My 9 Takeaways of "Inside Out Talk With The Directors"

Pete Doctor & Ronnie Del Carmen...

The Director & Co-Director of Pixar's Inside Out was in town (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) last week for an Interactive Talk with industry players and students. Tqs Hasnul and MDeC for organizing the event!

I like to keep my blogposts short and simple so here are my top 9 takeaways:

1. At Pixar we always expect the first idea to be lame
- That encourages their team members to be creative and contribute ideas

2. The pre-production was 3 years (production was 2 years)
- Ive always known and agreed that 'Content Is King'
- Discussions, writing, drawing, reviewing... then discussing, writing, drawing, reviewing... then discussions, writing, drawing, reviewing... for 3 years does really mean that the company has the persistence to make the best project possible.. and what a marvellous movie it is :)

3. Research
- Pete Doctor: After presenting the idea to John Lasseter.. his feedback is.. sounds like a good idea.. do more research.. 
- Pete Doctor: When we meet him again, his feedback is.. sounds like a good idea.. do more research..
- It's amazing to see the level of research that Pixar does for their movies - Inside Out consulted brain specialists.. some teams are lucky like the UP team went to Venezuela.. but the Toy Story 3 team went to garbage processing waste areas for research (this point was actually taken from the Toy Story 3 talk i heard a few years back)

4. About Pixar's growth from Toy Story till now
- When you grow, you need to create more leaders
- For example, when you were a team of 12 and had 2 leaders... when you grow to a team of 26 you need probably 6 leaders
- It's always true that great leaders create more great leaders

5. Ideas can come from your surroundings 
- Pete Doctor : Inside Out was inspired by his 12 year old daughter that was going through puberty.. He asked himself... what emotions is my girl going through.. and from there - the idea was proposed to John Lasseter and he said.. sounds like a good idea.. do more research :)

6. When your big enough.. run multiple projects.. but when your starting... Focus!
- Pixar started with focus on that one project first - Toy Story
- Now they have many teams that have project leaders and are making many great movies (at the same time)

7. Pixar started as a hardware company
- Yes, they didn't start as an animation content IP company
- Each company has its own history and story - and that history actually shapes the core values and personality of that company

8.  They tell the story - beautifully...
- I would probably say that this is the biggest WOW i had that day...
- Their presentation was really really good. Once Pete and Ronnie were both at the stage together.. it was like watching a Pixar movie.. the storytelling.. the slides.. the way they hooked us.. the jokes that made us laugh.. the way they presented was really really amazing. It really inspires me to make my presentations as good as theirs... or maybe even better :)

9. I want to be like John Lasseter or at least have an office like his one day.. Full of our very own merchandises! :D

Sinan Ismail | Co-Founder Digital Durian | Director Didi & Friends | PHD (Passionate Husband & Daddy)

His Name is Ryan Giggs

Hie everyone,

I'm on the flight back from Rome back to Kuala Lumpur via Emirates now. Yes. Now! Emirates now has Onboard WiFi :) Which is really cool.

You do need to pay though - 1usd for the first 500mb and then the additional 1usd for next 100mbs. Isn't that a great deal! To pay for wifi in a coffee shop would at least cost you a cup of coffee which is at least 3usd! (and 500mb is definitely enough for some simple WhatsApp and Facebook browsing). What's more important is, your connected with your family and friends.

Ok. Back to my original story. I love football, I love Man United. The in flight entertainment had a documentary titled. Life of Ryan... Caretaker Manager.

The documentary shows the brief 3 weeks when Giggs was the caretaker/manager of the club last season. It showed his reaction, how he handled the job, how he felt, his philosophy, behind the scenes at the press conferences.. And many more insider insights.

My favourite part was probably when he said "I've been through this tunnel hundreds of times, but I haven't felt as nervous as this" he was referring to the first home game as manager and the visuals were showing him walking out of the Old Trafford tunnel with fans chanting his name. Its was really emotional.

Its a really really interesting documentary to watch. How they ended the it was also very emotional. Talking bout the famous Arsenal 99 FA Cup semifinal goal.. Then Giggs finally confessed he was in tears in his car after the last game......

24 Seasons
963 Appearances
13 Premier League Titles
2 European Cups
4 FA Cups
3 League Cups

The most decorated player in the Premier League. Hopefully he learns his trade with LVG and manages United one day. GGMU!

Thank you Giggs!

Edit * I just found the full video on YouTube !!! :D You can watch it here:

8 Reasons Why I Want To Start Blogging Again :)

CIAO everyone.... (haha...after 3 years of silence on this blog) :P

I want to start blogging again :)

Here are 8 reasons why:

1. I want to share what i love and know (i only feel that's the right thing to do because i learn so much new/cool stuff from other's people writings)

2. I want to inspire people to do good things (because that makes me feel good)

3. I want to share the Didi & Friends journey (from my perspective) (*you can follow the official Didi & Friends blog at www.didiandfriends.com)

4. I want to be a good storyteller (hopefully blogging helps!)

5. I want to be a better person (blogging can make me muhasabah diri)

6. There are less bloggers now (most of them have jumped to FB pages or Instagram) 

7. Blogs are great because they have SEO Search Engine Optimization + people can read old articles via SEO + find posts on the Side Menu (unlike FB or Insta) My Insta is @sinanismail

8. I want pahala (inshaAllah that will come if i can help/inspire others)

So there it is. What do you think? Should i blog? 

Sinan Ismail at Colesseo, Rome

*This post was written in Rome (thats why i used CIAO at the beginning of the post), i am here after attending the Bologna Children's International Book Fair with Didi & Friends 
(welllll.... that's a different story).


