20th January, 2012: Graduating from UTS: Make It Real Program!

So, today was our last day being together as a class! (Picture 1) It was really sad, omg. We didn’t have to come in at 9:30am today, it was 11:00am today for some reason.

I took the train with Eddy and Sarah and we were going to meet up with some FHS people that wanted to go to Newtown and go to a poster shop. When we got to Central, we waited at the arch thing and Sarah and I went to Harry’s Cafe de Wheels. I bought a chicken and mushroom pie, unf and Sarah bought a spinach and cheese filo.

We sat, ate, talked and scared birds. We laughed at those birds with the long black beaks because their feet are like stars. We saw Caitlyn, Anthony, Trish and Sindy. We waited for Talha because he was taking so long!!!! We discussed if we really wanted to go to Newtown and go to a poster store. “It takes one minute to get there, one minute in the store, one minute to come back!” was Caitlyn’s plan to spend three minutes on the journey.

I asked everyone if they wanted to go to bumper cars in Galaxy World and they said yes, and we all let Eddy get on his Newtown train by himself. Talal was supposed to accompany him, LOL but he had tutor or some shit.

Talha finally came and so we walked to Market City and entered Galaxy World. We lost our shit and were really excited. So, we got the $12 for 4 go’s deal and off we went! I was totally the one that bumped into everyone. We went once again after that.

Caitlyn and Anthony didn’t join us cos they’re GAY (kidding). We walked back to UTS where we met up with Leigh (another FHS guy) and Eddy on the way. Caitlyn, Talha and Eddy picked up a free 2012 wall planner calender and used them as swords. When we got to UTS, we entered the homeroom and saw some peeps watching a video from EverythingIsTerrible.com and it was the most randomest shit I’d ever watched in my life. Goddamn Christian put it on.

There was chocolate cake on the table, YUM! I sat next to Will and his ear looked wet. I confronted him about it and he told us he had an ear infection. We’re all like, “GET A TISSUE AND WIPE IT OFF MAN.” But no, he uses his finger and kinda grossed us out. LMAO. Talha was playing with his wall planner and knocked over his juice LMFAO. He’s so clumsy, omg.

Then Sarah jokingly said, “Try not to knock any more things over.” And almost straight after he hit his grapes and they flew everywhere. That’s when we had to confiscate the wall planner off him.

We then had one last production meeting and just talked and took photos. I texted Seakcheng to bring me another bra LMAO. I wore a strapless and it was annoying me, okay!!!! After, we went back to the homeroom and watched “Zero” (12:32). It’s really cute, I recommend it! We then compiled our portfolios and I used that photo of me in front of that photobooth copying that chick’s pose with the pinky.

We then left for our pizza lunch Friday! (Picture 3) Our third and last one, actually. I ate my pizza and kept sucking my cup in and out, just annoying the shit out of everybody LOL. Talha wanted to join me but he had to rinse his first cos he didn’t want “sticky lips”. (Pictures 3 to 5)

We took photos and headed to the rehearsal graduation. We saw the designs that the design summer school worked on and they were really awesome! (Picture 7) We were in alphabetical order and proceeded into the hall where we saw the dance the nursing summer school was going to do, and omg, it was brilliant. Meanwhile, I was occupying myself by making a flower thing out of my previously allocated sucking cup. (Picture 6) They like washed their hands, put on gloves, did resuscitation and like… rocked a baby or something? Idk, but it was pretty goddamn hilarious. They were dancing to Sun Is Shining by Bob Marley and when it was the line “I’m a rainbow too” they did a rainbow, dear lord.

They also got a sneak peek at our films and there was some pretty good audience feedback, such as them laughing at the right times, so YEAH WOOHOO. When Eman and Eddy went up to introduce my film, Eddy just started beatboxing lol, what a freak.

After rehearsal, we headed into a lecture hall where we heard some uni students’ stories and filled out a survey. Talha continued to smell my hair, omg, and asked me what shampoo I used. Oh yeah, and I was playing with those tables that are on the side of your chair and just kinda flip out. I had it half way, so it was like a barrier between me and Eddy. I put my face close to it cos I was trying to hide my face from him, SO HE FUCKING PUNCHES THE TABLE AND HIT MY FACE GODDAMMIT.

