Crazy friday
It was been a wild friday evening/night. There was a free advanced preview screening of '
Borat' and a few of us friends decided that we would like to catch it before it's general release which is a good 2 months away. And the whole evening turned out to be heaps of fun.
First caught up with Barbara, Julia, Ian and Kirstin over a dinner and then moved onto getting into the line to get the free tickets. Jim was one of the first ones there and he was top of the line while we decided to be fair and joined the queue at the back. Andrea and Karen and Jerome joined us there. So after a good 1 hour wait in the line, we got our free passes and watched the movie.
How was the movie????
Well let me put it this way - by the end of the movie my jaw and stomach were hurting from laughing. The movie is pure genius - it is simple in its storyline but complex in its intentions and is a whole heaps of unadulterated fun - nothing is sacred in this movie. The screening was a huge success because the whole crowd was laughing constantly through out the movie and it was a full house. You've got to watch the movie when it comes out.
After the movie - we went to a club to see a drag show....the drag show itself turned out to be boring but the experience was great. I think my head is still hurting a bit from all the pounding music in the club. I think the fever I had yesterday is almost gone.
Anyway, will leave you with a couple of photos from last sunday.
The climb down Mt. Wellington [click to enlarge]
Julia, Barbara, Andrea, Me, Jim & Rosemary at a cafeTill later,
Amit
Labels: Movies, Party
Podcast!!!
I am running a temprature today and it came out of nowhere too. I have taken some medicine and hopefully should be up and running by tomorrow morning.
I did an interview last sunday for a podcast and it is
online now. You can listen to me 'hmmm'ing' and 'aaah'ing' through the questions. I do that a lot - I need to think of the answers before hand instead of just doing impromptu answers where you can hear me thinking. My indian accent isn't too bad or is that my perception???? While you are at it - check out '
Black Magic' website which provides info on films happening in NZ.
I am managed to save a couple of hundred dollars on necessary equipment upgrades and it feels great. No special magic or pep talk - I just asked if I could get a discount and got it. Increasing my laptop RAM to 2 GB to run media intensive applications and also getting a 1000 GB external hard drive for storage and editing requirements for 'Five'. I think the money saved will be going into procuring permissions for shooting in the bush area around the tramping hut as it belongs to Auckland Regional Council - keeping fingers crossed that the fees isn't too much. Still need to sort out public liability insurance and logistics etc. for the actual shoot. It is definitely going to be a busy couple of months.
Anyway - I am feeling a bit drowsy from the medicine, I think I will go to bed.
Bye,
Amit
Labels: Five, Memories of Tomorrow, Pre-production, Publicity
Double Trouble
The set of '5' is finally complete. Click on the photo for bigger image....
Teaser-4
Teaser-5
Next on the menu is the website for the movie...have to think of a design.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Five, Publicity
Travel Weekend
It has been a tiring but really satisfying weekend. On saturday Benji and me did a road trip on
Waiheke Island after catching a ferry - we missed the 7.00 AM ferry by 5 minutes as I parked my car a bit of a distance away from the ferry terminal, so we had to wait for the next ferry that left at 8.00 AM. It turned out to be a good day as we drove around and explored the island in a rental car. The day itself did not do full justice as I always feel that one needs to spend atleast a couple of days in a place to get a feel for it - gauge it's vibe. So that will have to be something I leave for the next time. Overall it was still good though as we did a fair bit of stuff like hiking towards Stony Batter after a particular point and then did a vineyard tour at Stony Ridge, drove around some more; ate lunch and drove around some more. All in all a good experience.
On the ferry ride
Beautiful Views (click to enlarge)
Vineyards and open spaces
Who there ??????
More scenic outlooks from Waiheke
Benji listens to Trinity (our vineyard tour guide)Today was again busy. First doing laundry and grocery shopping and later on doing a podcast interview for a website called '
Black Magic' which does New Zealand Film News. The rest of the day went into meeting some new friends and going for a walk up Mt. Wellington (it is more like a hill) and just socializing. I feel kind of refreshed and just want to hit the bed right now.(:-)
The other major news is that between all the confusion that reigns with dealing with any kind of paperwork, I found out that I am infact eligible for applying for New Zealand Citizenship straight away instead of having to wait for another 2 years. So I guess I should get onto that before they change the rules again.
