Why Love "Surprise Video Gift"?

Tidak peduli seberapa sulit, seberapa repotnya, seberapa melelahkannya....
.... namun saat ngedit dan buat video tetap saja tersenyum dan suka tertawa sendiri.
 
Tanya Kenapa?

Recently, I found out the biggest reason is the joy and happiness that I get when that surprise video comes to the target's hands! Even, when I was alone sitting whole night to finalize the editing or figuring out the right soundtrack, I often smiled by myself cos that joyful moments just come to my imagination. As the time goes by, we realize more and more, that it's not about being acknowledged or being visible by everyone that you re the video maker, but it's about sincere gift to cherish people we care and love.

I always think that video is the most memorable gift for someone's special day, either it's wedding, birthday, or even farewell. When we have the chance to cherish others, why think twice not to start soon doing it?!

Old times experiences always teach me not to do any things that might endanger friendship. Better to lessen our ego, hide our presence, and get lost instead of losing our best friends. I am always hard to myself about this. And, video is just one of the implicit ways to show our willingness to cherish others without ruining the friendships.

It's simply due to the fact that their happiness is my own happiness, yet my own happiness might not always be theirs. So, gotta embrace myself to keep doing this and contemplate whatever over that I might have done before, just to make sure not to "merisihkan" others.

FTW Good Deeds.

What Means The Most?

“The other day when someone asked me
"Are you living your dream?"
I didn't know what to say,
I honestly had to think.
I try to be so many places at the same time
Every day a million things cluttering up my mind.
Another feather falling off my wings
I climb so high it gets hard to breathe
Forget to remember, what I really need.” (Colbie Caillat - What Means The Most)

One of The Biggest questions in everyone’s mind. An ignition wick of my return to blog writing. Long time no blogging, no video making, and nothing to express. Well, the latter was not entirely true :P

Pekan yang sangat menarik, a bit of roller-coaster in my life. I tried to be in so many places at the same time with a million things in my mind. Exactly correct what the lyrics said about. And, it's quite frustrating, turning me a bit acrimonious. Works, friendship, family all matters to me.

However, what means the most actually is finding the excitement of doing any things. Cliche? Yes, indeed. It'd be very good if we can do things that we really enjoy to do, really love not to stop doing it, like my hobbies on finding good theme songs for videos, editing them, surprising & cherishing them. 

Nevertheless, life is full of surprises and will never always be full of GOOD GOOD DAYS. As such, how do we try to at least make those bad moments a bit exciting? Realizing it or not, sometimes the simple things that could mean the most to us. It doesn't matter anymore whether we win or lose. Sometimes we just can't help the way we feel. That might be the reason why people in this world need religion and God + people surrounding us that we care and believe. It's true that at the end, it's ourselves that determine our own happiness. Some people might be very self-independent, some might have to depend on others to be happy. It's life adventure to try figuring out those simple things :)

"He lays me on the couch and says how has your day been?
Tell me your problems, I'll help you solve them
Come on, let's talk about it, he sits next to me and smiles
Listens to all of my words, relaxes all of my nerves

Like breathing,
let it go, shout it out
Take deeps breathes and real slow, calm down
Close my eyes, soft spoke, ease my mind, take control
From my body please work your psychology" (India Arie - Therapy)

Recently, I found out this inspiring quotes:

“People are often unreasonable and self centered, forgive them anyway…

If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives, be kind anyway…

If you're honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway…

If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway…

The good you do today, might be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway…

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway…” (Mother Theresa)

Such A mood-booster to recall on what really means the most in my life. I found back some life excitement when I made wedding video for my college friends, Moli - Akom Wedding Trailer. As its OST, life became "Brighter Than The Sun" at the moment! Maybe, this is the same case as what my lil brother thought of taking job as social worker with only small amount of salary that has been stressing out my Mom recently. Sometimes, we might only need to be more simple-minded, stop over-thinking, release guilty feelings, let go off our trauma and just do what we love.

 

"Happy is the heart that still feels pain

Darkness drains and light will come again 

Swing open up your chest and let it in  

Just let the love, love, love begin.

Everybody, everybody wants to love

Everybody, everybody wants to be loved" (Inggrid Michaelson - Everybody)

Not an easy task to do. Those are just words, indeed. Yet, why not we try to be used to have those kinds of perspectives :)

Long way to go ahead. The 2nd phase of my project (work) will start next week, still lots of scenes for another surprise video need to be taken (gotta be invisible for this video :] ), left brain to be optimized to develop concept for my best friend's prewed video, and my brother seems willing to postpone his daring plan. 

Bit by bit try to rejuvenate my self-confidence and self-independence, not to let my ego disrupt others, be someone friends can always count on thou not the vice versa, better to stand out than to fit in, so hopefully....

"The next time that someone asks me

"are you living your dream?"

I guess I'll know what to say

I won't even have to think."  (Colbie Caillat - What Means The Most)

NB: this blog is also a compendium of song lyrics that I got recently from wedding videos (Axioo).

[VPR] Blue Valentine: We'll Be Missing You

February almost comes to its end, and thankfully I succeeded to finish this project by February 26 :)

Hello! Welcome back to VPR! 
Continuing my previous blog, I was finally able to invite some people helping me with this project. It took a week to define the project details and scripts. Finally, we decided February 18, 2012 as the shooting day!!!


Albeit lots of problems coming on the shooting day, we're finally able to wrap up all scenes in 5 hours. It's not perfectly ideal as planned (less people involved, no couples, inadequate properties), yet we've given all of our best during that limited time :)


[I] Story Behind The Scene

Talking about the story behind this video,  commemoration of Valentine's Day was the key inspiration of this project, yet I wanna picture it from other perspective.
For Couples, they re used to celebrate it with flowers, chocolates, Teddy Bears, and any other love proofs. Meanwhile, for the Singles, it's just a simply ordinary day. Sometimes they even feel so bad and depressed to be lonely in that day (not me anw :P). 

