Happy 2011 everybody!!!

Happy new year to all my Dai Fu Friends here is a cool vid with Dai Fu Shaped Fireworks!!! Hope to see you all in 2011 and have a wonderful new year. Will make more vids tonight with special shaped fireworks and will make a tutorial vid soon about them!!!

Dutch systems is horrible

Dutch government are fucking annoying in making fill forms, that have to invent new and difficult to understand names for stuff instead of just using the plain normal original existing word. Like Citizen service number which is basically your sofi number. And basically on your id card or passport is says person number. Also so stupid making stuff non compatible. Basically should just say person number on your ID or passport on all instead of making up new names cause they have a new system. Basically also the same with filling in tax forms, basically they could just saw what they meant but they have to invent all kinds of difficult names in the forms, basically if you have not studied accountancy you would not understand a single thing it says. You basically almost have to got to a course to learn how to fill in just a plain simple form.

Also so horrible with chip cards, basically I ordered a chip card from the NS website and now I want to get like a discount membership but they say my card is not from them, like WTF I basically ordered from their site but it is not theirs? Also you have to have 20 euro minimum on your card or else you can't travel at all or if you got a membership its 10 euro minimum. Which is first very annoying, cause you know you have the money on your card but you would never be able to use those that money at all, especially the trip I have to make to Rotterdam cost like 3 or 4 euro. While in HK you can basically use every single bit of money on your card. And damn why cant they just also add paying option at the shops on the stations, I would love to got to the shops and quickly pay with the chip card especially pay quick so I can quickly go to my train.

Also have to basically get another card and extra pay for it to get that membership. Its not that they can just add the function to my existing OV chip card cause it is not theirs. Which actually makes it annoying to have multiple cards. The stupid system is non compatible which is so stupid. Also stupid only place you can add money on to your card is at certain stations but basically when you live in cities without train station you cant really add money to your cards. However now saw few new buses which have like a small thing to load money on your card, but still rather able to go to any shop and could ad money to my card, just like in Hong Kong.

Basically they just had to take over an existing system which have been done well and they still can fuck it up making it horribly difficult and easy to go wrong. Also with the gates they made are so annoying cause first the are made so horribly full of mechanics that can break at so many places instead of having it simple as existing ones other countries use. The fucking doors closes and open by sensors and basically you have to check in and wait for them to open and when you walk through you have to be fast otherwise it closes up suddenly which is so fucking annoying. Also I donno why but the cards can't handle the interference of my pin cards when trying to check in so I have to freaking pull the whole cards out of my wallet before I can check in while in Hong Kong never had to pull the whole cards out and could just put my wallet against the sensor.

Basically the conclusion Holland just suck they have good ideas and Industrial design educations but hopeless in putting stuff to use. Mainly making stuff to difficult and unable to get the best out of it. Also Holland is like the country that receives the latest tech as the last one, mostly have to wait or cross the borders to get stuff earlier, cause found out Germany and France get allot stuff much earlier and also have totally different stuff placed on the market. Mostly special things I want to buy have order outside the country to get it.

David Lynch entry

Here is a video where I helped out with the sketchy graphics which are in shot for just about few seconds which shows a certain attribute of a certain person. And like in a video game when you defeat an enemy you would be able to get more attributes. Was great working with Arne again hope to do even more, kinda the first time we worked together in Holland, while before was just in Hong Kong. Hopefully while he is still in Holland we can make some more awesome videos.

Video Entry for the David Lynch film competition HQ from Arne Venema on Vimeo.

An individual steals ideas and identities, yet he's not the only one playing the game. Someone knows.


CREW
Director: Arne Venema
Cinematographer: Arne Venema
Editor: Arne Venema
Graphics: Emma Moosa / Jona Chung Dha Lam
Make Up: Max Lam

CAST
Killer - Kirt Kishita
Victim 1 - Harry Du Young
Victim 2 - Neil Brown
Victim 3 - Mike Chan
Victim 4 - Joe Fiorello
Black Figure -Emma Moosa

Please click here and vote for this video!

First filmset injury!!!

