Exhibit A’s ‘why I am a typical Singaporean teenager’

Traits the typical Singaporean teenager would possess:

complains far too much on the education system in singapore - “argh STREEEESS!”

complains quite abit on the government - “WHAT?! GST’s increasing again!?”

always complains of being tired - “omg im so damn tired from all that work! what are these lecturers trying to do drowning us with that pile of projects man?! kill us arh?!”

basically, complains about anything and everything under the sun (oh wait. they complain about the weather too. okay everything over the sun.)

uses self to compare with others, in a way, ’showing off’ - “eh what time you slept last night? oh 3 arh? i didnt sleep at all you know?”

always thinking the whole world owes them something

always thinking their lives are the most depressing and that their troubles are the most difficult of the lot

always thinking everyone else around them doesnt care

always giving excuses to cover up for a mistake or simply just always giving excuses

reusing words like ‘complain’ and ‘always’ over and over again

always thinking their broke

always in a state of denial - “-brain talk-left brain: if you’re fat, you’re just fat man.. right brain: nah.. thats just your eyes playing tricks on you! the weighing machine’s wonky!”

have a tendency to point fingers at others when something goes wrong

Symptoms that are emerging in exhibit A of this malignant disease:

CHECK to all except that the degree to it isnt severe.

doctor’s evaluation?

in a state of denial. exhibit A is in serious life-threatening danger. (did i also mention that the typical singaporean teenager also likes to exaggerate?)

okay, maybe i aint that bad.
or maybe i am.
hmm..

Reflections 7: love - random thoughts.

some people think love is blind.

some people think that statement alone is so cliche, let alone it being true.

others just think it defers from case to case.

what do YOU think?

or more importantly, what do I think?

the power of love
often i think love can “make” people do things they would never normally do. like for example, you would miss something you’ve never missed, just to have time to see this special person. and its not like you’re gonna complain about it. you’re not exactly elated about for example, missing the last episode to your favourite show that has no repeats, but then again, its not like you’re complaining. you just willingingly do it for the person. okay maybe im not making much sense here. so lets move on if you don’t get me.

does love last?
i’ve got this random question running through my head right now: does love last? i think the almost immediate answer that would pop up in any sane person’s head would be no. but then again, just think about it, when does your mum stop loving you? or your sibling? (unless its some major dispute over property or inheritence when you’re all grown up of course - but then again, it isn’t some melodrama) ahh but the real question lies in whether love with opposite sex, (you know which kinda love) lasts.. so does it? or does it not? i think it’d have to be a no still. i mean family love is different from love love. and even after marriage, love doesnt last either, despite the newly developed ‘kinship’ between the two. family love doesnt quite exist between the husband and wife either. somehow, the “spark” just comes to an end and the love just erodes away with time.

when love is over
people always say there isnt a point in crying over spilt milk, or in this case, the broken relationship, simply because it doesn’t help. i’d have to disagree to that (maybe thats cos im a HUGE crybaby - and im sure mister ryan has no objections to that. after all, even he has seen me in “action”). yea i mean hell yea, crying isnt going to fix anything and neither is it gonna help ease things up or turn back time but hey, what fixes things or turns back time? nothing. nothing in fact. this is, but the physical aspects to things. crying, in my opinion, helps give temporary relief to the ‘victim’. its kind of like “letting it all out” as opposed to keeping the hurt inside and pretending to be happy. so it sorta like gives emotional ‘release’ and the person feels slightly better after “letting it all out” a.k.a crying. since it has its benefits, i dont quite understand why people always try to stop others from crying when they do. i mean if its gonna help her feel better, just let her let herself go for awhile instead of bottling everything inside her, which might just increase her burden and trauma (esp by having to act strong and holding back the tears). i sorta came to a conclusion about these people (the ones witnessing the crying). i think they’re just afraid to see the ‘victim’ cry and they feel like they don’t know what to do or how to handle the situation so they only offer such “cliche” forms of consolation like “hey.. don’t cry” and something along the lines of “what happen to the strong XXX i used to know?”.

so with that, my random thoughts on love comes to an end.

i’ve said my piece.

how about you? what do YOU think?

