Cumulative log - Friday 23 April 2010

Thursday 22 April 2010 – I’m taking a day off to submit form C and to settle matters regarding my YTN loan.

Friday 23 April 2010

9.40am – I came to the office. I then continue researching matte painting.

Around 10.00 to 12.00am – I gather few pictures from the net and use it for my own matte painting. At first I sketch down the general idea. Then as I build up the parts, I search the net again for suitable picture. Im doing this back and forth most of the time.

12.45pm – I go out to Friday pray. I pray at Tabung Haji Mosque at Kelana Jaya. On the way I noticed something wrong again with my car, and this time its the steering. Its kicking to the right most of the time when moving. I decided to find any workshop nearby after prayer.

2.15pm – Friday pray ends, I go out finding workshop. I found one, and luckily its just beside a ‘mamak shop’, so after sending my car to the shop, I then go to lunch.

2.35pm – I finish eating. I go to the workshop again. The foreman said my front right tyre already ‘bengkak’. The tyre problem caused another problem on the alignment and they have fix it. However, they suggest me to buy a new tyre, but I don’t have enough money. I decided to swap that front right tyre to the back right tyre. The problem solved for now. I have to pay RM40 for the job.

2.50pm – I arrive at the office.

3.15pm – Ms Winny ask me and my co-worker Fai to go to ‘Vision New Media’ at PJ again, this time to return the item that we borrow last week.

3.40pm – I arrive at ‘Vision New Media’. We then met with Mr. Shahrul and other 3 of his co-workers. We double check the item and confirm by ticking and signing the form.

There are however some item missing such as name tag. We were asked to re-do the tag and some other things and give to them next week.
4.00pm – We headed back to the office from the ‘Vision New Media’

4.30pm – We arrive at the office again. I then continue my task until 8.00pm
8.00pm – Dismiss.

Cumulative log - Wednesday 21 April 2010

Wednesday 21 April 2010

9.50am – My car problem come again with the same overheated problem. Luckily it happens only a few kilometers from the office. I managed to stop at nearby petrol station and pop up the hood. This time the radiator fan malfunction. After a few minutes of try and error, I manage to get it to work again, it was a wiring problem where the connection melted due to last overheat.

10.15am – I came to the office. I continue to work on the task given. This time I compose the ‘green screen’ footage onto the background I created yesterday.

1.30pm – I go out to lunch

2.40pm – I come back to the office. I then continue my work.

Around 4.00pm to 5.00pm – Mr Micheal come to see my work. He is not satisfied with my work. He mention that the scene looks like the character are walking with a static wallpaper. He briefly explain what is exactly he wanted by showing me few examples of matte painting.
 Matte painting is a film technique where the background of a scene is either manipulated or created from scratch, to simulate an environment which is sometimes impossible to capture. Matte painting main features is the fantasy like feeling while maintaining logical and realism. below is some example from the net.

Around 5.00pm to 7.00pm – I then research about matte painting on the net and find few more examples.
Meanwhile Ms Winny pass me the Form C for me to submit to UNITEN.
7.45pm – Mr Micheal and Ms Winny dismiss us.

Cumulative log - Tuesday 20 April 2010

uesday 20 April 2010

As we work on last Sunday, we was given an off yesterday (Monday).

10:00pm – I arrive to the office. Only Mr Micheal and Ms Winny is in the office. They were busy in the office so I just turn on my PC and continue my last work. I bring to the office my own graphic tablets to assist my job.
10.30pm – I finish downloading driver files needed to run the tablet, so I install the tablet. I then sets up the configuration needed to run the tablet properly.
11:20pm I’m still do the modeling. Below is the progress

12:30pm – I add some sort of railing blocks and trees.

2:00pm – I go out to lunch
3:00pm – I go back to the office
4:30pm – I finish adding textures and background.

5:10pm – I adjust few details and change the textures so it looks more realistic

5:30pm – The rendered scene (removed, will be included in official paperwork)

7.30pm – Ms Winny dismiss us by phone as they are doing offsite work.

Cumulative log - Sunday 18 April 2010

7.00am – Although Mr Micheal ask me to came at 6.30am, I decided to go a little bit late as I couldn’t get enough sleep. I arrive at the Cow Studio. There are not only my co-workers from the office, there are also Camera crew, “Geng Bas Sekolah” crew, a few Astro staff, the directors and few other workers. The main talent of the show are also there.

