Tourist’s Eye (Bangkok)

Posted on December 18, 2009 by E
Filed Under The Life, Video | Leave a Comment

It was my first time in Thailand and I arrived as part of a film crew. Yes, it finally happened. I was on location with an actual, honest-to-goodness Bollywood movie. My role on the project is to capture the behind-the-scenes action. I’m doing so with the Canon 7D, a digital SLR that also captures high-definition video.

The video that will go into the final ‘Making Of’ film will appear several months from now. But I also attempted to capture a little of the sights around Bangkok (at least the places I visited) and this video is an edited distillation of my experience of the place. People seem surprised that I didn’t take to the place but I’ll say this much, if the great city of Mumbai is every ‘futurised’ it will probably look like Bangkok.

I only used the standard kit lens and some color-correction was employed in post production. The image that comes out of this camera, is gorgeous.

Overheard at Unconvention

Posted on November 23, 2009 by L
Filed Under Music | 1 Comment

Unconvention Mumbai
For every musician that didn’t come to the 1st ever Unconvention conference in Mumbai this weekend, stand up and give yourself a good kick in the pants.
It was a tremendous event. You have no idea what you missed out on. We will be writing about it a lot more later because there were many many lessons learned.

For now, here’s a quick overview of the things people said during the weekend:

- I’m so indie that I make Arjun S Ravi look like a corporate sellout.

- This is amazing! I got to meet so many musicians that I listen to and admire.

- Dude, free pens from the British Council!

- You can sit in your mansion, play music whenever you feel like and make loads of money when you’re Robert Plant – not now! Right now you have to work fucking hard.

- Stop complaining and find your own fucking venue!

- ‘Sacrifice’ is an important word that you have to think about. How much are you willing to sacrifice for your career?

- It’s easy to label-bash but don’t forget, you can’t clap with one hand. There is no smoke without fire.

- If there is a hell – and I will go to hell – it will be like the SXSW festival. Standing in one place and listening to what sounds like 700 drum sound checks all at once.

- In our country, feudalism sits side by side with capitalism.

- Look for and build a story about yourself as a musician. Find an angle - what is it that makes you unique and interesting. It’s all about story and image. Find it and build it.

- Invest in your career.

- Go and talk to people. There is a misconception that managers/agents/promoters etc. don’t want to talk to you. Of course they do – if you’re good they want to know about you because you can bring them business. Go talk to them.

- This is a business. You are a brand. Remember that and build it.

- Can you hold this cup of coffee so that my friends think I successfully gave it to someone?

- Build a great team. Iron Maiden didn’t make it to that stage alone. There aren’t 5 guys in the Iron Maiden story – there are 50-100 guys behind the scenes who all helped make it happen.

- Have a vision for your career and communicate it to your manager. They can’t do anything for you if you don’t know what you want to do and aren’t willing to work for it.

- Ask yourself what do you want from your career as a musician? What are your goals, what are your plans and expectations? Where do you want to be in five years?

- Shakira… did I say that right? Oh I’m sorry – it’s shukriya.

Tom Tykwer + Free Music

Posted on October 12, 2009 by L
Filed Under Music | Leave a Comment

Stumbled upon a nice little treat today.

German filmmaker Tom Tykwer (our favourites being the excellent excellent Run Lola Run and The Princess And The Warrior) is also a music composer and has made available, for free, downloads of some pieces of the score from his films on his website.

Strongly recommend:
The Princess and the Warrior - KriegerKaiserin-Opening.mp3 (6,2 MB)

High on tension, economical on instrumentation. Amazing!

Would love to buy some of Mr. Tykwer’s music. So if you chance upon any in a store in India, give us a shout. There’s no question of ordering a CD online. We haven’t yet managed to receive those undamaged.

He is quoted as saying, “I like everything that speaks to me loudly, and that gives me a vision. I don’t care about the genre. It’s the same for all arts, and the same for film and for music.” That is exactly how I feel and I have been inarticulately trying to say this for years. I will appropriate this answer and use it the next time someone asks me what kind of music I listen to :)

Once again, the link is here: Tom Tykwer Film Score

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