Notes: Lecture Eight [081206]

Story is Action
•    Action is any kind of activity, movement, interaction of characters with their surroundings
•    Talking about feelings is not as powerful as illustrating why you feel this way through your actions

sometimes dialogue doesn’t help illustrate anything; its gotta be what the characters do

Film is Behaviour
•    Actions are simply the manifestations of behaviour
•    Human emotions are understood by watching the actions and reactions of the characters

Non-visual way of storytelling a.k.a Lazy forms: voice over, flashback, characters blatantly stating how they’re feeling (eg: I am angry with you)

Dynamic Action
•    Has the potential to enrich the experience of the audience by building an emotional relationship between the characters an the audience

Notes: Lecture Seven [011206]

Functions of a Dialogue
♥ conveys messages of the story
♥ explore characters’ emotions
♥ explains characters’ personalities
♥ creates moods
♥ shows relationship between characters
♥ makes the film interesting

Elements of Dialogue
1. Dialogue reveals character
♥ A character talks about himself or herself
♥ other people talk about that character
EG: Usual Suspects - Kaizer Souzeh

2. Dialogue establishes relationships between characters
♥ characters express attitudes and opinions that are in opposition to one another

3. Good effective dialogue will move the story forward (makes the film more interesting)

4. Dialogue communicates faces and information to the audience
♥ it conveys essential exposition (information to the audience - the audience needs to know to understand why everything is happening the way they are)
♥ characters will talk about what happened, establishing the storyline

5. Dialogue ties the script together
EG: Usual Suspects - Final dialogue between Verbo & police officer; floating back and forth

Dialogue no-nos
♥ sentence structure that creates ambiguous meaning
♥ when characters express exactly how they feel because it doesn’t really happen in reality
♥ trying too hard to amplify details therefore creating something that appears unreal
♥ but if dialogue is too normal, not interesting

WRITE INTERESTING DIALOGUE.

Common Mistakes
♥ dialogue should be used sparingly, never telling the audience what they can see for themselves - Dialogue is no substitute for action

Reflections 6: IJ Girls

we caught “autograph book” in class last week and boy did it bring back tons of memories.
i mean afterall, the film itself revolved around my primary/secondary school life - the girls who acted in the film, the uniforms they wore, and even the location where they shot the film!
i remember the school proudly showing this video to us during the many after school assembly periods, time and again.
it was hell of a bore.

but somehow… watching it in ryan’s class last friday, it triggered off this whole nostalgic “i miss IJ” feeling in me.

Being a pure-bred IJ girl (and very much proud of being so), i’ve never quite had any encounter with boys till i got to JC when i was 17. you could have imagined how overwhemled i felt that i wanted to just quit college cos it was too much for me to take. okay but then again, this is another story for another day.

going back to IJ girls, we’ve always been rumoured to be bitches, sluts, snotty know-it-all rich brats who think we’re oh-so-smart….. oh the list goes on and on i’m sure…
i’d have to admit that even i myself felt that way about my fellow school mates at times.
well, it is a fact that IJ girls in general are well…. slightly more bimbotic and attention seeking (and not to forget, LOUD) than girls from other schools (excluding those who come from all-girl schools of course!)
but then again, there are the minority of us who simply couldn’t wait to get out of IJ when the bitchiness got to a whole new level.
i’ve got mixed feelings about being an IJ girl though.
sometimes im proud to be one.. i mean after all, the school IS one of the oldest and most prestigious schools in Singapore and it is a fact that we excel in well, the arts.
(forgive my biasedness for i’m very much inclined towards the arts as opposed to the science streams)
well.. there were also the times i hated IJ like hell..
i hated the girls.
i hated how everyone was backstabbing everyone.
and how they thought that bitching about others was considered a great bonding activity.
i hated the bitchiness and the degree of “fake”ness.
and not forgetting the posers of course.
all in all, you can say i hated the people.
you know.. i’ve been told time and again that your best friends in life are the ones who came from your secondary school but i’d beg to differ seriously.
in IJ, i learnt what reality is.
how its a dog-eat-dog world out there and i started to distance myself from everyone.
from the young cheery talkative primary school kid that everyone was snatching to have recess with (yes, i’m afraid i’d have to reveal, i was a popular chubby lil kid whom everyone loved to hang out such that i had to create and give out timetables for whom i’d sit with for recess on which days… GOSH! the nerve i had!), i slowly evolved into someone who kept her problems to herself and only portrayed her happy side, becoming as fake as the people i hated.
i got hurt friendship after friendship.
it was often about how some girl (who was supposedly my best friend then) bitched about me and revealed all my secrets to a group of other girls and it spread like wild-fire.
though the girls were terrible, there were the plus-sides to being an IJ girl.
the primary school hymns we sang after recess and during mass… how we had dance movements and actions while we sang each hymn and how the older primary school kids would look after us as though we were their real siblings.
i remember the little hymn book we had.
it was one helluva colourful thingy which had LOADS and LOADS of children’s hymns in it!
cool huh??? (:

