Musings of an Idiot

I'm not there

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Sun, 11 May 2008 09:49:00 +0000

It has been a nice weekend and it can be easily summed up in 2 words - biryani and tennis. I cooked Sindhi Chicken Biryani on Saturday and that basically took up a big chunk of the day - shopping for ingredients and the cooking. The result was delicious and now I have enough for 3 days. :-)

And today was tennis - Dan Grade and Fraser Ross, ex-classmates from South Seas days came over and we had a doubles tennis match. Lance & Me v/s Fraser& Dan - and we won the match 7-5; 3-6 ; 6-2. It was a hard fought victory especially considering that we were down 5-1 in the first set. All bones are still in place and nothing is broken or pulled at the end of the game, so I am happy. After the game all of us went and saw 'I'm Not There' and it was a good movie- fantastic acting and fantastic everything but it was half an hour too long.

So that was my weekend - pretty much. I did some other small stuff but those 2 things sum up my 2 recent days of life.

Thats me for now.
Amit

Rejection

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:34:00 +0000

The word "rejection" was first used in 1415. The original meaning was "to throw" or "to throw back". [Courtesy: Wikipedia ] On that note here is an interesting link about Rejection and also on ways to building resilience to rejection.

The work on REJECTED is progressing at a good pace for the past 2 weeks. Serena and me had a bit of a hiatus on the script through April as it was a busy time for both of us but the work has started back in earnest and now we are half way through the script. It has been an interesting process so far as we don't really know where the story is going - maybe a vague idea but no storylines set in concrete. And the way the script is shaping up has been a pleasent surprise as it is flowing well and at this point I can't see any flab in the story and both of us are making a conscious effort not to put in any filler material into the script. I have set the initial deadline of end of July to have the script ready and I am hoping that we will hit the deadline. Will keep you posted on it as work progresses.

The trailer for 'THE DARK KNIGHT' is fantastic. And after you have seen that check out the Jokerized version of the trailer here. This is going to be the movie for the american summer season (besides 'Tropic Thunder'). I saw 'Lars and the Real Girl' couple of nights back and it was a sweet little movie - it was probably a bit too long- maybe by 20 minutes odd - mainly because you kind of figure out what is going to happen. But it is still worth watching just to see Ryan Gosling's terrific performance as Lars.

Thats me for now.
Till later,
Amit

600

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:53:00 +0000

Well I forgot to mention it when I hit 500 posts, so I made it a point to give 600 it's due respect. 3.5 years and 599 posts later, which gives me an average of 171 posts a year, I am still blogging - that means I must be seriously insane. No one has asked me to shut it down or abused me for what I write, so I am presuming people like watching train wrecks in slow motion or they enjoy reading the banalities of the daily life of some complete stranger (this obviously doesn't apply to my family since I am not a stranger to them yet). Either way I will keep writing as long as I can.

The momentus occassion is also marked by the introduction of a new flatmate in our flat. His name is George - the unique thing about him is that he is a white tailed spider. Lance was the one who noticed him first and pointed it out last night. I asked him why he didn't kill him because they are not exactly harmless to which Lance's response was that the spider had a personality. I told him that I didn't care if it had a personality as it was a white tailed spider and that is when he told me that he had named it George. And also pointed out that I certainly couldn't kill it now since now the spider had a name to go along with his personality. I am still grumbling about it but I guess I can't kill George - we just have to wait for him to move out of the house of his own will.

That's me for now.
Till later,
Amit

2 Days in Paris

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Sun, 04 May 2008 09:43:00 +0000

I saw 2 Days in Paris today and it is a nice little quirky film. It was thoroughly entertaining and Julie Delpy really holds the movie together - as an actor as well as the director/editor. I also played badminton for the first time in 2 years and it was grueling but fun at the same time - I held up pretty good - no muscle pulls and no injuries except for a blister on my right palm which was the reason I lost the second set.

Thats me for now
Till later
Amit

Ironman

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:56:00 +0000

Well - it is the weekend again and I plan on doing some much needed housework and pending tasks. I still haven't replied to my emails but at this point I can't be bothered. It is one of those phases where I don't like answering anyone - I will get over it soon but for now I am enjoying the freedom of ignoring non-critical mail.

The cut for 'To'ona'i' was locked on Wednesday night and neither David nor me were hurt or injured during the process plus I didn't have to use the knives and forks on David. David won the overall contest of the number of changes suggested to number of changes agreed to and implemented by 11-9 but I don't mind losing this contest at all as the locked cut feels so much more fluid. I encoded the files and passed on the DVD's to Mr. Mamea - now most of my active 'hands on' part is done and it is upto the sound designer to make the short film cohesive by creating an immersive sound design.

I went and saw Iron Man yesterday and it was a nice experience. The movie has flaws but it works wonderfully well and is great escapist fare. The center of the movie is Robert Downey Jr, who really sells the movie to you and the supporting cast supports his well. And the thing I liked about Iron Man was that in one of the few action sequences in the movie Tony Stark goes ape shit while dealing with his enemies. You never see that kind of brutal assault from a super hero because they are supposed to be 'good'. Imminently watchable.

Time for my beauty sleep.
Ciao,
Amit

Awarded

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:33:00 +0000

Well - FIVE was chosen as the Best Feature by the judges at DeReel Independent Film Festival in Australia. And yeah I am thrilled beyond words.

