Musings of an Idiot

Manic Sunday

Phew..what a day!!! Today was house cleaning day and it was tiresome but I am really happy that I finally managed to clean up my room and the lounge and did other smaller bits and bobs which were long overdue. Just came back from Dan West's b'day party and it was like a mini SS 2003 reunion as a few people from our year were there. It was good seeing some of them after ages.

In other news - Greencine has done a tie-up with Real Networks for Real to have access to GC's VOD content. Real launched their website film.com at Sundance and they have initially taken 10 movies from greencine for their showcase and 'Memories' is one of them. So it is pretty exciting news as it is great exposure for us. I will post an update on that once 'Memories' is put online but till then you can read their press release..here.

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Memories of Tomorrow

posted by Amit @ 9:45 PM 0 Comments

Assembled

I finished the assemble edit on 'Five' and the duration stands at 85.5 minutes minus the opening credits, the opening scene and the end credits - which would bring the movie up to about 95-96 minutes in the rough stage. And once the movie is fine cut - I am approximating that the final duration would stand anywhere between the 85-90 minute mark - which is probably the right length for a feature. What happens now? Well - I think I will take a 2 day break from it and then move the project into the rough cut stage which is where I will try and find the rhythm and pace of the movie.

It's been more than a week since I last updated and I am feeling much better - not as introspective. I managed to watch a fair few movies ('The Squid & The Whale' - brilliantly performed and heart wrenching but by the same token ends really abruptly; 'Blood Diamond' - brilliant acting by Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou combined with powerful subject and beautiful cinematography makes it a really good watch ; 'Babel' - long and overdrawn movie - has some brilliant bits in it and some real tear jerker moments but still too long for it's own good; 'The Pusher' - brilliant danish movie made in 1996. Gritty and hard to watch at times; 'Clerks 2' - interesting and funny in bits but a good farewell to the original) and also caught up with friends after a long time - which is always good.

It is going to be a long 3 days from today until Sunday.

So till later,
Amit

Labels: Five, Movies

posted by Amit @ 11:39 PM 3 Comments

Absolute Power

I seem to veering towards watching more and more TV series on DVD. I recently finished watching the 1st seasons of 'My name is Earl' and 'Absolute Power'. Absolute Power is typically brilliant British comedy about the world of PR and politics. Dry humor laced with brilliant performances make it a good watch. I still can't get my head around British T.V series' typical season running only 6 episodes. It usually takes atleast 2 episodes for any series to find it's feet but the British ones are really over as they start getting better and better. Case in the point ' The Office' - which ran for only 2 seasons. 'My name is Earl' was funny and charming as it tends to be. I think it works so well because of the cast- especially Jason Lee and Ethan Suplee.It will be a while before I am able to watch Season-2.

Editing a movie while trying to make a living is definitely challenging but thats the name of the game. I edited another 6 minutes of the movie and nothing new or fascinating to report. And incase I did not write it in one of the last few posts - I am now freelancing at TVNZ in the VT operations section and it is great fun. The best thing about it is obviously the people I am working with - everyone who has trained me or helped me understand the systems or just stopped by to have a quick chat have been pretty chilled out and open.

In a bit of an introspective mood right now but not going to write any of that stuff up here.
Till later,
Amit

[P.S - Also to the immature and arrogant person who told me that working in cinetape was a joke - here is something for you incase you happen to read this post - GET REAL ]

Labels: Five, TV Series, TVNZ

posted by Amit @ 8:54 PM 0 Comments

Day-8 of 'Five'

Man, what a week it has been and to top it off what a weekend it has been. We went back into the bush for filming again. The idea was to do a couple of pickup scenes on Saturday and then film the climax of the movie on Sunday as it would take up most of the day but the weather had entirely different ideas. It had been raining cats and dogs through out the week leading upto the weekend and the weather forecast for the weekend said that it was going to rain through the weekend with thunder on Saturday and heavy showers on Sunday.

Since we had already booked the location and equipment and organized everything else for the shoot - there was no backing down and we decided to go for it. We left Saturday afternoon but it was still heavily overcast and raining non-stop since Friday night and when we stopped at Arataki Visitor Centre to pick up our film permits and hut stay permit it wasn't looking particularly good for the shoot. You can see what I mean by that by looking at the couple of photographs down below.



So I was definitely a bit worried about the entire shoot coming to nothing. I decided to cancel the pickup shots we needed in the car as they wouldn't have matched up with the rest of the scene and decided to tramp into the hut, so we could save up our energies for the following day. The tramp in was fun - there were a couple of places where Benji, Lance and me were trying to outrun each other on the slippery and muddy track. The eventful thing of the trip was Benji slipping and falling into a small side trench. Lance and me went to pick him up but he just felt so comfortable there that he wanted to lie there for a bit. After a really short break we started walking again and reached the hut without any further incidents.

The hut itself was a big surprise this time - it was super clean and there was no smell of rat droppings or any rats to be seen. Someone must have come and cleaned the hut up and put some rat poison around and killed them. The cast sat down and took the evening to go through the script and iron it out a bit more, so we didn't spend as much time on it the next day. This time we had an extra crew member in the form of Jonathan Drew, who was helping out as a cam assist - as we had a glidecam with us on the shoot. Poor guy - he had no idea about the snorers in the group - heeheee....

I was praying right until I fell asleep that the weather Gods would be kind to us and that we would have a good day on Sunday. And the prayers were answered as we had the perfect day for filming. It was a bit misty in the morning but by the time we started filming it became a gorgeous and sunny day.

