Reflections Off a Mirror

Just another Media Factory site

Category: International Students

Have I come full circle? – Week #9

May 6, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Having moved to Melbourne for nearly 3 months, I’ve definitely picked up on some stuffs and learned more things about myself that I never knew I was capable of, and would probably would not be able to expose that part of me if I chose to do my tertiary education back in the comforts of  home in Singapore.

For one, I have cooked meals for myself in these 3 months more than I’ve ever cooked for myself or for anyone for that matter in my entire life. Some meals turned out well, some not so, but it’s a learning curve and cycle where you analyse what went wrong and pick up from what did went well and see how you can improve on that. I guess that pretty much works for everything else other than just cooking. This definitely applies to the field of study that I’m in, Media, and the whole pre-production to post-production where there are so many things to accomplish. Murphy’s law states, “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” and you can never ignore that, no matter how much preparation you have put into doing the actual thing. There are just so many possibilities of something going wrong that is far beyond your control. For example, if you planned to shoot at a particular location, and you’ve got your permits approved, your talents ready to go, your crew ready for action, but just due to bad luck it started pouring heavily and it stays like that for pretty much most of the day. Are you going to call it quits? Or come up with something else to improvise? Those are the decision one faces when something does not go to plan and it’s beyond one’s control.

Moving here has made me realise suddenly uni isn’t just everything. There are so many things that you have to keep your eye on, like paying your rent on time, making sure there’s always food in the refrigerator at home, making sure that you’ve got your daily necessities like your toiletries, clean clothes, just overall well being. On top of that, you have to manage your own financing. Living in the city comes with its perks of being just 5 minutes walk to RMIT and to major shopping centres, but that also means that everything else would be jacked up sky high in terms of prices. Decent meals would be AUD$7 onwards around the CBD. I would be really contented if I could get away with having lunch less than AUD$10. If anyone has any recommendation to get lunch less than AUD$5, I’m all ears. Of course there’s always Domino’s value pizzas at $5 each, but come on, how long can you go on eating those on a daily basis?

Another thing I didn’t guess I would be so quick on doing would be performing household chores. Back home, everything seemed to be taken care of, but here, no one is going to clean up that pile of dishes you might have used to make dinner, no one is going to wash the toilet or scrub the insides of the showering cubicle. IT’s really all on you. Calling back on my National Service days in the army, we had this thing called “Stand By Area”, which basically means you had to stand by your bunk and the Company Sergeant Major (CSM) would go round inspecting your bunk for the smallest detail of dirt or dust. Obviously, back then, non of us could give two cents about it and just went through the motions of cleaning and tidying up the bunk before standing by our area, just so that we would be granted permission to book out from camp for the weekends. But here it’s really different, although I’m not being placed in the threat of having to stay back in camp to clean up the bunk while others happily make their way home for the weekend, I feel like I am very much responsible for cleaning up every single thing in the apartment as much as I am responsible for my studies in uni, even if it means scrubbing the insides of the toilet bowl, removing the dirt and gunk hidden in the kitchen pipe and so on.

It’s really the matter of being independent, and how long I can go before I press the ‘eject’ button and start booking the next flight out of Melbourne to Singapore. (I strongly hope I don’t resort to this). On the other hand, there is also the freedom I get when I’m here, pretty much not like how I am in Singapore. I answer to no one, I get to make my own decisions, but whether they’re good or bad is a slightly different story. I guess what I’m trying to say is, am I really ready for the world? Only time will tell, just like how only time would tell how the weather would turn out tomorrow.

Pause fillers – Week #9

May 5, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Have you ever listened to a peer or a person on the tram speaking and he or she is always going on and on with a repetition of a certain word? Say for example, “I was like… But like… And he was like… Like… Kinda like… He’s like…”. And when you try to listen into it even more, it’s almost kind of annoying? Well, that is pause fillers working right there.

Pause fillers comes in different forms and it varies from person to person. Some people use, “Erm…” others use, “Err…” or like the example mentioned above, using the word ‘like’ over extensively. Somehow during our speech, we tend to rely on pause fillers a lot, without even ourselves aware of it. Whether it is a good or bad thing, it really depends. Some people do it subtly in a timely manner in order to incorporate good pacing and it punctuates their sentences well. Others might use it to cover up lack of content or vocabulary to express and articulate themselves. At the end of the day, it is just how much we use it in our speech and language, and when we use it.

