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iPhone in Kuwait ! » iPhone in Kuwait !

iPhone Q8

I brought your attention did I ? This is the Kuwait Mac Community’s dream. The iPhone, form & function in one, a masterpiece in design, it’s dead simple to use, and it just .. works.

I highly recommend seeing this introductory video, and while your at it, notice its speed when changing between apps, even when a call arrives while watching a video, its surprisingly smooth.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/usingiphone/guidedtour.html

It is one of the most talked item in the blogosphere, and yesterday it got released in the USA. As you may know AT&T has the exclusive rights for the iPhone because of a 2-year contract they made with Apple. Meaning in can be activated by AT&T only, it’s also mentioned that even the iPod features don’t work before activation. So if your in Kuwait like me, then chances are it can’t be activated here, well only if you place your bets on a Hacker which I will probably do. Also it’s rumored that on this Monday, Apple is going to announce the official Carrier for the iPhone in Europe, which is Vodafone, yup that means us too, statistically speaking, since our beloved MTC is called MTC-Vodafone. One of the most notable thing is that the European version of the iPhone supports 3G, and since the contract is rumored to be 3 years, it makes sense for Apple to use 3G since Vodafone doesn’t want to be stuck with slower Edge Technology for that long.

3G is “3G is third-generation technology in the context of mobile phone standards. The services associated with 3G include wide-area wireless voice telephony and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment.” – Wikipedia. More on 3G here, Edge here

So to summarize, either you take the risk and buy it online in hopes of a way to activate it and unlock it to make it work in Kuwait, or wait for the European version which should be announced this Monday according to the rumors.

[Update]As reported here the iPhone is going to be sim-unlocked in some countries

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Overload ! » Overload !

Overload

I just don’t know what was going ! I’ve stopped posting all of a sudden, I guess I was procrastinating a lot these days, or maybe because I was obsessed so much with reading updates on the iPhone and I forgot about my own blog ! I’ve also been busy making copies of my DVD portfolio for my family and friends, plus working on some unfinished projects here and there, talk about an overload !

There is a post that I’ve started working on last week, or I could say a series of posts. It’s about the main crew of a Hollywood Movie, in each post I’ll write about a person, starting from the producer, writer, director, and ending with the production assistant or PA. Stay tuned folks.

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LOST Season 4 !! » LOST Season 4 !!

Lost

The last episode for the season of lost, finally, has some meaning to it !.. usually most episodes ends with a suspenseful twist , leaving you questioning and associating between previous episodes. Many people are saying that Lost has been straying from it’s plot, but as I see it is connecting so well. The last episode of season 3 was one of the best so far !! Season 4 will begin airing in February 2008, I just can’t wait for it !

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Final Cut Studio 2 – First Impressions » Final Cut Studio 2 – First Impressions

finalcut box

Today I’m very excited because I finally received Final Cut Studio 2 .

The box is really heavy, it weighs about 16 pounds !!.I started opening it, then took the cardbox that supports the package off ..

Box finalcut

The package consists of 5 manuals, 4 for Finalcut Pro, and one dedicated for the color correcting tool Color, as well as a package for the main software and supplemental material ( project files, templates, training DVD)

Manuals

Finalcut studio contents

For a glimpse of what Final Cut Studio is about, and what it can do, (for non-techy readers out there :) ), it works like this:

1. Edit. Use Final Cut Pro 6 for native editing of virtually any format — from DV and SD up to HDV, XDCAM HD, DVCPRO HD, and fully uncompressed HD. Or use ProRes 422, a new post-production format from Apple that offers uncompressed HD quality at SD file sizes. Drag clips with different formats and even different frame rates into the new open format Timeline.

2. Animate. Create stunning 2D and 3D motion graphics in real time with Motion 3, the fastest and most intuitive way to animate and express your creative vision. Just drag and drop to make dramatic particle effects explode into 3D space; form vector-based paint strokes with the swish of a pen. New Motion master templates let you edit text and drop in video without leaving Final Cut Pro.

