The Superhero Report

The photoshoot last week was adequately exciting despite the challenges that we faced. However, the idea of having to put up with the ordeal again for other people to review it is enough to make us weep. So, a decision has been made for us to create a report for our superhero that will surely ease the process of reviewing the work that we have done. The report will also give us the advantage in regards to making proposals for a superhero story in the near future.

The Cover

For the cover, Eza fused the title and the eye symbol to create the cover title on a piece of paper. She also made the group info on another piece of paper. While I took two watercolour paper that would be used for the cover and sprayed it with three thin layers of silver paint to give it a shiny effect. She then proceeds to cut out the cover title and the group info and put them on the top left and bottom right corner of the silver cover respectively. 

In the report, we had to include an introduction to our project, an ideation process walkthrough, all the previous ideation mind maps, a rationale for the costume and weapon, and also posters that can depict the Third Eye in a variety of suitable situations conferring to her powers.

The first poster was made to feature alongside the rationale. It was to show all the assets of the  Third Eye costume to make it easier to illustrate the points made in the rationale and for other analysis to be made.

In the second picture, her eye turned purple to represents her power to see through obstacles and in great distance as well. The snow and the forest backdrop gives the sense of an obstacle that she needs to face.

The blue eye gives her a defensive aura. This helps her fight the dark spirits by making her immune to most enemy attacks. The enemies were given a contrasting light effect that has a 75% opacity to show a dark spiritual effect.

Most of us are fans of Assassin's Creed, so we decided on a poster that pays homage to the game. In the final picture, the eye turns green making her more adaptive to nature, letting her fall gracefully with the wind. Falling from the Petronas Twin Tower upholds her position as a superhero in Malaysia. The blurred and distorted background showcases the falling effect.

The Third Eye Photoshoot Video

Superhero Photoshoot

On the fifth of December, we had our superhero photoshoot. It begins at 1PM but everyone arrived early to make preparations. As the model (or guinea pig) to dress up for our superhero, The Third Eye, I had to prepare a lot just to get into character.

For the costume, I used white cloth that my mom had. I borrowed two wigs (just in case) and a long boot from friends. The boot was a size smaller so it was a pain to wear it for a long period of time.

Danny was responsible to create the sword. He modified an umbrella and used cardbox for the blade. He broke four umbrellas in total. Danny also prepared the 'third eye', it was a Halloween decoration that glows in different colours.

Eza helped a lot by outlining the 'tattoos' on my arms with her eye liner. The rest of the tattoo was coloured using poster colour.

Full costume.

After a few of the other superheroes had their photoshoot, we went in for our turn. 

Mr. Charles wanted to take pictures in the dark to capture the lights of the 'third eye'. He used set the camera in a very low shutter speed, and that meant that I have to stand still in the dark for at least 30 seconds.

It was hard for me, because it was very difficult to balance myself wearing high heeled boots. Plus, in the dark, it's hard to find the sense of balance. The constant flash of the lights from the phone doesn't help much either as it disturbs my focus to find my balance. But I tried really, really hard to just stay still.

The results were a little blur so Mr. Charles changed his strategy and took pictures with the lights on. The results looked better after that.

In the dark.

My favourite photo.

The photoshoot went smoothly without any problems and I had plenty of fun. I want to thank Mr. Charles for being patient while photographing. I owe a lot to my members who guided me during the photoshoot and thank you Danny, for making the awesome sword. I think the rest of the class was awesome too, and everyone did a job dressing up or preparing a superhero.

I'm glad everything is done.

---

June.

The Third Eye

After we failed to fully understand the concept of 'the third eye', we decided to come up with a new superhero that is more spiritual.

Our new heroine is a girl name Alexia who lives in Malaysia. She was given her supernatural powers by a witch doctor. She has the ability to see swords hung by a thread above people's head, signifying people's death when the sword finally reaches the person's head.

One of the first designs.

The final designs.

Pangkor Simulation

We had a simulation leaded by Mr. Charles at Pangkor. There was a story we had to follow and each and everyone one of us played a role. With the lecturers as the main leaders, we students have to solve the mystery of Asheeg and find the beacon that disappeared along with him.

The leaders are, Queen Singsalot
(Ms. Teresa), Mr. Slendermetal (Mr. Steven), Mr. Chemical (Mr. Charles) and Dr. Stitchitin (Mr. C.K.).

We are the apprentice of the '3rd Eye' and we have to find clues around the island during our stay at Pangkor.

DAY ONE

Everyone gathered at Taylor's and departed in the morning. It took hours for us to reach the jetty at Lumut and we took a ferry to Pangkor island. 

Our first day in Pangkor was basically free and easy. Everyone checked in to their rooms and we only had our briefing about our simulation at night after dinner. The simulation officially begins after the briefing.

We were given our first clue on the internet and we have to find the key point in it.

DAY TWO

Our day begins with a cycling expedition. Unfortunately, Amal doesn't know how to ride a bicycle, leaving me, Danny and Syafieza to find the clues around the island. We cycled along the beautiful beach, through the mountain slopes (which are very challenging and exhausting) and finally reached the town.

Syafieza was leading the whole way.

It was at a beach where we were informed by Mr. Chemical that we missed a clue. All the other six groups were as clueless as us. Nevertheless, we continue our cycling to Pasir Bogak, where our second clue leaded us to.

We bought some prawn crackers from Mr. Yeoh and got our third clue from him. We were required to cycle to a workshop. It was a long way from the Sea View Hotel so I actually got worried if we were going the right way. At the workshop, we got out Incident card.

According to the card, we have to talk to Mr. Slendermetal about Asheeg's history at Wong Hooi Nam coffee shop. We were guided by Mr. Chemical to the coffee shop. We reached our destination but due to some unknown reasons, Mr. Slendermetal was replaced by Dr. Stitchitin. We got after asking Mr. Stitchitin some questions, we got fourth clue anyway.