My nose hurt and you know how when you get punched in the nose, it hurts so much that tears just come out of your eyes, omfg. I was laughing but he thought I was crying and kept asking me if I was okay. OF COURSE I’M NOT OKAY YOU PUNCHED ME IN THE FACE EDDY LMAO. It was all good though.

After, we went down to the concourse and had a hot dog lunch! We ate our hotdogs outside and sat with My, Peter and William. I don’t think they like us very much. Anyway, they moved away after a while, then Courtney came to sit was us and I asked her about Ryan, since they go to the same school.

My plate had cheese all over it. Me, Eddy and Will initially went to sit outside, then Sarah, Brendan and Talha followed us. We then started talking and there was this really bad smell, so we went inside and threw ice at each other.

We then got into a big circle and did a wave. Toaila decided to mix it up and one person did a dance move while everyone had to copy it. Will did this chicken one and we just laughing so much at how ridiculous it was and how everyone did it differently. Fiona has this all on video, btw.

Then, we played NINJA!!!!!!!!!! AND IT WAS PRETTY DAMN EPIC, LMAO. Sang was so quick, then the next round I was pretty quick and it was me and Talha in the final round. We then did epic ninja poses, but Talha won so he got to go first. Then, Talha pivoted, but did it in sort of a dancy way, so I did the same thing.

Everyone was laughing, then once I got really really close to him, MY SHOE FELL OFF AND I GOT DISTRACTED AND HE WON, NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! After, Justin made a speech and so did Georgia, we just cheered.

We headed upstairs to the Great Hall where we were going to get robed. Seakcheng came at that moment and I went to switch bras LOLOL. It was so much more comfortable. I missed out on all the small robes so I was practically drowning in mine.

Before the ceremony started, we sat down and just chatted to pass by the time. (Pictures 8 & 9) Kyle was hilarious and Will said, “Wow, that screen was so bright it made my ears cry.” I could not stop laughing. Damn Will and his ear infection man. “IT’S THE ANTIBOTICS!!!” he said in defense every time we told him to wipe his ear.

Aaron, Kyle, Va, Will, Sarah and I just talked before the ceremony started. Kyle was saying these ridiculous things and making weird faces. He said, “OMAR HABABIDI” in an accent and I cracked up.

When Fat Zombie showed on the screen, everyone was laughing, it was awesome! I’m so proud of my team. I’ll let you guys watch it when UTS uploads it on YouTube! You’re gonna love it. So much effort was put into it. We all received our awards and officially graduated from Make It Real 2012!!!

The film section of the audience were really loud, but Science, Design and Nursing were also pretty loud. I would cheer for every MHS person, hehe, cos I’m kind and shit.

After the ceremony, I took photos with everyone, talked, ate and said my final goodbyes to everyone. It was so sad! Then, I went to Newcastle and collapsed on the bed.

So, this is my last recount post for UTS: Make It Real Summer School and if there’s anyone out there that has read my posts, thanks for reading about my experience! This is going to sound lame, but it really was life changing and actually made me want to do a film course at UTS when I finish school! This program was truly amazing, oh my god, I learnt so much and met so many people. My producers were the definition of brilliant! Waking up at 6:30am and taking the train by myself for the first time was totally worth it.

I’m so glad I applied for this summer school as opposed to staying home and just doing nothing for those two and a half weeks. Even though some of my family and friends are criticising my film idea and concept of Fat Zombie, they are going to be blown away when they watch it. So, thank you to UTS for letting me be apart of this, I’m going to miss it and everyone I met during the process. I love you guys!

16th January, 2012:

God, I can’t even remember what we did yesterday without my schedule, omg.

Okay, so, I got on the train, the peeps came on except for Eddy, Danesse and Katrina. I think they took later trains. I think I might take a later train tomorrow, I wanna sleep bro.