Besides that - just mentally preparing myself for tomorrow when I sit down with David to lock down To'ona'i - the short film that he is making. I need to sharpen my knives and forks to combat his nanchucks - it will be one helluva wonderful event I swear. I will write an update if I come out as the survivor.

I have seen the first 4 episodes of Season-4 of Battlestar Galactica and it is thrilling as usual. Seeing the cylon civil war was awesome - they seem to be laying parallels with humanity but I am finding it hard to imagine as to how they will wrap up the story.

Anyway time to hit the sack.
Till later,
Amit

P.S - the new DARK KNIGHT trailer rocks..it rocks real hard.

Back

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 11:20:00 +0000

It has been a week and a bit since I last posted. The last week flew away in various things and I wasn't in the best frame of mind and body to write an update. I put my upper back out while sneezing and that took me a good 4 days to recover from that (it looks like I am 30 going on 80). And how do you manage to do such a thing like that? I don't know - I just somehow managed to do it. And now I am back to the usual story of having to check my backlog of unanswered emails and things to do.

Last week was also eventful in terms of tax returns. I thought I had paid all my taxes but my accountant thought differently as he clubbed together my earnings as a freelancer and my earnings after I joined my current job, together - which meant that I ended up in a situation of having to pay more taxes, which I wasn't happy about at all. The logic didn't make any sense to me and I followed it up with IRD and they advised me the opposite, so hoping to sort this stuff out with the accountant soon.

My new favorite dish is Keema Curry that I have been cooking for the past 2 weeks now. I am using Shan Spice mix which takes care of all the spices for the dish and the result is mouth-wateringly good. I cooked the same for the pot luck dinner that happened at Rachel's new place, where I went for the house warming party. It was very well received by those who could tolerate the hotness of it {read: green chilli tolerance levels :-) } . Talking of food - I went to Kathryn's {well known screen writer and also ex-colleague from South Seas teaching days} birthday dinner at Papa's Pizza yesterday and their 'New Zealand Venison Ravioli' was divine. If you get a chance do check out that joint - it is a cozy little place and well worth the visit for that dish alone - I wasn't sold on their pizzas though.

I watched a couple of movies on DVD and they were alright - 'Justice League: Final Frontier' {nice tone} and 'Alpha Dog' {brilliant acting}.What I am really waiting for is the Hollywood summer season to kick off - the movie that I am really waiting for is 'The Dark Knight' - the latest poster has some real balls.

That's me for now.
Till later,
Amit

Out Stealing Horses

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:17:00 +0000

The book 'Out Stealing Horses' by Per Petterson has been a magical read. It is so lyrical but heart breaking at the same time. The narrative flows like a river and melts your heart and soul with it's simplicity which offers profound insight into the human condition. It is a highly recommended read and it is rare for translations to be as good as this one. The ending breaks your heart and you can judge it by the last line of the book which says 'we do decide for ourselves when it will hurt.'

David and Christina came over last night to pick up the DVD and watched the tweaked cut and I am still alive, so needless to say the cut is almost there - a couple more minor changes and the cut is ready to be locked. Now I get a couple of weeks break from the short film post before David sorts out background stuff and then we will have a couple more days in post for locking the cut down. Now it is time to concentrate on the music video and try and get that organized, so I am still able to finish it within the next couple of months. At this point - I need to test out the post workflow for the music video as it is going to involve a small amount of 2-D animation as well.

Well that's me for now.
Till later,
Amit

The Vancouver Film School/YouTube Scholarship Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:04:00 +0000

They are not paying me to put this up or anything but I thought I would post it here as it is a good opportunity.

The Vancouver Film School/YouTube Scholarship Challenge

YouTube and Vancouver Film School have partnered to create an international competition to make film school accessible to everyone. The challenge? Create a short film, animation or pitch addressing the theme "what matters to you." The prize? Three scholarships to any of Vancouver Film School's 14 outstanding educational programs, including Film Production, 3D Animation & Visual Effects, Acting Essentials and more.Submissions close at 11:59PM EST on May 9th, 2008. For more information, visit www.youtube.com/vancouverfilmschool.

Cheers
Amit

Further developments

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:46:00 +0000

The past 2 days have been super busy and I desperately waiting for the weekend. I was supposed to go for an audition on monday evening right after my acting lessons and because the character I was auditioning for was supposed to speak in an american accent I scurried around for an accent coach and I got in touch with John Dybvig, after recommendation from Mike [my acting teacher]. The time was fixed for Monday late afternoon -straight after work and I was excited. Then early on Monday morning the audition got cancelled but I still decided to go through with the accent coaching as it is something that I had been meaning to do for a long time. So I went over to John's place for my lesson straight after work. The class was extremely helpful and I intend to keep at it, so that I have an additional skill set if need be. After the lessons I drove over to my acting lessons in the evening and then came back home and cooked some Keema Curry to wind down after a long day. By the time I hit bed I was dead tired. A 16 hour day in total.

Yesterday was no less busy as I went home straight after work and started working on To'ona'i. I started implementing the changes that I had discussed with David and I got into the flow of things pretty quick. Editing is not about cutting - it is about intuition and working from the heart rather than from the mind. Anyone can cut but not everyone can make a story flow - it is a craft (like writing or acting or any other creative art form), which you just develop as you gain more and more experience. I made some interesting discoveries about length and the time of a cut, that I am pretty pleased about.

