The weather has just gone from bad to worse and the chill just creeps through the woolen clothing and heated rooms. And the thing that makes it that much more miserable is the rain. Funny how we get so used to complaining about the weather - I bet there are several hundred places right now that would be praying for rain.
Heavy rain advancing against the landscape
Here is a pic I took at a birthday party I was invited to and I love it. I am sure each one of us has done the same thing at some point or the other during our childhood.
Isn't that cute?
I recorded ADR for 'Rajit' and it was fun considering that I was doing it for the first time ever. I got my stuff done in a couple of hours and it went like a breeze. Got 2 more ADR sessions to go in the initial round. Most of the music is in and the movie is feeling much better. It is a relief seeing everything click into place.
The future is blue
I am feeling tired as I have had 3 X 18 hour days. Plus I need to catch up on sleep as I have another 2 X 16 hour days coming straight through, so that's me for now. Till later, Amit
I took a break from 'Five' and went to see 'Bridge to Terabithia' and it was a really moving experience. It is one of the rare children movies which deals with hard hitting topics without flinching away from showing it on-screen. The acting is great from everyone involved and the CGI is only used to aid the story rather than focusing on it. It is a story well told and it also avoids the cliched story telling devices - which I think is extremely brave and commendable.
ADR's can be pretty intense as yesterday proved it but it is worth it. There is nothing that can beat having good sound in your movie [besides having good visuals and good acting and good editing ;-) ]. It lifts a movie up several notches and definitely takes away from the low budget feel. I finished the second pass of color grade as per schedule and I think I am happy with the final color mix - will check it out tomorrow. Still have another 3 character ADR's to go and we will hopefully will get them done this weekend.
Talking of sound I did much research on finding cheap but good headphones and finally bought Koss KSC75 headphones and they are frickin awesome. I love listening to music and sound on them - there is something about the sound quality through them which is great.
I had a laughing fit recently when I saw someone break away from what they were doing so that they could 'clean up' their virtual pet. I found the whole thing ridiculously funny and every time I think about virtual pets I just crack up. Japanese are weird (no that's not a racist comment but just an observation) as they just want to get away from reality as much as possible and the means which they come up with is hilarious - in this case 'Tamagotchi' - virtual pets. I won't write anymore on the topic as I am cracking up already. You can read all about it HERE.
Now back to work with the end credits. Later, Amit
Finally got around to seeing 'The Lives of Others' and it was a well-crafted film and emotionally engaging. I am not sure if it is a great movie but it is a brilliant and outstanding piece of cinema which tugs at your humanity and the ending is beautiful. Well worth the watch.
Silver reflections
Emptiness
Invisible
How I am feeling!
First set of ADR's have been set for evenings this week and the immediate deadline looming over the project is 3rd July when I have to mail the DVD's to a special audience test screening in Paekakariki.
I have been meaning to update the blog but time is just so precious right now especially with work at TVNZ and with onlining 'FIVE'.
I watched the first pass color-grade of the movie with Benji and it didn't turn out that bad at all. A few things here and there but nothing major -so that's definitely a big sigh of relief. I am half way through the second pass. Plan is to finish the second pass by 20th June and then go about tying things in together. I have started putting some of the pieces of music that have come in and the first 30 minutes of the movie has effectively been scored - so have another 45 minutes odd to go on that one. Still have to do the crucial ADR bits with the actors before we start wrapping the first stage of the movie -which is a 2.0 mix for film festival release. Benji is probably going to spend another month or so on it doing the 5.1 mix for the DVD release but that comes later - not even thinking about that in detail right now.
Work at TVNZ is going great and I recently received training in a couple more functional areas and I am loving every moment of it. Learning keeps you on your toes - which is always good. Talking of which - the next 5 Sundays for me will be gone in voice training workshop with Sally Stockwell and that's a workshop I am looking forward to.
Will leave you with a couple of pics in the meantime
Surprisingly I did receive a reply from the NZ Film Festivals and it has infuriated me by it's apparent lack of support for local films. As I said in the last email I was a bit perplexed by the rejection email sent by the Film Festival saying that they had a huge number of local entries, the response I got to my query was :
"I haven't made a check on the exact figures, but this year we had approximately 35 feature length films submitted from New Zealand and this was roughly evenly split between features and documentaries. At this stage we have confirmed 10 for the Festivals around the country (although they won't all be in the Auckland International Film Festival). This breaks down to 7 documentaries and 3 features."
