The REAL BTS: Euphoria [2011]

 
"Filmception" - as one of the YouTuber commented at this video.

Yeah you can say that, a concept that came to mind after much thought when the theme first came out for the BMW shorties 2011: Joy. As a filmmaker. As a Malaysian.

But now that the theme has "progressed" from that to just "Joy", it's no surprise why the chances of entering top 10 decreased drastically. Well then, I guess we still got much to learn! (competition technicality wise)

I've got quite a few interesting responses for Euphoria. Some saw the beauty of it while some still struggle grasping the main storyline behind the whole short film. So.. to clear everything up, here goes:

- It's titled Euphoria due to the fact that in today's era, many settle for quick and instant laughter. Although temporary and often time than not involving painful circumstances, it's that heightened burst of happiness they yearn for only. Versus to a deep and calm sense of joy, unwavering despite the circumstances faced, this short film attempts to address just that.

- The "blueprint" background at the start isn't random or just for fun. It's to represent on how today's education and upbringing culture has made many people into blueprints of a desired design. A design that deaden our senses for a deep, real joy.

- The concept of this short film is to show joy in a few approaches:- 
a.) Euphoria, the movie itself

i.) Gavin attempts to give Long a paradigm shift on his ideas of what Joy is. He does that by first turning in boring and mundane life into a whirlwind as he brings back 2 of his long lost childhood mates. One is his lover while the other, his best friend. Gavin then takes away his lover and causes Long to pay close attention to what Gavin has to say. He believes in human supremacy and that to really reap the joy of life, one must achieve the maximum capacity of human emotions and brilliance and erase away unnecessary relationships that hinders that very goal.
ii.) Long found back his deep sense of joy as he now really wants to fight back for both of his lover and friend. He tries but wasn't able to take down the thug or Gavin.. yet managed to do so finally after hurling a difficult philosophy for Gavin to reconcile.
iii.) Chen expressed his joy of a reunion after not seeing each other for so long. He's willing to risk himself to save the day but obviously - it failed.

b.) The film-making process

i.) The in-between clips that shows the "behind the scenes" display of how much work and effort required to produce such a film. Everyone being focused in their roles and ensure that it all goes well. It shows that the pride and joy the crew can take in after all the effort placed into it.
ii.) The fun parts also show that it isn't all serious and no laughs at all. The crew cherish these memories and will always reflect on the joyful days of film making.

c.) The interview footage

i.) The up-close and personal talks with the different roles of the production as they each express their own unique ways of deeming joy in their lives.

Yet, at the end of the day, can one really describe what joy is?

It was a great collaboration with threeminutenights and Jenn as their contribution has no doubt increased the quality of this production. Not to mention a few more others who helped out in so many ways, THANK YOU!

It took us exactly 11 hours to shoot this and countless hours to edit it. Special credits to Jee Yann and Devon Chew to produce the soundtrack in such a short span of time!

However, I've been contemplating to whether fully produce Euphoria without the "filmception" concept.. what do you guys think?

SUBSCRIBE:-

SUNDAE PRODUCTIONS
Website:http://www.sundaeproductions.com/
YouTube: http://bit.ly/sundaeproductions
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/ghnoST
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/sundaepro
Email: sundaeproductions@gmail.com

RAFFI TH'NG
Website: http://www.raffithng.com/
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/tinkerjolt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raffithngphotography
E-mail: raffithng@gmail.com

JENN CHIA
Website: http://yenart.deviantart.com/
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/n1xf1Z
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/jennchiayy
E-mail: yen-yi@live.com

THREEMINUTENIGHTS
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/threeminutenights
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/threeminutenights

DMINGTHING
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/dmingthing

1st Sundaeversary 2011 presents you

 Like they always say, times flies!

Many videos produced, many people met and quite a few events attended over the year. As cliche as it sounds, it is hard to believe that Sundae Productions is where it is today!

Anyhow, to those attending the 1st Sundaeversary, here are a few things to look forward to at that night (aside from the premiering of Euphoria 2011 of course):


- Screening of MY Generation 2.0, produced by Aaron Lim productions
- Screening of a few benchmark videos in sundae productions
- Screening of Sundae Productions 2011 video reel!

It's a good night to get to know each other as well as this will be first time all of SDP's talents gather at one same place and formally know each other. Who knows what kind of collaborated projects you guys can do together? :)

So be sure to get there on time and if you have any questions at all, ask away!

