Musings of an Idiot

WH

2009-07-04T11:16:00.004+12:00

More developments on the 'freedom project' front. I acted in my first scene for the project last night and it felt good. Simon was directing and he was on one of the cameras while Benji was on the other. I don't have to worry if we got the coverage and everything we need to make the scene work in post production because Simon will have to deal with it..wohoooo.... A special thanks to Brian Le Gros who was generous to us with use of his property and making things possible even though we are a 'no budget' independent film.

We are shooting the next scene for the project next week and I am excited about that as well. Benji is dropping out of the project after next week's scene but people have been generous with their offers of help and the project has to go on one way or the other. Also we are close to recasting the part opposite me and just awaiting confirmation that it is all go from the actress.

I did a small acting freebie for TVNZ7 idents and those will start airing this week on TVNZ7. I also managed to cull down my list of movies to watch at the NZ International Film Festival to 5 and finally went and bought the tickets.

Signing off,
Amit

2009-07-01T09:51:00.004+12:00

I bit the bullet again and opened a 'Twitter' account, so if you want you can find me there under the username @unkreative.

Watched the Borneo episode of 'Intrepid Journey's' last night and I really want to go there next year. 2010 can't come soon enough and by the way 2009 is screaming past it feels like it's just around the corner.

Gearing up to shoot a scene this week and another one next week for 'freedom project' if stars align themselves. Fingers crossed for that. Wish I had money to pay people to commit times to it and also to lock down locations but that's the nature of independent film making I guess - on a wing and a prayer.

Amit

Freedom Update

2009-06-27T21:06:00.002+12:00

Several developments on the 'freedom' project front. First up - Simon Ward is now on board as co-director on the project. It will ease up the workload on me as I can't direct the scenes I am in anyway. Secondly, I bit the bullet and bought one radio wireless mic to solve my worries about extra crewing and audio problems. Simon bought one as well, so between the two of us we've got the audio side covered. Third up is that we are gearing up to shoot the next scene - hopefully this week. We were supposed to shoot it tomorrow but the location was unavailable. And lastly I had to take the hard decision to re-cast one of the parts because of various reasons but it is all part of the process.

That's me for now.

Amit

Hiding

2009-06-19T10:55:00.002+12:00

Time for introspection and quiet, so I can think things through in terms of where I am headed. To help me in the process I bought 3 Volumes of 'Rediscovering Intrepid Journeys' TV Series and Michael Palin's New Europe from Dymocks on Queen Street which had a closing down sale of 40% off.

A

Sprocket Projection School

2009-06-14T19:40:00.004+12:00

It has been a very long week with crazy long hours and I also had the Cinema Projection course over the weekend which made sure I was caught up in the daily grind. The highlight of the weekend for me has been the 2 day beginner's course in Cinema Projection run by Sprocket Projection School - launched by Gina Dellabarca {who also runs Academy Cinemas}. The person who took the course was Phil Greig, who has worked with Peter Jackson and also worked across cinemas all across the country. He was a great teacher/knowledge sharer and was really passionate about projection and technology and workflows/processes and he was able to share all that in a language that everybody was able to understand and comprehend.

After the workshop I know the history of film projection and what a filmprojector is made of and how it works and as a bonus I can 'make up' and 'break up' film and I can thread a projector. Most of all I now have a better appreciation of the film making process and also understand the magic and complexities of working with film and can also see why film will eventually be used only for major blockbusters while everything shifts towards the digital realm. It will take time - maybe another 10-15 years {if not earlier} before the technology is wide-spread and delivers the cost benefits that will force all cinema theaters to eventually switch over to digital.

It is a definitely a good course and worth going through even if you don't intend on becoming a projectionist. I think they are thinking of running it again in August or something - if interested then drop in a mail to Gina at gina[at]academycinemas.co.nz

That's me for now.
Amit

Who are you?

2009-06-07T22:05:00.003+12:00

'Who are you?' - that's a question one needs to ask oneself from time to time and I am asking that question right now. Not that I am getting any answers. A couple of words came to mind but they are not so pleasing or easy to digest. I don't know why I go through this process every now and again.

Amit

Terminator -the end

2009-06-07T10:30:00.002+12:00

I think they should bury 'The Terminator' franchise, especially after Terminator Salvation. It was a complete misfire with Christian Bale being the weakest link in the movie. Here is an article which kind of tries to figure out what went wrong with the movie?

A

The Hangover

2009-06-04T22:50:00.002+12:00

Just back from a media screening of 'The Hangover' and it is a brilliant, funny, fun movie. Never laughed so much in a movie in recent times {i mean in the movies that are supposed to be comedies}.

While walking to the car I saw a asian couple learning how to dance in a closed asian food court with an older lady supervising their steps. They were dancing to Celine Dione's track 'My Heart Will Go On'. It was surreal to say the least. I wanted to take a photo but that would have been very intrusive.

Amit

VO2 Max

2009-06-02T21:44:00.004+12:00

New round of fitness test is through and it is mixed results. My weight's gone down by 1 KG to 67.2 but my body fat %age has gone up by .5% - which is not too bad I guess. Resting heart rate is still at 65bpm. Blood pressure has improved to almost theoretical/text book levels - 124/72 . While my VO2 Max has increased to 48.8 - which is a definite plus. What it all means is that my cardio fitness as well as overall fitness is definitely increasing but I need to keep increasing the intensity of training in order to keep on track with my goal.

I saw this fascinating documentary called 'Unknown White Male' and it is a riveting watch. Check it out if you get a chance.

Amit

Slow freedom

2009-05-30T19:45:00.007+12:00

Well autumn just passed by without a sign - just cold winds and rain and now is the onset of winter. Note to self - try and plan your next holiday in May/June. :-)

'Freedom Project' is going a little slower than I anticipated but I have taken overall stock of the situation and it is looking good mostly. There are some awesome stories that are coming out and I am hopefully that they will flow together when the edit is done. Even though it is experimental in the way we are doing it - it still has to work as a dramatic narrative for the audience to invest their time in it. Managed to score a location which I was having trouble finding and the workshops are coming along nicely, so I can't really complaint. :-)

Here is an excerpt from the scene with Matt McD and Lorraine - which we basically developed using acting workshops. The scene is still in final stages of development so can't share the full scene right now.

Adam: Wohh..Woh..Woh…Stop..stop..stop..stop…
Tricia: What? I was just joking.
Adam: Yeah.. Look..please, please tell me that this is not the sort of thing you’re gonna bring up tomorrow. You just launched into a racist, fatist, sizest rant
Tricia: I didn’t say anything racist
Adam: Yeah whatever it was…you just…you just…I can’t remember your words now
Tricia: That’s crazy
Adam: Because that’s gonna be disaster tomorrow. This guy comes to see us and we sit down and we go 'we bought the best cot because cot deaths are caused by fat people, rolling over, drinking too much…'
Tricia: It was just a joke.
Adam: You know what your jokes are like..You know..
Tricia: Funny…You love my jokes
Adam: Stop..stop..No..No..
Tricia: You laugh at my jokes..you love them
Adam: Yeah I laugh at your jokes but I’m married to you
Tricia: because you laugh at my jokes
Adam: That’s hard tack but yeah I married you because you are so funny. But there aren’t many people who find you funny. Well, we’ve only met 6 of them.

Later,
Amit

Postponed

2009-05-27T21:19:00.002+12:00

The shoot we were supposed to have today has been postponed because of various reasons. Slightly bummed out but that's the nature of the game of indie films.

That's me for now.
Later,
Amit

2 Days in Wellington (on a budget)

2009-05-23T23:14:00.000+12:00

I am back from Wellington and it turned out to be a good trip. I now have my set of 10 Polaroids for the online exhibition and have duly passed on the Polaroid camera to Benji, so he can go about getting his set of 10 snaps. Back to the trip to Wellington - the idea for this particular post came when I was searching for 'things to do in Wellington in 2 days' but could not find anything online. So here is my attempt at doing Wellington on a budget.

I have the luxury of having a car here in Auckland, so instead of catching the Airport shuttle which would have cost me 30 bucks each way, I decided to use a 'park and fly' facility as that meant a substantial saving. There are a fair few facilities like that near the airport but I went with 'Aeroparks' as it was very reasonably priced. I was flying with Qantas but just before I went to bed the night before they rang me up saying that they had overbooked their flight and that they would pay for my transfer to an Air New Zealand flight that was leaving at the same time. The weather forecast for Wellington was bad for the 2 days I was there and the weather across the country for the past 2 weeks has been pretty bad as well, so in a way I was dreading spending 2 days in windy and rainy wellington.

Rising sun

The flight was non-eventful for most part but the landing was pretty hairy because of the very strong south westerlies. Wellington is at the southern tip of the North Island and it is a wind tunnel of sorts because of the speed it picks up across Cook Strait, which gives it an average of 173 days in a year with winds blowing more than 60kph. Add to it the cold factor and it becomes pretty miserable. If you look at the photograph of the airport below you can see that there is no wind protection from either side and it gives you goose bumps when the wind rattles your plane around like a toy. Tip for the wise - wear lots of layerings of cloth and have a beanie, scarf and gloves handy as well.

Wellington Airport

Once in Wellington, instead of catching a Shuttle into the city, a cost-effective option is to catch the Airport Flyer 91 which runs every 20 minutes or so. You get out of the departures and walk towards the southern end of the terminal and you'll see signs pointing to the airport flyer stop. It costs about $6.50 to get from the airport into the city.

You know it is going to be a rough day when you overhear the locals say 'It's pretty windy and cold today, isn't it?'. I had 4 layers of clothing on my top and 2 layers of clothing on my legs and a scarf and a beanie and I could still feel the cold wind. The good thing though was it wasn't raining and the sun was out {even though you couldn't really feel it's heat}, so I was quitely optimistic that I would have a good day.