Funnily enough I lost track of time and missed my physio appointment and ran really close to the line with my salsa lessons. The lesson was interesting in the sense that there were more girls than guys at the class - which was a problem as you can only dance salsa in pairs and the steps for girls is different from that for the guys and the fact that guys are the ones who have to lead the dance. It was a good workout, especially after the 2 private classes I took before this group class. A lot of what the salsa teacher taught in the private lesson started to make sense including the observation that kiwi girls are really hard to dance salsa with [not all of them obviously but most of them] and the guy has to work extra hard to make them work to the signals. Kiwi girls forget that in the dance it is the guy who leads and they just have to follow the signals and they try and control the dance. Typical!

Anyway after the salsa lesson, I came back home and went about authoring a DVD for Mr. Mamea and I didn't finish it till 12.30 at night. And by the time the DVD authoring was done and I had tested the DVD on a couple of machines I was on auto-pilot mode and was glad when I finally hit the bed. With post production schedules I hate running close to the line and I always like to keep aside contingency days just incase shit hits the fan - luckily in this case it did not and everything went to plan. So I did have a good sleep knowing that I had done my bit even though it was a 17 hour day and it was my 4th day of doing 15+ hours a day. So yeah I am eagerly looking forward to the weekend but that's not before I hand over the DVD to Mr. Mamea tonight and discuss further post production action on the short film.

Till later,
Amit

To'ona'i Rough Cut

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:19:00 +0000

The weekend disappeared into post production for To'ona'i and I have just come out for a breather now. Mr. Mamea brought over his short film on Friday evening and we had the viewing of the rough cut he had done and after discussing the guidelines on how much liberty I had [ruling out any Michael Bay style fast cuts or David Lynch style mind games], I went about tightening the short film.

It took me an hour on saturday morning to get used to Final Cut Pro, which is what I was editing on [I usually edit on Avid] and then some more time to come to grips with the material in front of me. Once I had taken everything in, the next couple of days went away in a breeze as I was constantly finding ways to economize the story telling without losing the core of the story and also developing a more solid story rhythm and pacing.

I was pretty pleased when David viewed the movie again last night and did not have a heart attack and neither did he kill me for chopping off about 2 minutes off the running time of the short film. There are a couple of minor visual tweaks to sort out but the refined rough cut as it stands is looking pretty good and is flowing nicely. Sound post on it will be a challenge and my sympathies are already with the guy who will be doing it as it will be a massive mission to clean up the audio - which because of the nature of the short and the shoot wouldn't exactly have been easy to record in the first place. The rest of this week will be going into implementing those tweaks and also authoring DVD, so the David can do what he needs to do with them before the project moves into it's final cut stages.

There are other commitments to fulfill this week and I am sure I will somehow manage them as well.

Till later,
Amit

Long long day

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:44:00 +0000

Feeling a tiny bit tired after the long 17 hour day yesterday and it is going to be another long one today. Yesterday - we had the TVNZ Regatta straight after work and it was fun. There were a couple of moments where you actually had to work but overall I did feel a bit useless as all you do is sit on one part of the boat to balance it out. The good thing was we had a relaxed and experienced skipper and first mate and fun team mates, so it was well worth the experience.

Arrghhhh...Which boat shall we steal?

The hippy pirate - John

Even pirates need to look good - Jo and Lauren

The real psychedelic pirate - Bruce

I wanna sink that boat

Sulky pirate John (after loosing their pirate hat)

On this boat the first mate does all the work

The skipper assessing wind conditions

The race in progress

The final stretch of the race

Docks at twilight

Straight after the race - I raced off to watch my good friend and acting classmate- Claire's play 'Dead Meat' which she wrote and directed and it was great. I also got to meet a lot of new people within the acting community. It was put up as part of Smack Bang Theatre which is supporting new and innovative New Zealand theatre and writers. And after the play went to a farewell drinks party for Dave - another acting friend and ex-classmate. And again it was a pleasant surprise catching up with a lot of people including old film school classmates.

So all in all it was a really long day and today is going to be no different - not as much with social commitments but with work.

Till later,
Amit

Disappear

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:58:00 +0000

I am just watching my life disappear in front of me.

Nothing makes sense and I can't do anything about it.

Amit

Weekend!!!!!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 07:55:00 +0000

I had a weekend off and it was really nice as I did nothing - I recovered from the weird week that was last week and basically slept through most of it in between doing some writing for 'Rejected'. It is going to be a busy few weeks with the impending post on 'To'onai' from later this week combined with a lot of smaller commitments during the week and ongoing projects.

I have also slowly started getting back into running as part of my conditioning program for my hamstring recovery. It was definitely really hard to start off with but I am slowly getting into the rhythm and it feels good. Another 2 weeks and my hamstring will be completely healed (fingers crossed).

One of my newer ongoing projects is learning how to speak Spanish. I don't know why I wanted to learn a new language but I felt that I had to and the only language that came to mind was spanish. I wanted to learn it at a language school but that would have meant trying to co-ordinate and block out times in my schedule, which would have made life a little more inflexible, so I searched online for some good self-learning spanish language programs and found one that I liked. I went ahead and bought it and now am learning espanol in my own time. :-)

It feels great getting my weekends back and also at all the progress of all the current projects {atleast the ones that I am actively pursuing}.

That's me for now.
Amit

Out Stealing Horses

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:02:00 +0000

I am reading this awesome book titled 'Out Stealing Horses' and there was this paragraph which nearly ripped open my heart with it's simplicity and insight. I had to stop reading the book so that I could just let the paragraph sink in.

