Nothingness of the Other kind

What do you write when you got nothing to say or write? How do you put that 'nothingness' onto the paper or onto this....screen, when you know that it's not the 'nothingness' you got in there, but something...and that something just wouldn't come out. On the one hand, that something is either too small to manifest itself because it seems so insignificant or (on the other hand) too huge that you cannot possibly contain it in words. The most usual thing/s that you would do typically consists of the following. 

You wait a little. You take long pauses. You stare at something so long that it blurs out in your vision. Then you fix your gaze at something else. Blur out again. Then you make a feeble attempt at voicing out something which turns out to be crap. Then you erase it. You start all over again.

I guess this is that stage of nothingness of the 2nd kind - the nothingness that's loaded with that huge something which couldn't possibly be contained...ergo...can't be written about. So, as I contemplate on this and life's other meaningless shit, we, the collective, are working towards giving closure to the project that needs one. Can't really tell if this closure would be a definitive one...yet!

Converting the movie from 23.976 fps to 24 fps

To convert your movie from 23.976 fps to 24 fps, use the "Cinema Tools" application.

1. Open Cinema Tools application

NOTE: It is a good idea to backup the files before you confirm them. 

2. Batch Conform the folder where the movie file resides. A pop-up window will appear, choose 24 fps and that is it. Seriously that is it, all the movie files under this folder are already conformed to 24 fps.
File -> Batch Conform

3. Go to the folder that you chose in the previous step, you will see a conform.log file and a "conformed 24.0" folder, under this folder it will have all the movies conformed to 24 fps.

4. In order to confirm it, just right click on the movie and open with "Cinema Tools"
Under the "Analysis" tab see the details of the movie and if you see Frame Rate as 24.00FPS. Voila.

5 Tech. things we're onto right now for '500 & 5'

Though we are compiling other blog posts(for the tech-inclined) on various technical stages in detail, here's a little glimpse into the madness of the film's technical universe. For the last 3-4 days, 3 MacBook Pros are processing overtime simultaneously connected and mixed and matched to 7 to 8 External hard-drives. The following 5 is just a little peek into our state of mind.

1. Getting the DCP Log files ready for conversion

2. Updating the Censor warning Title cards onto the Reels

3. Readying up the DVD Compression files

4. Syncing and final Output of Audio Files for 24fps 

5. Syncing the Subtitles for Output to DCP

And much more...(The above pic is a 15-sec frame preview from the start of the movie - for Cigarette and Alcohol warning as suggested by the Censor Board - what we are adding now. If anyone needs to put it up in your film in the future, don't keep searching. Just download this and use it)

Enter the Censors - 500 & 5 scores a clean 'A'

Bells, Whistles and Applause!!!!! Folks...we got some 'A'mazing news...or should we say 'A'wesome news, or should it be 'A'stounding news. Alright, alright, alright too much drum-roll not needed for this...since we've never gotten 'A' grades in high school or college or where-ever...we figured we'd score an 'A' at least in...well...our film. Yes, my sweet, dear, lovely people...'500 & 5' just returned from the Censor Board for Film Certification this week and we've been awarded an 'A' certificate. Yes, not U/A, but a loud, unadulterated, clean 'A' without any cuts.

Our dear examining committee members from the CBFC were too nice a people. We had a nice long chat for almost an hour as to the justifications of what Indian society deems censorable or uncensorable. Obviously, we expounded on the necessity of certain scenes(like smoking, drinking, drug abuse, kissing etc - really basic stuff, hellloooo) and the significance of an open-thought-based society. The board members agreed to everything we said but eventually (and apparently) according to them, in Indian society, we can DO certain things but NOT talk(or make movies) about it openly on grounds of the usage of our most flaunted(but under-utilized) constitutional right - freedom of speech and expression - without the content being labeled 'Adult'. Seriously, who really isn't an Adult these days. I can probably write volumes on this but...please remind us later as to what the topic of our discussion/justification was, after you see the movie.

The board members said some surprisingly flattering things about '500 & 5' and that though our style of expression deserved a creative merit, it would not be understood the way it is supposed to be, by the society at large, and that was why it had to be for a restricted audience. Don't know if I concur on that, but in my opinion, in our current zeitgeist, our prevailing collective consciousness is by far the most intelligent it's ever been. So without any pretense of knowing what the audience or people in our society want, we want to just create and let it out in whatever way it can be possible. A mere 'label' or 'certificate' is not gonna change anything. So...anyways, since we don't really care about what certificate we get(it never really was an issue other than the fact that we are NOT tax-exempt), at no point do we(as creators) want to hold back because filmmaking, according to us, is first a purgatory and deeply personal Art form and then...everything else. The board actually did not want us to cut because they felt it would dilute the intensity of the expression.