I got down at Courtenay Place and then walked all the way up to the Railway station. That gave me a chance to get my bearings on the city layout. I had booked myself in to Downtown Backpackers and it was alright for a quick/short stay. I am sure that there are better backpackers around the city but I booked it as it was reasonably priced. The thing I did not like about the backpackers was that there was no vibe or life to it. I have stayed at better backpackers where you have better facilities to socialize and catch up with other travellers.

After putting my bag in a locker, I set out exploring the city. I stopped at an iSite to get local maps and attractions and started mapping out a rough plan. First stop was catching a Cable car to the top to check out the Cable Car Museum, the Botanical Gardens, the Rose Garden. The cable car is pretty reasonably priced and the entry to everything else that I listed is free, so I pretty much walked everything.

Wellington against the backdrop of the Cable Car

The run home

The Treehouse information center

Children walking through the Rose Garden

Very well looked after tree?

I was slightly disappointed that the Carter Observatory was closed for rennovations but it was still an interesting walk through the gardens. The next stop was the Skyline Cafe just besides the cable car station and I ducked in for a quick cup of hot choclate before making my way down to Lambton Quay. There was a graduation ceremony going on at the University and I got this beautiful shot of a girl in her graduation gown waiting for the cable car.

Doors

Girl at the station

The cable car driver

Next stop on my itinerary was a stop at the Parliament to take one of their free tours but I missed it by 15 minutes, so I walked to Old St.Paul's which is this beautiful building. I walked in through the gates and I was kind of apprehensive going into the building as there was a hearse outside and the last thing I wanted to do was walk in on someone's funeral proceedings. Luckily it was all done with and everyone that had come to the funeral had retired to a corner of the building and were having food and drinks, which left me free to wander around and take a few snaps.

Victory

Old St. Paul's Cathedral

Katherine Mansfield's house is close by to Old St. Paul's but I decided to pay the beehive a visit as it was nearly time for the next tour that starts on the hour. The Parliamentry tours are free to everyone and it was an intersting one hour learning about the political process and checking out the seat of power. The house wasn't in session, so the tour guide took us onto the floor of the house and that was an interesting experience as well. It is highly recommended if you have time to spare.

The Beehive

After the tour was finished, I saw that the rain was still holding out, so decided to walk up to Mt. Victoria lookout from where you can get a 360 degree view of Wellington. I took the hard track up to the top and it was a weird feeling - on one hand you are sweating from the exercise but on the other hand you are freezing from the icy cold winds blasting away at you. At the lookout it was super-windy and I spent 5 minutes taking some photos before making the quick descent back.

Wellington

Wellington has a lot going on for it despite the wind factor. It has some nice eating joints, nice cafes, an active theater and arts scene and best of all - it is walkable. If it wasn't so damn windy it would be a gem of a place to live. After the walk up to the Mt. Victoria lookout I definitely needed to warm up and I stopped by at Kaffee Eis on Courtenay Place, which one of my flatmates had recommended. I was tempted to try their famous ice creams but went for a hot drink instead. After spending the whole day walking in the cold wind I felt like being indoors for a bit, so I decided to watch a movie and checked out 'Religulous' at Paramount Cinemas - an art house cinema theatre. The movie I was watching was screening on one of their smaller screens that were made behind the main screen and it was like a home barn modified with plush seating and good sound system. It was weird but pleasant surprise - the not such pleasant surprise was the girl running the ticket counter - who was kind of edgy and not really that friendly. New Zealand still has a lot to learn about customer care/service.

By the time I came out of the movie it was night and I roamed around a bit checking out the various eating joints and had a quick bite to eat before retiring for the night since I didn't feel like going out for a drink. I had a chat with one of the other guys staying in the same dorm and he was an american student doing a semester in Dunedin. Ryan was from Nebraska and he was going up to do the Tongariro crossing the next day as he didn't want to loose out on the last chance to do it before going back to USA. I had forgotten to put any soap in my backpack and I didn't realize it till I was in my night dress. My plan was to drop into Les Mills {the gym I am a member of} and use their facilities since my membership is valid anywhere in the country.- Luckily for me Ryan was walking down to the supermarket and he was kind of enough to buy me a bar of soap, so I could take a shower the next day without implementing my elaborate plan to take a shower.

The second day started off at 6.30 in the morning and I got ready for another day in windy wellington. Since the backpackers I was staying at is bang opposite the railway station - i went in and took a few pics before wandering onto the water front where I got some stunning photos. One of the things I find is that if you live in the same city then sometimes you don't stop to appreciate the beauty because you are so used to it. Since it was rush hour, with people going about busily to work, I stood out like a sore thumb as I was in no rush to get anywhere and was happily snapping away the beautiful sights. I think I did manage to influence a few office goers to take a minute to see what I was taking photographs of. :-)

The railway station

Shadows and Light

On the Waterfront

Wellington Harbour

The public transportation in Wellington is pretty good and if you are a traveler, you can buy a 'Day Tripper' pass for $5 which gives you unlimited bus rides to anywhere in the city. I didn't know of it till later as the bus driver of the bus I was taking to the 'Weta Cave' in Miramar was new and didn't mention the day tripper pass - it was the return bus driver who told me about it. You basically catch Bus Route 2 from central city and get down at the corner of Camperdown road and walk 20 meters odd before you get to the 'cave'. Weta Cave is a mini-museum/shop that displays stuff made by Weta and it is a geek heaven of sorts. There is a documentary that screens there as well - which gives you a behind the scenes look at what all goes on behind the scenes at the company. It runs for about 20 minutes and is a quick look and I really would've liked to see a 40 minute version to get some more details but I guess that 20 minute is good to accommodate for the constant visitors who come to the cave. It is definitely worth a watch.

