FTII People

Review written by Vinoo
Language : Persian
Director : Asghar Farhadi

Sepideh invites Elly, her daughter’s kindergarten teacher, on a holiday with three families and their kids at a beachside resort. Elly is not initially aware that Sepideh’s real agenda is to set her up with her cousin Ahmad who is just back from a break up with his German? wife. Elly wants to go back home as she has not informed her mother of a long break. While she is walking by the beachside the kids are playing in the water. One of the kids gets washed away and is luckily washed back to the shore. Simultaneously Elly goes missing. The kids are not able to clarify if Elly did go after the drowning boy and drowned herself in the process. Gradually Sepideh’s husband tries reaching Elly and figures her mobile phone is hidden in Sepideh’s bag. This leads to suspicion and Sepideh is forced to reveal all. Elly’s engagement to a man she doesn’t like and that Sepideh was only trying to help her out of a bad relationship by fixing her up with Ahmad. Cheating on a man she is engaged to is tantamount to an illicit relationship in Iran. Suddenly the entire group turns against Elly. Sepideh asks what if Elly drowned trying to save your kid. Elly turns from good to bad to good in the eyes of the family members. The film culminates with Elly’s fiancé landing up at the beachside resort and at the same time Elly’s body is washed ashore. You are not let in on whether she drowned trying to save the kid or if she committed suicide unable to solve the dilemma of being stuck in a relationship she does not want and a liking she develops for Ahmad. The change in human relationships over minor incidents is handled brilliantly. Also you don’t realize what really happened to Elly but you are glued to the story like you are part of it all. Every scene seems to reveal a bit of the story but you figure it really doesn’t, not even at the very end. Quoting Ahmad from the film “A bitter ending is better than an endless bitterness”. Aye!
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(review by Vinoo)
Author : Joseph Conrad
‘The Return’ is apparently Joseph Conrad’s tribute to Henry James, and his style of writing. It was made into a film ‘Gabrielle’. Conrad’s other works include ‘The Heart of Darkness’ (yet to read that one), ‘Sabotage’, (made into a movie by Hitchcock), ‘The Secret agent’ (also a movie) etc. Conrad famously said “Those who read me know my conviction that the world, the temporal world, rests on a few very simple ideas; so simple that they must be as old as the hills. It rests, notably, among others, on the idea of Fidelity.”
I haven’t read too many of Joseph Conrad. I liked this one and I would presume this one is different from the rest of his books. ‘The Return’ is a peep into the complexities and insecurities of human relationships. Half the book is about Alan Harvey revisiting his life and reasons why his wife left behind a letter the way she did and the rest is plain, lovely conversation and analysis of emotions triggered by an act, in this case a letter left behind by his wife.
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Author : Jose Saramago

by Vinoo

All The Names

Jose Saramago has been really a find for me. Be it ‘Blindness’ from where I recall ‘Blind people don’t visit an Ophthalmologist’, ‘The year of the death of Ricardo Reis’, ‘Death at intervals, ‘The Cave’ (yet to finish reading), ‘The gospel according to Christ’ (reading) and the brilliant ‘The Double’. Also read Alberto Moravia’s brilliant ‘Time of desecration’ and short stories ‘More Roman Tales’. Alberto Moravia, Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Italo Calvino  for another day.

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The smallest, lightest and most affordable Super-16 film camera in the world. A-cam is compact enough to be carried and used wherever and whenever, and can be handled without complicated preparations.

SP-16 – Series II

After evaluation with filmmakers around the world and production experts Ikonoskop launched a much improved A-cam SP-16 in late 2004.

The significant enchantments in Series II are:

Faster and stronger take-up spool.

Safer film transport.

Lens mount in steel.

Better protection of light in time-lapse.

more than 20 minor internal improvements.

We are proud to say that the A-cam SP-16 is the production workhorse that we aimed to produce after these significant improvements.

All sold SP-16s are sold with the above improvements included. If you are a lucky owner of a SP-16 version Series I – please contact Ikonoskop to see how we can upgrade your camera to the latest version.