Mix with Soundtrack Pro 2.

3. Mix. Record and edit dialogue, add music and effects, and complete your mix with ease. Soundtrack Pro 2 lets you work faster than ever in its new, streamlined interface. You can even produce in surround sound using innovative visual tools. If you make changes to your edit in Final Cut Pro, you can rapidly update your audio mix with the powerful Conform feature in Soundtrack Pro.

Grade with Color.

4. Grade. Give your production a signature look or create a consistent feel for shots from different sources. Color is the newest member of the Final Cut Studio family, offering professional color grading that can elevate the quality of any production.

Deliver with Compressor 3.

5. Deliver. Use Compressor 3 to create pristine-quality output for a wide range of delivery formats — including the web, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, and broadcast servers. A streamlined new interface lets you batch-process encoding with point-and-click ease. If film is your destination, use Cinema Tools 4 to output film lists that combine timecode and keycode in a single list. Or use DVD Studio Pro 4 for professional DVD authoring and mastering.

Source: Apple.com

 

I started using Motion 3, mainly because I really wanted to use a motion graphics applictaions that uses the graphics card more efficiently and gives me real-time playback, as apposed to Adobe After Effects. I liked the templates that comes bundled with the app, as well as the animation behaviors, thats a killer feature if you compare it to After Effects .

 

I didn’t test the other applications yet, I think im going to stay at home this weekend and start using them one by one !

 

 

 

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Project: Looking for a Job (2003) » Project: Looking for a Job (2003)

Looking For a Job (2003)

Project Date: May 2003

Produced by: Innovation House, Wael Al-Omani, ahmad.TV

Client: National Association of Kuwaiti Students – Kuwait University

Directed By: Ahmad Al-Awadi

Director of Photography: Wael Al-Omani

Edited by: Ahmad Al-Awadi – Wael Al-Omani

Visual Effects, Sound Design, Screenplay: : Ahmad Al-Awadi

The Video:
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How I began:
This was my first paid project, before that I worked on several personal projects, short clips in which I did some stunts for testing purposes, each time I’m done with a project I start to show it to my family, and then send it to friends in msn. One day I received a phone call from someone who saw my work from my one of my msn contacts -word-of-mouth playing its role:), he told me “flan” someone is looking for guys interested in Media production, so I took off and went to their social gathering, we exchanged opinions and such, at the end I showed my work to someone from the gathering, at that time he was running a company by the name Innovation House, and during that time, Innovation House was responsible for the 1st Job event conference, the project included a video intro for the conference. He offered me to Direct the video, I immediately accepted without any hesitation because It was a golden chance for me to work on something real, something that can be shown in a big event.

The Idea:
I sat down with the production team, did some brain storming, and came up with the idea, I came back home and drew the storyboard, sketching it really fast, check it here, it looks funny:

lfaj1 lfaj2 lfaj3 lfaj4 lfaj5
I need some drawing courses coz I’m the worst storyboard artist ever :P

The idea goes like this, it’s a story of a man who graduates from college and starts applying for a job, it presents the obstacles that a graduate faces when he applies a for job in Kuwait, but somewhat to an extreme.

Production Notes:
We shot the entire project in one day, I edited in in my old pc in 1.5 -2 days along with the sound effects, and delivered the next day, it was done really fast because we had a very tight deadline.

But at the end it wasn’t that bad, I was happy that the audience liked it, plus they requested that we present the video one more time, which we did.

Here is a video comparing the storyboard to the final clip:
Ep1epgIq7Tg

Toolkit:

Hardware: Canon Xl1 camera, 2X Lights, Regular PC (2.5Ghz, 1Gb ram)

Software: Premiere – Photoshop – After Effects

This project was one the first projects I worked on back in 2003, Although its pretty old but I feel that it’s special in a way, probably because I was really excited to work on it at that time. If you have any comments/opinions/suggestions I’d love to hear them, just drop them down below.

