Musings of an Idiot

Censorship

Strange name for a post I guess but thought that I would write something which was bothering me. The purpose of creating a blog was to share my thoughts and life but then the question of censorship arises because how much is too much -afterall I am sharing this with the entire world and I am really opening myself up for anything. At times it seems so tempting to just filter down your thoughts and jsut write the positive aspects of your life but then it is never that way. It is always full of ups and downs and to present a rosy picture is hypocritic. So I have decided that I will stay as true to myself as possible and write what I feel - no matter what the people who read this blog feel or say about me. Everyone is entitled to opinions and thoughts and what is made of me in your minds is for you - if your opinion of my public image/persona changes then I guess i had been pretending to be what I never was.

Censorship seems to be such a common thing -we censor out what we don't want others to know or our version of the same story changes depending on whom we are telling it to. We live a society increasingly obsessed with status and social rankings and thus the drive to put on masks - something which disturbs me - because I can't seem to put on any masks or do I put on too many of them? I guess this is one of those really introspective entries I will be making.

On a completely different note - i did want to talk about sexuality in film and how society in general reacts to it- this came about after watching 'The Dreamers' at Academy and also reading the reviews about 9 SONGS. I watched 'The dreamers' last week at Academy Cinema, on a small screen with a capacity for about 15-16 people and the movie was sold out. The movie was really interesting and the first 45 minutes flew like a breeze but after that it kind of meandered and lost its way and then found it again and lost it again towards the end. I do appreciate the director's and the actors being faithful to the subject matter and not letting their personal lives dictate what can or can not be seen on screen. On the other hand '9 Songs' seems to be drawing a lot of controversy to itself because of its explicit depiction of sex. Well -what I can not understand is how can sex be explicit?? isn't sex -just sex? and isn't it also the most natural thing for us humans to do? And what would you define as explicit and who gives you the right to censor what people can see or can not see? America has the highest consumption of porn but at the same time it is the one industry which is really caught up about nudity and sex in mainstream cinema -how come? These double standards are just silly. The next short film I would like to make will have full nudity and will debunk the theory that showing skin is arousing all the time. That ofcourse depends on seeing if there are any actors who are willing to open themselves up and be vulnerable for the camera. And I think it will be a bigger challenge in NZ. Let's see what happens.

Today's shoot was really interesting - first we could not get the boat into the studio for filming and then trying to get the scenes working in the studio was such a challenge. It was real fun. Though we did not get all the three scenes done which I had originally planned for. Had to leave out one of the scenes as Lance had to go to work. I think the movie will finsh production in November -as Lance will be away for a trip to South Island in the later half of October. On a more upbeat note - Benji is still keen to edit the movie and he would try and come over here on a tourist visa for 3 months and edit the movie then. Which I think is gonna be fantastic because he has got the same sensibilities and is on the same wavelength as me and the earlier projects we did together had been so much fun and a big learning experience. Let's see how that goes.


On a closing note- independent film making is surely an interesting process - you don't have the resources or the money to bring the scene to life as you envisioned it. It is funny how you know a particular scene will play out in your head but on location - with so many variables going on - all you can do is but keep on top of the change and adapt to the change and just get what you want, unlike a proper budgeted feature films where you have the luxury to create a mood or create a scenario and hold on to it till you have all the shots that you need. This particular film had always been an ambitious project for a first directorial venture - i have lost count of the number of people telling me that it is too ambitious but my thoughts have always been simple. If you dare to dream, then dream big and if you can't dream then you can't make it happen. I think I have been lucky that so many people have helped out on this film and have brought this dream to life - something which is amazing - I don't think that I could have done this kind of project on a'no-budget' anywhere else in the world. NZ is indeed a good place to make films.

Will take leave now and have a small break before the school starts off tomorrow. It will be interesting because from this week on the post production of the final term projects actually begins in full swing and things are gonna get really interesting. 3 editors have already got jobs and there are another 3 more likely to go soon...adapting to the change would be a major part of keeping post production running all the time. Along with the Triangle TV Studio Show and the other projects which keep happening all the time. It is good to be doing what you love doing the most.

Anyway i am off for now.
ciao
amit

Labels: Filming, Introspection, Memories of Tomorrow, Movies

posted by Amit @ 5:41 PM