'People like it when you tell them things, in suitable portions, in a modest, intimate tone, and they think they know you, but they do not, they know about you, for what they are let in on are facts, not feelings, not what your opinion is about anything at all, not how what what has happened to you and how all the decisions you have made have turned you into who you are. What they do is they fill in with their own feelings and pinions and assumptions, and they compose a new life which has precious little to do with yours, and that lets you off the hook. No-one can touch you unless you yourself want them to. You only have to be polite and smile and keep paranoid thoughts at bay, because they will talk about you no matter how much you squirm, it is inevitable, and you would do the same thing yourself.'

That's me for now.
Amit

Brief Update

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:58:00 +0000

It feels like ages since the last time I updated on here. There hasn't been anything significant happening at this end. I spent the day at home as I wasn't feeling well at all but I am definitely feeling better now.

The work on REJECTED is happening slowly but surely and it is turning out to be a fun process , writing in collaboration and having fun with the characters. Talking of collaboration - I dropped out of the short film that I was writing as it didn't make sense to divert my energies to writing something in an art form that I am not focussed on in the long term. As far as the music video is concerned - I have a concept but now I am racking my head about implementation and achieve what I want to see on screen. The self-imposed deadline for the music video release is end of May, so hopefully I will be able to achieve that.

Besides all of this - I am helping the inscrutable Mr. Mamea finish his short film and I am involved in the post production side of things as a consultant/supervising editor/post production dictator. Just had a meeting this evening and things are looking good with the workflow and I set some deadlines which will surely make life interesting for Mr. Mamea as he slaves away wondering about the meaning of the word 'freedom' and then we will re-assess the situation. Muhahahaaaa {evil laugh}.

That's me for now.
Amit

CSS with Glass Candy

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:27:00 +0000

I am still half deaf and my ears are still ringing after the awesome outing yesterday night and it was so much fun. I went to the gig with Sara (Lance's girlfriend) and Angela (my TVNZ colleague) and we first met up for dinner at Sri Pinang - the awesome malaysian eating joint on K'Road. The food was great as always but it did take a little while longer to come out this time around. I think the reason for the delay was the 2 tables right beside ours which had american tourists and an american film crew respectively, who ordered huge amounts of food. The wait was agonizing but it was worth the wait as the food was so yummy when it finally arrived. After the scrumptious meal, we walked to King's Arms where the gig was being held. I was worried that we would miss start of the gig as we got there around 8.45PM but as it turned out we were early and the cover band wasn't due to play till 9.15PM.

I had never heard of the cover band before. They were called Glass Candy and their music was great - it was a mixture of a lot of beats, synths, vocals and more. It definitely gets your body moving. It was a double bonus to be told by the singer that it was their first gig overseas and that they had gotten their passports only 4 days prior to this gig. The place that we were standing was right next to a massive speaker and you could feel the beats move your body without any voluntary effort from your end. It was great though as it was right up near the stage and you could see what was happening on the stage. To read what they are all about you can check out this article.

The three of us standing right next to the speakers

Glass Candy

The madness

By the time Glass Candy ended their play it was sweltering hot inside the pub and we had to walk out into the garden for a bit to get some fresh air. It took about half an hour for the technical crew to setup the equipment for the main gig but I was back in again within 5 minutes as the pub was filling up fast for the main gig. And when CSS came out the pub was packed to the brim. The band was missing one of their players but he joined the stage towards the end. The band blew the roof off the pub- not literally, but in the way they belted out their numbers. It had the whole dance floor shaking and moving. Angela decided to go to the back of the pub where there weren't as many people while Sara was in the front for the first couple of songs and then moved to the back of the dance floor while I stuck it out in the front.

Lovefoxxx taking the stage

CSS

Girl Power - Adriano is missing in action

Luiza reaches out for the audience

Lovefoxxx belting out another track

The dance floor

By the end of the night, everyone was wanting more from the band and I reckon that it is always a good sign when the audience had a good time and still want more. The gig was worth it - 2 international bands playing in a nice cozy club in Auckland - what more can you ask for. And it was probably the most physical exercise I had ever done in a couple of months time. So I guess I don't mind the ringing in my ears for the next couple of days.

3 of us at the end of the gig - you can see my sweat drenched t-shirt

Walk back to catch a cab home

Thats me for now.
Amit

Marvels

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 07:17:00 +0000

I cooked myself some Lahori Fish and it was really really yummy. The fish I used was Orange Roughy - which is delicious in itself and it was the perfect choice for the dish. It has been ages since I have tasted proper fish kebabs and the instant batter that I used to cook the fish was so good that my mouth is still watering thinking about the dish. Next on my 'to try' list is Tikiya Kebab. I have the batter mix packet - just have to try it out sometime this week. Yummmmmm......

I finished reading 'Marvels' and 'Kingdom Come' illustrated by Alex Ross and they were both alright. The artwork in both the books is stunning but the story on the other hand has similar themes in both the comics - even though they belong to different comic book universes. Both of them were critically acclaimed graphic novels when they were released but I don't think they hold up today as the stories didn't really tell anything unique.

I also finished watching season-9 of Seinfeld as I had never ever seen it and I still think it is one of the best TV shows ever. It is still as irrelevant and as funny as it was when it first screened. Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David are comic geniuses unlike any others.

