The BIG One at The Farm

Saturday 6 August 2011

The BIG One at The Farm

What the heck is The BIG One? And where in the world is The Farm? Honestly, these two names were as foreign to me as to you when I first heard of it. Seriously, it could just be anything right. The farm could be anywhere, and anything could be big! Okay, it's about time i tell you what and where they are. The BIG One, printed on our certificates, is a 'video journalism workshop' organised by The Star's Switchup.tv for the Young News Network (YNN) as for The Farm, it's where the camp was held throughout the 3 days 2 nights period (i'll tell you more about the place, read on).

Nestled within the protection of Mother Earth, The Farm is serenely located away from the main road around Lenggeng, Negeri Sembilan. At first look, it's name may sound simple and normal; but don't be fooled by it, for its pure simpleness distinctly represents its uniqueness. It is without doubt that its surroundings are nothing like a farm (it should have been called The Forest or The Paradise), but that doesn't stop it from being one of the most peaceful, most well-maintained and most refreshing environment I have ever encountered before - no lying. The intimate vicinity in which The Farm and the naturally undisturbed ecosystem binds together simply brings great joy, among the others.

During the course of the workshop/camp, we were each assigned to groups and were to create a video, which is uploaded on The Star's official 'New Media' online site. My group had to do a video on The Farm! Well, it sounds simple and easy doesn't it? Truth is, it's one heck of a work! Being the director/producer, I had to supervise and oversee almost everything - i've got to admit I slacked alot compared to BRATs though.

First, we thought of a plan and thought it was the way to go. When we started, almost nothing followed our original plan (except my fun jumping thing idea which also ended up as a photo rather than a video >.< ). Seriously, in this industry, rarely anything follows exactly like the plan; we had therefore needed to think on our feet and constantly adapt. As for me, making decisions was my biggest fear. There were so many ideas from my team and there were seriously so many possible ways to film our video, and I simply couldn't make up my mind.

our chef-turn-videographer, Michael Lim

interviewing

That's just the post-production part. Now, since we filmed our shots and stand-uppers, we need to edit and produce the final product next. As many of you should know, the editing process is the most difficult and longest part in the entire production. Basically, we stayed up to 2 in the morning to finish (mind you, we had less than a day to finish the video), but that's really nothing. I had Joash accompanying me the whole time when his group finished the video and he actually desperately wants to go back to our dorm and play his FIFA (sorry). I had Kai Wen showing off his planking skills on this cousins back, Yin Li making fun of my name (i get that alot), Marcuse occasionally dropping by, Michael (used to be in my school) sharing how much he hated the recently-promoted principal, Jian and Jon gaying around on a mattress and one pack/box/long-can of Pringles accompanying me.

Some photos i took with my Nikon D3100 (: