I started the fine cut on 'Five' this morning. It was a tense yesterday night as the project crashed on me again. I had weird problems with accessing files from the project, so I formatted my system and built it up from scratch and reinstalled all the softwares. That didn't solve the problem, so I started isolating problem areas within Avid and it turned out to be corrupted databases which was causing the problem. So yeah - it was a big relief sorting out the problem without impacting on my edit time for the movie.
I also had the meeting with Richard today and it was a good meeting. 'Nowhere to Love' is still alive and we are going through stuff to make sure that we get back onto the same page before we progress the project further. It is easy to suddenly be on different chapters of the book - without realizing it but the good thing is that we have acknowledged the problem and we will now be working towards rebuilding the project. There will be some radical changes to the tone of the movie but I think that will make it feasible to make it even if we don't get any funding whatsoever.
So thats the long and short of it. Off to my acting class now. Ciao, Amit
What a turbulent week it has been - many things happening at the same time to the point where I was angry with myself for allowing myself to let one thing impact on another.
Last weekend was relaxing and a complete 180 to what this week has been. Mary and me canceled the trip to White Island at the last minute as the weather forecast said gale force winds and it was highly unlikely that the tour would have gone ahead plus it was bad weather on Friday as well - so driving down to Whakatane would have been one massive mission. So instead we made an impromptu program and went up north - not too north though. It was a lazy weekend exploring some wonderful countryside and the gorgeous beaches that NZ has to offer, eating lovely food and simply lazing about. It is much easier to just show the photos and show the beauty that the trip turned out to be.
The road trip
The 'crowded' path to the beach
Road to the Seas
Anchored boats at Leigh
The hideaway
PERFECT
Everyone is a traveler
Ready to fly
What do you mean this is the end of the beach?
A room with a view
The rain coming in
Everyone enjoying a Sunday lunch
The journey continues
This week started off with an unexpected system shock with a meeting between 2 of us producers for 'Nowhere to Love' and the legal firm representing the movie. We are trying to sort out the matter of rights and title to the movie, so that the work on the script can start again. The meeting went well but was a definite shock to me as I wasn't expecting quite a few things that came out of the meeting. So after having a think I have decided not to direct 'Nowhere to Love' - I will only be attached to the project as a producer - that is once the 'rights' thing gets cleared up. More on that once things are a bit more clear about the happenings with the movie.
The meeting put me in a frame of mind where I couldn't really work on editing 'Five' - which was the plan as I got 2 days off in a row from my work at TVNZ. Thank God for the acting class in the evening, which snapped me out of it. Tuesday was spent trimming the cut further with 'Five' and it is now down to 74 minutes minus the end credits - so the final duration will probably be around the 78 minute mark. Wednesday was my first solo shift in a new work area at TVNZ and it was exciting - so now I will be jumping between different areas, which is a great way to work.
Over the past couple of days I have spent about 2 hours a day working on the first rough colour grade on FIVE - so that when we submit it for consideration for the Auckland International Film Festival - it is not as rough and visually jarring. Benji has started doing the first audio clean-up pass, so that the audio levels are consistent and don't take away from viewing the rough cut. The deadline for getting the DVD screener in for the selection process is this coming Friday (I managed to get a few extra days for the project) and it will be long work days till that point. Once the screener goes in - we need to keep chugging away on sound and possibly start arranging for some ADR sessions before one of the talents leaves the country for her OE (Overseas Experience). Ilke Gers - a friend of one of the talents has come on board to design the poster for the movie and I am looking forward to how that's going to shape up - I am definitely excited about it. So yeah - there is a whole lot of 'Five' on my mind plus there is my usual freelance work occupying the rest of my time. Besides 'Five' - there is atleast one solid project on the horizon (no - I am not talking about 'Nowhere') and details about that will follow once work on that project kick starts.