The day was intense and long. There were a few moments of tension here and there but still it turned out to be heaps of fun. And the performances as well as the footage looks fantastic, so I am really excited about going into post with that footage. Since we were filming at such an intense rate - none of us really had any time to take any production photos but we've got some excellent 'behind the scenes' footage though - thanks to Mike.

Labels: Five

posted by Amit @ 8:55 AM 0 Comments

Manic Monday

I am feeling exhausted right now and am about to hit the bed but thought I would quickly post an update as I won't have the chance over the next few days. On Sunday I finished watching the remaining 4 episodes of 'Heroes' and another 3 episodes of 'My Name is Earl'. Enjoyable..Very enjoyable. I also did some more editing for 'Five' yesterday.

Today has been crazy busy getting pre-production done for this coming weekend's shoot. Got the filming permit sorted, booked the location, booked the extra camera batteries, locked down the second camera and will be picking it up tomorrow, sorted out the audio equipment for the shoot. Besides that I caught up with Richard Collins over Nowhere to Love's script and planning to catch up soon to go over it in detail. Rang up the swimming school to inquire about the new session and found out that it starts again from 12th of Feb - and I might as well get back into it. Over the next 3 days I've got more training sessions at TVNZ and hopefully that will bring me upto speed with the job requirements for doing the freelance work there. And then there was this crazy work seminar with WINZ, which consumed half the day - which I won't even touch right now as it really pissed me off. Overall made a couple of crazy decisions this afternoon and I think it is for the best. Got to follow the instinct.

Later in the evening, I met up with Ayyaz and his family - who are visiting New Zealand and it is their last day here, before they fly back to Canada tomorrow. I met Ayyaz in 2003, through a short film website called triggerstreet and we hit it off instantly. Since then we've been in constant touch and he was one of the composers for 'Memories of Tomorrow'. So it was great finally meeting him in person and catching up about movies and directing and other things. I got back about 35 minutes back and am feeling shattered.

Off to bed for now. Hope everyone's new year has started off on the right step.
Till later,
Amit

Labels: Five, Memories of Tomorrow, Nowhere to Love, Pre-production, TV Series, TVNZ

posted by Amit @ 10:22 PM 0 Comments

Heroes

Finally got back to editing 'Five' again and it feels great.

I watched the first 7 episodes of 'Heroes' and it is an interesting series. It is trying to do something different but by the same token it is caught up within the norms of a T.V series. It has some really strong story threads and some really weak threads as well. The most interesting being of the 2 Japanese characters out of whom 'Hiro' is definitely the protagonist of the show (at least in my opinion). It would be interesting to see where they take this series and hopefully it will have limited seasons instead of a long winding, never-ending series. I reckon they should keep it to a max of 3 seasons and end it - that way they will end up with a much stronger series as they will be working towards the end instead of trying to stretch the storyline forever.

I also started watching the first season of 'My Name is Earl' - starring Jason Lee and it is hilarious as well as charming. I have watched 4 episodes till now and there is not one moment where I lost interest or got bored. A really good show and I intend to watch the entire 4 DVD set of the first season within the next couple of weeks.

The later half of today went into cleaning up the bathroom and toilet and kitchen. The bathroom was getting mould in it and clearing up the mould took a long time. It was painful and slow because the spray used for it called 'ExitMould' emits really strong gases and even after having the whole room well ventilated it was hard breathing in there. Anyway - it is all done now and I feel happy about it.

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Five, TV Series

posted by Amit @ 9:14 PM 6 Comments

Hard Labor

The past couple of days have been just pure hard physical labor. Benji hooked me up with the opportunity with helping the post production company he works - I was supposed to help move offices and help in getting the new office up and running. It was definitely tiring but fun at the same time.

Here are a couple of photos I took this morning - the office had about 5 rooms full of stuff and the challenge was to try and get the edit suites up and running and also have the local network as well as internet up and running.


The photos from this morning only give you a hint of the challenge we faced. We drilled holes through the wall, ripped up carpet, made network cables, moved stuff around left,right and center. But ultimately we managed to get the edit suites functional and tidy.


It sure was hard labor and just gave a reality check that setting up a post production company takes a shit load of work and investment. Now with a little bit of pocket money tucked away into the wallet - I will get back to editing 'Five' over the next couple of days and also have to plan for the pickup days shooting schedule. So thats that from me for now.

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Post Production

posted by Amit @ 7:57 PM 0 Comments

Hacking Prestige

It has been a relaxing start to the New Year.More socializing and a mini break of sorts from editing. I caught up with Andrea, Julia, Alice and Danny on New Year's eve in the viaduct and watched some underwhelming fireworks set off from the Sky Tower at the stroke of midnight. Yesterday afternoon, I went to Jessica's place where she organized a lunch get together and few of us friends caught up over the long and sunny afternoon.


Yesterday evening - I went and saw 'The Prestige' - which was an interesting movie dealing with obsession and revenge. It lacks any narrative tension and relies on a couple of story devices which were a little too convenient for the story and really frustrated the hell out of me. It is beautifully shot and the acting is really good but the movie doesn't create a strong impression because of it's convenient ending. What is interesting though is that one of the characters from the movie - Nikola Tesla; was actually a real person. Fictionalizing some of his work and adding story elements to it kind of made the movie pretty interesting. Nikola Tesla was a genius and to read more about him you can read this info about him.

HD-DVD has been cracked in a manner of speaking and this will obviously raise the hackles of the movie industry which is trying really hard to combat piracy. A hacker by the name of Muslix64 has done the deed and he posted on a thread and you can access that thread HERE. Also here is another interesting article related to it - which gives a much more detailed view of the situation and what this means.

Anyway thats it from for now.
Till later,
Amit

Labels: Festival, Movies, Random

posted by Amit @ 5:49 PM 0 Comments