On the other hand, there are people who re hardly able to celebrate it. They deadly want it but they can't. They have just lost someone closest in their lives. Children, spouse, siblings, parents, or maybe best friends are not in their sides anymore on this Valentine's Day. This story is essentially what I wanted to lift as the video concept...

... which is then translated into 3 chapters:

1. Memory in Lunch [Opening], where...
   the man (Mie) came for lunch yet unexpectedly received unknown package from ....*let it be a mystery* :P . The package urged him to recall his memory of his ex-girlfriend (her diary, phone, pictures, etc) and suddenly there's a call coming in to his mobile phone.
   
   OSTs: Tulus - Merdu Untukmu (Intro), Depapepe - Horizon, Nina - Someday
   
2. You Wouldn't Answer My Call [Core], where...
   the woman (Maya) called Mie inviting him to come to her apartment for celebrating Valentine's eve dinner. Mie was really surprised to hear her girlfriend's voice. Astonishing joy pushed him to run as fast as he could, while Maya was preparing herself and her room.
   
   Arrived at her apartment, what Mie found was bunch of officers investigating the crime scene. He couldn't believe it's real; Mie tried to break through the barricade, yet blocked by the policemen (Dannu, Riko, and Kico).
   
   As soon as he was moved to 'ward', he tried to call Maya again... it's connected! While Mie tried to get Maya's exact location, someone knocked Maya's door. Mie told her not to open the door, to stay away from it... Yet, Maya thought it was a part of his surprise. Maya threw away her phone, opened the door, and ..... she's gone.
   Mie kept trying to call her, yet her phone was completely out of reach.
   
   If you notice the different date while Maya decorated her room and when Mie cried out loud at the end of this chapter, you'll understand essentially this is about love hallucination.... which might come from the Man who keeps blaming himself for his girlfriend's death.
   OST: 2AM - You Wouldn't Answer My Call
   
   
3. A Walk to Remember [Ending], where...
   Mie got back to Cafe for picking up the package he left yesterday. He still couldn't believe all things happened yesterday. He tried to open back the diary in big hope that the call would come again. However, it didn't happen. He then decided to leave the cafe.
   
   On his way home, many people came to give support in his grief... that friends will always be in his side, no matter how difficult life is. "Friendship Last Much Longer Than Life Lets Us"
   
   This chapter is basically bringing a Friendship message. I once made promise to my buddy who just passed away 100 days ago (when I decided to make this video) that I would make a video for him. I didn't want to bring a memory back of his death, thus I made the scenes different from his life story. I just hoped he was smiling up there while watching this video and realizing that we will always try to support his wife, daughter, and family...
   We are missing you, Po :)
   OST: Vocal Point - I'll Be Missing You

[II] Thank You Note
This time I would like also to give much credit to:

1. Shana Fatina (@pickbird) - for the Cafe (All the best for "Never Been Better". Check their FB page here, it's nice!)
2. Bin Anindita (@binanindita) - for the apartment and Pizza Hut! Thank you to Dzikri & Zaidan too, sorry for being too loud :P
3. Mirza Harun (@miie_) - who volunteered to be a male lead role!
4. Christina Maya (@maydut) - as the only female coming on the D-Day and surrendered herself to be a female lead role! :))))
5. Mico Suryo (@micoatmahadi) - for the amazing job as the second cameraman! & killer :)
6. Dannu 'ontime' Danil (@dannudanil) - for the first to come!!!! Thank you as well for the willingness to seek gas balloons in Ragunan (thou null) and policeman role!
7. Riko Ringgoanto (@rikoringgo) - for all of the supports from planning til the eXXXecution!!
8. M. Ardiansyah (@aldud) - for the tripod and additional camera!
9. Rahmat Syahrullah (@rsyahrullah) - who came from Kuningan to Kemang yet directly go back to Bin's apartment (Kuningan). Uhuy, red hairs! :)))
10. Rizky Arief Rahman (@rizkyrahman) - who still came to Bin's apartment after long 'tiring' day! :)
11. 2AM - for inspiring "You Wouldn't Answer My Calls" MV
12. Vocal Points, Nina, Tulus, Depapepe and FCP sound effects for the OSTs!!!
13. WongFu Production for the idea of shooting the box from its bottom. COOL!
14. ... and all of you who were already involved directly or indirectly with this project.

[III] Final Note
Unbeknownst to me if it's a coincidence or not, yet this February is quite different for me. It's the most unromantic romantic February. Too many sad news came true this month. My deep condolences and prayers for all of you who re having hard times this month. I and your friends here will always be there for you... Be strong, pals!

I know this video is not perfect. However, with only 5 hours of taking and all of those limitation, I am very proud with our works. This is my first time making short movie with 2 cameras, couple of shooting venues, end-to-end script, and lots of properties... Hopefully, I can make a better one in the future :)

Enjoy!!! 

The Other Side of Valentine's Day Celebration - We'll Be Missing You

No video project. No YouTube artist/video review. Nothing's special.

I just simply want to share what I've been feeling this whole day.

This is February, the sweet romantic month. Today is just less than a week apart from Valentine's Day where loves mostly spread everywhere around the world amongst any generations. Valentine's Day has been a stereotype of the day when the man buying something special (in Family Feud, chocolate / flowers stands #1 or #2 :)  and then give surprise to his girlfriend / wife. Some others also associated this day with the love not only between lovers but also with families, parents & siblings.

As a YouTube artist wannabe, there was a big desire to make a funny sweet romantic video project to commemorate this Valentine's Day. I sent an invitation, yet it seemed like not many of them were interested to join *headdown* :))).

