I have stayed in Singapore practically my whole life. Being merely an 18year old does not technically get you very far. So yes, I have grown accustomed to the “Typical” Singaporean way in certain perspectives. One, having studied here my whole life, definately I have been brought up apply the Singaporean Teaching Methods. One thing is for certain is that, being a critical thinker in Singapore is rare. However, through the influences of my Family and Friends, I have managed to teach myself to think more out of the box or even thinking without the box. Being influenced by them is the factor that allows me to be an atypical Singaporean. On a personal note, I have noticed that Secondary Schools in Singapore have taught most of the students to have that certain one sided thinking. Also, it is those who do not conform to such preachings are the ones that mainly succeed in life.

Teenage Singaporean cliques tend to get locked up once the clique is formed. Once that lock is on, prying that lock open to get in is like repainting the Mona Lisa, difficult but possible. I believe that that is what sets me apart from the rest. I can’t say that I am the most sociable guy in the world because I am not. I am a non-conformist in the typical Singaporean Way. If I were to write what I think about this Way, It probably be best if I wrote a novel.

Story is Action
- Action is any kind of activity, movement, interaction of characters with heir surroundings
- Talking about feelings is not as powerful as illustrating why you feel this way through your actions

Film is behaviour
- Actions are simply manifestations of behaviour
- Human emotions are understood by watching the actions and reactions of the characters.

Dynamic action
- Has the potential to enrich the experience of the audience by building an emotional relationship between the characters and audience

Week 7

Functions of Dialogue
1. Conveys messages of the story.
2. Explores characters emotions.
3. Explains character personalities.
4. Creates mood
5. Shows relationship between characters
6. Makes the film more interesting.

Elements of dialogue

Dialogue reveals character
- a character talks about himself or herself
- other people talk about that character

Dialogue establishes relationships between characters.
- Characters express attitudes and opinions that are in opposition to one another.

•Good effective dialogue will move the story forward.
•Dialogue communicates faces and information to the audience.
- it conveys essential exposition.
- Characters will talk about what happened, establishing the story line

• Dialogue ties the script together.

Bad Dialogue- share feelings with one another, its fake.
Bad language
Not realistic

Need to serve a different purpose, must not be fake or too real

Common mistakes
• Dialogue should be used sparingly, never telling the audience what they can see for itself.
- Dialogue is no substitute for action.

Week 6

Writing for an audience

Screenwriter = Story teller
- The cinematic experience is not just made up of words you might put on paper but the audiences’ emotional reaction to that information

Director to the people
Writer to the people
Camera to the people – All not true

It’s people to people

What is the writer’s purpose?
- To connect
- Themselves
- Their unique vision
- The material
- The drama
- Others

- Audiences want to be transported by a screen play

Where do you look for a story?
Inside yourself.

Everything to learn about other people is already in you.

Now you need to figure out how to connect to it.

Experience
How does memory differentiate from experience?

“Are memories true?’ No

Memories are filtered through your reality

- All people have fragments of stories.
- These potential ideas prompt your desire.
- Respond emotionally and intellectually to what you heard.
- Good stories are born in the heart, not the head.
- Remember the role of the audience.
- After all, you ARE the audience. (Myself)

Week 4

Definition of tragedy
It is an imitation of action (mimesis) this is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament; in the form of action not narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its kartharsis of such emotions.

Must be acted and not only through narration.

Tragedy must content 6 plots.
• Plot
• Character
• Diction – ie. Dialog, or what it is said.
• Thought – ie. Inner life of the character and his/her struggles
• Spectacle – The visual aspect of the play
• Song

According to Aristotle, tragedy…

• Shows rather than tells.
• Creates a cause-and-effect chain that clearly reveals what may happen.
• Arouses not only pity but also dear, because member of the audience can imagine themselves within the cause-and-effect chain.

PLOT is the most important feature of tragedy.

What is plot?

• Plot is the arrangement of incidents.
• Difference between plot and story is that plot contains the overall view of the story, while story contents everything else outside the plot. Eg, all the minor stuffs, before, after and during the movie.
• It is not the story itself, but the way the incidents are presented to the audience.
• The structure of the play.

Episodic Plots

• According to Aristotle, the worst kinds of plots.
• The acts (episodes) succeed one another with probability or necessity.
• The only thing tying together the events in such a plot is the fact that they happen to the same person

Simple vs. complex plots
Simple
• Simple has only a “change of fortune”
• Eg. Character losing wallet. That’s it. Doesn’t learn from mistake.

Complex
• Complex has a reversal of intention “peripeteia” and recognition “anagnorisis” connected with the catastrophe.
• Character learns from his mistake.

Important Vocabulary

• Katharsis – Sudden change of emotions that is caused by the tragedy especially at the end of the climax.
• Mimesis – Imitation of life.
• Anagnorisis – moment of recognition
• Perepeteia – when things change from good to bad
• Hamartia – The lack of self knowledge

Character

• Character supports plot
• Personal motivations are connected to the cause-and-effect chain
• The protagonist in a tragedy should be renowned and prosperous, so his change can be from good to bad.
• In the ideal tragedy, the protagonist will mistakenly bring about his own downfall – not because he is sinful or weak – but because he does not know enough.