well anyway, people have recently (okay or not so recently) slammed IJ girls in the newpaper, labelling them as “easy [with the opposite sex]” but obviously, retracting their nasty comments (and very personal opinions - which is darn hell unprofessional of the writer i’d have to say) and making a public apology to the school (:

IJ girls always win. (i’d like to think so.)
oh yayy.

Notes: Lecture Six [241106]

Writing for an audience

• Screenwriter = storyteller
  • The cinematic experience is not just made up of words you might put on paper, but the audiences’ emotional reaction to that information.

Director to the people (X)

            Writer to the people (X)

                        Camera to the people (X)

It is ultimately people to people. (to connect to other people – our grand scheme)

What is the writer’s purpose?

To connect:

• Themselves
• Their unique vision
• The material
• The drama
• Others

Audiences want to be transported by a screenplay. 

Where do you look for a story?

Inside yourself. (from personal experiences or memory)

Everything to learn about other people is already in you.

Now you need to figure out how to connect to it. (To yourself or this vision you have)

Storytelling tool 3: Experience

In experience – you learn something

Are memories true? Not necessarily. Differing perceptions. (to use for reflections)

Memories may change – you choose which to keep hence its filtered whereas experiences actually happen. You cannot filter out what you’ve experienced

• All people have fragments of stories
• These potential ideas prompt your desire to know more
• Respond emotionally and intellectually to what you heard (experience may not necessarily make a good story but one can add a little more to it)
• Good stories are born in the heart, not the head (when you let it flow, it often it turns out good and its also easier to write)
• Remember the role of an audience (you’re writing to be read)
• After all, you ARE the audience (putting yourselves in the shoes of the audience)

True / False Stories

Two events from your life: (first person)

• One happened
• One didn’t
• Don’t tell us which is which but make sure the audience is able to believe both of them

Review

7 questions – short answer quiz

3 Storytelling tools:

• Observation
• Memory
• Experience

o       Aristotle’s storytelling theories

o       3 act structure

o       Developing 3 dimensional characters (just have a basic understanding of how everything is different from one another)

o       Writing for an audience

Notes: Lecture Five [171106]

Character
♥ Every story starts with a character (a good/strong/memorable character can make up for a weak plot)
♥ It is the heart, soul and nervous system of your story
♥ It is through the characters that the viewers experience emotions (Heart: provides emotions)
♥ It is through the characters that the viewers are touched (There’s no place like home)

♥ Without Character, there is no Action
♥ Without Action, there is no Conflict
♥ Without Conflict, there is no Story
♥ Without Story, there is no Screenplay
♥ Therefore ultimately, No Character = No Screenplay

Developing Character
♥ Who is my character?
♥ What does he want? (what is his goal?)
♥ What is her quest? (things in her way or obstructing her from acheiving her goal/getting what she wants)
♥ What drives him to the resolution of the story? (why is the goal important to the character?)
 

3 Dimensional Character

1. Physiology (Physical)
♥ Sex
♥ Age
♥ Height/Weight
♥ Hair/Eye/Skin Colour
♥ Posture
♥ Appearance
♥ Defects/Abnormalities/Deformities/Birth Marks/Diseases
♥ Heredity

2. Sociology (how he interacts with the society)
♥ Class
♥ Occupation
♥ Education
♥ Home Life
♥ Religion
♥ Race/Nationality
♥ Place in Community
♥ Political Affiliations
♥ Amusements

3. Psychology (his thinking)
♥ Sex Life/Moral Standards
♥ Personal Premise, Ambitions
♥ Frustrations, Chief Disappointments
♥ Temperament
♥ Attitude towards Life
♥ Complexes
♥ Personalities
♥ Abilities
♥ Qualities
♥ IQ
♥ Skeletons in his closet

