Another year, another blog

It seems to be a trend for me; every year I start a new blog, and leave the old one behind. Where's the old one? Here it is. A word of warning: it might have provocative content. Reader discretion is advised!

For this blog, I'm going to concentrate on my current production team, ChillTime Studios. Huzzah! We're back in action after being dormant for... at least 10 years! *gasp*

For them history buffs, ChillTime Studios first started its humble beginnings in 1992, when a nerdy-geeky Form 2 student from Victoria Institution, KL decided to start a "production house". It was called "ChillTime Productions" (CTP for short). Back then, CTP was a newsletter production team, making up "fake" newsletters with nonsensical news that may or may not be insinuating in any way. However, that only lasted for a few months when CTP decided to venture into music.

CTP flourished, writing lots of music and lyrics (though most of them are unpolished and/or lost/destroyed by now). In 1994, CTP started its modem-based bulletin board system using "ChillTime BBS" as its name (it's still listed in google for some strange reason). That didn't last long, only until 1996 where I lost interest in the whole BBS thing partly due to the changes in the local call tariffs by our *beloved* Telekom from 13 sen per call to 3 sen a minute in June, 1996. Yeah, I still remember, it was the beginning of the end for BBSes in Malaysia, not to mention the widespread expansion of the internet.

CTP changed its name to ChillTime Pro Studios (Pro being short for Production or Professional, whichever is cooler) when I actually started studying in SAE and started heavily into music production, having my own vocal booth at home with mixers and mics and all. The whole shebang. I even had a cheesy logo for it which is still stuck on my room door, along with an A4-sized "signboard" outside my room.

CTPS went dormant sometime in 1999-2000 when I started working full time and had no time to do my own recordings and what not. I still do freelance jobs, but it was never under "ChillTime Pro Studios", so that's the end of the 20th Century ChillTime as a "company" per se. However, when my friends hear/mention "ChillTime", they know it refers to me.

In June 2006, a friend of mine, Agnes, started a film production team on lowyat.net as a special interest group. It didn't go off quite well at first; everyone seems to do nothing, until Jarod took charge in October and named the team "PVT Studios". PVT came from "Princess Video Territory", which is taken from Agnes' corresponding email for the team. PVT sounds cool and unique, but some people who hears it thinks it's short for "pervert" or "privates" or simply "pfftt".

Sometime late November/early December, Agnes feels compelled to leave the team due to personal reasons. We tried to persuade her not too, but she was adamant about her decision. This left us with PVT Studios without the "Princess" at the helm. PVT Studios as a name had to go.

Jarod wasn't about to dig his mind for a name (neither was any of us), so he suggested we should just use "ChillTime Studios". I was both excited and cautious, knowing that for one, ChillTime Studios is back on the map and two, ChillTime Studios is my precious baby, and now it's "on the hit list", lol. I wanted to use ChillTime Productions, but he said "Studios" sound more professional, plus, there's already a Chilltime Productions in the States (note the small "t" in Chilltime), a media entertainment company (but they started in 2004, iirc).

So there we have it, the history. Right now, we have several key people involved including Jarod the self-proclaimed executive producer (he's more of a producer than an exec producer), Tony the scriptwriter, Firdaus the d.o.p. (director of photography), Juman the set designer and me, the director-slash-d.o.p.-slash-editor-slash-scriptwriter-slash-composer, in other words, "mister vain everything" lol. Of course we have other people on board like Si Ying (a good d.o.p. but unfortunately busy with university assignments), Jack (helpful fellow, wants to learn), Nick, Greg and a few others I have yet to meet (but Jarod has, I hope). We also keep Agnes in the loop because we care. :)

For the first 2 months, we have complete 6 productions (!!!!!) and in the process of shooting the 7th. They are, in chronological order:

1. Lovemate Recordable Doll Advertisement
2. "Kuala Lumpur" Movie Trailer
3. Smoking Kills - Public Service Announcement
4. Abang Leman Dalam Anugerah Filem Pendek - Short Comedy
5. Confessions Episode One - "Of An Executive Producer"
6. The First Two Months - Video Journal
7. Detained - Short Film

The first four were submitted to the Anugerah Filem Pendek 2006 (with the fourth specifically made for the competition). I personally like "Confessions" as it is quite revealing, plus I plan to make more of it (hence, "Episode One"). However, I don't know if it should be released to the public without prior consent of the confessant (sp?). lol

I have to tell you, shooting Detained is seriously taking its toll on us, mainly because we don't have enough manpower to handle it. *cough* *cough*

Anyways, enough of the introduction to ChillTime Studios or City Ass, I mean, CTS. :) Look out for the release of our production in the near future (after AFP2006).

2007 is just around the corner, so I guess it's not too early to wish everyone a happy new year!