Musings of an Idiot

Frontier(s)

A week just flew away and I have no idea where it disappeared. It has been crazy busy at my end. At work - my boss has gone to China for Olympics coverage, which means that I've picked up some of his duties and this is along with my normal job schedule. So needless to say my brain usually turns to mush by afternoon while juggling various things and making sure that nothing falls over. Hopefully it will be a lot easier from next week since I know what to expect.

I have been talking to a few film makers for VUDU and I have managed to get firm commitments from 6 film makers, which is exciting. I also bit the bullet and went and saw an entertainment lawyer so that a proper contract can be drafted for agreement between Unkreative Artists and the film makers. So more news on that once the contract is finalized and signed between the parties.

I had a comprehensive eye test at Optometry School's public clinic and I almost had a big scare when the supervisor who was overseeing the student optometrist's work came in after the tests to do some more tests and mentioned that they were worried that I might have glaucoma. It turned out that everything else about my eyes is healthy, so they think it is highly unlikely that I have glaucoma. I have however been recommended to wear reading glasses if I want to stop my eyes from getting strained over extended periods. I am tossing and turning the thought in my head and I think I might get myself a set of reading glasses just to try them out. If I don't like it then I can always discontinue their use.

Frontier(s) was a real shocker of a movie. It was ultra violent and extremely sadistic. It had my guts churning in a fair few places and the easiest way to describe it would be to take 'Hostel' and multiply it by 5. I think I am over this genre - it is not horror as much as it is sadistic violence.

In other non-significant news - I have put my head down and trying to finish off the dialog list for 'FIVE' over this weekend, so I can deliver it to the Finnish distributor of the movie. It is harder than you think, especially when a good chunk of the dialogue was improvised and chopped and changed on location. I spent almost 5 hours on it till now and I am 35 minutes into the movie. Another 40 minutes odd of movie to transcribe. :-)

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

Labels: Five, Movies, TVNZ, Video on Demand, VUDU

posted by Amit @ 7:54 PM 0 Comments

Wellington

Yesterday I flew down to Wellington along with my boss for a work trip to TVNZ's Avalon studio and archives and boy was it an eventful journey. In india everyone knows when a politician is coming or passing by judging by the road bloackades, massive police force and security personnel etc. etc. but here in New Zealand it is the complete opposite - at the airport after we checked in we were standing in the foyer waiting for the boarding when Helen Clark, the prime minister - walked past a hand's breadth away from us along with two of her security personnel. It was a bit surreal.

The facilities down at Lower Hutt were fantastic, especially the archives but man is it a long ride to get to the place from Wellington. We spent most of the day being shown around the building and also various productions that happen there. After a full day there, we went over to the city for a couple of drinks before the flight back. Wellington is lovely as always and I love the small city feel that the CBD has. Anyway having a few drinks combined with the potato fries didn't bode well with my body and funnily enough I threw up in the plane about 10 minutes before touching down in Auckland. It is not a good feeling when you are sick but I can now laugh at the incident because I made the airlines work hard for their money. The mess I left behind was really terrible. :-) I was lucky that my boss was traveling with me and he took care of me and dropped me off home. I was sick enough for my boss to ask me to take a day off to recover from the whole thing. Most of today has gone into recovery and I am just about coming right. I don't feel a 100% but atleast I don't feel like complete crap.

Anyway thats me for now. Time to sleep off the remaining sickness.
Amit

Labels: Random, TVNZ

posted by Amit @ 6:44 PM 0 Comments

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is an extra-ordinary story and an even extra-ordinary film. And the thing I loved about it was that the director never tried to make it melodramatic. Everything about the movie is on the spot - the performances, the cinematography, the editing, the directing. It is a pity that it did not win any Oscars even though it was nominated for four. It is a highly recommended watch.

It is amazing that a week has disappeared without a trace. It was going to be a busy week but I never knew it was going to be this busy. This coming week is the same and I guess I am better prepared for this week - sort of. The long week will be broken up by a day trip to Wellington visiting TVNZ's archives on Tuesday, which I am looking forward to.

On the health front - the calf muscle has healed but I had fever on Saturday and have had a sore throat since then. It is getting better but I am now seriously getting fed up of this niggling health problems. I can understand if I wasn't taking a proper diet or doing proper physical exercise but I am doing all that and to me it is inexplicable that I still keep having these minor irritations.