However, I am now feeling really thankful for it. Today I got couple knocks pondering my mind about the other side of Valentine's Day. This inspiration was gathered through uneasy experience and lots of emotion took part in it. 2 Videos and 1 news were the inspirations. 

• 1st inspiration: "2AM - You Wouldn't Answer My Call" Music Video [Tuesday Morning]
  
  You might wonder what the..... that I heard this song and watched this movie. I knew this song from its cover sung by Indonesia YouTube Artists (check the link: here). Curiosity then just came into my mind to check what the lyrics said about cos it's heard very sad. Watching its music video, then I felt touched (with the video & lyrics, not the band). Luckily, I found someone's comment about the explanation of the story behind the video.
  
  In brief, it's about a man mourning for his girlfriend's death. However, suddenly he got call from her, asking why he wasn't in her apartment yet. So, he ran out to her apartment, yet he's trapped in the present time when she's already dead. After getting calmed by the Police, he tried to call her again and telling her not to open the door. At the same time, someone knocked the door and the woman thought that he's just joking around & willing to give her a surprise. She immediately hanged up the phone, opened the door, then she got killed. The conclusion might be about a man who can't stop blaming himself for the lost of someone he loves at most.
  

• 2nd inspiration: news of ITB student lost for 2 days already [Tuesday evening]
  
  It is always hard to know this kind of news. Imagining and positioning myself as one of her family members (moreover, parents) or friends, I don't know how depressing I might feel. Flashback suddenly brought the scenes of hearing that information at the beginning, getting panic to go to location ASAP, and desperately trying to find her soon. It is miserable. We can only now pray for God's miracle that rescue team or anyone could find her body soon. Amen.
  
  And, this situation suddenly reminded me of my friend who died 100 days ago, Dipo. No one ever predict that he'd die thru car accident in that such young age. Not easy to let him go forever, even up until now. I just opened his FB page and ... many people miss him indeed.
  
  

•  3rd inspiration: "I'll Be Missing You" by Vocal Point Sing-Off [Tuesday night]
  
  Along my way on motorcycle to the gym, my random playlist selected this song. Hearing this song after those two inspirations above, I was directly unable to hold my emotion. I played this song over and over and over. FYI, this song was brought by The Sing-Off (acapella competition) Season 03 contestant, "Vocal Point". The Lead vocal for this song is Ben, a guy who's just lost his Dad at the early of competition. He was absent for several early episodes, then came back in the middle of competition after the lost. And, they all agreed to sing this song dedicated to Ben & his family.
  
  If you pay attention to their emotional performance and try to feel the lyrics, we'll understand (a bit) the feeling of losing forever someone we care & love. We'll be missing Dipo. 

I'm sure now you all can connect the dots of those 3 inspirations about what other side of Valentine's Day that I meant :) 

I'm working now on the script of this new video project. It might be the combination of Valentine's Day and Tribute to Dipo, as I promised in my earlier post. Let me know if you wanna join. Thank you for reading. GBU all :)

VPR - Occupy Bandung Pt. 2: Tribute to Running Man

Hello!

First video for February! :) actually this video should be aired on January, yet due to the other video project, I had to postpone it a week... and, now it's ready!!!! Yihaaaa....

After its trailer on November, then the 1st part on January 1 2012, and now..... Yes, it's the second part of "Occupy Bandung" video: Tribute to Running Man!

Would say the editing was quite complicated this time since we took a lot of long-period scenes and used only 1 camera, thus it's quite boring. Couple of sound and picture effects played an important role here.

Story Behind the Video

Now, Time for the story. As the first part, this video also was taken on our trip to Bandung for Uchi-Ber wedding. We did "Night at Campus" on Friday night, the day before the wedding. Inspired by current top Korean reality show - Running Man (RM), We went there on midnight (around 11-12 PM) and played 3 games - 2 played before on RM, i.e.: Chicken Fight (yet, the MC, Dannu, always mentioned it as: Chicken Dance :))), Camera Zone, and Green Spot (popular game during our childhood).

What games are they???!!! Check the video! hahaha, Chicken Fight is the hardest to explain, thus I just recorded Running Man episode 1 and put it into video, huahahaha... Camera Zone is another creative game and it's quite fun to play and watch :) Green Spot? it has not been played before in Running Man, yet we just wanna play it! However, things happened and we got scolded by the Security right at the moment we stopped practicing and ready to play...HUAHAHAHAHA, thanks to Dannu who took the initiative to shoot Security's face and answer the question of our batch! Yes, we re class of 2007!!!! We're going to graduate a week after!!! -___-"

The Famous Security!

Afterwards, we went to "Gerbang Belakang" while still searching for other places to play. Yet, another thing happened. We walked through the center of campus and found out that couple of students were still in campus that late night. For what? It's Ospek!!!!! Swasta Night, I guessed. As the seniors, without any hesitation we just went passing them. I and Kico even took couple of pictures and videos. Yet, suddenly the seniors of them (he's actually 2006 -__-) came to me and Kico. After some talks, he asked us to delete the recordings & pictures since they didn't want this occasion go public. :|

If only Riko (the strongest in ITB history), Ben (the oldest in ITB history) and Dannu (the darkest in ITB history) were not separated too far from me & Kico and then met this bunch of kids, guess what would happen?!

Hahaha, at the end... No doubt, it was one of the greatest fun night I ever had! As Ipang said in his "Sahabat Kecil" song: Kesempatan seperti ini tidak akan bisa dibeli, hope you all really enjoy this video!!! :)

No winner is too... Bad!

Not the first one touching the finish line is.... Worse!!

Yet, to live without these friends & fun... is the Worst!!!