A professional Super-16 camera for the price of a DV-cam?

It is possibly by stripping the mechanical and electronic design down to an absolute essential. We are using modern manufacturing and design tools and choose convenient materials – of course without compromising in the overall image quality.

This means no reflex viewfinder, no time-code, no magnesium, in light-meter – Just a Super-16 film camera, ready to use out of the box!

A-Cam SP-16 is ready to use directly out of the box, delivered with:

• Ikonoskop 9 mm f/1.5 cine lens
• Parallell mounted viewfinder
• 12 V Lithium battery
• 2 rolls of KODAK colour negative film**

Price: €5.500

** In Sweden, thanks to Kodak Sweden

More details here

Records at true 1920X1080 HD uncompressed in 12 bit colour on a 10.6mm X 6 mm (S16 sized) sensor. Plus it has a PL Mount for S16 lenses. AND it can shoot from 1-60 fps. Best of all, it costs only some Euro 6950, which INCLUDES 1 battery, 1 Ikonoskop 9mm lens and 1 Ikonoskop 80GB Memory which can record upto 12 minutes of video!

More details here

by Vinoo

Language : Iranian

Director : Majid Majidi

Karim works as an Ostrich farmer in Teheran. He leads a very contented life. He is always helpful to his neighbours and he ingrains qualities like honesty and altruism in the other members of his family, which includes his wife, his favourite daughter (all father’s have one), a son and a younger daughter? One fine day an Ostrich from the farm goes missing and Karim is blamed for the same and removed from his job. This takes Karim to the city where he unwittingly ends up being a motorcycle taxi-driver. He is ferrying people and goods and in the process he starts changing bit by bit. From someone who is pained when a customer leaves without collecting his change to someone who is no longer bothered about anything much besides his own home, Karim quickly changes into a very selfish man. The small acts of generosity soon start disappearing much to the chagrin of his wife and kids. And then one small accident disables Karim temporarily and his family and neighbours get back the Karim they once knew. He realizes his folly and as always all ends well with the Ostrich returning and Karim getting back his job. Like someone pointed out it has an uncanny resemblance to ‘The Bicycle Thief’ but is a fab watch nevertheless. The Ostrich dance scene is simply superb. And for people in our country the novelty of an Ostrich farm should be something to watch this one for. A very simple story well-told. I watched this thanks to IFFK 2008.

Most people would recall ‘Baran’, ‘Children of heaven’ (rights bought by Priyadarshan for another remake) and ‘Colour of Paradise’ by the same director. Also watch by Majid Majidi ‘Father’ (Pedar), ‘The Willow Tree’ (Beed-e majnoon) and ‘Barefoot to Herat’ (Pa beranheh ta Herat) – fab. For more about the director http://www.cinemajidi.com/

Also watched Anurag Kashyap’s “Gulaal’ and loved it. Brilliant performances too and my good friend who I watched it with sure will agree. I don’t care what the reviews have to say. I remember most critics on TV and Print trashing ‘Dev D’ until it became a hit. Here is what Anurag Kashyap supposedly said about one of the critics : “Taran Adarsh is the son of the person who made the film ‘Gupt Gyan’. It is Taran’s favourite movie. Whatever he knows about cinema is from that movie.” I am sure he has his reasons for the outburst.

And check out ‘Naaku Mukka’. Some fab work from Chennai that won Senthil the only Gold, for India, at the Adfest 2009 Asia Pacific Advertising Festival. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEU_qyiQmYQ&feature=related

Useless trivia : Majid Majidi was a theatre actor from the age of 14 and has starred in quite a few movies including Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s ‘Boycott’(Baykot) before he took to direction. Hope to access that one. ‘Song of the Sparrows’ was Iran’s official selection for the Best Foreign Language Film to the Academy Awards 2009.

While on this I suggest you check out Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s take on Philosophy, Religion and Sex in ‘Scream of the Ants’. Remember watching it at IFFK 2006.

Tribhuvan Babu has just finished shooting an entire feature on the RED Camera and shares his experience with us.

