Satria Asia

Where the dead cannot lie in peace

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:31:00 +0000

For the next video, it was also a on-man-band job. I was trying out the new Panasonic AG HPX250.
My focusing is entirely off! And so's the white balance ... hmmm

I must learn to take my time, but Eddy kept on saying that he is busy and he needs to do things. But I think it was a case of 'self-importance' because they have had so much coverage. But that shouldn't be an excuse. One item what is sorely lacking this feature are shots of the burial grounds. I should have returned the next day ... without it, the story is incomplete.

One man band

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:08:00 +0000

It's always a challenge to be a one-man-band. Like this video shows -- there is just too much room behind me. The sun was right on top and it was bright. I couldn't see the LCD panel and just had to guess my way through ...
But if you can pull it off, it's a satisfying way of doing things. For this one, if I had spent a bit more time setting up, it would have been better.

How to Get Rid of Hiss and Hums in Audio

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:18:00 +0000

How to Get Rid of Hiss and Hums in Audio

Culture of Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 04:02:00 +0000

Cultures of Resistance: The Official Trailer from Cultures of Resistance on Vimeo.

Life of Muhammad

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:10:00 +0000

Adam Westbrook :: online video & entrepreneurial journalism 10 common video storytelling mistakes (and how to avoid them)

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 02:47:00 +0000

Five years after Youtube’s birth there’s probably not a newsroom in the land that isn’t trying to do video journalism in some way or another. I say ‘trying’ because, as you’ll probably have seen, the vast amount of online video produced just doesn’t cut it. It’s long, boring, technically poor – and amateurish. This is a big shame because online video – done well – has the power to be an art form, to touch people, to make them understand something, to make them care. As well as training journalists all over Europe in how to do video storytelling, and watching a helluva lot of video stories, I’ve also been teaching student journalists at Kingston University how to do video for more than two years. And in that time I’ve seen all the classic mistakes made. Here’s my run down – as always, if I’ve missed one off, stick it in the comments. 10 common video mistakes (and how to avoid them) .01 you don’t prioritise sound I’m actually gonna stick this one at the top because it’s probably the most common mistake. I’ve seen far too many video stories where the interview is practically inaudible, drowned out by traffic, air conditioning or something else. The cause? Not using an external microphone. Audiences seem quite happy to tolerate poor quality pictures – they don’t mind mobile phone footage for example; but they will not tolerate crappy sound. End of. Invest in a good quality clip microphone for interviews and a Rodemic or similar for on board sound. .02 you get too caught up in kit We’ve all met one of these guys before: a ‘depth-of-field-Dave’ who’s more interested in whether you’re shooting on a prime lens than what the story is. They’re the sort of folk who make those music montages on Vimeo where everything looks very pretty and is out of focus, but expresses no meaning. Kit matters – to an extent – but I believe a good story is a good story whether you shot it on the iPhone 4S or a Canon 5D MkII. At the same time, a poor story is not rescued by a shallow depth-of-field…in fact, it looks just that: shallow. (NOTE: you’ll almost certainly be able to trawl back through the archives of this blog and find posts where I rave about depth-of-field: let’s just say I’ve grown as a film maker!) .03 you don’t use a tripod What’s the quickest way to ensure professional looking footage in any situation? Don’t move the camera! It’s that simple. Flip cams, iPhones and DSLR cameras are the most susceptible to looking amateurish when hand-held, because they’re so light. Invest in a light set of Manfrotto sticks and use them for everything. Of course, handheld footage is powerful, and necessary, in certain situations – but more often I see it used as a technique through laziness rather than intention. .04 you don’t shoot in sequences This one is the bane of anyone who has to teach video to fresh faces: I personally invest hours of class time in explaining, demonstrating and showing examples of sequences in action – and when they don’t appear in finished pieces it’s exasperating. Sequences – put simply – are a series of shots, showing a single