Creative Collar Bones

I did not know what to expect when I first sat down for the first lecture of Creative Thinking Skills. Then, a man introduced himself as Mr. Charles and the other lecturers and I remember he told us ( the students)  to be an 

‘Imagineer’ 

(Imagine + Engineer), to think outside the box, to dream, to think of the possibilities and to fail with grace. In my whole 18 year old life, I have never heard of the word “Imagineer’ or anyone who had ever encouraged me to dream or fail. It was then that I realised that the people standing in front of the lecture hall, speaking about their knowledge on creativity was where I would want to belong. I felt like I was finally part of my social group with the same feelings and love toward s design, and just being creative in everyday life overall.  

Throughout this module, we were given activities after activities, and assignments after assignments to boost our creativity skills. And for each and every class, there was always something new and exciting to learn and ponder about. Wednesdays became my favourite. But, soon after that, my creative confidence started to melt away like an ice cream in summer. Every design and ideas I produced was either too plain or unoriginal which frustrated me. However, Ms. Fu is a great critique and an even better consultant. She spread positivity and gave us things to think about our product. I realised that I should not be affected negatively by criticisms but instead, accept them and try my best to improve to be better.

From Creative Thinking Skills, I realized that creative thinking is an attitude and self-confidence as about talent. Creativity is less ordered, structured and predictable. Since we ae not looking for the right answer, we need to come up with ideas that might not even sound logical. That is already difficult as it is but executing the ideas, is another problem that weighs as heavy. Therefore, we need to make mistakes (fail) as we go along the process of ideation. Yes, it is risky. No, the ideas that failed does not mean you are not creative enough. Failure exist so that we can improve ourselves to be better. Critiques and negative feedbacks could be gems and stones that could be the root to another better idea. What is important is to keep on learning and improving without giving up.

Sincerely,

Natalia Arfan

[Director of Creativecollarbones]

28th November 

Our final project assignment required us to produce a video based on the prototype we had made from the last assignment. My group which consisted of Kristal Johnny, Hazel Ng, Joycelyn Lim and Matthias Lim combined our skills to produce the video we envisioned. We had decided to do a music video based on my prototype, the lamp.

Filming for the music video was definitely hard and it was time consuming. But as the project progressed, I realised that I’ve only gained and had actually not lost anything at all. The time I shared with my group members became one of my best memory of my whole experience in Taylors. The experience I got as my group filmed the whole video was invaluable for me. I learned so much through the whole process of this project and could honestly say that I could do my best as a team members because I enjoyed doing the project so much.

There were, of course, moments where things got really difficult for the group. For example, we had trouble getting the locations, and transportation to the locations was also a problem which limited us to only a certain places. The weather for the whole process of making the video was bad as well, which made it difficult for us to film because it kept on raining. And sometimes, we had to even film in the rain and was soaked to our bones at the end of it. Through this final project, I realised how teamwork and communication as well as the team members’ chemistry is really important when doing group projects. I also learnt that a positive mood and atmosphere really helps the team going when they’re tired and exhausted.

The hottest rookie artist that touched everyone’s heart with her voice has released a debut album! Get 2 versions of the album! 

DUSK

24th November

23rd November

After classes, we immediately found a classroom to film the scene where Rae Nae receives a gift box from a friend. It was definitely awkward and funny filming my friends act. We had to retake the scene a lot of times because the actors were both confused and ended up bursting into laughter when we started filming the scene. After that scene, we decided to film a bullying scene where I as Natalia, the best friend who betrayed Rae Nae bullies her. In my opinion, it was hard for me to act that part out. I apologized to Hazel after filming that scene even though it was only an act. I somehow understood the feelings of how bullied victims feel like now and I definitely feel that bullying has such a huge impact on a person’s life.

Below are behind the scenes pictures of the classroom scene where Rae Nae is given a gift. 

22nd November

We took time to sacrifice our weekends to film the last few scenes of the music video. We decided to film the scenes at our very own campus, Taylors Lakeside University campus’s rooftop and carpark. Together with the members, we filmed the climax of the music video, which is the rooftop scene. Unfortunately, we had trouble getting the location. The rooftop that we had scouted before were locked and we had no way in. So we had to fall back to our Plan B, which was to film at Level 2, Block E. We also had trouble getting the angle and lighting right because we were outdoors. We tried filming as much scenes and get as much shots of the actors and actresses. Filming on a sunny day was definitely tiring, but filming together with the whole group made everything easier and more fun.

20th November

15th November

We started our second day of filming at Pasar Seni with the help of Hazel’s parents help. We went to Pasar Seni to film our happy scenes then headed to Suria KLCC Park to film the rest of the happy scenes. The changing of the locations were tiring but, filming the happy scenes together with Hazel was so much fun. We filmed everywhere we can as we moved from location to locations, and from station to station. This time around, we didn’t have trouble with the angles nor lighting, but we definitely had a problem filming with the crowd passing by as we filmed.

Below are the shots we filmed at KLCC and Pasar Seni. 

11th November

Together with Kristal, we headed to Amverton Park, Hazel’s house, to start filming the first few scenes of the music video. We decided to film the sad and depressing scene, where Hazel had to cry and act depressed. We tried our best to capture the emotions and had to keep on checking how the scenes turned out on computer before we continue on to other scenes. Getting the angles and lighting right was difficult for us but we somehow managed to get the shots that we wanted that day.

Above: Prototype 2.0 (before modification) 

Above: Prototype 3.0 (after modification) 

Prototype Inspiration

This lamp was inspired by the molecules in an aluminium can. The shape in which it was made after is a diamond. This means that diamonds not only mean gems but also something that is meaningful and precious. The design of the aluminium molecule incorporated in the diamond means that aluminium are precious to us humans because we use them in everyday things.

Inspiration Board

9th November 

During the one week holiday, Kristal and I decided to meet up to discuss more about the video. We discussed about the storyboard draft on which scene should be cut off and how the actress should act in each scenes. Using inspirations from photos and other music videos, we squeezed our brain juices to try and imagine how each scene would be. We also discussed on the camera angles and the colour tone of the video. Both of us listed out songs that could be used in the video and finally after a thorough discussion, we chose the song Lost Stars by Adam Levine from the movie, Begin Again