Yeap including the one in the middle, he in ma fyp group.
That's Mr Kunalan btw. The legendary runner.. I was sucha fan girl when I got to meet him.
That's the Sports Stadium at the back, we were at Dunman High shooting a video for them to raise funds for our FYP.

Got the opportunity to meet a couple of great legends of Singapore's good old days in the 70s of Track and Field. Mr Kunalan truly is a very very very nice man. It was such an incredible honour to meet him. Extremely funny as well. I love him! Appeared on television a couple of times, but I didn't know he'd be this old today. 72! Wow. And he seemed so frail when he walked into the room and greeted us. But on the track, it was like.. he was back in action. Stretching and all. Ahhh he is so cute. A plus point? Chinese wife. Inter-racial harmonisation~~

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Anyway, the point of this post is to talk about my Final Year Project group.

Let's bitch about them. Let's go!

Nah, jokes. I'm here to talk about my friends.

I must say, I truly am very happy to be part of an all-girls FYP group.

When we first started out, and got together, I actually thought, my my, the going might be tough because we have different thinking about what we want as well as different types of skill sets.

For 2 of them, the visuals drive the story. The more beautiful the pictures of a film, will be what makes or breaks the film.

For me, it is the story that should drive the film. More than anything else. Because the human element is what draws audiences to watch.

Nobody is right or wrong, it's just different styles. The fact that we all went to different internship companies and learnt different ways of working probably influenced the mindset and style of film that we each aim for.

We took quite a long time to agree on what theme and topic we wanted in the film. Struggled quite a bit with that at first. I almost thought wah, cannot siah, what are we gonna do!

But over the past few months up till today, I am seeing our strengths emerge. I learn a little more about my team mates every time.

I realise how our different skillsets is what makes our team so well put together. We have different personalities and different skills, but put them all together, we make quite a perfect team. I see that, and it's pretty clear as day.

Amelia is great at visualising and has an eye for images. Zhuoda is good with camerawork and was with me throughout Go-Far and has practised her skills quite a bit. Ms Sianpei, my good friend, is an excellent meticulous video editor and scheduler. As for me, I am public enemy number 1 and all 3 of them hate me. Hahaha, but in all seriousness, I like to focus on the story and try my best to bring out the most human element of a story, which I am not great at yet and needs workin' on.

But you see where I'm going? We specialise in different areas and to me, that makes for a brilliant team. We're only at the beginning of our very long journey ahead of months of filming but this is what I see in my team and I think it shows our strong makings. Whether or not my theory proves to be true will only unravel by itself over the next few months ahead.

What I also like about our team is that... we're not exactly girls. We're all boys. Now, before you think we're just a bunch of lesbians rolling in the deep and having orgies with one another. No.

What I mean is that, we're all girls who aren't your typical sweet or emotional girl. I like how we're direct with one another. Well, not overly direct. I think we are still quite intuitive of each other's feelings. But I like how we can talk about areas of improvement quite openly. I think that's extremely important in a team? Because if you can't openly communicate about what you're unhappy with, it's not very healthy at all.

At the same time, I think.. our team can be a little too serious sometimes haha.

With our open conversations, and as we talk about what can be improved, our conversations can steer into extremely.. dead serious conversations. Can get quite tense and I always feel like I need to act as a defuser. Or sometimes I get sucked into the seriousness as well. It's quite scary.

Another thing about our team is that.. I think, we worry a little too much. I'm no expert but I learned that in production, there always will be 101 uncertainties to face. Shooting documentaries is never an easy game to play. There will always be unexpected situations that may arise along the way. Things that you can never plan for. Things you will not have answers for. And might even leave you with more questions. Usually I am one who is risk-averse but in this case, going with the flow can be best.

There are definitely legit worries that will be addressed time to time and thank god for meetings so we can plan what we can do. I also have worries about how our story will pan out.. there are so many what-ifs. What if our documentary doesn't eventually go according as we dream or plan. What if it's just so damn plain and boring, nobody's going to watch it?

But the one thing I tell myself is to have a little faith. I think documentary film-making takes a lot of faith. A million things can go wrong for you, but at the same time, it could be serendipitous that those things go wrong because somehow usually when things like that happen, a gem emerges and steers the story in another direction. That's what I try to let myself think if things go awry during production. Sometimes I also question myself a lot. But I realise there is just no way we can have answers for certain things, so faith is all we have. Which is all a little fluffy, but.. that really is all that we can hope for sometimes.

There is one legit concern for me though and that is, our profile speaks a lot of mandarin. I'm the interviewer. And my mandarin is so bad that even my Korean friend's Chinese is better than mine. So... it's gonna be a bit difficult for me to connect with our profile and interview her I think. Maybe it'll take a lot longer for me to chummy up to her, especially since I'm speaking a language that does not come second nature to me. Which is one of life's greatest failures to me haha. But I will try to work around it. Maybe speak more mandarin now?

It occurred to me that, with every new project that I embark on, there will be new and different obstacles to overcome. I try to take them head-on. Even with this language barrier thing, I'm going to try my best. I dunno how yet, but I hope I'll find a way somehow.

Another thing that I'm so thankful for, for my team, is how we help one another a lot? I remember when Zhuoda and I were doing Go-Far, I was extremely and am still extremely thankful for the other 2 for steering this current athletes project. The team wouldn't have coped if they didn't step up. It's these actions that speak so much louder than anything else.

At the same time, I have a huge confession to make to my FYP group mates and that is.. I am actually quite tired. I have to say my inertia for production is actually quite low right now. I figured it was because of the non-stop productions since the start of this year that has caused my spirit to have dampened quite a bit. I never got a proper break in-between at all. My steam is almost out and it's something that's quite scary lah to me. Coz I started with a lot more energy and wonder than I do now.

Since internship started, I swear, I haven't got a single time to rest and I think I didn't expect to have one project come after another that quickly. It's like one wave after another and with each project comes new expectations and I might just have used up a lot of my energy and enthusiasm for earlier projects. Whenever I think about FYP, I will think about how we can improve our storyline, and worry about some things. But sadly, my mind also wanders to thoughts of... resting. I feel guilty sometimes because I think it might be coz I'm feeling lazy. And I don't like to know that I'm feeling lazy coz lazy just means you're so LAZY AND CAN'T BE BOTHERED. So irresponsible and not taking charge of your life.

But I must admit.. I need a break. At least for now. Then again, I don't think we have any time to spare for resting. Perhaps, I should manage it properly and be strategic with what I place emphasis on. My Channel NewsAsia colleague once told me that for her to survive, she has to work smart. She works very hard, and puts 200% in her work. But not for everything. Prioritising is the key and she won't put all her efforts into other things she finds of least importance. She phrased it in a very succinct way but I can't remember the phrase right now.

BUT, BUT, my need for a break doesn't mean that I want to give up on FYP. I will never give up on FYP. What are you talking about. Although I get jealous of the groups who are going to shoot overseas - Pakistan and Nepal. (wth I know, I wish!!) And they're launching their films on multimedia platforms, which is something I've wanted to do because films reach a wider audience, I still want to make this documentary a success.

As of now, everything is extremely uncertain. We don't know what our profile would do. Whether it'll be a plain old story. Whether the human elements of it will be brought out... But faith (and a little bit of rest haha) will go a long way I believe. I believe something good will come out of it and I can only think of positive things for my FYP group.

I wouldn't choose to go to another team if I had a choice to pick again. I would pick my current FYP group, many times over. That's how much I trust in us. Whether or not things will turn out the way we hope for, time will only tell.

As of now, Amelia, Zhuoda and Sianpei will always be the friends that I would pick to do my Final Year Project with. Many times over.