Gollum

My precious

More displays

Creature from 'Brain Dead'

The 'Weta Cave' screening room

After Weta Cave - I wanted to check out Karori Wildlife Sanctuary which is a 5 minute drive from central wellington. I asked around to see if I could walk there but the advise was to catch a bus since there was plenty of walking to do in the sanctuary itself. I caught Bus number 3 which dropped me off close to the Sanctuary and from there it is a 5 minute walk to the reception. The admission price of $14 is well worth the trip and I missed the tour by 10 minutes {the tour costs an additional $14 on top of the admission price}, so I was happy to roam about the sanctuary by myself. The tracks are extensive and it was just a wonderful experience listening to all kinds of birds and sometimes spotting them. I saw a total of 2 other people during my hour odd walk through the sanctuary and it was kind of surreal walking through the native bush. The sanctuary itself was very well maintained and looked after with good signs and information posts through out the trail. Oh and just so you are not scared - there is no 'dangerous' wildlife in New Zealand per se and it is pretty safe walking through the woods by yourself.

Pathway to an electric boat

Art installation in the middle of the sanctuary?

Spot to chill out and grab a bite to eat

The path rarely trodden

A native bird singing

The sanctuary

There is a night tour that is held everyday around 4.30 PM and I am told that it is well worth it - even though it costs slightly more than the normal tour. I wanted to do the tour but then I was catching up with Sebastian - a friend of mine who had recently moved down to Wellington, around 5.00 PM and that would've clashed with the tour. Maybe some other time. But a visit to the Wildlife santuary is a must if you are in Wellington.

After the nature walk, the plan was to go back into the city and then check out Te Papa - the museum of New Zealand. I wanted to catch the same bus number back into the city but another bus came before it and I promptly got onto it as I had the day tripper pass and I could somehow make my way to central city even if the bus dropped me close by. The bus went through Victoria University and it was interesting watching the students going about their business - it was just like any other educational institution anywhere else in the world. As the bus made it's way into the city an alleyway caught my eye and I promptly got out of the bus to take a snap of it. I didn't know where I was but I knew that I could find my way around even if I did get lost. As I was walking to the alleyway, I noticed a restaurant called 'KK Malaysian Restaurant' and I somehow thought that it might be related to the restaurant of the same name in Auckland, where I had eaten before {and whose food I loved}. I decided that I would have my lunch there and then I went about finding the alleyway - took the snap before returning to KK to eat.

The Alleyway

The restaurant was busy and when I asked for a table for one - they looked around and couldn't find anything. The host asked me if I minded sharing a table and I told them that I didn't as long as whoever I am sharing the table with didn't mind. So I was pointed to a table where I struck up a conversation with Julian - who was a political sciences student at the university. He was from Germany and on a scholarship studying in Wellington for a year. We had a good chat about different things ranging from politics to economy to general stuff. To top it off the food was delicious, the serving size was generous and the food was very reasonably priced. I would highly recommend the place based on my own taste preferences. While paying for the bill, I asked the host if they were anyway related to the restaurant in Auckland to which the host dissapointedly said no but then reassured me that I was not the first person to ask the same question. I parted ways with Julian and walked about till I found my bearings and walked over to Te Papa.

Te Papa had the Colossal Squid on display and I never got past the first level of the museum. It was nice and warm and that started making me feel sleepy, so I decided to pass on the rest of the museum. You can easily spend an hour or so exploring the museum. I had been there once before briefly and I was definitely not feeling the museum love this time around. So I went around to Kaffee Eis and tried one of their famous ice creams - 2 scoops of it actually. I did get some really funny looks from people when I was walking around the main strip enjoying my ice cream. I guess the wind factor might have had something to do with it. :-)

I had another hour or so before catching up with Sebastian and I was feeling pretty tired from all the walking, so I decided to go to the backpackers and have a quick snooze. It definitely did me heaps of good as I felt refreshed and ready for the evening. I had trouble getting a hold of Sebastian, so I walked down to Courtenay Place and had a drink at one of the bars on the strip. While enjoying the drink, watching the world rush by, I heard back from Sebastian, who had left left his phone at home. We soon caught up for a couple of drinks, traded stories and then caught 'Defiance' at the local cinemas. During the movie one of the guys behind us started annoying me big time when he hadn't turned off his cellphone and decided to take the call in the middle of the movie. I got annoyed and turned around and told him to put his phone down - which he did but it is such selfish behaviour that it annoys the crap out of me. Funnily enough the guy disappeared from the cinema as soon as the movie ended - he didn't even wait for the credits to start rolling. I enjoyed the movie despite a slow and flawed start - Daniel Craig & Liev Schreiber & Jamie Bell were in top form.