 :]

The mighty power of friendship is the moral story... :)

Okay I am getting mellow now! *headdown* LOOOL

Anyway, Final Word: Love your communities, family and friends! ENJOY!!!

@edodotcom

DOTting our COMmunities

VPR - Kico 25th Birthday

Another Video Project! YEAAAYYY!!!!

Dealing Process with Uqi!

Berhubung blog ini dibuat di sela-sela kesuntukan bekerja, jadi ada baiknya untuk berbahasa Indonesia saja #padahalGaAdaYangPeduli :|

January 12, 2012 (D-11)

Sooo.... hari itu Aisyah Khulqi (Uqi) DM saya bertanya mengenai adakah rencana surprise ulang tahun ke-25 untuk pacarnya tercinta, honey bunny sweetie alalabumbum Kico. Dan, saya pun membalas "engga" *polos*
Tapi, karena cintanya yang tak terbatas, Uqi pun melanjutkan perbincangan dengan menanyakan berbagai kemungkinan untuk surprise si honey bunny sweetie *pret* ini.

January 13, 2012 (D-10)

Keesokannya, cobalah saya lontarkan e-mail ber-rantai ke beberapa orang sembari memberikan beberapa opsi. Sebenarnya, saya sendiri condong dengan ide "kasi karangan bunga" atau "...... (ada ide dari yg lain?)". Namun, apa daya pungguk merindukan bulan, opsi yang terakhir itu seperti biasa tidak muncul, sedangkan waktu tinggal 1.5 minggu lagi. Jadilah harapan kasi karangan bunga, tapi melihat cinta yang begitu besar dan keinginan Uqi memberikan video (*katanya Kico belum pernah dapat video*), jadilah saya..... .... lu... luh. *menunduk*

Terinspirasi oleh video ultah ke-32 David Awiee Axioo (link here), terpilihlah ide untuk membuat video "25 things about Kico". Mengingat waktunya uda mepet, saya uda selesai cuti dan tingkat kesulitan konsep ini rendah, jadilah undangan langsung disebarkan bagi yang mau ikutan. Tantangan video ini sebenarnya cuma 2:

1. Apa saja 25 karakter si birthday boy, dan...
2. Semua harus shooting di tempat yang sama (backgroundnya harus sama) --> jadi ga bisa shoot sendiri-sendiri

Point 1 berhasil diatasi segera berkat memori indah (& sampah) dari Uqi dan teman-teman lainnya via email ber-rantai tersebut. Tapi, point nomor 2 ini jadi meluas ke mana-mana, khususnya terkait masalah TEMPAT. Setelah apartemen teman-teman kita tidak available, akhirnya dengan manuver cantik dari sang Pacar dari Jepang (Uqi), dibooklah sebuah kamar di hotel Avissa Suites Kuningan. RUAAAARRR BIASAAA!!!! 

Our Shooting Venue

Perluasan point nomor 2 lainnnya adalah adanya orang yang shooting di Jakarta maupun di Jepang, serta mereka yang tidak bisa datang ke lokasi shooting pada hari yang dijanjikan itu. Sampai dengan tgl 13 malam, solusinya adalah: yg di Jakarta akan kasitau backgroundnya apa nanti yang dipakai, jadi bisa sama ama yang di Jepang. Sedangkan, yang ga bisa ke lokasi shooting, tidak bisa ikutan video :'( #maap

Januari 14, 2012 (D-9)

Berkumpullah orang-orang yang ingin join video di hotel yang ternyata Oke Bet ini! 1-2-3-.....-12 orang akhirnya berhasil di-shoot dengan adegan kocak sinting seperti biasa. Yet, it's always fun :) Yang di jepang pun sudah dikabarin untuk shoot dengan background tembok putih dan shootnya setengah badan.

Geng Jakarta

Tetapi.... baru keingatlah nomor 2 ini potensial meluas lagi! Hampir bisa dipastikan lighting di Jakarta beda dengan yang di Jepang, belum lagi kalau resolusi kameranya beda. Akhirnya, diputuskan ada 'sinetron'-nya biar berperan sebagai 'bridge' kumpulan klip yg di Jakarta ama yg di Jepang. Sekaligus, solusi agar videonya ga kependekan PLUS memang tidak kesampaian mengumpulkan 25 orang :))))

"Kico Itu...." by Geng Jakarta

Nah, kebetulan malam sebelumnya ada nonton video youtube ini! Karena keingetnya telat, jadilah coba dibuat seadanya adegan yahuuud ini dengan bantuan orang-orang yang tersisa di hotel malam itu. Bikin film seperti ini is my second experience untuk project mini movies, setelah yang pertama untuk perpisahan Ranco dan muemang SERU SEKALI! :))) Thanks to Riko, Vidi, Berlan, Mie, dan Eja!

Akhirnya setelah berlangsung selama 5 jam, seluruh shooting selesai 0830 PM! Wooohooooo!!!! Hingga..... Dalam perjalanan pulang, terlintaslah pemikiran.... siapa yang shoot guwaaa?!@#&%$*@)!*@

January 15-16, 2012 (D-8 & D-7)

Saatnya konsolidasi, rename dan grouping files. Jangan lupa, eh eh, jangan lupa, koordinasi dengan pihak Jepang. Berkat fasilitas dropbox, diambillah file-file dari Jepang sambil harap-harap cemas jangan ampe jadi top 5 internet users di kantor T.T hahahaha...

