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Showing posts with the label TV

Leonard Nimoy and Me

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To tell the truth I am more of a ST-TNG fan than the original series and thats because my introduction to Star Trek came in the form of TNG in the late 80s on Pakistan Television. I was 11 and was blown away, spent hours on an imaginary space ship of my own, giving orders and defeating threats. The desktop of my school desk was littered with the designs of my imaginary touch screens. Only when satellite tv came to us in the mid 90s I got a taste of the original series which seemed weird and wacky to me, but in it there was a voice, a voice of reason and logic which appealed to me and thats when I fell in love with a tv character called Spock. As I grew up and went through various re runs and books related to Star Trek I began to understand the appeal of an utopian society where logic and science ruled, where there was no poverty for the most part, where there was no need for money and everyone was free to pursue their dreams, most of these books were written by Leonard Nimo

The Impact of reality TV like Big Boss on Pakistani Society

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It seems that everyone I know watches  Big Boss  another import from India, proving that our Pakistani media simply is not capable of producing quality programming and have no problem putting something on Pakistani screens which is at odds with our so called religious boundaries, hence the double standards of the media and the people of Pakistan, who are ok with scantily clad women dancing on the screen but will  rise in fury to kill anyone who wants to believe in whatever  he sees as the truth, its seems that you can do whatever you want as long as its hidden & you take the oath that declares your elegance to the state approved  Ummah  Coming back to  Big Boss,  after watching it for a while for a day I started wondering why would a person watch something like this? whats the appeal? and I have come to a conclusion, that people have lost all confidence in mankind's inner goodness. For me whats disturbing & disgusting really, is that people enjoy all the scheming

Why is Pakistani Media killing our core values ?

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If you know me then you know that I'm no conservative but sometimes some thing comes up that makes my blood boil. I stopped watching Pakistani television some time ago but today happened to watch a drama on Geo and what they were preaching in that drama really pissed me off. My concern is this. I don't care if they show porn on television as long as its clearly marked as porn and not shown in primetime.  They always say to me that english movies and dramas have much more violence and sex and bad things in them, you don't say anything about them? but the thing is that the program or a movie has clear indications of whats in it and if there is something you can just skip that part and it's over also due to language most dont understand it anyway. The problem is that Pakistani media is in urdu and easily understandable to children and the themes being discussed in primetime when children are watching have far greater impact also the writers take no pains to ma

Lack of children's programs on Pakistani TV Channels

For a generation to succeed it must be nurtured by the previous generation. The growing mind of a child which is constantly learning needs stimulation in order to get that mind to think in the right direction and pave the way to knowledge and better understanding. As I remember my childhood, even though there was only one tv channel then PTV, the thing which stands out is that there was a genuine effort to educate as well as entertain. Perhaps one of the reasons for that is that profit was not the aim. I remember lots of programs that I watched that have shaped the way I think, the way I view the world. Programs which explained the world to me, opened the doors to science and technology, to rationality and looking at the world differently. Much has gone bad since then ... there are virtually no educational programs left on any channel ... one might argue there is the Discovery Channel or National Geographic sure these resources are there and a few are willing to learn ... but the s

My Current Project - Yasurnal Quran

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These days working on a new project. Its a new version of the Yasurnal Quran for MTA. Here is a screen shot of the project in Adobe Premiere CS3. It takes about 3 days to finish one lesson. What makes the Yasurnal Quran unique from others is the font that was developed by Peer Manzoor Mohammad Sahib in 1904. It was converted to digital font by some guyz at the Jamia Ahmadiyya making this video version possible. The whole Project is done using the multi-cam technology in Adobe Premier which means that during recording no switcher is used and all cameras have tapes in them giving more flexibility during editing. There are a lot of separate parts which combine to make the complete picture for instance the 3D portion which is done in a program called Pro Animator. Take a look at the project pic (above)to see how much work is involved. Every letter or words has its own 3D element which has to be made separately. Then there is the background & other element layers. As far a

Pakistan's First TV Generation

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Most of my childhood memories come down to television. I guess growing up in the 80s, we were the first tv generation of Pakistan. My earliest recollections are of Man From Atlantis, then there is Powers of Matthew Star and Voyagers. Then there are a few shows that I just barely remember like Trapper John, M.D. or there was a show with some aliens and they had strange things that the put to a person's neck to subdue him. We had only one tv channel at that time and that was PTV and it was awesome. We watched all the great tv shows of that time Murder she wrote,    Airwolf,  Knight Rider,  The fall guy,  Macgyver,  Law and order,    Star Trek,    War of the worlds,  Chocky, The Tripods,    Sapphire and steel,  Mind your language,  Yes minister,    Chips  then there were loads of children's programs Sesame street,  Thundersub,  Voltran,  Danger mouse. The Twilight Zone used to give me nightmares. Great Family Comedy shows like  Perfect Strangers

Tell me why

In my dreams, Children sing A song of love for every boy and girl The sky is blue, the fields are green And laughter is the language of the world Then I wake and all I see is a world full of people in need Tell me why,(why) does it have to be like this Tell me why, (why) is there something I have missed Tell me why, (why) cause I don't understand When so many need somebody We don't give a helping hand Tell me why Every day, I ask myself what will I have to do to be a man Do I have, to stand and fight To prove to everybody who I am Is that what my life is for? To waste in a world full of war Tell me why, (why) does it have to be like this Tell me why, (why) is there something I have missed Tell me why,(why) cause I don't understand When so many need somebody We don't give a helping hand Tell me why (Tell me why) Tell me why (Tell me why) Tell me why (Tell me why) Just tell me why (why, why, why) Tell me why, (why) does it have to be like this Tell me why, (why) is there

First job at MTA Pakistan

It was late 2000 I think my mother had just passed away in september and I was also a newly wed. At that time I was jobless and doing small jobs like making dvds vcds or editing wedding movies. Which I didn't like at all cause that meant doing editing typical desi paki style which I hate. Anyway in this regard I was known in rabwah that this guy knows something about video. So one day I got a call from MTA Pak that they wanted help in some NLE job. So I went and then never stopped going. Worked for almost three years as a volnteer untill I got a job there. My first major job at MTA was the Holy Quran Project. I took me and my team took about 2 years to finish the complete Quran and its translation.Two sets were made from a single project one quran tilawat only and second with urdu translation. The whole thing was a complicated accumilation of different parts. For example the audio was analouge had to be captured the cleaned of all noise and then treated. That alone took a day or