So, got to Central, went to Gloria Jeans and didn’t buy anything for the first time ever. Cos I only had 5c, shit. I need to remember to bring money, I owe so many people.

Walked to UTS, bumped into Justin who was getting his daily coffee and there was a fire alarm (even though, after, we found out that there actually was no fire). Breakfast was late. I made myself a peanut butter and jam toasted sandwich. Was good actually.

So, today we watched the rough cut and commented on what we wanted to change. Will, omg man, what a champion. He made it look really good. We also filmed our 30 second film. We didn’t end up doing the Happy Meal thing, BUT, we came up with a new idea (in like 10 minutes)

I struggled to take off my jumper, start running around, bump into Sarah, SURPRISE, IT’S A FRIENDDDDD, so then we hug. Yeah, dear lord, it was difficult, I would actually be able to take my jumper off so I just had to put my arms everywhere.

Anyway, we were also having technical difficulties, the camera was just not cooperating with us. Other ideas we had was me being amused by the sliding doors and having Sarah in the distance just like, looking at me with a “wtf” face.

After morning break, we did some film scratching with Justin. It’s basically a very very very long strip of film, and you scratch into it or draw. When it’s projected, it’s pulled through and looks really good. Although, if you wanted to make an animation, you would have to draw it 25 times and that would only be 1 second. Yep, it was a lot of work.

I just scratched with like a nail, I was scared to use the knife you use to open packages. Alice said, “OMG THAT’S GOING TO BE SO SHORT THOUGH. IT’LL BE LIKE MAH” She just made this really funny noise. We were also singing Hot In Here by Nelly with everyone. I loved the “I AM GETTING SO HOT, I’M GONNA TAKE MY CLOTHES OFF PART” cos everyone’s voices just went really high, rofl.

During lunch break, someone put on What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction and we were just there commenting on how weird it was. Walt typed in kpop and put on Gee by Girls Generation. Dear lord, everyone freaked, haha, they were like, “WHAT IS THIS?!?!” Brendan asked me who the leader was, and every time I pointed to her, he would be like, “THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME” HAHAHA. Oh dear. Still love you SNSD.

After, we had a production meeting and just…. I can’t even remember. Oh my god.

Anyway, we were dismissed and I went to Sarah’s house. Her grandma made churros for me and we dipped it in cinnamon and sugar, YUM. On the car ride I was complaining about how I don’t get very creative dinners like Sarah’s family, haha. Oh yeah, we were also bitching about one of the producers/uni students, Emily. She was shooting down our ideas, yay.

I ended up having dinner at her house. They had chicken schnitzel and it was beautiful. And they had like a Spanish edition of rice, that was also really good. I ate my plate clean, shit.

Sarah’s mum then took me home and I went over to Ben and Sofia’s house. I was on the verge of sleeping, so I came home, haha.

17th January, 2012:

Got to the station, saw Brandon and chatted with him. He was late for work, and it was like 7:45am. I totally lol’d. Got on the train, got to Merrylands and Eddy was just walking along the platform. I tried to call him but he didn’t hear me from outside. So, I went to the next carriage and saw Jason Harris!!! I went back cos I couldn’t find Eddy and he said he saw the back of my head and followed me. LOL.

Got to Central, met up with Brendan who took an earlier train (WTF). Went to Gloria Jeans, Eddy shouted me an Irish Nut Cream which is awesome sauce. The coffee made me kind of jittery. I now owe him $5. I also owe Sarah $4. LOL.

Dean walked in and Jono was giving everyone a sip of his Mint Iced Chocolate and it was GLORIOUS. Defz getting one tomorrow. Oh god, we’ve been to Gloria Jeans a lot, I’m gonna lose money.

Went to UTS and sat down while chatting with the normal peepz that sit at the table (Will, Tahla, Kyle, Annie etc.) I was sort of buzzing around everywhere. First I was with Annie, sharpening her pencils while she did this awesome stop motion zombifying thing, it was pretty awesome. I got bored so I headed to the Mac lab and helped Eddy with the music.

