I realised that I haven’t blogged at all this semester, even though this semester is relatively slack since I’m only taking two modules and FYP, and I don’t have exams!
So far, there has been Grace to meet my everyday demand. I have learnt how to not worry about tomorrow and just live each day by grace. I just finished editing my 7-min short film, Mix or not, for my Singapore Film SSA2218 module. My two friends kindly helped to act, and we went to Albert Food Centre and managed to finish everything in half a day, praise God! It turned out to be pretty interesting, and it’s not easy to shoot people actually eating food because the food may run out, and we had to buy another plate! We also secretly filmed beside Raffles hotel for a short opening scene.
As for my NM3223 photography module which has now been modified to interactive imaging, the first few assignments were individual ones, from photo taking to digital manipulation. I particularly enjoyed the urban fantasy themed one, which can be seen here.
Lastly, my FYP is going slow but good. I’m not sure if it is a blessing by having a modified one-semester FYP, but I still managed to read a lot of readings and came up with a prototype. I was setting up a Linux virtual machine for the first time, and I’ve never typed so many Linux commands in my life! Because the CentOS was installed with zero software, I had to install Apache, java etc. Everything myself. What a chore. Thank the internet for tutorials. I was playing with Etherpad Lite (the precursor to google wave) and tried to include MathJax in it but failed. Then I tried Etherpad, the original version and included mimetex, a Latex to image converter and it worked! Now I can type math symbols in an online collaborative space. Just like Google Docs, which I realised has an Insert Equation option now too. My report is due in one week and so far I wrote 18 pages. God will multiply my time!
In other news, circle line has opened to Kent Ridge and it saves my travelling time by 10-15 mins. Now the missing link is the not trustworthy NUS shuttle bus. Also, I realised that The Star is now already on the Bouna Vista MRT map! And the travelling time is about the same as travelling to Promenade, which is awesome.
Last month, I attended a 13 Little Pictures Film Lab as part of Singapore International Film Festival. While I didn’t manage to watch anything during the festival, which had many hiccups, it was an excellent opportunity to “film jamming” with other like minded people. As everyone is already an expert in their own field, it was more of an exchange session than a workshop. One interesting thing is that there were participants from overseas, 2 Thai, 2 Filipinos, 1 Polish and 1 Chinese, and some of them came all the way here just for the lab! I particularly enjoyed bringing the tourists around to places like Tekka Market to eat good food. One of them, Joe, wanted to eat chilli crab, and I brought him to Melben in Toa Payoh. It was my first time there as well. I really enjoy being a tour guide, and it’s always interesting to see Singapore from a tourist’s eyes. One of them took photos of all the weird signs, such as ‘No Loitering’, and it was pretty funny. At the ene of the week we produced a short 5 min experimental piece about nostalgia. Update: Joe submitted the piece to a Filipino film festival and it is selected for screening.
And one more thing, I am addicted to Cities In Motion!