In a formal context when an individual is giving a public address or carrying out a presentation, the pause fillers comes out even more obvious as now that person is in the spotlight and everyone is listening. Unlike being in a conversation with a peer, where it is pretty much a 2-way street, giving a speech or when you are in public speaking circumstances, it is more of a 1-way street for most of the session, up until at least during the Q&A session. Hence, all ears are on that person and some people would really go to the point of scrutinising every single word the person is speaking. Therefore all this little pause fillers of “Erm…”, “Arh…”, “Hmm…”, “Like…”, would stick out like kinks and dents on a smooth copper wire.

How would do you get away from having pause fillers you might ask? Well, there no right or wrong method in getting rid of having pause fillers. In fact, I don’t think it is possible to completely eliminate pause fillers from your speech. It is what gives the human element in the speech and makes it less of a robotic or an announcement. However, we could always cut down on pause fillers by rehearsing our speeches and the content in front of a mirror. Being a lecturer, my dad grades his business students’ presentation skills base on how well they deliver their content and how well they manage their time to fit everything inside a specific duration, once the timer goes off, the students will be asked to stop presenting whether they are finished or not, pretty much simulating the scenario of pitching their business ideas to potential clients. One of the tips he mentioned to me was to practice in front of the mirror with your notes in your hands. If you find yourself having to refer to the notes more often than not, you’re not ready for the presentation. On the other hand, if you can go without having to refer to your notes or a minimal number of times and having to see yourself in the mirror most of the time, then you’re pretty much good to go.

Having said that, it really varies from person to person and how one articulates one’s self. So we should always experiment in front of the mirror to simulate public speaking just to brush up on our presentation skills. Who knows, your next sales pitch could make or break you just base on how many times you refer to your notes or how many times you rely on your pause fillers.

Timely Post – Week #9

May 5, 2016 / / 0 Comments

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/singaporean-english-is-almost-impossible-to-pick-up?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=atlas-page

I stumbled upon this article on the background of my home country’s ‘dialect’, Singlish. And I use the word dialect very loosely as it’s not even an official dialect of the English Language, but it is still a language that we use to communicate back home, not intentional but evolved organically derived form the different ethnic groups and diverse cultures that Singapore has to offer.

It was posted in a timely fashion, as the subject matter of my Project Brief 3 was how we used the dialect back home and how it differs from the standard English that we use when we’re in a foreign land that has English as the main language like Australia. So for those who are really interested into knowing how the dialect was formed and how to use it in future when you do head down the the little red dot, this article is for you as a head start on how the whole Singlish took its form and became the working language the locals use.

On the plus side, there is a comical side of the article with a re-make of a scene from Beauty and The Beast dubbed with Singlish over the original dialogue. Some Singaporeans might find it rather offensive or like we’ve been made fun of, but at the end of the day, it’s just all for laughs. Hope you guys enjoy reading it and watching the video.

Immigrating Dilemmas – Week #8

April 30, 2016 / / 0 Comments

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/letter-quitter-043035308.html

The above article shares one’s thoughts and views of immigrating overseas from a busy “no work-life balance” country of Singapore to a cosmopolitan city like Melbourne. I find myself in a similar pair of shoes while reading the article, not because of moving from the same country and integrating to the same city, but the same set of questions I ask myself every now then since I moved over from Singapore.

The segment that really struck a chord in me was “Born in Singapore or born Singaporean?”. I found myself relating to that situation a lot, however, in a slightly different situation. I was born in Singapore, but my parents are both Malaysian citizens, thus making me a Malaysian by birth. I carry a Malaysian passport and hold a Singapore PR status. It is mandatory for second generation PRs to serve National Service for 2 years. Me being no exception, served with the Singapore Armed Forces, and it was only a matter of time before I take up the Singapore citizenship after my service. I thought it would be a simple signing of papers since I was actually born in Singapore and just renounce my Malaysian citizenship. WRONG! Apparently it wasn’t so simple, I had to be employed in a full time job and contributing to the economy and stuff like that which I found pretty off putting.

Having done my time in National Service and protecting the nation in the military, I would assume that would have been my ticket to earning a Singapore citizenship, together with the fact that I was actually born in Singapore. However, that was not sufficient enough. The only route for me would be completing my studies in Melbourne then moving back to work before I can even come close to getting my citizenship. But then again, what if I actually decide to stay in Melbourne to work instead? Does that mean Singapore would run the risk of losing a potential citizen?