That's it from me for now.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Publicity, Travel
Tease!!!!!!
Teaser Image no. 3 from 'Five'.
Click for larger imageIncase you missed out earlier teaser images -
Teaser Image 1 ;
Teaser Image 2 .
Another two to go...
Amit
Labels: Five, Publicity
Ringer
Auckland - the city of sails
Auckland harbour bridge - connecting North Shore City to Auckland
Ferry terminal at Northcote Point
A ferry doing it's rounds
Under the harbour bridge
Now that everyone has seen what I have seen today - onto the update. It has been a few really long days from the last update or they just felt really long because of the amount of mental energy they drained out of me. Most of the stuff is related to work - school related as well as other projects that I am involved in, so won't bother you with the details.
As a sign off note - I watched '
Green Street Hooligans' & '
The Ringer' - both of them proved to be entertaining watch for different reasons.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Movies, Travel
Descent
Sunday was relatively relaxed - housekeeping, a preliminary meeting for a music video and a couple of DVD's. '
The Descent' was first of the lot and it proved to be a masterful horror flick. Extremely tense and foreboding. It was an incredibly hard watch - especially for me where darkness stills means fear. The scares are thick and effective even though you are expecting them.There are some small plot holes but can easily be ignored. Except for the last 5 minutes of the movie which made me want to scream out 'Cheating!!!' - it was brilliant.
The second movie I watched later was '
Shopgirl' which turned out to be a frustrating watch. The story kind of mendears along slowly and the connections don't feel real. It has brilliant acting by all the three leads but the heart is missing from the movie. It has some brilliant moments and then falls back to nothingness, which is what made it such a frustrating watch.
Today I went with Andy and did a small photo shoot to create the second teaser poster for 'Five'. The weather was quite spordaic today with rain and sunshine but it held up nicely when we went out to take photographs at Eskdale Reserve. There will be more teaser posters coming through within the next week but without much ado here is the second teaser poster for 'Five':
Click for larger imageOff for the evening walk.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Five, Movies, Publicity
Gengy's
I finally managed to get around to eating out at the Mongolian BBQ restaurant I was wanting to try for ages. Originally I had planned to eat out there on my birthday but since that turned out to be a non event, I postponed it till the next opportunity - which was today. No special reason - just was able to save up enough money for the treat and thought it would be a great opportunity to catch up with Anita for 'Five'.
The restuarant we went to was
Gengy's Restaurant in Newmarket (at the corner of khyber pass road and crowhurst street) and it proved to be an awesome experience. It was great value for money and the customer service was really nice as well. There was a special offer on where lunch was NZ$ 14.90 per head for all you can eat and it was great because I took 3 servings of food besides the dessert. There are different sections where you have a selection of different meats, vegetables, oils, spices, grounded ingredients - all you have to do is create your own combination of meats and vegetables and oils etc. and take the bowl to the chef, who then cooks it in front of you over a round flat hot plate which has a constant heat temprature of 600 centigrade. You eat your food and then go back for more servings (and possibly experiement with different combinations of meats and cooking oils - I did). It is definitely a great way to have a relaxed lunch which is also fun. I will definitely go back there sometime soon. [a tip - you can easily skip the salads and the soup in order to enjoy the main meal better]
I finished watching a really interesting documentary called '
The Oil Factor' and it was an eye opener. It just made me really angry at the state of the world we live in. Did you know that - At current rate of production, North America and Western Europe will run out of oil in 2010 and almost 1/2 a million U.S military personnel are deployed overseas near oil fields and oil routes. For those people who argue that the current conflicts around the world are not related to oil but for making the world a peaceful place all I can say to that is - Stop eating bullshit which the mainstream media keeps feeding you without questioning the legitamacy of the reports. As a documentary the first 10-15 minutes were kind of mendearing as it sets up the factual basis for the arguments but once the images start streaming in from Iraq and Afghanistan, all you can do is watch in horror over whats happening.