After the movie I parted ways with Sebastian and went back to the backpackers for my final night in Wellington. I was in my bed when one of the new room mates came back. His name was Scotty and he was drunk and he was British. Those 2 things are not a good combination and he just wouldn't shut up. He was a chef by trade and he was going back to UK for 4 months for the peak tourist season there with a top catering company. When I told him that I worked in film & tv, he kept going on and on about how he can be an excellent front for a NZ Food TV show and he just kept going in a loop and started telling me how I should pitch the idea and why such a show would be a good idea. I tolerated it to a point and then snapped back and basically in an indirect way told him to shut up. I think he got the point because he did let me go back to bed. I am sure that he must be a top notch chef but with his personality I find it hard to imagine how he can be a good host. I did see him the next morning as I was about to catch the Airport Flyer back to Wellington Airport and he didn't seem any different personality wise - sober. I guess that's the charm of travelling - you meet interesting people - some of them whom you get along with and some who just annoy the crap out of you.

The flight back was uneventful - even though it was running slightly late and half the plane was full of talkative law graduates who had flown down to Wellington to collect their law degrees. I am glad to be back in Auckland where the wind doesn't have as much of a bite as in Wellington and where you can actually feel the sun. I enjoyed my trip thoroughly and there are a few more things I could've squeezed into my 2 days down there - mainly because most of the attractions and places are located within walking distance of each other and a lot of them are free to visit, but I am still happy that I managed to do this trip on a budget. There are heaps more things you can do if you have the money like tours, adventure activities etc. but ulitmately it depends on what kind of holiday you want it to be.

That's me for now. Hope this helps anyone wanting a quick overview of things to visit in Wellington in 2 days.

Till later,
Amit

Piha

2009-05-16T19:54:00.004+12:00

Julia had invited me to a party at Piha for farewell of one of her flatmates, who has to return to UK because she couldn't get her work permit renewed. I was in 2 minds about it - first and foremost because I still hadn't made up my mind about going to the lecture by Marcus Chown and then I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to a party. Anyone who knows me well enough will know my avoidance of parties for some deep psychological reasons I have yet to fathom. As soon as I made up my mind that I might give the party a go - I started coming down with flu on Friday morning and it was the most annoying thing ever because it was my first weekend off in ages and I didn't want to spend the entire weekend recovering from an illness.

I somehow got through the work day and decided to skip the gym in favour of a short nap to see if I could sleep off my illness but it didn't really help much and I was feeling a little queasy by the time Julia came to pick me up. The drive to Piha at night didn't exactly improve the matters either because of the curvy roads through the hills and when we did arrive at Piha Beachstay where the party I was pretty happy to be on a solid ground and not move at all.

The party turned out to be a really relaxed and chilled out affair. Met some really interesting people and I started feeling better as the night went on. There were conversations, there was music, there was food and best of all the location itself was pretty unique. Here are some pics from the party.

Cat Conversations

New & Old

Music & Chess

More music at the fireplace

Julia rocking the party. :-)

I woke up pretty early for a Saturday after a late night party and I had decided early on that I wanted to go for a walk on the beach - first and foremost because Piha has this raw energy that I wanted to experience and the second was that I wanted to get a couple of pics for my online polaroid exhibition. I was still not feeling 100% but in a much better shape than the night before. Julia accompanied me on the walk and it turned out to be a fantastic morning with no rain to spoil the excursion. Here are some pics from the walk.

The deck at the beachstay

A family enjoying their morning walk

Lion Rock

Walk on the beach

Julia going wading in the rough sea. The waves are always HUGE on the west coast

Northern Piha beach

Julia on top of Lion rock {you can't climb all the way up anymore}

Piha

Julia and me on Lion Rock (a random lady who also took a walk up Lion Rock took this snap)

Stroller Stroll

Beautiful day at Piha

After a lovely day at Piha, I got dropped off home and since then I have been sleeping, eating, recovering from the flu. I have skipped another gym session but I figured that it is better to recover completely and then give it your all rather than damaging your health further by not letting your body cope and recover.

