By NASA MARIA ENTABAN
alltherage@thestar.com.my

FROM alien visitors to animated girls to estate thieves, the 2011 Palm Oil shorties (PO11) had a good variety of short films which were both informative and entertaining.

The project, an effort by Fried Chillies Media to spread awareness of issues surrounding the subject of palm oil, aimed at not only sharing information on the benefits of palm oil but also at encouraging students from all over the country to expand their creativity.

At the awards ceremony held on Sunday evening in Kuala Lumpur, the organisers gave out awards to participants whose films stood out.

Best film went to The World Of PO, an animated short directed by Cheng Cik Chuan, produced by Gan Fuk Tung and animated by Chik Wai Luo, all of whom are multimedia design students from Tunku Abdul Rahman College in KL.

The World of PO

The trio took home the well-deserved RM3,000 cash prize after over a month’s worth of hard work.

“We have always been interested in (Japanese) manga, and we were looking for a way to incorporate this character of a little girl into a short film,” said Fuk Tung, 30. “We saw the opportunity in PO11 and decided to join.”

The film is about a school-going girl and her imaginary friends. It has no dialogue, which makes it all the more poignant.

“To make the film more ‘local’, we used elements like typical shoplots you would see anywhere in Malaysia and other little details you will notice in the film,” explained Fuk Tung.

Animating the film took up to eight hours every single day for a month, and the guys are glad all their hard work paid off.

“It’s a good thing we’ve just graduated, so we didn’t have to worry about uni work at the same time,” said 20-year-old Wai Luo, laughing.

Winner of the Best Script award Dino Sharti, who took home an iPad 2, has been dabbling in filmmaking for the past few years. So far, he has made three short films and one documentary on paranormal activity.

Official Trip

The broadcasting and film student from KL Metropolitan College, whose film Official Trip tells the story of an alien coming to Earth to take home a tree with many uses, has always found the idea of aliens interesting.

“Films and TV shows often portray aliens as being evil or having bad intentions towards humans, so I thought ‘Why not a film about aliens asking for our help?’” said Dino, 23.

Although he has worked on several films before, this is his first attempt at directing, and Dino said he has learned a lot.

“Not just about palm oil, but about shooting techniques, editing, leading a team, even things like getting permission from Giant hypermarket to shoot in their premises!” said Dino.

Best director winner, Shankar Kumar, was also awarded with a brand new iPad2 for his work on the film The Heist.

The electronics engineering student at Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, has always had an interest in making films.

The Heist

“I had some time on my hands a few months ago so I surfed the net for any student filmmaking contests,” said Shankar, 22.

“I came across PO11 and my regular group of friends who make films together sent in several scripts, and they picked up The Heist.”

For the tale of three “thieves” who live in a palm oil estate, Shankar and his team headed to an estate in Rembau, Negri Sembilan, around an area where he used to live.

The filming process taught him a lot – thanks to the extensive research he had to do on the theme – and he also improved on his filming skills.

“At the workshop we attended as part of the PO11 project, we learned how to handle cameras, framing shots, and editing as well,” said Shankar.

q To check out the videos go to www.youtube.com/poshorties and if you want to know more about the project, go to www.PO11.org.