shown and the background is showing some interesting event. However we felt that it was unnecessary and that ending with the lights dimming out and the crew keeping the equipment while showing the credits would work better.

We then decided that all of us would animate our own self-animation/self portrait, however Nafisah and Andreas will be the main animators, Gary would be the so called main actor, i will most probably be handling the video camera and ya, honey is the scribe like i said earlier on. However we will assist each other.

Basically, the structure of our idea is confirmed, however the sequence of whose works to present first will be discussed when we bring our past works together.

Thats all folks.





Monday, January 28, 2008

MOI Project 1 Day 01

We assembled at LT 25 for a briefing by Alan. 3 other lecturers were there. We were briefed on the important dates on the calender and details on the things we will be doing. We are supposed to form groups of 4 to 5 people and make a video showcasing each individual's life during the past year in TP DES. There will also be presentations in between the process work. We were also briefed on equipment and facility availability. We were then separated into our respective classes, where we divided into our desired groups. My group consists of Gary, Andreas, Naf, Honey and me. We were briefed on the details of this blog. Mr Ronald reminded us that these will be the people whom we will be working with for the next 2 blocks. Well, there are bound to be differences and disagreement, but i guess we would have to conform to each other :)