It is that time of the year where one has to file their tax returns and this time around there is a new person (with the same accounting firm) handling the Unkreative Artists and my accounts. It was amusing trying to explain to them why we are spending so much money on making a movie but not seeing any income straight away. I told him that I am still working on the movie and that income from the movie won't accrue anytime soon since I have to finish editing it and sell it and then hopefully see some returns before the end of the next financial year - the voice on the other end said 'Oh!' as if they understood what I was saying but it was definitely more preplexed than before it asked the question. Keeping fingers crossed that we make some money on the movie this time. If we don't then the next movie will be truly 'zero budget'.
That's it from me for now.
Till later
Amit
[BTW - I just laid a complaint to the police because there was this car which followed me for 2 nights in a row now- it is too much of a coincidence, especially when this has happened when I return from my night shift at TVNZ at different points in time. It is a bit bizarre so thought I would mention it - nothing to worry about yet. It must be my vivid clarity of instincts but will get to know for sure if it happens again. How is that for topping off a crazy week? The car registration no. is WC 3149 incase you are wondering.]
Not that the blog is going to become a weekly kind of a thing but it just happens that I got drowned in sudden splurge of work - small things which needed to be sorted out straight away.
Weekend was a lazy one for the most part but had a lovely Sunday with Mary. We went to Muruwai beach and it turned out to be a beautiful day - not sunny and it didn't rain either. Oh and my usual way of making french toast received an upgrade with some fried banana and bacon and maple syrup (courtesy: Mary) ; and it was yummy. Muruwai beach was really busy for some reason - even though it was a Sunday. Oh well... here are some photos from the Muruwai trip -
Muruwai Beach (the far end - thats why there are less people)
A view of the beach from top of the hill
Mary is amused
"I will do anything for catching that one little fish"
The Gannet Colony - the trademark of Muruwai beach
A lady taking her baby for a stroll
"Give me the stick. I wanna fetch it."
Mary and me
I have just come back from the first class with Michael Saccente and the only way to describe it is that I am feeling very alive. It is a great bunch of people in the class - coming from different backgrounds and I am sure that it will turn out to be a really exciting 80 weeks. :-)
Earlier last week - I had a catch up meeting with Richard Collins over 'Nowhere' and trying to sort out how we move the project forward - including sorting out the rights to the script - which has become a little bit entangled because of the project has shaped up. Unkreative Artists started off the project and paid for the initial amount for the script - which meant that Unkreative Artists holds the rights. As the project gained a couple more producers and a new company - NTL Ltd., was formed for the purpose of the movie - the rights related to the script were never really sorted out and it was assumed that the rights would be transferred to NTL Ltd. Jordan - the script writer, luckily enough (for Unkreative Artists) did not sign the renegotiated contract because of delays on both sides in sorting out the renegotiated contract - which meant that I finally had the chance to sort this mess out, as Unkreative Artists is afterall a company. And to me it just didn't make sense that Unkreative Artists pays for a script which will be exploited by NTL Ltd. - so I got talking to Richard and we have already made progress over the course of action. Now it is just a matter of implementing the steps properly - in order to resolve the matter satisfactorily for the 3 parties involved in this. There were a couple of other matters and they too need sorting out. Once all those things are sorted then we will take the script back to the treatment stage and start working on it again. The other thing that I am going to do is take down the 'Nowhere to Love' website till the project regains momentum and gets back on its feet again - and then NTL Ltd. can pay for the website and design.
In the meantime I have started designing the website for 'Five' and I have finally settled on a design which I like - so now it is a matter of finishing it off and uploading it. And then there is the upcoming shoot this weekend - where we will be shooting the opening scene and a couple of pickup scenes to tie things up with the movie. It looks like the score for the movie will be delayed a bit but hopefully we will still hit the deadline for the Auckland international film festival.
On the movie front - managed to watch 'The White Masai' - which is very nicely done and is mesmerizing and beautiful; 'Hot Fuzz' - a movie which has you chuckling for its entire running length but still you need to be an action movie aficionado to laugh out loud. On the documentary front I watched 'Scorsese on Scorsese' which was enormously entertaining - the best bit was the American express credit card advertisement featuring Martin Scorsese. Check it out
The other documentary I was looking forward to was 'Behind the Scenes' of 'Children of Men' - I really wanted to know how they managed to pull off some of the incredible sequences. I was a bit disappointed that they still did not touch on how they managed to stage the single shot war sequence towards the end of the movie. The interesting bit was seeing how they managed to pull off the opening blast in the movie and also the car chase sequence where the camera is always inside the car following action inside and outside the car.