During morning tea, they had those gluten free cookies. By the way, Alice found one in her bag from like last week. I even warned her that she would find it a week later LOL. We were eating our cookies while watching Take On Me by A-Ha and Sledgehammer. When I wanted to suggest a video, we had to get back to work. Was hanging with Caitlyn, she’s totes eshayz.

Dean and his science summer school went outside with white lab coats on and came back covered in chocolate sauce blood all over their coats, it was insane. Dean touched my arm and my arm smelt like chocolate for the rest of the day.

Helped Eddy some more with the music, we were experimenting so much, oh dear. It got frustrating. Will was working on his video bloody telling me to shut up and go away every 5 seconds. And kept calling me punk. HE’S A PUNK.

During lunch, we actually didn’t have sandwiches!!!!! We had like kebab meat, chicken, tabbouleh and noodles. I didn’t touch the noodles cos I get enough of that at home. The halal meat was bloody awesome, it tasted like donor kebabs. We were eating while watching Kina Grannis’ ‘In Your Arms’ music video, OK Go’s domino obstacle thing and Skrillex’s ‘Equinox’.

Went to a production meeting and recorded Eddy and Annie panting and some more zombie grunts, LOL. Oh and Annie’s scream. Also, I had to record an atmos track of the room and was in the room by myself for one minute, I was so paranoid something would grab me.

I turned off the Zoom and asked Christian if you can plug it into the computer without it on. He said, “You’ve just lost everything.” And he said it with such a straight face and I started freaking out. Turns out he was joking, goddammit Christian. We listened to Annie’s scream with the headphones on and it sounded really good, as if there was an actual scream.

We had to pack up. While I was working on music with Eddy, I played Hot In Here by Nelly and My Humps by Black Eyed Peas. While that was playing, Caitlyn was editing the 30 second film we made HAHAHA I DIDN’T WANNA WATCH IT, I WAS SO EMBARRASSED.

We got our MyMulti cards and were dismissed. I walked with Will and Eddy, just talking about random shit. I also hugged Caitlyn goodbye, yes I am recording this stuff because it is significant to me. HAHA.

Met up with Brittany and jumped on the train to Town Hall. We walked to Pancakes on the Rocks and half way I realized I had invited Dean to come with us in the morning and forgot to meet up with him LOL SHIT. So we spent about 10 minutes waiting for him. We saw him and walked to POTR. I split a Devil’s Delight with Brittany and it was bloody delicious. (pictures 1 - 3)

When we finished, we all attempted to figure out how we would pay the bill cos they don’t allow split billing so we had to do it cleverly. Dean, the math genius, got out his notebook, lined the notes on the page and just omg, figured it out. Some people gained a couple of dollars, some people lost. But it was all good. Haha.

We then went to Harry’s Cafe de Wheels and everyone ordered a hotdog, Dean ordered a pie. (pictures 4-7) Man, that place looks good. I’m gonna go and order something tomorrow. Maybe. If I want to become fat, yes….

Then, we went to the Purikura Photoworld in Capitol Square and tried to win shit. (picture 8) It was hard, they’re all rigged man. Britt and I were just going around looking at all those freaking photo machines. (picture 9)

We walked to Central and Brandon gave me the toy he won, LOL. It was some weird keyring thing. Trained it back and got to Fairfield at like 7:10pm. Dad didn’t even care, I just told him I went shopping and he said, “Oh okay cool.”

13th January, 2012:

Ah, so today was the day after shooting. We were all hoping for a chilled back day. Oh god, the trains were weird today though. My 7:48am train was delayed by like 5 minutes cos some idiot tried to jump in front of the train.

Then, after Guildford, the conductor says, “This train is going to Parramatta. If you would like to go to Central, get off at Merrylands and take the next train.” Me and Jono were just like, “Oh my god, what if they’re trolling us? Like, when everyone gets off, he’ll say, “Trolololol, we’re not going to Parramatta.”

So, we got off at Merrylands and met up with the peeps. It was a quiet train ride because Eddy and Talal weren’t here. They were out bludging and going to Parramatta. Also, we weren’t all together because we got a more busier train.

