OneSmallWindow

Tourist’s Eye (Las Vegas)

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:42:23 +0000

It was my first time in Las Vegas, hell it was my first time in the United States of America and after nearly a month in New York, we flew to Las Vegas for the next leg of the shoot. This is still Anjaana Anjaani, the Bollywood feature I was shooting the ‘behind the scenes’ footage for.
Nearly 24 days we ended up spending in Nevada and it was not a pleasant time.
Beyond a point, there really is precious little for the outsider to do in Las Vegas. One could drink, gamble, go to strip clubs or take in a show. Sure I guess drinking and gambling can be three-and-a-half weeks-long activities but the rest? One time and you’re done right?
I don’t drink (that much), my idea of gambling is living life, I have zero interest in the joyless writhing of the women employed by strip clubs and the shows seemed kinda pricey.
So I shot some video instead (Canon 7D, 18-135mm kit lens).
The original idea was to try and capture day-time Vegas. Because the Strip and its surroundings look totally different (and not very pleasant) in the stark light of day. But then it occurred to me that this wouldn’t really ‘look’ like Vegas. So I junked my daytime footage and went with a blend of expected and unusual sights from Sin City.
And I decided to allow sonaluna’s music to underscore the mood of the place (as I perceived it).
So without too much further textual ado, this is the third film in (what I hope will be) a series I call Tourist’s Eye.
Ladies and Gentlemen: Las Vegas.

Tourist’s Eye (Bangkok)

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:22:03 +0000

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

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:31:43 +0000

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

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:37:54 +0000

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

Moviebiz Myths: No New Stories In Bollywood

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:55:32 +0000

As myths go, there isn’t one more toxic (to the industry and the business) than the one where people state confidently that there is nothing new to say. I spent a few hours at the studios where the music for a major Summer 2010 Bollywood release is being produced.
I gotta tell you, some of the stuff I heard in that room would blow the minds of cinema audiences around the world.
None of it was the bullshit that masquerades as ‘insider gossip’ in the birdcage liner delivered daily by your newspaperwallah. These were tales that would make your hair stand on end. These were anecdotes that would have most viewers curled up in foetal balls in appropriately dark corners of their homes, gibbering like idiots because they suddenly realized that the world was a scary place. And they would all make for fantastic cinema.
How I wish economics and business sense would coalesce enough to enable the bringing of tales like the ones I heard to the silver screen. I promise you, just on the strength of the Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid (oh how I love that Collective Soul album name!) I sorta-kinda heard in that studio, there would be no shortage of kudos (or global dollars) for the filmmakers capable of translating their life stories into efficient slices of cinema.
This is why all the storytelling teachers in the world tell aspirants to ‘write what they know’. If only the lure of ‘glamour’ wasn’t so seductive.
Sigh.

Red Bull + Music + Workshop

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:45:39 +0000

I love workshops. Or the idea of workshops in any case. The good ones always fill me with energy and I come back home and for a short while, work like I’m never going to stop. It’s all the new ideas tossed back and forth, new tricks learned, stories shared, people met… So when my editor told me about a music workshop by Red Bull in our city, I was more than willing to check it out.

It wasn’t exactly a workshop - more a panel discussion and introduction to the Red Bull Music Academy which is where the real two week, in-depth workshops will take place in Feb-March 2010. RBMA co-founder Torsten Schmidt, Radio Slave aka Matt Edwards and Mumbai musician Louis Banks were on the panel and in the audience consisted of local musicians, artists and DJs.

At the end of the afternoon, I came back without any new musical insights but did make some observations:
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The New Era High School Protest

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:01:57 +0000

Texas Fold ‘Em

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:57:12 +0000

So I played my first real game of poker last night, real world after a few months online. I’d played with this lot before, a couple of years ago, but everything was new back then, I didn’t know what I was doing, one of the guys had printed out a cheat sheet for me detailing the hands in descending order… yeah that time didn’t count.
I’d had an opportunity once before, a couple of months ago but I didn’t take it. This time I was bored enough and pissed off enough with the hand of cards life was dealing me to go out and see whether I could actually hold my own against a roomful of guys who had played together before, for years. I expected it to be the kind of bummer that really pissed me off beyond the sucky string of days I’ve been having. Why would I go tempting fate like that? That’s for me to (think I) know and a therapist to figure out. (more…)

Comedy Store Tour 09

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:55:31 +0000

A few days ago, one of our friends asked us if we wanted to go check out the Comedy Store gig at Blue Frog on Thursday. Now, the Frog isn’t exactly our favourite place to go and spend money (I’d offer that there really are few places we’d like to go spend our meagre earnings in but of the lot, Blue Frog is definitely low, low down on the list). Don’t know what it is about the place but it always manages to piss us off. I’m not being royal as I say us, I’m simply speaking for the missus and me.

Plus there was the added joy of having to shell out a thousand are-you-pee-to-the-double-ee-ess (each!) to essentially go stand around and watch people with questionable senses of humour hold forth about this, that and the other thing. As far as I’m concerned that’s our average night out, and my friends are funnier. Still, a flurry of phone calls later we had agreed to let our actor friend book tickets on our behalf and it was decided (because it is better to have a bad experience than no experience at all – one of our life’s mottos in the recent past) that we would go.
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Moviebiz Myths: Interest

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:03:17 +0000

Newspaper articles, trade guides and online journals will periodically feature talk about how a certain screenwriter/director/actor has a few people ‘interested’ in them or their project. At that time, the bulk of the article will be devoted to listing the credentials of the interested parties and everything they have achieved in the past and how that is validation of the fact that the abovementioned screenwriter/director/actor is doing important work.

People just starting out (or struggling to find a toehold) in the business will also be familiar with the term from emails, text messages or actual verbal conversations with powers-that-be (of varying intensity). The word ‘interest’, quite like the stuff you accrue on a bank account, can lead to a great deal of disappointment if you place too much hope in it.

‘Interest’ is not a commitment. It is (at best) an indication that you haven’t totally turned off a potential employer with your script/showreel/curves, at first glance. Will that ‘interest’ translate into a commitment that involves someone other than your mother/father/brother/sister/lover investing time and effort into making one of your dreams come true?

It is not the most preposterous idea in the world but you’d better have a foolproof proposition before another person (who is neither emotionally beholden to you nor someone you have some serious dirt on) will lift a single finger to help you.
In the meantime, an expression of interest only means that the two of you may dance together someday. Up until that day, take a tango lesson or two. Because you don’t want to be caught with two left feet the day it’s your turn to try on the glass slippers.