Geng Jepang

Reaksi pertama yang didapat setelah lihat video dari Jepang: "ADOOOOOH!" karena miskomunikasi, jadinya karakter yang uda di Jakarta nongol lagi di Jepang. Reaksi ke-2: "ADOOOOH!" karena ukuran kameranya beda resolusi. Reaksi ke-3: "AHAAA!" untung kemarin iseng-iseng shoot adegan-adegan itu untuk bridge. Hahahaha... So, all is well, all is well... *tepuk2dada* *tariSaman* *uhYeah*

"Kico Itu...." by Geng Jepang

January 17-21, 2012 (D-6 - D-2)

Optimasi otak kanan dimulai. Saatnya kreativitas diaduk dengan Final Cut Pro. Thanks God, I was able to re-install my lost iMovie. Thus, I got back all my sound effects! Hohohoho.... *sambil kembali harap-harap cemas menjadi top5 internet user*

Fokus editing terbesar dan terberat ternyata ada justru di adegan pembuka ini, bukan yg ucapan-ucapannya. Took around 3 days for editing this part. then, the next 2 days focused more on the characters & greetings. Karena editing ini bukan bagian yang menarik untuk diceritakan, jadi takkan dibahas lebih lanjut, hehehe.

Lebih menarik mungkin untuk sharing sekitar ide dasar video ini ~ yang mana sebenarnya baru benar-benar dapat konsepnya pas editing. Banyak kilas kurang lebih beginilah ceritanya:

1. Ide dasarnya adalah bagaimana menciptakan cerita yang bisa memunculkan 2 kubu rangkaian video, which are: rangkaian video Jakarta dan rangkaian video Jepang
2. Lalu, kepikiranlah ide untuk memakai acara TV sebagai penghubungnya. Jadi, Kico lagi nonton TV tapi tiba-tiba tv-nya ada gangguan, eh.... nyambung2 jadi muka-muka kita ini
3. Nah, seperti yang dibilang tadi, bahwa saya terinspirasi oleh video "Dreamers"-nya The Dreamlapse Project, jadi pengen menjadikan mata Kico ini sebagai lensa kamera!
4. Akhirnya, dirangkailah cerita mini... di mana Kico yang terhuyung-huyung *caileh bahasa guwe* mendatangi kawannya setelah bonyok dikeroyok ma doyok #siiiing.
5. Masuklah kemudian ke kamar, dimanjakan ditenangkan dipijet-pijet biar pegelnya ilang boossss! Hingga kemudian dia ditinggal di kamar sendiri, misteri pun sontak terjadi... lampu mati, tapi tv tetap nyala namun channel-nya hilang sinyal *imposibel emang*. Nah, mistis-mistis gerimis kelimis gini kan bikin shock si Kico. Pingsan lah si doi! Gubrak! mimpi-mimpi tiba-tiba dari tv yg ngaco ini, keluarlah video kita-kita...... yang mana diawali dengan my showtime! Huakakakakakak *adegan memalukan* #sigh
6. Setelah semua video yg dari Jakarta, Kico yang tadinya mimpi pingsan tertidur tiba-tiba kedatangan teman-teman lainnya. Teman-teman yang peduli akan dia yg pingsan ini kemudian nonton bareng video ucapan-ucapan yang dari Jepang hingga greeetings rame2. So, it's also about friendship :) 

Preface & Bridge Scenes Snapshot

Di samping adegan-adegan di atas ini, sebenarnya ada beberapa scenes yang akhirnya terpaksa tidak jadi ditampilkan ~ bukan karena di-delete (Edo mah orangnya ga suka delete kerjaan orang ;) #pencitraan) tapi karena enga sempat disyuting. Ada 2:

1. Adegan Pengeroyokan (awal video): ini mau difilmkan oleh Dannu (yg kemarin ga sempat join syuting) sebagai pengeroyoknya dan yg terkeroyok adalah Kico sendiri...Caranya?
   Saat Kamis pas Kico ajak kita ngumpul itu, gw dan Dannu sudah sepakat sebenarnya untuk menipu Kico. Bilang bahwa kita disuru Moli kasi surprise untuk pesta bujangnya Akom. Surprisenya adalah bikin video untuk pesta bujang-nya Akom dengan skenario Akom mau diculik oleh kita-kita! *tiba-tiba Akom&Moli dibawa-bawa*
   Nah, Kico, sebagai yg perawakannya paling mirip Akom, ceritanya akan dikeroyok oleh Dannu & the gang. Dikeroyok, dimasukkin ke mobil, dibuang ke jalanan, terus....... baru lanjut ke adegan di video sekarang.
   GAGAL KARENA yg bisa Kamis ini sepi, jadilah batal. Dannu pun sedih :(
2. Adegan Tertawa Bahagia (akhir video): lagi-lagi dengan dalih video bujang Akom, pengen sekali minta Kico untuk memegang kamera terus membalikkan kameranya lalu tersenyum dan tertawa. Rencananya ini ditempatkan di akhir video sebagai penjelasan bahwa yg menjadi kamera selama ini adalah Kico dan dia pun bahagia setelah menonton TV berisikan ucapan2 selamat dari teman-temannya :)
   GAGAL KARENA alasannya yang sama ama #1

January 22, 2012 (D-1)

Dua hal penting terjadi di hari ini, yaitu:

1. Uqi memberikan kabar tidak sedap bahwa...... surprisenya sudah ketahuan sama Kico. TIDAAAAAAAAAAKKKK!!! *ngais-ngais ubin* *garuk-garuk pasir* *dorong-dorong kuya* Berawal dari perjalanan cinta mereka dengan kereta ke luar kota, Kico kemudian meminjam iPad Uqi dan dengan jari jemarinya yang terampil, dibukalah program "email". Toweweweeenggg... boing boing boing, nonggollah email ber-subject-kan "Surprise-x Kico". Kemudian, sebagaimana dilaporkan oleh saudari Uqi, Kico ini pun 'senyam-senyum dikulum'.... lalu mengembalikan iPadnya, tanpa mengaku apa-apa. Tapi, Tapiii... TE... TA.... PIII! Uqi telah menjadi saksi bisu.... suuu... suu... su... u.... *bergema*
2. Lemas sudah hati ini melanjutkan editing. Namun, untungnya sudah tinggal finishing touch. Akhirnya siang harinya, video ini sudah jadi. ditonton ulang, kemudian ditemukanlah.... kesalahan dalam bahasa inggris. *pakai kemeja* *hitung kancing* *ulang, engga, ulang, engga, ulang* #PerfectionistWon

