Glimpse Video 1,
A short promo about the film.
Duration = 5 minutes,
Glimpse Video 2,
A short scene from the film.
Duration = 3 minutes,
Tape Story 03- Rough Cut Preview
A preview of the first one hour from the rough cut of the film.
Duration = 65 minutes
Feartears
You know one day I was standing
Just standing
And searching my pockets
To find an ounce of feelings
You know
Happiness
Sadness
Passion
All those really wet and fiery stuff
But I couldn’t find any
So I took a piece of blade and
Slit my nerves
And
Nothing
No
No
There was something
But it wasn’t blood
It was
Gas
I think
But the point is
That day I realised
How hollow I had become
I had become hollow like a balloon
But
I wasn’t floating anywhere
I was hollow like my house
No
Dirt
Anywhere
No
Imperfection
Anywhere
No photographs
Of some people
Who were important
Once
No
Illusions
No
Mirrors
All that was there
Was
Emptiness
A
Void filled
With
Nothing
Standing on an invisible structure of some kind
Kind of like this universe
in
here
Hear
ring all that silence
Woke me
And my tiger
up
It’s the rules
that we break
that make us
And not the rules that we follow
Can you say No like you don’t mean it
But also semi-mean it
I know I can
Say Yes
when I actually mean No
Would you
?
Don’t call me a spade
Because
So are you
Don’t hide behind
my imperfectness
Cause you are too
Ugly and sad inside
This ride
is for you
Solo
Solo
So long you
Are true
Films Recommended by Andrei Tarkovsky
Recently I finished reading the tiny book “Devotional Cinema” by Nathaniel Dorsky. The book is an absolute gem. It talks in very simple language about the devotional power of cinema. It talks about how time is one of the key elements of the art of cinema.
It reminded me about the way Andrie Tarkovsky talks about cinema. In his book “ Sculpting in Time”( that I am currently trying to finish reading) he talks about how Cinema should not try to imitate music or theater or any other art form. Cinema should aim to create something that no other art form can. And therefore he points towards the importance of time in film-making. He says film making is actually capturing time. And from my understanding and work experience as a filmmaker, I have come to realize that it is very true.
Anyways, so I got hold of this documentary on Andire Tarkovsky titled “Voyage in Time”. In the documentary there is a scene where Tonino Guerra (his co-scriptwriter for Nostalghia) asks him a few questions on behalf of his fans.
The following are the directors and films he said he would like to thank.
- Alexander Dovzhenko – for his films, particularly “Earth or Zemlya (1930)” is a miracle from the silent era.
- Robert Bresson – for his simplicity and aesthetics. The kind of simplicity that was achieved by Bach in Music, by Leonardo in Painting, by Tolstoy in Writing.
- Michelangelo Antonioni – for showing him the meaning of action in cinema. He says that action in cinema is rather conditional. There is practically no action in Antonioni’s films particularly in “L’Avventura or The Adventure (1960)”.
- Federico Fellini – for his humanity. His kindness and love of people. His intimate intonations. He mentions the film “Pale Moon Tales by Fellini” but I think he may have been referring to “La Dolce Vita (1960)”
- Jean Vigo – Tarkovsky considered Vigo to be the father of modern French cinema. He said that Vigo found on the shores that which was there before the French new wave came. He is the farthest that any French director has ever gone to.
- Sergei Parajanov – His way of thinking appealed to Tarkovsky. His skill of being completely free within his own creations. Hiss thinking of paradox and poetry.
- Ingmar Bergman – for his numerous lessons on film-making.
His comments on these directors and their influence on him made me curious to know if there were other lists that Tarkovsky gave. The following is the article that I found on Nostalgia.com. It is written by the film critic Leonid Kozlov.
The following is the list of top ten films that appealed to Andrie Tarkovsky.
- Le Journal d’un curé de campagne (Robert Bresson, 1951)
- Winter Light (Ingmar Bergman, 1963)
- Nazarin (Luis Buñuel, 1959)
- Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman, 1957)
- City Lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931)
- Ugetsu Monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
- Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
- Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
- Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1967)
- Woman of the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)
the oneness
So I have this weird 6th sense.