The Straits Times, a daily newspaper in Singapore, reported that the government aims to hit a 6.9 million population by 2030. Which makes me wonder, in such a dense and cramped society, when is it ever enough? I am in no place to make that judgement or critic on the decisions made by my country’s leader, but solely based on my own observation, the Singapore that I knew and grew up in 10 years ago, compared to the Singapore that it has become is totally different. We have more people from all over the world immigrating over and local Singaporeans moving abroad. It might have just come to a point where it seems somewhere along the line, Singapore is just a stepping stone to gaining citizenship to other first world countries in the region.

It’s never easy taking the leap of faith leaving the comforts of home. My forefathers moved from China during the Chinese Communist revolution to escape starvation and the whole crisis that was taking place during that period. My grandfather made the decision to move to Malaya, now known as Malaysia, and planted his humble roots from there. My dad too made the choice to move away from Malaysia to across the border into Singapore to start a new career and life with his family where my brother and I spent most of our early stages of life growing up. And now I have taken the step to leave Singapore and embark on a new life in Melbourne. Although it may not be a lifelong decision, it is still quite a major one considering having to spend 2 and a half years of my life here on a university degree. Over a conversation I had with my dad during my last few days in Singapore, I shared how I was starting to feel homesick even before I have even boarded the plane to Melbourne. And his advice was, “Just don’t look back.”. It was quite abstract yet innocent at first, but can’t say I didn’t look back, as I had to at certain point to see how far I’ve come. However, it is still an advice that I hold strongly, and would not let go of it anytime soon.

“However, the influx of new PRs and citizens in the early to late 2000s has increasingly put the idea of being Singaporean to the test. Issues like NS only for citizens and second-generation PRs, a lack of assimilation among newcomers, and stories of PRs who moved on to greener pastures after using our country as a springboard – all these have left some Singaporeans asking: What am I defending?” A very strong statement from the writer of the article that rings a bell in me. Am I going to stay in Melbourne to take on a new life, or return home? An internal conflict is always ongoing, but for now, I’ll generally focus my attention on just earning that bachelor’s degree with my name on it.

Project Brief 3 (A Tongue to Speak) Reflective Post – Week #7

April 19, 2016 / / 0 Comments

WARNING! Long Entry Ahead 

Having to shoot in an outdoor environment comes with the need for permits and notices. Thankfully, the scale of this production was rather small (mainly consisting of a tripod and a Sony MC50) and a manpower of only 1 (myself). From this assignment, I gathered that we actually don’t need a permit from the city of Melbourne, however we are still required to provide a proof of insurance from RMIT University, therefore there was a need to fill up a simple form that’s called “Low Impact Filming” and email it to the city of Melbourne, Strategic Planning and Logistic Team – Filming, and await their confirmation email. Some guidelines as to what is considered a “low impact filming” are also attached to that email as well as some house rules that should be observed during the time of filming along the streets.

I thought of the title “A Tongue to Speak” playing on the pun of the word ‘tongue’. It carries 2 meanings where a tongue is used to eat, speak or anything related to the oral form. The other meaning is a synonym for ‘language’ like a mother tongue where it is a native language or a first language usually used only at home with family members. And since my film is about the unofficial dialect we have back home in Singapore, “Singlish”, and I had my subject talking about the food back home, it is only appropriate to use the word ‘Tongue’ and the play on the pun.

It is never easy when you want to film, record, or even just to take photos of another person. There’s a need to arrange a suitable time where all parties are available for a couple of hours, as you can never be sure how long you might take to cover everything that is required to be filmed on that day. Therefore a rough schedule and time checks in between is handy to keep us on track and not drift away from our main point and not digress on external topics like what we had for lunch… Another problem faced was also arranging the right time and place to film my subject carrying out some daily routines that she would normally go through like cooking, cleaning, going through her assignments and more. Being a student at the University of Melbourne, her main priorities are assignments and catching up on readings, therefore to find the time to sit down for a small chat over a cup of coffee already seemed quite a far fetch. Eventually, I managed to grab the video camera, and tripod and rushed over to her apartment when she told me she’s going to cook her dinner. I was fortunate enough that I still had the Sony MC50 and tripod on loan, and managed to shoot that whole sequence on that.

thumb_IMG_7145_1024

The entire interview and as mentioned above, the cooking scene, were shot on the Sony MC50 with a tripod. It was a challenge finding the right position for my subject and because the sofa was located right next to a window, I was getting really really harsh lighting over my subject. As you can see from the picture above, the entire right side of the picture is blanked out from the bright light that was coming in. As a remedy, I hung a few pieces of white clothing across the window to soften the light casting over my subject. I didn’t want to shut the blinds completely, as it would have been too dark. So that’s a little learning opportunity of controlling light, although maybe not professionally, but it still does the job.

thumb_IMG_7146_1024

The above picture illustrates the window being right next to the sofa where my subject was sitting. 

