The rain is still dominating life in this tropical island at the moment and made it rather interesting. Our island has been in the headlines concerning the mythical Nabu snake of the Baleh river (in terms of picture fakery), attacks on the Penan indigenous communities in Sarawak and now even endangered species, pygmy elephants VS palm oil plantations. Conservationists for years have shown interest to baby our island and with that we’ve been getting a lot of attention from others. In our fraction of the isle, on a much blissful note, we celebrated 25 years of independence from Britain and that morning we had endless blue skies. It was quite a beauty from where I was stationed at, the top end of the stadium terrace. I did my part for the nation as a commentator, reporting on this historic event on the airwaves. Boy was I feeling patriotic despite not holding a yellow-card…yet.
And Oh yea, I’m a product of a 1984 baby and as my colleagues call it ‘Anak Merdeka’. At 25, life for me continues along the same path and sometimes with unavoidable dirt, all part of the rain and shine excitement living in home land.
This is where I was stationed, top end of the stadium terrace. Our Broadcasting Booth.
Beautiful. Pleasant. Artsy. Nikki showed me this video when she got back from KL last month and I thought it was one of the cutest stop motion video clips I've ever seen. First thing in my mind was, How long did it take to complete the video! Looks really simple but trust me, the complexity involved is mad! It is one of those happy-feel-good-make-you-smile type of video. It compliments well with the song too. The vid reminds me of the end of Adele's Chasing Pavement, my favourite song from the playlists these days. Incredibly creative use of sheets, pillows and socks. I love the part when she is walking down the stairs (pillows) and jumping from one pillow to another, swimming with the fishes (socks), in a train, hanging from a cliff, lets not forget the 'hair movement' in all the frames. With all these shots, the Israeli actress/model must be really exhausted after all that stop motion. Watch it and be impressed, be very impressed! This vid makes me want to sleepwalk.
Fun Facts: * The video was shot all stills - roughly 3225 still photos for the entire video, using one camera, hanging from the ceiling for the main body of the movie. * It took 4 weeks before shooting to create an animated computer generated storyboard for the video, with 3d dummies for the characters. * It took only 2 days of shooting for the live actors on set to re-create the 3.5 minutes computer sequence, frame by frame. * Some of the bed sheets used in the video were taken from Oren’s own bedroom and are now considered collectors items, worth at the moment not very much and therefore used as bed sheets. *Each of the wonderfully talented people above have worked on the video for a fraction of their normal rates (except Oren who worked for his normal rate of zero).
I remember reading an article on the radio about the Barrier Reef caretaker job thinking how great it would be if i were to apply. Me, CK in Australia's tropical island paradise, the sand in my feet, surfing the waves, fine dining, scuba diving, sailing the Great Barrier Reef to picking up the mail all for a $150,000 salary! It is truly indeed the best job in the world. The application process doesn't really demand much, just a minute video explaining why you would be great for the job. Advertised as the "Great Barrier Reef island caretaker" the role includes cleaning the pool, collecting the mail and feeding the fish in exchange for free luxury accommodation on Hamilton Island and a $150,000 six month position. Steven, the guy in the video, popped into the studio one night after hearing his favourite NERD tune on the radio, told me he heard about the job from his mother and decided to why-not-give-it-a-go. I have smacked his job application video with 5 stars. This is where you can view Steven's video and rate it 5 stars! But it looks like Steven is up for some stiff competition with one of the world's wanted man. How oh How can you ever defeat a man who is "outgoing", "familiar with sandy areas", experience with videos and delegating tasks? But really there is nothing for Steven to worry about. Best of Luck!
This is a story of a girl who cried a river and drowned the whole world, Ok, who am I kidding, nah...not that dramatic really. I'm an educator by day, a radio dj by night, living in Borneo where rain and shine is part of a great experience. Everything rots in our part of the equator. You'll know what I mean if you've sniffed ASIA. A side from that, I like tennis and the depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how good I get, I'll never be as good as a wall.
P/S: Feel free to interact with me. All my shots are current!