Anywho peeps, here we are...crossing the next milestone of a 'seemingly' long journey. But wait, we have a moment for...Wooo-hooo! Can we hear you say it?....Thank you. And Actors and contributors and friends of '500 & 5'! You can now proudly and emphatically say that you are part of a larger grown-up, Adult movement that's happening in society and blah, blah...ok ok, again too much build-up not required. Sooo...Howzatttttt???!!!

(For all things '500 & 5' in our blog so far, please go to the '500 & 5' tag on your right, or click HERE)

5 things you didn’t know about the Pre-production of ‘500 & 5’

Well, it all has to be in 5's right? So...here they are...

1. The thematic core of ‘500 & 5’ was conceived one frustrated evening, in December 2010. Obviously, this frustration was a result of long, tiring periods of our ideological/philosophical ramblings about all things under the sun, especially creating a film independently and that too about money.
2. Initially, since we planned on this being a low-budget, independent film/s(it still is), we figured we’d hardly cast 5 to 10 people to illustrate the story. But eventually, it turned out to be a 90-member casting coup.
3. The entire script(actually 5 scripts with a total of about 90 pages) from ‘FADE IN’ to ‘FADE TO BLACK’ was completed in 15 days (my personal best in terms of speed, coz usually I take months of research, writing and rewriting). The script was finalized and greenlit on 11^th February, 2011. Of course, the incubation process took a little longer and constant tweaking was done to the finished script till the shooting stage.

4. By early February 2011, we had started fabricating/designing and mechanically creating various equipments ourselves because we couldn’t afford to rent out from high-end production houses. With help from Youtube tutorials, local blacksmiths, carpenters and mechanical workshop technicians, Dass, Ramesh and Toot-machi over-saw and managed this entire mechanical process. We literally created Steadicams, Wheel-cam rigs, Track dolly and table-top dolly from scratch for real cheap but of awesome quality. For example, we made our Steadicam for a mere 5000 Rupees when the ‘Rental cost’ of a professional Steadicam is 10,000 Rupees per day in Chennai.

5. 500 & 5 is actually a crowd-funded film thereby reaffirming that this is a truly democratically-made film. The funding for this film was put together in exactly 9 phone calls. Though right now we can’t discuss in detail about it, we’ll share more later.

Pictures: 1. Dass testing the Camera-rig we made. 2. Our first shooting schedule in Bangalore for Adi(Me, Dass, Ramesh & Shankar). 3. Dopehouse scene with Dass holding the wheelcam rig that we created. (In it, me, Pradeep and King Sek.)

Jenny's Poem - 500 & 5 Tamil Film Song

Ganamaanadho Mounam - 500 & 5 Tamil Film Song

Panatha Mattum - 500 & 5 Tamil Film Song

'500 & 5' 5K Run In Indian Express and Dinakaran

A big thank you to all our friends, family and friends of friends who joined us on the 5K Run on Sunday. We're super excited to share our celebration of 500 & 5's Audio Launch. And for those who haven't seen our Facebook updates, here are the pics of 500 & 5's coverage in the media in both Indian Express and in Dhinakaran.

The names in the Dinakaran article have been interchanged. Must have been Shankar and Lakshmi Priya. Nevertheless, congrats are in order for Deepak Sundarajan, Sivashankar Srinivasan, Living Smile Vidya, Chinnu Kuruvilla and TM Karthik Srinivasan and Lakshmi Priya :)
And here's the link to the Hindu article - http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/article3682418.ece written by Preeti Zacharia, who had joined us on the run too. So...

A purpose beyond realms...

RAJESH KHANNA...A soul amidst this chaos called reality..was brought into this realm..with a purpose..to bring to life many creative minds' ideas and visions to manifestation......and the movies..the thoughts that their works provoked, the emotions that were shared..the songs that he portrayed..the culmination of a lot many creative minds into many works..the characters so real..that each one who connected with the films had a bonding with..the face that brought all their ideas to the world..and made the manifestations so real in this otherwise mundane world...RAJESH KHANNA..a purpose fulfilled..and complete! The above song..is from the movie Anand..one of such works..which has touched million hearts..and is an all time inspiration! I feel connected! Many moments of my life owe their gratitude to his purpose!!Thank you universe for the experience.

Groovy - Whatever Lola Wants...

Whatever Lola Wants...by Sarah Vaughan. It's just groovy baby...!!!