As for the other dear fans of SDP.. thank you, every single one of you from the bottom of our hearts. If only we had a bigger budget to accommodate all of you. But fret not, there's always more to come and all your contribution and support will ensure a bigger and louder event next time around!

As for now, a pretty nice wrap up for the year with entering Jayesslee's concert and the production of Euphoria [2011] (Y).

Oh yes, just in case for those who aren't too sure what's this whole Euphoria is about, it's actually a film competition entry known as BMW Shorties 2011. BMW? Yup, you got that right - German Car Brand lol. And officially, this is SDP's first movie entry for a competition as well as the largest production ever yet. (although frankly, it isn't some blockbuster multi-million dollar production la)

Looking forward to see you guys there!

Decimal ft. Jenn's opening of Jayesslee Live in KL!

It's really interesting to see how far all of us has reached this far and for myself, I thought this day would be way later than expected!

What a great way to wrap up for SDP's 1st year anniversary :)

I'm really glad to be involved in after approaching Decimal to see if they want me to record down their performance and to witness their dedication of pursuing excellence and not settle for mediocrity. We're in dire need for that in the artistic industry, right here in Malaysia!

Overall, in my opinion, they performed well :) No doubt, a sense of nervousness was noticed but hey, I don't think I can even hum note a up there with such a crowd right in front me!

Jenn did a fantastic job as usual on stage as well. Really liked the way of her showmanship - and she tells me that she's a really shy girl. (What nonsense right?)

On the technical side of things, it was rather hard to get good angles at the front as we'll be blocking people of their sight towards the performance.. so we had to station our cameras to the back of the hall instead. Hence you see shaky shots when it's zoomed in to the band as it becomes highly sensitive to the movements of our hands when it's THAT near.

However, the audio aspect was pretty good as the crowd was a great crowd as well. They listened and cheered at the right moments - it almost feel as if the concert is about Decimal and Jenn lol.

So people! Just in case you didn't know, here are some details about the performers:

DECIMAL
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/decimalmusic
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/decimalmusic
Twitter: http://facebook.com/decimalmusic

Members of Decimal:-

Cajonist/Male lead vocal - NIgel Tay
Female vocal - Nicole Shin
Guitarist (Left) - Adrian Mak
Guitarist (Mid) - Justin Mah
Cellist - Ruth Cheng
Keyboardist - Jee Yan

JENN
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/kVFOuf
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/jennchiayy

P.S - SDP is joining in this year's BMW Shorties 2011!

You can find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/BMWShorties

Decimal - Cover on I Want You Back by Jackson 5

What an honour! To be invited of being a part of their production in their first 'professionally' recorded session (compared to the previous live recording at various gigs), it was really great being in the midst of them performing such awesome music!

By far one of the best local bands ever I've seen, especially during live performance. Tight, immense and jaw-dropping.

Just in case you guys want to find out more about them, I've written a post previously, just click here to read up more!

To me, this production further encouraged me to see Malaysian talents showing off to the world what we have to offer. Certainly, I'll be looking forward for more!

P.S - Did you know that they're opening for the upcoming Jayesslee concert in Malaysia? BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW! :)

SUBSCRIBE

DECIMAL
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/decimalmusic
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/decimalmusic
Twitter: http://facebook.com/decimalmusic


SUNDAE PRODUCTIONS
Website: http://www.sundaeproductions.com/
YouTube: http://bit.ly/sundaeproductions
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/ghnoST
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/sundaepro
Email: sundaeproductions@gmail.com

BTS: "The Dawn"

For SDP's first relationship based video - allow me to first express my gratitude to all the support and personal encouragement!

The making of this video sure didn't come easy. After much planning and working through the casts, many has commented that this video's cast did a good job. Kudos guys :)

I had a great time working with them too, especially working together with my usual film making buddies, Gary Liew as the co-director and Raffi Th'ng as the cinematographer. Gregory Sze and Jenn Chia was easy to work with and I was blown away by their acting skills! :o

Although this video did not have the strong viral factor compared to videos like "Ha? What's GG?", it was already anticipated due to the message this video is trying to convey.

Going through personally the heartbreaks itself, like someone close to me said - "No one wants to feel that they're going through a failing relationship." However, the real message that I was trying to convey was towards the deep cut that we always recklessly slice ourselves with.. that we just don't take life seriously enough to have a matured relationship.

Anyways, towards the technical side of the video, we only took one day to shoot all the scenes. Editing wise was a slow process but thankfully, it turned out well :) Struggled quite a bit with the background music but after gaining the green light from the man himself, David Story, it worked out pretty well!