I have this ability to dream unintentionally.
People look at me and think that I am ignoring them.
But I am not.
They think I am absent-minded but I am not.
I sit at a corner while I am traveling in the metro train or while I am driving or while I am riding my motorcycle…sometimes even when I am shitting in the loo.
I get these dreams.
I like them and I watch them.
I write them down.
I tell them to my friends.
All of my friends and family know about this power I have.
You will always see me in a day dreaming like haze.
Not fully present here and now.
Always walking around with my head down, muttering to myself or engrossed in some deep thought.
Sometimes you will find me in a city corner just jotting things down on a notepad.
I have I think about a shelve full of these notepads.
I can’t throw them.
They have all these notes about these dreams or visions that I have time to time.
I don’t know what to do with this power.
I dream of these things.
Work on them for a while.
Then leave them half way through, out of my laziness.
And then voilà after a few years someone else from another part of the world comes up with the same idea.
And I fee completely betrayed by my own inefficient self.
But gradually I am realising that I am also connected to these individuals.
I don’t know what would happen if I meet them.
But I can certainly dream their dreams before them or after them.
But we are connected in some wired mystical way.
Some of my dreams that have come true all by themselves.
Below are a few of the dreams that came true.
Marina Abramovich:
I have told this dream to my father and my friends, Dimpy, Shiraz …and others. About this dream of a few people entering a temple like place. Then entering into a place which is filled with nothing. They go to an underground location. Deep beneath the ocean. Dimpy called it a modern interpretation of “Noa’s Ark”. I don’t think so. It is about something much more than that. Something much more universal. Present in the void between our-minds and the creator of this universe. Marina talks about such a project at 10:11. Belive me I have been working on a film script to début as a film director. And this was my dream. A little different but very similar. I dreamed it somewhere around in 2012.
Radio head video:
This dream came to me when I was in the final year of my film school . The year was 2011. It’s about a guy who gets lost in a door puzzle. As he opens one door he enters a room. then he opens the door and enters another room. He is chasing a voice that only he can see. I was sure that after I have saved up enough money, I will make a sort film on this. But I think I am late now. Anyways my vision was very similar to the following music video by Radiohead. I have the proof. It’s in my diary.
Digital Sundial:
So I have been working on a project with my mentor Mr Nicholas Hoffland. The project involves shadow art. Even my friend Shiraj knows about this project. In it I make a giant sundial sort of a sculpture. As the sun revolves around the earth, the mirrors and the unique contours of the sculpture produce a moving image of a galloping horse. I left it in the middle because of my lazy self. Then voilà a few years later this guy comes up with this amazing invention. Congratulations to him. I wish I would have worked on this a little more speedily and lovingly.
As I have said earlier. I am not lying. I have been writing my dreams down. I have been having these dreams. I don’t know why. But I have this wired 6th sense.
Maybe just like “Hildegard of Bingen” I will someday find the true use of my supernatural powers.
·pədʎʇ I ʇɐɥʍ sı ɓuıʍoๅๅoℲ
This post is directed towards the people who are already in the film business and not to the new comers. I don’t think the rest of what I say will make any sense to them. But if it does then please be my guest and please read on.
Ok So there is this course on film direction that is offered by Masterclass.com and is taught by one of the greatest figures of the New German Cinema Mr ” Werner Herzog”.
The course has 26 video lectures along with some exercises for the students.
Excited to learn I joined the course and tried to make sense of his wired outlook on life. But eventually and sadly I lost my interest in Mr Herzog’s lessons after watching the 14th lesson. I found myself in a mental state that said “Oh this is a personality development course disguised as a film direction wisdom course”. For about one and a half months I didn’t visit the site and got busy with my work. A few weeks later I received an email from the sweet people at Masterclass stating that they miss me and would like me to re-join the classes. And so I did. But this time I took a different route. I got myself a crate of beer, switched off all the lights in my room, switched off my mobile phones etc…switched on the fan and dressed myself in my most comfortable clothes and started watching the lessons backwards. From the 26th till the 14th. And I started typing my thoughts as they came as I watched his lessons backwards.