It is great that India is out of the cricket world cup. I think someone needs to drive some sense into the Indian masses that it is not the end of the world. Every country has it's sporting obsessions but I think Indians go a bit overboard with their obsession for the game. Let me correct myself - the Indian sub-continent takes the game a little too seriously. The keyword is that it is just a game - nothing more and nothing less. Personally, I think the cricket world cup should be stopped because of Bob Woolmer's murder but that's a fool's wish because there is so much money riding on the game that one person's death is not important in the overall scheme of things.
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
I had my first proper swimming lessons today. I definitely need heaps of practice just to stay afloat - literally. It was fun though.
Acting workshops are going well. Improvisation is so much fun and that much more challenging because you have to be in that moment all the time. It is so close to production that it is hard to believe - a week and a half and we will be shooting the movie. Need lots of sorting out to do this weekend -especially with buying food supplies, accessories etc. We now have public liability insurance and statutory liability insurance along with third party damage with fire and theft cover for the company car. Learning from the last movie - insurance is a definite must even for 'no budget' films so that they remain no budget movies and don't end up being a twenty thousand dollar movie because you accidentally damaged something worth 20K.
SIPF decision came out for October round of funding and 'Nowhere' still hasn't got the financial support it needs [a sophisticated way of saying that we didn't get the funding]. I don't know if I will ever get any kind of funding from New Zealand. A bit disappointing but oh well, cest la vie..
Another week gone and the feeling of loss of time sometimes racks me up but on the positive side it has been eventful. Today had a long meeting with Richard over the script direction of 'Nowhere' and after that had a one on one catch up session with Tom Strudwick before he flew back to UK. Again - the session was extremely beneficial and it gave us more food for thought. It is always great to have an outsiders perspective to a project as one does get too attached to a project and can't tell the different trees in the woods but the trick is to find someone who knows what they are doing.
Watched 'Miami Vice' yesterday evening and it was an interesting experience. On one hand you have brilliant cinematography and on the other hand you have some dodgy edit decisions combined with an unlikeable lead in Colin Farrell - the result was a mildly satisfying movie. Technically the movie rocks and again uses the strength of the Viper HD camera to look straight out into the night and capture some really cool images. Colin Farrell just took himself too seriously in that character and that meant that there was no point of sympathy for his character and badly enough the decision to focus on his story doesn't pay off satisfactorily. The violence is brutal and definitely shakes you up every single time there is some of it on-screen. Overall as a movie I would say that it was a mixed bag and compared to Michael Mann's previous movie, Collateral - it feels a little bland. It is still a really interesting watch because of it's cinematography.
I will be sitting my driving license exam next weekend -to get my Indian license converted to a NZ driving license. It was a long time due and I think I really had to do something about it since my international license which was supposed to come from India never got into the system as the agent we were dealing with jumped ships without any notice. So I am happy that LTSA has agreed to accept my current Indian license for conversion and I have been quitely chugging away at the Road Code book, which is essential to pass the theory exam.
Anyway - it should be a quite weekend and I am looking forward to it. For now, Amit
My blog postings seem to have become kinda irregular but it is nothing that I am doing consciously. It just happens that times become so hectic that it is virtually impossible to muster up enough energy put my thoughts into words.
We are re-submitting 'Nowhere to Love' for Screen Innovation Production Fund, since we have postponed the movie and that makes us eligible to apply for fund without breaking any rules. A big chunk of the Sunday went into writing the director's notes for the application, which is critical to the application. So here is keeping fingers crossed for this round- will get to know about the grants by the end of October.
