Samuel Yeoh

So the NGC-STB shoot has wrapped, and I submitted my photos today. Within the hour, NGC called back to complain and ask for more photos. Sigh.

While the shoot itself was fun, getting the shots proved to be less easy than I initially expected. Many of the shots were simply atrocious, and not up to standard. They were pretty much stuff that anyone could shoot, and possibly even shoot better, if the person had a good eye. It’s times like these I realise how easily I succumb to external pressures.

It’s been 2 months since my last shoot, so I’m rather rusty. It doesn’t help that I had very little control or say over the set, as the video crew was the main priority. I basically had to make do with most of the scenes, shooting by ambient, using flash only between takes. There was also no art direction for me, the director and the team focusing their full attention on the shoot, leaving me to my own devices. And as much as I hate to admit it, Sonia Couling does intimidate me somewhat, meaning that I don’t dare to demand as much from her to get my best shots.

In normal circumstances, one or two of these problems on their own wouldn’t hurt too much. I could probably make up with the lack of quality shots by spamming photos and keeping my fingers crossed for variety. Or planning a shot beforehand and quickly posing the model. But for this shoot, the sum of the little things resulted me in having too little time, too little control, and a little too much pressure. I camera shake a lot when I’m shooting quickly under pressure, and tend to settle for less. In short, I screwed up, big time.

A big lesson learnt is that I really really have to boss my way around. I guess the main problem was that I wasn’t professional enough. I didn’t demand my rights as a photographer to do my job, I didn’t insist on having enough time to do my own shots, and I didn’t insist on having enough control or art direction for my shots. Instead, I allowed myself to be sidelined, and seen as peripheral to the whole project. Once the crew and host figured me that way, it became difficult to assert myself, and everyone kept thinking the shoot was over the moment the video crew wrapped. I always had to beg for 5 minutes, when what I need is at least a good half-hour to do my job properly.

One of my birthday/new year resolutions is to be a stronger person. I really need to outgrow my shyness and be more confident and articulate. I seem to have a terrible problem when around new people. All the STB and NGC staff were so articulate, while I kept quiet in one corner. Really need to buck up man.

I guess STB and NGC won’t be using me in the near future. In the meantime, I need to work on my people skills.

There are shoots, and then there are fun shoots.

Recently, I got an assignment to shoot for National Geographic Channel (gasp). Sadly, while I would love to say that my photos are going to come out on the next Nat Geo cover page, it’s nowhere that glamourous. I was just hired as some last minute backup to shoot some simple shots for a programme website. They’re shooting something for Singapore Tourism Board, and the videos are the true highlight, not my crummy photos.

Today, I met them at Sentosa Luge to shoot. And damn, it was fun. Basically, I was shooting the talents coming downhill on the luge, together with the camera crew of course. How did we do this? We had two luges connected together, the front one being driven by a Sentosa staff, while we sit on the back one and fire away! The end result is a very exhilarating car chase-like scene, with the talents tailing us at high speeds. Really high man.

Nonetheless, it’s actually a weird assignment that’s kinda tiring, yet kinda relax at the same time. I only have 6 shots to submit, most of which can be done in the span of 2 minutes. Yet, the video shoot lasts over 4 days, and I have to hop down on 6 different slots to get my 6 shots. There’s no stress, as I can pretty much fire away until I get something, but the travelling times and the hours I wait just to get my 2 mins, is really really tiresome.

Unfortunately, as I’m not the main highlight, the camera crew get priority over the host, and spend like hours filming with her. When they’re done, then it’s finally my turn, much like an afterthought. Still, I miss being on set, and this is the first time I’m with professionals. Despite my most valiant effort to act a seasoned professional, they soon realise I’m pretty much a newbie. What with my face and me still being in university, it’s quite easy to dismiss me.

That’s not really a problem, though. I’ve got the host, Sonia Couling, smiling at me whenever we make eye contact, prolly coz she thinks I look too uneasy. The sound tech keeps making faces at me, and is quite entertainingly funny. The director/producer turns out to be a funnyman and quite welfare too, always looking out for the crew to ensure they have drinks and good meals, which included me today, hehe. The entire team was very fun to be with, everyone’s all smiles, no stress, no tempers, etc. A little unusual from the sets that I’ve been on.

