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Thursday, December 18, 2008

From books to movies...of words and adaptations...

History has seen that quite a number of books (and in some cases, comics) out there that had been adapted into movies. The books may not necessarily need to be extremely popular for the movies to sell well at the box office. Likewise, best-seller books may not be well adapted into movies and the movies may flop.


Take Stephen King's books for example. With the exception of Christine and
The Mist which received rave reviews and were quite well-accepted by moviegoers, other movies adapted from his books tanked!

I remember reading Phantoms by Dean Koontz many years ago. It was one of the scariest books I've ever read. Every page of the book was so vividly horrifying. Unfortunately, the movie, despite having big actors in it, failed to attract people to flock the cinemas.

I once had a dream to write a book. A book that I hoped, could open doors to other possibilities, and one of them was which to have it adapted into a movie (or a series of movies). The book already had a title; each characters named and their characteristics visualised; the draft was ready up to Chapter 7 (if not mistaken).... in fact for some chapters, they were almost complete.

Three friends read the draft. A couple of them had even showed their willingness to be a part of it. One was willing to be my editor, while another, a talented artist, drew some sketches so that we could later pick one to be the book cover. He also drew some of the monsters (see below) to be inserted into the pages of the book - plus he also loves to draw, so pretty much, he just wanted to (draw them).




Then reality hit me. I am not that great (in writing). I may have received comments before about how my simple style of English writing can still somehow grasp their attention. But, is it enough that based on these comments alone made by only a few people, I can expect (other) readers to be hooked by maintaining the same style throughout the book? Surely readers would want something out of the ordinary and simplicities, and expect me to get out of my comfort zone of writing.

The book project got postponed indefinitely, for so many years now. It never left my mind completely though, at least not yet. Hmm... maybe I should write it in Bahasa Malaysia (BM) first, although again, I'm not an excellent BM writer either. Or perhaps I should find myself a ghost writer or a co-writer. Or perhaps publish a graphic novel instead, a collaboration with my artistic friend there. Hmm... I don't really know.

This whole thing about getting my book out came back to my mind after reading an article, about how easy it is for a 9-year-old boy, Alex Greven, who initially wrote his book and self-published it at a school book fair, became almost instantly famous. Not only his 48-page advice book, "How to Talk to Girls" became a best-seller, it has also been optioned by Fox for a possible theatrical release. The film rights to him were sold for low-to-mid six figures. How lucky of him huh?

Reading the article made me think about the path I have threaded my way through all this while, and the future paths that I should take (and plan to take). We Muslims are always encouraged to appreciate the 5 things before the 5 things arrive. One of them was 'while we are still free before we are busy' and another one, 'while we are still alive before we are dead'.

More often than not, we are so busy with worldly matters, we forget about the world that follows. Then, we may say we are very busy, but usually busy for other people. In a recent Oprah Winfrey show, she said 84% of people hate their jobs. So, if we are too busy with jobs that we hate (or maybe not particularly fond of), isn't it time, we make it count? Isn't it time we become busy FOR ourselves for a change? ...sigh...

Meantime, talk about adaptation from comics, you can view the trailer of the coming Wolverine movie here.

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Friday, December 05, 2008

Lost in translation...? Of words and confusion

Ad 1: Fun Fun rain coat
I went for a travel excursion the other day. The travel organiser provided us with a gift bag that consisted of some stuffs like mosquito repellant patches, a balm, a packet of baby wipes (they included this in because the wipes were safe to be applied on the face), a small bottle of sunblock lotion and a rain coat.

The label for the rain jacket struck my attention (see above) and made me and a friend laugh. Putting aside the possibility that the photo could have been Photoshopped, don't you think these models are rather sad/angry looking, as though they were forced to pose. I would say the brand name Fun Fun should have been Sad Sad instead. Perhaps these kid models are Sad Sad because it rains, and putting on those rain jackets doesn't help in making things easier or any happier either :))



Ad 2: Sofa set
One day, as I flipped through an interior design magazine, I noticed the bi-lingual magazine contained so many grammatical errors. Whether the articles are in English or in Malay, I was appalled by the number of wrong words used. Considering that the magazine was published by a renowned Malaysian interior designer and tv personality, those mistakes should not have happened in the first place. I mean, didn't they proof read?