On the other hand - I have started picking up the pace for 'Five' since that is now closer to production. The first draft of the script in a couple of days away but we now have four of the five main characters cast and most of the crew is on board, so this is definitely gonna be an ultra low budget outing. And the idea with this one is to work with a really small team - 5 cast and 5 crew to make the movie happen in a short period of time - it would be a tough shot but also an awesome experience and heaps of fun. So now - I am working on the workflow in order to make this movie happen. Hopefully I should have something nailed down in a couple of weeks. I also need to put my head down and come with a concept and design for the website for 'Five' and create it soon...and that's not counting the updates and modifications I have to do for 'Nowhere' website. Hmmmm.....might have to wait till the shifting to the new place is complete.
Yeah - in the process of shifting to the new place and most of the major stuff is now there, just got the smaller things left at the current place. I have also been frequenting 'trademe' - a nz based online auction site quite a bit, bidding on items which i would be needing at the new place like a refrigerator (managed to get a second hand one for real cheap) etc...Moving houses is always a bit of a pain because of the costs involved but for this new place- it is worth it.
I cooked an experimental chicken dish and it turned out really good - it has a sweeteness to it when you put it in your mouth but then has a slight bite to it as you eat it further. Benji was a little apprehensive when he saw me cooking because he was unsure of the ingredients I was using. He reluctantly took a small tasting sample and after tasting it he said "This is definitely one of the better dishes you have made. You can definitely sell it for money and people would be willing to buy it." - which I guess is a compliment. How did I cook it? I took a teaspoon of olive oil in a wok and heated it up and added 400 gm of diced chicken to it. Then I added about 3-4 table spoons of honey to the pot and cooked the chicken in it. Once the chicken turned light brown {after about 12-15 minutes on high heat} I ground some fresh pepper onto it and cooked it some more and then added a sprinkling of south african salt called 'Marina Braai Salt'. After it is turned brown I added a can of wattie's tomato chunks with garlic and olive oil. I also added a couple of dashes of Nando's Hot Peri-Peri Sauce to the mixture and added half a glass of water and let the chicken cook till it was done. The total dish took about 30 minutes to prepare and I had it on white rice and it was a real treat.
Anyway my eyes are shutting themselves down. Time to go to bed. Till later, Amit
[P.S - NZ is the 4th most dangerous country to drive your motor vehicle in, coming behind Thailand, South Africa and India.....this is hilarious.....considering that everyone here considers driving practices and conditions in India outrageous. Here is the News Link if you wanna read further.]
It has been fairly eventful since I last wrote - saw a couple of good movies at the film festival and had lots of emails back and forth regarding 'Nowhere'. We {i mean the producers} have decided to further postpone the production of 'Nowhere to Love' till early next year in an effort to raise more money and polish the script further. The last 2 days of constant emails and discussions has left me a bit emotionally exhausted because you are exploring all possibilities and variations and trying to guess what impact the decision would have on the future. It is a status quo in a way, atleast for now, as it definitely feels like the right decision to take in the long run but the built up momentum is lost and will have to start building it up again once we are closer to the new production dates again.
Flight of the Seagull
As far as the film festival goes - watched 'A Scanner Darkly' and 'Tristam Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story'. 'ASD' was trippy and a good watch - the ending was depressing though. Also there are story threads which were interesting but got completely ignored till they needed to tell a plot point. Plus watching the movie was annoying because the guy sitting in front of me was a twitcher - he would stay still for less than 10 seconds at a stretch and would keep moving around in his seat, which made it kind of hard for me to watch the screen clearly at any given time. On the other hand 'Tristam Shandy' was hilarious and I still smile almost at every scene which comes to my mind from that movie. It was so much fun - the british definitely have a wicked sense of humor. It is a MUST watch movie.
A moment of truth
Where do things go from here? Well - I can't just simply sit back and say I am not doing anything for the rest of the year, so I am bringing forward the plans for 'Five' and will do that as my second movie within this year and make 'Nowhere' my third movie. I am taking a couple of days away from the whole thinking about the movie thing, so that I can refocus and prepare for 'Five'.
End of a sunday and it has been a relaxing weekend. I think I needed it, especially with the maddening and hectic Term-3 starting tomorrow - which is also a reality check for me that we have 9 weeks to go before we go into production with 'Nowhere'.
