I’ve been living in South Korea for 1 month and 26 days now. Each day goes by very quickly. My work as an English Teacher for three hundred and eighty-two High School students keeps me busy. I have also been busy meeting new friends and seeing old friends. I have visited the rabito company office several times to discuss future products, videos, and web design with Mina and her talented staff. Here are some more recent things I have done:
-Assembled my PC. I brought the most important parts (motherboard, cpu, memory, 2 harddrives, power supply, etc.) from Canada to Korea. After buying additional parts here (keyboard, mouse, monitor, case) I re-assembled everything. Since those parts were bundled up inside my suitcase for so long, traveling in cars, on the subway, and by plane….I was immensely relieved when I booted up the computer and it worked!!! The feeling of putting together something by yourself and witnessing it “come to life” is truly special and gratifying. Now I have lots of video to edit!
-Played in a game of soccer for the first time since High School. It was a game of students versus teachers at the High School where I currently work. I didn’t score any goals but also didn’t completely humiliate or injure myself (or anyone else). It was a good experience.
-This hasn’t happened yet, but tomorrow evening I will be the opening act for the School Festival. I don’t want to spoil everything, but it involves me dancing solo to the song: “Itaewon Freedom”. Anyone interested in seeing that on video??
-Tried paragliding for the first time in my life with 2 good friends. It was an amazing experience that I recommend to anyone interested in adventure. I felt like I was flying in a dream. It did not feel like we were traveling very fast, so I did not feel too nervous. But one funny thing happened: my shoe came off while I was running for takeoff! So I flew with only one shoe! Fortunately, another paraglider was kind enough to bring my shoe down and return it to me. I’m glad it didn’t fall off later while I was flying and hit somebody on the head.
After waiting for most of the summer, I finally know the location of my workplace for this coming year. Beginning in September, I will be working as an English Teacher at a high school for young men in Seoul, South Korea. To be honest, I didn’t expect to be teaching only male students. But every other aspect matches my goals, and I did attend an all boys’ high school myself. The school’s location is very nice because it’s not in the heart of the city (where I would probably have trouble with the noise and crowds). Yongmoon High School (용문고등학교) is located close to Korea University: an area which is already familiar to me since I stayed there in 2009 for 1 week.
You’re probably wondering why I chose to come to Seoul, South Korea to teach in a High School. Take a look at this 11 second video, made by a Korean high school student. It portrays his daily life.
Intense, right? This fun exaggeration conveys some elements of truth. Are Korean high school students stressed? Yes. Do they study hard? Yes. Do they receive a great deal of pressure to do well on their University entrance exam? Yes. Typically, Korean high schools have a lot to worry about, including English.
Since my first year of high school to now, I’ve spent much time learning languages. I’ve had good teachers and bad teachers… helpful textbooks and useless textbooks. I’ve tried techniques which produced noticeable results and ones that produced zero results. I’ve enjoyed studying languages and also hated it. My goal is to share with my students the knowledge I have gained from those experiences: from teachers, classmates, friends, family, books, websites, etc. By the end of high school, I hope they achieve more than high marks and good exam scores. I hope they gain greater confidence: the confidence to be themselves… greater courage: the courage to accept mistakes and learn from them… greater creativity: the kind of creativity which nourishes the human spirit… and greater curiosity: the kind of curiosity which pushes us to journey outwards, meeting the world with an open mind and a loving heart.
These past few days at the EPIK (SMOE) orientation, I have enjoyed learning from many experienced teachers. Here is a video related to the one above, featuring my awesome Korean Teacher and classmates. (See if you can find me). I’m thankful for this opportunity and the many people who have taught and inspired me.
While I was a student at UBC, I took a course called “Contemporary Korean Culture.” At the end of the course, the students had to write an essay about some aspect of modern Korean culture. I chose to write about the Animation Industry because I find it fascinating. It’s actually quite a huge industry, yet sadly it is not well known in the West. A few days ago, I even saw a High School here in Seoul which specializes in Animation. Ironically, many American cartoons are produced and drawn in Korea (both in 2D and 3D). Yet Korea also produces its own animated films, with stories and visual styles that differ from those made in the US or Japan. Yesterday, I went to the movie theatre to watch a new Korean animation.
As always, I love going to the movies in South Korea. You can reserve your seats in advance, pick up free brochures/posters in the lobby, and the rooms are clean and comfy. The audio and picture quality is crisp and clear. In this particular film, the vibrant colours were especially breath-taking, even from the last row. It was an entertaining and well-made film. Here is the trailer, with English subtitles.