January 23, 2012 (D-Day)

Akhirnya, hari yang ditunggu-tunggu telah tiba. Gong Xi, Gong Xi, Fat Fat Cai! #eh

Sesuai rencana, kita berkumpul jam 9 di AlfaMart / IndoMart / Mart-Mart lainnya (MART-ENGADING #siiiing) dekat kosan Kico. Sekitar 9:45 invasi ke kaamarnya pun dimulai... Pintu dibuka, dan.. dan... daann.... seorang pria sudah rapi dengan rambut gel sudah menyambut. bahkan, sudah siap dengan korek api di mejanya. #failed

Setelah makan-makan, minum-minum, ketawa-ketawa ga jelas di atap, berpindahlah kita ke kamar Kico. Kamar kosan untuk 1 orang pun berhasil dimasuki oleh 10 orang lebih *soWhatGituLoh*. Akhirnya video pun disetel. Sayang sekali begitu ya kamera aye endak dicharge jadi ga sempat merekam kejadian selama nonton. Namun, yang pasti terjadi adalah....

1. Kico dan penonton lain tertawa puas
2. Kico terharu dan menangis :)
3. Setengah jam seusai video disetel pun, masih menangis...
4. akhirnya, ga lama kemudian Kico pun berkomentar "gw ga bisa ngomong apa-apa... gw beneran ga tau mau ngomong apa... bagi gw, kalian ini teman-teman paling ga jelas yang gw punya..." 

Birthday Boy Tak Kuasa Menahan Tangis Haru :')

Tear of Joy from the Birthday Boy (check his right cheek!)

That's it! Thank you so much to all participants!

Great Time, Lots of Fun and Nice Performance! Hope you enjoy the video =)
@Mie & @Aldut who recorded a lots on the D-Day, please Upload! Upload! Upload! :D

See you all in other projects :) GBU!

@edodotcom

DotCom - DOTting our COMmunities

Life, Love and Miracle

"One-week leave has brought another new life perspective into my eyes"

it's a romantic sweet cheesy title with What-The-.... opening :))
Easy, Guys! Ain't talking bout something corny here. Huahahahaha..

How r you all doin? Hope all is going well, guys :)

 2 weeks after my first 2012 blog post, here comes my another writing. Yes, I'm now on the edge of my leave. It's going to expire soon :(, time to get back to my Sudirman office, get prepared to rumble back with Jakarta traffic madness. :'((((
Well not purely sad thou, "The most valuable thing I have learned from life is to regret nothing" (Somerset Maugham). And, somehow someways, I found some new life excitement livin in my future world after some same shits happened. I don't know exactly what it is going to be, yet instantly many good things (read: "blesses") pouring my past few days. It's been my biggest passion since past few years ago (esp. after graduation) and glad tidings came! nothing to be mentioned now, yet big hope for this big miracle could really happen. Amen! #crossfingered :)

Going to AJ Rafael concert on the last Friday the 13th was one of my inspirations to write this blog. Who is he? AJ Rafael is a very very very successful YouTube Artist (Singer & Song-Writer). Best word to describe him might be: the pioneer of Am-Phil YouTube dynasty. Internet has literally brought his dream into reality, took him here across the world to South East Asia for album promo tour. 

Starting his MySpace around 6-7 years ago, then YouTube came along and Facebook and Twitter, now his album was nominated for the next Grammy and his channel now has already had like 242 videos with almost 400K subscribers and more than 80 million views! AWESOME! I still remembered his speech on the concert bout this new generation:
"... and, Those things (mySpace, YouTube, FB, Twitter) kinda sound dumb for parents and stuff like that. But, Hey, this is what we lived on right now! This is a new generation of music, a new generation of entertainment!"

Despite of those non-stop crazy teenagers screams (!!!!), It was a nice concert! It really amazed me (and AJ Rafael as well, I guessed)... 5 years ago who ever thought that YouTube uploader from the opposite part of the world might sing in front of hundreds people here, in Indonesia, and they sing along with you! The crowds surprisingly memorized almost all his songs' lyrics, even the ones outside the album! #HailYeahYouTube!

I recorded around 20s videos during the concert, including his performance with other talented YouTube Artists, i.e.: Krissy & Ericka (from Philippines) and Audrey & Gamal (from Indonesia). Really want to compile them all and publish the snipets soon, yet something more urgent waiting :) If this snipet is classified as ASAP Project, then it makes 3 projects To-Be-Finished by the end of January!!!! In-SANE.... .. ... ...... . .  .   ..  . _________ #KO

The other 2 projects are:

1. Occupy Bandung Part 2 now is still in editing process. Current Progress: Finished editing up until Round 2 (of 3) Game 1 (of 3) --"
2. Secret Project. Hehehe, just finished all shootings yesterday (Saturday). Frankly, this is my inspiration to put "Love" in this blog title. Just feel amazed how big L.O.V.E. can move a girlfriend to work hard for her boyfriend's present :) And, am glad to be a part of your both love journey. Hope I won't disappoint you two and all participants ;)

Alright then, time to say goodbye. As the ending, I would like to share one of AJ Rafael's songs. This song has stuck in my head since yesterday. And, it's called "Without You". As usual, when the song was stuck in my head generally not because of the lyrics, yet due to its melody & beat :P  

As I got a bit free time later tonight, finally I got the chance to check out its music video and lyrics, apparently it fits with what happened recently.

