Tuesday, February 09, 2010

THAIPUSAM - the trailer



Thaipusam is a Hindu festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community, and also known as the largest gathering of multi-races in Malaysia. It is a day to celebrate the birth of Lord Murugan, as well as the occasion when He was given a spear to defeat the demon.

I've been photographing this special event at Batu Caves temple for the past 2 years, and thanks to Canon 7D, this year I am able to capture the moving pictures!

With the help from my former colleague KahHooi, assistance from Gary and ChinHong, we have shot this mini-documentary about Thaipusam. Special thanks to Kesu and his family and friends for being so kind to us, allowing us to capture the entire procession through them.

It was quite a heavy shoot for me, really tired, because we started shooting a day before like about 5pm, and continuously non-stop shooting until the next day morning 9am. Imagine after many hours of standing and walking and running along with the procession, then about 5am in the morning, we had to climb the 272 steps up to the temple cave, carrying the cameras with steadicam, tripod and bags... and then walk down again! I admit my leg was shaking during the climb, and did feel dizzy sometimes, but I just kept telling myself that I could do this... and I have to do this... We did it, and we were all happy!

Now I have to use my possibly free times to edit this piece, and I hope it will turn out well to share with everybody. :)

I figured we didn't manage to get a group photo, so sorry... Here's the only photo taken from behind the scene, it's me shooting the time lapse at where the procession takes place.

*Photo from ChinHong

Anyway, hope you will like the trailer! :)

7 comments:

  1. this is amazing good & u are born for movie making .. great job ~

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  2. ur thaipusam trailer sound track like some gangster stuff~ which made the documentry a bit more scarier... kakkakaka... great stuff!

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  3. haha, how come din spot u there?
    great video bro~

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  4. beh tahan~!!! Dick... the trailer is amazing~!!! u have turned urself to be a very different person after u owned the 7D. I cant imagine if u have the MARK... and i believe u are getting sooner than anyone else is expected. WELL DONE~!!!
    I LIKE THE TRAILER~!!!

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  5. awesome! i love the editing treatment and the bgm.

    impress that you manage to capture so many scenes from different places.

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  6. Great work Dick, great footage. Would love to see the full version!

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  7. Awesome video. When will the full version be out?

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