We got to Central, didn’t even bother waiting for Alice, we just gave up haha. We went to Gloria Jeans, oh my god, everyone ordered Voltages and I got a Hot Creamy Cocoa :3

After, we walked to UTS and made toast. I actually didn’t burn my toast today, yay! I made peanut butter toast, yum. We were just talking with everyone, Aaron and Will were just eating Milo out of a cup as normal. We came in, and Courtney was opening the Milo tin with the tongs again, LOL. Getting more spoons on Monday.

So, basically, the first session was just watching the rushers of our movie. Oh my god, my mic holding skills sucked at the start of the day! :( I got a boom mic in at the edge of the frame a couple of times. Goddamn Aaron (camera operator) didn’t tell me. Ergh, I’m a bit iffy about our film and how Will’s gonna make it come together. GOOD FUCKING LUCK WILL, YOU’RE GONNA NEED IT.

And omg, after we watched all the videos, Will showed me and Brandon a card trick, and it was so fucking epic, I was crying of laughter cos I just did not understand it.

We had morning tea and I was talking to Caitlyn (picture 1, third to the left). Oh my god, I love Caitlyn, she’s awesome. I went to talk to Sarah and Toaila about the strawberry muffin they recommended for me to get.

The second session, we had to do our UTS online crap. Near the end though, Sarah, Brendan and I just went on Facebook and started writing all this random shit to each other, omg, we could not stop laughing. Tahla took a photo of Sindy and throughout the whole session, she was yelling for his passcode, HAHAHA.

We had a pizza lunch, and met up with Tahlia, Jono and Dean! We were also talking to some guy that’s also in Dean’s science class. I think, Anthony was his name. We ate pizza and chatted with Miss Leung. Then, we went to the fitness center, and attempted to play dodgeball. Although, it was a rather dodgy game (fuck, I’m funny).

We went back to the homeroom because we wanted to do a 3-shot exercise. I’m in a group with Brendan, Sarah and Caitlyn. So, basically, this exercise, we had to think of a story (no more than 30 seconds) that consisted of three angles and parts: beginning, middle, end. So, they said we had to think of a production name, and we decided with ESHAAAYZ PRODUCTIONZ (picture 1) because I had been saying, “Eshaaaayz boiiz, make sum noize!!!” all day, and everyone joined in.

I started decorating everything and oh my god, Sarah was just like crying at my horrible decoration HAHAHA. Man, we could not stop laughing. So anyway, Justin assigned us an emotion for each group. We got surprised. So, we had 25 minutes to think of a film that would only be 30 seconds.

Brendan is camera operator, Caitlyn is director and Sarah and I are the actors. So, at first we were thinking of something to do with a cat. Like, I would be the cat, hide in a box, jump out and surprise Sarah. Then, Walt came along and started giving us ideas. He told us to draw a poster that said Free Chicken Wings or something, get me and Sarah to walk to each other, stop, stare at the poster, look at each other and just have us with a surprised look on our face.

Oh my god, we acted it out and just laughed like crazy. Then, Walt showed us that Japanese Spongebob ad and we’re gonna copy it, forrealz homie. So, Sarah’s gonna have a Happy Meal, sit at a table and open it up, pull out something and just lose. her. shit. She is just gonna go insane and start screaming. Then, I come in, sit in a chair next to her, pull something out, and go mental as well. We’re gonna go fucking insane, scream, jump around, I don’t know, whatever the fuck we want, then there’s a fart. We stop, stare at each other, have surprised faces, and point. 

Okay, I can’t really remember what it was, something along the lines of that. Anyway, after every idea we’d pitch, we’d end it with “FREEZE FRAME”. Oh my god, Caitlyn started it.

So yeah. Went to production meetings, discussed our credits and titles. We’re gonna do something with a brain and plates and BLOOD!!!! So, I’m working with Annie on titles, yay! We spent the meeting watching all these title sequences, it was pretty cool.

Then, we went down, saw Will’s mum LOL, called Tahla, Tah-ha and when he came in, said, “HEY TAH-HAHAHAHHAHAHAH”. He looked like he wanted to cry, oh my god.