Now the website for the film festival says 'The Festival has a long tradition of supporting New Zealand filmmakers.' and here I can see atleast 25 local film makers from across the country whose movies will never get screened to a big audience. I am totally stumped by the lack of support for NZ Film makers this year - I mean it is hard enough to get films made without a budget and then to be told - "Thank you very much but we can't fit you in just because we have limited spots for local films." seems like a real kick in the balls for local film makers.
And for chrissake - 35 feature projects made in NZ in one single year out of which 25 will never get screened to a big audience is just blasphemy. I mean the first thing it tells me is that there are a lot more people out there making movies - possibly maxing out there credit cards and stuff to make independent films and that is always a good sign for the industry - it is growing. The second thing that tells me is that NZ Film Festivals is not interested in supporting NZ Film makers at all - they are more interested in putting out a 'commercial' festival where they can make money out of it. What the hell is wrong with people nowadays? It makes me wonder if it should even be called NZ Film Festivals at all.
Oh and I am not writing criticism for the heck of it - I have already let my position known to NZ Film Festivals about their 'support' for NZ Film makers and I am even toying with the idea of making a short documentary on the topic. And I do intend to be as vocal about it as I can - someone will listen and highlight the issue. You can't simply kill off vital bloodline to the local talent - the idea is to nurture talent, not to stifle it. Nothing will happen with this year's film festival but hopefully they will get back to supporting local film makers from next year.
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
Well - the last post was a bit of a bummer because of the thing with post non-funding for 'Five' but then you have this week happen which keeps the spirit alive and truly kicking.
First - the script for 'Urameshiya' came in and it looks like it is going to be my next project. I have always wanted to work with John Dalton and this project seemed to be something that both of us have grown attached to and thus the progression into a script. The genre is comedy-horror and even the first draft is pretty funny. I am treating what I have got as the first draft since it was developed from an existing script that John had worked on earlier that did not go into production. Since there has been a change of director and producers and countries - the direction the script was going earlier and where it will be going now has changed considerably. Overall - the script is touchingly funny and would be fun to work with. Currently we are sorting out the third act - which is not a satisfying resolution to a good story. Once that is sorted - it will become even more hilarious and I am seeing it more along the lines of 'Shaun of the Dead' in terms of tone and mood. You will be hearing more about this project in the coming days as things start picking up speed with it.
The building had such beautiful art on it that I had to capture it (Taken from my car)
Second - I didn't have an agent till now as far as acting is concerned - which is not surprising considering that I have only just started taking acting training and have mainly been involved on the other side of the camera [not counting 'Five']. So I dropped in an email to one of the top acting agents asking them how I should go about the process of getting myself some representation and one thing lead to another and thanks to Mike S (and obviously Graham) - I am now on the books of Auckland Actors. It was an awesomely pleasant but thrilling experience and I was on a high for 2 days straight. It is just the first step but still a very important one because having a good agent can make heaps of difference in terms of what you can be put forward for. Now there is this whole new world of auditions etc which I will start experiencing but I am taking things as they come. For now I will just concentrate on my acting classes and practise sessions. The acting practise sessions are now turning intense but they are fun at the same time - it is like losing yourself in it and then discovering yourself through the process. And the thing I really love is that we have an awesome bunch of people in the class and that makes the whole process that much more exciting and fun - I feel lucky in every way.
Chelsea, Claire and Brett in the acting practise session
Drew McMillan has joined the 'FIVE' team as the second composer since we are running short on time and expecting just one person to score the entire movie is a tough ask which puts enormous pressure on them. I am waiting to hear back from Auckland International Film Festival if 'Five' has been selected into the festival or not - keeping fingers crossed that they see something good in it. I am bracing myself for the rejection letter anyway, so that the fall is not as hard.
Fading light
I am currently listening to 'Grey's Anatomy Vol.2 - OST' (the first CD I bought in ages) and it is an awesome soundtrack with a good range of music and it is really alive. The only other track I wish was included on this one was 'Cosy in the Rocket' by Psaap - which is part of Vol.1 OST {you hear the tune in the end credits}. Found the track on Youtube and you can watch it by clicking on the play button.
Heavy rain advancing against the landscape
Isn't that cute?
The future is blue