For this video, we were lucky enough to capture a beautiful sunny day in Vancouver. I planned for the yellow rabito video to be filmed on a beach with an actress also wearing yellow. But the actual storyline changed 3 times. Though I would like to take credit for all of it, that would be dishonest. The beach ball and ping-pong ball addition was my Mother’s idea; she is responsible for making you laugh. (Eric Buelow was a true sport for doing multiple takes of that shot). For those of you with an eye for detail, the rabito tan line on the model’s midsection came from the mind of my friend, Lesley Liu. This idea was realized by Carmen Tse, a professional makeup artist. Her experience, knowledge, and warm personality made her the best choice for this unique task.
Finding the right swimsuit proved to a huge challenge! Yellow is not a popular swimsuit colour, and it tends to be a neon shade or mixed with other patterns and colours. But we wanted a bikini to match the rabito. FIVE different people shopped online or visited stores to try to find the right swimsuit. On the day before shooting, my friend Ju-Young Park helped me choose the bikini that you see in the video. I am grateful to her and to the 2 ladies working at “The Just Cruisin’ Shoppe” for their assistance.
Everyone worked together very efficiently and our filming finished ahead of schedule. It did take a few hours under the sun, so unfortunately a few of us were sunburned. I still remember Jenny Song (photographer) and Liz Cha (producer) hiding under the bounce board to avoid direct sunlight between takes. My crew is usually smarter than me.
The editing of this video took me many days. I learned more about image stabilization and rotoscoping through online research and experimentation. There were days when I just had to give up: my eyes became useless from exhaustion and my old methods weren’t working. But I would revisit the problem with fresh eyes the next day. My advice to other filmmakers is to take breaks from using the computer to think over the problems you’ve encountered. It’s also helpful to search online to see if other editors have encountered similar problems and found solutions.
Hope you all enjoyed the video and are looking forward to the next one! It’s for the green rabito.
So concludes our video series for the first 5 rabito case colours. Without a doubt, this particular video took the most time to complete. While most of the videos took only 1 day to film, “How to be Loyal” took 3 days. (Actually the 10-second rabito dance sequence was also filmed on 3 separate days).
The first day of filming for “How to be Loyal” was on February 15th, the day before I shot “How to be Sexy”. It was my first time to work with Liz Cha, whom I had wanted to work with after discovering her passion for acting. The day was successful and Liz did a great job. However, I was deeply dissatisfied with much of the footage. I felt like the story’s middle section and half of the shots weren’t engaging, and I couldn’t edit them together in a way that flowed. Around this time, I was able to meet with Andy Cheung and share my difficulties. He had wanted to work on the previous videos ever since we met at that start of the year to discuss ideas. But had been away from Canada and unable to join us until now. We met multiple times to plan and review footage. However, he was unable to attend Day 2 of our filming: May 23rd. This was actually my birthday!
Day 2 was an especially fun day of filming and Liz contributed greater emotional range to her character. I didn’t want to try to film too much in 1 day (my mistake on Day 1), so a third day was planned. Andy Cheung was our guest cinematographer for Day 3 (June 7th). While I had filmed using a Canon T1i, Andy Cheung used a Canon 5D. Both of us borrowed these cameras from our friends. On this day, Liz had only 1 scene in front of the camera, but she also helped us behind the scenes. Andy and I had many tricky shots planned involving rabito. A scene where a car drives by and splashes rabito was replaced by someone running by (my cameo) to get the best splash.
Even during the writing of the story, I knew I wanted to use part of the song “Angel” by my friend Alvin Pingol. The video you see here has gone through more than 10 different “final” drafts and much has been cut out. But Alvin’s song made it through all of those drafts. Sometimes such “digital surgery” is necessary to keep the story moving and focused. So please enjoy this video, as a great deal of work went into every aspect of it, including the tiny details. From the magazine Liz is reading in the first scene to the appearance of the grey rabito tail; many things were carefully planned to add more depth to the story.
Remember this line from the trailer: “Let’s finish this how we started… TOGETHER!”? Harry says this before embracing Voldemort as they leap over the edge of a cliff. Out of context, it sounds a lot like a line from a buddy-comedy. Maybe a hug was all Voldemort needed. If Harry could be saved by the power of love, why can’t Voldemort?
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011) is visually more impressive than all of its predecessors. It’s also nice to see how much the three main actors have improved in their emotional range, believability, and expressiveness on screen. In terms of the story, don’t expect anything very different. All of the films are based on the books of one author: J.K. Rowling, and the screenwriter (Steve Kolves) has also been the same on all of the films, except for the 5th. Your opinion of Harry Potter probably won’t change from the start to the end of this film.