3 act structure

Advantage of working 3-act structure is it breaks down the story and makes it more manageable.

• Beginning, middle, end
• 1st act: set up
• Story begins with a goal-oriented character introduced at a point of crisis.
• The character meets roadblock produced by the plot and antagonist.

• 2nd act: confrontation
• Action intensifies.
• An event happens which forces the character to make his or her choice.

• 3rd act: resolution
• Level of effort rises to new heights.
• Both plot and character is resolved.

Here is my views towards it. I believe that the blame(yes, blame) starts with us. I’m not trying to point fingers to any Tom, Dick or Harry. What I mean is I would think that communication a reason behind this. Right now, in society, English is one of the more widely used language all around the world. So obviously, for Singapore to diversify, we had to meet to the needs. English was made compulsory as our first language to create social coherance and break barriers amongst our multi-racial communities. I have pardoned the seniors, well, because in their days education was not as advanced and accessible to them. Lets call them our reasons to be grounded to our culture. But talking about our younger crowd, despite English being our first language, why is our communications skills still considered to be under the norm. Yes, we may be able to read and write well, but are we able to apply such skill to our daily lives? Grades are merely a tool to get us jobs in the corporate world. But how we apply these skills is what keeps us in it.

Singlish. How is it that singapore has pushed Singlish so far, that the use Singlish has far surpassed English. 72% of Singapore are mainly Chinese. And it is mainly the chinese population that uses Singlish. Singlish had broken the English language grammatically. There is no longer a need to form full sentences. We have made it such that everything has been cut to be made easier to the public. So simplified even tourist don’t understand us. One time I came across a couple of tourists walking around Clark Quay. They were lost. So they decided to ask for directions from a few local teenagers. One of them actually knew where that location was and gave them directions. Trust me when I say this, his grammar was so poor and his singlish. I swear, I overheard the tourist tell his partner that was so difficult to comprehend that they were better off on their own.

Another point I find necessary to bring out is being “Kiasu”. Singapore and Kiasu go together like pepperoni and pizza. I don’t think I need to elaborate any further. But what I will give to you is an example of typical Kiasu-ism in Singapore. This only happened a few days ago. I was on a bus on my way to Lavander to renew my passport. The bus was crowded. Somehow, i slowly progressed to the back door of the bus where there was a caucasian lady(A) beside me, a lady(B) seated on a chair and a lady(C) standing behind “A”. In a crowded bus, movement is of the minimum. The bus reached a stop and and “B” gets off the bus. Just then as “A” was about to take the vacant chair, “C” somehow managed to maneuver through the crowd and got onto the seat faster than “A”. I noticed “A’s” faced changed from normal to utter disgust. I felt disgusted as well. I felt embarrassed for this country.

Please don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to suck up to the Caucasians. What i’m trying to drive at is that there are many “Ugly Singaporeans” out there. And if this problem doesn’t stop, things might just get ugly.

Yesterday, I watched “Happy Feet”. I would rate this show a 3.5/5. Only because the ending was a little “off”. But other than that, the show was quite interesting. They used old school songs and mixed it with penguins. It was pretty hilarious.

“I’m gonna eat you with ketchup!” The walrus says
“Yeah yeah, thats if you can catch up(ketchup)” Goes the Amigos.

So, if your looking for something cute, funny and cold. Go watch Happy Feet!

I guess there isn’t much to reflect this week. Off to study for your quiz!
Peace out!

I’ve kinda decided to do my reflections first because I have no clue to whomI should write this letter to. My past seems to be so vague. I keep many mental images of my past but you know, when you want to go into detail, you just have to stress the memory file out of our minds. Its funny how everyone’s past seems to be so clear but actually it is always spiced up one way or another. Like how a simple action of lifting a finger becomes torturous endevour of how difficult it was to lift the damn finger! I mean, come on! It’s only a finger!

I guess without spice there is nothing much to talk about. Even if there is no more spice left, we turn to the sugar. Something sweet! If even that runs out, the only thing to turn to is the bitching factor.

I have not written a letter in almost two years. Who knows? I might even have forgotten how to write a letter. I doubt it. Writing a letter is like riding a bicycle, you’ll never forget.

Its week 6 already. Time flies too quickly. I can still remember the first day of school for this semster. Practically everyone was early. Many wondering whether the lecturers this semester will be law abidingly strict or christmas spirit nice. And then, 11am finally arrives, footsteps of the first lecturer could be heard. A big man carrying a serious look approaches. As he unclocks the preview theatre, a big smile on his face could be seen. What a relief! Studio production turned out to be one of the most interesting modules this semester. Don’t get me wrong, storytelling is interesting too, but writing and I just can’t seem to mix.

-End-

Putting all that aside, President Bush touches Singapore grounds today. Honestly, I don’t’ see what all the big “hoo-ha” is about. You don’t see America making a big “hoo-ha” when Nathan goes over. But like my folks always said. An opinion is like an ass hole, everyone has one.

