heaven is in your mind
INT- BOMBAY TAXI —DAY
The radio was blasting an Elvis song.
The words hit me like a bullet.
Here was the perfect recipe for making movies. The secret sauce so to speak.
A little less conversationPlaying on iTunes Like a Rolling Stone from the album “33 1/3” by Susheela Raman
A little more action please
A little more bite and a little less bark
Satisfy me baby
Oh, this has to be written.
Last evening I went to Khan Market- the old bastion of book shops and cafe’s in New Delhi, looking for a copy of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.
INT- RESPECTABLE BOOKSHOP - EVENINGDon’t Panic, Dev. All will be ok.Me: Do you have the book, Of Mice and Men?
(hesitant pause)
By John Steinbeck?The bookshop owner looks me up and down, curls his lip and replies in disgust.
Owner: We don’t have a computer section.
Playing on iTunes It’s Getting Old from the album “Tally of the Yes Men” by Goldspot]
A film with no dialog. Now on YouTube.
A young boy struggles to bend wire and make a toy car.He tries hard to emulate his father who is a magician with a simple wire.The boy struggles and fights with the wire to the amusement of his sister.Nothing is going right for this wandering family struggling to survive on the barren highways.Until he gives in to his dream…I’ve always watched with fascination the toy makers in India. How they bend an ordinary wire and make it something extraordinary. In the little boy I saw the story of every person. The struggle and challenge to dream your dream.Through his journey I found that true creativity comes not from arrogance and hubris but from the ability to be open to the world around you, to give in, to… Surrender
Paul Greengrass writes that his Bourne Ultimatum is about “truth and essence” and not “surface.”
There’s a huge argument raging in forums about the style he adopts to achieve this. David Bordwell calls this an extreme hand held style. He has an excellent article on this in his weblog which I’d urge you to read.
Bloody Sunday was an excellent film. I saw it at the New York Film Festival and and was blown away by what he accomplished. I think Greengrass does have a point and looking back at his work I think he makes a strong case.
The trouble is everyone is copying this style without even thinking once whether it really belongs in their movie. Even the respected director Mani Ratnam uses it in Guru- his Bollywood fantasy tale of the rags to riches story of the Indian entrepreneur turned uber-industrialist Dhiru-bhai Ambani.
it makes me wonder.
I’m writing my new script. My room at tree top level is a haven in heaven.
No blogging or worldly contact for a while.
My weapons of choice:
Apple Pages 08. Absolutely in love with it. Notes. General Thoughts.
Scrivener. Keith Blount’s beta version was excellent. Excellent full screen mode.
I’m trying it out on this project. Great for Character Notes. Scenes.
MacJournal: Great for storing clippings and reading material.
Screenwriter. Really fast and stable. Awful DOS like interface but light years better than the new one.
Someone time soon I will try to narrow this down to two apps.
Another gem from Murakami. Buy now and read.
Playing on iTunes Five Spot After Dark from the album “Blues-Ette” by Curtis Fuller
I am depressed.
I was looking forward to the new Screenwriter 6 and a Universal Binary.
But one look at the screenshots have made me leap for the air sickness bag.
What on earth were the programmers smoking when they designed this one?
Just take a look on their website.
Air sickness bag on the double please.
Isn’t there someone out there who can design an elegant Screenplay app?
Amidst rumors floating wildly that a consignment of iPhones had found it’s way to Delhi (hard to believe given Apple’s tight security) and subsequent news that the iPhone had in fact been unlocked (in, of all the places Palika Bazaar) I could not resist writing about what happened this evening.
I dropped into a cell phone store with the vague idea of dumping my Treo 680 and going back to the gold standard of Nokia. While browsing through some handsets- sim unlocked of course, a young man entered and began a conversation with the shop owner.
In Hindi it went somewhat like this:
Young Man: Have you that new phone by Apple?
Shop Owner ignores the young man.
YM: The Apple-wallah phone. The iPhone. It was launched in the US on June 29th.
Shop Owner acknowledges him but looks away.
YM (now restless): You’re not showing it to me.
SO: (speaking for the first time) Sir, USA has old technology. Why do you want to buy a phone from USA?
YM: But it’s the iPhone!
SO: Sir, trust me. They use CDMA it’s useless. They don’t use GSM.
I decide to chip in.
Me: It’s a quad band GSM. But it’s SIM locked. There are rumors that it has been unlocked in India.
My last words are drowned out in the young man’s excitement. He pleads again with the shop owner.
Shop owner now busies himself in other work. The Young Man gets restless and excited. He’s convinced the owner is not revealing all.