I arrive at the same time ‘the bus’, the main theme of the show arrive.

I search for Mr Micheal and he seems busy setting up his camera before passing it on to the camera crew. He doesn’t seems angry with me.

7.05am – I meet my co-workers and help them tweaking the background cloth. We need to reposition some parts of the cloth, re-paste the cellotape and some minor jobs.

7.30am – I help to clean up the floor by wiping it with a piece of wet cloth.

7.45am – The bus enters the studio. After it has been positioned properly, I and my co-workers need to wipe out the tyre markings on the floor. After that, we are asked to polished the bus using car-wax, wipe and shine all the tyre, wipe the windows so the bus looks clean and good for the show.

Around 8.20am - Breakfast. Nasi lemak, sambal, ikan bilis and boiled egg.

8.45am – We are asked to standby to help the crew when the time comes. Meanwhile the actors are practicing the opening dance of “Geng Bas Sekolah”.

The actors are practicing the opening dance

 

The directors give some briefing to the actors

Starting around 9.00am until 1.00pm – They start shooting. The scene is the main dance and song of “Geng Bas Sekolah”. They retake the shot everytime there was a mistake, or if the director asks to. If my memory is correct, up until 1.00pm they still shooting the same thing, but with a change of camera angle and movement.

Around 1.00-1.30pm – Lunch break. There is nasi putih with ikan masak asam pedas, ayam goreng rempah and few fruits as deserts. There are cold lemon/mango drinks as well. They also provide ice cold mineral water, 100plus and coca-cola in a icebox for any crew, which can be taken anytime.

Around 1.30pm-2.00pm – They start off on what they have left before. According to the main storyboard, there are 16 shots per page, with a total of 4 pages, so it should be 64 shots. However, some shot are replaced and also removed as the director finds appropiate.

The storyboard
If my memory is correct, they are now taking shot of per single character posings while dancing as oppose to before where all actors dance together. Some shots require the camera main track/trolley (I don’t know what it is called) to be moved so I and my co-workers helps the camera crew.

The camera main track/trolley

As for the shooting, they keep re-takes again and again until the director satisfied. If I’m not mistaken up until 4.00pm the shots was still below 20 from the total of 64 shots required.
Around 4.00 to 4.30pm there was a tea break. They serve 3in1 sachets where they are milo and nescafe and whoever wants to drink need to mix it with water themselves. Here are watercooler next to the servings. Mr Micheal asks one of my co-workers, Thabi, to buy some goreng pisang for all of us.

Some scene require the front shot of the main bus. However, some red bulbs cover on the front of the bus was missing so we need to fix that.

The decoy for light bulbs

At first, my co-workers, Jason was asked to buy some ‘tikam’ balls from grocery shops nearby and use it as a decoy. We use the transparent side of the balls and paste a piece of red colored transparent plastic to the surface. The job was done by me and the few co-workers. Unfortunately, the ‘props-master’, the guy who incharge of the props are unsatisfied wih the job. So he ask one of my co-workers to buy paints outside and try to paint it instead. The job was then done by the ‘props-master’ himself.

After the paint dry, we together helps the ‘props-master’ to attached the decoy onto the bus, where  the broken red lights are at. We attached it using ‘UHU’ paste and ‘Super-glue’. 2 light on top are okay but the one in the middle can’t stick properly. So the ‘prop-master’ use the so black ‘cloth-tape’ to stick it, making the tape just like the border of the light cover. It seems to blend well with the bus.

From 4.30 up until 7.30pm – we still doing the same job, cleaning the floor whenever the camera track move or if necessary. Some scene require the bus to be moved as well so we need to wipe of the tire markings.

At one scene, on the actual show, the bus is supposed to move, and as soon as the bus stop, the children of “Geng Bas Sekolah” are running towards the bus. The shots was done properly, and the director seems to satisfied, however one of the camera crew, which I believe the head of the camera crew, tells the director,

“Eh? Ini bas siapa bawak? Hantu kah?”. The director, Soraya realise her mistake and quickly find someone who can be the driver.

