Musings of an Idiot

Fest

As expected I got a 'rejection' email from Auckland International Film Festival. I guess I did not take the news too badly, even though I am a bit confused by the festival's email as I knew that this was going to happen (as stated by me a few posts earlier and the same thing I have told close friends almost a couple of weeks back). The festival's email said that they had heaps of choice with digital films this year - which was kind of confusing as there are only a handful that anyone knows that were being made and completed recently. I also talked to Andy Conlan, who recently completed his SIPF funded feature 'The Last Magic Show', over the last couple of days and it has been the same frustration for him as well - his movie has been rejected as well, even though it has name actors in it. The common thing between both our projects is that both of them have been picked up by Arkles Entertainment for NZ/Australia distribution and I can only think that it has got something to do with the non-selection. Maybe the festival doesn't like local movies that have been picked up for distribution - a position which is even more confusing in the light that they are showing international movies which have been distributed and they are also premiering 'Eagle V/s Shark' - an NZFC funded movie, which has again been picked up for distribution. I have dropped them an email asking for clarification on numbers just to satisfy my curiosity but I am not expecting any replies.

The first good thing that has come out of this is that I get a $5 discount in submission fees at one of the international film festivals if you show them a rejection letter from the Auckland Film Festival. :-) And the second good thing is that I can move the project completion deadline by a couple of weeks - which means that everyone is back on track with the project again. Phew....

I spent the whole day color grading and my eyes are a little tired. The good thing - I have hit the 34 minute mark with the movie. Another 40 minutes odd to color correct and then have a look at the first pass on a broadcast monitor to see how it 'really' looks and then go back into fixing the muck ups or discard some things and grade from those from scratch. Oh I am jumping the gun - let me try and explain it from the start: The problem with grading on a laptop is that you can't see accurate colors as they have been recorded because of various factors [LCD screen + video codec interpretation in Windows among a few] and the only way around it is to grade it to a rough point using what you have, check the cut on a broadcast monitor somewhere [you can't buy them just like that - they cost a fortune] and then regrade it on the laptop from the notes you have taken down and if you are lucky do the final touch ups on an editing system already hooked upto a broadcast monitor before putting it back onto tape. So yeah that probably gives you an idea of where I am at with the color grade process since I am cutting and color grading 'Five' on my lovely and sturdy Dell Precision M60 [which was also used to edit 'Memories of Tomorrow']

Anyhow I think I am becoming delirious - time for me to shut up and go to bed.
Till later,
Amit

Labels: Five, NZ Film Festival, Post Production

posted by Amit @ 11:09 PM