YM to SO: Why aren’t you showing me the handset?
The Shop Owner looks up at him. His face is blank. Young Man persists. He really wants an iPhone.
But beneath the excited exterior lies a seasoned shopper who knows how to negotiate these markets.
YM (quietly to the Owner): Shall I come back in a few days?
The Shop Owner looks at him and nods.
YM: In 3 or 4 days?
Shop Owner nods again.
A deal has been made. And this time I am, as they say gob-smacked.
Sure, I’ve heard anything can happen. But wow, can they actually unlock an iPhone? Or has it already been done?
I left empty handed clutching my Treo and beginning to think whether I should…
Yes that’s correct. At first I thought the Airline crew of Jet Airways had got it wrong. Surely she meant 35c. But the English announcement confirmed it.
Yes, Delhi is 45c or 113F and this was not the middle of the day. It was 7:45pm. The sun had set an hour ago!
In English, August there’s a line which goes:
SRIVASTAVA: If you think its hot wait till next month. Even birds drop from the sky, dead!
The army recorded 52 degrees in Rajasthan. Im sure Madna will top that.
Everyone thought that 52 degrees was over the top. 13 years later you don’t need to go to the desert. Even Delhi is getting close to it.
My copy of Adobe Lightroom arrived. I ordered it on the last day of the rebate from Amazon.
I believe there are still some copies available at that price.
I’m loving it and living in the Develop module for most of the time. It is a real killer, designed with a photographer in mind.
And it’s fast. On a MacBook Pro and on my PowerBook G4 Titanium. Forget about minimum requirements it even runs on a PowerBook G4 500 with 512MB of RAM!
Where does that leave Apple’s Aperture? The Library and Stacks feature of Aperture are stunning and I will probably use that for my book of photographs for Road, Movie
Rajika Puri and Dancers performed at the Joyce Soho in downtown Manhattan a while ago. Rajika studied Bharatanatyam with Sikkil Guru Ramaswamy Pillai, her Odissi Gurukul is Deba Prasad Das
The program titled Conversations with Shiva was Rajika’s continued experiments in Bharatanatyam or what she calls Bharatanatyam Unwrapped. I got to see the technical rehearsal and then a performance a few days later.
Here is a set of pictures I took.
For the technically inclined this was shot on a Nikon D200 with a Nikkor 28mm f2.8 film lens. The images were developed in Adobe Lightroom.
Stanley Kubrick had this to say:
All you need in a film is 6 to 8 non submersible unitsI think if most filmmakers get a couple we are lucky.
Subhash Ghai on the other hand said to me:
It’s one trip up in a film that makes it fail. Just one small mistake!It would be interesting to view your favourite or not so favourite films from this perspective.
Shop 34 is an institution.
My friend the filmmaker & Professor who holds the Zakir Hussain Chair at Jamia Milia University, Shohini Ghosh (Tales of the Night Fairies) took me to Shop 34.
She’d been meaning to do this for a while. It’s in Delhi’s underground shopping complex. You descend into a world of bustling with activity and head straight for the first shop on the right. I followed Shohini.
Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.
Calvin & Hobbes
English, August: The Shooting Script
A Director’s Introduction
(note for readers of this weblog: This is the introduction to the screenplay of English, August which was published in its entirety in the journal EVAM.)
English, August the script published here is the last printed record of what we have. This was what we left with for our location Vizag district- on the east coast of India. This was the last written document we ever read. After that it was all on celluloid. Looking at it again it was clear that a lot of work had gone into the script while we were on location. This was truly a shooting script; like an explorer’s map with blurred directions, leaving us to find the rest. So here it is- ten years later after the release of the film. Like it’s been pulled out of some time capsule, reading like a document we abandoned in our pursuit to make a movie.
From the time I would leave Modern School in Delhi and hide all afternoon in the American Library (it was air-conditioned and had the largest collection of American Cinematographer magazines) I would always search for final drafts of scripts or shooting scripts in an attempt to try and discover what the director did. What was that final leap of imagination from the written word to the image that was made? Did s/he have a real job other than saying “action” and “cut?” Most often I was disappointed; the scripts were transcripts of the final film and not that critical final draft I was searching for. I was determined that when I did get the chance I would thrust my script- the complete unedited version, warts and all onto the unsuspecting reader. While I was editing the film I would thrust rolls, scenes and clips of film into the hands of Upamanyu and Anuradha- the producer, while I would shuffle, change and re-edit scenes based on the discussion the three of us had just had. It was there that Upamanyu remarked that the film was really being made in the cutting room regardless of what we had written on the page. In many ways it echoed what he had said when we first met. “I have never written a script before. Never mind, you’ll pick it up in four days,” I replied rather cockily. And so began this journey that would take us to this imaginary world of Madna: quintessential small town India and the hallucinatory trip of Agastya Sen.
