Am I paying for movie or commercial?

November 5, 2005 7 Comments

It is becoming a drag to watch a movie at the local cinemas.

Why? For those who comes in punctually, you will be tortured with up to 15-20 minutes of cinema commercials. Movie screening time has been compromised; we can afford to come in late for our movie. I am talking about the leading cinema-chain owner here.

Face it, no one likes to watch commercials – especially the dry and boring ones. At home, TV commercial gives us a chance to go to the loo or a break to loosen our bones, relax our eyes. It is different from screening movie previews. Cinema used to be a great place to catch some of the upcoming movie previews. Right now, it can be an ass watching those repeated commercials.

We pay money to catch a movie and thus we have the rights to watch the movie according to the scheduled time. Movie at 9:30pm will only start screening at 9:50pm. To many movie-goers, they don’t mind the delayed screening of their movie. In fact, for the latecomers, they welcome the extended commercial screenings.

However, I strongly believe the ethnic in doing business.

Yes, cinema is a great media to sell product. But I am talking about the purchased rights that a movie-goer should enjoys. Why pay an-ever escalating ticket price of $8.50 when we have to endure a 20-minute of delayed screening? We paid for HBO at home for pure movie-screenings; do we have to go thru any long commercial screenings before the next HBO movie? No, all screenings are according to the stated time.

What’s more, cinema owners are getting MORE REVENUE by selling commercial-time slots at our very own expenses. So, I am now paying $8.50 to watch a 20-min commercial + 120-min movie. Who needs it, anyway? Then, if the cinema owner is making more money selling commercial space (using our time), shouldn’t we (the movie goers) be subsidized too? After all, you can’t show commercial to an empty hall. Our time are as precious too.

So, by “tricking” the audience with a fake screening time, the cinema owner got us seated within that time frame. Then, they started airing boring commercials for us to see. They made money 2 ways – from both the advertisers and the naive audience. Not to mentioned the “no outside food” policy when they themselves sell you snacks and drinks at exorbitant price.

While we enjoyed one of the world’s cleanest and comfortable cinema environments, we often neglect our very own consumer’s rights to those sly businessmen. Protest, Singaporean!

If the cinema owner wants to make ticket sales, then cut the crap of selling airtime for commercial. (Thanks goodness, SIA Kris Flyer didn’t do that onboard) I believe we can balance the timing, keep it to 5 commercials and start the movie. Seriously, we aren’t interested to watch commercials at your cinema. Dun cross that line of logic.

Same "boos" go to the new original DVDs that we purchase from the store. Cut the pre-loaded compulsory DVD advertisements (that I can’t skip), just get me to that menu.

Filed under Jo's Thoughts

Roving Clouds, Shooting Stars and Fireworks

November 2, 2005 1 Comment

The sky above us often displays the most spectacular emotions. In a clear breezy day, you could see cottons of roving clouds, forming shapes that are only limited by your little imagination. At night, you see millions of twinkling stars spread across the dark galaxy, dazzling across the dark mysterious sky.

Singaporeans are too busy to admire the enchanting sky. We are often surrounded by clusters of skyscrapers and urban canopy that blocked our sight of the horizon. While the trees and shaded walk-ways protect us from the harsh tropic sun and rain, it also cluttered our vision of the beautiful sky.

I guess the only time you find Singaporeans look up, gazing at the sky is either during a “well publicized” lunar eclipse, planet alignment, festive seasons or on 9th August – when the local will gathered in thousands near Esplanade at Marina Bay to watch those dazzling fireworks.

I have never given a damn thing about the “sky-gazing” – not until my first visit to Australia. For some reasons, every photograph (outdoor) turned out superbly well – without the aid of a colour-enhancement filter. The Aussie has the greenest fields, bluest sky and reddest sunset. 

Winter Night, Year 1999 – During our first farm-stay at Bunbury, after dinner, Felicia and I sat decided to take a night stroll along the pond – just 5-min walk from our chalet. That night, we were both greeted with the most enchanting night sky.  In that perfect dark setting, we stood there (under 8 degrees), counting shooting stars and roving clouds. There was no street-lamp or exposed lightings to deter our vision for the clear “starry starry night”. It was an unforgettable sight.

Last night, both Felicia and I watched a marvelous display of fireworks just outside our windows at Eunos. No, it wasn’t the Deepavali fireworks. Neither has it got anything to do with the Hari Raya celebration. It was simply a gift from Mother Nature.

Streams of lightning flashed actively across the dark red sky. Strangely, it wasn’t thunderous. On the contrary, it gave us a very soothing and peaceful mood. Switching off all the lights in our house, we rolled up our window blinds, stood by our windows, gawking at nature’s most spectacular fireworks. (See photos).

For that few minutes, my fear for lightning has been replaced by a sentiment of love. Hypnotically and electrifying, it was indeed a very beautiful and breath-taking performance.

Filed under Cool Stuffs, Family, Jo's Thoughts, Life in Singapore

Numbers of Our Lives

October 26, 2005 Leave a comment

Just a new concept to
share…(dated 18th April 2005)
 
When I first bought my Nikon 950
CoolPix, I realised the camera numbered every image with an unique ID
number. So, I started snapping the first 0001 back in March 2002. I
cannot remember what is the first shoot and be bothered by the numbers.
But then, I always wonder when will I complete the 9999th shot. Well, it
happened recently. I just found out today.
 
Significantly, Photo
9999 was taken by Siow Wei of Joanne with Elkan. Never
can I predict what will be in this image…(time, venue, faces). But it
did happened…on Friday nite. It is not really a grand and perfect shot
but it is fatefully numbered 9999.
 
I have a strange concept… taking
images is just like living life… everything in life seemed to be
numbered. You cannot predict or plan a specific number for your ideal
image. For instance, I cannot plan ahead and only reserve shot "8888"
for my birthday etc.. So many factors will affect every individual photo
number tag – just like our own IC number. Every face, every event
contribute a number in my photo bank.
 
These numbers react like
"time". It is a number to remind you what are you today and what you
were back then.  
 
I have just scanned my entire
photobank…there is no way I can listed down all 9999 images. Some
images have been deleted for re-shoot or the images simply turned out
too blur or bad. Sadly, I can’t even locate image "8888" or even "1111".
Some of the happiest shots weren’t even nicely numbered – like I had my
last year birthday cake-cutting image at "7892"
 
Then, I started to list down some
important events that I remembered and got these ID:
 
1) Joanne and Ramesh first kiss at
ROM (2189)
2) The last shot before Siow Wei
left for Australia (0868)
3) The moment Duuk took out a ring
and propose (3042)
4) When Juli and Duuk received the
gifts for the Couple Award (9968)
5) First image of Elkan (7938)
6) Caffeine’s first company trip in
KL (8224)
7) My first touch of the Great Wall
(7085) and my first image in Shanghai (1070)
8) When Joanne saw her iShuffle
(9727)
9) Feli tear-dropping Birthday
surprise this year (8946)
 
Want to know what my 666th
image (devil number) looks like? It looks like heaven.
 
Life is never what we imagine.

Filed under Jo's Thoughts

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