EMPLOYED!

From the title of this post it's obvious i got a job. I'm now working at SUBWAY!! Yay!! The pay is good, working environment is great, it's not too hard, but it is tiring.

I started last Wednesday. I'll spare you the details and try not to be long-winded as usual. Chase is the first guy i met, he's sort of the manager, although that's not his title, he's in charge because he has worked there for 3 years. A Korean girl named MinJi will be leaving soon as she is only here on a working holiday visa, she's very nice and sweet. She helped me out a lot on my first day. Krishna is an Indonesian guy, also a student at QUT studying IT at GP. So those were the people i met on my first day.

Business is very good for the Subway at Southbank, that's the branch i'll be working at until i know how to do everything... So basically i'm training at Southbank, then i'll be transferred to the Subway at Kelvin Grove after 3 or 4 training shifts. Eventhough i'm training i still get paid. Unlike the Noodles Inc. training which my dad pointed out was unfair as trainees should be paid as well. Anyway, everything's good now. My working hours are normally from 7.30am-3pm, then i have to catch the free shuttle bus back for class at 4pm. So you can imagine how tiring i am on working days. Oh, did i mention Chase studied film as well back in uni, but it was in some uni i've never heard of... And he's been working at Subway for 3 years now... I'm not being disrespectful, but I just hope i don't end up like that.

Time management would be a key factor here, it all depends on how i organise myself and make sure i can work and study/get assignments done/go to classes at the same time. OH, and have TV time as well, can't forget that.

This week has by far been the busiest week as i've had to hand in 2 assignments (400 word short story in first person based on personal experience and my script, shotlist and schedule for Foundations of F&TV Production) and give a presentation which i just did a few hours ago. And i had work yesterday, so i was dead tired by the time i got back, and still had to prepare for my so-called seminar on German Expressionism, which is a Film History related film movement.

I don't feel pressured anymore, since my turn is over. Other students lined up in the following weeks still have that burden on them. There's a sense of accomplishment today for me, was gonna celebrate by getting coffee at Segafredos... But my readings have piled up, especially for Film History, you should see the textbook. It's damn thick. But it's all good. Interesting enough to keep me reading, i actually like it.

I've cut and pasted my script that i handed in yesterday below. So feel free to read it and give me feedback if you want. I didn't post it up here earlier for feedback although i should've. But i didn't want to have to post all the different drafts i did, that would be ridiculous and no one would read all 7 drafts that i've gone through. So i figured i'd just show you the final draft. It's a 30 SECOND video, non-dialogue and we're supposed to use a range of shots listed only and no zooms are allowed. As they say here in Creative Industries, restrictions often push us to produce better results. I just hope that's what happened with me.

THE CONTENTS OF THIS DOCUMENT ARE PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL

Good Samaritan

by

JAMIE CHONG

FIRST DRAFT

MARCH 2007

© JAMIE CHONG, MARCH 2007

2/16 Parkdale Court

Blamey Street, Kelvin Grove

QLD 4059, Australia

Ph: 0432189137

1. EXT. SIDEWALK. NIGHT 1

An Indian GIRL in her teens wearing jeans and a t-shirt walks behind a tall Taiwanese GUY with a backpack, wearing jeans and a hooded sweatshirt on a footpath. She constantly keeps her emotionless eyes on him.

He looks at his watch. It is 2AM.

2. EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING COMPOUND. NIGHT 2

At the apartment gate, the guy enters and as the gate is about to close behind him, the girl slides in.

She taps the guy on the shoulder and taps her wrist as if asking for the time. He shows her the time as he looks at her intently, like he recognises her from somewhere. The girl smiles and nods. She turns to leave while the guy walks the opposite direction towards his apartment. But he stops to look through his bag for something.

Suddenly, the girl comes up from behind and grabs his face; and in one swift movement, she slits his neck with a razor blade and pushes him into the communal pool. His eyes are still wide open with terror as he falls into the pool.

Blood oozes from the guy’s neck, tainting the water.

She turns to leave, but doubles back to search the dead guy’s bag. She finds a picture of her, and a knife.

