“What I was doing in the cave for the past three months”.

 IT is finally here. By that I mean I’m finally getting around to uploading it here.

 

The premier is

Oct 16, 2010, Saturday
Auditorium Menara PKNS, Petaling Jaya (in PJ new town)
8pm

Kisah Tauke Mancis dan Minyak Tumpah is a story of a temple and two communities in Shah Alam. The temple is special to its devotees but changes to the surrounding landscape have made it difficult to stay. The fight to move the temple is a lesson that all communities and local authorities should take to heart. When we ignore history and fail to manage different religious needs, we create fuel for the fires of extremism.

The film was written and directed by Sheridan Mahavera and Siti Nurbaiyah Nadzmi. We were very fortunate to have worked with some world-class talents who made this film possible. The crew comprised those who had worked on some of the most renown Malaysian indie films and those slick commercials you see on ASTRO.

Money, technical, moral and emotional support was provided by local NGO Pusat Komunikasi Masyarakat (KOMAS).

If you could spend RM20 on popcorn, parking and tikets for a Hollywood, Bollywood, Kollywood or a Hong Kong-wood film or cetak rompak DVD that tells you nothing about what happens about your own homeland, why wouldn't you come to watch a film about people who could be your own neighbours and a place that looks just like your Taman for FREE.

And not just one film but three films about your homeland that will be shown on the same night. The premier is part of the Freedom Film Fest 2010 which is organised by KOMAS.

The annual festival showcases documentary films on subjects too panas for Malaysian TV but which every Malaysian should watch.

If you can't make the PJ screening you can catch FFF 2010 at:

1. Johor Bahru
Oct 23, 8pm
Tropical Inn, JB

2. Miri
Oct 31, 2pm
Pacific Orient Hotel

3. Penang
Nov 13, 8pm
Caring Society Complex (Complex Masyarakat Penyayang), Jalan Utama Georgetown

4. Singapura
Nov 14, 2pm
Substation Arts Centre, Jalan Armenian

How to book tickets for all venues:

Reservations will be open from Oct 1 at http://freedomfilmfest.komas.org/. The tickets can be collected at the venue on the screening date. Jangan lambat kerana First come first serve.

And did we mention that admission is FREE?

Further visualisations

Filem ni merupakan satu medium yang tidaklah asing-sangat tetapi tidaklah familiar bagi saya. Walaupun kita ni memang peminat filem dan selalu analyse filems yang kita pernah tonton, cara nak menyampaikan cerita melalui medium ini lain daripada medium penulisan dan kewartawanan. Duhhhh..

Film is not-that alien of a medium for me but its also not that-familiar. Even though I am a film buff and I love to analyse them, the way that the medium tells a story is different from that of writing or journalism. (I am genius, i know)


Memanglah saya pernah katakan dalam post yang lalu that a “story is a story” dan beza antara filem dan artikel adalah cara story itu disampaikan. Tetapi sebenarnya, cara story itu disampaikan boleh effect penhayatan penonton dan pemahaman stori itu.

Of course I’ve said in previous posts that a “story is a story”. That the difference between film and an article is how that story is told. But in reality, the way that a story is told will affect how the audience understands and appreciates it.

Becoz kita ni lebih-kurang-first time filmmakers, me and Siti decided to layout structure film kita secara visually. Kita buat ni dengan storyboard di mana setiap scene filem kita ni di-bayangkan dan dilakar berpandukan skrip. Setiap lakaran tu kita atur side-by-side supaya kita “nampak” jalan-cerita our filem.

Since we’re both sort-of-first-time filmmakers, me and Siti decided to layout the film’s structure visually via storyboard. Each scene is sketched out just as how it is described in the script. Once we arrange the scenes, we got an idea of how the film would be “seen”.

