Monday, April 16, 2012
And The Winner Is... | Between Breaths
Between Breaths Results are here. Unlike last year when we had some good contest, this year thanks to voting and insights from our Jury, we have a clear winner. However, before we can go ahead and open the box to reveal the winner, lets have a look at the different entries...
Break Even was interesting effort. As Anish pointed out 'there are plenty of positives in this movie. For once there is no talk of Love, Drugs and Career pressure in a movie set in campus.' This was a high. Most of the time we see these stereotypes and they are big turn-offs. Background score was a let down. Ali noted a few interesting things about how subtitling was done. If one gotta shoot... This is a realistic take on networking based businesses which always had a grey area. Its very contemporary and language doesn't look alien. The body language is interesting and very close to reality.
On The Blindspot, Gyandeep noted that... 'Nicely done. Ironic. But needs some trimming. Also, could have done away with a lot of meandering shots like the guy getting dressed up and using the camera as a gimmick at places. Message is nicely driven through. Good effort.' Anish was a little upset about they way aping of 'Delhi Belly' was done, though not affecting the feel, it has become a sort of trend. Blindspot was good but an outdated idea.
Romance Not Again attracted two opinions. Sujoy felt that the story had two plots and should have been seperated. Harish found a nice blend among both. However, everyone agreed that it was decent feel good sort of movie that had a charm of its own. Camerawork was a letdown... The high was the acting performances and overall feel.
Pushkar's (untitled) evoked mixed opinions. This guy has really high standards. Gyandeep said... 'Deft direction and crisp cinematography' to sum up everything. Cinematography wise it was definitely one of the best in the event. Concept was interesting but the bottomline was rugged. And fonts, they were a little out of place. The sync between scene and music was really applaudable... though we would have appreciated original than copyrighted material.
Johnny Gaddar was a two headed monster. It drew sharp contrasting views. Harish remarked, 'You got to have guts when you are attempting something like JG. The climax is very much kind of expected but overall this has come out very well. Nice tribute to JG indeed.' On the other hand, Gyandeep felt differently. He remarked'The weakest entry in this fest, in my opinion. Don't mean to be harsh but what's the point in doing this, really? This is just a fraction of the entire synopsis of the beloved 'Johnny Gaddaar'. The camera tries TOO hard to get our attention and it does but in all the wrong ways. To be honest, I had expected the moon when I read the title. Turns out, I was horribly wrong.' Anish tend to support Harish on this while Ali and Sujoy were not sold out to the concept.
Cold Feet didn't attracted much attention and applause. It was a weak entry. Sujoy remarked, ' One can see the point behind the story. Camera work is more random... either its experimentation or job gone kaput. Music... is definitely overdone. Concept should have been developed more.' Anish wondered how FB is attracting cine-enthusiasts.
Payanathin Mudivil attracted favorable reviews. Sujoy noted 'One word wow. Initially it was ok but the way it summed up... brilliant work. The performances and the use of voice over is really good. I would definitely pick a few things :) Camera work was really awesome in some pieces. Direction is pretty decent. The plot came out well. Bravo' Gyandeep too felt the same and remarked, 'Fresh is what I'd like to associate with this movie.' Anish was not much happy with the direction and acting while Ali noted a void.
Between Breaths 2012 witnessed some amazing entries. Special note for (untitled) and Johnny Gaddar. They added the 'thriller' flavor to this season dedicated to Alfred Hitchcock. There was one outright winner. No other video came close. Just to give an idea, it got almost 50% of over all votes. Before I spill the name, TRM would like to thanks Anish Singh, Harish Mallya, Gyandeep Pattnayak, Ali Naqvi and Sujoy Ghosh for their valuable time as Jury Members.
The winner of Between Breaths 2012 is Manikandan's Payanathin Mudivil. Congrats to Manikandan and his team.
Break Even was interesting effort. As Anish pointed out 'there are plenty of positives in this movie. For once there is no talk of Love, Drugs and Career pressure in a movie set in campus.' This was a high. Most of the time we see these stereotypes and they are big turn-offs. Background score was a let down. Ali noted a few interesting things about how subtitling was done. If one gotta shoot... This is a realistic take on networking based businesses which always had a grey area. Its very contemporary and language doesn't look alien. The body language is interesting and very close to reality.
