Musings of an Idiot

Distribution

I just received a statement from York Entertainment - the US/Canada distributors and international sales agent for 'Memories of Tomorrow'. They have now sold 1,413 DVD's since the movie's release [this is excluding NZ/Australia as I have different distributors for that territory] and have also sold it to international territories like Russia, Thailand, South Africa, Italy but I haven't seen a cent of the money. Creative accounting is rampant within the distribution network and one can only look in awe as they fleece your movie and earn money off it. I can't reveal any figures as that would spoil the confidentiality clause but all I can say is that it sucks to be flogged so openly by your own distributor.

Good thing is that it did give us some market coverage and affirmed the fact that what we made is good enough to be earning money. In an ideal world - where everything was fair we would have recovered our production costs and would have gone into profit but hey that's a dream world where all distributors were fair ad equitable (I have an excellent working relationship with the VOD distributor as well as the NZ/Australia distributor and only wish that more distributors could be like them).

For any independent film makers looking to get distribution for their feature film my advice would be to avoid York Entertainment like the plague. Sign up with them if you feel like committing hara-kiri. Do some research before signing up with a distributor.


Till later,
Amit

Labels: Distribution, Memories of Tomorrow, Movies, Publicity

posted by Amit @ 2:46 PM 2 Comments

City Lights

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.

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Festival, Five, Publicity

posted by Amit @ 9:25 PM 0 Comments

Sound

The foley recording today did not really happen for all purposes as we did not really have enough time and the location we chose had low traffic noise in the background + the area was wet and squishy from the rain over the past couple of days. So we will be doing another session sometime soon.

I rejoined swimming classes but at a different location as the swimming trainer at the previous location was not really that great and looking back I did not make much progress under him. And funnily enough the classes start from tomorrow evening. So that should be an interesting evening getting back to swimming after 6 months. Scary but exciting.

It is amazing the amount of time emails consume - personal and professional. Over the past couple of weeks I have been in email contact with various US distribution companies talking about international sales rights to FIVE and the amount of time it takes to write a single email still amazes me. On an average it takes me atleast 30 minutes to write a 2-3 paragraph email. You don't want to write something casually and end up regretting it later, so a lot of thought process does go into it and thus the amount of time taken. At this point I am just talking to various distributors and sales agents and I will update on that front when something happens.

Other than that just bits and bobs here and there - nothing too significant for me to write about. Before I sign off here is an interesting article about Facebook.

Later,
Amit

Labels: Post Production, Publicity, Swimming

posted by Amit @ 10:04 PM 0 Comments

FIVE update

The NZ DVD release for FIVE will be towards Halloween period - end of October, so expect to see the movie in video stores near you. It gives us till the end of this month to finish off the sound on the movie. Ande Schurr has come on board to help out with foley recording and getting the sounds that we need - which is a big plus as we were in a tight spot with resources and equipment.

John Davies - the NZ distributor liked the poster that Ilke created for the movie that he has commissioned her to create the DVD jacket for the NZ DVD. It is exciting because I think the color scheme in the poster is truly enticing and reflects the movie as it is supposed to be.

The first review for FIVE has come in and it is a mixed review but HERE it is in all it's glory.[The bit about acting confuses me as the feedback from all the test screenings said that acting, tension and cinematography were the movie's strongest points.]

I watched a few movies - The Unpolished; Knocked Up; The Simpsons Movie and the only movie that can be given a miss is 'The Unpolished' which was slow and boring and did not go anywhere. I started following a TV series called '30 Rock' and it is hilarious - an intelligent comedy.

Signing off for now but do check out this article which explains how to rip off WINZ - I wouldn't recommend it because dealing with WINZ is such a pain - one is better off putting those energies in getting work than getting treated like scum.


Till later,
Amit

Labels: Five, Post Production, Publicity

posted by Amit @ 2:27 PM 1 Comments

Podcast!!!

I am running a temprature today and it came out of nowhere too. I have taken some medicine and hopefully should be up and running by tomorrow morning.

I did an interview last sunday for a podcast and it is online now. You can listen to me 'hmmm'ing' and 'aaah'ing' through the questions. I do that a lot - I need to think of the answers before hand instead of just doing impromptu answers where you can hear me thinking. My indian accent isn't too bad or is that my perception???? While you are at it - check out 'Black Magic' website which provides info on films happening in NZ.