Interior Component of Life (we don’t see in the film itself)
♥ Takes place from birth until the moment the film begins
♥ It is the process that forms the character

Exterior Component of Life (we see in the films)
♥ Takes place from the moment the film begins until the film ends
♥ It is the process that reveals the character

*You must create your character in relationship with other things or people so that they can interact in three ways:

1. So that they experience conflict in achieving their dramatic need
2. They interact with other characters
3. They interact with themselves

Storytelling tool 2: Memory
♥ Your memory is a wonderful cabinet of past incidents which you had experienced or been told
♥ These memories are points of references to your own past experiences
♥ “WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW” – its easier to write because you know what it is and the emotions felt makes it more realYour memory is a wonderful cabinet of past incidents which you had experienced or been told
♥ “WRITE WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW” – blending it with what you know will make the story more interesting

Reflections 5: losing the inspiration for this (and for everything else).

today, lets start off with a: 

maybe if this wasn’t considered as homework…

• i wouldn’t feel so stressed about what to write and what not to write.
• i wouldn’t have writer’s block and have ZERO inspiration.
• i wouldn’t be at a loss each and everytime i face this blank white box.
• things would just flow naturally and smoothly outta me.
• it wouldn’t be such a bore.

Okay lets just admit it, i’m no good at this. Thinking about having to reflect makes me groan and come up with all sorts of excuses to avoid doing this. but no.. i know that somehow, one way or another, i’ll still have to get it done. i don’t know what’s gotten into me. i used to have such a flair for writing and it used to brighten my day up being able to get things and issues outta my system, which in a way is a healthy kinda thing. But now for me, i’ve gotten lazy. I’m losing the interest to write maybe cos i have nothing to talk about; or rather, what i CAN talk about, people may not necessarily want to read. i’ve always been more comfortable writing to myself than to an audience; like keeping a diary whereby i’m just plainly talking to myself and i don’t have to fret about what blahblahblah will think of me if i write and voice my opinions about issue XXX. here’s an inside scoop to see how my brain works:

“hmm.. i feel so much like writing about this… but should i?”

“aww cmon.. dont be a wuss! you think anyone will care what you think about that?! no one’ll give 2 hoots!”

“well.. no harm right? i mean if not, i dont have the drive to go write about something that doesn’t interest me but having to pretend it does”

“bullshit. your job here is just to get it done and not worry too much.”

 There. This same conversation (well close to it) goes through my head everytime i’m about to write a piece. like for example, the discussion board for intro to film, this and even things like contemporary issues work we’re given. how much impact can a small being like me have on bigger things out there?

 im sorry if im starting to sound so negative or if this is becoming depressing to read. its just that things have been so down for me lately that everything’s starting to look bleak and i’m starting to have doubts that i’ll ever bounce back to where i used to be. first, my laptop got stolen/lost. then i’m starting to rub off my bad luck to the people closest to me. on top of that, the laptop that i borrowed basically just spoilt (i dont know if its on its own or if im the cause) and this weird thing popped out of the laptop before the hard drive died on me. moreover, my photography assignment was still in the laptop and i had yet to burn it for submission. my ez link card got confiscated by this unreasonable bus driver and im stuck without a card for 5 business days or even more. that means having to bring about a bag of coins and having to pay adult fare from now onwards. ): this is so depressing. talk about an Aristotle tragedy man. -sighs- whats lacking in this tragedy is that there is no turn for the better (yet, i hope) and the protagonist doesn’t have a goal in life to achieve (unless you consider wanting to get out of this whole chain of bad luck). so if this really is similar to an Aristotle tragedy, whats the knowledge that im lacking to get myself out of this dump? is there something that i should be doing or should have done that i have not already? is there something that i’ve offended that i’ve not known about? I need answers man. I need directions or A DIRECTION. I’m feeling so lost and listless now that nothing cheers me up much really. I just want to know how to make it better and what i’ve done wrong so i can do something about it. this is bothering me quite a bit for some time, i’ve noticed but before yesterday, i just couldn’t pinpoint what it was that was bothering me. now that i know, ive got a thirst for more information and knowledge.

well anyhow, we’re supposed to write a letter to someone in our past.

the first kinda thought that came to my mind was that it was going to be emotional; sad and angry at the same time. and that writing it would stir these emotions up in me - i would cry while writing and get all pissed off all over again at the person i’m writing to. my life hasn’t been all merry and happy all along. there were points in time (in fact, many!) whereby i just felt so much. so basically, i think writing this piece wouldn’t be of much difficulty for me. Instead, i would think that sharing it, would be very much harder for me cos everything’s kinda personal and i’m definitely not the type of person to open up very easily to the people around me. i sure hope i don’t get all emotional tomorrow when i read my letter to the past out.

till then, peace out (and hopefully more luck for me, PLEASE!)