It’s times like these, I really don’t mind doing production. Heh. Now you got me wanting to work for Nat Geo.

So, my coffee cheesecake wasn’t that bad after all! Hahaha. Seems like freezing helped.

Anyways, I’m damn happy! The coffee did come out, though I’d still prefer a stronger coffee taste. It’s the cheese that’s too heavy, strangely. I need to tweak around a lot more before I can start creating my own recipes. My preference for a flavoured cheese cake is a smooth and light cheese taste, with a heavier flavour. Still, considering it was a stab in the blind, I’m satisfied la. Hahaha.

And fortunately I put those choc chips, made it a lot more presentable. It was kinda cool seeing my cake being served up at New York New York by the crew, with candles and Happy Birthday song to boot. The ooh-ing and aah-ing by the waitresses when we gave them the remainder and told them it was made by me, was very very satisfying.

Ok. Two attempts, and I’m a little heady already. Really looking forward to exploring crusts and topping in the near future.

Having observed many inefficient and extremely stupid methods of circulating materials in classrooms, lectures, and now my office, I think it’s high time someone came up with some rules to implement, like how we have rules for queuing up, standing on the left, etc. Circulation in this case refers to both materials that are plentiful, like lecture notes, and single items, like forms to be passed around and signed.

Why? Well, inevitably, there is always some idiot who passes the materials in the wrong direction or place, skipping a whole group of people entirely. Then the inefficiency of finding out who has not received the materials, and wasting time to redistribute, is really irritating.

If you think about it, it’s really easy to pass things around without really needing any rules. Just like it’s common sense to stand on the side of the escalator so others can walk pass. You could arrange yourself in any assortment you like on the escalator, as long as there was enough space for others to walk pass. And if everyone had enough sense, they’d all stand on the same side, be it left or right, so that it’s easier for those rushing to move straight through instead of weaving about.

But, as we all know, common sense isn’t common, and almost every other guy is a complete moron. Even with guidelines for standing on the left, there are constantly buffoons who stand on the right, and block people who want to walk up or down the escalator. But the rules definitely helped those who are not FUBAR-ly idiotic to do things the right way.

Similarly, in circulation of materials, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out how things should go. Just see where the item was passed from, and consider the potential directions it can go. If there’s more than one possible direction, you can easily check if it’s passed that way by asking. All those thoughts take less than a few seconds to process and execute, if you have any brains more than an ant.

The worse kind of pea-brains are those who accept things that have been passed their way once. Hello? If something is supposed to be distributed around, it should go only one way. If that very said item is supposed to be returned after distribution or passing around, the last person should directly return the item instead of passing it back around. All these pea-brains do is confusing the chain of distribution.

Therefore, my guidelines for circulation is pretty simple. In a system with only 2 rows or 2 columns, potentially forming a closed shape, pass things clockwise, and stop the moment it reaches you again. If you’re not the first person to receive it, but you’re the last, you’re allowed to barrage the person who passed it to you with expletives, and throw in a few punches and kicks for good measure. Not that it’ll help that idiot gain any IQ points.

In an orderly system of more that 2 rows or columns, like in a classroom or lecture, pass things in a snake or S structure. The item A will enter from one side, known as the tail, and will pass on down a row until it reaches the other end, and move to the second row, travelling in the opposite direction. When it reaches the end of the system, the endpoint, known as the head, is where the circulation terminates. This is somewhat similar to snake on Nokia handphones. A simple rule for the persons on extreme corners is always to check if the person behind or in front of you have received the item. Unless someone was being stupid, only one of them should not have the item passed to them yet. If you’re not at the extreme sides, passing is brainless exercise. Unfortunately, most people are brainless, and manage to fuck this up anyway.

This method will require the lecturer or teacher to use some of their massive brainjuices as well. Distribute from the extreme left or right of the first row, and not the middle of the row, for god’s sake. Your students are dumb enough, and don’t need you to confuse them. Walking a little bit won’t hurt. Traditionally, the laziness of teachers has been the main point of confusion. But the more promising students compensate for this lack of intelligence by counting and passing the exact number of copies to one side, and passing the remainder to the other side. Circulation can then resume the snake structure. The flaw with this correction is that it cannot be applied to circulations involving a single item.