I am managed to save a couple of hundred dollars on necessary equipment upgrades and it feels great. No special magic or pep talk - I just asked if I could get a discount and got it. Increasing my laptop RAM to 2 GB to run media intensive applications and also getting a 1000 GB external hard drive for storage and editing requirements for 'Five'. I think the money saved will be going into procuring permissions for shooting in the bush area around the tramping hut as it belongs to Auckland Regional Council - keeping fingers crossed that the fees isn't too much. Still need to sort out public liability insurance and logistics etc. for the actual shoot. It is definitely going to be a busy couple of months.

Anyway - I am feeling a bit drowsy from the medicine, I think I will go to bed.
Bye,
Amit

Labels: Five, Memories of Tomorrow, Pre-production, Publicity

posted by Amit @ 7:02 PM 2 Comments

Double Trouble

The set of '5' is finally complete. Click on the photo for bigger image....


Next on the menu is the website for the movie...have to think of a design.

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Five, Publicity

posted by Amit @ 10:22 PM 0 Comments

Travel Weekend

It has been a tiring but really satisfying weekend. On saturday Benji and me did a road trip on Waiheke Island after catching a ferry - we missed the 7.00 AM ferry by 5 minutes as I parked my car a bit of a distance away from the ferry terminal, so we had to wait for the next ferry that left at 8.00 AM. It turned out to be a good day as we drove around and explored the island in a rental car. The day itself did not do full justice as I always feel that one needs to spend atleast a couple of days in a place to get a feel for it - gauge it's vibe. So that will have to be something I leave for the next time. Overall it was still good though as we did a fair bit of stuff like hiking towards Stony Batter after a particular point and then did a vineyard tour at Stony Ridge, drove around some more; ate lunch and drove around some more. All in all a good experience.

Today was again busy. First doing laundry and grocery shopping and later on doing a podcast interview for a website called 'Black Magic' which does New Zealand Film News. The rest of the day went into meeting some new friends and going for a walk up Mt. Wellington (it is more like a hill) and just socializing. I feel kind of refreshed and just want to hit the bed right now.(:-)

The other major news is that between all the confusion that reigns with dealing with any kind of paperwork, I found out that I am infact eligible for applying for New Zealand Citizenship straight away instead of having to wait for another 2 years. So I guess I should get onto that before they change the rules again.

That's it from me for now.
Till later,
Amit

Labels: Publicity, Travel

posted by Amit @ 10:22 PM 0 Comments

Tease!!!!!!

Incase you missed out earlier teaser images - Teaser Image 1 ; Teaser Image 2 .
Another two to go...

Amit

Labels: Five, Publicity

posted by Amit @ 10:34 PM 0 Comments

Descent

Sunday was relatively relaxed - housekeeping, a preliminary meeting for a music video and a couple of DVD's. 'The Descent' was first of the lot and it proved to be a masterful horror flick. Extremely tense and foreboding. It was an incredibly hard watch - especially for me where darkness stills means fear. The scares are thick and effective even though you are expecting them.There are some small plot holes but can easily be ignored. Except for the last 5 minutes of the movie which made me want to scream out 'Cheating!!!' - it was brilliant.

The second movie I watched later was 'Shopgirl' which turned out to be a frustrating watch. The story kind of mendears along slowly and the connections don't feel real. It has brilliant acting by all the three leads but the heart is missing from the movie. It has some brilliant moments and then falls back to nothingness, which is what made it such a frustrating watch.

Today I went with Andy and did a small photo shoot to create the second teaser poster for 'Five'. The weather was quite spordaic today with rain and sunshine but it held up nicely when we went out to take photographs at Eskdale Reserve. There will be more teaser posters coming through within the next week but without much ado here is the second teaser poster for 'Five':



Off for the evening walk.

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Five, Movies, Publicity

posted by Amit @ 6:38 PM 0 Comments

Nacho Libre

Finally the end of the term - I am supposed to be at the end of the term party right now but somehow I can't get myself to go there. Really bad of me but I can't help it. Parties and me have never gelled together - I avoid most of them until it is absolutely necessary and critical. My car is now in nice working order - I got the stereo fixed and had my old stereo replaced with a stereo that my old flatmate, Greg, donated to me when he got himself a new car stereo. It feels so good to finally have music in the car (after 3 years). So I am definitely a happy chappy at the moment.