I tell you, Madna must be one of the unhealthiest places in India. Hot, humid, disease… everything.For most of the part the opening of the film is quite close to what we had written. Of course in this case the opening got tacked on just a few days before we left for the shoot and quite clearly emerges from the voluminous rejection slips we got from potential producers. The most classic being the NFDC who apart from putting me through a humiliating six months of waiting outside their door finally said, “look we’ve made this film 19 times and there’s nothing new about this.” But I was determined to make this film. At about this point the script won an award from the Swiss Development Cooperation, the French Government stepped in with a grant and co-production deal, an angel from Kodak India gave us the crucial negative (payable when able) to film on and Anuradha convinced the crew to work on a deferred payment plan and was able to put in place the bridge financing.
You’ve gotta have a key British character… or an American, doesn’t matter.A documentary I had shot in Andhra had me obsessed with the eastern coast. I wanted to make a feature there someday. Upamanyu’s book gives you one critical clue about Madna; it lies somewhere between Andhra and Maharashtra. So Andhra it was and after an extensive search, which lasted months, we found a few towns that would eventually become Madna. Diljeet Arora the chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh was keen that I make not only a film but a TV series as well. “It’s about people who were on the frontiers. You can’t make just one film.” When I told him I had Narsipatnam and the Vizag district in mind he picked up the phone, spoke to the collector there saying, “he’s making a film about us.” That one line opened all doors. Diljeet never got to see the film; a few months before it was completed a truck ran into his car at the Ashram crossing in Delhi.
My writing collaboration with Upamanyu was a strange one. While I was sure I didn’t want anyone else to write this I was also aware of the legendary standoffs between authors and filmmakers. But I plunged into it regardless. We spent about a week discussing the book, the characters and what the story would be. Over those few days the dynamic changed; I was the one reluctant to delete scenes and characters while he was open to change. Mandy an acquaintance from Agastya’s distant past became an amalgam of two characters, we kept the Collector, his wife Malti, Sathe the cartoonist, Shankar the drunken civil servant, Kumar the Police Chief and Multani the freedom fighter. The Englishman John Avery came and went while the surprise of the film was Dadru the frog. Dadru became the corner stone of this story of a man alone in his blue colored room masturbating and listening to his collection of music- his only friend. One of the reviews of the book which Upamanyu often quoted was titled ‘Plotless in Madna,’ I disagreed, the story had a classical narrative and when I read the book it was clear as daylight, a view later confirmed by Amitav Ghosh. The challenge was finding the right cinematic equivalence. What came to mind were the early broadcasts of Doordarshan where every (interesting) program would be interrupted at critical junctures with a title card saying ‘Rukavat ke liye khed,’ (apologies for the interruption). Since for me the narrative was rock solid I thought the aesthetic of interruption seemed to be the right cinematic equivalence to Upamanyu’s writing; a fragmentary, hallucinatory journey in the mind of a young reluctant civil servant. We figured what would work well was an episodic structure revolving around his training as a civil servant. Intersecting this would be the thin through line; his journey to Madna, his coming of age and his return to the city, the narrative so to speak.
Hmm… Interesting… Challenging… Hmm.. But.. I’m afraid ultimately not for us.. You see… we’re looking for a.. a.. Narrative…No introductions, no information scenes, no explanatory scenes! These were the ground rules I laid out before we set out to write, rules that I try and follow even today. Where was this coming from? A strong reaction to Indian art house cinema of the 70’s which seemed very programmatic and didactic or my natural affinity to the Hollywood cinema, which I had been exposed to during my student days? Perhaps both. We wrote a long passage where Agastya made his journey to Madna followed by his feeling out of place upon his arrival. Arriving and living for a month in coastal Andhra changed the way we looked at the script. When I saw Agastya in his black T-shirt and jeans standing on the platform of the small railway station (Pendurthi) that would be Madna, I knew the image said it all; the wistful look back as the train recedes, the sound of the distant train horn, the buzz of the mosquitoes and of course the blinding sound of the heat; that was Madna. So out went the scenes, which were explanatory and descriptive and in came images, which told his story. The idea of Agastya having to re-visit his home, scenes in Delhi, which echoed the structure of the book just didn’t seem to have a place here. The foreignness and being out of place was clearly evident from the word go. Even the film unit- a smorgasbord of people from Delhi, Bombay, Pune, Andhra, Vishakapatnam, Hyderabad and Madras reflected that.Locations and characters also determined a lot. When we found the Dutch cemetery the character of John Avery suddenly made sense. The Dutch Lighthouse at Bhimlipatnam was stunning and the moment I saw that I knew this was where I’d stage the final scene between Sathe and Agastya. Many years later when some of the unit members and I were driving by we were tempted to stop and revisit the location. We couldn’t spot it. It seemed to have vanished from view. Upon enquiring we were told that a local doctor had it pulled down as it obstructed his view of the sea. We met the doctor who confirmed this quite nonchalantly.