Haven't posted in a while cause have been busy with allot of projects and also movies. Last few days filmed a short film with students and its quite great and allot of fun. Also got my first injury on a film set, I stepped off an very wobbly chair and I got the LCDVF smacked in my face. Now got a cut right above my nose. Only accident that happened today, also all 3 cars got a fine for parking.

It wasnt my first time I got onto a roof in Holland however it was the first one in the city of Rotterdam and it was quite a nice view. However filming it was a bit different cause what you learn that filming with DOF and blurry background would make the scene looks more cinematic, however the problem is when the background is blurred person in the shot could be anywhere and would not even think it it shot on a roof. And with such nice scenery its was actually better to have everything in focus including the background, however the special think making the shots looks special was that we used the 16mm most of the time, which on the 550d was equivalent to a 24mm. Also using a wide angle is very nice for some dynamic steadicam shots, which turnout quite awesome. However using super wide angle lenses cause bit problem that it can be so wide that the boom mic got caught in frame and had to retake. And that why I love the existence of lavaliers, which I quite unsure why people dont like to use them.

I pretty much like the indy style how this production is doing with allot of creative freedom. Hopefully next week with the other team would go well too. However this week the director is one of the students and next week is a director who graduated from film academy is Australia. However hopefully not to demanding type of person especially they want to have a field monitor setup which is kinda annoying especially I am kinda of cinematographer who like to do allot of dynamic shots where I prefer having as much room to move without having things and cables in my way. I am probably least of the bunch of people who have to be directed on a set.

Tomorrow be last day before the wrap and hopefully the weather is going to stay the same especially for the continuity of the shots. But have to say going the stuff shots to now are pretty great and also tomorrow going to do some very special shots which are probably very expensive on real film sets to do but we are going to do it on a low budget style tomorrow with the same great effect. Actually cant wait to see the premier of this movie cause its going to have great cinematography.

Friend Request

Here is an one minute short movie for the 1Minute Movie festival, even though 1 minute is pretty short ,hopefully was able to get the message over with this short movie. Had to cut away a big shots which would had been nice if everyone cooperated. Also this is first short movie that I filmed, edited, produced and directed. Watch the entry here below.

Please register and vote for this One Minute short here.
The synopsis is that a young man gets an message that someone requested him as friend and he just adds the person without viewing the details. All sudden when he is walking outside people recognizes him without him knowing them. After escaping a big mob of people he checks out what happened and found out he added everybody as friends. Its mainly showing the negative side of social media that you could loose your privacy and also add people you don't even know, while giving all your personal information for them to read.
However have to say I wasn't really much motivated on the set and rushed too much cause of the inpatients of the extras. Actually missed 3 vital shots and also cooperation with the cellphone photo's didn't go well cause I am missing a whole bunch of angles while all were standing in a row taking a photo of the lead actor.

Mostly allot went wrong only thing that was good, that was the weather which was sunny and dry. Like 25 people applied for being extra and only 10 arrived. The original lead actor had an accident few days before and gotten stitches on under his eye. The 2nd camera plus assist had a wedding to attend, so didn't had someone for extra hands and 2nd lead actor came pretty late and got fined parking in the wrong spot. Also dropped the camera however everything was fine just got a nasty scratch on the side.
Will make an extended version soon which will have and very interesting scene with effects and nice shots of a Chinese Tea house.

Credit to PinkPant for few behind the scene pictures.

Focal length comparison

This is mostly a test for me to test how different things would look with a longer lens plus I also wanted to know if you would get less light in the lens with longer focal lengths while still having the same aperture.

Test concluded you will get a slight light loss, when using longer lens like 70mm and further. Also as you might have seen I am now using a light setup again but now in the living room where I got black curtain which could be used as a total black background. What is it wonderful to have a house decorated so you would have nice big white wall and black curtains. Only thing still missing a big green wall.

Actually used one big 160LED work light and a reflector for this, however need to find a stand for the work light so I can put it higher up. The work light is pretty cheap like 30euro but its very directional and need to be diffused by bouncing it of a reflector. Actually the brightest side in this vid is not cause by direct light but the light bouncing of the reflector. However this is way too much of an unnatural studio look cause the lights are from a far to low angle. Yesterday gotten a 2nd LED160 light so can do even better setup, might do the white wall setup again.