A little tribute to the Cast of 500 & 5

Yeeeooowwww...here's our little tribute to 'almost ALL' the 'Actors'(Cast) who played a 'Role' in 500 & 5. See, the thing is, each of those words are loaded, that's why they're in quotes.
1. Because the people that are in this poster don't constitute ALL(coz we haven't included a bunch of 'hand' actors, who've showed only their hands in the film),
2. Because most 'Actors' here are not really actors, except those in our key/primary roles. They're friends, friends of friends ...and people...'real' people who just happened to be on the production set who just did it for the fun of it,
3. And 'Role' here means, even if an actor happened to show their face or body for a second, they are considered to have played a 'Role'.
So....a SPECIAL & BIG THANKS to all of you in our Cast because without you, 500 & 5 wouldn't have been possible!!!
(See if you can spot your friends :))

A time and place

You know, there're some things that never fail to transport you to a time and place. Sometimes, it's the haunting memory of something and other times it's a just an evocation of something lost. This video that we shot about 4 years back is one of them.

500 & 5 - New Poster

Well, just got this out from our Photoshop press. Got a few more which will follow soon. Couple of vertical ones. Another one with the entire cast of 500 & 5, including extras and all. Let us know what you think and if you need to download this at a higher resolution, just buzz. (Above cast in order: Deepak Sundarajan, Sivashankar Srinivasan, Living Smile Vidya, Chinnu Kuruvilla and TM Karthik)

500 & 5's 5K Run/Marathon

How ‘bout another 5? Yeah folks, this time the ‘5’ is a 5Km(& 500 meters) ‘Run’ or Marathon.

You ask, “Marathon? You mean like running? Like exercise?”. And we say, “Well, not really, but if you wanna put it that way, you can.” See, let’s get this straight ok? You can run, walk, slow-jog, fast-walk, cycle or even crawl but you gotta reach the finish-line. No auto! So anyways, this is gonna be a 5K run with the Cast, Crew and Friends of ‘500 & 5’ and Accessible Horizon Films. Everyone’s gonna be there and we want YOU all to join in on the fun and a cause.

Why are we doing this and why do we want you with us? Really…well, there’re 2 reasons.

1. As many of you now know, ‘500 & 5’ is a feature-length ensemble of 5 short films with stories containing Gangsters, Romance, Reality, Dark fantasy, Social rebellion, etc. Despite all the ‘Cinematic’ elements that it contains, the underlying theme of ‘500 & 5’ deals with Money (as the omnipresent yet futile concept that rules us all) through the 5 main characters (and eventually envisions a world without money). Like many seemingly impossible things, this too starts with an idea. In a world where there’s a price tag to anything and everything including basic human-ness, we thought it necessary to shake things up a little. You know, break down the existing concept of Money and bring it down to its knees, at first theoretically, then through the film and eventually, maybe…maybe initiate a dialogue in that direction. We’ve tried to stick to this philosophy even for the ‘Making’ of ‘500 & 5’, which is why we’ve been able to do it independently and without major financial resources. And things like ‘Human-ness’ and the L-word (that ‘blasphemous’ L-word, Love, that we, as a society are embarrassed to use anymore) seem to have lost their meaning and have been replaced by the M-word. So we wanna give a shout-out against that change. How ‘bout that?

2. Now, now, since this is also a promotional campaign for the film ‘500 & 5’, we just wanna have some plain, unadulterated fun with the people who worked with us and made this project into what it is now. There have been tons of people, I mean, real people involved in this project with whom we’ve had too much fun during the making and we want to unwind a little after all that hard work we put in. We want you in on this because this film project is a labor of love made outside the confines of the studio system and we wanna share the euphoria associated with it at a ground level(literally) not at some big, staged, ticketed event.

So…if you’re even a wee bit interested or just wanna get off your uhh…we mean, couch, do join us. Since we'll have some special giveaways for you, we'll need a headcount, so please DO register (it's FREE)with your email at our website http://500n5themovie.com/5KRunRegistration.php. (And hey, if you can’t make it and wanna show your support, you can Like our ‘500 & 5’ Page. It’ll be a booster for our run.)

Event: 500 & 5’s 5K Run

Venue: Marina Beach, Chennai (Start point: Subramania Bharathiar statue)

Date: Sunday, July 22^nd , 2012

Time: 6:30 a.m

For more information & updates, check out:

www.500n5themovie.com

‘AccessibleHorizon FilmCollective’ on Facebook

‘500 & 5’ film's Page on Facebook

www.AccessibleHorizonFilms.com

5 Updates on '500 & 5'

Yo Peeps, time for a little low-down on 500 & 5’s status quo. Things are sort of heating up again as we scuttle towards the finish line. If you’re wondering why the hell it’s taking so long to finish, we can only tell you one thing right now – that this is an Independent film project(which translates ‘You’ll have to do everything yourself’). Trust me, when I mean ‘everything’ and ‘yourself’ – I really mean it, in the dang-est sense of the words.  