It was a great outing to Piha and I got a couple of lovely shots on my polaroid, soI am a happy chappy and I am now off recovering some more.
Till later,
Amit

Quantum Leap

2009-05-14T21:43:00.004+12:00

At start of the workshop last night with Matt and Lorraine for 'the freedom project', I found this book lying around titled 'Quantum Physics Cannot Hurt You' and it got me fascinated and Matt started describing things about it and I was fascinated. The writer, Marcus Chown, is in town for the Auckland Readers & Writers Festival and he gave an interview on National Radio as part of the promotion and it was facinating listening to say the least. I am sorely tempted to go and visit the festival to hear him talk but I decided that maybe the best way to know more is to read that book first otherwise it is kinda pointless sitting in the audience with no clue as to what's going on. So I rang up all major bookshops this morning to see if anyone had the book in stock {which they didn't} and I finally managed to track a copy down at the University Book Store and went up there for a stroll. The stroll itself was wet because of the intermittent showers but I am still pretty pleased as I got a couple of nice photos {I used my phone camera ofcourse- I need to invest in a decent smaller camera that I can slip into my pant pocket}. Now I have my hands on the book and I can't wait to dig into it. Multiple universes and alternate realities - here I come. :-)

A couple enjoying the randomness of the weather

Urban Jungle

The Tower

Walking through the university got me thinking again. It has such a different energy and vibe that it wants me to have the script development of 'The Girl with the Yellow Parasol' fast tracked but the hiccup obviously is that there is no script writer attached to it and the bigger problem being that there is no money for script development. Dang!!!!

An artist, Mike Mizrahi, has done an art installation on the Auckland Town Hall, that will stay on till the end of this week. Hard to ignore a photo opportunity like that and so I went down earlier this evening and took a few snaps. The art installation is basically elaborate video imagery projected onto the entire building that kept changing every minute or so. It was definitely a show stopper as a shitload of people stopped by to have a look at it. Here it is in all it's glory [actually it is hard to see it's real magnificence in photo format].

Auckland Town Hall

Town Hall Computerized

My favorite segment of the installation

The only other thing that took me by surprise was the number of older people going to the comedy festival at the Town Hall - maybe we need to laugh more as we grow older, seeing how doing anything otherwise is pointless.

Am I too old to check out the comedy festival?

Oh and the parking company who had my car towed start of the week have admitted their mistake and refunding me the full amount that it cost to get my car released from the towing company. Yay!!!! Sometimes it pays to put in a complaint, especially when you know that you are in the right.

That's me for now,
Amit

Circles

2009-05-12T20:36:00.004+12:00

I sit down to try and write a blog and then at the last possible minute I decide I can't be bothered with it. :-( Busy week till now with long hours at work and I am now really looking forward to the weekend break.

Only major news for now is that I found this awesome indian takeaway joint that has the most amazing and authentic indian curries and biryani. Oh and then there was the incident yesterday where my car got towed away by a towing company.I was fuming about it and I have put a formal complaint to the towing company as well as to the parking company for the refund of the amount I had to pay to get the car released because they were so in the wrong and I have proof of that. I haven't been so angry in a long time.

I recently finished reading the script of 'Apsara' the script that Angelique is writing for my trip to India and I gave her a good set of notes and I am pretty sure that she is wanting to kill me. Weren't they saying something about 'the invisibility cloak' is close to being real. Will those scientists please hurry up?

'The Hurt Locker' is one helluva movie. It is probably the most gripping and most authentic war movie that I've seen. It takes you right into the battle field and it is nerve wracking. It is a worthwhile experience. Does anyone else think that the poster to 'New Moon' the next part of Twilight is gay looking? What's their target audience? Who knows? Who cares? And as a sign off note have to say that 'Land of the Lost' trailer looks funny and I would love to watch that movie.

For now,

Amit

Polaroid Online Exhibition

2009-05-09T09:00:00.004+12:00

The weather has been playing havoc through the entire week and is likely to remain so through the end of next week. It just makes it harder to do things and it is such a mission waking up so early in the morning. It's saturday and I am at work - someone called in sick and I took the extra shift since I had nothing pressing to do today. I could've spent time on 'freedom project' but I already had a busy week with it with 3 solid workshops, so needed to take a step away from it.

I watched 'The Class' last night and it was a wonderful experience. It is a masterpiece and I loved how it showed characters who were actually human with all their flaws and their strengths. It was an engrossing ride even though the movie never leaves the school premises.

The polaroid camera has been un-used since my trip back to NZ and I started planning a mini polaroid exhibition to be displayed on unkreative website and possibly on Benji's website and put the idea forward to Benji & Lance and both of them are keen on it. So the idea is to shoot 10 polaroids each using my 600 camera and then put it up online. In a lot of ways it is an interesting experience because of the limitations of the camera. Let's see how this project shapes up over the coming month.

That's me for now.
Amit

What's good for you

2009-05-05T21:16:00.003+12:00

I was watching a program called 'What's Good for You' at work and here are some things I picked up during the program and thought I would share with everyone.

Spicy food doesn’t cause ulcers.
Vitamin D helps absorb calcium into the body.
Cook meat on hotplate instead of grill to avoid carcinogenic materials build up on the meat
50gms serving of Fries has 18 gms of fat; potato chips have 16 gms of fat & baked potato chips 4 gms of fat.
You should eat at least a couple of hours before you go to bed otherwise you miss out on deep sleep, which causes you to feel tired when you wake up the next day as your body hasn't repaired itself completely.
1-2 glasses of red wine is good for your heart but not for people suffering from enlarged heart, high blood pressure, family history of heart disease or alcohol abuse.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day but fatty breakfasts aren’t good for you as it causes weight gain. Porridge is an excellent breakfast food.
Pasta is low GI, so it doesn’t make you fat especially if you stick to tomato based sauces
Basmati rice is better than Jasmine rice because it has low GI.
Fish is good for you because they contain Omega-3 oils and one is recommended atleast 200 mg of Omega-3 oil a day in whatever form.