Note that this method is also scalable to encompass multiple entry points, as long as the entry point is always from an extreme end, and not from the middle. As soon as the head of a snake meets the tail of another snake, the tail should immediately end the circulation. A modified version can be used if the head is absolutely barred from returning the item by simply walking down the aisle. In this case, the item should be passed directly forwards, along the extreme end, and should be in no way passed to anyone in the middle.

A common complication to this method is the presence of what I call asses. Meaning, other than being incurably stupid, they are also incurably stubborn and selfish. When something is meant to be passed around, it means you pass it around to others, even if you’re not interested in it. Not say no and continue ignoring the person to your side. The presense of an ass tends to significantly slow any circulation, and occasionally causing the head of the snake to double back in systems where the members are of low intelligence.

Again. Please liberally abuse any dim-witted fool who fucks the system up. It’s only fair that since they can subject us to the painful torture of their baseness, we are allowed to reciprocate.

Things get trickier in an unorderly system, like in function halls where everyone sits on the floor in random rows. For this, a more organic snake structure can be adopted, which requires a little enquiry and observation. I have not solved the problem of circulation in this system, so anyone with any ideas can propose it. The only reason why I have even bothered to think of this is for the unintelligent. Anyone of us possessing true IQ can circulate materials with little difficulty.

In the meantime, let us continue to wage a war on those human-like apes, who claim to have brains but fail to use it.

Footnote: The problem of circulation is indeed a real one, especially in macro systems involving large populations, like food distribution etc. However, I am not tackling that aspect of the problem. This is purely a micro and myopic rant.

After a recent treat at my tuition kid’s house, I was inspired to finally proceed with a life-long fantasy – making cakes!!

I’ve always loved the idea of making my own sweet treats, because I love desserts, and because I love the idea of making things, customising and creating my own versions. The only reason why I haven’t done so sooner, is because I don’t have an oven. Or so I tell myself to procrastinate. My last tuition session however, shattered my only excuse. My kid’s mom treated me to the bestest ever homemade non-bake strawberry cheesecake!

So, having no single reason why I cannot make any kind of cake any longer, I spent the weekend reading, shopping, and experimenting. The result? Two pathetic looking, but still delectably edible (I think) cheese treats!

(Inside my fridge)

The first is a batch of cheese tarts, with no crust, and using Oreo cookies as a base. This was more a proof of concept, to test that the batter would turn out ok, and to figure out how much batter I’d actually get with my ingredients. I didn’t know I had to whip the cream though, I just poured it in. But it still tastes pretty good, albeit rather soft. I’m not sure the softness is due to the cream, the fridge temperature, or insufficient beating of the cream cheese though. Also, interestingly, notice how some of the tarts are lighter? The lighter ones were placed in a container and exposed to less cold. Wonder how that’ll affect the tarts though. And they are PERFECTLY edible. I’ve eaten like 10, and I still haven’t had to make a trip to the loo yet.

The second treat, is a coffee cheese cake. Still very very basic, but hey, it’s my second time ok. It’s just the same formula again, only this time I remembered to whip the cream, added some coffee essence, and used a ready-made crust. It’s quite amazing to see liquid cream becoming this creamy viscous thingy when you beat it enough. The coffee part though, I regret. I should have used coffee powder instead, coz when I tasted the batter, the coffee wasn’t really coming through. But I was rushing in fear that the whip cream would curdle, so I didn’t add more. It looked too plain and boring, so I added some chocolate chips on top. Haven’t tasted it yet, but poor Steph will be my guinea pig. The rest of the gang have agreed (through my insistence) that this be used as the birthday cake. Heheheehe.

But seriously, it’s so darn easy to make, I think it’s impossible to go wrong. Almost everything will come out tasting better than OK. The fun and challenging part is making it taste absolute heavenly, and look pretty at the same time. I’m still a long way to go. The next batch though, I’ll be experimenting with my own crust, and maybe strengthening the coffee flavour and adding a touch of something else.