Love,
Sinan Ismail
Director of Didi & Friends + PHD (Passionate Husband & Daddy)
www.didiandfriends.com

A Fathers Experience of Birth : Part1 & Part2

Introducing... Our new addition...

Alhamdulillah at 2.21pm Friday 16th March 2012, me and Nuown were blessed with the birth or our baby boy - Qays :)

The delivery process was such an amazing experience and i would love to share the experience for dads to be. Ill keep the blogpost as simple as possible.

Part 1 : Water Break 16/3/2012 - 3.30am

Wifey : Sayang... Wake up.. Wake up.. (While she was standing...) I think my water broke.. there's water on my feet, siap meleleh lagi ni..

That moment was ALARMING! I was all over the place kelam kabut! Hehe.. in contrast Nuown was calm and cool she could afford to take a shower. :)

Since the water break was 15 days earlier then the expected birth date (30/3/2012), we were half prepared and luckily we had the Baby Bag ready in the car (Make sure you have it ready and complete!). On my side, i was busy packing the Sony Nex5n, iPods, laptops, Zoom H1 recorder, chargers and other gadgets (next time i promise i will get them ready in the Father's Bag!). - As the consequences of not preparing the Fathers Bag - I left the tripod at home..

 Tqs to Kak for the bag :)

The Sony Nex5n - Super performance under low light. 

This picture was taken nightime with no lights on. We just had some light from the tv.

ISO 3200 + a little editing on highlights and shadows using Chrome Apps - Befunky

By 4.15am, we were ready to go to Columbia Asia Cheras, the hospital where Qays will be born. Hehe, i still got the time to take one picture for the archive but Nuown wasn't really happy as by that time she was anxious to go :)

4.00am : Posing in front of our house

Part 2 : Straight To Labour Room? 16/3/2012 - 4.30am

The journey to the hospital took around 15 minutes (always choose the best + closest hospital to you). It was a slow and steady drive to the hospital but i was happy as i knew that in 15 minutes we will reach it.

After registering at the emergency counter, the nurse took us straight away to the labour room.

What is that machine?

Arriving in the labour room...

The first thing in my mind was ... i'm becoming a father today! Hehe.. but i knew it wasn't going to be a straightforward adventure.

The midwife asked nuown to lay down and she wanted to do a ctg.. A what? Ctg is short for Cardiotocography. And what is that? To be honest, i did not do much research on a ctg - what i did know was that nuown was SUPPOSED to do a ctg tomorrow morning during the next check up.

Well, for those fathers to be, (moms and doctors-correct me if im wrong!) my simple understanding - a ctg is a machine to monitor the heartbeat and contraction timing for your wife.

The CTG Machine

The Cast And Director's Chair :P

Comfortable :)

The ctg took around 30 minutes and finally the midwife came back to check the dilation....

I got really nervous at this moment, for the first time the midwife will check the dilation - I just wanted to hear that there was a dilation. My brain was saying IF there wasn't any dilation, there might be a problem because the water has started to come out... and probably result in doing a c-sect. I kept praying that there would be no major complications and Alhamdulillah she said that there was a 1cm dilation :)

When we attended the antenatal class (if you do your regular checkups at Columbia Asia Cheras - you are entitled to go to their antenatal class for Free :) ), the Dr said if the dilation is 1cm, normally they will ask us to go back. But in nuown's case, since the water break has occurred - they admitted her to the ward.

Mama and baby bump before masuk wad :)

After solat Subuh i prayed to Allah that nuown will have a successful and safe delivery. I keep praying for natural birth and an easy birth but if it goes to c-sect, we will accept the situation. The main focus is for Mama & baby Qays to be safe and healthy throughout and after the process (we had this mindset and every time we prayed we asked for this).

And Alhamdulillah they are both safe and healthy :)

Part 3 : Serious??... Ok! 16/3/2012 - 3.30am

I will continue with part 3 when i have the time to blog but here is something from Part 3:

The birth plan was to have an epidural and natural birth... but... 

Here is a picture of Baby Qays at 3 days old :)

*All pictures were taken using the Sony Nex5N with the 18-55mm lens

*Some pictures were touched up using BeFunky Chrome Apps

Lessons Learnt:

• Prepare your complete Baby Bag + Your Personal Things + Gadgets!
• Read read read and research :)
• Do both of the above at least 4 weeks before the due date! :)
• Always doa to Allah and be positive.

- Sinan Ismail -

/// I did not finish part 3 - and now my Baby Qays is 3 years old - and im soon to get Baby M inshaAllah this month *4 April 2015 -

13 Weeks

Today was an amazing day. First time dengar heartbeat baby and buat 3d ultrasound. Alhamdulillah Dr Ng from Columbia Asia said everything was good :)

The emotion and feeling of watching the ultrasound is wonderful :) cant wait for next month's check up. Doakan baby and mama sihat semuanya. Amin.

And for those expectant fathers out there, dont forget to take videos of the ultrasound. For me, that moment is priceless and is something i definately want recorded on video. :)

Milo Kotak

This is my wifes latest craving. :) milo kotak sahaja. Milo tin x boleh... Milo sejuk yang macam van milo dekat iklan tv tu pun x sedap. Milo kotak sahaja.. Hehe. Anything for u and our baby. Bak kata dekat kotak Milo "go further". :)

Im now the expectant father :)

Alhamdulillah.

I am now an expectant father. Right now I am blogging using my galaxy s while holding my wifes little bump. :) What a great feeling.

Little bump now is 10 weeks and 6 days. Grow well my little bump. Mama and daddy doa for u and we can't wait to scan and see u again in 3 weeks.

... the expectant father :)