For the past few days there has been something that has really been bothering me - I keep looking out of my window and keep pondering about the meaning of love. What is it? What does it mean? Why is it? I wish Monty Python had made a movie called 'The Meaning of Love' as a sequel to their classic 'The Meaning of Life'.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Acting, Five, Food, Introspection, Movies
Nacho Libre
Finally the end of the term - I am supposed to be at the end of the term party right now but somehow I can't get myself to go there. Really bad of me but I can't help it. Parties and me have never gelled together - I avoid most of them until it is absolutely necessary and critical. My car is now in nice working order - I got the stereo fixed and had my old stereo replaced with a stereo that my old flatmate, Greg, donated to me when he got himself a new car stereo. It feels so good to finally have music in the car (after 3 years). So I am definitely a happy chappy at the moment.
I did watch '
Nacho Libre' though and it was a movie I can't seem to form a strong opinion about - it has some good bits and has some average bits. It definitely doesn't leave as strong an impression as 'Napolean Dynamite' - directed by the same director. It feels episodic and somehow doesn't really gel together nicely.
As a sign-off note - we have secured permission to shoot at the location we want for 'Five' and it is an exciting development. I also had a couple of meetings to try sort out an insurance cover for the shoot and also had a meeting at Val Morgan to explore possibilites of advertising in the cinemas to build up to the Theatrical/DVD release. I have sketched some concept teaser posters for the characters in 'Five' and hopefully will be designing some within the next couple of weeks.
Thats me for now.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Five, Movies, Party, Pre-production, Publicity
Running Scared
I finally have my full NZ driving license. The practical was easy but nerve wracking at times - it is a weird feeling being judged all the time. So it is definitely a big relief to have a full license now.
'
Running Scared' was an extremely well crafted movie and keeps you on the edge. Except for the last 5-10 minutes the movie, which felt contrived and ridiculous, the rest of it was well thought out and well knit. The acting was on the spot and the tension never lets down. Business wise - the movie only made US$ 6 million theatrically (on a budget of US$ 15 million) but it made about 25 million on DVD sales - so it is not a total failure I guess.
Today and tomorrow are going to be extremely hectic, so would be good for this term to come to an end. Definitely need some breathing space before the next term starts off.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Movies
Of talking beds and pouring rain!!
It feels good to have the car back and that too without the dent in the door. It cost me a fair bit to get it fixed but I figured that it needed to be done so that I did not have to buy another car at the end of the year.
It has been pouring down the whole weekend - a sudden change from 7 continous day of sunshine, and all I have done is watched about 12 episodes from the second season of 'Arrested Development' (brilliant as usual!!!) and also watched '
Brick' - an independent flick which is a genre blender - a film noir set in a high school.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is definitely an actor to look out for because of the creative choices he is making. Brick was a taut thriller and it worked for me. You loose track of their lingo at times but still the movie never lets go of the grip it has on you.
Chairs
I did go and play paintball along with Dean, Becks, Jono, Troy, Max and a whole lot of other people (friends of friends) on Sunday afternoon. It was heaps of fun and great physical exercise. I am still a bit sour in the chest and the thigh from the hits but it isn't too bad as the experience was exhilirating to say the least.
Everyone having a drink after the paintball game
The war zone was those pine trees behind the shed.Budgeting for '5' is proving to a bit more of a challenge than I thought- despite the fact that it is going to be a low budget movie. I am tossing figures in my head between marketing/promotion costs, insurance costs, production costs. The plan is to try and earn the production costs back this time around and also to make a profit. If you are a low budget movie - it is just that much harder to get publicity and an audience - in order to earn your money back. It is a different kind of challenge but am loving this one for precisely that reason.
On a completely random note -
Coke has opened a $25 million bottling plant in Afghanistan and the media is projecting it as a way of kick starting that economy. What a load of bullshit!!!! People have to survive first in order to buy anything and for that an essential would be health services - not some western fizzy drink. Wake up people!!!
Anyway - I will be sitting my practical driving license tomorrow morning. Hopefully I won't run into any unexpected problems this time around.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Five, Movies, Paintball, Pre-production, Random
Weekend
Atlast......
It has been a long week - especially with all the walking and stuff. I did walk the following day from the last post i.e on Wednesday but it was a killer of a walk. Somewhere during that journey I crossed the point where the pain wasn't painful anymore. I took a bus yesterday and today and it was an interesting experience. In all the bus journeys I had this week, there were never more than 4 people in the bus at any single point in time [that is incuding the driver] but the buses going into the city are always full. The public transportation is just not economical - they charge a bomb for it. The prices do come down if you buy a monthly pass but man they need to do something about it if they are trying to promote it to the masses.
