One In A Million, Are You Sure?

With all these issues cropping for the past week regarding One In A Million Grand Finale result, it really irks me most of how messy it has become. It took the whole 6 months to finally choose a winner and it turned out to be a debatable one! Don't get me wrong, I think Suki is good (better than some professional singers out there) and I strongly believe she deserved to be in the final BUT it was quite obvious who was better, overall. I'm not a racist. I totally concur on Jac being the winner in the first Malaysian Idol. Quality is the upmost. What upsets me the most is how she won it, by a technical hiccup! And this was admitted by Ahmad Izham, 8TV COO. There was a problem with the SMS voting system and it caused someone a million bucks! And that unlucky person was Faizal, the other finalist.

For me, it was too obvious that he was suppose to win it. Not only he deserved it, that night, he blew everybody away. And I mean everybody in the hall, including myself with his superb performances! And the best part was, the organizer is blaming voters for voting at the very last minute that led to the SMS congestion. I feel, even to the very last second, they should be able to accept all the votes coming in. I don't recall such rule stating that last minute votes will not be counted. If the SMS system used was standard in many mass-SMS applications like Malaysian Idol and Polis Saman, claimed by the organizer, why the hiccup? Even my mom complained that she SMSs ten times for Faizal and it all bounced!

Well, at the end of the day, it goes back to accountability. One can't just take the easy way out and blame on the system or the public for voting last minte. After all, this involves rezeki orang. And today in the papers, the organizer is offering refunds for the voters affected. The way I look at it, the mess is getting messier...

Wedding music video, anyone?

Don't know why, but I have this obsession of getting involve in film productions. Perhaps it's innate. Perhaps, I just love art. In college, I produced a tv commercial and won an award for that. That was went I knew I had it in me. That's why I have a passion for good quality movies, acting, scripts, etc. I mean I could watch them over and over. The Devil's Advocate, A Few Good Men, Braveheart, Pendekar Bujang Lapok, Labu-Labi, the list can go on and on. Guess it's no luck that I'm not doing it professionally, or didn't just get the break. Last few months, I had it, well, rather a small bump than a break. But still, I grabbed it!

July 2006, one of my cousin's getting married. Being apointed as the Floor Manager, I performed as what was required...and got floored! Hahahaa... Tiring and fun and the same time.

But the best part was, 2 weeks before the ceremony, I was handed over the responsibilty to PRODUCE the couple's wedding presentation. And as what everybody does and expects, during wedding ceremonies in hotels, another powerpoint presentation. Yaaawn...

"Gone are the days of powerpoint presentations"

This was went my adrenaline kicked in! So, I decided to make it a bit different, actually a major difference from the norm. I decided to produce a "Wedding Music Video".

The format is still the same, you know, the background of the couple, their childhood days, schooling days, how they met for the first time and the eventual of tying the knot so to speak. But the approach wasn't. Don't know whether this is the first time done in Malaysia, but it sure was fun doing it. Credit to my cousins, aunties, uncles and my girlfriend for supporting this project. Don't think I can do it without them. So, check it out and gimme your thoughts. Hope you'll have fun watching it.

Watch out Yasmin Ahmad! hahahahaa.. next stop - Hollywood!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLM6wgKgcN8

Creativity Limited?

Talking about the disparity between passion and ignorance. Malaysian made products, our very own Malaysian film products to be more precise. I mean, who are we kidding? Right from the storylines, scripts, acting, directing, promoting, you name it, a very sad scenario. After the Golden Era (P.Ramlee and Co.) there’s nothing much that we can be proud of. Don't really like to bitch but that's the whole truth. No doubt some movies hit it big, millions of ringgit reaped, but that's not the right scale to use. How many countries have we penetrated? For God's sake, we can't even attract our neighbouring countries, like Indonesia and Thailand, to support our filming industry. And yet, their films make it big here as well as the rest of the region. Even Singapore is doing better than us! We got no excuse. Personally, I think we are capable. And that's the saddest part.

The main problem with our filmmakers is that, they just don't think out of the box, in this case, out of the country. Very short sighted and narrow-minded indeed. Yes, Gerak Khas The Movie hit it big in Malaysia, but why didn't Datuk Yusof Haslam sell the movie in Indonesia? Senario The Movie series, made it too. Same thing, only jaguh kampung. And please don't ever mention the so-called famous director by the name of prof. madya something! To me, he's the leader of the cult that is destroying our film industry. If there were so successful in Malaysia, why can't they make it outside as well? To me, these filmmakers only think about Malaysian viewers, or rather the Malays. “Less work, no need to think much and hopefully make quick money” kind of mentality. But how is this going to lift our film industry to soaring heights? True, we did win a handful of international film awards from time to time, but have you seen Puntianak Harum Sundal Malam I and II, the one that got Maya Karin an award? I almost had a heart attack watching that movie. Not because of the bloody puntianak, but the storyline, script, acting…my God! Horrendous! Pathetic hantu scenes. Sometimes, I feel these local filmmakers think that the audience is stupid enough to accept such dismal scenes and acting. Puh-lease don't insult our intelillegence! Haven’t the filmmaker seen, Ju-On, The Eye or Nang Nak? Bloody scary!!! Neighboring countries can do these classics, why can’t we just emulate them? Not taking anything away from Maya Karin, but how the Puntianak Sundal series won an award for her, I don’t even want to know.

There’s still hope though. With the likes of Yasmin Ahmads and Afldin Shaukis (though, I think Afdlin’s storyline needs to be refined a bit), there is still light at the end of the tunnel. I believe these people have passion in what they do. The obsession of producing good, quality movies. And I really hope they will inspire more talents out there. We need these people to save our film industry during these dark ages.

In short, passion helps, ignorance sucks!