1. Like already mentioned, there are 2 songs(1 of which has 3 parts) and 1 poem-track which can be considered a quasi-song if you want. We are working on the fillers (and final touches) for the 2 songs. Panam(Money) and Ganamanatho Mounam(Isn’t this silence heavy?). The poem-song is Nee Sethuki Sethuki(You sculpt...). Once those are done, the next step would be to integrate it into the final film – with the visual lockdown.
2. Getting things ready for the Censor Board Certificate application. A bunch of stuff like the Lab letter, Title certificate, NOC, completed film in the form of a DCP(Digital Cinema Package), Publicity poster clearance, etc have to be readied and submitted during application. Will detail them later.
3. Getting ready for marketing...and preparing publicity materials like Newspaper Ad, Street/City posters, Radio Ad, TV trailer and other miscellaneous online reach. We don’t know how much of it we’re gonna follow through but. Most of the posters are ready, just minor tweaks.  
4. We are thinking of some unconventional ways to reach out – going for something a little crazy and over the top. Basically, planning on the promotional campaign of 500 & 5. If you got any ideas, do give us a holler. More on this later.  
5. Currently in discussion about where and how we are going to get the film out there. As of now, we have something a little staggered in mind. I doubt if it’s gonna be a traditional release.  But until we complete the 1^st 3 steps, I don’t think we’ll get a consensus on that.

So there you go. We’ll post up more updates after the next phase is done with. Till then, do spread the word if you want to support Independent art and film. Lots to be done. Have fun. (Pic: Our Acoustic engineer Rahmath at AH studios mixing the poem-track. Way back in the booth is our man Dass)

Dazed & Confounded

So what's new other than being sucked up into another vortex of life? I warn you, before you go on - this is a bit of a philosophical/existentialist rant(like many of my other ramblings). There's enough things in this world to really throw you off balance just when you think you're figuring it all out. I sometimes really can't fathom whether to laugh at the absurdities of life or marvel at the irony of existence. On the one hand, I love this thing called 'life' because it offers you a perspective of the world that no one else can see. On the other, I hate the concept of it, because it's packed with affirmatives and negatives that are often juxtaposed together and gives you the feeling that life just doesn't fuckin' make sense. I mean, why? Why, for gosh sakes, are we really here? I mean, who cares? Say something happens to me or you, like right now. Other than the people to whom we really matter to, our existence is totally vacuous. Ok then you might say since there may be a few people who do care about your absence, it should make some sense. But then, they are gonna keep living on, maybe with you in their memory. So I feel like, why the hell should I be attached to things and people in this reality? But then, however objectively I look at life, the subjectivity of it all just screws up the knowledge and wisdom you've gathered. How much ever I feel like detachment is the way to go, there's something so strong that pulls you in the way of attachment. But then again, attachments don't matter eventually. So there, see I've put myself in this thinking-time loop. I think I get it and the next second, I don't get one bit of it. These days my cynicism seems to get the better of me. But something just keeps gnawing at your insides that I should be doing this or that. I feel good when I save a dog. Why? I jus' don't know. So despite all the negativity and chaos, I feel there's some purpose but can't put a finger to it. And that angers me, because there seems to be no focus. And you have to fight the good fight to live the life you want to. So I guess the only thing that gets me off is purging out these thoughts that get churned out by my thinking-time loop. And until I strike a balance and get off the chronos, you gotta put up with this existentialist crap. Have fun!

'Metroxical New York' Schedule at IDSFFK

That 'Baaaeaaaa' thing

Dang! You know how sometimes you seem to have a lot on your platter but you're unable to do any of it. Those things keep hovering over your head but you just can't shift gears to do them. It's like there absolutely no motivation to 'do' things. No inspiration...zilch! I don't even know if I can or want to write this right now. You know, mindless meandering...I like to call this feeling 'Baaaeaaa...'. That Baaaeaaa feeling! The censor board awaits 500 &5, but we gotta transliterate this whole script. It's basically like rewriting the script all over again and typed it out in Tamil. Also, today was spent on looking and trying to get inspired from other people's work...that creative thingie that hangs around the universe. Don't know. But there's a higher purpose to all this, sort of. Like we got a responsibility to do stuff. Sometimes there's a need to be grounded in this reality and other times, this need to go where the dragons are...but you know you gotta strike a balance. Shit! Is this Baaaeaaa...gonna do the vamoose or what?

Trailer for Metroxical New York