Internship 2010

Internship 2010

Post held: Assistant Cameraman/ Production Assistant

Novista Sdn. Bhd. is a self-produced documentary company established by a couple named Harun Rahman and Lara Ariffin. They have been shooting documentaries on various subjects for the past 15 years, mainly on subjects related locally.

Link to their website: http://www.novista.tv/Novista_v3/Welcome.html

So it's the first trip of my internship and we were out to Kerteh, Terengganu for shooting. This time we were meant to shoot the Kemasik fishing village and some of the beaches in Terengganu. We drove for 5 hours from Kuala Lumpur to Kerteh and went straight to the fishing village to shoot the morning horizon. The moment I stepped out from the car, I felt a refreshing breath of something I haven't experienced for a long time.

The documentation of this fishing village was to show the pollution that was getting worse. We shot some of the garbage by the beach and to contrast that, some beautiful shots of the beach as well.

Since I was new to the crew, Chin Hor, my cameraman and Helmi, the sound recordist were very helpful. They told me how they would normally work together and just go along with their pace. They also welcomed questions and comments from me if I had any.

So the first two days, I basically just helped Chin Hor to carry his tripod and other gadgets around. I watched how they shot the time lapse from morning till afternoon and from afternoon till the sun set. The first thing that I've learnt from the shooting was to have my pace suited to the environment. Since we're shooting a time lapse, we had to have patience in waiting and knowing when to shoot.

Next, we had to shoot a reenactment at the WWF-Malaysia Field Office. There was a short where the people in WWF would pay the fishermen if they sell their turtle eggs to them for turtle preservation. This was a process needed to be documentated once the real seller came to pay her.

Finishing the short, we had to keep moving other places to shoot some cutaways of Kerteh. Since the trip was a multi-task trip where we were actually shooting a few documentaries on hand, we had to go to a lot of places. We went to the riverside, beachside, mountains and even stood on the water reservoirs to shoot the wide shot of the pollution caused by the petroleum factories. It was the first time I climbed on to somewhere so high and without any safety precautions to shoot with them. The same night, when they came back to shoot the night scene of the pollution, I had a bad stomachache. The worst thing was they were shooting TIME LAPSE. Since I was standing on the reservoir and I no choice but to wait in the chill with my tummy growling and the really urgent need to get to the nearest bathroom to release my pain. I waited for at least 2 hours till they finished shooting and since they knew how urgent I was, they drove to the maximum speed while laughing at my silliness. Well, to me, it was the longest 2 hours of my life n top of a water reservoir with no space to release my urgency.

THE WWF TURTLES PROJECT

This WWF Project is on turtles conservation, so on Thursday, we interviewed the people who were incharged of helping and took the hatcheries where turtle eggs were not successfully hatched. We saw twin turtles, almost fully developed in the shell but dies at the last level of development. It was pretty sad to see that. I took pictures of it and it was such a tragedy yet sweet thing that they stayed together in such a way. These are one of the experiences that I would never forget. It taught me the importance of preserving the nature and to love the animals created.

Besides shooting subjects, we also had to learn how to communicate with people. Sometimes, during the interviews, if the interviewees are not natural enough to speak in front of the camera, we would have to try and talk to them behind the scenes as a warm up session so as to get them familiar with the camera because they are non-professionals.

During this internship, I have got to learn more about the locals and their cultures as well. We had to cope with different situations and be more open-minded to receiving new elements. When shooting a documentary, nothing is certain and nothing is for sure. All we could do is to prepare different plans for different situations in so that we are able to move swiftly from one point to another. Sometimes, when we couldn't get the things we wanted, we had to think on the spot of replacement shots and quickly edit it in our minds.

It's always about decision-making.

Other times, we have to choose what's best. When we want to get one thing, we tend to have to let go of the other. We can't always have everything and there will be things we have to sacrifice. Therefore, choosing wisely is the first step to shooting a documentary. We can't be rolling the camera all the time, not knowing what to shoot and how we are going to use those footage.

The importance of time management was also mentioned by my crew members as we always needed to be early or be punctual to catch the things we hope to catch. The discplined life during this internship taught me how to be early and be courteous to the locals, respecting their cultures.

I had an experience of eating the daily meals with just my right hand, learning how to handle the rice with one hand and getting to know the locals. I guess it was a very rare thing in Malaysia to see Chinese eating with hands, because according to the customs, only Indians and Malays eat with hands. Hence, the look on every one's face when Chin Hor taught me how to eat with my hands. He said he has been using hands since he was little and encourages me to learn it, too, because I'm a Malaysian. Well, I did eat with my hands whenever I was with them and I found it very refreshing and back to nature doing that, which I guess also suited the environment filled with trees and seas.

It was like, 'BACK TO THE NATURE'.

The last documentary that we could finish in the period of time when I was there was the shoot about 'The Royal Press', the printing press of a friend of mine in Malacca. My friend hired Novista to shoot a short promotional documentary for his father's company and I was happy to know that I was part of it. During the shoot, we stayed at my friend's place for a few days and shot the daily activities of the company. For instance, there were a few departments in the company itself, the section where the letters are created for traditional printing purposes, the section where the printing actually took place, the binding and the mixing of the ink.

It was my first time shooting a printing press and I was very impressed with the knowledge of traditional printing. This company was very significant to the Malaysians because it was the first printing press in the Straits during the early history and still ongoing until today. The business was maintained by my friend's grandmother who has worked there for more than 50 years, inheriting it from his great grandmother.

We got to learn a lot from this shoot and it was a memorable experience. We shot a lot of the printing process with camera movement such as track and pan to create the feel of the ancient royal press.

After a month and half of working in Novista, I found myself knowing more about the importance of documenting things surrounding us. It was also very important to maintain a certain level of calmness to suit the pace back there in Malaysia and to cope with the ever-changing situations. Unlike filming, we couldn't set up the scene and film as long as we could and we didn't normally have control in things in the nature. Some things will be gone forever if we are not quick enough to capture them.

This internship allowed me to completely jump into another level of cinematography where things had to be really quick when it comes to set up. The shooting of a documentary and the shooting of a film are completely different in a sense that when shooting a documentary, we have to wait, whereas when shooting a film, the last thing you could do is to wait because every minute costs.

To sum it up, these were the lessons learnt from the internship (more from a life view point than just cinematography):-

1. Decision-making

2. Patience

3. Effectiveness/Flexibility

4. An open mind

5. Good communication skills

6. Quick responses

7. Time management

8. Respect for the others (culture/customs/habits/etc.)

9. Observant

10. The sense of beauty