She puts the knife into her pocket, then burns the picture.

3. EXT. SIDEWALK. NIGHT 3

The girl walks away from the apartment building with a complacent strut. She reaches into her pocket, takes out a crumpled picture and throws it into a nearby bin.

It is a polaroid picture of the guy, and under it are the words 2AM.

We're shooting easter break cos that's when we get the camera, it's not a group thing, but groups of 5 get the camera for 4 days and we have to work out amongst ourselves when we want the camera and if we decide to help each other out. Hopefully it turns out as i envisioned it, if not i'll just get a shit grade.

A crazy thing i did during the weekend before this busy 3-assignment-week, i still stayed over at Yuka's, but i mostly did work there, i just went cos i hadn't seen them in 2 weeks. Su has moved out, so has Alan and Amber. Soon Yuka, Kannan, Chewan and let's not forget Chung Kiat are gonna have to move out because the agent visited them and they forgot to hide Fluffy's food bowl... They hid everything else, including Fluffy, except her bowl. So they'll have to find another place to move to within the next 2 months, their contract ends then.

The next day i got home around 6pm after spending most of the day there. Kannan bought a scooter and Chung Kiat bought a car. So it's much more convenient now. Kannan tried to help me out by driving me to the Blockbuster to see if i could rent out The Addams Family for my presentation, but someone rented it out and i couldn't get it. I ended up renting 5 other movies, totally unrelated to my presentation, just some movies i had wanted to watch and then going home after that.

That night when i got back, i heard loud, deep male voices and then lots of sword-clashing coming from Daniel's room, i popped my head in and asked what it was, turns out David downloaded Frank Miller's 300 and passed it to him. So after he finished watching the movie, he passed me the file and i watched it that night. It's great! Visually very epic and stunning. Overall it was good, but some of the dialogue was really unnecessary and some parts, like when the King of Sparta kicked the African American Messenger into the well, along with his guards. That was just too extreme and unnecessary. But whatever... It was entertaining enough for me. Very gory, that was one thing i loved. Then later on that night, at about 12am, i started to watch 1 of the 5 films i'd rented out, 11:14. Great movie. A lot of dark humour, story is well put together, nothing is forced plot-wise. All in all a smart movie.

The next day, Sunday, i decided to be stupid and also decided that i deserved a break after 2 longs weeks of nothing but readings, shooting our film with Mike and preparing draft after draft of 2 scripts i was developing at the time, and watched the other 4 films within a 24-hour span.

During breakfast i watched Saw (the first one), i'd never seen it before, i watched the 3rd one in KK during the holidays. What i realised was that the third installment was really crappy, and they cheated by using most of the first movie, editing it differently and adding a sub-plot to create it and call it SAW III. How stupid. But i found something out, James Wan, the director and co-creator of Saw and its sequels is actually a Malaysian guy that schooled in RMIT, Melbourne where he met his co-creator and main actor Leigh Whannell (Aussie). I'm pretty sure James Wan is one of the more successful directors in Hollywood coming out of Malaysia, but in the commentary, he was all Aussie-fied, had an Aussie accent and everything. God... But it gives me some hope. Haha... at least that it's possible and do-able. And to think i almost went to RMIT... I bet they refer to Saw all the time there... "yeah, two of our students actually created Saw...bla bla bla". QUT rules!!!

Anyway, after Saw that morning, i watched Girl, Interrupted which i'd only seen bits and pieces on astro and never really saw the whole thing. Then i watched Se7en during dinner. For some weird reason everytime i ate that day, i was watching disgusting, gory stuff. Haha... Then i watched Garden State that night before i went to bed. My favourite out of all 5 movies would have to be Garden State, it was the most entertaining... But i can't leave out 11:14 either... So i'll just say i have 2 favourites.

I ended up downloading The Addams Family on Sunday for my presentation. Everything went well and i'll get my grade next Thursday... Hope it's good.

For now, i'm battling the flu, all the running around and my busy lifestyle must've weakened my immune system. If i don't get well in the next 2 days, i'll see a doctor on Monday. That's all for now.

Thanks for reading and thanks for caring!