We were dismissed, then WE WENT TO THE PARK!!!!! (Pictures 2 - 7) We saw a guy sunbaking and his ass was out, we were like, what the fuck. Yeah, it was a good day. Got Maccas then trained it home. But oh my god, we got on the south line, then we stopped at Clyde for 10 freaking minutes, just looking at the train map and looking for funny names. We stopped at Granville and the conductor told everyone to get off, what the fuck. It was weird. There were a shitload of people that all had to go on the next train, which was ALSO packed.

So yeah. THAT WAS MY DAY, GOD I’M TIRED.

11th January, 2012:

In the morning, we went to Gloria Jeans and since we only have knives to open and scoop from our goddamn Milo tin, I stole a shitload of spoons from Gloria Jeans (pictures 1, 2 & 3).

Brendan got me a small hot chocolate because we made a deal over Tumblr that if I caught the same train as him, he would buy me a hot chocolate, if I didn’t, I would buy him one. We were arguing whether I specified whether it was from McCafe. I thought it wasn’t, but I just read it, and LOL IT WAS, SORRY BRENDAN!!!

We walked to UTS, and turns out there was ONE spoon already there. But my spoons did come in handy, cos that spoon dropped. Hehe. Eddy was eating the Milo powder just by itself, wtf.

The first session, we had to schedule the time and shots for the film which we were going to do the next day. I was just confused as shit. Annie was drawing diagrams that looked fucking awesome. (Oh and yes, I have Annie on Tumblr now, eshayz)

We did rehearsals while Will and I were in charge of dirtying the actors’ clothes. We kinda ripped Eddy’s pants to high towards his crotch so Kat just got us to duct tape it back LMFAO. Worked so, I ain’t complaining.

After, we went to Central and I went with Dean, Talal and Eddy to Museum station. They wanted to go to this emo band shop called Off Ya Tree. It looked kind of weird cos I was wearing this nice floral dress into this black, emo store hehe.

Eddy and Talal were looking for shirts while Dean and I were just looking at Twilight posters. I went with Dean to Gloria Jeans cos Eddy and Talal were still looking at shirts and we were bored as shit. Dean got a significant more amount of cream on his drink than I did, what a whore. And he spilled his fucking everywhere, good job Dean.

Eddy and Talal went to get Oporto, and then we got the train back home. It was a tiring day, wow. Oh and I went around taking photos with the pro cameras with Alice and Eddy during afternoon break.

12th January, 2012:

So, today was shooting day! Oh dear, it was so intense from the start of the day. We didn’t stop anywhere in the morning. Alice couldn’t make it cos she was very ill, aw :( Brendan filled in as director of performers for her. We got there and I had to hack up Brandon’s shorts and Eddy’s shirt.

Eddy and Brandon got their make up done (picture 5 & 6) while I ate burnt toast with peanut butter. Tahla did warn me it would burn. W/E BRO, W/E. We packed up and headed over to the fitness center. I was in charge of mic (picture 7) and I was shaking so much at first, but by the end of the day, I was like fucking Hercules.

We packed up and headed to the classroom scene. That’s when James, a current UTS student who is doing a documentary of all the summer schools, came in and started recording us in action. Justin came in and started hassling us to hurry cos we only had five minutes left. Annie was a fucking boss at the drawings on the whiteboard and so is Walt, wow.

We packed up and headed to the park. I had to move with Aaron the whole time cos he was camera op. During the lunch break, Justin walked down and gave us lunch, aw. We had orange juice the whole day. Will, Eddy and I went to the flying fox. We also went with Aaron to that spinning plate thing, rofl.

A couple of hours later, we finished taping and were so fucking relieved, we just all wanted to go back to the uni and go home, oh dear.

We were the last group to get back. We were dismissed, went to Central, caught a good train. These Lebanese guys kept looking back at us or something, it was weird. Got home and just instantly fell asleep (picture 8). My sister took that photo, damn her.

It was an intense day, but I am so proud of Dude, Where’s My Brain? Productions :D (That is my group’s name by the way, haha. Courtesy of Elizabeth Lim)