Realiti - Episode 6 notes

Sorry this has taken some time, but I shall put the blame squarely on Raz (who had written the episode) because I only got her notes from her today.

Watch before you read, courtest of YouTube: 1, 2, 3, 4

Photos courtesy of Popiah Pictures and Chelsia Ng


Notes are by Razlina Ramli. Notes in green by me.

By the way, Raz's employers, 95% Trainings, have a writing workshop this Sunday (15 October 2006) - get in touch with them if you want to know more.

• Well I enjoyed it. There were times I had to remind myself I wrote this piece. Ah… what a nice change from me cringing at the sofa and watching the show from in between my fingers.


• The pace picks up from here to the end of the season, as we're about to hit the elimination stretch of the show. The debate is still a little out I guess on whether we should have kicked out contestants earlier on, since some on the forums are saying, "Eh, how come nobody voted out yet?", but I don't want to have lost characters before we had a chance to tell their stories.


• Melody and Burn’s character have blossomed which is, yeah. When we were at pre, pre- production stages, we weren’t sure with whom Burn should have a relationship with or at least seemingly having a relationship with. A lot of hours debating in a particular coffee shop ensued, with Ping wanted him to go with Baby, Dzof was … can’t remember but I am certain he had a long commentary on who should go with whom and why. So much so, Ping decided it is not working to have all the writers in one sitting because he said we kind of sidetracked from the storylines, sometimes, …Okay so Dzof and I joked a lot because we were looking at our past experiences to see whether the story sticks or was it too incomprehensible. Anyway, I thought it would not be much fun having Burn and Baby together because I imagined Baby would have many of those kinds of friends in the past. Melody provided a much needed stress for Burn because for one, she’s kind of messed up, does not clamour for his undying attention unlike the rest of the fans and she is a chick in trouble. So, that worked out pretty well. Besides, Baby would not have given him a toss.
• Agreed. Although I thought the Melody/Amir combo had a lot of nice possibilities too.


• Speaking of Baby, I like it when she told Amir, “Get out of my sight!” that was fun to write and watch. I like writing such things for her and I like Amir to be the rough diamond type but somehow I didn’t get it out the way I had envisaged him as. Amir seemed a bit lost, which maybe I am not too sure why but maybe Dzof can fill us in as he is always at the shoot. Well, seemingly he is always at the shoot.
• Indeed. I live for the reflected glory that are Malaysian TV stars.


• I kind of like the way Ping had grilled and re-grill me when I was writing this episode. Every time I am pleased with my writing and send him the copy with a glee on my face, he will undoubtedly comeback with remarks such as “..the opening not fast enough-la”or “The middle too slow,..” sometimes I get, “the juicy bits too late it’s about to end already….” That went on for several weeks. It could get quite arghhhh!! But I liked it, it was all worth the anxiety, frustration et el because the end product was fun (to me). In particular I liked the ending, it was fast, lots of going ons and a cliff hanger… although I remembered mine had a car chase…. Yeah when I wrote in Ping did look skeptical that I was turning it into a thriller. The only comment was I thought the police were slow. I mean like the car boot scene, huh? He had to wait? Why not just smash the windscreen and open the boot? Right? I missed something there.
• I was talking to Anne the other day, and she said that she thought the original chase scene was a little bit 24-ish. And out of budget too. What I always say as a writer is just write first, worry about the budget later!


• Dzof thought the ending was a bit ….blah and maybe he said cliché. Okay can’t have everything. But one thing for sure the heat is on.
• Hah. You just wait for the cliff-hanger next week.


• Dayang has more emotions in this one, so does Melody, Burn and Wahida. Amir is kind of Mr. Perfect, I didn’t see the dilemma he was suppose to be in as Ping had wanted in, so maybe that’s the writer’s shortcomings. Other wise it was fun. Okay Dzof now you can say whatever you like. Hahahaha.
• Already have, babe.


• Some thoughts on the Nickson storyline. I swear, this episode's story came out before a similar storyline on Lost (the one where the Korean girl meets that hotel manager). Complete coincidence. I thought I may have came up with it, but a quick search through email shows the first time it's mentioned to me is in script form already. Things get so confusing sometimes. I do remember saying that maybe Nickson should help the girl solve her problem, and in doing so realise that he is in a similar predicament, but it was shortened.


• Talking about short, this episode comes in at under forty minutes, which must be some sort of record for what some call a 1-hour show. As it is, anything over forty four minutes is long, so I'm trying to figure out if anything was cut. There was that bit when Amir goes and visits Baby, and the video goes all slow, six-million dollar man like, but I looked at the script, and I don't think there really was anything cut out.

Realiti. 10pm Sundays on 8TV, starring Azizan Nin, Ashraf Sinclair, Melissa Maureen, Alvin Wong, Chelsia Ng, Radhi Khalid. With Nazrudin Rahman, Juliana Ibrahim, Maria Farida, Lydia Ibtisam, Nell Ng, Reefa, Mazin Siraj. What would you do to become a star?

Labels: realiti, tv