And then he found out that I was the only guy who wears formally (I wear long sleeve shirt with long slag pants) so she asks me to become the bus driver. For that scene, I was required to hold the steering wheels and stay stills. There was about 3 to 4 re-takes before the shots ends.

I became the bus driver

7.30pm – I asked permission from Mr. Micheal to go out until 8.30pm. I drive to the mosque about 2 to 3km nearby to pray and rest for a while. Meanwhile it’s raining outside.

8.40pm – I drive back to the studio. I’m a little bit late because there is still raining outside causing the traffic to move slow. At the time I arrive, they are on dinner break and almost all staff are eating.

Around 9.00pm up until 11.00pm – The shot starts again. A couple of minute later the director asks my permission to help her on a few shots. I am required to become the bus driver again but this time only my hand and feet get the coverage. It’s about the shot of the driver turning the steering wheels, switching on the signal lights,  press accelerator pedal and changing gears.

Around 11.00pm – 2nd last final shot.  Its about the bus moving towards the camera. It’s very dangerous as the bus are driven and not being pushed towards the cameraman. At the first bus move and stop shot it seems that the bus is braking too early and not close enough to the camera. The next try brings the bus very close to the cameraman.

The bus coming towards the camera at the right side (not in the picture)

Everytime the bus is nearly enough, the cameraman shouts “Oo...op!”, afraid that the bus failed to stop. I and my co-workers meanwhile just watch the scene.

Around 11.15am -  The final shots. The cameraman are positioned on the back of the bus near the exhaust pipe, to capture the smoke coming out from the pipe. The driver (the real one) are required to press the accelerator a few times. The smoke is vast enough to cause us to cough, let alone the cameraman. After a few smoke, the cameraman can’t take it anymore and request the cameraman head to stop. The director satisfied with the shots.

Around 11.30am – The bus moved out from the studio driven home by the driver. The camera crew then packed up their camera stuff. The track and the camera trolley (I don’t know the exact name) are already dissamble by us. The camera crew and ‘props-master’ climb up the crane and dissamble the lighting on the ceiling. I and my co-workers helps on moving the camera stuff and accesories to the lorry.

At around 11.45pm – Item loaded to the lorry before need to be returned to ‘Cinerent’. I and my co-worker Thabi,  follow the lorry from behind to the location. Then I and Thabi helps to unload the item from the lorry onto the storage facilities there. There was also one camera crew help us out.

I at Cinerent unloading the items from the lorry.

At around 12.30pm – We finally finish unloading, and head back to the studio.
The camera crew and the ‘props-master’ finish up dissamble the lighting. We would like to use the crane to dissamble our ‘white cloth’ background, but they are very kind to help us to do that as well. All we need to do is to take off the white cloth from the wood piece, take off the cellotape and throw away the tension wire.  Then we fold up the cloth and put them aside.

We then need to return the studio lighting that the camera staff dissamble before to the back of the studio. I and my co-workers moved the lighting using trolley and also by hand.

At around 1.20pm –We load our own stuff onto Mr Micheal car. The stuff are brooms, some pails, mop, paint, and few stuffs. These item need to be put in our warehouse, where the old office are. Mr Micheal however dismiss me first as there are already enough people to do the job. I asks my co-workers friends whether they are okay and they don’t really mind. So I decided to go home first. Mr Micheal give us a day off the next day (Monday).

At around  1.55pm – I’m home.

Cumulative log - Saturday 17 April 2010

8.40am – From previous day experience that Mr Micheal and Ms Winny come to the office at 10.00am, I adjusted my time and take off a little bit late from usual.

While on the way, Ms Winny calls me, telling that they will be late today as they are preparing for shooting. I didn’t expect the traffic become so clear that it takes only 30 minute instead of 45 to the office, so I arrive at around 9.30am again.

At 10.15am, one of my co-workers come to the office and ask me to go to groundfloor. At ground floor, Mr Micheal and 2 of my co-workers are in the car. Mr Micheal then ask me to come in and we headed to my car.

