To reiterate the things I've blogged about before, that I'm going to touch on in this post:

After so long of researching local degree courses, deciding on one, and then changing my mind, and then repeating ad nauseum, I've finally applied for one. "Hurray!", right? But as with all the other courses I've "decided upon" previously, I have my doubts about this one. I applied anyway because it was the closest course to something that I am remotely interested in. There's another reason why I'm applying to this course, which I will get to soon enough. I think it's a wrong reason, but it's the only other real reason I have.

Quite recently, a friend of mine was having trouble thinking of a story for one of his projects. The course he's currently taking is BSc Multimedia Technology and Design, and the project he was having a problem with had something to do with film and audio pre-production planning. He was to plan for a 2-3 minutes video of a personal documentary, with an emphasis on story.

Basically, he needed to come up with a story, and create sypnosis, treatment and the whole script (with lighting and camera direction) for that story. And he couldn't come up with any story at all. He'd been thinking about it for weeks and been asking people for ideas, without results. He was getting desperate, and kept asking me for ideas. I had none. Initially.

I was about to go to sleep on the morning of 6th September, Thursday, when I suddenly had an interesting story idea. I thought about it for a while and then I sent a summary of the idea to him at 6:29:13 am (I still have the SMS I sent him! Hahahahha). He replied, "Hmmm... Interesting idea..." To make a long story short, he basically used that short summary I sent him via 3-linked SMSes (not so short then!) and tried to create a whole project out of it. I say 'tried', 'cause what he did, I wasn't happy with. I was somewhat protective of that story for some reason, and I had whole scenes planned out in my head. Almost like a video playing in my mind. So I knew exactly how I wanted the story to go, and how the script to be written.

So I re-wrote the whole script for him. Hahahaha! I re-wrote the sypnosis, the treatment, the dialogues, everything. I tried not to change some of his "additions" but everything else I wasn't happy with, I got rid of. Hurr. One thing I don't like about local shows' dialogues is that the writers script stupid, unbelievable lines. I always end up screaming, "Nobody talks like that, dammit!" whenever I chance upon a local TV show. And my friend had a line or two that got me reacting like that. Which I promptly deleted and re-wrote. Hahahha.

Once he had the project completed (I didn't touch much on the lighting and camera direction bits - just one or two), I vet through it and did more amendments and was finally happy to let him submit it. These all happened in the span of 2 days, if I'm not wrong. With me taking only an hour writing most of the parts. Heh.

The project was graded 91.5%. Like, omgwtfbbqlol!!!!11 I was laughing my ass off in his car when he was relating what happened in his class the day he received the results. How when he saw the marks, he went, "Sial lah!" How the lecturer was using this story as an example to the class, dissecting everything. How this story had the highest marks in the whole class, beating a "media student" (as he put it). How the second-highest marks was an 80+%. I was so happy that I had scored well for a subject I never took, in a class I never attended.

An intriguing title.
I'm not sure if I can take credit for this title, 'cause I can't remember coming up with it. I wasn't happy with this title either, I wanted to go with another one, but we stuck with this one, in any case.
A well-written sypnosis.
I still have the MSN log of me replacing my friend's original sypnosis. Hahaha. But even if we stuck with his sypnosis, it was pretty much just a word-for-word copy-and-paste from my SMS of the story summary. Hoho.
All well-thought through treatment.
Also, pretty much mostly my work. Hahaha. I had added a sentence last-minute, which I think brought about the story properly. I am pretty proud of that sentence. Heh. There was an addition by my friend which we kept though. There was one time during dinner, we were discussing the story with another friend, and she kept wanting to change some parts, and I had quite a passionate argument about the story with her. Hahhaaha. I was quite adamant to keep the story my way, lest he be swayed by her words. :P There was one point of the argument, I was explaining to her why one character is a particular way, and he clung on to this line that I used during that conversation and input it in the treatment. Hahahhaha. It was pretty much my line, in the end, even if he did put it there.
An intriguing story that is refreshing and interesting. Script is clear and flows well. Great job!
Can you feel the pride? Hahaha. I take credit for the story, dialogue and editing of the script. Most of the camera, light, sound directions are my friend's. Haha. Oh, I take credit for the title sequence too. He was going to go with a... Erm, not-so-great-according-to-me title sequence. Haahahhahaha. :P
Good choice of cast.
I provided the base for the cast, the rest was developed by my friend. Can't take much credit for this part. Hurr.
Great thinking on the locations.
Once again, I provided the base for the locations. I had it all thought out where the scenes were going to be at, and all that stuff, which I shared with him, but he developed them further. I think I was quite detailed with my locations, so it made it easier for him to develop the rest. Haha.

So yeah, the above is the other reason why I applied to the same course. I'm not sure if it's the right choice, but I figured if I could help my friend score 91.5% in a subject in that course, things shouldn't be too bad, right? And there are some other interesting subjects in the course, like Digital Photography (the art, and the science, of it as well), Audio/Video Technology, Graphic Design and Multimedia Design. Which I figured, if I end up staying in the design path, this would help a lot. If I don't end up in the design path, this degree course will introduce me to some other interesting fields as well, so that would be great.

After writing this blog entry, I'm beginning to feel much better about my application to UniSIM.

If I don't get in to this course (which several people tell me is impossible), there's always SIM application which ends in November. According to my UniSIM receipt, I will be informed if I'm accepted by late November. Hopefully I will get to know the results earlier, so that I can apply for SIM courses. Or perhaps, I should just waste some money and apply anyway, just in case. We shall see.

One thing I'm unsure of is this course that I have applied for just today, it's part-time. I wanted to apply for a full-time course, but apparently UniSIM's courses are exclusively part-time. Bahhh. I don't want to have two separate foci when studying... And there's only 2 classes per week for the course I applied for. Which start at 7:30 pm. Which is pretty perfect for working adults. I think this is a sign for me to take on a full-time job, eh?