Archive for February, 2008

Original Link to an article I found about “Becoming a Guerilla Film maker”.  I guess guerilla is another term for indie am I correct?

By By Imtiaz Ali
2/28/2008 Karachi

“If you have something to say, you have to be brave and face the consequences. The more the people criticise you, the stronger you become,” said a renowned film-maker, Jamil Dehlavi on Wednesday.

Delivering a lecture on “guerrilla film making” at he Aga Khan University auditorium and later answering questions from the audience, he, in an apparent reference to beautiful locations in the country, said, “go out and be guerilla film maker.” “You don’t need studios to create scenes,” he said.

He said first “you have driven by films and think about contribution later.”

He also advocated a “parallel film industry” and added that once he mortgaged his house to finance film.

Talking about his last “unfinished” film “Infinite Justice” loosely based on the story of US journalist Daniel Pearl who was kidnapped and killed in Karachi, Dehlavi said that after 9/11, he felt the need to explore the roots of the so-called terrorism. “I wanted to understand why young Muslims in the West had been drawn towards terrorism,” he said, adding that he wanted to show the “other side” of the picture and decided to expose the western world’s victimisation and demonisation of Muslims and Islam. He said he wanted to emphasise that, “if one doesn’t address the grievances of Muslims, the world will become an even more dangerous place.”

He said the intention of the film is to open up “a dialogue between people who don’t communicate with each other.” The message of the film is “if you want to make peace, do not talk to your friends, talk to your enemies!”

He said the Muslim world and the West were facing “clash of ignorance not clash of cultures.”

Appreciating Aga Khan’s efforts to set up an Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London, he said the rejection of pluralism played a significant role in breeding destructive conflicts. He also appreciated another one of the Aga Khan’s steps to open a “Global Centre for Pluralism,” in Ottawa, aimed at fostering policy and legislation that enables pluralism to take root in all spheres of modern life, including the arts.

Talking about the theme of his lecture, he said guerilla film makers were the new breed of independent film makers, who may be short on money but not on passion and vision. They have an attitude of creativity and freedom and are courageous and innovative in their approach. They not only break the rules but also work creatively within them, he said, adding that they may overstep the boundaries of what is considered the status quo in film making to create “something fresh, new and unique,” which bears their signature. He said one of the hallmarks of independence is that it comes out of oneself.

“Guerilla film makers are not trying to copy anyone else, they are not contriving to look or feel independent by wearing a certain style of clothes or emulating certain directors,” he said, adding that independence means “you have a voice that needs to be heard and a passion to make it.” He said if they are in it for money and fame, then they are not guerrilla film makers.

Talking about his films, he said his film “The blood of Hussain,” based on the democratic movement against tyrannical rule of Gen. Ziaul Haq brought immense troubles for him as the military regime leveled all sorts of allegations against him but the instinct of the guerilla film maker told him to leave the country. “If I were to disclose how I managed to reach London without my passport, I would be giving away the script of a film I may make one day,” he said.

About his film “Jinnah,” he said all those who controlled the film including the Government of Pakistan had a “hidden agenda”, which was to use it as a way of promoting themselves. As a result, the film is in the hands of a liquidator in England following legal proceedings.

Dehlavi smilingly said, he needed a group of Pakistanis to buy it back as it is part of history. He said partly blood ties drove him to come to Pakistan and make films. “I am trying to become a Pakistani film maker because I love Pakistan,” he said with applause from the packed auditorium.

Here’s an article I found on cnet.

Want to win Tropfest next year? Here’s how, based on an entirely unscientific analysis of recent award winners.

It’s a December tradition for Australia’s celluloid types: upon realising that Tropfest entries close within weeks, amateur directors scramble to assemble a motley cast and crew with the aim of creating a seven-minute masterpiece in a matter of days.

Nerves are frayed, equipment is begged, borrowed or stolen, and faces take on a ghostly pallor following 14-hour stints in the editing suite.

It doesn’t have to be that way. On the eve of Tropfest 2008, CNET.com.au gives you the Tropfest cheat sheet. We’ve painstakingly analysed six years worth of shortlisted films to provide you with the definitive guide to taking out the top prize. Here are five ways to win Tropfest.

1. Teeter on the brink of good taste
At last year’s festival, Jayce White’s Between the Flags took out the Best Male Actor and Best Comedy awards. The subject of his hilarious yarn? Racially motivated gang violence.

