Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Now I Go Play My Own Gig, See Ya!!



Ini ada satu cerita best.



Above are four out of seven titles of children's book based on the stories featured in 'Asian Legends' animation series that I'm producing at In-Fusion Solutions Sdn Bhd.

Biar aku ceritakan sikit pasal benda-benda berkaitan kerja aku.

First the company commissioned the animation series. Bring in Producer, create a team.

Once the animation series nak siap dah, then they created a spin-off project; in this case, projek buat buku cerita kanak-kanak.

The book project is an expansion of an Intellectual Property by putting it on multiple platforms rather than just focusing on a single medium.

Dalam bahasa senang, after an Intellectual Property is created, the next effort should be to maximisekan revenue from that IP. A good IP should generate sebanyak mana duit yang possible.

Habis bikin siap animation, my production team and I kemudiannya dapat directive untuk bukukan cerita-cerita from 'Asian Legends' the animation series.

As when working on the series, we did not have a proper Language Editor. Aku yang memang grad TESL ni terpaksalah do the in-house language editing myself, besides being the Series Producer.

My boys, a majority of them animators and background artists, terpaksa adapt their skills to do graphics & layout designs on this book project.

Even my Production Coordinator had to handle the text insertions.

With pride, I announce that my team worked hard on both the animation and storybook projects.

Dengan serba kekurangan dari segi support, the team completed their tasks walau bila start buat buku, ada team members hangin kat gua sebab depa kena buat kerja2 yang takde dalam jobspec masing-masing


So this week bila people from HQ informed us that the books dah diprint and will soon hit the market, aku memang suka hati sangat and proud to know our efforts membuahkan hasil.

In fact, semua yang terlibat dengan project ni pastinya share the same sentiments as I.

Sekali bila copies of the books tu sampai kat tangan kami, betapa terkejut beruk, badak & babi hutannya kami bila mata tertumpu pada satu bahagian on the books' covers.


Bahagian tertulis "Retold & Illustrated by" ..... Rupanya bukan kami In-Fusion Creative Unit.

Bukan team kami yang menceritakan dan membuat ilustrasinya, tapi rupa-rupanya semua Tokeh company kami yang buat, kalau ikut tulisan kat cover page tu.

Yang lagi tak tahan, siap ada satu page "About The Author" lagi.

Pun bukan In-Fusion Creative Unit yang dicreditkan for the work on that page.

Kami bukannya gilakan royalti ke hapa ke, but the implication of putting the tokeh's name affects semua yang bekerja on this project.

Dengan bahagian ini dicreditkan kepada tokeh secara total, none of us who worked on the project can ever mention it in our portfolios. Nanti satu Malaya tuduh kami penipu sebabkan bahagian 'retold & illustrated by' on the cover page jelas letak satu nama je.

Siut betul lah!

Disebabkan kes ini jugak lah, ku betul-betul rasa lega that my last day of service dengan studio nih is next Monday 30th August.

Seriously, I've had enough of this shit.

Nampaknya this year, pengertian Merdeka memang sajak benarlah dengan diri aku.

Aku akan merdeka untuk develop THAWS sepenuhnya.

Wish me luck, readers.

But I'm sure my boys need luck more than me.

Let's pray for them because t
hey still work for the same tokeh and company!




Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Imran 24 days old

Gilalah aku kalau tak cair tengok Imran pose secomel ni!


Tuesday, August 17, 2010



MOTHER (For My Nen)

Alarmed, I handed her
the screaming baby
and watched him
become silent
and found peace
in her warm embrace.






Saturday, August 14, 2010

Lucky Friday the 13th


Semalam Friday the 13th.

As in the movie with the same title, sepanjang hari aku jadi suspen macam awek seksi yang menunggu Jason masuk biliknya dengan parang penuh darah.

Sebelah petangnya, aku drive Iman, Slem
mer & Sheikh ke tempat yang ditetapkan untuk satu keputusan penting dalam hidup kami.

Bila sampai ke KL Hilton, kami meet up dengan Ayie & Hapiz.

Sampai kat tingkat 6, amongst
others, kami jumpa Mike & Wan Sumo.

Semua orang buat lawak n acted cool, tapi semuanya ak
u bet kecut perut masa tu.

At about 6pm, like sacrificial lambs, kami masuk berduyun2 ke banquet hall yang ditetapkan.


Dalam pukul 6.30, announcement mula dibuat.


Bila terdengar je kalimah "T.H.A.W.S by Orang Lidi", and Iman & Slemmer bangun bergerak ke depan dewan, tamatlah wayang seram buatku.

Perasaanku terus membuak2 puas. Lapar dan penat berpuasa terus hilang.

We, the Orang Lidis, were announced as one of the winners for MSC's Intellectual Property Creators Challenge 2010 under the Animation category!

THAWS bunting design

Alhamdulillah, syukur pada Pencipta sebab T.H.A.W.S menang tahun ini.

Thanks to the competition organisor, MDeC, for believing in our idea & giving us a grant of RM50k
to complete a 3-minute trailer.

Some of you yang follow blog gua nih mungkin perasan hint-hint pasal idea baru untuk animation series called 'The Heroic Adventures of Wira & Samad' (T.H.A.W.S) sebelum ni.

The fact is, the initial idea bermula since January. Then starting from April, Iman, Sheikh, Slemmer,Wan G & Bobbie Sahlan have helped to develop this IP tanpa menerima satu sen bayaran pun.

Our game plan was to come up with an awesome story which has th
e potential to be broadcasted.