I do enjoy reading advertisements in papers and magazines sometimes. Since my wife and I were looking for contractors and contacts for interior items, I was browsing through the ads in the magazine too. On the second last page, there was an ad on a sofa set. Judging from the sets shown in the ad, I'd say, design wise....well... nothing intriguing about them. At least they were not as interesting as the words they used in their ad, which said:

"There is gene filling around view, it is as happiness, sweet and warm, and the thoughts are cleared in details, nobody knows where does confidence come from. Maybe it has thousands of resources, millions of embodiments, but when we are faced with the warm and real house, the confidence is easy to be found, placing myself into complete space, closing eyes such as the extending branch, colour stretching and white cloud disappearance field in deep heart becomes lovely soon....

When you want to sell something, credibility is built through proper use of words so that information about your product is delivered effectively to readers/potential buyers. I wonder if the ad was prepared by the same writers for the magazine since the words used are all too flowery and catchy, they lost their meaning. I as a reader, ended up dazed and confused - just what the heck were they trying to say here?

Now, let's quickly translate what could possibly be the message(s) that the ad was trying (too hard) to tell us, shall we?

"...gene filling around view..." and "...where does confidence come from..."
- hmmmm....if humans, animals, insects... whatever, are in the same room where the sofa is, kinda' hard to imagine that their genes could somehow exit their bodies and fill up the room. With regard to confidence, maybe it's in their genes (pun intended), hehee..

"...placing myself into complete space..."
- I wonder whether does the ad try to make us imagine being lost into complete space or it was describing what the copywriter was feeling when he/she wrote the ad. It sure sounds like the latter. Maybe the copywriter should write a novel some day.
- I think ads should always make customers understand what benefits they will get from choosing a particular product or service, and this can be achieved by using the word 'YOU' instead of 'I/ME'. Say for examples, an ad for a fabric softener "Softness you can feel" or a courier service "The name you can trust!". Unless of course it's something like McDonald's tagline that says I'm lovin' it! - even THAT is putting us, the customers to say I'm lovin' it!, not the McDonald's owners/franchisees/franchisors.

"...extending branch, colour stretching and white cloud disappearance field in deep heart becomes lovely soon..."
- errrr... what?????

Ad 3: Hijama air vacuum
Hijama is the Arabic term for acupuncture. My parents have this one health gadget to help them perform hijama on their own. The gadget, just like the conservative approach, use cuppings. However, it provides a more relaxed and less painful way and does not cause blood to be drawn by vacuum since it does not involve skin incision or burning of papers inside the cup to make the cup cling to the skin. Nowadays, they no longer use it though when one day, my mum experienced some skin disorder at the site chosen for cupping.

I found the box with the gadget still inside it the other day, on a shelf. Judging from the 'instructions to use' on the box, obviously the whole thing is made in China. Then, on the side of the box, here's what the manufacture wrote with regard to the benefits from using the product:

Health care gift, old and little all proper
- hmmmm, so how about those who are young and big? hehee..

Elegant features and economy enduring
- great to know that the features are elegant that it can endure (if not help us to endure) the current economic turmoil.

Ego diagnosis, health care prevention
- so it's recommended to any egotistical maniac out there who doesn't care about their health then?

Inside disease, outside remove, result special - I bet it is...

Traditional Chinese medicine, China treasure
- how lucky we are...while archeologists spend years digging for treasures buried in the land of China, we could easily get this from the night market.

Ads 4: Ad on radio and t.v.
Don't you just hate it when you see or hear an ad over the t.v. or radio that ends with laughter? Say for examples, family members are laughing because the foods are delicious as mum cooks only with the cooking oil brand J or two friends can now play tennis together because they no longer have sprained muscles, thanx to the massage oil brand K or a customer laughs with a sales assistant when buying a washing machine at a well known electrical/electronic store......hahahaa, hohohoh, hehehehee...

Oh please....enough pretending already! These ads make me (and wife) sick...

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