At my car, Mr Micheal ask us to transfer 2 big box onto my car. Then I and one of the co-workers was asked to go to ‘Cinerent (M) Sdn. Bhd’ and pass the item to them. The Cinerent (pronounced as Si-Ne-Ren)  is at Kepong, nearly 15KM from the office. On the way to the place, there was a RM1.60 toll.
In Kepong, suddenly my car overheated. My car is 20 years old Proton Saga and probably no longer be able to survive on heavy traffic jams.

 I park my car on some shops area and pops up the hood. I detected the problem. It was the thermostat housing leaking water.

Luckily car sparepart shop and Hardware is nearby so I head up there to buy sealant gasket and some spanner. After 15 minute I fix the problem and fill up the radiator with 2 large mineral water that I buy from grocery shop. I then straight headed to the location.

10.45am - At Cinerent, I and my co-workers unloaded the item and bring up to first floor. Now I know the item which is in the box was the main camera, costs about RM300,000. At cinerent, a few recording crew test up the camera and its equipment. My co-workers asks me to wait here while they borrow my car to buy few items that Mr Micheal ask him.

Camera RM300,000. HD 1080p Digital Recorder with Hardisk, Branded ‘RED’

 

 

‘Cinerent’, where the camera were tested

Camera Crew testing the camera

12.00pm - The crew finally finish testing the camera. I then help loading a bunch of camera equipment onto a lorry. All of the item are big and heavy.

 

 Camera Equipment loaded into the lorry

12.30pm – Mr Micheal and Ms Winny came to the Cinerent. As my car are still being used, Mr Micheal asked me to ride on his car. We then headed to the recording studio.
12.40pm – We arrive at ‘Green Cow Studio’ in Kepong, a few minutes from the Cinerent. The lorry which I help them to load the equipment before are already there. I then help the crew to unload the equipment.

1.20pm – After the item has been unloaded, Mr Micheal ask me to follow him with his car again.  Mr Micheal, Ms Winny and 1 of my co-worker Fai then headed to lunch.

At first they headed to one Thai shop. They asking me if this shop is okay. There was no Halal logo, and to confirmed that I also asking the shop owner himself and he say no muslim eat here.

So we search for another shop. Ms Winny then suggest ‘Old Town Kopitiam’ and I said okay since they serve Halal food and I and my parents has go there a couple of times. Our food was ‘on table’ by Mr Micheal.

2.00pm – We then headed to a hardware shop.

2.15pm - Mr Micheal and Winny busy disscussing with the shop owner, while I wait outside. There are also 1 of my co-workers already there. One of my co-workers are absent today.

2.30pm – 2 of co-workers who borrow my car also came here.

2.40pm – Mr Micheal and Winny finally finish buying the item. I and all of the co-workers then headed to the studio.

 Green Cow Studio

2.50pm – We arrived at Cow Studio. We start by unloading items that we bought from hardware shop. There are a large bucket of white paint, white cloth, some long piece of wood and few tools.
3.00pm – We then arrange the wood piece (about 1.5 meters each) near the foot background. Then 2 of my co-workers climb up to the crane and measure how long it is from top to bottom. After that we measures the white cloth and cut it onto long pieces. Although it sounds simple, the job take almost 2 hours.

I attach the tension cable to the wood

 

My team mate which help me during the process

Around 5.00pm –Then we need to align the cloth piece onto the wood piece and staple it. The cloth will then hang on to the wood. We then split our work into 2, which 2 people for each team. First team will paste cellotape inbetween each cloth piece so that they become a very large piece. Second Team that is on top of the crane will hang up the cloth. Including me, there are only 3 guys inside the studio, so Mr Micheal and I do the paste job while the other 2, Jason and Fei do the hanging cloth job.

Around 7.30-8.00pm – Mr Micheal and Ms Winny go out to buy us dinner. One of my co-workers, Kok Fai come in to help us out. Before this he is with Ms Winny and is not in the studio.

Around 8.30pm – We still doing our job. Mr Micheal come to give our dinner.  Although it is nasi Goreng and ayam packed in polistrine,  and Mr Micheal told me he bought the dinner at ‘Kedai Mamak’, I doubt its origin so I decided not to eat as Halal food is a serious matter in Islam. I’m not really hungry at that time by the way.

The others meanwhile are not hungry yet so they continue doing their job. My team has finish their job so all we need to do is help them whatever necessary, such as moving the crane and pasting the cellotape inbetween the large pieces.