The spoof of Sydney’s real-life Cronulla riots is just one of a heap of Tropfest films that delve into distasteful subjects yet leave the crowd laughing. Joining Between the Flags in 2007 was Shaun Beagley’s Tropicana Award-winning Bad Yoghurt, which consists entirely of a bikini-clad woman projectile vomiting into a swimming pool after consuming spoiled dairy. We’ll spare a description of the film’s climax, but let’s just say she was firing on all cylinders.

2. Can’t rope in mates? Animate!
Animated films are a regular feature in the Tropfest line-up. With no pesky actors to deal with, the format offers a way for Flash geeks and plasticine peddlers to claim sole credit for their creation.

2004 was a particularly fruitful year for animators, with cartoon creations taking out second and third prizes. Steve Baker’s Confessions of an Animation just edged out Costa Avgoustinos’ Yin, which was made using Flash software.

A word of warning though: make sure your narrative and characters aren’t influenced by other people’s. Last year’s overall winner, An Imaginary Life — also the work of Steve Baker — attracted attention of all the wrong kinds when similarities to an American TV series emerged.

3. Do a doco, but make it quirky and fully Oz
Tropfest crowds aren’t looking for Foreign Correspondent. Most of the punters at the festival’s main site will have been sitting in the park for several hours knocking back cask wine and lolling about on picnic rugs, so attention spans are short by the time darkness falls.

Successful Tropfest docos tend to centre on particularly Australian subjects. A prime example is Gary Doust’s Murbah Swamp Beer, which took out the Tropicana Award in 2002. The film features a bunch of true-blue fellas discussing what happened when a truck full of beer crashed into a nearby river. (Clue: free-for-all boozefest.)

Then there are the searingly raw beach-themed exposes, such as 2000′s How Far Can You Wear Your Underpants from the Beach? and 2003 runner-up Effective Towel Flicking – Introductory Techniques.

4. Ship in a celeb
Recruiting a decent Aussie character actor like Bruce Spence will do wonders — in 2005 he appeared in the overall winner, Australian Summer, and also shared the Best Actor prize with co-star Arky Michael.

If you can’t convince the likes of Hugo Weaving or Charles “Bud” Tingwell to sign on, an ex-Home and Away stalwart should add enough cachet. Kate Ritchie made a cameo in 2007′s Mere Oblivion. The film received the Best Female Actor award — though she wasn’t the recipient.

5. Get serious
Sure, your typical Tropfest crowd will largely be tanked and primed for laughs by the time your film appears onscreen, but the masses aren’t the ones with the prize-giving power. Winners are determined by a small group of celebrity judges — Nicole Kidman, Samuel L Jackson, Baz Luhrmann and Ewan McGregor to name but a few. In previous years these industry veterans have often doled out gongs to the more thought-provoking fare over the fart-joke stuff.

2002 winner Lamb explored the effects of the drought on rural Australia, while the solemn Burst was awarded runner-up in 2006 despite garnering a collective “Huh?” from confused sections of the audience when the credits rolled.

So there you have it: a primer for taking out next year’s prize. Just remember to thank us when you accept the award for your funny-yet-serious celebrity-infested animated documentary.

I mentioned in a previous post that I am currently working on a music video for an ambitious local band. When it comes to music videos, I can be honest and say I don’t have much experience in them but from the previous two I have done, I can tell you that they can be a lot of fun.

The first one I did was for a university assignment. One of the group members, who is still my partner in crime to this day, got hold of an electronic Aphex Twin type track by a musician she knew. Because the music didn’t have any words, we pretty much had free reign to do whatever we wanted. When the musician didn’t want to be in the video, our group thought we’ll each come up with a little story that I’ll somehow link up through a “in the picture” type transition done through After Effects. That way, everyone in the group could write and direct their own scene. I had become quite comfortable in using AE by that stage and tried to come up with any excuse to put it to use.

Being an assignment, we had very little time to complete the music video, the shoot took about three days and I edited it together in about 4 days but with very late nights. This was finished early 2005 and it is still one of my favourite videos. Premiere Pro was used for the first edit, AE was used for everything else. From what I recall, we got a pretty high mark for it, a HD minus or something like that. Warning, may have scenes some people might find distressing! (yeah it’s one of those type of student films)

No Birds by Manuel Bonrod