I did watch 'Nacho Libre' though and it was a movie I can't seem to form a strong opinion about - it has some good bits and has some average bits. It definitely doesn't leave as strong an impression as 'Napolean Dynamite' - directed by the same director. It feels episodic and somehow doesn't really gel together nicely.

As a sign-off note - we have secured permission to shoot at the location we want for 'Five' and it is an exciting development. I also had a couple of meetings to try sort out an insurance cover for the shoot and also had a meeting at Val Morgan to explore possibilites of advertising in the cinemas to build up to the Theatrical/DVD release. I have sketched some concept teaser posters for the characters in 'Five' and hopefully will be designing some within the next couple of weeks.

Thats me for now.
Till later,
Amit

Labels: Five, Movies, Party, Pre-production, Publicity

posted by Amit @ 8:09 PM 0 Comments

Weekend

Atlast......

It has been a long week - especially with all the walking and stuff. I did walk the following day from the last post i.e on Wednesday but it was a killer of a walk. Somewhere during that journey I crossed the point where the pain wasn't painful anymore. I took a bus yesterday and today and it was an interesting experience. In all the bus journeys I had this week, there were never more than 4 people in the bus at any single point in time [that is incuding the driver] but the buses going into the city are always full. The public transportation is just not economical - they charge a bomb for it. The prices do come down if you buy a monthly pass but man they need to do something about it if they are trying to promote it to the masses.

'Slither' turned out to be a really enjoyable movie. It is a horror comedy and it was a thrill ride. The pace is really brisk and before you know it the movie ends. It is great escapist fun. I don't know why it did not succeed at the box office. There are a fair few movies I want to catch at the cinemas but have to spread them out as an outing to the theatre does cost a fair bit plus I have another 3 movies on DVD/VCD all lined up to watch over the next couple of days.

I have been having having samosas for breakfast for the past 3 weeks and it has been great. There is this indian grocery shop at the local shopping complex which keeps samosas and they are really close to how I like my samosas. So I have been a happy chappy as far as my breakfast goes.

Anyway enough of my ramble....
till later
amit

[p.s - the first teaser poster (in a series of 5) for 'five' can be seen HERE.]

Labels: Five, Movies, Publicity, Walking

posted by Amit @ 8:53 PM 0 Comments

The day gone by

Yesterday was really eventful...and i will try and give a brief summary of things because today can turn into one eventful day as well...

I will be 1st A.D on Dan West's short film which we will be shooting over the labour weekend. It will be interesting to shoot and a roller coaster weekend. I will be acting in a small part in one of the final production at school - and guess what I am playing- a diary owner who loves cricket..heeheeee....talk about stereotypes. That particular short film is being directed by Alan Brash -who created the TV series 'The Strip'.

Darren did most of the work on finishing off the couch...it is nearly done -we are a meter short of cloth..and once thats done it will be onto painting the room :-)The school is helping us out with the material and stuff -which is really kind of them.

attended the Berlin Film Festival seminar...it wasn't too hot -i mean the lady just spoke what was written in the brochure and nothing more. Also i feel like an outsider to this industry. Film in NZ has to truly grow from the grass roots and the systems have to change before we can become competitive. NZFC commisions about 2-3 major feature film projects and several other smaller projects but that is not gonna make the industry competitive... In a country where money is scarce - digital is the way to go..instead of following models of bigger countries and trying to break their backs by trying to attain it - they should create their own rules. They have started moving in that direction but the change is too slow and it does not address the need for digital theatres. But then again sometimes i get the feeling that film making is no more a creative art - it is more about business. Is there a balance between art and business - i don't know.

things are gonna get interesting with Triangle today as the Grass valley SPG needs to be replaced and we have to do a make shift solution for now. Keeping my fingers crossed that it will work otherwise it is gonna be a long long day. Other than that had a text altercation with Rachel -one of the leads of the film...something which I will refrain from discussing on here. Let's say I was really tempted to close the entire project down. Independent film making is such an invaluable learning curve.

ciao later
amit
UNKREATIVE

Labels: Acting, Publicity

posted by Amit @ 7:25 AM 0 Comments