‘This is India, Sen,’ as the Collector would say.From where we were, the cities of Bombay and Delhi seemed like a distant dream. That’s how I wanted it in the film; the other world of Agastya had to exist in his mind. The film focussed on his stay in Madna and the hallucinatory appearances of his friends and family were our only link to his past and his other world. Some of my favourite scenes which never made it to the final film; Scene 55- Agastya’s ambition to be a stray dog, a moving performance by both the actor and the dog! Sc. 76 where perfect comic timing from Salim Shah as the Collector gave the dialogs an edge.
You see Sen, India has a tradition of bureaucracy, if the country is moving it’s only because of us.But never keep a scene for a joke and so out they went. (Of course you’ll see them as outtakes on the DVD!) While writing this script we never had an idea of making what was later called “a funny film.” It was just a story about a guy who is “hazaar fucked.” To the extent that after a private screening for the French co-producers and the French Network Upamanyu, Anuradha and I came out in a state of complete depression. “Disastrous, Big Mistake, It’s not even funny, perhaps we should just can this and make another film.” It was only a few weeks later when the film premiered at Toronto that the picture changed. Re-viewing the film as we prepare for a home video release, I wondered if I could cut out some more scenes and get to a shorter director’s version, unlike other directors who like to re-issue their films with extra scenes and in longer “uncut” versions. Would that be, pentimento? Not really, just the familiar film adage, “when in doubt, cut it out!”
In response to all the questions about English, August the never ending saga of the DVD release and future projects I thought I would post an article which I wrote for the journal EVAM. Their inaugural issue had published the entire screenplay of English, August (the shooting script) and an introductory article about the movie.
Read the next post for more.
Apple Computers announces their Insomnia Film Festival. Make a film in 24 hours.
The words and language sound so familiar to what I have been doing since 2003 in my movie making program 24×7 Making Movies.
Insomnia is a cool name but open only to students of US colleges above the age of 18.
24×7 Making Movies will always be FREE and open to ANYONE, ANYWHERE below the age of 24!
Ironically Apple has been a technical partner of this program since it’s inception and gave away a 20inch Dual Core Intel iMac to the winner of the program on October 30th, 2006 at the closing ceremony of our 2006 event.
All we say is, Welcome Apple.
Let the movies begin!
If any of you want to make a film then head over to my filmmaking program 24×7 Making Movies.
All you have to do is:
It does not have to include BOTH can be one, the other or if you are really original neither 
This time the winner walks away with a 19inch Intel iMac.
There’s a new section for people above 24.
We have been under a lot of pressure to open the program to everyone so my team thought we’d give it a try. There are no awards for this unfortunately.
PS: For some reason the website is not rendering in Safari so use Camino or FireFox for the time being. My web team should have that addressed in a short while.
The weblog posts are getting erratic. A clear sign that there is work in progress!
I am becoming impatient about the English, August DVD as all of you must be. The new twist in the tail is that most people have asked for a commentary track as well. The plan is to record one with Rahul Bose and include that in the DVD as well. Rahul has time free in November so that’s when we’ll head into the studios.
The 30fps and 24fps audio issues which were delaying the NTSC DVD of English, August have now been resolved by a speedy intervention from the guru of sound Vikram Joglekar also called The Don by his friends, colleagues and disciples.
There’s an interesting history to this and in a line, when Vikram left the shores of India for Italy to head Dolby Labs Italian and European operations he was re-christened The Don.
I met up with him in Rome while attending the First Rome International Film festival with my movie project Road, Movie.
So when will the DVD be out? I’d say Jan-Feb 2007 for sure and this time for download as well on Amazon Unbox, iTunes, Google Video as well as on DVD.
I’m holding my breath!
