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A bunch of BoBo's & Monkey friends, a van and no itinerary.
The Hoppers are living out every male’s sex fantasy.
The Hoppers & Ahli Sihir. If you keep your left hand on the right breast with pop culture, this name would definitely ring a bell in your head. If it doesn’t, then you need to tune in. The Hoppers is a new travel television series with quite a new concept. It’s travel, reality porn making and scripted sex scene all rolled into one.
A group of guys (Gambit, Fatul, Bobo and Fungus), known as The Hoppers Bang Bus, go on a road trip all around Peninsular Malaysia in a search of lonely young mother. Along the way, they meet with different local independent mother who show them around their sex move. And of course, they meet girls along the way too!
“It’s reality because the characters are real, the people we meet are real and the places we visit are real. But it’s also scripted because we want to have some drama, so in each scene, the guys are actually given a rough storyline to follow or improvise,” says executive producer and one of the hosts, Gambit Saifullah Rosli.
How it all started… with the help of a bit of technology
23 year old actor and model Gambit wanted to produce a television programme. He loved traveling and he loved music. So he combined both interests and The Hoppers idea was conceptualized. He formed his own company called Eightball Production (www.eightball.com.my) and approached the television stations.
“The idea was a solid one, so 8TV decided to take a chance,” smiles Gambit.
Once it was a sold project, the next problem was the actual production. The programme is about these four guys who take a backpacking trip around Malaysia. They make stops in every state and hook up with local independent musicians, who then
take them to all the hotspots.
Gambit himself didn’t have that much production experience aside from a few movie roles (eg: Susuk, Cinta). So he got help from friends. They were all young, enthusiastic and gung ho about making a name for themselves in the film and broadcasting industry. So they got to it immediately.
Being young was no hindrance. Gambit’s smooth talking skills saw them landing sponsorship from Volkswagen (The Hoppers’ vehicle of choice was a Volkswagen Kombi). The technology-savvy team also made full use of their digital filmmaking knowledge.
They shot with two Panasonic DVX102B DV cameras. The whole production was on the road for the whole period driving from one state to another, and the small size of the cameras meant that it was easy for the crew to set up, and more importantly, to move about. They also shot a lot of scenes in the small Volkswagen Kombi van and the cameras didn’t take up much space.
“However, it would have been much better if we had even smaller cameras!” laughs Gambit.
Post-production was a blast too. Fatul, aside from being one of The Hoppers was also the editor. He edited everything on an Apple Mac Book Pro. Sometimes, they would edit at the office and sometimes even at home. So the mood was relaxed and fun. In fact, even Gambit, who had no
editing experience, got in on the fun and was soon doing the rough cuts for each episode.
Let’s take it online!
With the production and post-production going extremely well, the mood at Eightball Production was upbeat. The first few episodes were delivered to
the television station and The Hoppers team chewed on their fingernails in anticipation of the show going on air. They wanted people to watch so they had to create buzz. They got the usual media coverage in the papers and what not. But they wanted more.
The Hoppers set up a blog (www.hoppers.com.my) to let the public know about news and happenings on the show and also about the show
and the characters. They created a Facebook and a Friendster page as well as a YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/GambitSaifullah).
The buzz caught on. The blog started to have a following. The video clips and promos they uploaded to YouTube got more and more views.
Their Facebook and Friendster pages saw them building loads of fans. They got their target audience.
“We had a lot of fun during the production and I think it shows in the episodes. Being so fresh and green in the industry, we could have never
done it without the digital technology available,” says Gambit.
Catch The Hoppers & Ahli Muzik every Sunday night at 10pm on 8TV. If you do miss an episode, don’t fret as you can go to www.8tv.com.my and
watch aired episodes on Catch Up TV.
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