Watched 'Lonesome Jim' today and it was a lovely movie. It had loads of mood and some extremely funny situations. The characters were quirky and it was a small movie which achieves what it sets out to do. The main character, Jim, does come across as an asshole a fair few times but the other characters make up for him. The movie was made for a budget of US$ 500K on the Panasonic DVX100 - which is incredibly as the cinematography doesn't betray that. It is a good watch and definitely worth a look.
NZ update of 'Thinking Man' (:-)
This place is hardly 30 metres from our new flat
I realized something today - an outcome of 3 days of solid mind space without any interruptions; and don't know if I should be happy or sad with my small realization.
Click on the image to preview part of Vol.1 of BLAME!
Scenic snapshot of NZ
Benji at Java Cafe in Devonport (cool cafe)
Children chasing birds in the devonport park
INdustriaL
A drowned car
A closer look at the drowned car
Random photo that I managed to generate in-camera..i have titled it 'Fire'
Waiting for the sign!!!
Today's most exciting and nervous decision was deciding to move out of the current flat and finding a new flat, which would be quieter and more conducive to working - especially during the movie. So I rang up a couple of places in the newspaper which listed stuff for a 2 bedroom flat and visited them today. The first one was a horrible place and I would be amazed at any person who would want to live there. The second place was the exact opposite and Benji was wondering if we were at the right place as the place was awesome - spacious, clean and located just near the Birkenhead ferry terminal. It was a long wait for the landlord to come around to show us in but it was an interesting wait - that is where I took the photo of the drowned car. Also while we were waiting at the flat - another car pulled over and one of the people from the car asked us if it was the address and when I replied in affirmative, the person got into the car and just drove away. It was quite bizarre but funny at the same time. Anyway the flat was great and for the price we are getting it at - it is a bargain, so we jumped straight at the offer. So Benji and me will now be moving into the new flat in a couple of week's time.
I haven't watched that many movies this week because of the workload at school as well as the intensifying work on 'Nowhere'. I feel bad enough not to have replied properly to my e-mails over the past 2 weeks. I think tomorrow will mainly go into replying to my backlog of emails and charting new acting workshop schedules for 'Nowhere'. Also the coming week is a plethora of movies to watch at the Auckland International Film Festival - 'A Scanner Darkly'; 'Road to Guantanamo'; 'Tristam Shandy' besides got out 'Lonesome Jim' & 'Mad Hot Ballroom' to watch on DVD - so that should cover up for my movie viewing shortfall.
Anyway feeling a little tired right now...time to go offline and think a little more about life. Ciao, Amit
It has been a hectic weekend and satisfying to say the least. Friday evening was a couple of hours of badminton with Dean and Becks. Saturday was housekeeping and sleeping for most part of the day and went indoor rock climbing later in the evening.
Angelique , Darryn, Benji and me went indoor rock climbing. Angelique gave it a go as I was looking for a climbing partner and Benji gave it a go as he felt a little more comfortable with Darryn as his partner. It turned out to be heaps of fun - it took us all about 15-20 minutes of beginners lessons before we all got started on the main beginner's wall. My forearms are aching slightly from the climbing but overall feels great. The trick is to use your lower body to do the climbing and use your arms and hands just for balancing and support. After climbing the beginner's wall a couple of times, I thought I would give the intermediate wall a try but it was hard to get started on that- just couldn't get a grip - maybe will give it a go the next time I go rock climbing.
Darryn climbing while Benji is the B-Lay (partner)
Benji gives it a go as Angelique becomes the B-Lay
Angelique climbing the wall with me as the B-Lay
Me looking on while being the B-Lay
After the rock climbing session Angelique, Benji and me came back to our place - had dinner and a long conversation about politics, the state of world, oil, life and everything in between. Later Benji and me watched 'Lord of War' which turned out to be a pretty good movie. Real dry humor and is a poignant look at the state of world arms trade. A really well executed satire, which does not preach - just shows things as they are.