Signing off for now,
Amit

Black Hole

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 21:54:00 +0000

Black Hole is a surprisingly depressing book all through the story with the only glimmer of hope appearing towards the end of the book. I picked up the book based on the fact that David Fincher is making it into a movie and it definitely piqued my interest. The book has stunning art work and it is all beautifully rendered in black and white. It is high school life in the 70's that heightens the sense of dread and alienation and inevitability. It is a good read but depressing nonetheless. I am currently reading 'Out Stealing Horses' and it is a lovely book. It has sucked me right into the story from page one. Let's see how it shapes out.

Finance markets all over the world seem to be in a tumble and more so in New Zealand where the NZ Dollar is fluctuating at a all time high against the US Dollar. It is a mixed blessing as it is keeping the petrol prices in check for now but at the same time hurting the exporters. What this has also meant is that anyone who owns a house through mortgage [which would be about 90% of the NZ house owners] is starting to feel the hurt because of the high interest rates offered by Banks because of Reserve Bank regulations and also rising prices of essential commodities. Now it takes about 75% of the take home pay to keep servicing the mortgage prices, which is not ideal at all plus defaulting on the mortgage would mean a mortgagee sale of the house - which is terrible. The housing market has slowed down and hopefully the house prices will go down over the next 5 years to bring some sanity to the current housing market in NZ. On the other hand it is probably a good point to invest in the stock markets - the share prices are falling and it is a risk worth taking - if you pick the right portfolio then you will reap a good profit in 5 years time. Higher risk = Higher profits or Higher losses - all a matter of timing, judgement and luck. Just realized that it was a pretty random rant from me about finance.

Time to sign off,
Amit

Drillbit

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:25:00 +0000

Even the dogs use the zebra crossing in Auckland. It is true. I was driving back home after catching a night screening of 'Drillbit Taylor' and I was stunned into disbelief when I saw a dog crossing an empty stretch of road using the pedestrian crossing. I mean the dog could have crossed the street anywhere it wanted - especially since it is not bound by human laws and add to it the fact that there was no traffic whatsoever, but it chose to do the right thing and use the crossing. I am not an animalist or anything but if that dog could speak, I would have put the question forward: WHY? I really want to know.

The movie itself was a fun movie - it is a typical high school bully movie but there are a lot of elements that work for it, especially the acting from all the players involved. Despite the predictable plot elements it is still fun to watch.

And a combination of today's randomness and movie stuff is that I won a double pass and a t-shirt and a water bottle for 'Run Fatboy Run' :-) I love winning freebies.

Till later,
Amit

Music

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:25:00 +0000

I am super excited as I managed to get my paws on the tickets to the CSS gig happening at King's Arms next week. When I gave the ticketing company a ring this morning I found that the Wednesday tickets had sold out and Tuesday ones were selling out fast, so I am pretty happy that I managed to get the tuesday ones as that's the one I had originally planned to attend.

In other exciting news, I will be making a music video for an indie experimental band called Sora Shima. They are based in Hamilton and are doing some lovely stuff. I loved one of their tracks so much that I got talking to Jason, one of the band members and I put the idea forward about having a crack at making a music video. They agreed to let me have a go at making a video for 'Hovercraft' - a 1.15 minute track. It will be a couple of months before the music video is ready as I am trying to put some really visual impact into the 1.15 minutes. I think it will be a good one if the idea get translated successfully from page to screen. I can't wait to get cracking on this one.

That's me for now.
Amit

Behind the Mask

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:29:00 +0000

Movies filmed as mocumentary don't work for most attempts because of the nature of what they are but it somehow works brilliantly for 'Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon' and the movie works well as a good slasher film as well. The lead actor is a compelling watch and really sells the idea that he is going to become the next horror legend. It is definitely a good watch if you are into horror flicks and have been disillusioned by the predictability of most horror flicks. This flick is innovative and will definitely keep you entertained.

Whats happening in terms of projects at my end? Well 'Ghost Scream' is still in script development and the next draft looks like it will take some time to take shape. I am still waiting to see the first draft of 'Trollied' - which will come in sometime within the next 2 months. And in the meantime I have started work on 'Rejected' - a script I am developing with Serena, one of my acting classmates. And I am also developing a short film script with another acting classmate but that's not something that I will be directing or taking part in production - mainly because it is a short film. I might be helping out with post production on a short film but can only confirm it when I know for sure. So a quiet but busy time - if that makes any sense.

Here is the first scene from REJECTED - please don't read if you are easily offended by foul language.

I/E. HOUSE - EVENING
There is a knock at the door and it opens to reveal a girl ANNE (24) standing there.

FRANK
What do you want? I thought you didn’t want to talk to me anymore

ANNE
I can’t find my keys. I must’ve left them here

FRANK
I didn’t see them

ANNE
I am sure I left them here

Anne walks into the house.

INT. BEDROOM - EVENING

FRANK
Anne - we can get out the dvd as you wanted to and then -

ANNE
I don’t want to talk about it Frank

FRANK
Come on Anne, what are you so pissed off about? What do you want?

Frank drops the keys from his hand and pushes them under the bed.

ANNE
Love

FRANK
What?

ANNE
I said I want love

FRANK
What ‘bout me?

ANNE
What about you?

FRANK
I love you

ANNE
Shut up frank

FRANK
Don’t you love me?

ANNE
Not anymore

FRANK
Not anymore? What’s that supposed to mean? (pause) Since when?

ANNE
Since the day after we met

FRANK
Since the day after we met?

ANNE
Frank you aren’t deaf. So stop behaving like a fucking retard and stop repeating everything I say

FRANK
Did you ever?

