Unpredictable Productions fuelled by passion

A student’s daily routine consists of many activities, but the ones that remain prominent would be going to classes, studying, and keeping your parents happy with those lovely grades; a typical routine, one would say, if not dull.

But try adding video shooting with passion burning at every turn of the camera, and you will find yourself in the shoes of Roy Ajong, Raffi Th’ng, and Bryan Lim. They may be your average Taylor’s University College students, but together, they are Unpredictable Productions (UP).

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Founded in 2008, the team has come a long way with their joy of shooting videos and plenty of hardships. With video projects being shot every now and then, they look back to see how far they have come.

“Raffi and I were in the same class back in Foundation. When we entered the Degree programme, that’s when we met Bryan,” Roy Ajong said. “It was subjects like Malaysian Media History and Media Appreciation that got us all started. Their video-shooting assignments gave us something to work with.”

Influenced by directors like the notable Akira Kurosawa, the late Yasmin Ahmad, and many more, UP’s videos tend to lean more towards emotive ones.

“We want to express emotions through our videos, and try to inspire potential filmmakers with them, like how some of them did to us,” Raffi Th’ng said, explaining the reason behind their videos.

Of course, their desire to inspire was not just limited within the campus grounds. Within the past two years, UP has participated in video-shooting competitions. They even managed to land themselves on the top 20 list in the BMW Shorties competition last year.

But seeing as they are only students, one would wonder when they would ever find the time to film. And on top of that, funding.

The three had quite a laughing fit at this; “It’s mostly through personal funding,” Bryan Lim explained.

“That also involves selling a lot of personal stuff to get the money,” Raffi said.

Juggling that and the stress every student faces when they are up against assignments, the team manages to pull through every now and then.

“We know it’s tiring, that’s why we only do it when we’re free,” Raffi said.

Despite all that hassle, they never let it stop them from doing what they love the most.

“It really is all about passion and loving what you do,” Roy said while taking out his old cell phone to show to us. “I haven’t changed this lousy phone in years when I could’ve used the money I make to buy a new one. Instead, it’s all spent for our equipment. Now tell me, who would go through all that without passion?”

Unpredictable Productions may have a long way to go, but with passion as their driving factor, their big dreams might just become a reality in times to come.

For more information on Unpredictable Productions and their videos, visit

http://youtube.com/theupfilms.

By: Alissa Roslan (23.09.10)