justtt.

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Day 206:

Shoot season is here.

The past few days and weeks are spent on set, shooting my own final year project, helping out, and once I get home, I'll try to get some edit done. It's great to finally see how the film scene here in Melbourne is like. Not vastly different to be honest, but I'm glad to be working with pretty like-minded people in my own shoot, while editing a project that is pretty big scale.

The main thing while being on set that crossed my mind was if I really liked doing this.

Can't say that I do.

As much as I love the process of creating moving images and do want to be great at them, dealing with the grip truck, moving c-stands, lights, and 20 over pelican cases, in and out of set for days on end... Not sure how much does that truly interest me. Sure, they're essential and a part and parcel of the film life, but I haven't been learning enough to be working paid shoots, and I'll soon be too old to be accepting free jobs. I'll probably be hanging around freelancing on shoots whenever I get the opportunity, but let's be honest here, it won't be my career/full-time job.

Other than shoots, I've occupied the rest of my time working as well. I have been pretty good with recouping my fine money, earning $1.6k+ in the past fortnight (Deliveroo + UberEats). It's definitely a relief to see my bank balance and a relatively safe point, despite needing to reset due to unfortunate fines... but it is something I have to get over and work on from there.

Speaking about money, though, I had a shocking realization this week when I was casually asking about how much the other riders are earning. I thought earning $1.6k is quite a big sum for me already, but Madu and Melvin both earned $1.9k/$1.8k respectively, all of that while juggling with school. And they're record in 2 weeks are $2150/$2230 respectively. It's true that they are scooter riders thus they have a huge benefit in accumulating orders, but hell, Deliveroo definitely provides good money to people who are willing to convert hours to cash, and there are so many out there who also wants that money as much as you do. Definitely motivates to work super hard once school is over.

I feel that, during my pursuit to earn more money, I have gave up simple human principles in exchange for that. I had a shift taken away from work just because I wanted to stay logged in for a few more extra dollars when I clearly won't be able to do any orders during that period, and also juggling UberEats with Deliveroo during the peak hours, meaning I will take much longer to get to the customer instead of just focusing on one. Getting complaints never feel good. All I know is, I can't have either of those jobs taken away from me as it will affect my life here so much if I were to be jobless.

Sober September/Sinless September is going great. Two weeks done, 20 more days to go. Survived not satisfying the urges despite presented the opportunity. Sure, there were thoughts when I feel that a spliff would be great, but I am happy I have the self-control to just throw that thought away. I feel that I haven't been much more productive though. I think I have to go social media/wifi-less if I truly want to make full use of this. I think this will be a goal in the near future. Also, get into better habits of watching a movie everyday/read books/etc. I should probably get a kindle.

Recently in my life, I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do after this phase ends. What do I truly want to pursue? What do I think in my life is worth dedicating all my effort and time into? It goes without saying, it revolves around Parkour. Nothing else. I have been contemplating of maybe heading back to Singapore earlier, even before March when my visa dateline is. But I feel that there's so much to do next year that I should build up my funds first, where I can (won't be able to earn as much in Singapore).

I'm pretty excited what I want to embark once I head back to Singapore, and also my travel plans for next year. There is a whole bunch of ideas and ambitions that I want to throw myself into, but I'm still anxious if everything will work out well enough. One of my aims while travelling is to learn more about parkour gyms/parks and events and how the people are running it. And definitely focus on training a lot while not getting injured. So much to do...

I guess I should write down a list of some sorts so that I can refer to it next year.

PARKOUR CAREER PLANS (starting next year):

1) Go professional athlete mode

- Train fucktons

- Make Denester Logo (Watermark)/Title animation

- Keep on making videos on Denester channel and get paid. (refer below for video plans)

- Try to get sponsored by whatever possible brands

- Train speed competitions/work on flow for freerunning runs

2) Run first legit Parkour gym in Singapore (hopefully by 2018)

- Find similar sized warehouse space to Tempest in good location (East Side of course)

- Design a sick gym template, unique yet really good for training. (doing bunch of research, input from various sources, learn SketchUp fully/3d animation too)

- Research on possible ways to hustle and get back rent money every week (learn from other gyms and how they do it)

3) LCG to become a huge thing.