Now things are shaping up towards that dream, insyaallah.

Winning again this year feels even sweeter daripada the first time we won the IPCC in 2007 with 'Hostel Blues' for Animatrix Studio dulu.

Mainly yang aku seronok sangat adalah kerana beside
s us, some of our buddies also awesomely won.

Mike & Wan Sumo won RM20k under the Interactive Digital Comic category.

Member ketat gua, Ayie & Tapir Reka Studio also won the Animation category for 'Tok & Tapir'.

By the way, for animation folks out there,take note.

I happen to know the Tapir Reka Studio guys personally, and given the right nourishment and support, aku confident they sure can change the landscape of the 2D animation in
dustry in Malaysia, bai!

Having said all of these, finally.....

"This one's for the both of you, Imran & Nen!"


Hell, yeah!




...the happy winners...




Thursday, August 12, 2010

Bulan Ramadhan yang mulia


Disclaimer:
Mulai sekarang, akan ada banyak post pasal my baby boy Imran kat blog gua nih. Siapa2 tak suka cerita baby, sila angkat conet, lu blah. The baby stories stay.


Hari ni dah second day kita berpuasa di Ramadhan 1431 ini.

Hari ini juga, my baby boy Imran genap 2 minggu usianya.

Status quo bagi Nen & aku turut berubah dengan mendadaknya Ramadhan ini.

Sepanjang Imran wujud dalam life Nen & aku ni, ada banyak perubahan yang ketara sekali.

Aku notice that SiComel-Comel aku (Maknya, bukan Imran) sekarang nampak lebih letih dari sebelumnya. Kehadiran baby definitely menambahkan kerja Nen.

Dulu takat layan kerenah aku je, sekarang more importantly, Imran must be fed, cleaned, kept sound & happy. Semua tugas2 penting memang jatuh atas bahu Nen. Salin diapers, bersihkan baby, kasi susu & whenever he cries, memang Nen yang settlekan. Tengah malam bila baby nangis nak susu, Nen settlekan.

Sebelum ada kaum ibu yang menggeleng kepala tuduh aku useless, let me explain job scope aku pertaining our baby.

Disebabkan aku sendiri mulanya tak confident nak handle a newborn baby (confidence level Nen pada keupayaan aku pun awalnya memang low), aku biarkan Nen handle Imran. The fact that aku kononnya hot-shot producer means shit around the house these days.

Instead, akulah AJK Tugas2 Khas. Dalam erti kata lain, gua machai je run sana sini on what is definitely Nen's show.

Kerja aku pastikan Nen & Imran comfortable and takde yang kurang. Dispose diapers kotor ~ itu keje gua. Isi air untuk baby mandi, ambik bedak/whatever yang Nen nak ~ gua at her service. Bila stok susu/diapers/whatever dah nak kurang, sepantas kilat aku gi kedai beli.

Korang imaginelah, aku sampai dah tau kat belah mana nak cari barang2 baby yang specific ikut brandtype, size & harga dalam Giant & Tesco Shah Alam sejak depa berdua dalam pantang nih.

In fact, last Saturday, gua siap pergi warehouse sale secara solo pergi beli barang-barang baby tu! Berebut2 sekali dengan ibu2 mengandung yang sebenarnya gagah perkasa bab mencari & membeli barang baby. Balik pada sale tu, aku siap rasa bangga when I got the things exactly ikut specification Nen.

Salah satu perks kerja aku kat umah sekarang ni adalah dapat layan tengok Imran tidur dengan tenang. Aku boley layan tengok my boy yang mostlynya hanya tidur for hours, and tak de rasa bosan langsung. Simple changes of facial expression buat aku excited gila. Anytime, this is far better than anything that's shown on Astro, bai!

Lagi satu yang aku rasa best, almost everyone pointed out that Imran looks like me, especially part hidung (yes, yes, yes!). Nen selalu jealous when people point that out, but well, I figure kalau boy biarlah rupa macam aku. Nanti kalau Imran ada rezeki dapat adik girl, biarlah putih melepak macam Maknya pulak.

I do realise that sepatutnya aku play a bigger role than this at home, tapi now kami stay di rumah in-laws aku sampai lah abis pantang. In other works, ramai kaum wanita (led by Imran's Opah) to attend Imran, kecuali bila tidur malam.

Aku lak tidur malam memang lena sentiasa. Aku kesian Nen, tapi kalau aku tak sedar, camna aku nak tolong dia? Gua tidur baaaik je la.

Despite penat, aku juga realise that nowadays Nen has a certain glow on her face, memang ada a good vibration pada aura wife aku. She is happy, I know. And aku jadi happy tengok both mum & son bonding well.


As I am writing this post, Nen & Imran both are sound asleep.

I anticipate Imran akan bangun tidur dalam 15 minutes lagi, so aku rasa baik gua stop dulu. Bila dia start nangis, akan bermulalah sekali lagi moment kecoh buat Abah & Maknya malam ini.


Note:
Btw, esok sebenarnya adalah hari penentuan berkenaan apa yang aku usahakan for the past 7 months of this year.

Harap2 biarlah ada rezeki buat anak ini, dan aku success.

Amiiin.



Friday, August 6, 2010

Pengumuman Penting Buat Dunia




Muhammad Imran Danial
telah lahir pada 8.39 malam,
Khamis 29hb Julai 2010
(18 Syaaban 1431).


~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~

That was 8 days ago.

And demi Allah, my life has been the happiest since.

...my two beautiful babies...


Abah & Mak love you, Imran!