This is what AJ said about the story behind the song:

"My Godfather, "Kuya" Frank, passed away last October after a 4-year long battle with cancer and it struck a familiar feeling in my gut. My Dad passed away when I was 10 and the reailty of losing another father figure really hit me hard.

I wrote this song not about a death or losing someone to an illness, but about wanting to be with someone so bad that you couldn't go another day without them-- but this song spoke differently to my Kuya Frank's wife Ate Rhea. She told me that she listened to this song as if it was Kuya Frank singing to her, fighting for her, and wanting to be there for her through all of this. Thus, the original concept for this video was born and it stuck in my head-- and I pray that this video helps you realize that you are not alone in your struggle, whether it is you or a loved one going through it.

This video is based on The Five Stages of Grief (Kübler-Ross model). Everyone who deals with a life-changing or life-threatening event has a unique journey to go through, but I still hope that you all can relate to this in one way or another. 
  
Don't forget to let your loved ones know that you love them... We never know what tomorrow might bring."

 

Thus, I would like to dedicate this song for those who are now striving to survive in their difficult times, especially in the state of serious illnesses. Recently I got couple of sorrow news of people dying. I dont know them, never met them before, yet it's still shocking every time hearing those sad news. May God bless be upon you all and your family. Amen!

Keep connecting the dots, make our dreams coming true and.... "If there's a light in everybody, send out your rays of sunshine" (Mraz)

Let's finish these projects! Smile :)

NB: for you who are interested on psychology article and with what AJ Rafael meant by "The Five Stages of Grief (Kübler-Ross model)", check this article: http://grief.com/the-five-stages-of-grief/

VPR - Occupy Bandung [Pt. 1] & Season's Greetings

Helloooo…ooo…oo….

Okay, that greeting simply just made me getting more terrified now with this lonely ambience. Yes, I went to my office on January 1st, 2012, SUNDAY! and Client's Office on December 31st, 2011! Awesome, isn’t it? 

Unfortunately, No… I came by there and spent couple of hours just to upload my latest 2011 video project: “Occupy Bandung [Part 1] & Season's Greetings” Yeeaaaaayyy!!! *gimme, gimme that high five*

 Occupy Bandung Trailer

Right 1.5 month after the trailer came out (too long? hahaha), Finally it’s wrapped up :) The scenes were taken about 2 months ago and I finally got the chance to finish it by the end of 2011. As I mentioned about my prolonged problems in my previous blog (READ IT!), I took almost 2 weeks to finish this project. I once promised to finish it before New Year, hopefully might be a great New Year present for all of you! Cup Cup Muah! *sign my thongs* *give them to my fans*

STORY BEHIND THE SCENE

Alright let's talk about the video. At the beginning, I got like almost 40 clips in total. They all took place in 2 days of our trip. The main focus is the Running Man Games (we played about 3 games). Yet, each game cost about 5-15 minutes per game. Meanwhile, I haven't had YouTube Premium Account, thus only able to upload at max 15 mins per video (I thought only 10 mins - it's just been upgraded). Hence, There's a need to tweak this snag. That's why I decided to separate this project into 2 parts (with continuous storyline). Now... let's start talking the first part :)

Soundtrack is the most critical part for this video since I had to admit the scenes were quite boring & long. Well, before we didn't have plan to film it. As usual, they trust me to think and develop the end-to-end project (Q: should I be proud or depressed? A: Both...). Thus, I decided to research songs with "Night" or "Tonight" keywords as the OSTs. Then, here were the nominees:

1. Give Me Everything Tonight - Pitbull feat Ne-Yo
   
2.  Last Friday Night - Katy Perry
3. All Night Long - Afro Blue (The Sing-Off S03)
4. Yeah 3x - Chris Brown
5. DJ Got Us Falling in Love - Usher feat Pitbull
   
6. Silent Night -  Susan Boyle !@^*$&(#*!

And finally, I went with..... wait... let's talk per chapter :)

[1] Wedding & Departure

The 1st Part's main storyline is playing around with all clips outside those RM games, i.e.: departure, visit Sarwang, drop in on ITB, and the Wedding itself. However, the games (which will be the 2nd part) came about between the 'ITB' scenes and 'Wedding' scene.
In order to trick on it, I used a reversed mode at the beginning. Wedding scene came first, then the rest went onwards as per the reality. I knew you noticed that my clip was different than others - Open Vacancy for Co-cameraman & Co-editor!!!

The Casts!

Soundtracks:

• Wedding: AJ Rafael - Here, Tonight (Intro) -> Really perfect for the opening, love his album! (Original Video, click Here)
• Departure: AJ Rafael - Emma Watson -> the melody fits well with "Here Tonight" since in his 'Red Roses' album this song comes second right after 'Here Tonight'. He is coming to Jakarta this January anyway, guys! Go buy the tickets! Talented Musician & YouTube Artist :) Original Video, click Here)

[I.2] Dinner Time - Sarwang

This chapter was the second most difficult chapter to be made. The final concept finally popped up after at the same time I heard Hot Chelle Rae's "Tonight, Tonight" and watched Riko's scene while he was tying his shoelace. Aha, Bingo! The lyrics fitted well with Riko's expression. Then, here comes the difficult part which is trying to compile all scenes gathered into only about 20-30 seconds frame. At first, I put all of them into 1 scene (9 small windows). However, after watching it back over and over, I decided to change it into 6 small windows per scene. Thank you for the experiences of watching YouTube videos a lot (too much, I guessed)! :)

Historical Gaze!

