Meeting H D Gangaraj

Today Chitkala and me met HD Gangaraj in person ( I am saying "in person" because, we have talked to him often on phone ). HD Gangaraj is the ex president of the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce. We spoke to him about the various aspects of filmmaking that we needed help in - and he promised us to get us in touch with some noted Kannada Film directors.

Looking forward to meeting the directors. Will keep this space updated :)

PS - This is totally out of context - but I noticed something today , that I couldn't help comment. People who are in places of authority or those who are well known in their respective fields, are there not because they have charisma or special skills or Knowledge - but because they are so accessible, helpful, disciplined, and committed to what they do. And yes, Gangaraj is all of what I mentioned above.

Musical Update

Brewin has got in touch with Chakradari Rowe who is a professional musician.

Chakradari Rowe is excited about the project and has promised to work with us in whatever way possible.

A visit to the location along with Vasu

On sunday, Raghav, Vasu ( A professional videographer ) , and me went to the location of the shoot, which is a village named Marlawadi, that is near the Kanakpura Road, Bangalore. We got some excellent footages of the location. We have marked the locations that we are going to use for the shooting and also have spoken to the local villagers to take their consent.

Having Vasu was a great help to get some really good clips of the place and some guidance on how we should proceed. Thank you Vasu !

Plan to visit there next weekend again.

A visit to the Editing Room

On Saturday Raghav and me got a chance to visit a editing room- Thanks to Sundarshree!.

This is a TV serial editing room - and our first impressions of editing is that it is quite similar to the Movie Maker editing software that we have on Windows. Only thing is that , this might be a little more sophisticated. The editor has shown complete support and has promised to coach us on the various aspects of editing in the coming weeks.

We plan to see a Movie editing room too, soon.

Contacting FTII

Got in touch with Dr. Kedarnath Awati, Dean, FTII, Pune, to take his support to get a professional director , who could be an ex or a current FTII student.

Dr. Awati has promised to help us in whatever way he can.

Location search ...

Lots fo things are happening ... trying to get all the permissions ...finding good locations etc...

Avenues for distribution of short films.

Right now , we can see the following avenues for distribution -

1. Getting distributed by Short Film Central - http://www.shortfilmcentral.com
2. Getting distributed by Short Film International - http://www.shortsinternational.com/
3. Screening the movie ourselves and having a show.
4. Raising the Funds through sponsorships.

Need to talk to people in short film central and short film international.

Visit to the shooting site and meeting Sundarshree

Update from visit to the shooting site on 29 Sept.

I and Rekha went to Vijayanagar to watch the shooting of Kannada Serial – Gupt Gamini(which is running from 7 years !!!!) . For those of you who are interested, this serial runs on E Tv from 6 to 6.30 pm. We got this opportunity because of kindness of one of the prime actors of this serial Sundar Shree.

We went to Vijayanagar near RPC layout looking for the nearest landmark the ‘Chitra Kuta’. Once we reached Chitrakuta, locating the house was not difficult. We reached the place around 2.40pm.

Since the crew was on a meal break, we asked for our contact person Sundarshree - the people around called her “Aajji” (meaning Granny !) , A lady in her fifties came and welcomed us( I wondered why she was called Aajji ). Since it was time for shooting, she started preparing for her shoot, put on her make-up and then she looked like real “Aajji” !

Few observations -

1. Each scene is shoot frame by frame , i.e. if there is a conversation between A and B , We can shoot A’s scene. B’s scene can be shot separately

2. Diffused lights ( we need somebody to hold the thermocol sheets , black screens etc)

3. There was a trolly for the camera

4. The director decided the camera angle etc.

5. Cameraman takes care of the lighting /metering etc

6. To avoid dubbing sound also is recorded during the shoot using collar mic

7. Acting

a. Good actors took very less time to understand the complete scene

b. They expressed their emotions very well

c. The dialogue delivery was clear

8. Directors

a. Should have very clear idea about the sequence of shoots

b. Should have good screenplay (print-outs )

c. May draw the sketch of the each scene and plan the sequence of the shots

After watching the shooting for few hours we said good bye to the crew and “Aajji”.

If you have not watched any shooting I suggest you please go. I’m all excited about this new project.

Bye for now – RAGHAVENDRA

Meeting Unit1 productions

We met some people at the 'UNITI production and media' house.

Please find the profiles of the people we met( Rohit and Sunil ) yesterday - http://unit1productions.com/aboutus.html

Both of them were very encouraging and promised to work with us in whatever way possible. Excited about the project now !

A letter to Ruskin Bond

Oct 9, 2009

Sent a letter to Ruskin Bond to get his permissions for making the movie. Hope he responds and supports us in this project.

Eagerly awaiting his response ! :)

A good Short Film

Oct 4, 2009

Check out this short film - Its only 6 mins - But look at the impact it creates

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGNmvNIgqlY&feature=player_embedded#

Ministry of Culture

Sept 24, 2009

Check out the website for 'Ministry for Culture' . There are a lot of schemes offered by the ministry that we could use for our forth coming projects. You could check this under the heading 'Schemes'

http://indiaculture.nic.in/indiaculture/index.asp

Also check the budget allocated and the actual expenditure under the 'Budget' link .