It’s awfully considerate of you to think of me here
And I’m most obliged to you for making it clear
That I’m not here
Stephen Fry the British actor, writer and director and Dev Benegal will be co-writing and co-directing an international feature film on the life of the genius Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan and his friendship with the Cambridge math don G.H. Hardy.
Read the full press release at August Entertainment
Also visit the film’s official website RamanujanTheFilm
There’s been no news lately on this weblog as my original screenplay Road, Movie has been officially selected for Cannes 2006. It will be a part of the Atelier du Cannes.
More news on this soon.
Yes it’s correct. The name will never be English, August II but more likely Mammaries of the Welfare State.
Here’s a question to readers of this weblog.
Would any of you be interested in seeing a sequel of sorts to the story of Agastya “August” Sen?
Upamanyu and I have been toying with the idea of adapting his novel Mammaries of the Welfare State which follows August in his new journey. I just loved the humor in this book. Of the “rare” and “raw” kind rarely seen on film.
If we get a positive response (and of course some cash then you could see another movie.
Neil Sadwelkar has sent me a comment which I’m posting for those of you who may be following the debate on film editing.
Most of what I’d written about system spec needed for feature editing on small machines still holds – yesterday’s announcement on new Intel Macs notwithstanding.
Meaning, sometime now we’re going to see Intel Macminis as well. So the question would be. Now that Macs are Intel and hence many times faster, can we do feature editing on Intel Minis or MacBooks?
The answer in the short term seems to still be a “No”. That’s because FCP is not yet Intel native, so its going to run via some emulation that probably makes it slower than on existing PowerPC mased Macs. Rosetta or something they call it. But come March, we’ll be able to trade in our existing FCP DVDs and get a Intel native FCP for just $ 50. That should do the trick.
So I guess when all this software porting thing settles down, by about March ‘06 I think I’ll be able to ‘qualify’ an FCP system to run on a MacBook and do an entire feature on it.
I’ll have begun editing a feature by then, so, if some kind soul from Apple or something loans me a MacBook or an iMac, I’ll sure put it through the grinds of a real feature edit, so by July I should be able to say “It works … I’ve done it!”
Any takers?
Work on the English, August DVD is now nearing completion.
Sound Designer P.M. Satheesh hunted down the original Digital tapes and has painstakingly built up the entire sound track from scratch. P.M. Satheesh calls it a ‘labour of love, for a movie which began the next generation of Indian cinema.’
The original location audio was recorded in digital stereo by the sound guru Vikram Joglekar. Vikram recorded the entire film in sync sound and English, August became the first Indian film to do this in a long long while after the 50’s. Vikram who is a master Dhrupad singer, head of Dolby Labs in Italy and a complete tech head is fondly called The Don. His knowledge of cinema sound and Indian classical music is legendary.
The original negative of the film is being mastered frame by frame on an ITK telecine at Famous Laboratories in Bombay under the supervision of Director of Photography Jogendra ‘Jean-Luc’ Panda.
The Director’s Cut of the film will be shorter than the theatrical version. Currently in production, the DVD will have a new Dolby Digital soundtrack. The DVD will also be made from the original 35mm negative in a widescreen edition enhanced for television and will include scenes screened once during its Toronto 1994 premiere and subsequently deleted from theatrical release—scenes never before featured in the film.
The DVD release will also feature additional music and a re-mixed soundtrack by Uday Benegal and Jayesh Gandhi of the group Alms for Shanti. The 35mm theatrical version to be released will then conform to this new edition.
We’ve been getting a lot of mail asking about DVD’s of English, August and Split Wide Open. I agree it’s been a long wait but hopefully not too long.
I just got a sample of the DVD’s for approval. I’m hoping that these should be out soon. I’ll be posting a technical note on these in the future as a lot has gone into making them.
18 years later English, August will be finally published in North America by New York Review Books in 2006. We are looking to release the DVD (NTSC and region free) sometime then on Amazon, Netflix and soon as a download as well.
I’m not sure what the title of this post should be but it’s ‘just one of those things!’
I’m listening to a Jazz radio station from Paris TSF Jazz (http://217.71.208.37:8006) while in London writing the script for my next feature. They are playing Cole Porters Night & Day.
I’m suddenly reminded of a dinner in Delhi sometime in the 60’s where this record was playing. My mother came rushing up to me and asked me to switch “that” song off. When I asked why I was told a story which has remained with me.
Over the years I wasn’t sure whether I was imagining the story or if it was true. So I decided on a whim to, you guessed it; Google!
Here’s what I found.
It’s been less than 60 days since I bought my Canon Ixus 700 and a new version has been announced. The moment one buys something be prepared that it’s already outdated. Why don’t I feel that with my Nikon FM2?