action, creating the illusion of continuous movement. They are the hallmark of cinema, television news and now online video. What’s the difference between amateurs and professionals? Pros shoot sequences. .05 you parachute into stories One great advantage of online video journalism over television news is the absence of such tight deadlines. Online, journalists in the future are likely to work inside niches, and therefore will have time to build up contacts, develop relationships and explore stories before taking out the camera. I can’t underestimate the importance of spending time with your subject/character before filming. Photojournalists have always done this very well, and the photogs who’ve moved to video have brought with them their investment in character. Those moving from television tend to do things the TV way: a quick pre-interview on the phone, then turn up, get the shots and get out. Which one do you think works better? .06 you try to copy television On a similar theme, another big mistake new video journalists make is trying to copy what they see on CNN. Let me be clear: television news is highly formulaic, and it’s a formula designed to work within the tough day-to-day rigour of turning a story round in 3 hours. It works great for TV and that’s good for them. But to see that formula infect this new genre of online video is heartbreaking in someways – partly because it is so young, and the potential so great. So switch off your TV – and if you have to seek inspiration from anywhere, try your local cinema. .07 your stories are too long It’s a well worn (although difficult to back up) belief that online attention spans are short and therefore video should be equally short too. Whether this is true or not, video should always be as short as it could possibly be. As Orwell said, ‘never use a long word when a short one will do.’ If you can tell your story in 90 seconds, why bulk it out to 3 minutes? You’re just wasting everyone’s time. This requires a certain ruthlessness – but if you can train yourself to ‘kill your babies’ as the saying goes, you’ll be a better journalist for it. .08 you don’t understand storytelling There are too many journalists who call themselves ‘multimedia storytellers’ or ‘digital storytellers’ or ‘visual storytellers’ but who have never read Robert McKee’s Story or The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell (NB: affiliate links). Storytelling is an ancient art, a craft, that survives human generations because it is without doubt the best way to help people comprehend the world around them. If you care about storytelling at all, you’ll try to master its secrets. .09 you tell and don’t show I remember the first video story I did while training at City University some years ago. We felt pretty proud of ourselves: we had a good story and what we made looked like a proper TV news package. But our lecturer wasn’t impressed: ‘you’ve just made radio with some pictures over the top’. And she was right: our film was laden with long rambling voice over scripts, dull soundbites and the pictures were wallpaper that didn’t add to the story. I’ve always remembered that lesson, and now remember the importance of using pictures to show the story happening and not to describe it. .10 you don’t play to video’s strengths Finally, video today is used because it can be, and not because it should be. There is too much video coverage of conferences, long interviews with boring people, and attempts to use video to cover council politics. Video is good at some things: emotion, action, movement, detail, processes. It is terrible at other things: numbers, meetings, politics, court cases, and anything that doesn’t happen on camera. The solution? Use video for its strengths – and keep the camera in your bag for the rest. Some of these are one-step quick actions which will instantly improve your video storytelling; the rest are mindsets and attitudes that take longer to change. But until we get past those, online video storytelling will not improve.

Oooopppssss!

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:51:00 +0000

I say! Blogger links to my FB! Hmmm .... I thought I had already disabled that bit of it. Now it's a new format; where is the option to disable it? Anyways I am now in JB. Have been here since Tuesday evening. And the reason we're is to give my son a break after constant and consistent hounding by his mum on his school work before the exams. The poor boy was definitely stressed but he had promised that he would be more diligent if he didn't need to go for tuition with this Cikgu who is a screaming banshee of sorts. But she is good and Raziq's grades had shown marked improvements. He just couldn't stand the screaming and after awhile, neither could his mother.