ANNE
I don’t know. (finds the keys) Goodbye frank

FRANK
I am not a retard

ANNE
It was a figure of speech Frank

FRANK
So you think because you are doing your PhD and all, you are all smart and shit. Let me tell you something - you don’t know what love means. You don’t know me and you’ll never know -

ANNE
Of course I don’t know you -we’ve been seeing each other for four days for fuck sake. Just because you think you are good in bed and all doesn’t -

FRANK
I am?

ANNE
The point, Frank, is that I don’t think it will work out between us. I am sorry. Oh and please don’t bother calling me. I won’t pick up the call.

FRANK
Not even if I ask Kenneth to ring you?

Anne leaves the house and closes the door behind her.

FRANK
Bitch! (pause) I am good in bed. Yeah! I am good

Till later,
Amit

Pitstop Dunedin

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:05:00 +0000

The strangest of things that took place on the morning of departure from Alexandra was that we traveled by the same bus driven by the same driver who drove us from Queenstown to Alexandra. So not much chance of any good photos but managed to sneak another couple of decent ones through the journey. It was an overcast day and it did rain for a bit as well but still the fact remains that Central Otago has stunning landscapes.

Overcast skies

Fading Reality

Driving through the small towns was weird because they were pretty small but each of them seemed to have atleast 3-4 churches. We stopped over in one of those towns for some breakfast and we talked to a Canadian couple who were travelling through New Zealand. Lance was supposed to pick a table to sit and as I finished placing my order I looked over and saw him sitting with the Canadian couple. I would have rather preferred if he had sat down with the cute girl who was sitting all on her own but it was not to be. He later explained to me that the couple had asked him to join them and that's the reason why he was sitting with them. Anyway it was interesting chatting to the couple as they were creatives as well with the husband coming to New Zealand and reconnecting with his ancestry who had originated from here 3 generations ago. It is a small world and it never ceases to amaze me how connected we all are - even when it is not really that obvious.

The rest of the bus journey was uneventful and the only minor event was being returned my sunglasses by a hot french chick. That was the day when I kept leaving my sunglasses behind everywhere - 4 times it happened and 4 times they came back to me - it just proved that we were meant to be together - my sunglasses and me. :-)

Feeling melancholic

Sheep - the real inhabitants of New Zealand

In Dunedin we stayed at Central Backpackers and it was a great place. The atmos was great and the rooms were clean and tidy and it had a homely feel to it even though it was a backpackers hostel. I would highly recommend it if you are traveling to Dunedin.

We sorted our shuttle service to the airport for the next day morning and then explored the city on foot. I loved the buildings in Dunedin - they have a very classical feel to them and you have some really cool back alleys that open into amazing looking buildings. An example of the buildings in Dunedin is the church below

Marvellous

After roaming about the city for a while Lance and me decided to have a couple of drinks at Craft Bar and luckily there was a live band playing in the pub and it was a great experience. I had the loudest hiccup in a while and it over rode every other sound in the pub for a moment. The bar tender was amused and offered me a shot of raspberry syrup. I was apprehensive about that cure and I just wanted some water but she asked me to trust her and strangely enough the hiccups disappeared as soon as I had that shot of Raspberry syrup. Oh and the lightly battered oysters that had come in that morning from Bluff were amazing - it was the first time I had oysters and that was one of the finest seafoods I have eaten.

Lance after a couple of drinks

A couple of pints + a live band = good times

After a few drinks we went back to the backpackers. I stayed back as the wind had picked up and it was freezing cold outside but Lance went for a walk to explore the city some more. After sometime in the room I decided to watch whatever was on T.V in the lounge. There was a whole bunch of people watching 'Grey's Anatomy' and I joined them. By the time Lance came back - the couple of guys who were in the room got bored and left, so it was really amusing seeing his expression when he came into the room to find that I was the only guy sitting amongst 10 girls watching T.V.

Lance bumped into a childhood schoolmate on the morning of the flight. She was having an exhibition of her photography in Dunedin. Again as I said - it is a small world really. The ride to Dunedin airport was long and it felt like the shuttle was driving us to a different town to catch the flight. I presumed that the flight was a direct flight between Dunedin and Auckland as the tickets didn't mention any stop over. But as luck would have it there was a stop over in Wellington - which annoyed Lance as he was supposed to go down to Wellington later that evening for his current camera job. If I had known earlier that it was a connecting flight then he could have just gotten off at Wellington but it was too late for that, so he grudgingly got onto the flight knowing that he would land in Wellington then fly to Auckland and then fly back to Wellington later that evening . Besides the constant jabs at me for the oversight by Lance the flight was pretty uneventful. Oh no - I almost forgot to mention the quiz about New Zealand that was playing on the flight - being competitive as we are, Lance and me started competing on that and funnily enough I won the contest even though I barely know anything about N.Z history. It annoyed Lance to no end but it was so satisfying for me. :-)

At Dunedin airport reluctantly ready to fly out

Lance's folks were kind enough to drop us off at the airport when we left Auckland and they came and picked us up when we returned back home. The first thing that hit me about Auckland was that it was pretty humid compared to the weather that I had seen in South Island. The good thing though that it was a nice sunny day, so returning home wasn't as painful. Tina - Lance's mom, cooked us an amazing lunch of fried fish that they had caught themselves a couple of days back. It was so yummy that my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Tina cooking us some fish

A view from Tina and Chris' lounge

After the quick meal - it was back home for a quick shower. The shower was so refreshing after having skipped taking a shower for 2 days in a row. :-) After that it was off to my acting lessons, which ended the wonderful 5 days of time away from Auckland.