On The Blindspot, Gyandeep noted that... 'Nicely done. Ironic. But needs some trimming. Also, could have done away with a lot of meandering shots like the guy getting dressed up and using the camera as a gimmick at places. Message is nicely driven through. Good effort.' Anish was a little upset about they way aping of 'Delhi Belly' was done, though not affecting the feel, it has become a sort of trend. Blindspot was good but an outdated idea.
Romance Not Again attracted two opinions. Sujoy felt that the story had two plots and should have been seperated. Harish found a nice blend among both. However, everyone agreed that it was decent feel good sort of movie that had a charm of its own. Camerawork was a letdown... The high was the acting performances and overall feel.
Pushkar's (untitled) evoked mixed opinions. This guy has really high standards. Gyandeep said... 'Deft direction and crisp cinematography' to sum up everything. Cinematography wise it was definitely one of the best in the event. Concept was interesting but the bottomline was rugged. And fonts, they were a little out of place. The sync between scene and music was really applaudable... though we would have appreciated original than copyrighted material.
Johnny Gaddar was a two headed monster. It drew sharp contrasting views. Harish remarked, 'You got to have guts when you are attempting something like JG. The climax is very much kind of expected but overall this has come out very well. Nice tribute to JG indeed.' On the other hand, Gyandeep felt differently. He remarked'The weakest entry in this fest, in my opinion. Don't mean to be harsh but what's the point in doing this, really? This is just a fraction of the entire synopsis of the beloved 'Johnny Gaddaar'. The camera tries TOO hard to get our attention and it does but in all the wrong ways. To be honest, I had expected the moon when I read the title. Turns out, I was horribly wrong.' Anish tend to support Harish on this while Ali and Sujoy were not sold out to the concept.
Cold Feet didn't attracted much attention and applause. It was a weak entry. Sujoy remarked, ' One can see the point behind the story. Camera work is more random... either its experimentation or job gone kaput. Music... is definitely overdone. Concept should have been developed more.' Anish wondered how FB is attracting cine-enthusiasts.
Payanathin Mudivil attracted favorable reviews. Sujoy noted 'One word wow. Initially it was ok but the way it summed up... brilliant work. The performances and the use of voice over is really good. I would definitely pick a few things :) Camera work was really awesome in some pieces. Direction is pretty decent. The plot came out well. Bravo' Gyandeep too felt the same and remarked, 'Fresh is what I'd like to associate with this movie.' Anish was not much happy with the direction and acting while Ali noted a void.
Between Breaths 2012 witnessed some amazing entries. Special note for (untitled) and Johnny Gaddar. They added the 'thriller' flavor to this season dedicated to Alfred Hitchcock. There was one outright winner. No other video came close. Just to give an idea, it got almost 50% of over all votes. Before I spill the name, TRM would like to thanks Anish Singh, Harish Mallya, Gyandeep Pattnayak, Ali Naqvi and Sujoy Ghosh for their valuable time as Jury Members.
The winner of Between Breaths 2012 is Manikandan's Payanathin Mudivil. Congrats to Manikandan and his team.
Innuendo And Arvind Kamath | Golden Podium
Indie is growing. It’s taking on challenges upfront and so well. Innuendo, an Indie movie made by Arvind Kamath is all set to go live. Totally relying on the content, Innuendo is a promising venture. TRM got an opportunity to have a little chit chat with the Director and here we go...
Q: Arvind, we have heard that one of the highlights of your movie is the unconventional story plot. Please cast some light on the story of the film...
AK: Well there is nothing unconventional about the story or plot, it's a very real take on stories that we witness day in day out. The story is about a single mother trying to rekindle her relationship with her teenage son, a failed writer trying to revive his creativity and a group of friends trying to revive an unexpected situation and how these characters willingly or unwillingly cross paths.
Q: There are two different perspectives in the story. There is a depth in the lead characters and they tend to complement each other in a beautiful way. How did you sketch these characters?
AK: As I mentioned earlier it's a very real take on stories that we witness, and this story was built upon many small incidents/experiences I personally witnessed in the last few years of my life, so I sketched the characters based on those people whom I met through those experiences and to fit them into the fictitious story I had woven, I just tried to be them and see how they would react to situations which helped to a certain extent.