That's me for now.
Till later,
Amit

Labels: Movies, Random, TVNZ

posted by Amit @ 10:12 PM 2 Comments

Ratatouille

Well..what's been happening at my end? Several things and the main thing obviously has to do with FIVE. We are at the last few stretches of finishing off sound post - will be doing final viewing checks for the stereo mix in a couple of hours and then will be laying it back onto tape tomorrow evening. Then it will be another week and half's work for Benji to finish off the 5.1 sound mix - an added luxury we are working towards since we got a small extension for delivery deadline to the distributor.

To give you an idea about how intensive sound post on the project has been - here are 2 screen shots from the audio project. The first gives an overview of the audio timeline and most of the audio tracks used. The second screenshot is a magnified image of a part of the timeline. You can click on the images to enlarge them.

Screen shot 1: Audio timeline overview

Screen shot 2: Magnified audio timeline

The overall sound design on the movie is starting to sound a lot better. Looking back at the project as a whole - the entire project was challenging as a whole but sound definitely ranks above everything else to make this project work and it is a mini-miracle to be finishing off the movie properly. There will be a couple of theatrical screenings of FIVE a week before the DVD release and I will post the details once they are finalized.

At work - I applied for a permanent position at TVNZ in technical resources and had my interview and was offered the position. I have taken up the position and it is definitely another exciting phase, especially with the changes in technology that is happening. My job officially starts from 2nd September.

I went and saw Ratatouille and it was a really good movie. Brad Bird is incredible in creating emotions with his characters. The movie had so many laughs and at the same time kept moving all along in such a way that it was a delight. The food in the animation looked so totally amazing and the animation overall was excellent. A highly recommended movie.

I think that's it from me for now.
Till later,
Amit

Labels: Five, Movies, Post Production, TVNZ

posted by Amit @ 6:47 PM 1 Comments

Online Continues

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



Till later,
Amit

Labels: Five, Post Production, TVNZ

posted by Amit @ 10:08 AM 0 Comments

Rough Cut Begins

Well - watched the assembly for 'Five' a few times now and made some notes about the changes I need to make. Fortunately - the list is only 2 pages long right now and once I implement those changes I think the movie will be in a much better shape. Sound design will obviously make a huge difference to the overall product. I have been talking with Benji and we will be aiming to do a proper 5.1 mix this time around - it will take us a bit of extra time to get it right but I think it is totally worth it.

So I have now officially moved the project into the rough cut stage and have started working on the changes and it definitely takes more time than the first assembly because you are trying to make something work - which means going back to the source footage and reanalyzing the footage from that scene and seeing if there is anything else you can find to achieve what you want to show. When thing starts working - the amount of satisfaction you get is immense.

Freelance work at TVNZ is going great and I am loving it. Shift times vary between 0700-1530 or 1530-2400 on any given day and it works out nicely because it still gives me time even during my work days to do a little bit of editing. Overall the freelance work is a great balance to the editing I am doing and I am a happy chap.

I received a letter from Department of Internal Affairs letting me know that my application for New Zealand citizenship will be assigned to a case officer in approx. 8 weeks time and that I need to send all my original documents to them for the same - which I promptly did - so I guess I won't be travelling out of the country for the next 3 months or so. Heeheee...

And in completely unrelated news - I spent a fair bit of time arguing with billing department at Telecom since they mucked up the amounts for our broadband plan without any fault of ours. It has been time consuming but relatively pain free as I explained to them the whole situation and as to how Telecom was charging us more - they have sorted out it out for now and have credited our account back for the extra money charged but here is keeping fingers crossed that I don't have to go through the same exercise again next month.

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Five, New Zealand, Post Production, TVNZ

posted by Amit @ 10:31 PM 0 Comments

Absolute Power

I seem to veering towards watching more and more TV series on DVD. I recently finished watching the 1st seasons of 'My name is Earl' and 'Absolute Power'. Absolute Power is typically brilliant British comedy about the world of PR and politics. Dry humor laced with brilliant performances make it a good watch. I still can't get my head around British T.V series' typical season running only 6 episodes. It usually takes atleast 2 episodes for any series to find it's feet but the British ones are really over as they start getting better and better. Case in the point ' The Office' - which ran for only 2 seasons. 'My name is Earl' was funny and charming as it tends to be. I think it works so well because of the cast- especially Jason Lee and Ethan Suplee.It will be a while before I am able to watch Season-2.

Editing a movie while trying to make a living is definitely challenging but thats the name of the game. I edited another 6 minutes of the movie and nothing new or fascinating to report. And incase I did not write it in one of the last few posts - I am now freelancing at TVNZ in the VT operations section and it is great fun. The best thing about it is obviously the people I am working with - everyone who has trained me or helped me understand the systems or just stopped by to have a quick chat have been pretty chilled out and open.

