It is that time of the year here in NZ where everyone goes crazy doing Christmas shopping and closer to Christmas the entire country comes to a virtual standstill. The main streets are decorated with various stuff and it just kicks in the point that we need periods of extravagance like these to connect with people we care about. If only we could connect with people and be good to each other all the time.
I just watched Battlestar Galactica: Razor - it was an interesting watch and adds a little more plot detail before the last season kicks off. The only thing that bugged me is that they did not add more threads to tie it up tighter to Season-4.
I had a day off work today and it has been a nice relaxing day. Played some tennis with Lance {he started teaching me how to play the game and this is the first time ever i put my hands on a tennis racket, so was nice to lose the set 6-5}; watched the BSG movie {refer to above paragraph}; lazed around and have now started reading Mister Pip by Llyod Jones, which is turning out to be a fantastic read.
Maybe I should get some pending work done tomorrow. :-) Till later, Amit
Well first off - FIVE has been selected to screen at Microcinema Festival '07 in Palatine, Illinois and will be the closing the festival. Also Gina Dellabarca who runs Star Publicity will be helping me out with publicity for FIVE leading up to it's DVD release. It is another week and half before we finish off sound design on FIVE and deliver the master tape to Arkles Entertainment.
I watched a documentary titled "Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality" - the doco was alright but the philosophy and the subject matter was fascinating - it deals with Death Anxiety and the way it shapes our lives. It is definitely a must see doco - if you can ignore some of the weird music choices they make in the background.
Saturday has been a day for festivities. It was another beautiful day and I drove up to Bethells Beach to meet Ross Bethell to say thank you for letting us film there and helping support our independent efforts.
Later I went across to catch a glimpse of the African fair which was happening in Browns Bay. It was a small festival but awesome food and great vibe. I had some Boerewors - traditionally barbequed sausages and also had 3 servings of Frikkadelles which were yummy - they are meatballs (south african style). Yummmmmmmmm.......I did a quick search and couldn't find any South African restaurants around in Auckland. What a shame - it means no South African food for another year. :-(
Yummy Boerewors getting cooked
A great family outing under the shade
The beautiful day and setting for the fair
And in the evening I went to the Light Show - which was the opening for AK'07. It was again an awesome experience - unlike the underwhelming fireworks experience on New Year's Eve. There must have been about 200,000 people in the Auckland Domain - the area was just jam packed and the traffic jam for vehicles was horrible and the foot traffic was very solid as well - almost felt like Delhi. The thing which still bothers me is young kids getting drunk or drugged - especially when they can't hold it - I mean kids should definitely not be smoking pot at all.
The massive crowd in one section
The pyrotechnics in progress
Since the photos themselves don't tell much in this case - so here is a small clip that I recorded.
I have also uploaded photos from Diwali Festival as well as the Tauranga road trip in 2006. I know much delayed but still- better late than never. I am currently compressing and uploading pics from the Delhi trip during 2005 Christmas break; so they should be up in a day or so.
Also before I leave- here is the extended trailer of '300'.
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.
The Viaduct
Andrea and Julia
The Sky Tower from where we were standing
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.
Today was the first proper day of editing where I got a proper 8 hour shift and it was good. I had been sneaking in about 3-4 hours of edit over the past couple of days so that the assembly would keep progressing nicely. At last count I have assembled about 38 minutes of the movie - which is not bad going considering that I have probably put in about 24-25 hours edit time into that. The real challenge in editing usually starts when the assembly is done and you start trying to get the pacing and rhythm right.
It is holiday season and most of the country is on a holiday break. I still find it amusing as to how almost the country comes to a stand still during this period. The shoppers don't mind it though since everyone is out shopping and this year there was a record spending spree leading up to Christmas where the total amount of transactions through credit cards and debit cards hit NZ$ 196 million in 1 day (on Friday)- which to me is absolutely insane as it does not include any cash or cheque transactions either. People find so much comfort in materialistic things when it is a feeling of goodwill and sharing that counts. Even if half the people did one good deed on that day the world would be a better place to live in.
On Christmas eve - i.e Sunday evening, I went and had dinner with friends at a Thai restaurant - the food was a bit expensive but really yummy. On Christmas evening I was invited to a lovely dinner with Lance and his family. The Christmas dinner was heaps of fun and was rounded up nicely by a table tennis tournament, card games and some lovely food.
I have been bad over the last week or so, in the sense that I haven't sent anyone any Christmas greetings or text messages or emails. I am so caught up with editing the movie that the dose of reality just jars me. So you can say that I have been really lucky that some people thought it worthwhile to drop me an email or a text wishing me the best for the holiday season but a couple of text messages have been really frustrating as well - they are from numbers I don't have on my cellphone. They obviously know me and have gone to the pain of wishing me but when I text them back wishing them the same and asking who they are, I don't receive any reply back. How annoying is that? I am not being an arrogant son of a bitch or anything, I genuinely want to know who it is because I don't have their number on my address book. We can make life so complicated sometimes.
