Skhizein Me. (Short Film)

Film Festival Selection:

• SiGNS 2015 9th Edition - Federation of Film Societies of India - Kerala.
• 5^th Half International Festival 2015 – Insight. Palakkad, Kerala.

Synopsis:

A troubled man seems to be engaging in a gruesome act witnessed by a spectator. The man, covered in blood, prods and entices the spectator to watch his masterful work. The spectator’s lack of interest makes the man angry.

Production Note:

This short film was shot over a single night with a crew of just three members, the director, camera man and the lead actor. The post production work was completed in another twelve hours, over a couple of days.

Credits:

Produced and Directed by Pradeep Kumar (Oldboy Productions Pvt. Ltd.)

Actors: Ragavendran, Pradeep

Cinematography: Balaji VC

Editor: Dorai Prakash SA

Sound Design: Dorai Prakash, Pradeep Kumar

Art Direction: Pradeep Kumar

This is technically my debut short film as all my previous works were part of my film school years. My last short film which I wrote and directed was back in 2012 as my graduation project at film school. That film's overall cost was around two lacks involving so many people and a lot of issues. I pushed myself too much to achieve quite some impossible goals. Even though that was my fourth short film I consider it to be my worst film. When you are distracted by a thousand problems you forget to concentrate on the most primary things you require to execute your ideas. Handling incompetence teaches you to not compromise, ever.  

To shoot another film after so long with a minimal crew of just three, plus the editor was quite a liberating experience. This film only cost me around four thousand rupees to make. All the people involved believed in the story and we tried to make it better. This proved to be a far more satisfying experience compared to my last project which I now consider a disaster. 

Pradeep Kumar   

The Art of Acting

Some of the most brilliant Actors are not even part of the Film Industry. No wonder many mediocre and talented film actors aspire to the next level - POLITICS.

My Beliefs - Part 4

Learning is constant. We learn from the intelligent, we learn equally or more from the stupid and idiotic.

Before you criticize, question yourself about what you eventually would contribute with your critique.

Most of the times, your opinions do not matter. To the very few to whom it does, be sure to share.

Hate is too strong an Emotion to waste on people who don’t matter.

You are as brilliant and idiotic as the people you are surrounded by.

Every idiot believes he or she is a Genius.

Playing multiple personalities in real life is considered to be normal, we play diverse roles according to our assumptions and facts we know about the rest. The ones who cannot or do not want to act these roles continuously will mostly be considered abnormal.

If I look absolutely ridiculous and stupid to you in whatever I say or do, in all probability you look the same to me :)

Cheers
Pradeep Kumar

My Favourite Films

I've restricted my list to English and Foreign language Cinema. I had two simple criteria for making this list, movies that were mind F'king / Inspiring and the ones that I've watched a gazillion times. 

So In very specific, reverse order here's my top ten till now.

Police Story I - Jackie Chan

Kill Bill - Quentin Tarantino

12 Angry Men - Sidney Lumet

Fight Club - David Fincher

Alien - Ridley Scott
Bladerunner - Ridley Scott

Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain - Jean Pierre Jeunet

The Silence of the Lambs - Jonathan Demme

Godfather I - Francis Ford Coppola

and of course the No.1 is...

Oldboy - Chan Wook Park

and the next ten in no particular order...

Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance

Lady Vengeance

The Shining

Snatch

JFK

Evil Dead

Cannibal Holocaust

Singin' In The Rain

Notting Hill

Spygame

Mother, Daughter, Wife / Girlfriend, Sister Syndrome.

Whenever men say a woman is a mother, daughter, wife, sister suggesting that they should be celebrated and worshiped, somehow I always think, isn't this the same reasoning the conservative bigots give to keep women shackled and be slaves to men.

The only two things a woman does not have a literal option of choosing is to be a Daughter and a Sister. Every woman has a mother and father (optional) in the practical sense. If she has a sibling, she is a sister too. Of course she can choose to disown the relationship at a later point in life.

Every woman can choose NOT to be a Mother or a Wife and if she chooses either of these, will this society still celebrate and worship her?