As Cartier Bresson said, it’s the moment that matters!
Continue reading ‘Obsolescence’
What’s an ideal portable feature film editing solution? Can one edit an entire feature on say a Mac Mini with some external drives?
I posed this question to my friend, editor and fellow Mac head Neil Sadwelkar. This post will have our conversation. Neil hosts an excellent website devoted to non linear editing.
Dev,
Yes I’ve been thinking along those lines too. However, now after experiencing feature editing in FCP, I’ve found that for features and long films particularly, a more beefier processor and RAM is a must.
Mighty Mouse just rocks! I’ve programmed the scroll wheel to be button 3 and the squeeze buttons to launch Deja Menu so I get the entire app menu anywhere, NeXt style
Playing on iTunes Inchana Massina from the album “The Source” by Ali Farka Toure
Robert Ellis is to blame for this. In his excellent weblog he recommended the Mighty Mouse.
I completed my screenplay for Road, Movie and as a weekend impulse purchase went to the Apple Store Regent Street and indulged.
Continue reading ‘Mighty Mouse’
Bought my first music from iTunes music store.
Naturally it was Pink Floyd. The Wish You Were Here EP. Followed that with Traffic’s John Barleycorn Must Die and then Misery is a Butterfly by Blonde Redhead.
I’m not yet convinced by the price. Still think it’s too high for compressed and protected music. Give me a CD any day at Rs 295 which is $6. I’ve been told allofmp3.com is a better site to download music.
Playing on iTunes John Barleycorn (Must Die) from the album “John Barleycorn Must Die” by Traffic
My visits to New York and lately London begin with a visit to the temple, church, mosque call it what you want. It’s a perfect place to meditate, still your mind before you dive into life!
Here are some pictures I took
Playing on iTunes Wish You Were Here (Live) from the album “Wish You Were Here – EP” by Pink Floyd
My search for a compact camera ends…
Here’s the entire tale from analog to digital.
Continue reading ‘Compact Camera: the search ends!’
One of my passions is Calligraphy. The legendary cameraman Subrata Mitra sent me two calligraphy pens he got hand made for me at the Calcutta Book Fair. They have a dual nib and are handcrafted. We were both obsessed about broad nibs. the broader the better!
They are fairly basic, don’t have a cartridge, you either fill the back with ink and pray that it doesn’t spill or dip the nibs in a bowl of ink.
They write beautifully and are inexpensive. Or at-least when Subrata-da got them made for me.
Well now they are priceless.
Laurie Hutzler (professor of screenwriting at UCLA and a world renowned screenplay consultant- www.emotionaltoolbox.com) was one of our advisors at the eQuinoxe Workshop. All my fellow participants were raving about her sessions. Laurie wasn’t one of my assigned advisors and hearing what the others had to say I told her I was feeling ‘left out!’
I did get to meet her a few days ago in London. We had a wonderful coffee and a relaxed chat in Soho, where we spoke about the ways of writing screenplays and the narrative traditions of Indian cinema.
Just before we were leaving she asked me if I had time and would I like to do a small bit of her session in eQuinoxe. I jumped at it and what followed was amazing. Laurie has a way of looking at your character by exploring the writers self. All I can say was it worked for me.
My first question after we finished was if she was writing a book. I’m happy to let you know that she is. I’ve booked my advance copy!
In the meanwhile please do visit Laurie’s website www.emotionaltoolbox.com
For me it was truly emotional!
Back in Paris after two years! And the city still looks stunning and now it also has Wee Fee.
Continue reading ‘Paris’
The writers lab has been intense. I’ve not had a moment to blog but have been making some notes. Stay posted for details.
The feisty English teacher who was head of the English department at Delhi Public School, Mathura Road and the spirit behind the famous painter B.C. Sanyal, passed away this morning at 11am at her Nizamuddin residence in New Delhi.
Amma as she was fondly called loved a good read and a good discussion. Passionate about Punjabi theatre, literature, politics and ofcourse the world of art she was the beacon of her family.
My memory of her will always be one of her teaching me grammar; the small green edition of Wren and Martin in one hand while at the same time trying to bake some new exotic bread.
Food and Grammar; what a mix!
The last six months were painful. She had weak hearing and then was struck by a partial paralysis on her left side. Her memory was failing her and the last time I met her I’m not sure she knew who I was.
Her daughter Amba Sanyal, my cousin was one of the few with whom she spoke to till the very end.
For the family, it’s really the slow closing in of an era.