Following is what I typed.
It makes more sense to me now. In fact, I can see clearly how true and valuable his words are. Something that I probably would have realised when I would have become 70 years old and would have looked back at what I learned from this profession and why did I do what I did. Mr Herzog’s wisdom can act like a time machine for you. You can travel back in time with him and learn what he did.
Everything we do as filmmakers will be etched in the memory of this human civilisation. Your films will fail. But they will outlive that failure and will be appreciated someday. But you must make sure that the films that you make are true to your dreams and not to the whims and tastes of the current phase of society.
With his lessons he has given me an insight to a world that I normally would have taken me 30-40 years to grasp. He has given me an idea about the tornado hiding in the background and how to deal with it. Convince your audience to pay to watch your films. Don’t make films for film festivals. Don’t make films to be shown for free. Earn from your films. If you don’t then figure it out. That is a successful way of filmmaking. You will not succeed all the time but that should be your goal. Filmmaking is your livelihood. It should both nourish and feed you and your soul and your family. Film making is like being a pirate. Society will love and hate you at the same time. But you must go out there into the wild unknown deep vast space of knowledge and experience and bring from that place whatever riches you can. The established paths will change. Don’t follow the established paths instead learn to create your own. Filmmaking is lying in its absolute sense. You lie but you do it to comfort yourself and the watchers of your film. And that is okay. They want you to lie. They will protest it but they absolutely, desperately want somebody to lie and tell them that they are beautiful. We are not entertainers. But liars. Always do the right thing. No Matter what. Do the right thing. Don’t be a thief. Be a pirate. There is a difference.
You know earlier I was watching the Louis C.K’s web series “Horace and Pete” and Alan Alda’s character reminded me of Mr Herzog. But I don’t think Mr Herzog is as rude as him. BTW you should watch this series, it’s absolutely awesome in so many levels.
I think Mr Herzog is giving us a survival course. Giving us the advice that we will need after we make our first film and the courage to make our first films and the films later on.
Among all the greats of his time, he is the one who has survived till now. Doing what he loves and still going strong. What I have learned from his classes is to respect and understand my profession and not get swayed away by the big MTV dreams that Hollywood and glossy magazine covers have created in my mind. He speaks the truth. The truth is as always a boring, frightening and an awakening thing. The only thing I will take from this class is that I should be more honest, respectful to everyone, selfish (not greedy, read Ayn Rand) and disciplined in my approach to film making. The rest are only myths.
Thank You Mr Herzog
You are my Obi Werner Kenobi
Miss Misery
I write this letter to you in your absence.
You will never read it.
But still I must write it.
I know you are gone.
I have lost you.
Oh how sad it makes me feel.
I stay awake every night.
Trying to close my eyes and wishing like a 6 year old kid to go back in time.
To go back in time and see you for the first time when we had met.
That night we only saw each other for the first time.
But we had met each other before
We had felt each other before that.
I wrote many songs for you even before I saw you.
I wrote them in search of you.
We met long before we saw each other.
We had heard each other’s name long before we had even seen each others face.
I was in the same part of the universe, city, where you were.
Breathing the same air that you were.
We both were there even before we knew that we are one.
I sat on the same university seats that you sat in.
I walked on the same footpath that you walked in.
I met the same people that you met.
We lived in the same neighbour hood.
We took the same buses home.
We were like two fish swimming in a fish bowl.
Me chasing you and you chasing me with our backs turned towards each other.
I have failed.
Once you asked me what dose failure means to me.
To me failure means not being able to see your eyes, your pretty eyes.
Not being able to hold your head tightly across my chest.
Not being able to listen to your voice.
Not being able to bury my head in your long dark hair and smell the aroma of your sweat.
Not being able to share a silence with you.
Not being able to look at a tree or a bird chirping in a garden with you by my side.
Not being able to feel sad because you feel sad.
Not being able to feel happy because you feel happy.
Oh Pingu what have you done to me.