Reflections 4: the one thats been long due.

Okay, so I’ve been a naughty girl.

I haven’t been doing my reflections on time.

But hey! I’ve got a perfectly ‘valid’ (in my opinion, that is) reason okay!

The workload is starting to get to me.

“why then are the others able to get their work done on time?”, one may inquire.

You see, different people operate in different ways.

Like say for example if you compare Vivian and myself.

She’s REALLY efficient in getting her work done (no really, I mean it) whereas I, miss yeo, can take eons to get ONE piece of work done!

My speed of working or making progress when doing work is sometimes close to zero even after an hour of working at it.

So you can pretty much imagine how late I stay up till on certain nights to get all my work done while my dear friend Vivian is happily in dreamland.

-sighs in envy-

I cannot help but just envy the lucky her.

So shoot me for being a slow worker.

 

 

Anyway, back to business.

Throughout this past week, I’ve been pondering on what to put in my reflections, be it while poo-ing, brushing my teeth, or bathing even! (Okay, so my brain seems to function at its peak in the toilet… note to self: deal with it you moron!)

So we caught this movie (which I enjoyed) in class - ‘Election’ starring Reese Witherspoon (ahh.. her husband’s so HAWT! –fawns-) and Matthew Broderick about this high school girl who has this immense desire to win the student council election though there is hardly any need for it since initially, she was the sole candidate running for president. –shrugs and rolls eyes the Mr Emilio way- (we also see later in the film that there is only ONE person running for vice-president! – ahh there! See?! There wasn’t even a need for an election in the first place! Gee man.. Was the election for show or something?)

 

 

While doing my very ahem, serious business in the toilet one night, it suddenly hit me that I could talk about my experience in being a school prefect (waaaaaay back in primary school) as well as my thoughts about the student council in the college I went to for a year.

 

 

Well you see… I was one of those stuck-up, snobbish school prefects in primary school (whom all the other kids was certain they would murder, one fine day) who thought we were elites in the school being the “chosen ones” and having the privilege to go through a year of training (prefects-in-training we were before we went through the whole “prefects’ investiture” process and were “promoted” prefects. Oh yayy!)

 

 

I remember being able to get away with absolutely everything just because I was a prefect. Not to forget, the many concessions of being a prefect which comprised of being able to go for recess twenty minutes before the supposed release time (missing close to one period of lessons every day before recess), being able to basically do everything that the ‘commoners’ couldn’t do and get away with… And who could ever forget, getting back at those who did no justice to you (eg: those who disliked us or refused to lend us their pretty pencils and what-not) by finding fault with them and giving them a booking slip thus being about DETENTION. Muahahahahahaha!! –throws back head in evil laughter-

 

 

The most ironic thing was that we were to book those who were running along the corridors and to do so, we ourselves had to run after them to get their details. I recall the times whereby I was running along the corridor (for my own reasons) and was stopped by teachers. I ended up cooking up stories and lies about trying to catch the other girls in front of me who were running; to get their names down for detention. To add to that, since prefects didn’t have to go for assembly in the mornings because we were patrolling the different classroom levels, I hark back to the memories where I would ever so hardworking-ly copy my friends’ homework, scribbling untidily and making sure I got myself covered all the time and kept myself out of trouble.

 

 

It keeps me in awe till today, how my mind at a tender age of 9, worked so miraculously evilly.

 

 

Rest assured though, that the mechanics in my mind have long since slowed down as I age as every day passes, my mind becoming all haggard and wrinkly, that I no longer think and work the way I did as a child.

 

 

 

 

Reckon why?

 

 

Well that’s cause I’ve evolved in a far much worse villain – SEXY SONIA!!

 

HURHURHUR!!!

Notes: Lecture Four [101106]

There were no notes given during the tutorial.