Today was the first read through for 'Nowhere to Love' and it was exhilarating, exciting and exhausting at the same time. It was great to see the words come to life and actually get a sense of the story as it would play out. What was even better was the feedback/analysis session we had after the read through and the stuff which came out of it was invaluable. I am still digesting all that information and will probably start getting it back into a cohesive format soon.
The read through session in progress
Rich, Richie T, Andrea and B
Jordan Blaikie, Ismay and Andrea
I just finished watching 'Manhattan Murder Mystery' - another movie by Woody Allen. It was funny and I think I really like Woody Allen's sense of comedy and pacing and focus on characters.
Anyway - I think I will retire for now - preparing myself for another long week at school. Till later, Amit
It has shaped up to be a beautiful weekend with no rain whatsoever on these 2 days and some really lovely sun. I haven't gone indoor rock climbing as one needs a climbing partner and at this point I don't have anyone. I put the idea forward to Benji and both of us have agreed that maybe it is not such a good idea to try that together, considering the weight difference between the two of us, so I will wait for a climbing partner and then give it a go.
The Auckland International Film Festival is just around the corner and in the past 3 years I have never been to see anything at the festival because I never found a movie that I wanted to desperately watch. But this time around there are a fair few movies which interest me, so went over and bought tickets to a couple of them - 'Tristam Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story' and 'Road to Guatanamo' - interestingly both movies by Michael Winterbottom. Not related to the film festival - 'Superman Returns' is being released this Thursday and they are re-launching the IMAX 3D screen again at Village Cinemas on Queen Street, so will be watching the movie there.
Watched a couple of movies over the weekend - 'Thumbsucker' and 'Wolf Creek'. Thumbsucker was a coming-of-age comedy and it wasn't too funny. It has a lot of missed moments and the editing rhythm is off synch with the performances, which were pretty solid (even from the teenagers). It downplays the humor so much that it almost kills the movie. And because the editing is out of synch, the movie just felt way too long even though it was normal movie length ( I came close to dozing off around the 50 minute mark).
Wolf Creek on the other hand was a much better movie than I expected - it takes a long time for the movie to start off. It has a 45 minute setup time and then all hell break's loose. There is no suspense to really speak of but it is brutal and unrelenting in nervous tension when it gets going. In a way the direct comparision would be to 'Hostel' which kind of follows the same story telling pattern with huge build up time before breaking into brutality from which the horror comes from. It almost feels like the storytelling technique in horror is going through a change. Hopefully someone finds a balance between traditional horror and new age horror.
I cooked something new today and learnt an extremely valuable lesson - a meal has to be balanced out between dry items and wet items otherwise it is hard to enjoy the meal to the full extent. I cooked some chicken skewers marinated in indian spices and curds (unsweetened yoghurt) and served them on rice along with chargrilled red peppers, sliced olives and peppered omlette. I undercooked the rice a bit and then did not prepare any wet dishes, so it was a tough lunch to have even though it tasted good. So a lesson learnt for the future.
Chicken Skewers with chargrilled red peppers and Peppered Omlette
There is a third movie project which is now under development and it is as exciting as 'Nowhere'. At this point all I can say is the movie is tentatively titled 'FIVE' and the reason I am excited is that I would like to make this as a 'zero-budget' movie with the focus on telling a good story within huge resource constraints. David M. is writing the story and it is going to be a great collaborative effort. The plan is to shoot the movie in Feb'2007 with the aim for sharing it with everyone by July'2007. More details will follow soon...all in the due course of time.
I think I will go offline for now. Might watch another movie or so. Till later, Amit
It is one of those days!!! I feel like screaming at the top of my voice but I don't think it would help my cause. The US sales agent who was thinking of investing US$ 20K into the movie inexplicably did a U-turn and doesn't want the movie anymore. So now back to Square-2 with the movie. I spent the better part of yesterday removing the typos and making some small tweaks to the script. The only thought at this point is to keep focussed on what we can do within our resources instead of diverting the energy to bemoaning the hardships of trying to make an independent film.