Hanging the white piece

How the cloth was hanged (On the wall). The cloth on the ceiling is not installed by us.

Around 10.00pm – We almost done our job. Mr Micheal then set-up his camera to test the background. The background should look like a clean continuous white. There is some bad spots such as wrinkle, bad cellotape and bad floor surface so we need to fix that.

Around 10.30pm – The floor need extensive paint job on some areas, so I was asked to remove uneven surfaces on the floor using scrapper.

Paint bucket and various tools used during the job

Around 10.50pm – We paint the fixed floor surface with white paint and a roller.
11.00pm – Ms Winny and Mr Micheal dismiss us. I meanwhile have to fetch up 3 of the co-workers back to the main office at Kelana Square. There they will be using Ms Winny car (if I’m not mistaken)  to go home, as it is too late already to commute using the LRT. By the way, Mr Micheal told us to go to the studio at 6.30am tomorrow.

11 51pm  : I’m still at Federal Highway

12.20pm – I’m home.

Cumulative log - Friday 16th April 2010

Friday 16th April 2010

Today I came to the office at 9.40am. The office still is not open yet. After 10 minute wait in front of the office, Ms Winny and Mr Micheal finally came.

Mr Micheal plugged his portable hardisk and ask me to copy the ‘green screen’ footage. The footage is running about 4 minutes, around 1.5GB of size. He then told me to try to insert the 3D environment that I’ve modelled yesterday onto the footage.

Picture removed as issued by the company. However I've the permission by the company to include it on the official paperwork send to UNITEN.

 The ‘green screen’ footage

The footage was in chinese language with an insert of Malay guy saying “Apa ini? Apa semua ini? Aku tak fahamlah!”. Well of course he wouldn’t understand as 3 other fellow on the scene are speaking chinese.

Picture removed as issued by the company. However I've the permission by the company to include it on the official paperwork send to UNITEN.

Malay guy saying “Apa ini? Apa semua ini? Aku tak fahamlah!”.

After watching the footage, I try to start the task by opening it in “Adobe After Effects”. It’s a software which is popular for editing and adding special effects onto any video. It also being used for commercial montage work elsewhere.

At first, the video couldn’t be loaded onto the software. After asking one of the co-workers there, Jason, the problem solved. It was because the computer is still new, so few key software are still not installed which in this case the ‘Quicktime’.

Once loaded, the first thing I need to do is to remove the green screen. After its done, it’s time to load the render of my 3D environment that I have modelled before. As I expect, the background doesn’t blend well with the footage. The main problem is that the 3D is not realistic enough.

Picture removed as issued by the company. However I've the permission by the company to include it on the official paperwork send to UNITEN.

 The footage composed on to 3D background

At 12.40pm I asked Mr Micheal permission to go out to the Mosque for Friday pray. I’m still new in Kelana Jaya area so I asked someone nearby. Then I headed to the mosque which is about 4-5 km from my office.

At 2.30pm I arrived at Kelana Square building. I go for a lunch first before I head to office.
At 2.50pm I go back to the office.

Mr Micheal and Ms Winny is not in the office, so I continue working on to the task.

At around 4.30pm Mr Micheal came to the office and call 2 of his employee to help him. Left in the office is 2 of my co-workers and me.

At around 6.00-6.30pm Ms Winny came the office. She then asked me to help one the employee to set-up the 3 in 1 printer onto a laptop. After that she ask us to photostat a set of storyboard using the printer.

At around 8.20pm Ms Winny dismiss us.

Cumulative log - Thursday 15 April 2010

Today I’ve come to the office at 9.12am. However, the office is not opened yet. The offical working hours should be from 9.30am to 6.30pm. Mr Micheal and Ms Winny come at 9.40am. They told me that next time I should come a little bit late..

After entering the office and turn on my PC, Mr Micheal ask me to continue my previous task.
At 10.00am all of my co-workers came to the office.

The task given is so difficult because to model from scratch to realistic models is practically impossible with my current knowledge. I decided to reset my work and begin from zero again.

At 1.30pm I go to lunch with my friend Khabi, the indian guy.My other friends orders Mc donalds delivery as they claimed that yesterday food causing stomach ache to them. I and Khabi meanwhile are okay.

