The Walk all down and ONline

The Walk from Cheng Tzuu Bong on Vimeo.

After a couple's day work.. well, not too long.. all n all, from pre to post production, i figure not more than 5 days.

With the 1st day (The Awakening) Finally realize if I keep on writing pieces which requires a lot of crew and cast, i'm just giving myself the opportunity to procrastinate. Why wait and dream when you can create. So I sat, stand, walk and took a nap on it and finally came up with a draft. I started writing.... and calls it the walk... y the walk you may say, why named it the walk...well, it talks bout the spiritual walk of humans nowadays who are constantly caught in a dilemma of making a choice to either submit to temptations or to act logically ethical. I like writing piece like these and most of the time making it more of an art film like short films. It may not make sense to many but its the few ppl who understands which makes it special. cause then i would knw who is watching with the eyes and who is really feeling it :P

The walk talks about making the right choices, walking the right path. Tells us that even if it's the very last minute or it may cost us something of value, making the right choice can make a difference and cause a great impact to the outcome in the future.

Anyways, I had the pictures imprinted in my mind how i want to shoot it. and renting a budget motel is all i can afford since i've not been working for the past 1/2 year since i left Kuala Lumpur. But i've no idea of how the layout of the motels gonna look like since i can't just budge in and tell them that im going to shoot a short film in one of their rooms. they are going to charge me extra for that... lol.. so I have to cross my fingers and yellow pages..

2nd day I went out to find the gels / filters... seems like a big disappointment cause non of the stationary / art / graphic shops sells it and they asked me to get it off from the glass tinting shops.. lol.. nope, they don't have it either.. so i went to buy colored transparent book covers which school kids use for their project covers.. (Proves to be too thick) lol.. anyways, I went all over town and found myself an inspection lamp and got some light bulbs. that settles the lighting.. I borrowed my brother's tripod. I went home after that and started sketching the storyboard.. just in case

3rd day I got a piece of large display board as my reflector. and finish off the storyboard...

The shooting starts on the 4th day.. Initially i planned to check in 12 sharp but cause i had to rely on my brother to fetch me over since i don't want to leave my car there. anyways, after waiting and stuff, he finally came and dropped me off around 1 something.. I started shooting even before I dropped off my stuff along the hallway. But only realized that I was standing underneath a CCVT the whole time which shooting. hahaha... anyways, I wrapped the hallway so what is left is the room scenes.

The room is a bit smaller than i expected and the interior is well, not the friendliest u can get. But I managed to get it all done. Initially it was a bit hard since I have to handle all the equipments all by myself while trying not to keep in character whenever i call for action myself. I've to watch out for unwanted things not to be in the scene *I F*** up a little.. hahaha... there were a couple of scenes where I've didn't spot properly. oh well, learned a valuable lesson :) anyways, I've to climb up and down to get the "Bird's eye view" take my own reflector to adjust the reflecting light source, have to press the focus (lucky my sony dcr - sx40 has a auto spot focus so all i have to do is press where i want it to focus and run to the last position for it to focus on) hahaha... so there were a lot of cardio involved.

I think the hardest part was trying to get the lighting cause I only found out then that 1 inspection lamp is not enough to get the lighting done... lol.. but i tried and give it my best shot with the ... emm.. so called filter... lol... I finished shooting everything around 2am but i had a good 1hr rest to recharge the battery. I downloaded the footage and started editing while waiting for it to fully charged. I wrapped the day at 3am.

woke up early on the 5th day and took my breakfast.. well, don't guess 4 slices of rye bread with peanut butter. I continued on the editing and covers whatever which was not shot like some close up scenes to get it sync. I recorded the footsteps again with my boom mic cause the original was a bit noisy since the motel was still under renovation. I was picked up by my brother around 12noon. and continued to finish off the editing till 8pm.... 5 days hardwork paid off and here I present to you, the 1 man crew / cast production... the walk

