Business vs Responsibility

Being able to meet Steven Gan from Malaysiakini.com and Wong Chun Wai from The Star isn't a daily affair, unless of course you happen to work at these places. A recent visit to these news companies is simply eye opening to say the least, and it is so much more fulfilling to see the work conditions of the journalists working at these places.

Malaysiakini.com
Being able to see the office that is full of integrity is something of an honour to me. To see these people work day in and out to fight for excellence is something that should be an example for all Malaysians. One of the foreign interns working there said "what makes it great working here, is that there aren't any boundaries between all of us; there isn't any discrimination of any kind for any of us." Steven showed us around and there weren't any cubicles separating anyone in the office, not even one for himself. This in itself shows how humbled he is as an editor, and as a journalist takes on responsibilities that he should do. He isn't a hypocrit thats for sure.

The Star
The moment you step foot into the lobby, you are greeted by exclusivity. It practically looks like a 5 star hotel lobby to be honest, and it doesn't stop there. The other floors at the top are similar, and before you could finish reading this, we were invited into a conference room, were given 'memorabilia' and were greeted by the man of the hour, Wong Chun Wai. Its a bit unbelievable to get the Editor in Chief to take us for a private tour, but yes he was there and was kind enough to show us around. The office here is much more dense and packed compared to Malaysiakini, but nonetheless, filled with journalists going about their daily duties.

I guess i could go on and on about the kind of work each of these companies do, and the integrity that flows through them. But fact of a matter is, one is a business, the other, a responsibility.

All the R.AGE

Niki Cheong. That name wouldn't ring any bells but he's very much a household name. This active journalist is currently one of the brains that's working R.AGE, the fortnightly pull out for The Star. Common among college students and the young crowd, R.AGE talks about the hip, the happening and the concerns thats going round our youngsters lives.

Back in 1995, Niki joined a young journalist programme by The Star called BRATs (Bright, Roving, Annoying Teens). Now, 13 years later, Niki says that he has come full circle and have been facilitating the workshops since he joined The Star.

In a recent talk, Niki gave his views about the future of technology and his goals in R.AGE. Currently being the Assistant Editor of R.AGE, Niki says that there is much to learn from social networking sites like Facebook, Friendster, Twitter and MySpace. He did of course talk about the booming of the web, the speed and availability of internet connection wherever we go, and of course connectivity through mobile phones.

"The hard thing about what we're doing is that we have to be constantly connected wherever we go. So i'm trying to get funds so we could upgrade our team with the latest phones that can keep us online at all times", he says.

But of course R.AGE is continually growing in readership due to their content, nevertheless, the road is rough, and times can be hard. Niki adds "We see ourselves growing immensely by reaching out to others, not only through print, but through the internet as well. The online version of R.AGE just opened recently, and we're already getting thousands of hits."

Niki mentions the recent visit by the talented young David Archuleta as a thrilling yet heartwarming one. His incorporation of technology into his journalistic work has been fruitful, as he says "When David came down recently, everyone was speculating on where he would drop by. So when everyone found out it as in Sri KDU, i was twittering happenings as they were going on right here in the school."

I have yet to meet someone as enthusiastic about their work as he is. Niki has a great future ahead of him, and he's only halfway to the top.

Visit to Al-Jazeera English Kuala Lumpur Broadcast Centre

April 6th was a very enlightening day filled with awe and surprises. The visit to the Al-Jazeera English broadcast centre located on the 60th floor of the world reknowned Petronas Twin Towers. We had to change elevators at the 41st floor then onto the 60th where we were welcomed with open arms.

Source: Google Images

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa's $150 million grant was the first thing that started the ball rolling. The set up of the Al Jazeera network was a project to educate and inform the public with a notion of presenting unbiased news to the world. It was initially launched as an Arabic news and current affairs satellite television channel 13 years ago. However, the 24 hour English language news channel of Al-Jazeera was only launched 3 years ago in 2006.