Q: Any special experience you would like to share?
AK: For me the whole process of making "Innuendo" along with my wonderful team has been a very special experience I'll cherish for life. 35 people among which 25 were unknown to me before Innuendo readily agreeing to work with me on my 1st film is nothing short of a special experience for me. One small incident I'd like to share is during our 2nd schedule we had worked for 2 days & nights continuously without sleep and it was the 2nd night by then most of crew had given up due to exhaustion and started disappearing one by one from the set and then me and my friend Bharath MC(DOP) realized that it's just the 2 of us and the actor, we continued shooting because we had to finish the scenes in that location which had to be vacated the next day so we multitasked, me(direction, sound & logs) Bharath(camera, lights & Art) and managed to complete the shoot. Next day I started making fun of my crew, but honestly I want to take this opportunity to apologize to my cast & crew whom I put through a lot during the shoot.
Q: Innuendo, I believe, is a typical Indie movie. What were the different difficulties you faced in making this movie and how did you managed them all?
AK: Well just like any other Indie film, our film & team had our fair share of obstacles but faith and determination helped us sail through. Some of them I can think of right off the top of my head are..
- Difficulty in finding an actress to play a small 2 scene role (very important for the script) when all the other casting had been done, then a good friend Tanushree Ishaani (also an actress) stepped in. I would always remain thankful to her.
- Difficulty in getting locations within our budget, but our location manager Supritha Sanjay did a great job
- My DOP fell sick just a few days before the shoot and a dear friend Bharath MC stepped in as a savior whom I always wanted to work with on my first film and it was destiny that played a role
- Schedule went haywire due to the weather issues but all my cast & crew understood and did overtime so that we meet the schedule
- Post production got delayed because of personal emergencies for a month
And many more like these which have turned into sweet memories now
Q: Last year Anurag Kashyap's That Girl In Yellow Boots and Onir's I Am made a strong impact on how World see Indian Cinema. Indie is shaping India's image across the waters. Where do you see Indie Cinema in India leading to? Will it turn commercial or retain the sanctity of parallel cinema?
AK: I'm not sure if I'm qualified enough to really talk about or predict where the indie trend is leading to but I for sure can tell you like every other aspiring/indie filmmaker, I would like the gap between so called commercial and parallel cinema be bridged to the extent of co-existence, because we need all kinds of stories/films and monotony gets boring. I just believe in good cinema and I would like to see good cinema selling so that hungry filmmakers can go on making good cinema with abundant freedom of expression not bound by the tailor made commercial rules or by the wrong bracketing of art/parallel cinema.
Q: One difficult question, in 2006 a movie with the same title was released. Story line is somewhat similar. One can easily draw parallels. Was that movie an inspiration or this is a co-incidence?
AK: Well to answer your question, it's purely a co-incidence but I'd like to explain further. Matter of factly even I got to know that there are films titled Innuendo only when I was trying to list my film on IMDB, and there are not just 1 but 4 films by that title already (1 feature and 3 shorts). Now the co-incidence is that the plot line of one of the shorts produced in 2006 sounds similar to part of my film's plot, but it's nowhere related. That film is a horror and mine is a drama. Infact I titled my film only during pre-production by when my script was completed which took 1.5 years to write. Without speaking further all I would like to say is you will see it yourself soon.
Q: A message you would like to give to our readers...
TRM would like to convey best wishes the entire cast and crew of Innuendo. God Bless.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Between Breaths 2012 | The Large Picture | Editor's Pen
A little emotional...
I have made a few short films and can understand how much does it take to make a good short film. Each minute of short on screen roughly takes two hours of writing, three hours of shoot, eight hours of editing, one hour of dubbing, six hours of RnD and six hours of brainstorming... and this is only an insight on time invested. The amount of effort required cannot be written in words. It will just understate the value.
This year, we got some really good entries for Between Breaths. It felt real good because the bottomline to encourage short film enthusiasts has become a highlight. We got some nice messages from people who appreciated the effort we are putting in to make it count. Last time we had 5 finalists, this year we have 7... it feels good to see people becoming a part of our effort, joining hands and making it count.
We wish to thank the participants, the jury members and everyone who supported us.
And yes... as we complete three years of existence... I wish to congratulate entire TheReelMag Family.