I struggled with how I wanted to frame my subject, having no background experience what-so-ever on how to film on a video camera and therefore it was a very fresh and new experience on handling the camera having to zoom, pan, with or without tripod, and so on. I was considering whether to have my subject dead center in the frame and have her speaking to the camera, or, have her on the side of the frame and pretend that she’s speaking to someone behind the camera slightly off center. I decided to go with the latter, as it just seemed more natural and it allows to show some side profile of my subject rather than having her face dead center, it may seem a little too two-dimensional. Another thing I’m glad I didn’t went on dead center was the fact that I had extra space on my subject’s left to insert texts and images, it’s almost like a useful spatial tool. And you could say it was serendipity that my subject’s highlights of her hair almost kind of matches the colour of the sofa, and I found that easy on the eyes.

During the editing process I had a rough idea of a shape I wanted my film to take. I didn’t see the need for a narration and also didn’t like the idea of having the interview question and answer segment to be part of the film. Hence, I had to slice up everything according to my subject’s answers and the topic that we were talking about, and eliminate my voice when I was asking the questions. Next was to arrange her answers in a way to create some sort of flow like she is telling a story my viewers for them to sink their teeth into. If I were to just have her answers in the order they were in the interview, in my opinion, would seem a little too jumbled and over the place. And since I removed my voice of asking the question, it was a bit of a challenge to convey the question to my viewer before they can understand my subject’s answer, but I managed to work my way around that. Therefore, I believe that the flow and the arrangement of my subject’s answers and her thoughts are critical to this film in order to keep my viewer’s attention.

One of the major challenges I faced while editing was that I had way too much content and I had to keep it under 3 minutes. I was really reluctant to cut out some parts of the sequence, but it had to be done in order to meet the project brief’s requirements. Like in my last project brief, I carelessly exceeded the time limit by 40% and the lecturer who marked my project brief 2 wasn’t too pleased with that. Therefore, for this project brief, I tried my best to trim my film to under 3 minutes in hopes of meeting all the requirements for this assignment.

I did a little colouring for the interview shots of the film. Just had a go with the colour wheels on Adobe Premiere Pro colouring tap. Below are the before and after shots.

Screen Shot 2016-04-19 at 2.50.24 PM Screen Shot 2016-04-19 at 2.50.33 PM

Before                                                                                      After

I attempted to soften the lighting and cool the whites as you can see that the light form the windows is still a little hard on my subject. Like my filming skills, I have no background on colouring as well, and would definitely love to go more in depth on the whole process like editing. Something I would put some time aside and go through the many tutorials being up on lynda.com.

Overall, as stated in my earlier posts, I think I am pleased with the end outcome of this assignment. And would like to have a much desired rest over the next couple of days before we start off again for the next Project Brief, which I heard is quite substantial as compared to the ones that have been done before. Looking forward to that with mixed feelings.

 

 

Project Brief 3 (A Tongue to Speak) – Week #7

April 19, 2016 / / 0 Comments

At last! Another project brief is down and I’m quite happy with the outcome of this assignment. We were given quite a fair bit of time to approach this assignment, probably due to the necessary planning and administrative matters that needs to be settled before any physical work could be done. Planning, planning, planning. A little goes a long way and you never know when 1 of the many plans that you have made might fail, hence having another long list of backup plans is always handy.

 

Project Brief Web Synopsis – Week #7

April 19, 2016 / / 0 Comments

A Tongue to Speak

The title of this blog entry says it all.

Here’s a synopsis of my video portrait of a Singaporean living in Melbourne.

The Soundtrack – Week #4

March 24, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Ever since moving to Melbourne, I haven’t been listening to my own music much while I commute around the city, which is very unlike me. Back home in Singapore, usually I’ll have my earphones on with my iPod playing rock tunes while I’m travelling on the public transport. But here, I would go through a day without even playing a single song while I’m moving from one place to another. First of all, I would tend to feel uneasy having my sense of hearing of my surrounding being blocked out with loud rock music in a foreign land. Secondly, it is always intriguing to hear the different languages, accents and conversations that take place all around. Being in a cosmopolitan city, you are bound to be exposed to many different languages, some familiar, some not so, but you will always tend to lookout for the more familiar ones, especially those that might remind you of home. That’s how I identify someone that’s from Singapore or Malaysia even before we speak or shake hands.

