One Small Window

New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco.

These are the cities we visited to shoot Bollywood biggie Anjaana Anjaani. A crew of about 70 people (Indian and American) were employed in the actual making of the movie itself and I was a single, solitary person responsible for documenting the process of making this big ticket production starring Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra.

From the very beginning I was certain that I wanted to capture the imagery in a way that did not make it look like interlaced ‘video’. I wanted a filmic look to the ‘behind the scenes’ footage as a way of differentiating my work from all the other similar products that inhabit the bonus DVDs of most major Bollywood productions these days. By the middle of 2009 the chatter surrounding video-enabled DSLR cameras was becoming deafening and as luck would have it, the Canon 7D came out a couple of short months before I would have to embark on my sustained journey with more people than I had probably hung out with in my entire life.

The Canon was not my first choice but when I got right down to comparing online video footage of the auto focus-enabled Panasonic GH1 and the (manual focus only) 7D, turned out that I really liked the picture quality better on the latter camera. So that is the one I got.

And the Rode VideoMic on Philip Bloom’s online recommendation for capturing sound.

All I had were a kit lens and a 50mm 1.8. That is it. I shot with the camera in snow and rain. Took it to parts of the California and Nevada deserts apart from the cities of NY and SF. It served me very well and I think I might have had to turn off the camera twice for fears of overheating in the two months I was States-side. I’m proud of the footage I’ve captured and the first ‘videoblogs’ went online on Bollywoodhungama.com and Eros Entertainment’s Youtube page last night (August 18th, 2010).

The movie opens on September 24th, but my work is already out there for people to watch and react to. I’d love it if you took a gander and told me what you thought of it all. Also, added below is a short touristy piece I made from my early days in Vegas.

We made a short video covering the premiere of the latest staging of the play The Game starring Alyque Padamsee and Sabira Merchant.

This is my first commissioned video for CNNGo.

Shot on the Canon 7D. Audio captured with the Rode VideoMic.

It was fun to shoot. And it took me back to some of my earliest days as a radio journalist, when I used to cover city events for the Tuesday evening show.

In our explorations of the internet, we periodically come up on the work of people that is so awesome that they, in that moment, become our heroes. Starting right here we are going to try and maintain a regularly updated chronicle of the people that inspire us to try new things and become better at what we do.

And the first person I’ve picked is…

Philip Bloom
The man is a legend (among a pretty large group of camera enthusiasts especially). His website has become a treasure trove of information and a showcase for the wonderful things the new breed of video-enabled DSLR cameras are capable of. I became aware of him when I started exploring the possibility of acquiring a replacement for my old single-chip miniDV camera that had served me well for several years.

I was sort of sold on the Panasonic GH1 because it was the only one of these cameras that auto-focused while recording but eventually, thanks to the demos Mr. Bloom had up on his website I went with the Canon 7D. A more expensive camera, and no auto-focus, but boy did I enjoy the pictures I got out of that instrument.

So for his short film series, for his forthright views & reviews and for the fact that his inputs steered me right, Philip Bloom makes it onto my first post about personal heroes and as the following video will demonstrate, his work has inspired our very own Tourist’s Eye video series.

You can visit Mr. Bloom’s official website by clicking here or follow him on Twitter.

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.

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