I took this photograph a few weeks ago, when she was still able to speak.
The portrait of hers is by her daughter Amba on the left of this photograph.
One of my scripts has been selected for the eQuinoxe workshop. I’ll be in Paris for a week. Don’t know the program as yet but will try and post from there. Though the idea of hitting the net after a days workshop which will definitely involve a lot of writing is not my idea of fun.
Continue reading ‘eQuinoxe’
There’ll be an accompanying book to Road, Movie with the same title. It’ll have photographs of my research trip. The big question looming now is: should I go digital or stay analog.
The jury is still out over whether to shoot for a book using the Nikon D70 or a Nikon with Kodak 35mm negative. I have my old Nikon FM2 with some really good lenses and a Nikon F80 with the bundle of lenses that came with it. That’s two bodies and four lenses.
Looks like I might stay with that, shoot negative and get Comart to do a drum scan of them.
On iTunes: Sunday Morning from the album “Songs About Jane” by Maroon 5
We spent time with Anoop Talkies. I’m writing a small note. I stumbled into another world of audiences, reception, film tastes and even show timings. That’s what makes the touring cinema so unique and different from regular film going. Anoop did say something: “people don’t come here to eat popcorn,” I tried selling popcorn but no body was buying. All they wanted was to stare at the images.”
Until then here is an image. If you want to see more please visit the Tropicfilm Gallery.
We completed out recce. It was fabulous. But the Nikon D100 doesn’t connect to the Mac. After trying, texting Farrukh Chothia who then called back suggesting a restart nothing worked and it was back to the old faithfuls: the Nikon FM2 which had 400ASA film and the Nikon F80.
There’ll be an accompanying book to Road, Movie with the same title. It’ll have photographs of your research trip. The big question looming now is: should I go digital or stay analog.
The jury is still out over whether to shoot for a book using the Nikon D70 or a Nikon with Kodak 35mm negative. I have my old Nikon FM2 with some really good lenses and a Nikon F80 with the bundle of lenses that came with it. That’s two bodies and four lenses.
Looks like I might stay with that, shoot negative and get Comart to do a drum scan of them.
On iTunes: Sunday Morning from the album “Songs About Jane” by Maroon 5
That’s the working title of our next film. Keep your eyes peeled. In the next few weeks you’ll see some photographs and more information about it.
Currently playing in iTunes: Devil Got My Woman by Skip James
Prabhat of Inventiv has just installed WordPress for us. I’m trying to see how this will work for your updates. This is my first blog using Mars Edit from Ranchero the same guys who make NetNewswWire.
For some reason ecto did not work so I’m trying this out. Of course WP also allows one to post entries while logged in via the web.
The Kubrik theme drew me to this, plus it’s free. But I do miss iBlog Sarat’s excellent implementation of a blogging app.
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra performed at the Jamshed Bhabha theatre April 8,9,10. On the 9th they played a stunning Dvorak with Mstislav Rostopovitch while the 10th was exclusively Beethoven with Julian Rachlin on the violin.
The sound in the Jamshed Bhabha is incredible and the ability to hear instruments without any amplifincation or microphones makes this all the more special. I don’t know why Indian Classical musicians insist on low quality mics and very bad amplification. It would be a treat to hear their natural voices and sounds.
Egmont Overture Op84, Violin Concerto in D major op 61, followed by Symphony 7 in A Major. Rachlin’s encore was a virtuoso piece by Eliah while Mehta’s encore was from Puccini’s opera Tosca di Giacomo. Puccini was very Hollywood 30’s lush, grand and very sweet.
Here’s a glimpse of the place where the 12 week actors workshop begins for my new movie.
Watch out for some sneak peeks here!
We’re cleaning up and getting ready for an exciting journey.
For all that talk about the algorithm the Shuffle mode has and how it can sense your state of mind, yesterday was Shuffle strangeness. The three times I began listening to music I heard a Cat Stevens song twice over. That’s Cat times 6 and I’m not even a Cat Steven’s fan.
Aaargh!
I’m looking forward to testing the new Kodak Vision 2 negative. Kodak’s Shankar Datta and Rajesh Jiandani sent in the 250D and the 500T. I’ve shortlisted these for the new feature I’m doing. The Vision2 500T is an interesting one as we may do a DI on that film. For the first film we may eventually look at shooting on the 250D or even the 100T or the EXR 50D as we may be filming in the middle of summer in very harsh light conditions. But more on this in due course of time.
You’ve got to hand it to Apple. Shuffle is cool.
Where else can you hear the Funk Brothers followed immediately by Air on G String and then All India Radio!