Soundtracks:

• Hot Chelle Rae - Tonight, Tonight -> apparently at the early stage of video editing, I deleted this song from my nomination list. Yet, as somehow I figured out some scenes might fit well with the lyrics, so let's welcome the return of........... this song!| Click 'Like' for the UNO DOS TRES :)

[I.3] Character Introduction

Hey world, this is the introduction of SeX! :)) Inspired by our friend's mate's twitter, seX (= sekali = very) has been our chat topic all night long. Well, apparently this is the most difficult part! At first, I only thought of compiling all of the se-X scenes (previous OST nomination: I Just Had Sex - Akon feat Lonely Island).
However, I suddenly got an idea of showing our characters through this freak food-ordering conversation. Just a glimpse of story plot to be combined with our crazy silly absurd actions! So unfortunate we didn't capture the waiter's laugh after hearing our 'seX' games :))

The Most Foreseen Character

Soundtracks:

• Guy Sebastian - Natalie King Cole medley - Someday (Live - YouTube) -> this part is tricky. It was really difficult to find perfect slow-yet-fun song. The clips have very witty messages, yet it went in slow tempo (lots of conversations). Thus, the winner goes to....... Guy Sebastian's live performance at one of the cafes in Australia (the original video's link here)

[I.4] ITB, Here We Come!

Soundtrack played its key role here. We got additional player who joined at the end of our dinner, Mirza Harun. That night, we thought of our next destination and somehow somewhere it ended with our campus! What the heck do people think that the alumni come by their campus on 1130 PM?! No, we didn't come for Ospek. The reality was we were thought as Student Cabinet's representatives or Rector's delegates to monitor Ospek in ITB -__-" We got caught by Arsi's alumni ('Swasta') and  our recordings on their 'Swasta Night' had to be deleted :( I was caught alone, then Kico came to support me, yet the rest just went away since they didn't know that I was kidnapped. *WHO THE HELL IS THE ALUMNI??!* #exaggerated #our2ndCharacter #PartI.3

Section 2 - Boyband Scene

Anyway, basically there are 3 sections in this chapter. [1] Background of our campus visit, [2] Boyband walk (just for fun, found not on purpose :p), [3] our activities at 'current' Industrial Engineering Student Association's base. We've got a lot of fun time here thou it's 2AM already, see how we even made some drama with the Bamboo sticks! LOOOOL!

Section 3 - Riko acting as Batagor seller

Soundtracks:

• Mario Bros Soundtrack -> the idea was to use Mario Bros' soundtrack when he got mushroom as an indication that we got an additional player. After hearing the whole song, I think it's a good soundtrack for the whole story of our campus visit.
• The Committed - I Want It That Way -> Sing-Off season 2 winner brought their amazing A Capella version of BSB's song which is also one of our favorite karaoke songs.
• Sam Tsui - Summer Medley 2011 -> almost all of the nominated songs are packed into this 1 amazing mash-up made by Sam Tsui & Kurt Hugo Schneider. Really love the beat! FYI, Both are YouTube Artists, Sam Tsui even acted as additional MC for The Sing-Off Season 3! (go check their YouTube channels! lotta cool stuffs there! Original video click here)| Click' Like' for the perfect fit of Dance event ads with "Party Rock Anthem" part :)

[I.5] Alien's Invasion


My favorite chapter! Hahaha. Took around 6 takes with monopod for this freak absurd scene. The idea was how to connect the first part with the 2nd part. Since there's only 1 person editing this project, this shy guy needed to volunteer himself for this chapter. Showtime, Baby! :]


After downloading the iLife Sound Effects from torrent (took 2 days! geez!), I thought it might be the best chance to play with some sci-fi sounds effects. The idea was to show that there's a technical problem and I got noticed by an Alien from outer space that my 10 mins is going to expire soon (time limit for normal YouTube account), so I need to fix the error. After I fixed it (shown by the return of the previous soundtrack), I urgently needed to give the final message, i.e.: Chapter 2 to be launched on January 2012 :)

Me with Flying Holograms

Some interesting facts behind this part, i.e.:

1. Technology trend infection: This time I also tried to use the 'screen and motion' effects like the current technologies trend [flying holograms]. Thou it's not perfectly edited, hopefully it still looked cool! huahahahaha
2. Alay words: it was actually meant to be Alien's speech telling me that I only had few minutes left for this video (Non-Alay word: "Ten Minutes Limit Expires Soon!"). Yet, due to the technical error, it became alay :P
3. Wardrobe: I really wanted to use futuristic glasses / wardrobes, unfortunately I didn't have it *huaaaaa*. Since it's already December 31st! (which was planned to be the launching date of this movie, yet it was failed due to some technical errors -> eventually it did happen for real -__-"), I decided to use normal properties :| Next time, Next time! I am going to rent Barney's outfit!
4. Clone Effect: Again it didn't came out perfectly, we're not close enough in kiss scene. Dont know why the lighting became different, yet due to limited time... I needed to relax my OCD for now.

[I.6] Season's Greetings

As I mentioned in the previous blog, I really wanted to make Christmas video. And finally I decided to put this additional scene. Although the Christmas has passed for a week, yet I still wanted to say Merry Christmas :) And, Happy New Year for sure! I took the clip from my family's Christmas trip to Bandung. A giant glowing xmas tree in Congo was quite appropriate for this occasion. Since I had a mistletoe with "Merry Christmas" greeting in the previous scene, I picked Bieber's "Mistletoe" as the OST. YEAAAY :)

_____
Final words, I really want to thank you mates for all of your supports along 2011. Now, 2012 is coming and I really wish able to make more & better videos :) All the best for all of us in Twenty-Twelve! Amen. 
Dotting Our Communities, God Bless Us and Enjoy the Video :]

Link to the Video: "Occupy Bandung [Pt. 1] & Season's Greetings"

Cheers,

Edo