So finally a post on what have been occupying my days and nights these past weeks.
There was an interesting discussion today at Starbucks – possibly a result of my 6 hours of brainstorming and discussing with directors and Y’s 8 hours of filming in the sun. It was a battle between differing philosophies between what makes a good documentary, hey wait, what makes good TV (since we are not shooting on film that takes a whole lot of picture quality from the equation. Digital enthusiasts – pls dont throw eggs here. You will only end up smearing your screens, kan? 😉
Y, who is playing host on the new documentary series my team and I are working on, is also writing for 2 of the episodes. His first script was reviewed today, and in the course of giving him my feedback, I understood what his approach was which, I must say, he took great pains to explain. He wanted to make a documentary that provokes the audience to question, BUT with no closure to the issue addressed. I, on the other hand, favours one with a partial closure. Basically he wants to tease all the way while I just want to tickle.
So there goes the mayhem.It was hilarious at some point, and I was lucky that SO was not there or it would be stretched to at least an hour more. Throw in ZB and it will be the whole night.
Some of the scenes and transitions cut were so well done I was so happy I hired the creators involved. Yet there were some that have been rather dissapointing but still, I am hoping for the best will come through after hours of discussions, and am sure, lots of sweat and frustrations on their part too. It is this creative weave of energies that excites me in production .
Newspaper journalism, magazine editorship, book publishing and tv all have something in common. It is about crafting a story – and therefore, not about me. It is about the readers and the viewers. It is never about what I dont know, but it is about what THEY want to know. Thats the mark between good journalism, good documentaries and bad, self-indulging ones.
The making of this series is not going to be an easy one. We are at the mercy of many factors (including the most uncontrollable – the weather!) and hard, hard work on making this one solid docu series. Lots of prayers help, and I am constantly reminding myself to doa for God’s blessings too.
Let’s see where JALAN’s journey is. Stay tuned.Mark Jan 27 on your calendar.
Just looking at random blogs . Ended up here . Much of what you have written makes no sense to a freak like moi since I know zilch about your field of interest but I guess it must be pretty cool . What attracted me was the tile of the post … I dunno what you mean by Jalan but in Urdu (one of the most spoken langs in my country) it means “to burn” … :s
“Yet there were some that have been rather dissapointing but still, I am hoping for the best will come through after hours of discussions, and am sure, lots of sweat and frustrations on their part”
AKU LA TU.
aaah – tell me abt it!! its all abt readers, audience – the people out there!
cik faux diamante – dont lah be like that!
beatiful stranger: welcome to my blog. Its random ramblings sometimes over here.
So JALAN means ‘to burn’ in Urdu? It means ‘road’ in the Malay language.
faux diamante: sigh…susah jadi berlian palsu eh? 😉 Kidding la..Only with sweat the most creative products are born..go! go! go! Dont give up, yet ok?Nanti credit nama kau jugak..
kakteh: its never abt us, kakteh. bila lagi ? bila lagi?! hehehe