Preaching the Word

So last Sunday I found myself waking up at seven in the morning. For the past two weeks I'd been used to sleeping at five or six in the morning and waking up at around three or four, but Sunday was different. I had to be awake, alert, sharp and full of pep.

Because last Sunday I had to be on student time.

A few weeks before hand I got a call from a UiTM student, asking me if I was willing to give a talk together with two others of the film world for a workshop on making short films. It'd been about a year or two since I last spoke to UiTM students and I'd been planning a workshop myself so I figured it'd be a good testing ground.

So there I was, driving out to the Puncak Perdana campus of UiTM in Shah Alam on a Sunday morning, trying to stay awake with the aid of two cans of coffee, a shitload of cigarettes and Mos Def playing on the CD player.

The second I got there I met up with someone who I'd written to via e-mail, I think maybe even spoken over the phone, but had never actually met in person till now. The one and only Hassan Muthalib:

This is a man who's been involved in the Malaysian film industry for many, many years and a joy to talk to. The man's a walking encyclopaedia of film theory.

Also present was uber-editor and filmmaker Akashdeep Singh:

(Pardon the bad photoshopping. Trying to save pic space on this blog).

Whilst Hassan talked about film theory and Akash talked about how to get your ideas on screen (and he also showcased a cool little way to jot down ideas) I spoke mainly about the joys of DIY and being independent, showing them videos of different DIY techniques, how cameras that most in the film industry here would consider not good enough for film being used in not just indie productions but Hollywood productions too (such as Crank 2, shot with the Canon XHA1 and Canon F100). I showed them how I made my DIY depth-of-field adapter, how others have made their own steadicams and how regardless of what techniques and equipment you use, none of it is worth nothing without a good, solid story, honest and straight from the heart.

I think they dug it. I hope so, at least. Either that or I spoke English too damn fast.

After that there was the workshop:

Here the students had an hour to brainstorm a short film idea and present it to us. The ideas were great but there was one thing that bugged me: they were told they had to present their ideas in storyboard form.

This didn't make sense, as far as I was concerned. It didn't make sense to Hassan either (Akash had to leave before this part, unfortunately). To me, the most important thing of this 'pitching' session was to be able to convey their story in a way that we could understand, but they got so caught up in the storyboards they'd get too confused or pre-occupied with them. Story is story, plain and simple.

The whole thing was hella fun and I had a great time with the students. Apart from the whole pitching thing, the other thing that bugged me about the session was that these kids weren't exposed to as much as I felt they should be exposed to - other directors, other ways of shooting, cool ideas, all the many possibilities available. I felt it was important that they knew there was more than one way to skin a cat.

It made me realize how blessed I was that I was exposed to all these things that made me the filmmaker I am today. I got a chance to learn so much that has helped me get to where I am and the whole experience at the college energized me even more to get my damn workshop going, because how cool would that be? Tons of young punks, going out there and making more new and interesting movies in crazy ways that the old guard would never even dream of. Impressive, interesting, personal stories that demand your attention, grip you by the cojones and drag you across your seat like a cinematic teabagging.

Thanks, UiTM, and I hope I'll be seeing y'all real soon (especially if any of you guys take up the internship I pimped out).