Acting classmates sitting/standing outside the class

So thats the last of the blog entry in relation to the South Island trip {I will probably do a new entry with a few pics from Rachel's wedding once Lance comes back}. I will definitely take a longer trip there sometime in the future - maybe backpack my way through - who knows?

Till later,
Amit

Farewell Queenstown, Hello Alexandra

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:16:00 +0000

The early morning starts are always a killer and I definitely was sad leaving Queenstown. Lance and me walked to the bus stop and somewhere inbetween I lost the bus tickets. They were sitting in my back pocket, so they must have fallen off when I shifted the weight of the bags around, so I ran back about 50 meters from the bus stop and sure enough they were lying on the footpath.

I'll be back

Lance carrying all his stuff

The bus journey was good and bad at the same time. Good because the central otago scenery was stunning and the landscapes are a marvel; bad because I couldn't take very many photographs as the bus was swaying from side to side through the entire journey. I did manage to get a couple of them.

Pristine Landscape

Lance pondering about the meaning of life

The trip was pretty uneventful and as we got down from the bus we realized that we did not know where the backpackers was in relation to where we were. Lance asked a couple of guys but they didn't seem to know the location either and just then a lady yelled from about 10 feet away, telling us where it was. We were pretty amazed - first because the backpackers was just around the corner and second because the lady who gave us the directions had pretty amazing hearing capabilities.

Since we had about 4 hours before the wedding, Lance thought that it was a good idea to check out the church and then also check out the place where the reception was taking place as he was going to film it. On the way to the church Lance pointed to a guy sitting in a local cafe and said 'That's Frank Bunce', since I didn't know who that was I asked him 'Who is Frank Bunce?'and because the air was so quiet and the group at the cafe was sitting next to the footpath - my words would obviously have traveled through to them. Lance was shaking his head in disbelief at me that I would say such a thing like that. After we got a little distance away from the cafe he told me that Frank Bunce was a famous All Black - back in the day. I am ignorant about NZ Rugby and rugby legends, so I told Lance that it didn't really mean anything to me.

The church was easy to find and after a quick look we decided to walk to the reception area based on a street map on the public board. After walking for about 30 minutes odd it felt like we were going nowhere and the heat in Alexandra was searing. Lance was teasing me about wearing an icebreaker in such hot weather - the double catch was that if I removed my ice breaker and tied it around my shoulders he would start calling me 'preppy boy' - a term he gave to me in Queenstown when he saw me tie my ice breaker around my shoulder. So the long and short of it was that the heat was really getting to me. Then Lance had the brilliant idea to ask a couple of locals about how far the place really was and the guys told us that it was a good 6 KM walk. On hearing that we promptly started walking back to the backpackers. But as we were walking back Lance realized that the guy sitting at the cafe was not Frank but it was another All Black legend called Chuck. On hearing this I cracked up laughing as the joke was on him - that he didn't recognize the person properly and based on my initial question 'Who is Frank Bunce?', Chuck would probably be thinking a couple of choice things about Lance's recognition skills.

Alexandra is a small town and even though it is very quite I can't imagine ever being able to live there for a long time - more so because it reminded me of Rohtak - the small town where I studied my business degrees. I mean it is way more beautiful than Rohtak but the vibe was kind of similar. We didn't really explore the town that much more as it was really hot and considering that it had already been a long day and we still had the wedding and the reception to attend - taking a small nap before the wedding proved to be an excellent idea.

We got to the wedding early and the church itself was a beauty - it had a nice cozy feel to it. The wedding was nice as well and Rachel looked stunning in her bridal gown. I don't have any photographs of the actual ceremony itself but I will post some pics up once Lance comes back to Auckland from his current camera job.

Lance walking down the aisle with his tripod :-)

St. Enoch's Church in Alexandra

Tayne and Rachel being congratulated after the wedding ceremony

After the wedding the big challenge was to get a ride to the reception and by turn of events we got a ride with Peter - the preacher who conducted the marriage ceremony and Marilyn - his wife. Peter is a really funny guy and add Scottish accent to it and it is fascinating listening to him. Anyway the reception was great and the guest had to find their way to the center of the maze and once you got there you had refreshments and stuff. Lance got some amazing stuff of people trying to get to the location. After enjoying the lovely weather, the actual reception ceremony began and I am still surprised at how short the wedding ceremonies over here usually are and how the receptions are longer affairs unlike India where both the ceremonies are pretty long drawn affairs - more so in South Indian than in North India.

Refreshments in the center of the maze

I love this pic - the kids in the picture will love this pic when they grow up. :-)

Rachel and Tayne

Dancing and festivities

The lovely couple

The food was great, the festivities were roaring and we finished the night by catching a lift back with Peter and Marilyn back to the backpackers at almost 1.30 or 2.00 in the morning. In a way it is good that I decided to attend the wedding otherwise I would not only have missed a good occasion but would probably procrastinated for another couple of years before visiting South Island.

That's the lot for now - stay tuned for Dunedin.
Amit

Queenstown Day - 2

noreply@blogger.com (Amit) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 05:59:00 +0000

I woke up on friday morning having had a nightmare about getting diabetes. This was after Tania, Andrew and Lance hassled me on thursday evening about having a sweet tooth - they discussed cases where a person went blind because of diabetes. The whole thing no doubt had a massive impact on my small mind - enough to have nightmares about it. Lance's mission was to shoot a time lapse of sunrise over the mountains and with that in mind we went to the spot from where you got a great view of the horizon. This was 7.00 in the morning and needless to say it was pretty cold. The point we picked was not sheltered by anything from any side, so we were basically freezing our balls.