Like many, I grew up surrounded by these archaic views. We still live in this male dominated society, but things have changed. We choose between sense and nonsense as we evolve. 

I have evolved up to a stage where my endless pondering keeps arriving at the same conclusion. We maybe unequal in a lot of things, but one shouldn't have a false sense of superiority complex just because you are a man. Women do not need worshiping, women do not need to be put on a pedestal by men, women do not need to be made Gods.

Cheers
Pradeep Kumar

Reality Check

I was happy to see so many babies and kids all over the place...

happy to see some smile...

happy to hear some gibberish...

until the moment I realized...

I was sitting in a children's hospital and all of them were there for a reason

:(

Filmmaker

There are only two types of Filmmakers...

The ones who Copy and the ones who get Inspired. 

Midnight in Paris – Directed by Woody Allen

This filmmaker has twenty four Academy Award nominations and has won four of them. But the name Woody Allen always spelled boredom to me for many years. Most film buffs would strangle me for this but it is true.

The year was 2007, is when I began to expand my horizons in cinema. I started to watch and collect movies extensively, sometimes going by the movies' and sometimes by the filmmaker’s repertoire. Woody Allen was always on the list of filmmakers whose films I wanted to watch. I had three of his most famous works Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Hannah and Her Sisters. If my memory serves me right, I watched Annie Hall and Manhattan and I was bored to death. I hate to watch the so called "art house" films made in the Indian regional languages, as most of them stretch reality to extreme levels and I always thought that these filmmakers don’t care much for the audience. Watching Woody Allen’s these two films reminded me of this genre, except that these films were rom coms, a genre that I love. After this, I actually deleted all three movies and never looked back… until now.

I watched Midnight in Paris last year. It was such a beautiful film that I was totally drawn into the world of the protagonist, Gil Pender played by Owen Wilson. To be more specific I was drawn by a single character so much that I ignored the film and started researching about that particular character. That character was of the famous writer Earnest Hemingway, which led me to read one of his nonfiction works and also write a post in this blog – ( http://pradeepsrants.blogspot.in/2013/10/the-written-word.html )

I watched the movie again and remembered how I totally ignored this movie, and did not write about this classic. So here are my reactions, after going through a wonderful and romantic experience for the second time.

The story is set in Paris, 2010. Gil Pender is a screenwriter from Hollywood who is working on his first novel. He is with his fiancée Inez, played by Rachel Mc Adams. They both are visiting Paris with Inez’s wealthy parents. Gil is in love with Paris, he loves everything about the city. He wants to move to Paris once they get married, but Inez prefers to move to Malibu, back in the USA. Gil gets drunk one night and wanders off leaving his fiancée with some friends. He wanders around the streets of Paris. He gets lost and sits helplessly on a street side. Its midnight, an old car comes down the street and stops near Gil. The passengers in the car, who are dressed in vintage clothing, ask Gil to join them. Gil goes with them to a party.  There he realizes that he has been transported to the past, to the 1920’s. An era he loves and admires for its famous artists, poets, writers… The story transports us to the past and present with the protagonist of the film. We travel with his apprehensions, confusion, amusement, love and finally with him, we reach his destiny.

Even though the movie is set in Paris, and the lead character is obsessed about the city, the movie gets you hooked onto the characters and the story. The photography never distracts you from the story and that’s one of the biggest strengths of this film. The opening sequence of the film is a lengthy montage of the city of Paris. It feels like the filmmaker is making a statement - “Yes, it is Paris. Now stop watching the city and watch the people I created.”

To accompany the mood, the background score is spot on, with its minimalist music. The music imbibes you with nostalgia, romance and of course comedy. The movie had four Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Director, and Art Direction and won the Oscar for Best original Screenplay. After watching Midnight in Paris I had to rethink my opinions about the Filmmaker. I’m going to watch his famous works again and maybe this time I’ll enjoy them as it was meant to be.

The movie has some inspiring dialogues and conversations; here is one which inspired me the most.

Gil: Hi Mr. Hemingway.