Mr Jayaganesh Sabapathy, Head of Technical Operations, Al-Jazeera English, Kuala Lumpur

We had Mr Jayaganesh Sabapathy, the Head of Technical Operations to take us for a tour round the centre and boy were we in awe. While going round, the one thing that was presently notable was the professional atmosphere and the presence of the expatriate staff. We were taken to the main Control room where only 6 of their staff was seen handling live feeds from all over the world. Next stop was the 5 editing rooms where the videos are edited together along with the information chamber, where all their videos are stored and the 4 men crew that gets things in order.

Control Centre showing live feeds from around the world

I was surprised to find out that the 4 bureaus around Asia are interconnected to each other through a high-speed broadband network. Sabapathy claims that through their 155mbps network, they are able to pull in huge amounts of information in short amounts of time. Well i don't doubt that at all considering they have 155mbps networks!

Close up view of instrument panels

Famous anchors Veronica Pedrosa and Divya Gopalan were seen in the office together with fantastic equipment and jawdropping professionalism that in all just blew me away. What more can i say?

100 Links!

3 Movie Buffs - Old, new and hits
4 Word film review - Only 4 words brother...
9/10 - Jason Lee's take on movies
ABC's Australian review - At the movies
All Movie Portal - One stop movie site
All Watchers - Simple and straightforward
Asian Film Reviews - Your one stop chinese view
Atomic Popcorn - Your dose for movies
Bad Movies.org - Bad as you know it
Beyond Hollywood - As it says
Big Picture & Sound - As the name suggests
Black Movie Reviews - You guessed it!
Blake's Outermost - Bringing Film back
Cinema Blend - Rounds it up
Cinema Online Malaysia - Your Movie Partner
Cinema Review magazine - As the name suggests
Cinema Spot - Spots the best!
Coming Soon.net - Whats coming up in movies
Cork Nut - This is a nut!
Cranky Critic - Gives you the crank on things
Chucks Critics - Cranks your socks
E! Movie Reviews - E Online's take on movies
Empire - Empire's film reviews
Entertainment Weekly - Movies, movies, movies
Eye Weekly - Eye's for your reviews
Faces reviews - Faces publication Malaysia
Fear Scene - All the scary stuff
Film Bender - Bending Movies
Film Critic - Movie Reviews for the Film Fanatic
Film Journal - Nice and neat
Film.com - All about Films
Filmspotting - Spots movies for you
First Showing - Connecting Hollywood with its Audience
FlickFilospher - Philosophises your movies
Flimsy - Isn't as bad as it sounds
Flipside Movie Emporium - Mainstream and Independent
Flixray - New Releases
Flixter - If you like movies, you'll love flixter
Fox's Friday Reels - Every Friday!
Franks Reel Reviews - Tries to be serious
FrankWu's Reviews - His inDepth take
Future movies.co.uk - Future stuff
HK Films - All about HK
I have net - WOW!
IGN's Movies - Movie galore
IMDB - The largest internet database on earth!
Independent Film Reviews - Your alternative to movies
Killer Movies - Gives you the killer
KLue - KLue's reviews
Lotta Reviews - Thats a lotta stuff!
Marty Movies - His take on films
Matchflick - Community of movie fans
Media Circus - Anthony Leong's reviews
Metacritic - We Deal With Criticism
Metro Active Movies - Metro's reviews
Movie Centre - The Epicentre of movies
Movie Film Review - Wow, what a mouthful
Movie Freak - The film palace
Movie Guide - Family guide to movies
Movie Maker - The art of movie making
Movie Prop - All about movie props
Movie Reviews - All about Movies and Reviews
Movie Scraps - Small Malaysian site for movie reviews
Movie Web - Web of movies
Moviefone by AOL - ReviewS!
Movie-List - The List of all lists
Movies Galaxy - Small site, Big dreams
Movies Online - The Latest Movie reviews
Mr Movie Times - MOVIE TIME!
MSN Movies - Everything latest
MyMovies.Net - Keeps up to date
Nit Pickers - Picks up the goofs
Nitrate Online - Boosts you to good stuff
NYRock - Rocking movies
NYT's Reviews - New York Times' Reviews
Obsessed with Film - What an obsession!
Popcorn Monsters - Eats your popcorn
Premier Movie Reviews - Straight to the point
Quipster Reviews - Vince Leo's opinions
ReelTalk - Talks about film
Reelviews - Reelviews gives you real reviews
Reelz - Reels up your flicks
Roger Ebert Reviews - The Famous Critic tells you his take on movies
Rolling Stone Reviews - Great reviews with Star ratings
Rotten Tomatoes - The Ultimate Movie Reaction Site!
SBS - Australia's Best
Sci-fi Movie Page - Arranged for your convenience
SciFiCool - Cool like a cucumber
Smart Cine - Making the smart choices for you
Stephens's Crowsnest - The bird eyes view
The Bulls Eye - For The Guys
The Hollywood Reporter - Reports you on films
The Movie Insider - Movie insider access
The Super Movie - Super!
Total Film - Welcome to the Movies!
UGO Reviews - Most current
Variety.com - V's film reviews
Waffle Movies - Get it while its hot!
Yahoo! Movies - Movies, Trailers and Showtimes
Yo Wazzup? - Great Malaysian site about the movie scene