Watched a couple of movies recently - Wolverine {what a waste of time and money} & Youth Without Youth {slow, long, philosophical, poetic, confusing} and I have primarily been busy with 'the freedom project' - which is shaping up nicely and nothing more to share on that except that the workshops are an ongoing process and I am loving it.

I'm going to Wellington in a couple of weeks - just felt the need to get away from Auckland, so decided to spend a couple of days down there. I might shoot a scene for the freedom project there otherwise it will be a location reccee trip for the future projects as well.

Another 3 days and I come to the end of my long 7 day working week and can't wait for the weekend break.

That's me for now.

Till later,

Amit

4th Best

2009-04-29T22:04:00.003+12:00

Auckland is the 4th best city in the world in terms of quality of living. Don't believe it? Well here is an excerpt from an article from yesterday's NZ Herald.

New York, London and Paris don't hold a candle to Auckland and Wellington, according to a worldwide quality of living survey. The New Zealand cities ranked among the best in the Mercer 2009 Quality of Living survey, which covered 215 cities and was based on criteria including political, social, economic and environmental factors. Auckland jumped one place from last year to join Canada's Vancouver in fourth place, while Wellington stayed 12th on the list.

Austrian capital Vienna took the No 1 spot, knocking Switzerland's Zurich and Geneva into second and third respectively. Paris (France), Tokyo (Japan), London (England) and New York (United States) were in places 33, 35, 38 and 49 respectively. Baghdad, in war-torn Iraq, claimed last place.

So for everyone who thinks America or UK is the place to be - then eat this. :-) Personally - all I can say is that NZ is a costly place to live in and you don't earn as much as other places in the world but nothing can beat the lifestyle that it offers - especially if you are an active person. Each place has its positives and negatives and in the bigger scheme of things one has to decide if the positives of a place are what suits them. Am I glad that I made the choice to call NZ home? Hell yeah!!!

Till later,
Amit

Stainless Heart

2009-04-26T15:19:00.002+12:00

It's been a busy week and have another hectic week ahead. I watched a couple of movies at the World Cinema Showcase - Gomorrah & Rachel Getting Married. Both of them turned out to be interesting movies. Gomorrah was a real stunner though - it was a patient movie that slowly unravels the complexities of what's happening with the italian mafia. Rachel Getting Married had some fantastic acting especially from Anne Hathaway but it kind of looses steam 2/3rds into the movie and is probably 20 minutes too long for what it is.

After watching the movie last night I was walking back to my car when I heard this 2 piece band playing on Queen Street and it stuck in my mind that it would be cool to film them and use them in 'the freedom project'. I managed to get hold of Benji, came home picked up the camera and went back to Queen Street and talked to the band about what we wanted to do and they were keen, so we went ahead and filmed them performing a couple of songs and I plan to use that as a way of opening 'the freeodom project'.

I've had a couple more workshops for a few more scenes for the project with Toby, Delaney, Michelle and Simon. I also caught up with Ian to discuss complexities about one of the storylines that I want to explore which turned out to be very productive and all in all it has been a really good week for the freedom project.

That's me for now.

Till later,

Amit

Perception is Reality - Mostly

2009-04-20T09:24:00.002+12:00

‘Synechdoche, New York’ was a good film as the vision for it was grand and ambitious. The acting is top-notch and there is no weak performance to speak off in the entire movie and that in itself is a big achievement by the director. It does get a tad confusing towards the end but somehow it still makes sense. It is definitely worth a watch.

I spent the weekend doing nothing – after 2 long weeks I needed to recharge my batteries and I spent most of yesterday fighting off an onset of flu by sleeping through it and it seems to have worked. More workshops for ‘the freedom project’ are taking shape now and it will be a busy couple of weeks again.

That’s me for now.

Till later,

Amit

The First Scene

2009-04-17T22:04:00.006+12:00

Ok...so here is the first scene that we shot and edited for 'the freedom project'. This is a rough cut and it will obviously change when other scenes come into play and I re-edit parts of it in context of a feature film but it is still a solid base to start work from. The video hasn't been color-graded and the audio hasn't been touched - so it is basically footage from the day [it looks slightly dark because of the encoding process]. The music track used in the song is called 'Between the hit and the miss' by an Irish band called 'Cowboy X' - thanks to them for letting me use the track in this segment of the movie.

Here is the vid

Comments and feedback always welcome.