Surreal.
The iPod updater adds all the cool stuff to your old ancient iPod as well.
And I’m rediscovering the 2000 songs I have.
On of my favorite films: much misunderstood is the moody Black & White jewel Radio On. It haunted me when I saw it first on screen at the Indian International Film Festival, Bangalore, 1980
I didn’t realise that years later I would cross paths with Chris Petit. More on that remarkable director and writer in another blog.
But in the meanwhile here’s something from the Guardian.
More about Radio On
In British cinema history, Chris Petit’s gloomily beautiful road movie Radio On stands alone. There is no other movie like it in the national canon.
That can only mean one thing.
Something’s up.
We’ve just completed a new edition of 24×7 Making Movies our challenge program where anyone can fulfill their dream to make a movie.
Visit www.24×7makingmovies.com and learn more.
Dev Benegal writes about his only guru in cinema the legendary cameraman Subrata Mitra who died December 08, 2001. This is the article which originally appeared in the MidDay, Bombay.
2001. What a year it has been!
George Harrison, Douglas Adams, Subrata Mitra.
Subrata who? Precisely.
I’m reading about John Peel’s death on a newswire service connected via a wireless cell phone to the intenet.
What makes this uncanny is that I’m in the same room and the same table where I used to prop up a small short-wave radio some 30 years ago and listen to his show on BBC World Service.
The radio and John’s show was the portal to my world. I’m not sure I loved all the music but there was some strange stuff that I’m sure I would have never heard elsewhere.
Even in far away Delhi he had fans and his wry style was legendary.
What was that Indian thing about life being cyclical?
I’m fortunate to have met some of the masters who have made cinema what it is. I will be writing aboout some of these encounters from time to time in this blog. Some of the people whose work I admire and who will feature in this are: Subrata Mitra the legendary camerman, Satyajit Ray the director, Walter Murch the editor and sound designer. Also in this will be the unsung heroes. The people who never get noticed in the movies but who have made an indelible mark on cinema in their small way.
The other day I walked into my room which has become every-man’s nightmare or hey, a technogeeks dream.
Avid editing system, Old CRT displays, Bose Roommates, Anchor AN 100 Pro Speakers, 35mm Negatives, 35mm release prints, Books, Files, Scripts, Newspaper cuttings, reviews, B.C. Sanyal’s watercolor Paintings, Godard’s Bande a Part poster, empty FeDex boxes, Avid Hard drives, Old PowerMac CPU’s…
The room is about 12ft by 9ft with a window which has a great view.
I decided it was time to address the drawers and files. I don’t quite remember how but some email link got me to check out David Allen’s Getting Things Done. A couple of phone calls and Crossword had it delivered at my office. I read it in one straight sitting and got a bit obsessive over the next few days. Google searches, how to get it work on OSX, iApps, the works. Even made a small Keynote presentation for the rest of the team at work.
I’m not going into details as there’s tons of stuff on the forum and other websites.
But in sum- It works!
Here’s my inbox: ZERO MAIL!!
Of course some people keep ALL their mail in the inbox. With Mail.app’s threading and color coding of messages it is another way of looking and sorting stuff.
GTD (as I discovered it’s known as!) reminds me of the years I used to use Time Manager’s planner. It has a similar implementation of Calendar, Tasks or Actions and a Project Section, Notes, Addresses and a Reference Section.
I still have both mine (a personal size and the A5 size) tucked away safely. For one reason; during film-production all digital and tech stuff fails. The one thing that works wonders is paper and pencil!
But check out the book.
Hidden between a row of shanties and the suburban railway line is the Jewish Cemetery. I went here as part of the location “recce” for my new film Stairway to Heaven with Jehangir Sorabjee. Jehangir has been taking some exceptional Black & White photographs of cemeteries all over the world.
They should be available for sale on his website soon.
Oh did I mention, he’s one of Bombay’s outstanding doctors as well.
A doctor with a passion for cemeteries. Now there’s a film in that!
The tomb raiders paused as we took photographs. Sandwiched between Chinchpokli station and the land grabbing high rises don’t expect this cemetery to last long.
It’s like the vanishing Jewish community of Bombay.
The B&W photograph was taken with my trusted Nikon FM2 while the color one was on the Nikon Coolpix 4300.
It’s the big day of the Ganesh immersion festival. It usually rains but today looked quite different. The sky was clear. The haze and smog a distant dream.
And then at about 10pm there was the most dramatic lightning you could imagine followed by rain.
Well, coincidence? Cloud seeding?