Interview on movies

Chong Kok Hoe is a Journalism student doing his Degree at Taylor's College in Petaling Jaya. I recently got to talk to him over a cup of coffee regarding movies in general and his opinions on the subject. This is his take on the topic.

He quotes that movies are "visuals that speak louder than words; this is just basically why movies are important."

The Dark Knight

Wall-E

V For Vendetta

Valkyrie review

Source: Google Images

What a great way to start the first post by reviewing a fantastic movie for 2009. Movies of course is a form of entertainment to many, and of course there are mixed feelings for everyone about how it turned out. Some will say it was great, it was okay, and others might just hate the whole thing altogether. But of course, critics will be critics, and everyone has their share of opinions on everything.

For me, criticising a movie doesn't do any justice, simply because i know how much effort goes into producing, directing and acting in movies. Of course i'm no Spielberg, and i haven't been in any big budget Hollywood movie. The only movie i ever did was in Diploma, and that was just a 15 minute short film, the closest i've ever been to making movies.

Enough of my rants and lets get to the movie.

Valkyrie tells the true story of the plot by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and using Operation Valkyrie as the emergency plan to take control of the country. Major General Henning von Tresckow (Kenneth Branagh) takes an attempt to assassinate Hitler by smuggling a bomb aboard his plane, however it fails to detonate and the plans fail. General Olbricht (Bill Nighy) then recruits Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) into the German Resistance which he then learns of their plans of assassination.

The secret committee members include Ludwig Beck (Terence Stamp), Carl Goerdeler (Kevin McNally) and many others, and through careful planning and failed attempts, they manage to deploy Operation Valkyrie's reserve soldiers to maintain order in the plight of a national emergency. All in all, Valkyrie proved to be a historical thriller that just blew me away.

Cruise was attracted to the role of Stauffenberg after noticing how similar he looked to the Colonel.

Source: Google Images

A fantastic performance notably from Cruise and Nighy for their portrayals of their characters. All of these put aside and you can see the intricate details of the props used to film this movie, right down to the last detail of the pens. During the scene where Hitler signs the revised version of Valkyrie, the fountain pen clipped to Stauffenberg's bag is a Pelikan M100, produced in Germany during WWII.

The main cast of Valkyrie.
Source: Google Images

Director Bryan Singer is famous for his previous works such as The Usual Suspects, X2, Superman Returns and of course being the Executive Producer of the hit TV series House M.D.

One thing's for sure is that i'll be eagerly awaiting for his other works in the near future.