Last Lesson, we watched a movie, Election. In my opinion, I felt that this show displayed one of the ugliest forms of love and making love. I guess this movie only shows that for every beauty, there will always be a beast accompanied with. A set, if you might call it. However, if the producers were able to portray a more ugly side to Reese Witherspoon and she is still able to maintain THE level of fame and fortune as the Hollywood stars, I would say that they have probably done one heck of a good job. Tracy Flicks, a perfectionist in high school. She believes that destiny controls the universe. Mess with it and it’s going to come right back and kick you straight in the nuts. And boy, did they mess with destiny in this movie. Despite all the weird things that happened during the show, I felt that the show was pretty good. It was a good bad show.

Recently, I have come to terms with a program called “SKYPE”. I wouldn’t call it a messenger; it’s more of an online video call. Might I add, it is very clear, it’s like talking on the phone. And for all you cheapskates out there, it is totally FREE! So get one and we can have a great online conference call. Who would have thought that such a minute program could cause me to hype up to such an extreme level. They should call it “S-HYPE”.

Putting great film aside, I’m here to reflect on what was done on the Friday of week 3. Basically, we continued on the practices on Aristotle. Each team was to present the questions given to them. All except Vani brought the VGA adaptors for our Mac computers. Thanks Vani! Thankfully, Vani was in my group, so we had the upper hand in VGA adapting! Lame, I know. During the presentations, Ryan would cut in and introduce points to us for us to note down. One thing I still remember is the word “Hamartia – the lack of self knowledge.” I would say that for this reflection there really isn’t much to say. It was a continuation of the previous week’s tutorial. But this one thing I remember, there is some sort of movie this Friday. Ryan wouldn’t say what. I guess we will just have to wait another day.

As i recall, Ryan said that we weren’t allowed to post notes that we took down for this blog entry. I guess that is a little like cheating? I’d personally like to call it taking up negative space. With less negatives, there will be more positives. However, I respect his decision and that shall be the bottom line. Because when you give respect, you get respect. Also, without it there is no room for friendship to enter. Trust me, it sounds a tinge homosexual, but don’t get me wrong, I’m straight when it comes to sexual orientation.

Back to this reflection, basically we did two things in tutorial. One, was to take one of your friend’s twelve opening statement and develope a story from that very statement. What I chose from Sonia was, ” The men don their bikinis and the women their trunks as they commence work at the harbour.”. Afterwhich I came up with some dramatic, sob story about the world coming to an end. The Second Ice Age was among us. We are all going to die! I wonder what would happen if the Second Ice Age did come. The world of dinosaurs ended with the first and it would be Humans with the second. What’s next? The further evolution of Men from the cave era to the brick buildings. The’d probably find a way to build shelter with AIR. But if our shelter is made of air, what would happen if any natural disaster came our way?

Two, was that we were supposed to do a research on Aristotle. The questions that was posted to Group A, was to find out when Aristotle was born, what was Aristotle’s Poetics. And two other questions which i would not write down as if i did, i would be writing some form of notes down into a blog. Of course that would be some sort of criminal offence. Kidding! I am offically done with my reflections journal as i have nothing else to write. Off to my 50 Word Stories!

P.S. Ryan, if you are reading this. Say Hello LOUDER next time. Haha, with all this haze, dirt clogs our ears.

I felt that storytelling would be the first day to an endless supply of exaggerating stories which had the amazing power to influence the world like how “Harry Potter” swept the world off her feet using his “firebolt” (His magic broomstick). Pun intended. There was a simple reason why I joined Film Sound and Video, which was to tell and sell stories to the world. But for now, to the school. And obviously, with this storytelling module it is going to help me out. We started out with introductions, “Rapping Ryan”, “Wonderful Wendy”,”Dominating Dom”,”Sexy Sonia” and I, “Big Ben”. It was humerous and a little embarassing, but that ice-breaker pretty much did the trick.

As the lessons progressed, we were told to write a story using Dominic, a hula outfit and a temple. Although it seemed kind of pointless and random, but it was interesting. It felt as if it were a short test. A test to indicate how creative one could be within a short span of 20minutes. This was what i came up with.
“Dominic puts on his hula girl outfit and enters the temple. Tunnel of lights lit up of as he passes each section of the temple floors. Every step he takes sends a chill down his spine. As he walks along, he notices a small beam of light at the end of the path. It slowly grows larger and brighter as it draws nearer. As he takes his final step out into the light, a giant Buddha statue overshadowed him. Monks were seated in numerous rows facing the great Buddha statue chanting in what seemed to be Sanskrit. Fascinated by such a unique way of life, he pauses to absorb the moment. However that did not deter him from his original reason of entering such a sacred temple, which was to hide from the mysterious agents that were following him ever since the moment he arrived in Vietnam. “

Actually, Blogging is not as easy as it looks, its much tougher. On one hand, we would be writing on how emotional one got that day. On the other, we could be posting achievements to showcase what talents one possesses. Well, there are many other kinds but it would not be practical to be going through on how many hands a blog has. To conclude this reflections post, Storytelling rocks and Blogging is a tough nut to crack.