New Kind of Workshop.

First Day

I’ve walked in, doesn’t know what to expect. Mixed feelings of cuakness and excitement churned down inside the stomach. Anyway, after few while, after adapting to the environment and always-have-something-to-say guy besides me, it felt like any other seminar I’ve attended. More interesting perhaps because it’s about filming a documentary. Although there were technical jargons that sound so aliens to me like recci, all the types of camera etc which most of the people there knew (especially the guy besides me). Plus, the trainer was funny. There were some pervert jokes (that was expected before hand with guys were mainly the participants) but he’s not boring, and most importantly, he’s my BOSS. Ha ha. That’s the reason I’ve joined the workshop anyway, because he wanted me to understand the idea of producing a documentary so I can do my job in the future.

I was expecting to be an outcast there, which it was almost right, except for the fact there was one girl who took accounting and now work in advertising (oh yeah, there goes my savior for loneliness). It’s admirable how one could work in an industry people expect you to work in and one day you took the 180 degree turn and go the other direction (I mean her, not me. Lol). Anyway, she’s hot, so no wonder she was willing to take that risk. I was expecting to be intimidated by the way people were going to be expressive and opinionated and I was almost right there too. Although not really intimidated la, just amazed how people could be so confident expressing their thoughts blatantly. There were these two most outstanding people in this workshop, just call them Mr Loud and Miss My Way.

Miss My Way: I wanted to be a producer because I hate the producer who always changed my script and everything. I always fight with them so I want to be producer, director and script writer, all at once so I don’t have to fight with them! (This later proved the reasons why it’s hard to work with her).
Mr Loud: *Lecturer speaking (Trecci whatever). Yes, I KNOW THAT (and more perhaps). WE SHOULD DO THIS (My way is the best). HAHAHHA (which forced me to laugh too because he was laughing with his face tilted towards me. So it’s rude not to do so. Lol).

If you don’t get it, just ignore the re – enactment I’m trying to produce here. My point is it’s a whole new world with same type of people. The major difference is there are more people in one specific characteristic (i.e expressive) and to see how passionate they are with their jobs are something to be admired and intimidated of.

The rest of the workshop

I’ve followed the two teams to shoot their documentary at Paya Indah Wetland in Dengkil with different themes and definitely different way of working. It was a sanctuary with great view. If you want to escape the hustle bustle of city life, do come to the place because serenity is its middle name. Anyway, there were some dramas and more gossips throughout the shooting and post production between the team members of both teams. It was a relieved to me not to join any group and decided to be an observer.

The People, Animals, Scenes and Moi captured using my beloved K550i (Bile la nak ade DSLR nie)

However, it was also a setback because each time I went to one group, they would ask me about what the issues the other team was having or what were they talking about them. Lol. I could say that age didn’t really give you wisdom in certain aspects. There was also an unexpected predicament in the middle of the workshop when the facilitator a.k.a my boss got the news that his father had passed away in the middle of the class. What an emotional scene of real life was depicted there. So, he had to go back and postponed the preview of the documentary next week. Moreover, the more I’ve talked to the people I’ve met there; the more envious I am with what they have achieved. There was this one guy who was at his 30’s (tapi kelihatan sangat muda), had his master of culinary (chef) in Perth, worked in New York, traveled the world and decided that he had enough experience in that area and now joined the film force. How amazing was that? It was such an inspiration to live life to the fullest like that.

All in all, this was a tiring, exciting and refreshing experience to someone who had no knowledge or idea on what really happened behind the scene of every documentary / drama / film etc. For me to join all these new / experienced directors / producers etc brought the sense of appreciation to the industry I often criticized, because I now know little by little how hard it is to work as artistic people (and limited the opportunity to venture into something new and fresh) and how the industry is under appreciated. Moreover I know that Fauziah Latif likes guy with bald head (gossip itu penting okay. LOL).