Mumbai Podcast & AST Controversy

Finally put up the podcast interview I did with Phil Jeng Kane (from the FTI) a week or so ago on the 9th Mumbai International Film Festival. The sound is a bit thin because I had to remove a slight buzz.

Today I'm teaching 3 classes of students internet studies. I wanted to get these podcasts ready for them so they could see some of the technology working. I was surprised to find that a few friends of mine had no idea what a podcast is and fewer knew the meaning of BLOG!!!

Well, guys, this is about all there is to a BLOG. You're reading it. It's an online, public diary.

In response to Phil's comment . . .

Yes, I know filmmaking is a team sport. 100 people worked on A Stone Throw (AST). Without them, or yourself, there would be nothing. Obviously. The writer, producer and sound designer overpowered me with an idea and I went with it. It's possible that 50 people may have approached me after the film with, "What were they saying in that long shot?"

My last post came over as a bit of an I told youse all so and I apologise for that.

What I might insist on the next time we make a film is some kind of test screening. Very few people were allowed to see that film as it was getting made and I don't like to work that way. I like to involve everyone in the final stages because my eyes are so polluted by familiar images durnig picture editing.

A huge test screening will probably iron out any future problems. And a day of pick ups!

Three days to shoot 11 minutes with relocation moves of (sometimes) 30kms and such a huge crew was nuts!

AST is only 70% there as far as I'm concerned.

We got 96% of the script right and I achieved about 70% of my intended direction.

The AST shoot was more rushed than when I did an episode of Streetsmartz!

Comments

I've got a really good idea for a film . . .

Phil commented on that last piece. I forget that people actually read these things. I assumed you were all lazy and illiterate ;) Yes . . . as Phil says . . . we have taken time to write this screenplay. And it's depressing to think about it. Sometimes I feel like Marshall in Absolutely Fabulous . Marshall went to Hollywood 20 years ago to develop a screenplay with a studio. People in various episodes ask him how it's going. He usually has an actor attached, or a big producer, or an out-of-work director . . . No doubt Jennifer Saunders has met a few of these people . The industry is teaming with writers working on a screenplay. Until a screenplay becomes a film - it's only a blueprint - not considered an art form in itself. And yet it takes such a long time to write one. When people ask me what I do - I answer web designer . It's my knee-jerk, "pat" response. It's also less problematic and gets me more $work than if I say, "filmmaker".

The Three by Five Card Index System

Here's another approach to writing your screenplay. The screenwriter's friend. Introducing the infamous Three by Five Card Index System . Wow! How can I get one? In my case - I made it. What it amounts to is this: Three 90cm x 40cm sheets of chipboard hinged together so that the whole thing stands like a concertina on a table or floor. Every 5cm or so down, I have drawing-pinned small cardboard hinges (triangles if you will) made from old file dividers. These become placeholders for your cards. A couple of bunches of 3 inch by 5 inch index cards (available in packs of 100 at any newsagency) and there you have it. A sure fire way to make your screenplay bubble to the top of the pile . . . Not. But it's a tool and writers need their tools. Cool. How does it work? As you can see - each act has three mini-acts in it (fitting in with Australian script theorist Linda Heys' Second Act Story ). Or rather - going one step further and suggesting that all three acts have a begi

Not the only white guy in Mumbai

Hi readers . . . and hi Mum! ;) I've been watching some pretty heart-wrenching documentaries here at the Mumbai Film Festival . Watching docos seems to be a fast track to learning about the world. Many documentaries have an Indian element, but a couple stood out. I tend to make friends with the people who make films I like, so I'm pleased to say that Rajdeep Randhawa is now a close and personal friend of mine. Rajdeep made a 47 minute documentary called, "Ek Tha Lal Pari." Shot mostly cinema verite, it documents the problematic relationship between a eunuch and her lover. It's an on and off relationship, but the two are still very much in love and have lived together for 20 years! In India, eunuchs live in enclaves. They are ostricised by society, but also revered and considered to have many spiritual powers. So they earn money by performing special rituals at marriages, births, deaths etc. It is a special honour to be blessed by a eunuch. To cross one would resu

Edwin James Lynch

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