'The Iron Giant' is a fantastic animation film from Brad Bird - the director of 'The Incredibles'. I discovered a copy of it at the video store and promptly rented it out as I did have massive amounts of fun watching 'The Incredibles'. And I must say that I wasn't disappointed at all - the movie has the 'X' factor which endears itself to the audience. The other DVD I watched recently was Ricky Gervais's Animals - it was funny for most of the part and definitely different from his David Brent persona. The introduction to the show is hilarious and is definitely a high point of the show. Don't watch it if you get offended by animal jokes and God jokes.
The tempratures have come up a bit, so it is not as freezing as it was when a cold wave was sweeping over the north island. There were a couple of days when even the gas heater wasn't that effective. The south island on the other hand is going through major winter woes, especially with some parts of the country having no electricity for almost 11 days now, after snow storms.
I think that will be the update from me for now. Till later, Amit
Finally - a relaxing day (in a manner of speaking) after a hectic last week. Thursday/Friday were super-hectic at school, so today was definitely a welcome change. Benji and me had a house warming party yesterday night and it was a good get together - international students from this year popped in and a few people from our 2003 batch came in to warm the house up. It was good fun.
Today, I went out to do some more location reccees along with Benji and Richard but couldn't find anything good.
Me filling up the car at the petrol station
We went through Pokeno, Tuakau, Pukekohe and then couldn't think of any other places to go to after that. None of the places had the charm of Coromandel or even came close, so the thought is to stick to Coromandel.
Benji {click me for a larger image}
Richard
Walking through Tuakau shopping centre
The fifth draft for 'Nowhere' came through and it is definitely the strongest the story has ever been till now and it is exciting to see the story develop nicely. Now have to step up the pace on other departments, especially acting. There have also been some more exciting developments with regards to financing and hopefully the deal comes through.
The whirlwind of life's paradoxes are adding more riddles. Only the warmth of the gas heater in the lounge seems to be real at the moment.
Tired is the best way to describe how I am feeling right now. School is draining me out at the moment. On the other hand - I have watched heaps of movies over the last few days: Osama; Harvey Krumpet (short film); Small Time Crooks; Hitch ; Clone Wars Vol 1. & 2.
Had a really productive meeting in regards to 'Nowhere' and now just holding breath for the fifth draft to come through. I am fairly surprised that we are at the fifth draft of the script because nothing has changed much with the story but a lot has changed within the story. It is proving to be a really great learning curve.
I am now onto the last volume of 'Preacher' - so yeah I have been doing some solid reading on that and I would say that it is a great graphic novel. I can't stop saying it because I don't know how many people have even heard about it but it is a MUST read.
The more I think about - the more my concept of right, wrong and areas in between are shifting, changing and morphing.
First of all - today is a special day because Veni {my first cousin} is getting engaged today and I am thrilled for her. I am glad for her that she has found someone she wants to spends the rest of her life with. The engagement is in Hyderabad - so our whole family would be there.
I finally got around to watching a hit bollywood movie titled 'Dhoom'. When I was in India a few months back I was recommended by atleast 4 people to watch this movie - I didn't and yesterday I found the movie at the local video store, so I promptly got it out to see what the big deal was about.
The movie was a tad different from rest of the bollywood films but just - the difference being that the run time was only about 2 hours and that too with a few song/dance sequences - so the film makers did not add any extra baggage to the movie. The editing was something new to the indian audiences I suppose but it was really not in actual terms - jump cuts without rhyme and reason and sudden stylization of a simple scene. There are big story lapses and continuity problems but that obviously didn't matter when the movie played to audiences. The plot was a bastardization of 'Torque' {yeah the movie which was 'Fast and Furious on bikes} with typical bollywood elements thrown in. So yeah, overall view of the movie - a good experiement but nothing much different from any other bollywood movie with its action sequences 'inspired' by various hollywood movies. The main song of the movie is really catchy and I did a search and found the music video HERE & HERE (with karoake features) - you should definitely have a listen.