For 2017:

- Get PKSG association to be fully running (Big goal)

- Get them fucking permits (Big goal

- Work with Redbull for competition set-up and prizes next year

- Design competition set-up if this happens

- LCG 2017 shirts

For 2018:

- Starting earning income from LCG

- Next level competition format, hopefully in the gym (Live stream, etc.)

4) Come up with professional parkour team in Singapore (Like Storror/Farang) #Parolye

- Will be the main performance team in Singapore

- Will be the main team partnering PKSG (Think AOXM/PKMY, or Jump Freerun)

- Main crew running the gym, teaching classes.

- Solid crew name, make big SG video to hopefully become viral

5) First Singapore Parkour clothing company (also affiliated with gym/main parkour team)

- Start thinking of designs, experiment and make as many different style and apparels

- Find the best supplier, possibly work with Indonesia.

- Learn everything about the process of shirt making (ask Novelways/Farang Clothing/etc.)

- Hopefully be enough for a main source of income in the future.

6) Work on getting first Parkour Park outdoors with Singapore Sports council

- Design castle replica (new and improved)

- Work with Parkour Denmark to come out with better ideas in the future

7) Parkour Theatre performance

- Think of 45min-1hr show that we can possibly play in, say, Esplanade.

- Also probably be working with the main crew, if not, branch out to main street sports in SG and work collaboratively.

VIDEO PLANS (Copypasted from previous post)

1) 30-day Challenge - Train everyday for one month, post a line or a flow that is different, then make a compilation at the end of it. (Mainly train at different spots/do interesting/creative/challenging runs).

2) CP: In Motion - Revisited. (Replicate an old video of mine, movement by movement, the only difference is that I will only have one attempt for each move)

3) POV Styled Parkour video in Singapore (Samuel Gvdn styled Bishan/Clementi video)

4) Roof Culture Sg - Ascents and Descents, Carpark gaps/High elements/Roof gaps - Work with DB

5) Dat SG Video - Everything we wanted to do with Parolye/Zack and WX in the city but didn't work out.

6) AOM Submission video - probably keep some of the clips that I will be filming in the above ideas, saving the best for last.

7) Probably do short trips to Msia/Indonesia if possible, make a weekend trip video.

8) VLOG-styled videos (?) - Trying to turn my Denester channel to a full fledged creator partner to earn cash hopefully

Short films kind of ideas -

9) Jump Club. This is a short film idea Stan and I have for such a long time now, probably time to put it into work.

10) Art-styled Parkour video with cool transitions/video effects/composition/surrealist ideas. Basically making a parkour video different from the normal hardcore parkour showreely kind of stuff - but more of creative camera angles and unexpected twists with a lot more thought going into both filming and editing process.

11) Probably try to direct/shoot my first legit short film if I can come up with an awesome script idea - fully going all out with cinematography and style... May or may not be parkour-related. Want to include visual effects stuff in this. Probably work with Samuel on this.

FILM Invest in -

1) Audio Equipment (Probably a simple rode mic)

2) Gimbal for A7S/Gopro

3) Drone (Learn how to use as well)

4) One more lens probably

4 MONTHS TRAVEL PLAN:

After LCG (Late June) -

1) 4TLOM (Holland/Amsterdam)

2) Krap Invaders Summer Jam (Italy/Milan)

3) Vigo Street Stunts (Spain/Vigo) (Meet WhatParkour, GUP)

4) Portugal (Lisbon, Meet Alex/Pedro/Luis)

5) Germany (Berlin/Frankfurt/Munich) (Meet Andi/Jannis/Matthias/Endijs)

AUGUST

6) 2 months in USA/a bit in Canada (Head to all 3 Tempest Gyms, Apex Intl/NAPC, Meet everyone in USA!) - Need to do Research

7) Mexico for a bit hopefully!

8) Greece Santorini (First week of October)

Apart from the above

9) Keen for Airwipp Challenge as well

10) Indonesia with Hamy Pratama

Other plans:

1) Get my motorbike license

2) Work on all my plans