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"...That a new wave of Malaysian independent filmmakers should begin storming the barricades during the last three or four years now seems inevitable. After all, neighboring Thailand to the north was doing it, and Indonesia is coming up fast; even the still more censorious Singapore boasts a small but significant indie-film arm. Armed with ultralow budgets and the latest digital technologies, a determination to overcome – or burrow beneath – the various taboos and constraints on political and cultural expression that held their forerunners back, and a savvy about the ways international film festival exposure can be translated into change-making footholds back home, Malaysia's new generation is largely centered on a triumvirate of disparate but cross-pollinating filmmakers: prolific producer-director-cinematographer James Lee, sneak-attack sensualist Ho Yuhang, and Amir Muhammad, currently the most aesthetically adventurous and (when he wants to be) uncompromisingly funny Muslim filmmaker in the world. And yet, while this year's San Francisco International Film Festival's focus on Malaysia is certainly timely, the welcome presence of Muhammad's Tokyo Magic Hour and The Year of Living Vicariously scarcely makes up for the sense that, with neither of Lee's and Ho's award-winning recent films in the lineup, our local programming visionaries only managed to get the queerest part of the story straight..." Dude talks about all the latest offerings, including Puteri Gunung Ledang and Sepet. I find this article very insightful. Yup. Just watched Wimbledon. Did this even get a cinematic release in Malaysia? Not too sure. Can't see why it didn't. No sex scenes to speak off. The use of the 'f' word only once. Love story. Kirsten Dunst. It must've come out here. Every review I had read about it before had all said the same thing, "Well, it's alright..." And for the most part the review holds true. It's not Four Weddings or Bridget Jones and Notting Hill had a better comedic sidekick, but it told the story alright. Could've done with more humour. Paul Bettany, in some scenes, looks like he's trying to be Hugh Grant which I'm not too agreable with. He should just be Paul Bettany. I like Paul Bettany. He should've been Constantine. But for it's lack of really funny scenes there was a decent enough love story in it, but I don't think that's the best thing about the movie. No, the best thing about the movie is the tennis. For an English production, it's chock-full of CGI-flow-mo-kick-ass shots of tennis, and the best thing of all is the fact that I didn't notice just how many cool camera effects there were until I watched the special features, and when you don't notice the effects, that's when you know the effects were... well... effective. I don't think tennis has looked this cool EVER. Strangely, my favourite bit is the opening credits. I really like 'em. The soundtrack used, to the rhythm of tennis balls bouncing, is brilliant, and the paint effect is kick-major-hairy-cojones. Me likey very much. I've always liked really good opening credits, though. Here are a couple of my faves, lemme know if there's any you reckon I've missed out: 1. Seven There's loads more, I know, but I can't think at the moment. Just woke up. Not my biological father, of course, but the father character for my movie. It's been tough as balls trying to cast this fucking character, thanks in no part to the fact that I do not know anybody above the age of 45. So it was, in desperation, that I sent out a distress call on friendster and got a reply from a colleague at the office, a bloke by the name of Kamal. Now, Kamal's in his thirties (I assume), a married man and could possibly pass as a father. Or not. Maybe with make-up. I recently sent an e-mail to a Dutchman asking for his advice on how to make-up someone to look ten years older. And before you ask, no, I did not just e-mail a random Dutchman. This Dutchman deals in make-up and effects. His name is Lars, and his website's in my 'Random Research' section. Now I've just got a few more key locations to scout. One of them is the cafe. The other is Silverfish bookstores. I'm hoping they'll be accomodating considering their support to the local creative arts and all that, so fingers crossed. As for the cafe, I have NO idea. Fingers doubly crossed. I'll pop down there today and see what's what. Once all that's done with I'll post up pictures of the cast for all you luvvies to see. Till then, it's random movie talk, smut and ramblings. You see that camera there on the right? That's the Sony HDR FX1 which, in normal speak, means 'super fucking incredible'. See, I was in KLCC today visiting Kinokuniya with my girlfriend in the hope of picking up a decent detailed book on shooting a movie on DV. No such luck. The film section at Kino has been cut in half and taken over by the comics section. Not that I'm complaining, of course. It's comics, for God's sake. After that, I wanted to pick up a pretzel at Auntie Anne's but the queue was packed so I decided to go camera browsing. I walked into the Canon store, found the XM2, and got pissed off. Not at the camera, but at the dumb fucknig clerk who treated me like radioactive fecal matter. When I ask for information on a product, I don't want to be shown a page from the fucking website. Annoyed, I went to the Sony shop and discovered two cameras on display: the VX2100 and the beauty above. Both cameras were mounted on professional tripods and hooked up to big screen TV's. Kick ass! I tried out the VX2100 and... it was okay. With the indoor light, there was quite a bit of noticeable grain. But it picked up the picture. Maybe I expected a lot more from an RM$9000 camera. Then I checked out the camera next to it. Holy Allah almighty. The resolution was crystal clear. It was like those demo videos they have for big screen TV's, except I was controlling the image. I couldn't believe how clear the fucker was. I was aiming that thing everywhere trying to look out for any drop in quality: none. No grain, no blur, just pure picture. I then called the store clerk who was incredibly informative, and once again I praised God today. Turns out this little baby's a HDV camera, not miniDV. High-definition video. Kinda like a little baby brother of those huge digital cameras Lucas uses for Star Wars. No wonder it was so bloody clear. And the price? RM$15,000. Same as the Canon XL2 (the big brother of the cameras used on 28 Days Later). In the States, this Sony is about a grand more expensive than the Canon. But here's the rub: HD tapes cost RM$90 bucks for 60 minutes. And the clerk alluded that without HD compatible equipment on my computer, TV, heck, even my cables, I wouldn't get the same quality. What a rub. So now I'm surfing the net for reviews and trying to decide in my mind how much money I'm willing to spend on this movie of mine. There is a chance of me fucking this entire thing up, and the camera will forever sit on a shelf, pulled out occasionally to record gigs and things. Fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck. It was such a good camera. Decisions, decisions, anal fuckery. A couple minutes later... I've just been browsing CamcorderInfo, CNet and Hexus, and two things CNet said stick to mind: 1. "Who's It For: Early-adopting prosumers and event videographers who need HD now; not well suited to those shooting drama." 2. "...These sophisticated downconversion capabilities ensure that you can not only view HD tapes on standard televisions, but you can also edit them on standard DV editing systems, the only negative being that the superb resolution of HD will not be visible once downconverted..." This does not bode well. If I'm reading these reviews correctly, the systems, software and hardware required to retain the beautiful quality of HD at the editing stage is not yet widely available. That would mean after buying the camera AND the expensive tape, I'd also have to pay an arm and a leg to edit it. FUCK that. I'm editing this baby at home, regardless. Sorry, Sony FX1, it looks like we're not meant to be just yet. Maybe in the future, who knows... 'Half off is just the beginning'. Brilliant.
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Goddammit!