In a bit of an introspective mood right now but not going to write any of that stuff up here.
Till later,
Amit

[P.S - Also to the immature and arrogant person who told me that working in cinetape was a joke - here is something for you incase you happen to read this post - GET REAL ]

Labels: Five, TV Series, TVNZ

posted by Amit @ 8:54 PM 0 Comments

Manic Monday

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

Labels: Five, Memories of Tomorrow, Nowhere to Love, Pre-production, TV Series, TVNZ

posted by Amit @ 10:22 PM 0 Comments

Christmas Aftermath

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.

As a sign off note I would like to draw the attention to our environment. Global warming has claimed it's first inhabited island recently. To the critics who think that global warming and climate change is just a whole load of shit then they ought to read this article as well - Climate Change is turning animal's world topsy-turvy. And we are not helping other species either - Orangutans are at the brink of extinction because of man-made follies. How did we let it come to this? Are we really that inhumane?

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Festival, Five, Global Warming, Holiday, Movies, Post Production, TVNZ

posted by Amit @ 7:47 PM 0 Comments

Deja Vu

Just came back from a screening of 'Deja Vu' and it was an interesting movie. It is a sci-fi movie hidden in the form of a thriller. The movie did surprise me on how well it was made - it's only major flaw is it's story ending which gives the whole movie an unsatisfactory feel because of inherent questions raised. Time travel is always a hard thing topic to pull off on film and unfortunately this movie doesn't quite pull it off in that department - what is interesting though is how they treat time travel. It definitely sets out to do something different but then falls into the hollywood movie trap. It is a enjoyable watch nonetheless - if you put the time travel logic aside.

You would think I would be updating the blog more often - especially since I have finished my teaching job and have more time on my hands. Well - that ain't true - i mean with having loads of time on my hands - it has been an extremely busy week.

The green screen stuff went well on Wednesday and it definitely was a steep learning curve working with the HVX camera and P2 media. Later that evening I had a meeting with Anita, Marjan and Andy over the climax of act 2 of 'Five' which we have to film in January. It was a productive meeting and the story strands are coming together.

I had 2 afternoon shift training sessions at TVNZ on Thursday and Friday - which meant that my days were really long. I managed to squeeze in 4 hours of editing 'Five' in those 2 days and I am learning to pace myself - so I can still give a 100% to my training sessions. It is holiday season and I don't have any sessions worked out for further work at TVNZ next week, so I will have a full week dedicated to editing 'Five' - which should be heaps of fun.

My physio sessions were supposed to be complete yesterday but I have to go back once more in the new year for them to make sure that I am all fixed up. My neck and back are feeling heaps better and I am continuing the exercises I have been suggested to help the process.

'The Fountain' graphic novel that was resent to me by amazon.com - arrived in mail on Thursday and I read it straight away - it is fascinating. The story combined with the art work pull you into another world. I am not going to discuss the plot or the story because it is hard to explain the depth and philosophy in the story by trying to give a synopsis of it. It was a worthwhile purchase and I am now looking forward to the movie - when it gets released.

Nothing much else to update about for now.
Till later,
Amit

Labels: Five, Graphic Novels, HVX, Movies, P2, Physio, TVNZ

posted by Amit @ 11:04 PM 0 Comments

Three Burials and a Wedding

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

Labels: Festival, Filming, Five, Movies, Physio, Post Production, TVNZ, Wedding

posted by Amit @ 9:41 PM 0 Comments

Convenience!!!

It has been a long day. I went to TVNZ to see/do a day's work in the technical operations section and spent the whole day in tape operations room - it was heaps of fun and a great learning curve. I kept bumping into so many friends from 2003 - Logan, Dan West, Brian Mead, Alex Samuel and a couple more people from South Seas from different years. I will be doing freelance work with TVNZ after I complete my 3 days training with them sometime next week - so it is great that there is some avenue I can earn money from to pay for my bills while I edit 'Five'.

Getting to work is really convenient - I step out of the house and I am a minute's walk from the ferry terminal. I catch the ferry and it drops me off at the downtown ferry terminal, from where TVNZ is 5 minutes walk up the road. It takes away the hassle of driving the car in peak hour and the woes of trying to find a cheap car park in CBD.

My neck is still hurting like hell and I am feeling very nauseous as well for some strange reason. Feel like lying down but I can't. Last day of work tomorrow and I am excited.

Gotta go for now. Need to feel the pain a bit more.
Amit

Labels: TVNZ

posted by Amit @ 7:22 PM 0 Comments

March end

Labels: Food, Memories of Tomorrow, New Zealand, TVNZ

posted by Amit @ 6:56 PM 0 Comments