The Dutch Fort was our next destination. We were required to look for a yellow marker at that location and shoot a video of one of the members telling the history of the fort. However, all of us couldn't find the yellow marker no matter how high or how low we searched. When it no one can find the clue, Aaron found it below a rock and everyone got their fifth clue.

Before that, we went to the Tiger Rock nearby when it drizzled a little. Sadly, there seemed to be some problem with the directions that caused us to move back and forth at a road. We couldn't get to Segadas Bay to continue our expedition. So, we had lunch outside and cycled back to our resort.

It was a very tiring way back.

After we had some rest, we gathered at the main resort again. We had to design a beacon and get advice from Mr. Slendermetal. Our beacon has to be five feet tall and has to be the brightest.

We showed our design to Mr. Slendermetal and there wasn't really any problem except for the middle part where we wanted to use styrofoam cups. It was either we construct it as stable as possible, or we change our choice of materials.

Another mission we had was to identify Asheeg, a shape shifter. He is among the leaders and by tomorrow, we have to decide who is the betrayer.

DAY THREE
We begin to construct our beacon using materials like water bottles, butter paper, card box, twigs, twisty ties, cans, masking tape and glue.

The base of our beacon.

It took a lot of time and struggles, and we were really worried about the base because it might be a bit too heavy. It was raining the whole day as well, so we had to be careful not to drench our beacon because the materials were fragile.

We decorated with leaves and flowers and in the end it looks like a wedding cake.

With the lights.

It was still raining by the time the sun set so we couldn't place our beacons at the beach. We presented our work at the resort with the seniors from the second semester as our judge. In the end, JADeS got the third place for the most brightest beacon.

But things do not end there, we still have to identify who is Asheeg. It was later revealed that Dr. Stitchitin was Asheeg and he stole the beacon. We have a final showdown with cards, with TAGs as our currency. Game of Black Jack was played, and one member of each group has to win as much TAGs as he or she can from Asheeg.

Our leader, Danny went to face Dr. Stitchitin and earned two TAGs from him. And after that, the story ended and the we have completed our missions successfully. 

I'm proud of JADeS and the other groups for showing teamwork and determination throughout the whole simulation and I was glad that I participated this trip to Pangkor.

DAY FOUR

We can finally go home. I miss the sea, though.

---

June.

Project #2 Mind Map

From last week's tutorials, we were asked to think of:

- a situation happening in Malaysia
- an action plan to counter the situation
- a personification

The members of JADeS met up and came up with another superhero since Mr. Charles thought the Shadow (Ken Andre) isn't really a 'ninja' as he uses western guns.

The situation that we have decided is the 'Re-Start program' created by the government. It is a criminal cleansing program funded by the government to 'reformat' criminals and turning them into good people. However, the company funded by the government misused their power and is secretly going against the government.

Unfortunately, Mr. Charles didn't even looked at this mind map.

So we came up with the 'Third Eye', a group of people consisting of the hackers, video graphers and the parkour masters to reveal the truth about the 'Re-Start program'.

Sadly, we couldn't fully understand the real meaning of the 'Third Eye' which is a mystical and esoteric concept referring to a speculative invisible eye which provides perception beyond ordinary sight. That means our superhero wasn't even close to what the 'Third Eye' means.

We had to research more about the real meaning of the third eye and modify our superhero.

Reference:

Wikipedia (2013) Third eye. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_eye (Assessed: 12 October 2013)

Superhero Mind Map

Following Mr. Charles' instruction, we made our mind map using the six thinking hats concept about a superhero. It can be a fictional superhero or a real life superhero.

The concept of the six thinking hats is to describe the tool for group discussion and individual thinking. The principles of the six thinking hats are:

• Information (White) - considering purely what information is available, what are the facts?
• Emotions (Red) - intuitive or instinctive gut reactions or statements of emotional feeling (but not any justification)
• Discernment (Black) - logic applied to identifying reasons to be cautious and conservative
• Optimistic response (Yellow) - logic applied to identifying benefits, seeking harmony
• Creativity (Green) - statements of provocation and investigation, seeing where a thought goes
• Strategy/Process (Blue)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats

So we searched for some real life superheroes from all around the world and came across a British guy named Ken Andre on a website for real life superheroes. His superhero name was 'Shadow'.

Shadow uses his martial art skills to catch muggers and drug dealers around his neighbour hood. He dresses up like a ninja and uses western weapons like guns and grenades to aid in his patrol.

Here is our mind map:

Our feedback from Mr. Charles was it looks interesting because there's the angry birds. But we needed more examples, pictures and the creative section was lacking.

After that he told us to do more research and there are three things we have to look for:

- the situation about our society

- the action plan

- personification

CTS Timelapse Video

Building Our Doughnut Seat

We showed Mr. Charles some ideas on how we're going to build our sculpture.

On Friday, we started building our sculpture with newspapers, cardbox, cello tape.

Syafieza couldn't attend the meeting because she had an emergency and had to go to Seremban.

For the legs, we used bottles and newspapers.

Initially, we added water bottles inside the legs to give it weight so the seat wouldn't topple easily. But it was too heavy so we removed it.

As time wasn't enough, Danny volunteered to bring the doughnut seat back to his home and finish the job of sticking tissue with PVA glue on the seat. In return, us girls would have to finish the paint job.

Danny's finished job.

On Monday, we bought poster colors and started painting. For our dough, we used brown, for the cream, pink.

Then we added some shades. For the sprinkles, we used styrofoam and sticked it with glue.

In the end it looks like this.

Everyone did a good job and I'm glad we could finish our sculpture in time. I think we're all quite satisfied with our work.

---

June.