The Deathly Hallows Part 1 was incredibly dark, moody, slow, and boring (in my humble opinion). It was basically a lengthy first act to set up this film: a very long second act with a brief conclusion. I remember reading the 7th book and imagining the epic battle scenes. I’m sure the author was envisioning a film version as well when she was writing. This film does deliver plenty of action, apparently derived mostly from Amusement Parks, as the characters frequently get drenched in water (when they’re not being chased by fire).
The audience I saw the film with applauded at the end. However, I heard complaints afterwards too. During several scenes that seemed meant to be taken seriously, the audience broke into laughter at the cheesiness or the oddness of these moments. But perhaps we’ve come to expect too much from these films.
Harry Potter’s world is certainly an intriguing one to bring to the screen, but I think the narratives themselves work better in book format. Although they are usually referred to as works of Fantasy, I think these stories are essentially Mysteries. There is always that moment at the end of the mystery, where the detective explains how the mysterious events took place, answering all of our questions. In Film or Television, it is usually more interesting to show these events then simply describe them. Alas, this series is dialogue-driven and much of the plot is furthered simply by people talking to teach other. They can magically transport to most places, which gives them even MORE time to talk. It’s a lot like watching a play with changing sets and lots of pyrotechnics.
These stories grapple with an important and timeless issue: human mortality. (Harry is “the boy who lived.” Voldermort means “Flight of Death” or “Cheater/Stealer of Death” in French). Harry learns about sacrifice, life, and death. If this had been a series of classical Chinese novels, the heroic Harry would have already sacrificed himself for the good of others and the story would be following another character. But following in the Western Tradition (or the Hollywood tradition), Harry remains our protagonist and the character of greatest importance. This has always somewhat annoyed me, because I find him to be one of the least interesting characters. He seems to exist by necessity. Uh oh… maybe I’m starting to sound like Voldemort?
Alan Rickman as “Snape” steals the show in this movie once again. His performance in each film significantly affects the tone, as he freely wanders from comedic to darkly dramatic.
This film is good, but not great. The kind of craftsmanship that went into the Lord of the Rings books and films far surpasses Harry Potter in terms on complexity and depth. But I do give J.K. Rowling credit for inspiring many young people to discover the joy of reading. Let’s hope the films don’t kill the books.
I give this movie 5 out of 5 stars. It was THAT good. Within 1 minute after the film began, I was already smiling. Both kids AND adults in the theatre laughed a lot throughout the movie. There was applause at the end. This is the kind of film that you take your loved ones and friends to see, because you want to share the experience together. I plan to go again. Here’s a short clip of one funny scene:
In a time of overly elaborate and expensive IN-YOUR-FACE 3D animation, “Winnie the Pooh” is a refreshing throwback to classic 2D animation. Yet the film still pushes boundaries of the film/animation medium. For example, the way the characters interact with pages and words of the book they exist within is something I’ve never seen before.
The voice actors aren’t people whose faces you will know, (except maybe for John Cleese, but he is the offscreen narrator). I think that’s a good thing. These voice actors are experienced and talented professionals. Winnie the Pooh AND Tigger are voiced by the same man: Jim Cummings, who has voiced hundreds of animated characters. Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, performs the voice of “Rabbit”. Bud Luckey, a Disney/Pixar animator who provided the voice of “Chuckes the Clown” in Toy Story 3 among others, voices Eeyore. The casting of the voices was perfect, and it adds a lot to these already expressively drawn characters.
Do you need to be familiar with the characters or the books to enjoy this film? No. The characters are easily relatable; you feel as if you’ve known them all your life. We all know someone who’s often depressed or negative, or someone who thinks they’re a genius… and sometimes that person is us! Pooh is a slow-witted character with a good heart: a character people naturally love. He wants to do the right thing, but his struggles make us laugh.
The plot is simple, in a good way. It remains interesting because the characters make choices that surprise us. It’s a wonderful escape from the problems of “the world of Grown-Up’s”, yet still representative of that world too. There are valuable moral lessons to be learned in this story, as there were in the original books.
This short video advertisment for the film is an example of one such positive message. I recommend sharing it with someone you love.
Note: The film opens with an animated short about Scottish Folklore and the Loch Ness Monster. (It’s a cute monster in this version). Also, stay through the end credits. There is an amusing scene at the end!