I found out today that freelance work for me at TVNZ would start from the 3rd week of January, so now I have to really make my savings stretch that much more. On the other hand it is fantastic - as it gives me a good 3 week solid run at editing the movie and I can possibly get it to the half way through the rough cut stage by that point.
It has been a busy few days - it almost feels like eons since I posted.
First I would like to say 'Congrats' to my sis - Veni, who got married on the 15th of December. There are no other words to express my joy - it is always hard finding a life partner and it is great that she found hers. All the best for the life ahead sis.
My neck/back is feeling a lot better. Another 2 physio appointments to go and I think it will get me back on track. Saturday went into cleaning up my room - which had become a complete mess again. It took me longer than normal as I did not want to strain my neck or back.
I did watch 'The Three Burials of Melqauiades Estrada' on Saturday and it was an awesome movie. One word for describing it would be - 'poetic'. It is beautiful and lyrical and gentle. It transports you into another world and it is a highly recommended watch.
I have started assembling 'Five' on Sunday and spent about 5 hours before I had to stop because of my back. Editing is so much fun - I had almost forgotten how good it felt in front of an edit suite playing with the footage.
On Sunday evening - I went to a Christmas dinner at Barbara's flat. Each of their flat members could invite 2 friends and everyone had take a cooked dish along with a 2 Dollar gift. I cooked some 'Tofu Curry' and I wasn't particularly happy with it - mainly because tofu doesn't have any taste and to me that is boring. Next time I will use paneer {Indian cottage cheese} and I think it will taste heaps better. It was a nice dinner - got to try different types of dishes and also got to meet some more wonderful people. It was a pleasant evening.
Monday was a bit tiring as I did about 10 different jobs through the day ranging from sorting out stuff at TVNZ with my ID to a job interview in another department at TVNZ to picking up my new printer - to name a few. I later went and watched 'Jindabyne' with Julia and Barbara. It turned out to be a terrible movie - it was beautifully shot but the story and the pacing were completely out and it just felt like an overdrawn soap opera. It was annoying as hell trying to sit through the movie and the movie felt like an exercise in trying to showcase the scenery and trying to portray some of the Australian indigenous cultural issues - it succeeds at showing off the scenery but everything else about the movie was bland. Maybe the movie works for australian audiences but it definitely did not do it for me. I felt shattered by the end of the day and today was no different.
Got another big day tomorrow where we will be shooting some green screen stuff for the movie - which means that I will be picking up and dropping off the camera and the green screen for the shoot. Also have a script workshop session later in the evening with the cast of 'Five'. Auckland Regional Council came back to me after I put in request for additional shoot dates in Jan and have generously agreed to grant us permission under our existing cover - which is fantastic as I don't have to sweat about the location now.
Anyway I think I will go to bed for now. Till later, Amit
Auckland is celebrating Diwali festival and it was the first time I went to the celebrations since I have been here in New Zealand. It was heaps of fun and the best bit was the Indian food stalls. Since Indian vegetarian food is so yummy - the whole weekend shaped out to be a vegetarian weekend.
Started off Saturday by watching 'Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby' and it turned out to be way more funnier than I thought it would be. Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly are really funny but the one person who really makes the movies even more crazier is Sacha Baron Cohen as the French challenger, Jean Girrard. It was a fun movie.
Then I caught up with Barbara, Julia and Andrea to go to the Diwali festival and it turned out to be heaps more fun. The crowds, the food, the ambiance - everything added up. There was so much good food and delicacies on offer that I couldn't resist myself. Later, we went and saw 'Little Miss Sunshine' (yes I watched it a second time) and it was still great fun. Stood up really well even after the second viewing - still as funny. We came back to the festival for some more Indian food and then watched the last few performances - including a fantastic bhangra performance before retiring for the day. It was a long but relaxing saturday.
Here is Saturday in photographs -
A man playing flute to indifferent pedestrians
The crowd starting to build up at the fair
Julia and Barbara shopping
Indian textiles and handicrafts on sale
A bollywood dance performance
An outsider's perspective
Barbara with an Indian thali while Julia is ordering some Paav Bhaji
Andrea excited about trying some Kulfi
A punjabi skill performance by a kid
A bhangra dance performance
Crowd enjoying themselves to the music
The mixed and varied crowd joining in the excitement
More food stalls
The festival of lights
As far as Sunday is concerned - I have been slowly chipping away at the script revision for 'Five'. Slept for a fair bit and later in the evening - went to the Diwali festival again - this time with Benji, to watch the fireworks. The fireworks display was underwhelming and a disappointing end to what was otherwise a great festival celebration.
Another week starting up tomorrow and things are just adding up. It is a period of creative nervous excitement for me.
Festive Season
