Friday, 2 October 2009

Starlite, Starlite!

The Multimedia Department organised a week-long event for the MM students.


It's over now, and I think that we all gained a lot from the sharing sessions. We had a lot of talented people come talk to us about their personal experiences, the problems they faced, what they gained and the way in which they went about bringing their ideas to life.

Monday
There was a team building exercise, however, our class did not participate become our Monday lectures could not be rescheduled. So, this section will be short.

Tuesday
We had three speakers talk to us on Tuesday. They spoke about their project: "Fight Masters: Silat", which was a documentary they had made for the National Geographic Channel. The documentary follows an American marine, called Joel Champ, who embarks on a "journey" to become the first westerner to gain three strips on his Silat black belt. His shi fu and mentor, Sam, believes this "journey" to be a rite of passage.

Our three speakers for that day were, Justin Ong (director), Khairun Lamb (cameraman) and Steven (forgot his surname) was the representative from Young Jump Animation (CGI). They discussed the conceptualisation, pitching of the idea, thought process, execution and pitfalls they encountered along the way, among other things. It was an interesting talk, however, I feel that it was a little lost on me because I did not know any questions to ask.

Wednesday
On Wednesday, Jimmy Tan, a former TOA student, came to share his experiences. He graduated with a diploma in Illustration but later realised that he was more inclined to pursue a career in graphics. So, now, I guess we can look at him as a multimedia designer since he designs tshirts for Threadless, dabbles in wall art, and many many other areas. He is the founder of Numb9r and is by all means a very very successful young designer. He was very nervous during his presentation, but the important thing is, we still learnt something from him.

Thursday
The "Six Thinking Hats" was the next order of business. We learnt about the concept made famous by Edward de Bono. We did some exercises to help us better understand the function of each hat. White, Red, Yellow, Black, Green and Blue. I feel that this was a particularly useful workshop because it taught us practical skills that we can ultimately incorporate into our future group discussions and preparations for presentations. I feel really bad for forgetting the speaker's name because she took time out of her busy schedule to come all the way from Singapore to talk to us.

Friday
Today was the last day for sharing. Six hours! Wah lau eh. So tired. But, in my personal opinion, today was the most relevant day. Well, for me anyway. Hearing from our seniors, our peers, those who have actually gone through the same subjects that we will eventually take ourselves , was the most valuable sharing session of the whole week. For me, that is. The speakers discussed their design process with us, giving us advice and telling anecdotes of the difficulties they faced, whether big or small. At the end of the day, I didn't really mind freezing in the AVH for 6 hours because I believe my outlook has been greatly improved.

Jimmy Tan actually asked us whether any of us felt that we were pursuing the wrong major. Nobody hesitated when we all yelled "nooooooo" in unison. I truly believe that I will enjoy studying Multimedia Design for the next two years or so because doubt doesn't factor in anywhere.

The Starlite event was inspirational and motivating. The Multimedia Department did an exception job, ^_^.

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