Canon EOS 550D_rebel t2i

Reviews can be found at

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cameralabs.com

Well, i've been browsing through a lot of machine and there have been a lot of speculations regarding the new found technology in the DSLR on HD video mode. for a indie filmmaker like myself, owning a camcorder machine would most definitely burn a deep hole in the pockets. So I have to look for the alternative solutions as to shoot a short film in which a higher end results. Previously, there is the phone camera style, that didn't go so far as the limitations is still very depressing. then there is the digital still camera which is not too bad but couldn't get the kick out of it as the higher ends machine cost a bomb and there is not much to play around with the cheaper ones... then comes the handycam which im using now (Sony DCR- SX40). It's a good machine but yet, the crave for better effects still stings and the control of the dept of field is a hassle. It's not so user friendly as its all digitally controlled and it's not easily accessible. you have to pass through many functions to get to it and get out of it. I've always been dreaming of getting a higher end Camcorder as the likes of Sony Ex1, Canon A1s, Panasonic AG-HMC152.... but all these beautiful machines cost a bomb :'(

So this is where DSLR comes in with it's range of fabulous HD Monsters at a reasonable price and best part of it... you don't have to buy an expensive adapter or converter just to get that awesome dept of field compositions.... :) The lens don't come cheap but hey, who says u can't make a film with just one lens :P

Canon, a name not foreign to the likes of Photographers has now coming to the favourite list among the budget filmmakers with it's latest baby, the Canon EOS550D / Rebel T2I which is reasonably priced for the power it provides. I've read a lot of written reviews and even video logs on this Machine and it's all very positive. The only set back is that the battery tends to heat up which makes it not suitable for events or wedding shoots. but You won't really shoot a film up to 1hr on each take, do u? hahaha... but hopefully canon will solve this issue cause it would be a major + if the battery last longer :) Let's cross our fingers on that.

And definitely, this is my next dream machine :)

Finally done after editing 1st draft.....

After retiring from the Malaysian Industry to fly home so I can be a filial son after being away for 13 years, I got a little bored and missed my love.... acting, writing, producing and directing... im a greedy fellow eh :P having more than 1 love.... anyways... So i've been writing all this while but lack the manpower and resources to shoot anything... and furthermore, budget is a problem as I'm still unemployed.. thankfully, i've a little side income now and then and i've saved a little.. barely... anyways, I figure there is no point writing something which i can't shoot at the moment and give myself a chance to procrastinate... so I went out and had my creativity walk.. hahaha... and right then, an idea popped in my head......

So I went home, started planning the plot and started on the 1st page that very night.. and finishes off the next day.. 2 pages.. well, its not the best of all scripts but easy enough for me to understand and work on.. so I worked on the storyboard the next day and pick a hotel out of the yellow pages... (Its Miri after all) anyways, one of my friends stayed there previously and I think its not too bad.. and I went around to search for the best option for a cheap lighting and found an inspection lamp with cost me RM15 and the bulb RM2.90 (Make that RM3 then)

so all set, I packed everything into my trusteed Huge Red Bag and took off to the location...

I checked in at the hotel around 1pm, that cost me another RM60 and I got a loaf of Rye Bread with a take away peanut butter from home so another RM3.60. Right after I made sure there weren't anyone at the hallway, I took out my Sony Handycam DCR - SX40 and did a handheld.. lol. that took cared of everything.. but only then i realize there was a cctv above me ... hahaha.... of well..

So I started shooting in the room.. it's the 1st time I've forgotten to take my snacks .. cause i was busy rushing the shoot as i've only the budget to pay for a night... and trust me, 1 man crew is not easy. I've to adjust my focus and find framing myself. and I've to watch out for lightings and conti all together. and even set up the whole set and tripod and props... but everything went smoothly... well, not all.. but still, it's a smooth sail shoot..

I think the hardest was to try to adjust the framing and focus while getting the reflector to catch the lights and act at the same time ... but other that, i figure it's a great experience... I wrapped around 2am cause both my battery ran out and i had to charge. So I downloaded everything into my laptop and started editing some of them to try to catch any error shot.. so practically, I did half of the editing there and managed to walk up 7am to clear everything before I checked out.

Man, was i burnt. I didn't edit that morning.. but ended up editing that night till wee hours in the morning and well, took me 2 days to finish editing it.. along with the sound effects and subtitles.. well, i've already done the 1st rough draft... so now i just need to check if everything is sync :)

stay tune for more :)

The Making of THE WALK from sony Ericsson W610i