Another group of sounds would be what makes the city, a city. One thing I found really iconic to Melbourne was the tram sounds. The bell just before the tram moves off from a station or warning pedestrians to keep clear of the track while the tram is approaching. It is just so unique to Melbourne to hear that sound, to the extend where I think it could be one of the main “instrument” that makes the voice of Melbourne. You won’t hear that iconic sound in Sydney or Brisbane or even in Singapore. On the other end of the spectrum, while I’m on tram sounds, I really really loathe the sound it makes while it attempts to come to a halt. Majority of the time, it is silent when the tram operator puts on the breaks to stop the tram or slow down, but on some particular old ones, you can really hear the metal with metal grinding and screeching and it is just a nasty sound that makes the hair at the back of your neck stand. I know there is nothing much the tram operator can do, and all the more he would need to stop the tram in order to avoid accidents and to pick up as well as to alight passengers, I can’t really blame them for causing the loud piercing noise, but I should do hope they service their trams.

Living in the city exposes myself to the traffic noises of the vehicles that travels in and out, and around the city. I can never go through a day without hearing the waling of sirens, be it ambulance, police, or the fire engine. Particularly on Friday nights, the sirens are more prominent, which I think is made unique to the city as well. Coming from an island city state, and my home back in Singapore is just right beside a fire station, I have been trained well to disregard the loud sirens easily. Lucky me.

So just by not having my earphones on, blasting rock music into my ear canals, it has opened up another form of soundtrack to me that I never knew existed until after I sat down to think about the soundtrack that runs behind my daily commute around the city. Those that I have mentioned are just a few of the many “instruments” that are responsible in making the soundtrack a city soundtrack. There are more components to it like car honks, people talking, crowd noise from the pub, more people talking, loud car exhaust from a straight pipe, and more… The list just goes on and on…

Reality Check – Week #3 – Reflective Post

March 20, 2016 / / 0 Comments

It’s been almost 4 weeks now since I’ve arrived to Melbourne, and 3 weeks since classes have commenced. I’ve got to admit, it really wasn’t as easy as I thought moving from Singapore to Melbourne in the pursuit of further my studies. Up until today, I still wonder to myself, “How have I ended up here?!” or “What the hell am I doing here?!”. We all need to have a nudge to the right direction sometimes, and a good reminder from fellow peers or minor encounters we might have in our day to day lives to keep us back in check and ready to go.

A number of people have told me, “Must be really difficult for you to leave everything behind to come over alone…”. And I never really understood that or have a grasp of the magnitude of the entire “moving over”. Something must have came onto me to make that decision, and I myself have no clue what. Perhaps by the end of this entire 2 and a half years here, I’d be able to find what was the calling that brought me here in the first place. But for the time being, I might just find my footing here and hang tight for what’s to come.

I wouldn’t say that I was off to the best start, but a rather shaky one. But who knows? The worst is yet to come. Contrary to that, I might not have started any better, staying just a 10 minute walk from campus, being out in the open on my own, exploring, learning and meeting new people, there’s always 2 ways to look at it, isn’t it? All these should count for something at the end of the day when I look back to my entire experience living in Melbourne right?

One thing’s sure, I have no clue what’s ahead of me, but that’s alright, in a good way. I guess when you’re in your 20s, you just have to lug it out and go through the grind to find your place on earth. No one’s stopping what’s coming for me so I might as well just embrace it.

Ready. Set. Go.

Accents Accents Accents – Week 1

March 6, 2016 / / 0 Comments

What is an Accent? Perhaps an identity? Or the way you were raised?

Being in Melbourne for just under a fortnight, I have heard a broad variety of accents all around the city. From the local Aussie accents, to Chinese, to Singaporean/Malaysian, Thai, Italian, French, German and many, many more.

To me, every time I hear a Singaporean/Malaysian accent, (reason for classifying Singaporean and Malaysian accent as one is, both sound similar to each other, unless you really pay attention to it.) I think of home, and hearing those accents feels just bit comforting, being in a foreign land. Having so many accents in such a small area, shows how diverse the city is and proves that there must be something attracting all these people from all corners of the world to come here to study, do business, or just for a holiday. Obviously something is working for the city of Melbourne. And more so, communication has got to be a key role in bringing all this people here.

I believe accents deliver more than just words or conversations, they reveal where we are from and also gives us a sense of belonging when we meet each other with the same accent in a foreign land, without even having to show any form of identity card or passport. Of course all these also goes with your command of language in English, but in general, it just helps us identify and learn about one another a little better.

Do you have a favourite accent?

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta

© 2024 Reflections Off a Mirror

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑

Skip to toolbar