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Kuwait Mac Meetup » Kuwait Mac Meetup

Pic from mac meetup

Last Tuesday I was at Second Cup for the 2nd Kuwait Mac user meetup, where Kuwaiti Mac users exchange knowledge, tips on Mac OS X, in a supporting social environment.

Highlights of the meetup:

- First we chatted with each other waiting for the rest of the attendees to come

- Next we introduced applications for Mac, VirtueDesktops, Isolator, Zekir

- Widgets: we showed a widget that does instant currency conversions, CurrencyConverter

- Tips: we explained how to use Smart folders along with the color coding labels

- Q&A: At the end we had an open discussion where we answered questions

- Giveaway DVD’s containing a handpick of Mac Apps

A lot of users are recently switching to Mac. Mac is really much more stable than windows, there are no viruses whatsover, no spyware, no adware, its clean and does the job with no hassle, let alone the applications that comes bundled with it, for more on mac, and why mac is a better choice than windows check this Link

I thank everyone who attended the user group, for more information/support on your mac, visit us at our new forum through this link, drop by and if you need support on your mac we would be glad to help, my username is (BigMac)

Read: Kuwait Mac Community

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The Legend of THE99 » The Legend of THE99

THE99

Hey there!, I know, I know, it has been a while since I last posted, mainly because I was working on a video that I hope it will be posted in a few days.

Today I stumbled across this website (Thanks M.T.S for the link!), It’s a comic book created by Dr.Naif Al-Mutawa, Founder of Teshkeel Media Group. I’m not into comic books myself, but it’s nice knowing that there is something from a Middle Eastern company that’s aiming worldwide.

Link:

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حفل التخرج – جامعة الكويت » حفل التخرج – جامعة الكويت

Graduation

صج انه حفل التخرج تأخر، وايد مو شويه، تقريبا سنة الا جم شهر، واللي توظف مرتين (مثل حالتي) واللي الله وفقه وتزوج، واللي واللي ، اهي حلاتها من اول ما نتخرج يسوون الحفل – عشان صج انحس بطعم التخرج – بس ما عليه صار اللي صار

احلى ما في هاليوم يمعة الربع، لبسنه الروب ووقفنا في ملعب كرة القدم اللي بجامعتنه ، وبعد الكلمة الإفتتاحية نادوا كل كلية بإسمها ولما يه الدور حق كليتي وقفنا يميع ورتفعت البالونات، وارتفعت الأصوات … (more…)

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Volunteering for Al-Watan Promo » Volunteering for Al-Watan Promo

Al-Watan Logo

Last Thursday I was at Souk Sharq, volunteering for Al-Watan Promo, the production company is ZEE FILM established by the Director of this promo Ziyad Al-Husaini, also with the help of a production company called Flying Cam – awarded an Oscar for Technical Achievement for the helicopter, they worked on several films including Harry potter 1-3, Van Helsing, Mission Impossible to name a few.

One of my friend’s told me that they needed volunteers for the Promo, and I wanted to be on set especially because I never saw a remote controlled cam-attached-to-a-chopper before. So I arrived on set at around 11:00am, it was hot, the sun was burning, thank god I bought my Ferrari baseball cap with me:), So after a short (more…)

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In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful » In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Action

Hello everyone !

Yes ! and finally ! I’ve set up my personal blog, I had plans to set up a blog a long time ago, but hey, the past is over ! So lets get starting folks !

This blog in general will contain mostly these 2 things:

1. Personal thoughts/opinions, feeling, ideas ..etc

2. Filmmaking topics, since I’m into filmmaking, I’ll be starting to share many things with my visitors related to filmmaking.

Just to note, the language I’ll use in my blog (English/Arabic) will depend on the post itself, as for the filmmaking topics most of them will be in English.

So on we go !

Action !!

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