Take me out of this misery.
Take out your magic wand a cure me from this disease.
I beg you.
I want to forget the colour of your dark long hair.
I want to forget your soft, polite, childlike voice.
I want to forget those bright pearl like eyes of yours.
You have hypnotised me you devil.
Either take me out of this spell or make me your slave.
Tune me into a feather and wear me in your hair.
Turn me into a button and wear me with your shirt.
Turn me into a strawberry and digest me.
Oh pease, please my kind angel.
My sweet, sweet soulmate do anything you want with me but please don’t keep me away from you.
I cannot take it anymore.
Come back to me.
Oh lord please make her come back to me.
My lungs have forgotten the taste of air.
Come back and fill this emptiness with life now.
Imagination is our milk
A farmer needs a cow for milk. The milk is the fruit of the cow.
We as Artists need to know this very clearly that “Imagination” is the service that we offer.
“Imagination” to us is what “Milk” is to the cow.
People hire us for our ability to imagine things.
They don’t hire us because we know how to operate fancy equipment or the latest modern gadgets.
They hire us for our imagination.
Anyone can buy a set of crayons to draw pictures.
But would they have the imagination that would make those pictures pretty?
No I don’t think so.
Not everyone has that sort of an imagination.
Imagination is not a product, it’s a skill, and it’s a talent.
And we as artists need to sharpen our ability to imagine things.
How did the world’s longest love story end?
There was only silence.
A lot of silence for a really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
long time.
The kind of nauseating silence that you can feel when you fart yourself in a crowded metro train.
Especially after a weekend spent feasting on the delicious “Rajma Chawal” that only your mother can cook.
Sometimes even “Mutton Biryani” has the same effect.
A bit unusual for an argument though isn’t it?
Well “life is a big fart” that is what the two thought at the end of it.
As usual there was a boy and there was a girl.
None of them had spoken to each other for a
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
really
long time.
But their fingers were greasy with lies that they were typing to each other.
Like a trigger of a UZI, the backspace button on their keyboards was their unknown assassin.
Killing hope and other silly motives with the push of a button.
They fired at each other with an uninformed accuracy.
Each time laying a brick of indifference between them.
It grew and grew.
Slowly the black wall was nearing completion.
Only words could save them now.
Words of courage.
Words of honesty.
Words of acceptance.
But in this desert of silence, the snake of their egos filled every hour.
No one, out of the two wanted to bow down to the other.
Yet secretly both of them wished
to forgive,
to be forgiven,
to unite
and
to make merry.
Waking up one day after watching two lovers kiss under the beautiful sunrise of a napalm sky on his big screen TV, he decided to save their friendship from stumbling down into the pit of darkness.
And he started typing a love letter that sounded like a poem.
But before his finger could press the send button, the arm of the “Control Z” button on his keyboard grabbed the umbilical cord of a tiny thread of an old lingering pain and pulled it right in front of the center of his third eye.
He could have resisted but he gave in to the delicious ecstasy of the bitter coldness that unusual traumatic experiences bring to the heart after a long period of tolerance.
And so did she.
Her mobile phone text editor did not have an “Undo Button” either.
The damage was done.
It was too late now.
Finally, the silence was broken with the sound of his shattering heart.
Their misunderstandings feasted on his salty palms
“They could have lived happily ever after”
and maybe they did…
Neap
Art is this space in our society where one can behave like a child. In this society we have created rules to help us survive physically as a group. But because of its limitations we lose the child in us. In our quest to survive physically our psychological self dies a slow death. We become adults and that urge to live freely, like we lived in our childhood days, gets suppressed. Art and other unexplored areas offer us that opportunity to become a child again. A place where you can make mistakes and practice full playfulness. Look at a two-year old playing around you and learn from them. They will teach you how to truly enjoy and participate in the creation of art. They know no boundaries and hence experience freedom that some of us will seldom re-experience again. Please practice some form of art. Otherwise you’re missing life’s real purpose. Or at least be in the presence of real art. Art that has not been created to be sold to you but that has been created out of playful love-making.
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