* How was the experience shooting on Red? Was this the first time you shot something on Red?
Yes it was the first time for me on the RED… and it BLEW me away…. we had done a basic test on it though, which was to replicate the situations we were looking at in our mis-en-scene. day int, day int/ext, nite ext, nite int/ext, extreme low light, and all this was done in available light.

* What was the recording format? Tape/HDD/Memory Cards? How long were the takes?
We chose the full resolution of the Camera, i.e RAW 4K 2:1, composed for 1:2.35 aspect ratio. and there are two REDCODES,namely RC28 & RC36 to choose from. which is essentially deciding the frame rate for the entire production. in RC36 at full resolution one can shoot max 30 fps on a CF card and RC28 gives you the option to shot till 120fps on a CF card. since we didnt have any high speed shots in the film we chose RC36. during my research most people recomended to use the Flash card. these come in two configurations… 8Gb- 4 mins & 16GB-8mins at 4K 2:1 resolution. i had a HDD but please avoid as its a spinning wheel type drive and not solid state, u may loose ur footage because of jerks while transport etc…. we used to take immediate back ups after finishing one CF card… that too TWO back-ups on a 2 TB LACIE  HDD. we had 6 CF cards with ue the max time of a shot we took was 4mins …. dadagiri !

* Which lenses did you use?
I used the 1.3 high speed ZIESS lens package for the production … the REd lens comes in 18-50 Zoom with a 2.2 opening. i wanted as much opening as possible because our’s was an AVAILABLE LIGHT  shoot…. DAY n NIGHT….

* did you at anytime, miss ‘Film’, when shooting in contrasty situations/otherwise
I did miss Film in lot of places da…. given the extremes we were woking on… but nonetheless RED performed quite well…. must say that in the existing digital domain RED surpasses all in details in Highlights and Shadows….. but the drawback is a bit of noise in the extreme low lights conditions….. more so in Tungsten lit situations…

* I have heard RED kind of heats up very soon and takes some time to reboot? Is this true? Did it affect the shoot?
Heating was an issue till Build 15… i shot with the build 16…. the cam does heat up but doesn’t hang…. but ya after changing the battery it takes 1 min-20secs to boot…. ya its frustrating …. but during the course of the shoot i realised that due the heat the Flange gets rogered, as the electronics are embeded around the PL-MOUNT….. i lost couple of shots to that….. they r SOFT…. cant do shit about it…. they claim to have corrected that flaw from the BUILD-18, but have to see it yet..

* Do you feel that workflow for cameras like RED are completely smooth and sorted today?
We r far from sorted about RED…. Major post facilitied are Shiting in their pant with this…. in theory they r sorted but practically we know what they do…. Man they screw the regular DIs, forget what they’ll do to REd footage…. in mumbai only the 8M Mchaps have acquired the SCRATCH ASSIMILATE… which is one of the recommende tool for working on the RED code RAW files…. but they are very new to this….. so they too are figuring it out…. and we are the BAKRAAS …..

* Anything else?
am waiting for the calibrated monitor and the coloring tool interface at the 8MM facility… i’ll do a test print of my rushes…. wil let u know….   Also RED is an American co….. it comes with an American attitude….. Better have all the accessories when u use it otherwise its a pain…. quite cumbersome…..

* How about a RED workshop at the Institute?
ya man… wrkshop is due…. but after i have something on print…. that the acid test…. on the small monitor it looks gorgeous…. have to c it on BADA PURDAH …