Love,
Sujoy Ghosh
I have made a few short films and can understand how much does it take to make a good short film. Each minute of short on screen roughly takes two hours of writing, three hours of shoot, eight hours of editing, one hour of dubbing, six hours of RnD and six hours of brainstorming... and this is only an insight on time invested. The amount of effort required cannot be written in words. It will just understate the value.
This year, we got some really good entries for Between Breaths. It felt real good because the bottomline to encourage short film enthusiasts has become a highlight. We got some nice messages from people who appreciated the effort we are putting in to make it count. Last time we had 5 finalists, this year we have 7... it feels good to see people becoming a part of our effort, joining hands and making it count.
We wish to thank the participants, the jury members and everyone who supported us.
And yes... as we complete three years of existence... I wish to congratulate entire TheReelMag Family.
Love,
Sujoy Ghosh
Entries | Between Breaths 2012
Entry 1: Break Even
Jury Member Anish Singh says 'there are plenty of positives in this movie. For once there is no talk of Love, Drugs and Career pressure in a movie set in campus. And for me that's half the battle won.'
Entry 2: Cold Feet
Sujoy Ghosh commented 'one can see the point behind the story. Camera work is more random... either its experimentation or job gone kaput. Music... is definitely overdone. Concept should have been developed more.'
Entry 3: Johnny Gaddar
Jury Member Harish Mallya remarked 'you got to have guts when you are attempting something like JG. The climax is very much kind of expected but overall this has come out very well. Nice tribute to JG indeed.'
Entry 4: Payanathin Mudivil
Sujoy Ghosh noted... 'One word wow. Initially it was ok but the way it summed up... brilliant work. The performances and the use of voice over is really good. I would definitely pick a few things :) Camera work was really awesome in some pieces. Direction is pretty decent. The plot came out well. Bravo'
Entry 5: The Blindspot
Jury Member Anish Singh remarked 'good, pertinent message. A bit over cooked though. Gets predictable after a while. However, this is one movie I could totally identify with having known many people who have a "blind spot" like the protagonist here.'
Entry 6: (untitled)
Jury Member Gyandeep Pattnayak commented 'the best of the lot. Starkly shot... Deft direction and crisp cinematography. The end credits made me want to whistle and hoot.'
Entry 7: Romance Not Again
Ali Naqvi quoted... 'This one connected the strongest at story level... it made me smile and connect to characters... camaraderie between friends feels genuine... as does the love story.... actors are very comfortable on camera... and the twist finally brings a even bigger smile :)'
Jury Member Anish Singh says 'there are plenty of positives in this movie. For once there is no talk of Love, Drugs and Career pressure in a movie set in campus. And for me that's half the battle won.'
Entry 2: Cold Feet
Sujoy Ghosh commented 'one can see the point behind the story. Camera work is more random... either its experimentation or job gone kaput. Music... is definitely overdone. Concept should have been developed more.'
Entry 3: Johnny Gaddar
Jury Member Harish Mallya remarked 'you got to have guts when you are attempting something like JG. The climax is very much kind of expected but overall this has come out very well. Nice tribute to JG indeed.'
Entry 4: Payanathin Mudivil
Sujoy Ghosh noted... 'One word wow. Initially it was ok but the way it summed up... brilliant work. The performances and the use of voice over is really good. I would definitely pick a few things :) Camera work was really awesome in some pieces. Direction is pretty decent. The plot came out well. Bravo'
Entry 5: The Blindspot
Jury Member Anish Singh remarked 'good, pertinent message. A bit over cooked though. Gets predictable after a while. However, this is one movie I could totally identify with having known many people who have a "blind spot" like the protagonist here.'
Entry 6: (untitled)
Jury Member Gyandeep Pattnayak commented 'the best of the lot. Starkly shot... Deft direction and crisp cinematography. The end credits made me want to whistle and hoot.'
Entry 7: Romance Not Again
Ali Naqvi quoted... 'This one connected the strongest at story level... it made me smile and connect to characters... camaraderie between friends feels genuine... as does the love story.... actors are very comfortable on camera... and the twist finally brings a even bigger smile :)'
Note: The comments here reflects the belief of Jury Members in the makers. In depth Analysis would be uploaded in coming days.
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