Setiap panel di dalam storyboard ni akan lebih kurang sama dengan apa visual yang kita akan shoot dan pakai. Paling penting, ia seolah boleh “preview” filem itu pada crew. So that bila turun shooting, kita dah tahu scene A umpamanya, kena ada elemen-elemen ni dalam frame dan sebagainya.

Each panel resembles what visuals we’ll shoot and use. Most importantly, it will preview the film to the crew. So when we go down on location, we’ll know that scene A, for example, has to contain so-and-so elements in its frame.

Dari A ke B ker? B ke A?

Mungkin you ada rasa pasal aper saya ni terlalu obsessed dengan proses penulisan cerita filem. Atau you sudah bosan dengan repetition saya tentang struktur narrative dan jalan cerita. 

“Mana dia cerita part-part shooting dan adegan2 giler di location”, you may ask. Atau you tak sabar nak tahu pasal selok-belok single camera production amateur seban you jugak amateur filem maker dan you tak nak la ulang mistake saya. Well you see, itulah dia.

Kalau you tak ambil masa secukup2-cukupnya untuk visualize, draft, re-draft dan mendalami jalan cerita filem you then you akan buat banyak mistake time shooting dan angkat gambar. Trust me. Saya bukanlah professional, tetapi ini yang aper professional sendiri pernah kata pada saya dan inilah mantra semua pembikin filem tersohor.

“Filem yang bagus ada tiga benda – script yang bagus, script yang bagus dan script yang bagus.”
Alfred Hitchcock (kalau you serious tentang bikin filem please look him up).

Jadi, we memang spend masa buat script. We nak dalami script sampai kita boleh huraikan dan ceritakan filem ini kepada sesiapa tanpa refer pada script tu itself.

Caranya nampak simple dan ia adalah soalan2 yang Siti tanya pada saya semasa kita mula menulis skrip.
1 – Dalam dua atau tiga ayat, apa cerita file ini? What is our story?

2-  Apakah “impression” (kesan atas perasaan) yang kita nak penonton dapat selepas filem ini? Adakah mereka akan rasa terhibur? Atau marah terhadap apa yang dilihat? Sedih? Or mereka lagi faham satu issue atau tentang dunia mereka? Or adakah mereka akan rasa sesuatu issue itu ada harapan untuk masyarakat selesaikan dengan adil dan saksama?
 
3 – Juga penting. Kenapa orang patut datang tonton our film? Because seriously, RM10 tu boleh beli tiket tengok blockbuster hollywood/ bollywood/hong-kongwood/KLwood/peckerwood kat TGV or GSC. Or boleh beli DVD cetak rompak.

Berpandukan tiga-tiga elemen ini, kita akan decide aper isi filem. Bukan sahaja soal aper shot yang nak diambik, tapi bagaimana shot itu nak diambik. Not just siapa yang patut di-interview, aper yang harus ditanya kepada subject interview itu dan soundbite aper yang harus di dapat dari dia.

The skrip akan drive production dan post-production. But di sini saya kena masukkan satu reminder. Especially bila buat documentary.

Jalan cerita script mungkin akan lain daripada apa yang di harapkan. Ini mungkin akan berlaku selepas shooting.

I know what you’re thinking. “Oh kalau macam tu tak yahlah aku nak perah otak buat skrip becoz cerita akan tukar lepas aku shoot.”

BUKAN MACAM TU. Tanpa skrip kita takkan ada cerita langsung. Tapi mungkin jalan cerita itu akan berbeza.

In essence, cerita ni is like getting dari point A ke point B. Bagaimana kita pergi ke point B tu boleh ubah. Mungkin our first skrip lalu C,D,E dulu baru sampai ke B. The second script mungkin lalu D dulu, E dulu dan maybe menyimpang ke G kejap.
Tapi pokoknya, cerita tetap tentang A ke B. Bukan B ke C atau G ke F. Itu cerita lain. Itu kita must get right sebelum angkat camera.

Terpenting of course ialah proses ini akan tolong kita menang dana dari KOMAS.