Author : Jon Krakauer

If you are of Blood group M (for Mountain) as Makalu Gau says this one is for you. Written by the author of the brilliant ‘Into the Wild’, this book summarizes the 1996 Everest disaster. Jon Krakauer was part of Rob Hall and Gary Ball’s ‘Adventure Consultants’ and were ascending the Mt Everest almost simultaneously with Scott Fischer’s group ‘Mountain Madness’. This book details out the trauma that one goes through as an Everest climber. In his own words “Until I visited the Himalaya, however, I’d never actually seen death at close range. Hell, before I went to Everest, I’d never even been to a funeral. Mortality had remained a conveniently hypothetical concept, an idea to ponder in the abstract”. Jon Krakauer was to go as a reporter to do a story about the commercialization of Everest. Instead he let his childhood dreams take over and prepared for over a year to be part of the expedition. He feels the safety of clients had been sacrificed to make sure they were one up on their competitor. As the veteran American guide Peter Lev told ‘Climbing’ mag after the disastrous events on Everest “We think that people pay us to make good decisions, but what people really pay for is to get to the top”. For experts like George Leigh Mallory the Everest might be something to climb “because it is there” but plain logic would suggest otherwise. Climbing the Third Pole (South Pole, North Pole and then the Everest) is a real test of strength and character.

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Book 4 d week :

1. The Red Pony

2. Junius Maltby

Author : John Steinbeck

I really enjoyed revisiting this classic. I also happen to have the Lewis Milestone’s film by the same name, which I am hesitant to watch. ‘The Red pony’ is John Steinbeck’s 1933 classic and he revisits his childhood. As told through Jody Tiflin, it is about his red colt, Gabilan (Gabilan literally means the hawk), and the incidents around his childhood. The short story is told in four chapters and is so beautiful in detailing. Just revisit this one. A ‘coming of age’ book in a sense.

Quoting from ‘Junius Maltby’. ‘They told how, on a doctor’s advice, Junius bought a goat for milk for the baby. He didn’t quite inquire into the sex of his purchase nor give his reason for wanting a goat. When it arrived he looked under it, and very seriously asked, “Is this a normal goat?”

“Sure,” said the owner.

“But shouldn’t there be a bag or something immediately behind the hind legs? – for the milk, I mean”.

The people of the valley roared about that. Later, when a new and better goat was provided, Junius fiddled with it for two days and could not draw a drop of milk. He wanted to return this goat as defective until the owner showed him how to milk it.’ J

Book 4 D Week : By Vinoo

Movie 4 D Week: I’m Not There

Director: Tod Haynes

I

Inspired by the many lives of Bob Dylan says the movie and that is quite the only time ‘Bob Dylan’ the name figures in the entire movie. Marcus Carl Franklin (Woody Guthrie), Ben Winshaw (Arthur Rimbaud), Heath Ledger (Robbie Clark), Christian Bale (Jack Rollins / Pastor John), Richard Gere (Billy the Kid) and Cate Blanchett (Jude Quinn) are the different lives. Cate Blanchett is very good and you just cannot miss the mannerisms she has worked on if you have seen ‘No direction home’ and know what I mean. Each character plays a different stage of Dylan’s life and “When I wake I’m one person, when I go to sleep I know for certain I’m somebody else. I don’t know who I am most of the time. It’s like you got yesterday, today and tomorrow all in the same room. There’s no telling what’s going to happen” more or less sums it up. Arthur Rimbaud, the poet, is the narrator of the various stages and seems to string it all together besides of course the guitar ‘This machine kills fascists’ and at least one photograph that gives the different characters a sort of continuity. You will make multiple connections if you are a Dylan fan. Besides you will see Joan Baez, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Allen Ginsberg and many others walk in and out. This is a brilliant biography of Bob Dylan and in his own words “All I can do is be me, whoever that is”. Kris Kristofferson, who also happens to be a close friend of Bob Dylan, is the narrator.

The Director Todd Haynes supposedly never met Bob Dylan. The various sections in the film are inspired by Fellini’s 8 ½, Goddard’s Masculine Feminine and some of Sam Peckinpah (‘Straw Dogs’, ‘The Wild bunch’ and ‘Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid’) Westerns.

Useless trivia : The movie title ‘I’m not there’ is from Dylan’s unreleased song. A seventh character which was a Charlie Chaplin-like Dylan was part of the script but dropped during filming. The film appeared in various top ten films of the year 2007 lists including ‘The Village Voice’. And if any of you want to see a hard copy of ‘The Village Voice’ I have couple of copies brought to me by a good old friend. You won’t regret subscribing to the cult-mag site www.villagevoice.com