'
Slither' turned out to be a really enjoyable movie. It is a horror comedy and it was a thrill ride. The pace is really brisk and before you know it the movie ends. It is great escapist fun. I don't know why it did not succeed at the box office. There are a fair few movies I want to catch at the cinemas but have to spread them out as an outing to the theatre does cost a fair bit plus I have another 3 movies on DVD/VCD all lined up to watch over the next couple of days.
I have been having having samosas for breakfast for the past 3 weeks and it has been great. There is this indian grocery shop at the local shopping complex which keeps samosas and they are really close to how I like my samosas. So I have been a happy chappy as far as my breakfast goes.
Anyway enough of my ramble....
till later
amit
[p.s - the first teaser poster (in a series of 5) for 'five' can be seen
HERE.]
Labels: Five, Movies, Publicity, Walking
March of the Indian
I have walked about 16 KM's today and it took me about 1 hour 40 minutes each way. Plus if you add my trip to the supermarket to buy myself some new shoes that would be a total of 18-19 KM's with a total walking time of 4.5 hours - not bad considering that there are atleast 4 hills {two of them big and two of them small}. How do I feel? My legs are fine but my feet hurt. It is not the walking but my old shoes which caused the hurt - which is why I went and bought myself a new pair of shoes. Let's see if I am able to continue the trek tomorrow.
And since I can now empathise with the walkers I went and got out '
March of the Penguins'. It is an awesome movie...beautiful cinematography and great pacing. Use of music is great and Morgan Freeman's voice over is pitch perfect. I wish I could slide on my belly like the penguins when I get tired of walking but that would probably look really weird and probably won't work - considering that everything is cemented or tarmaced (:-) in the city.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Movies, Walking
Heartbeats
The past couple of days have gone into watching a lot of movies -
'
Thank You for smoking': A flawed but awesome satire. It had me in splits a whole lot of times - it made perfect sense.
'
Fun with Dick and Jane': It wasn't much fun at all. The jokes were thin and the acting was a bit over the top.
'
29 Palms': Indulgent crap..
'
Mysterious Skin': Awesome acting and emotionally harrowing although the plot is predictable for the most part. It is the pacing and the acting which makes this movie brilliant.
'
A Tale of 2 Sisters': Awesome (brilliant) sound design, not so subtle music score to generate an emotion but still an extremely slow movie - so slow that I almost wanted to stop the movie halfway and continue it some other day. Awesome atmos and mood....
It takes 1 hour 30 minutes to walk from the school to house. That's what I am going to do over the next few days since my car is off for repairs.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Movies, Walking
Strike!!!
I went to the supermarket yesterday to get 2 AAA batteries but to my surprise the supermarket was sparse and so were the shelfs. I knew that there was a strike by the distributors who wanted a hefty 30% pay rise but didn't know that things were
this bad. I think the matter does need to get resolved quickly as it will impact on everything - I got my 2 AAA batteries though (for now). On a positive note the petrol prices went down by 15c/litre - which is a considerable downslide considering that gas prices only keep going up. Alternately - this could be the sign that gas prices will definitely hit NZ$2/litre by Christmas.
I couldn't sit my practical driving exam as my right indicator and brake light inexplicably stopped working - so now have a new date for the exam. I went to the mechanics to see what the problem was - the unit on which the 2 lights are fixed had slid down into the boot (possibly while closing the boot). While I am at it - I have decided to get the dent in the car door fixed as well so that it doesn't give the driving inspector a reason to complaint and fail me on my practical again.
Today has shaped up to be an extremely busy day - I got woken up around 4.00-4.15 AM by someone laughing - not sure if I was dreaming or actually heard the laugh but I couldn't go back to sleep after that. So I spent the remaining time reading and as soon as it was sunrise - I got ready and drove over to David's place (which is in the Waitakeres) so that we could go hiking and look at the location we want for filming 'Five'. The hiking trip was lead by Christina (David's wife) and on the trip were David M - the scriptwriter, Abigail & Rawiri (David's kids), Ala (David's dog) and me. It was an awesome trip and the location was fantastic - it captures the mood and feel of the movie really well - it is a 45 minute walk from the nearest road and it would be a great location for filming...now keeping fingers that we are able to secure the location on the dates when we want to film.
Labels: Badminton, Five, Pre-production, Random
