Journal Entry 7

Wednesday, October 28^th 2009

‘I hate school. I hate the Sun. I hate the pillow. I hate the bolster. I hate this bed. I hate this room. I hate this house. I hate this street. I hate this country. I hate this earth.’

These were a few of the things I muttered grumpily to myself when I woke up this morning. Well, obviously I don’t really hate any of the things I mentioned above. It was all said in a moment of impulse when you wake up and you feel terrible; as though anything and everything that happens on that day would turn out bad.

Today was an extremely tiring day. I helped out as an actor in my friends, Anisa and Ratnam’s filming for a ‘Moving Images’ module. I shall never look down on actors ever again after my first and, most likely, last day of my ‘acting career’.

In the short film, I was an ‘emo’ kid who was going to commit suicide. This kid writes a suicide note in his school canteen, then runs to a high level in his school to commit suicide. Sitting on the latch, he throws the suicide note into midair and jumps off. The final scene shows him dead on the ground floor with the suicide note landing gently on the ground beside him.

The initial parts of the film were pretty easy. All I had to do was sit there and write a suicide note. After that, it got tougher and tougher. For the scene where the kid runs to a high floor in his school, there were 3 shots. For each 3 shots, I had to run 5 or 6 times to make the film look fine. There was also a scene where I had to run up a flight of spiral stairs. I did a good job on the first cut, however, I had forgot to run with the suicide note in my hands, and hence, I had to take that shot all over again. I also had to lie on the ground, just in front of the lift, with my body contorted for the final shots. It was pretty amusing lying there on the ground listening to what the people, who just got out of the lift, had to say when they saw me. It was a tiring experience, however, I had lots of fun and I had picked up a few things about filming. I was particularly interest about the filming equipments. I had always wanted to try my hands on making a film, yet I did not even know some of the functions on filming equipments. Now however, I can proudly say that I know a thing or two about filming.

I’m now going to start reading a book called ‘A Catalog Of Type: Hand Job’ that I purchased from the stall which set up in school today. Now… I know that the title of the book suggest something dirty but in truth, if you look at the title with a pure perspective, you will realize that the book is actually all about typography done by hand. My ‘Typography and Layout’ lecturer, Pat, recommended it. Can’t wait to start reading now!