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.