A personal thank you to the others who volunteered in this - Cher Maine, Steven Tey, Johnson Khor (The guy in science!), Jin Yin, Craig and Colin.

Not forgetting of course, an awesome friend of mine who agreed to offer his cafe to shoot the cafe scene also known as EcoGreen Organic. Offering a great range of organic food and chilling ambiance, do drop by and have a look!

SUBSCRIBE:

SUNDAE PRODUCTIONS
Website: http://www.sundaeproductions.com/
YouTube: http://bit.ly/sundaeproductions
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/ghnoST
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/sundaepro
Email: sundaeproductions@gmail.com

RAFFI TH'NG
Website: http://www.raffithng.com/
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/tinkerjolt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raffithngphotography
E-mail: raffithng@gmail.com

JENN CHIA
Website: http://yenart.deviantart.com/
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/n1xf1Z
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/jennchiayy
E-mail: yen-yi@live.com

DAVID STORY
Website: http://davidstorymusic.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidstorymusic
Youtube: http://bit.ly/qhnvS4
E-mail: booking@davidstorymusic.com

The best of the best

While watching this live on television at a mamak, I was contemplating whether to do a highlights of this match like I did for the previous badminton match, All England 2011 finals. But after watching how drastically our national hero has improved compared to his performance back in Olympics 2008 against the same opponent, Lin Dan, I told myself that I had to compile the best moments of this match for the world to watch!

It was actually quite tough making this video as I didn't want to make a "Part 2" to it, most people would have felt that 15 minutes is long enough. So I had to filter out only for the best! This match was originally 1 hour and 20+ mins..so yup, here you go! :)

Dato Lee Chong Wei sure came a lonnng way. Listening to the commentators on him really helped me view things from his perspective and it was really not right at all for Malaysians to stone him whenever he fails to bring back the gold medal. In fact, it was pretty clearly shown how much he's been affected by it all in a recent interview after he was back from the World Badminton Championships 2011.

I did had a thought about the whole thing though. Was actually pretty inspired to make a tribute movie about DLCW just that it'll be a double of him acting out his life. It's actually really interesting to see how this fellow humble Malaysian strives his best to glorify our country and made us proud in countless ways - despite many adversaries caused by us ourselves.

One technical annoyance though! Apparently, this video is blocked in the States, China and Japan as they informed me that the content actually belongs to BWF (Badminton World Federation) so they naturally blocked it in those countries but it's able to be viewed everywhere else in the world. However, the main concern was that Facebook is based in the States.. and in effect of that, when the link is posted there, the thumbnail and title would be blocked - and that really stifles the publicity of this video.

So I'd really appreciate if you guys can lend me a hand to properly title this video and allow others to enjoy the best moments of this match!

Classic Piracy

Interestingly, the idea of this video originated while I was creating subtitles for my previous videos and I thought about how hilarious it was back then when Piracy was done pretty "badly".

Initially planned to be a script for 4 characters, I've edited it to fit in the circumstances at hand and here you go - the final product. I wouldn't say it's the utmost best I can come up with but I figure that this video would help me get back SDP's momentum in the Youtube scene.

I changed the title of the video a few times as well. Was wondering what would be the best way to title in order to allow the audience to catch the main idea of the video. And so finally, "5 Dollars Korean DVD - Complex Love" was given to help people understand that it's regarding piracy (or they might about something else.. which I clarified it immediately at the description lol).

Just for those who didn't know, the guy in the video is an authentic Korean. No, he's not chinese. On the other hand, Fiona (the pretty girl!) is a chinese. Hence, it was quite a struggle for her to literally memorize the sound of Korean characters assisted by our dear Korean friend, Joon-Ho.

One of the few challenging parts were to create the script in order to allow "hilarious" translations to appear from Korean to English. I'm pretty sure some of you guys go through that sort of experience where when you're trying to translate from English to say, Japanese, your friend would most likely say that he/she can't comprehend what you're trying to convey due to the horrible translation from most websites.

On a bright note, the microphone is finally working well so that really helped a lot in picking up clear sound from the dialogues. (LIKE FINALLY!)

I might be making more regarding this topic of subtitles screwing up the content but as for now.. we'll see how it goes. Do like and share it along!

Special thanks to Fiona Lee and Joon-Ho for helping out. As well as 2 random Youtube channels for the BGM :P

http://www.youtube.com/user/tkviper
http://www.youtube.com/user/Miika153

They play awesome music :3