my.dream.camera

If the Mayans were wrong and I am in the best of health (God's willing!), I will get to celebrate my 40th Birthday this year and I have a big wish!

Flashback - circa 2000 (DV Revolution begins...)

We've shot an independent digital movie in Malaysia for Amir Muhammad, entitled "Lips To Lips", on a "loaned" miniDV camera by Canon Malaysia, the Canon XL-1 (with only 1 battery!) and the film was succesful (but didn't make money!) and had travelled to 14 international film festivals.

Here is a tribute video that was put together in 2000, for the cast and crew of the movie:

Because of the film success, my company was founded and I was inspired and passionate in using small format cameras to make movies.

Circa 2005.

I made a micro-movie for a competition with Siemens SX-1 (on load by organiszers) and got into the top 12 finalists in Melbourne, Australia. Here is the winning video:

Eversince, I got very serious and started saving up, to own a decent video camera some day.

I don't come from a rich family nor am I that poor. My late father wasn't a tycoon or a minister and none of my family members are in the media industry! 

Flash-forward - 2009 ("Film-look" with video camera revolution begins....)

Finally, I bought my 3rd personal video camera in my life, the Legria Canon HF-10 (aka Lisa) and transformed it into a serious piece of "movie-camera", after saving some money over time (thus sacrificing breakfast and dinner!). I had enough savings just to get this very camera since its within my budget.

(download)

Click here to download:

make-my-wish-come-true-for-my-40th-birthday-bxsiqIiCptqAeoyknvyB.zip (259 KB)

Read more on how it got from just a consumer-video camera, to the "bazooka-like-monster", from my past blog posting here.

And with "Lisa", I got to make an award winning short-film, "Corridor", that got me a Jury Prize award and a trip to the Encounters Short Film Festival, Bristol in 2010. Here is the short-film:

Enough said, recently the only video camera I had, "Lisa", died! It was sent to Canon Singapore, but it was beyond repair (too costly!). I was devastated, as I haven't got the chance to make my full movie with it. All my past investment (less than 3 years) went down the drain, in a blink on an eye!

So my wish is that, before my 40th birthday, in December 2012. I want to get myself a good camera and tell more stories with it. It might be the last ever investment that I will ever make for a personal video camera, but now, I have a family and two beautiful daughters. My savings are just enough to feed the family and live a happy life.

This has been only a "dream", till I decide to do this "crowd-fundraising" personally! (And hope it works!)

If God hears me and open up that little compassionate-human in you, I need your help in making my ONE dream come true and to be able to buy my DREAM camera and in return I will also to help other independent filmmakers along the way...

I wish I can own one of this, the RED Scarlet-X, with a couple of lenses, that would probably be about US$50,000, but no where I could get that amount of money, even if I work hard for another 10 years! But nevetheless, I like to "aim high", at least when I fall, I still feel good.

So I'll probably for for the new Canon EOS Cinema C300 system, with a basic lens, would probably go about US$20,000. This will probably be it. It has all the feature I really need on a video camera.

If this does not reach my goal by end 2012, I will buy a "cheaper" alternative camera, maybe of the same breed as "Lisa", with whatever contributions I got from here.

So I hope you can help me by making my dream come true and next time I make a short or feature movie with it, your name will be in the credits and if ever I make money from it, I shall repay it back to you.

Click the "Make A Donation (via PayPal)" button on the top right OR if you're living in Singapore or Malaysia, you can bank in your donation to my savings account as stated below that.

Please email me your Name, Contact and your contributed amount, so I can keep track. I hope you can contribute as little as USD$10 or whatever that you can give, I will still appreciate it.

And if this doesn't happen at all, at least I've tried. No harm done.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart and only God will repay your kindness, a thousand times more!

Isazaly @ Zalee
Filmmaker/Editor/Father/Husband/Human
8 January 2012 

p/s I remember once, before there was even a social network site, there was a lady who has credit-card debts of over US$200,000 and got all paid up, just by "crowd-sourcing" like this. Well, I don't really have a sad story to tell just to get that kind of attention nor do I need 200k. I am just being honest and only want what I need. If a painter needs a brush to make his painting, I need my camera!