I also watched 'November' - a movie which was shot on a DVX100 (but with film lenses attached to it). The movie has some fantastic cinematography {it won an award for the same at Sundance} and that's all I can give it credit for- the movie felt really long and slow despite the fact that the actual movie {minus the end credits} was only 70 minutes. It has some fantastic atmosphere and visuals which generate some interest but most of the opportunities are lost because of the plot itself. Overall - watch it if you are in the mood for a slow burn movie.
Richard and me had a brief chat with Jordan {the script writer} to see how the progress was on the fifth draft of 'Nowhere' and it is exciting to see it finally shaping into something fabulous. The script is on the right track and just validates the confidence I have in this project. Also had a chat with Pandora, who has returned to London from Cannes and the response from the meetings at Cannes seems to have been really positive. So now have to wait for the fifth draft to come through before we fire it off to potential international distributors.
Anyway I better get up from the bed and do something useful - maybe go and get myself some lunch.
I have a splitting headache and it is definitely painful - can't move my head without feeling it. I watched a couple of movies today: Xmen3: The Last Stand and Barbarian Invasions.
X3 was entertaining and it was definitely better as far as mutants as their use of their powers go but it also has a lot of missed opportunities as far as story goes. The plot is a tad uneven and there are glaring continuity mistakes and is an example of a movie which could do with a longer running time. Some major scenes needed to breath and the build up needed to be better in some scenes. But still it is an entertaining watch.
Barbarian Invasions won the 2004 Oscar for Best Foreign Movie but I can't understand why. I mean it is a good movie, gentle and humorous at times and is about reflection on life and the reality of death but still it did not stand out that much to me. It is a worthwhile watch.
I also got a letter from Screen Innovation Production Fund stating that our application was not successful in recieving the grant - so that's that. Now have to secure further funding from sources outside of New Zealand - it should be another interesting phase in the learning process.
My flatmate bought himself a new 32"TV - it is a widescreen TV, so normal TV appears quite stretched because it is extending the 12:9 image onto a 16:9 screen. Watching DVD's is fun though because it is true 16:9.
Pete - thank for posting a comment on my previous post. Overall I think people are quite content just being anonymous or maybe not many people read what I write here.
Guess what that is? Yeah that's our TV - atleast the shell minus all the components inside it. The TV died an untimely death today morning and Tim went about trying to fix it, since it is his TV and the idea of putting a fish bowl inside the empty shell as replacement entertainment centre (while cancelling our Sky TV subscription) did not particularly appeal to him. It is the kiwi spirit of ingenuity and the 'do it yourself' attitude which shone through and Tim spent the whole of the sunday trying to find the problem - which turned out to be a blown fuse. He then went and bought a replacement fuse to try fix the problem.
Tim fixing the TV
It took Tim about 6 hours of toiling through the circuits and fuses, to be able to fix the problem. He put it back on and as soon as the power was switched on again, the new fuse promptly blew up again, at which point I reinforced the idea of a fish bowl but that didn't work. Greg got back home by that point, so Tim borrowed his TV tuner card to come up with a new solution.
The solution!!!!!
So yeah - that's how we are watching TV right now - on his laptop, through Greg's TV tuner card. We were discussing the possibility of buying some binoculars, so we can get a bigger view of the proceedings on the laptop...
Circuits
With the increasing amount of publicity of 'Superman Returns' I decided to do a quick refresher on the superman mythology and also explore the storyline whice dealt with 'Death of Superman' - which was a huge global media event that I can still remember from my school days {even though I wasn't into superman comics}. I found one of the best possible sources on Wikipedia- here is an article on Superman {as to how he gets his superpowers} and here you can also check out the article on 'death of superman'. Wikipedia is an interesting website, since it is an encyclopedia maintained by normal web surfers all across the world and man I am in love with the website since you can find almost any information you want on there.
Pandora and Grant are currently in Cannes - meeting up with potential distributors and sales agents - pushing the publicity for 'Nowhere to Love' and also seeing if we can secure some money through pre-sales to some international territories. It is an exciting phase but as I said in one of the earlier posts - also really nervous. How we make this movie happen depends on the financial outcomes over the next couple of weeks.
I think I will take leave, get offline and try and catch a movie before I go to bed. Till later, Amit
