Tsotsi
Watched '
Tsotsi' - a South African movie which won the best foreign film oscar in 2006. It was a beautiful movie. Some of the music choices seemed a bit bizarre to me but I think they might fit with the South African culture.The thing which makes the movie really stand out are the performances by the leads combined with a well crafted story. The cinematography is raw and lush and the editing has a gentle rhythm to it. It is a really touching movie and is a highly recommended watch.
It has been a good day as I hit the 48.5 minute mark with the assemble edit today - 10 minutes of assembly in a day. Some days are really good where you fall into the pace while others are slow where you labor through some scenes. But I am pleased overall with the pace that I am doing. Just got to keep it up I guess. It is a long drawn process and this will carry on till the end of April, 2007 - which is when I hope to have the movie finished by.
I found this tutorial relating to working with P2 Media in Avid and thought it would be a really good link to share with everyone. You can check out the tutorial
HERE.
I have started watching a TV series called '
Popetown' - an animated BBC T.V series which was made but dropped without screening by the BBC because of protests from the catholic church. I have watched the 1st episode and I found it hilarious. Further updates on that when I finish watching all the episodes.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Avid, Five, Movies, P2, Post Production, TV Series
March of December
Another week gone screaming past and heaps of stuff has happened in the meantime. I am tired from today, so the order of things might be jumbled or sometimes incomplete or both.
I met up with some family friends who were traveling through Australia and New Zealand and had a few days stop over at Auckland. It was good catching up with them.
My swimming lessons are going well and I have 2 more classes left for the year and then will restart next year sometime. School is as hectic as ever. I am glad that I am leaving at the end of this year. I definitely need more time to myself.
I have finished digitizing all the 24 tapes and I have also digitized 2 of the 3 'Behind the Scenes' tapes. I have decided not to use the group clip/multi-cam edit mode in Avid for editing as it will slow the whole thing down and also give less creative movement with the edit. I will be treating it as a single cam edit (even though we shot with 2 cameras). I won't be sub-clipping the footage either as it is another time consuming process instead I will be using locators on the source footage to make the notes I need to edit.
I went and watched a Korean movie called 'The Host' yesterday evening. I didn't particularly like the movie - it is well made and executed but the Koreans have a weird story telling technique. I was constantly frustrated by the build-up of crucial scenes not coming to fruitation and the whole experience wasn't getting any better when the projector in the cinema kept going out of focus from time to time. The movie is well-made - very melodramatic and funny for a horror movie and the special effects are good but the movie just didn't do it for me. Benji on the other hand loves the movie - so you have to decide for yourself.
I had ordered 'The Fountain' from amazon a few weeks back and the book arrived on my doorstep this Saturday but I was dismayed to find that what I got wasn't a graphic novel but a movie tie-in book which had photos from the movie and the original screenplay of the movie. I was very disappointed and I gave amazon customer care a ring later in the evening to explain how I thought I was ordering the graphic novel but instead ended up ordering the movie tie-in book since both have the same description. They were understanding and sorted the stuff out for me. I get to keep the book I have and they will be sending me the graphic novel straight away - so am happy with their customer service.
My desk is almost tidied up and need to sort out the bunch of DVD's/CD's sitting there. My room isn't in too bad a shape - I just need to tidy up small bits and bobs. The next mission is tidying up the house - which has suffered from lack of attention through November because we were filming 'Five'. The 'To Do' list is currently sitting at 6 major things and I think this coming week will be focussed on reducing or completely crossing off the list (if I am lucky).
On a sign-off note I am amazed by articles like this "
Single women ask' Where have the good fells gone?'"[and
the supplementary article to it..]. Well I think if those single women get off their high horses and stopped being judgmental then they will find all the single guys they need. Typical female way of questioning things when things aren't going their way (shrugs his shoulder in disbelief and dismay).
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Avid, Five, Graphic Novels, Movies, Post Production, Random, Swimming
Out of the Blue
Time passes, scars don't. They try and heal but the hurt opens up the wounds all the time. Pain is another form of pleasure but pleasure doesn't heal either. It is so momentary that the pain becomes all the more real. A paradox that is hard to break.
Out of the Blue
I just returned from watching a new NZ movie titled '
Out of the Blue' and it was a haunting look at the 1990 Aramoana massacre - which shook up entire NZ because of it's brutality and pointlessness. The movie explores the event with faithfullness and you feel the horror of the event unfold and frighteningly so because of the unpredictability. There is no gratituous violence - when it happens, it is quick and brutal (even the off-screen deaths). The cinematography is painfully beautiful and the edit is nicely timed. The movie is definitely a good one, made all the better by spot on acting by everyone.
It has been a crazy week - script, workshops, trying to get avid media composer running on my laptop, rebuilding my laptop, meetings and viewings at school, pre-production work for 'five'. I can't run Media Composer on my laptop as it is having problems with my graphics card which in turn is causing a video lag, which can't be fixed. So I am returning back to Avid Express Pro HD - it is still a great editing tool but doesn't have as many facilities and finishing tools as a Media Composer.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Avid, Five, Introspection, Movies, Pre-production, Script