Lance with a time lapse setup

I am skeptical about the sunrise because of the overcast sky

Lance is worried as well

The sun almost came up and I got a couple of beautiful shots but within 10 minutes the clouds came over and enveloped the horizon and the sun was hidden from view for the rest of the time that we were there.

Sunrise shot

Another second sunrise shot

Because Lance had changed an existing time lapse shot to capture the beautiful sunrise in time lapse but ended up loosing that shot because the sun didn't come out, he decided to setup a different time lapse shot to make up for it. The thing with time lapses are that they take ages to film and require a lot of patience - on a 3 second setting you end up recording 20 frames every minute, so to get a decent length time lapse we are taking atleast a 30 minute shot. Well the wind was blowing so hard and it was biting cold wind that my patience flew away with it - I only hung around because the scenery was so beautiful that there was no where else I would have wanted to be {besides my warm bed}. Lance made an important discovery - if you lie on the ground you don't feel the wind at all. We lay there for a few minutes to regain circulation but had to stand back up once joggers and walkers started doing their morning rounds. It not only looked weird but it looked like we were homeless tramps.

Lance makes a discovery about keeping an ear to the ground

Well funny enough - after standing in the freezing wind for almost an hour and a half the brain started going cuckoo and the only way we could entertain ourselves was to make silly faces. Here are a few of them.

I understand you perfectly

Mushroom head

Freaks and Geeks

So after almost 2 hours in the freezing wind we called it a day for shooting time lapses and went and got some hot coffee. It was so nice getting something warm going into the body but I didn't really feel alive till the point I took a nice hot shower.

After the body came back to life we went about sorting out our bus tickets for the trip to Alexandra and then onwards to Dunedin. I also decided to exorcise my 'sugar demons' and went to 'Remarkables Sweet Shop' - it is definitely a kids dream come true. Racks and racks of different kind of sweets and lollies and what not - how cool is that. Spent a good half an hour browsing through the various kinds of sweets before I bought a bag of them.

Lance ordering some lollies

Yummmmmmm... Choclates - lots of them...

There is this pizza place called 'SLICE' in central city and you've got to try out their pizza if you are there - it was really really delicious. After the late lunch, both of us roamed about the city doing window shopping and also did some actual shopping for gifts. The thing I loved most about Queenstown was the girls - there are so many of them and all of them are beautiful, coming from different parts of the world. The eyes never got tired looking at the beauty all around. It almost makes me want to settle down in Queenstown but the only problem is that there is not much film or TV work there to make a living. Yeah 'Wolverine' is shooting there at the moment but an occasional movie once every few years can't justify the move.

Tania and Andrew let us borrow their car, so that we could drive around the different locations, which you can't get to by walking. After the shopping Tania suggested that we give disc golf a go at the local course - I was intrigued and Lance was keen, so we managed to track down a map of the course and went about giving it a go. The game is really simple but it was so much fun. It is like golf but instead of the clubs and the ball you have a Frisbee disc and instead of a hole you either have to aim at the tree or pass between the trees or get your disc into the metal basket. The course at Queenstown gardens was a 18 hole course and I was almost certainly loosing the game before I managed to recover and draw the game on the last hole.

Lance about to have a throw

Lance pulled his right arm during the first game and said that he would only be up for playing 8 holes the second time round before calling it a day. As we got to the 2nd hole we heard a guy yelling at us asking us if he could join us - we happily agreed and as we finished the first hole with him he told us that he was one of the guys who designed this disc golf course. Chris Davies is his name and through the duration of the course he told us lots of tips on how to attack the course. What are the chances of something like that happening? What was also surprising playing with a pro was that he had this bag full of discs and each of them was of a different weight for different kinds of situations. It would take us 4-5 shots to get to the same place that Chris would do in one or two throws. We felt really lucky and Lance did finish the whole 18 holes and he won.

Chris Davies aiming for the hole.

After disc golf Lance drove us to a look out point on the Remarkables mountain range. The mountains are pretty awesome and it just takes your breath away. The only people we met through the drive up the mountain was a bull and once we got to the look out point - which is probably about half way up the mountain, I felt one with myself. It is amazing when you get that feeling.

Lance driving - that's how he drives. :-)

I am looking at the road while Lance looks at the camera

The road going up towards the Remarkables

The bull didn't seem too happy on seeing us there

Lance walking up to the lookout point

The beauty in moments

Lance having a rest and taking in the views

I feel at one with myself and the universe

Lance taking photographs

Does paradise look like this?

A moment of reflection

The vistas

Soaking it all in

The Remarkables

Queenstown Airport

After the long stay up there it was a tough decision coming back down but we got a ring from Tania saying that the dinner was almost ready, so we drove back home. We feasted on yet another great homemade dinner and then spent 2 hours watching some dance competition program on TV. One of the judges sounded just like that girl on the aeroplane and it was so annoying watching that program because of that. By the time the program was finished I was so tired that I decided to skip the drinks in return for some extra sleep, especially since we had an early morning start the next day. It was kind of sad and I am pretty sure that Lance was really disappointed as it was a friday night and the town was buzzing, unlike thursday evening. But yeah I promptly went to bed and I had a great sleep bringing to close an eventful second day.

Stay tuned for more.

Amit