After 3-4 weeks of filming, scripting and directing....

My fellow intern turned good buddy, Melanie, and I have FINALLY FINISHED OUR EPISODE!!!!!!!! :'D

It's gonna air TONIGHT (Wednesday) at 9pm on Channel 5. I'm so freakin excited coz we're really so proud of the work that we did. So freakin proud.

All the encouraging feedback from our bosses and colleagues made it even more..... GODLY LOL.

But seriously, no doubt tiring, I had so much fun doing this episode. SO Much fun. I got to do so many things and become friends with so many people. Melanie and I even made friends with our profiles heh.

He is the main profile of our show and his journey truly is an incredible one. Ex-convict turned Lawyer. In prison for 10 years and now, fighting for the law. How incredible is that story huh? Of COURSE we had to do it.

The mini-series of On the Red Dot is called "It Takes A Village", which we feature the many helping hands that helped an individual get back on his feet. So there were topics that featured people who had depression, autism, diabetes, or battled with visual impairment.

Melanie and I were given the topic on "Ex-convicts". So we had to visit people who helped an ex-con back on his feet and reintegrate into society.

At the beginning, when we were given the topic "Ex-cons", Melanie and I were like, what? Isn't that a freakin difficult topic to do wth? And they wanna give it to us newbies?


In the end.... I can't believe how much fun we had and how much joy and pride we have for this episode.

I was SO afraid we wouldn't do Darren, our profile, justice. Coz it really is such a touching and brilliant story.. but we pulled it off in the end. I really gotta say we were really lucky. Best cameramen, best video editors, best EVERYTHING and EVERYONE to work with. Almost nothing went wrong throughout the process. We were so damn lucky. So bloody thankful I feel.. ugh so emotional.


And I'm so thankful for having freakin supportive friends who didn't mind acting as ahbengs and gangsters for the show :')

Here are some behind the scenes pictures.


Preparing for gang fight at Mediacorp carpark



CHARGEEEEE
Yes can you believe it, Deyong is using an umbrella to fight. But that was the actual weapon used during the fight in 1993 so we had no choice but to follow accordingly.



 BASH UP.


Omfg, you cannot understand how HILARIOUS this reenactment shoot was.

I cried buckets from laughing I swear. It was too freakin funny, knowing that they're your friends and they're TRYING to act gangster and damn fail all. I think the only one who passed was Yiming. Seasoned actor, long hair all, FIT for the gangster role. Argh, it was too hilarious this shoot.

And even during editing, I never FAILED to laugh coz their faces... really cannot pass I swear. Too funny. But they made it to the screens.

My bosses loved the reenactments. Even Cheryl Fox loved it. That one is the ultimate pass hahahah.


Also, here are some behind-the-scenes pictures with our profiles while filming,




They seriously are the nicest people to work with. So cooperative with us and... quite hilarious to work with.

We filmed Darren for 4 full days, and inevitably, I think both Melanie and I have become friends with these people? Sadly, we have to maintain a "professional" relationship?

Journalists and profiles apparently can't be friends. Sometimes, it's quite sad lah coz on the last day of our shoot with him, it felt like we were meeting a friend for the last time and almost exploiting him of his story. A lot of dilemmas being a journalist.

I dunno if I can even blog about my thoughts about such things in fact. Bureaucracy sigh.

But, I think it's still fine maintaining an amicable relationship with our profiles.. I mean it's only human that we become friends with them?!?! To be able to immerse in their stories and understand THEM, we have to KNOW them and can't help but feel personally involved in their lives during filming.


And, I must say, the extent of our cordial relationship with our profiles is such that we can tell our profile that he will appear on National TV....



WITH A CHILLI FLAKE IN HIS TEETH HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA.

It was so hilarious when we saw his chilli flake up close.

But as a viewer, you'd probably not be able to spot it. It's after hours of viewing the same video over and over again. Freakin hilarious. But he didn't mind lah when we sent this to him hahahah.

Ahhh... it was really such a fun shoot. I'd do it all over again.

True enough, they've given me another episode to do all on my own without Melanie :'( I really thought we worked damn well together. There were times when I was very stubborn with cameramen, and without her I wouldn't have been able to appease them. Moreover, I feel at ease with someone with me. I always felt happy and less stressed with her around. Laughing on shoot and in the van after shoots.... it was so fun!!!!!! I can't believe the 4 weeks passed so fast. I still remembered how we were discussing whether we should have Darren as our profile. Good times~

That's us hehehehehe!


More pressure to deliver on my own now. But I'm gonna take a rest first before I go full steam ahead with my next episode. Now... I'm basking in joy and happiness with this episode that's gonna come out TONIGHT!!!!!! Ahhhh!!!! Soak it all in : )

Catch it guys!! If you can't, there's an encore at 10:30pm on CNA and there's always xinmsn to catchup lol lol.