Cheers,
Amit

Avid

2009-04-13T12:28:00.003+12:00

I am back on an old version of Avid. I gave Sony Vegas 8 a good go but the workflow was driving me slightly insane. It took me a good 4 hours to cut 1 minute of the scene - which is atrociously slow. I guess I don't know all the keyboard shortcuts but the way to edit was driving me up the wall. The way Vegas works is pretty user friendly and I reckon it would be good if you are doing a simple edit or have lots of time to spend to learn the ins and outs of the system but it was definitely a non-starter for me.

I decided to give the old version of Avid a go again to see if it would recognize the video decks so I can digitize the footage and luckily for me it did. I've now ingested the footage into Avid and plan on editing the scene over the next couple of days. The performances are spot on and now it is now just a matter of finding the rhythm and tone for the scene.

After that it is onto the next set of scenes, workshops and planning.
That's me for now.
Amit

The Winter's Tale

2009-04-11T20:42:00.003+12:00

I just got back from seeing 'The Winter's Tale' at Aotea Centre - courtesy of Shuzhen. This wIt was an awesome experience as the seats were 2nd row from the front which is one of the best seats you can get in theatre - the farther away from the stage you are the lower the price of the tickets. Add to it the show itself was pretty good.

It's shakespeare so some of the dialogue is hard to catch at times but the performances from most of the cast made up for it. I especially liked the older actors as they brought so much gravitas to their roles and it was amazing looking at them even when they had no dialogue and off the younger actors Ethan Hawke was superb. Rebecca Hall was good but did not carry the same gravitas as the older actors but she is still stunning to look at. The production was awesome and everything done on-stage and behind the stage just enhanced the play. It was definitely one of the most lavish productions I've seen. All in all I was a happy chappy at the end of the play.

So this rounds up a long but exciting week of a world class movie premiere and a world class theatre play.

That's me for now.
Amit

Star Trek

2009-04-10T09:08:00.003+12:00

The premiere to 'Star Trek' was good. It was great seeing a proper red carpet event to a big budget hollywood movie happening in NZ. We were the 3rd place in the world to see the movie a month before it's release after Austin (Texas) and Sydney. 4 of the lead actors were there at the premiere but we only got to see them on the big screen as they were in the other auditorium (they had blocked out 6 cinema theatres on the same level for the premiere). Zachary Quinto looked like a cool guy and his sense of humor was awesome. John Cho and Chris Pine were equally funny while Karl Urban was as charming as ever. It felt like Karl was the one who pushed to make the NZ premiere happen and hats off to him if he did that.

The movie itself was very good - it was fun, adventurous, epic and they got the tone, balance just right. And the SFX and the scale of the movie were mindblowing. The acting was spot on and the only nitpick I had was there was one moment which was too convenient but otherwise it was almost perfect. I reckon it will definitely reignite the franchise when it gets released a month from now and hopefully we will get to see a couple more awesome movies from the same crew.

That's me for now.
Amit

Premiere

2009-04-09T00:02:00.002+12:00

It looks like it is a lucky week for me – I got my hands on a couple of passes to the premiere of ‘Star Trek’ taking place tomorrow and I am thrilled. I had entered 2 competitions and I was seriously considering buying a $55 charity ticket to the event when this morning I dropped in a mail to the good people at Flicks and asked them whatever happened to the lucky draw to the event. An hour later I got an email from Andrew saying that they had already drawn the winners and I wasn’t one of them BUT it so happened that one of the winners couldn’t attend the event, so they were happy to pass the tickets onto me because it just happened to the right timing when I asked them the question. Wohoooo….I could’ve asked anyone to the event but I went ahead and asked Benji if he wanted to attend the premiere with me – mainly because his girl friend is trying to arrange a free double pass for me to see ‘The Winter’s Tale’ – the second play in ‘The Bridge Project’ starring Ethan Hawke and Rebecca Hall amongst others and directed by Sam Mendes – in short another world class theatre event. It is a good way to repay the debt – no? And boy am I feeling lucky right now. :-)

I went and watched a Hong Kong film called ‘The Shinjuku Incident’ last night and it was a mixed bag – it was very good till the last 20 minutes before it descends into total nonsense and chaos and thus spoiling the solid story/acting/visuals that came before that. It was weird watching it with a primarily Asian audience – I reckon the theatre was 95% full with Asian people. I found it strange that at some points where the extremely shocking violence or tragedy elicited laughter from a sizeable chunk of the audience. Is it a natural defence mechanism that they need to laugh to negate the strong surge of extreme emotions or is it a difference between the spoken word and the translated sub-titles on the screen that a ‘foreigner’ won’t get? I don’t know but it was an interesting experience nonetheless.

That's me for now.
Later,
Amit

Musings of an Idiot

WH

Tweet

Freedom Update

Hiding

Sprocket Projection School

Who are you?

Terminator -the end

The Hangover

VO2 Max

Slow freedom

Postponed

2 Days in Wellington (on a budget)

Piha

Quantum Leap

Circles

Polaroid Online Exhibition

What's good for you

4th Best

Stainless Heart

Perception is Reality - Mostly

The First Scene

Avid

The Winter's Tale

Star Trek

Premiere