Christians, Jews and the Second Coming

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:51:00 +0000

For some odd reason this thought came to my mind: That Palestine will never have a State because the Christians will never allow them to. Why? Because Christians believe (Zionist Christians in particular) that for the second coming to happen, the Jews must return to their promised land (Israel) and for them to be encouraged to become Christians. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Zionism This explains why The Evangelicals that expanded during the tenure of Bush Jr as President and the coming Dominians will encourage the expansion of the Jewish state at the expense of the Palestinians. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jesus/ It's interesting to note that now after Bush and present-day Obama, the next wave of theology is the Dominion Theory -- essential that Conservative Christians must control all of the administration of the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominionism There are thus two spheres in the world ... Christians on one hand and Muslim on the other. In the middle, the Jews and Israel which the Christians will support for the Second Coming to happen. Ah ... it's too late at night. I am heading for bed.

Going SoJo

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 07:09:00 +0000

Because of staffing, the luxury of having a team of at least two to handle a feature story is gone. So for me, it's going solo for features and I need to do features to escape the boredom of the daily editing and coverage of press conferences. It's been awhile since I last did a solo work ... hmmm when was that eh? So it was re-tracing the steps again. The hudud story is a solo effort. I wish I had Indra to edit the online though because I editing sucks big time. My production ain't too hot either, but that I will improve once I get back into the groove as it were. But editing? This is a clip of Ratna Osman's response on the Obedient Wives Club book on sex. I had gone to interview her about SIS's views on hudud -- they are dead set against that, but I suddenly remembered to take the opportunity to ask her the about their views on the sex book. At first, framing was fine, but Ratna moved forward, so she is now too centre in the frame. A bit of rustling on the mic from the hijab. This is the problem of going SoJo -- you are either focussed on the interview or on the camera. Trying to do both is quite of a problem because I think your subject might feel awkward if you focus on the camera work. She /He might even feel insulted because your are not paying attention to the answer to your question. And of course you yourself could lose track of the question and the answer. David Gyimah seems to be so commanding that he could even ask the subject to stop while he reframes the shot. So far I've been reluctant to do this because of fear that the momentum and spontaneity would be lost. I carried a lot of equipment with me that day. Canon XF100 Paglight video light + stand Tripod Microphones though I used a wired clip which I now enjoy using because you don't have to fiddle with sensitivity settings The aircond was making a racket, so we switched it off. It was a sweaty interview.

Great tip video

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 03:35:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGOBP6PLr4c This is a great tip video.

Doing hudud

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 03:20:00 +0000

This feature could've been much better -- especially the editing.There's a lot that could have been done on the editing. But as it is, it was a one-man-band, a SoJo effort. And I guess from now on, if we are to do features, we have no longer the luxury of having a 'team'. The SoJo way of doing video feature stories isn't bad really and very satisfying when completed. Of course one will not be satisfied and happy with each production, but that only encourages one to be better and better. But one thing I don't like about producing for features or documentaries is the microphone showing.

Panasonic´s AG-HPX250EJ P2HD - introducing the new AVC-Intra Handheld ca...

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 03:56:00 +0000

Waaahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Panasonic´s AG-AC160 and AG-AC130EJ, tips about Panasonic´s new AVCCAM c...

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 03:53:00 +0000

Any one of these could be possible though if the 250 is out of the boundaries of reason.

An introduction to the Panasonic AG-HPX250

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 03:46:00 +0000

Wow!!! This is truly something to behold! I do wonder how much it would cost once it gets to our shores. The problem though is it's P2 and P2 cards are bloody expensive. If I were shooting for a broadcast client, then it would be worth purchasing because it's 4:2:2 and 10bit recording.

KL by nite with the GoPro

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:26:00 +0000

Customising My Menu on 7D

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 22:14:00 +0000

7D video set up

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 22:00:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62wx5S0jHCk&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SP8F25469016C658A5

Focusing with the 7D

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 21:26:00 +0000

Through foreign lenses

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:28:00 +0000

Jaka Babnik is a photographer from Slovenia. He was here on the invitation of Eddin Khoo, the founder of Pusaka. Pusaka, formed in 2002 to document traditional Malay culture and heritage invited Jaka over for an opportunity to document these traditional art forms through his photography.

During the course of 2 weeks, Jaka would capture on film ritual performances of Main Puteri, Mak Yong, Wayang Kulit and the more entertaining, Dikir Barat.

