Doodles

Semasa saya berumur 10 atau 11 tahun (sekolah rendah) saya sudah menghasilkan beberapa buku puisi. Syok sendiri. Benar, dalam bentuk buku kecil bergaris yang saya beli dari kedai alat tulis di Kota Bharu. Kalau tidak silap ingatan saya, ada dua buah yang saya hasilkan.  "Puisi adalah reaksi  kepada sesuatu pengalaman  yang menusuk."  - A Samad Said (dipetik dari buku Sketsa dan Puisi 1969-1989 Bunga-Bunga Bulan Siti Zainon Ismail, terbitan Creative Enterprise). Sangat benar. Semasa kecil jiwa saya mungkin terlalu sensitif dan senang terasa. Kecil hati, merajuk, perasan, marah (dan sekarang semakin teruk!). Perasaan-perasaan ini tersimpan dan membuak lalu terluah dalam bentuk bait-bait sajak dan puisi sedih, suram, atau marah. Mungkin ada juga gembira, ah, saya sudah lupa. (Tetapi sebab kenapa saya marah itu saya masih ingat :-) ). Semasa umur itu saya telah menghafal sebuah sajak Usman Awang. Guru Bahasa Malaysia kami memberi tugasan kepada pelajar untuk

I guess since we're still on the subject of Zainudin Andika, I could share some thoughts on the so-called 'Doing things we love' ('Loving the things we do' deserves another post ;-P). And since this is still one of my earlier posts, I think this subject should be out sooner, before I write on other technical stuffs. Zainudin Andika in his workshop, waiting to be interviewed.  Two days ago, when I was driving our eldest daughter back from her tennis state selection, I popped her a question: "So, what do you want to be  when you grow up?" She's 12, so obviously she had the answers all figured out. Well, we all did (I wanted to be a fireman, by the way). This is the year of the UPSR (primary school's first Real exams). It is the year where nervous young parents talk about which tuition centre is better than the other. A first 'real' test of your kids' intelligence. Or how how smart they are compared to their cousins. Or how smar

As promised, here's the full version of the kompang story. But there is also another side of the story. If you google up the name Zainudin Andika (or Zainuddin Andika), you'll find various videos of him, featuring him as one of the left-wing political activists who fought for Independence. He was featured in Fahmi Reza's highly-acclaimed documentary Sepuluh Tahun Sebelum Merdeka a few years back. Funny thing I didn't realise this until recently. When we first did our Kuala Kangsar trip early this year with Raja Shahriman (another name worth googling), we found him in his workshop busy working on an aeroplane replica (no kidding!). We only went to see him because he was a kompang-maker, not as political activist who was jailed for more than 4 years in 1948. The moment we introduced ourselves he was already eager to give an interview. Zainudin has probably done it so many times before that it became second-nature to him. He probably spoke for about half an hour n

Three new videos have been uploaded to flickers.my YouTube Channel on Zainudin Andika's kompang-making! Here's the first episode: I'll be uploading a full single episode (total length = 10 minutes) in a minute (no pun intended). One of the reasons why the video has been cut into three pieces is to avoid putting people off when streaming them on Facebook or YouTube. Unless someone comes up with better reasons, I think having two versions of the videos (full length and segmented) is the way to go for the time being. Compressing a two-days worth of shooting materials into a 3-minute video that try to explain a lot of things is a tough feat. Trying to keep the audience from getting bored and at the same time making sure that you do not miss anything important is pretty difficult (it's a long emotional journey from the First Assembly, Scene Select, Rough Cut, Fine Cut, Colour Correct, Sound Sweetening - all the way to the Final Cut!). You need to learn how to be econ

A week ago we went to Kuala Kangsar, Perak to do some shooting on a kompang craftmaster - Zainuddin Andika. Little that we know that this old man is more than a craftman. He still works in his workshop, but no longer making kompangs (now the task is taken over by his son in-law). He makes aeroplanes from pieces of woods, studies how fan works, decorates wall clocks and make social commentaries using unwanted stuffs.  In between the shoots, I managed to sneaked into his room and snapped a few shots.  Who, in the rightful frame of mind, at the age of 84, has a blackboard in his room for writing today's prayers time, and upcoming plans for the next few weeks. Zainuddin Andika has this in his small room, with his other notebooks and journals, all written in jawi. This old man write to remember, little that he knew that he would be remembered for his life's amazing journey.  One can tell a lot about a man from by looking at his blackboard: Notes on the blackboard: Waktu Sembahy

Two years ago I came up with a web portal called flickers.my. It was (and still is) a place where I share some of the videos that I shot during my free time or between projects (and DURING projects). I started with the video of my grandmother. I spent some two hours talking/interviewing her about her history. I have to say that those two hours could easily be the longest duration I've spent with her. I knew things I've never knew before. As a result of that interview, I published 3 episodes of videos about her. Suddenly I'm hooked. Interviewing people became an avenue for me to learn history, but more than often - became humbled by their wisdoms. Here's the interview video with my grandma: At that very time I was also doing some videos for Galeri Chandan, an art gallery in Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur. It was one of the first galleries to be doing videos on artists whom they showcase. This provided me chances to meet, interview and shoot some very important v