At 2.15pm we end our lunch and head back to the office. Mr Micheal and Mr Winny is not in the office.
At around 4.30pm Ms Winny came to the office and asked me and one of the co-workers to take some film props from Vision New Media Sdn Bhd, located at Petaling Jaya. She print me the location map and pass it to me. At around 4.40pm we headed to the location.

Vision New Media at PJ

At 5.10pm we finally arrive at the location. The task was a breeze as all we need to do is to pick up the film props and sign in some forms. The props are for Sunday shooting of opening scene “Geng Bas Sekolah” shows on ‘Astro Ceria’.

 Film props for "Geng Bas Sekolah"

After the task completed we headed back to the office. At 5.30pm we were still on the road, or to be precise we are still at Federal Highway. She ask me to go to the location exactly  at peak hour so no wonder it was so jammed. At 6.00pm we finally made to the office.

At around 7.00pm Mr Micheal came to the office. After a few minute on his room, he check on my 3D modeling work. He seems dissatisfied and said that my previous job was better. He told me to continue my task and do whatever I can to improve. He also said that he will give a ‘green screen’ footage tomorrow and try to add the background that I’ve created onto the footage.

At 8.00pm Ms Winny dismiss us.

Cumulative log - Wednesday 14 April 2010

Wednesday 14 April 2010

 My workstation

It’s the first day I’ve come to the office. The office is located at 10th floor, block D, Kelana Square. It takes about 45 minute to here with peak traffic. I arrive at 9.30am. Although the building has parking facilities, it is a per hour charge basis. RM2 per entry and addition of RM1 per hour. For per month parking rate, it is about RM105 per month.

In the office, it’s just 2 people there, Ms Winny and Mr Micheal Chuah. They are running the company together, so both of them are the owner, the boss and also the producer at the same time.
They just moved to this location yesterday. The old office was located in Kepong, and now they make it as a warehouse to store film props.

In the office there are 6 desk equipped with computer for the workers, while Ms Winny and Mr Micheal both are using their own laptops. There are also discussion table and guest sofa. The room also has a toilet. For worker convinience there are water cooler/heater as well.


Mr Micheal assign me to model an enviroment, which is a ‘abandon garden’. He want to see how far I can push my 3D modeling skills.
At 10.00am, 3 internship student and 1 worker came to the office. 2 of the internship students are from UNITAR, while the other one is from one of Institut Kemahiran which I can’t remember the exact name. All of them are boys, 2 chinese and the later was indian. I quickly become one of them as they are very friendly.

 From Left is Me(Syamsul), Khabi,Kok Fai, Jason and Fei

Nearly 1.40pm Ms Winny and Mr Micheal go out to do offsite work.

At 2.00pm I go out to lunch with my friends at one of the restaurant located at ground floor.

At 3.00pm we head back to the office. Ms Winny and Mr Micheal still didn’t come back. I continue working the task that has been assigned.

At 6.30pm Ms Winny and Mr Micheal came back to the office. At this time I’m still working on modeling the environment. Mr Micheal come to my desk and check my work. Although he say’s okay, he ask me to work harder to increase the level of my 3d work to become as realistic as possible.

At 7.45pm Mr Micheal dismiss us. All my friends come to work by LRT, and the station is quite far from the office, so I decided to fetch them. Besides, the station is on the way with my route, so there is no problem. For the parking, a total of RM13 was charged.

The Blog

Hi, I'm Syamsul Ariff Musleh, a Uniten GM student taking Industrial Training this semester.

I've applied a training in Evo Pictures Sdn Bhd, a chinese film company. In 2004 they have produced a Horror genre movies named Seed of Darkness. Now they are working on a new film named Fist of the Dragon. If I heard correctly, it's a collaboration work with a Singaporean company.

The training supposely begin today, but as the company just moved to a new location, the training begins tomorrow, 13th of April 2010. However, today's work will be replaced on coming Saturday.
They were at Sunway Mentari before, but now they moved to Kelana Square in Kelana Jaya.
 
I drive my own car to the place and it took about half an hour from my house in Klang.

The official working hours is from 9.30am till 6.00pm, but according to Ms Winny, the producer, depending on the work, the working hours may extend.

That's all for todays report.