The challenge for Jaka, although not apparent at first was to take the photographs whilst a video documentary was being shot on the ceremonies and performances, meaning that he had to exploit the lighting for video. Flash was a big no no and he had to shoot with a lot of movements from the 'performers'.

Jaka shoots primarily on film.

We speak to him on the second day of a two day Main Puteri ritual -- about what's been happening the day before, his thoughts as he goes about capturing the images and the challenges he faced.

Main Puteri is a healing ceremony conducted by a Tok Puteri, who is essentially a shaman. Tok Puteri calls on spirits and deities to help heal his patients who could be suffering from a number of maladies.

In the realm of the occult?

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:51:00 +0000

I was in Machang, Kelantan where I witnessed for the first time Main Puteri, a traditional healing ritual practiced for thousands of years in the east coast states of Kelantan and Terengganu.

Main Puteri, practiced in the traditional way was banned by the two state governments years ago and only performances that appeal to the the palate of tourists and religious authorities are allowed.

What we witnessed here, is in reality illegal and there's a religious edict, a 'fatwa' that allows detention powers to the authorities.

Many Main Puteri events have been forcibly stopped by the authorities.

But over the last few years, the authorities seem to be allowing some slack and rituals in the traditional way seem to be making a quiet resurgence.

But what is ‘Main Puteri’ and why the urge to ban the ritual?

Well, Main Puteri is one of a number of ritualistic healing ceremonies with a medium or ‘witch doctor’, for want of a better term, communicating with the spirit world to determine a patient’s illness be it psychological, physical or even spiritual i.e caused by an unseen entity.

It is set pretty much in the open, but beneath makeshift roof, the four sides being open.

There’s a traditional musical ensemble, some people who assist the medium, called the Tok Puteri and the patient. There’s also a Tok Mindok who is the intermediary between the Tok Puteri and the patient/audience.

There are other essential parts of the ceremony -- a ‘heaven’ represented by a cloth tied by its four corners to the roof of the enclosure where the spirits/deities live, a bowl of rice and other offerings for feeding the spirits/deities and a structure made of bamboo and thatched leaves that represents the house where the bad spirits go into, to be discarded at the end of the ceremony.

The Tok Puteri invokes the spirits and sometimes, seem to be possessed by it/them and banters with the Tok Mindok.

And so ... spirits, deities, elements of animism, Buddhism and so forth ... these are anathema to Muslims and Islam, even though Quranic verses and praises to Allah are uttered.

Mucking about in KB

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 12:14:00 +0000

Pusaka / Radhikal Film project

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Mon, 30 May 2011 16:56:00 +0000

We were presented with the opportunity to document the ritual traditions of Kelantan -- in the raw, unadulterated or sanitized for Muslim sensitivities nor staged for tourists to gawk.

A very stressed Indra!

 Sign of the times 
 

A sign of the times when digital SLR cameras also shoot video and are the main video acquisition equipment for documentary production.

Here we have the Canon 5DMkII and the newer 7D cameras covering artis/photographer Ismail Hashim and the ritual healing ceremony of Main Puteri.

My personal thoughts on this; great visuals with deep DoF and colours, but not ergonomically set up for video work ... too many gizmos to make the cameras perform as video cameras when they are essentially still cameras.

But they are putting up some serious threat to the video cameras and companies like Panasonic have come up with their own DSLR video killers like the AG AF101. And Sony has recently launched their version too.

Achieving consistency

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:30:00 +0000

Nerf Champ!

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 13:57:00 +0000

Bobo the musang

noreply@blogger.com (Satria Asia) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 09:57:00 +0000

About 3 weeks ago, one of the contractors who was doing some renovations to the ceiling of my parents' house found two baby civet cats. We call them 'musang'.

He took one and my little boy wanted to keep one. Well we did and I've been taking care of this fella. Hopefully I will be able to take care of her (I think she is female) until she is able to fend for herself, and I shall let her go then.