Ernest Hemingway: The assignment was to take the hill. There were four of us, five if you counted Vicente, but he had lost his hand when a grenade went off and couldn't fight as could when I first met him. And he was young and brave, and the hill was soggy from days of rain. And it sloped down toward a road and there were many German soldiers on the road. And the idea was to aim for the first group, and if our aim was true we could delay them.

Gil: Were you scared?

Ernest Hemingway: Of what?

Gil: Of getting killed.

Ernest Hemingway: You'll never write well if you fear dying. Do you?

Gil: Yeah, I do. I'd say probably, might be my greatest fear actually.

Ernest Hemingway: It's something all men before you have done, all men will do.

Gil: I know, I know.

Ernest Hemingway: Have you ever made love to a truly great woman?

Gil: Actually, my fiancé is pretty sexy.

Ernest Hemingway: And when you make love to her you feel true and beautiful passion. And you for at least that moment lose your fear of death.

Gil: No, that doesn't happen.

Ernest Hemingway: I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving, or not loving well, which is the same thing. And when the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face like some rhino hunters I know, or Belmonte, who's truly brave. It is because they love with sufficient passion to push death out of their minds, until the return that it does to all men. And then you must make really good love again. Think about it.

“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” – This is true for cinema too. The films that become your favorite depend largely on how one relates to its characters and their journey.  What makes me love Midnight in Paris the most is my personal journey, as I used to dream about studying art in Paris. 

Cheers

Pradeep Kumar

The Films that made The Filmmakers

To become a Filmmaker, one of the most primary and common motive is Films / Cinema itself. Whether its in a 70 mm widescreen cinema theater, television, or even a laptop computer screen, the magic of movies has inspired many to let go of everything and dream. Those dreamers have later become masters of the art of film making. Here are a few of those great masters of Cinema and the films that made them:

Vertigo by Alfred Hitchkock - Chan Wook Park

10 days that shook the world by Eisenstien - Francis Ford Coppola
(http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/printmember/cop0int-1)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) by George Roy Hill - David Fincher and Guy Ritchie
(http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/butch-cassidy-and-the-sundance-kid/)

David Fincher - http://collider.com/david-fincher-music-videos/

Great Expectations by David Lean - Ridley Scott

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly by Sergio Leone, Black Sabbath by Mario Bavo, Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein by Charles Barton - Quentin Tarantino

Lawrence of Arabia by David Lean - Steven Spielberg


2001 A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick - James Cameron
(http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/cam0int-3)


cheers
Pradeep Kumar

One of the worst days of my life

I know him for more than 10 years... 

and he is no more. 

I wish I did not see you like this. I did not want this memory of you... lying there ... still full of life... was wishing you would get up and say "HAAAAIIIIIII MACHIIIIII"...  the way you always do. 

I walked away... as I couldn't bare your stillness. 

I will try for the rest of my life to erase this memory and remember you for your smile, exuberance and camaraderie. 

I will always remember your hopes and dreams... will try my best to make some of them a reality.

Miss u my best friend. 

Cheers Machi

Pradeep Kumar

TATBDOML

These are the best days of my life.     

These are the days which mark important milestones in my fortunate life. A reminder for my pathetic memory…

17/10/2013

Finally, after a long spell of creative void we finished a project in record time. A writing project, that came upon when I was just settling into another. Thanks Pradeep Kaniyadi for the wonderful offer, I hope that we managed to script a good story. A special thanks to my collaborator, Akruti Rao for writing it with me. 

To T D P… cheers

18/10/2013

The reluctance to be and do mediocre resulted with a lot of failed attempts to work in the creative media industry; however, this lead to certain important decisions.  A long term dream of starting a creative company is now a reality.

Oldboy Productions Private Limited is now an officially registered company.

Cheers

Pradeep Kumar

The Written Word

I had vaguely heard about Hemingway, knew he was a great writer, but never read any of his work. I hardly read anything other than spy, espionage thrillers and have very limited knowledge about literature. A couple of months ago, I happened to watch Midnight in Paris, a film by Woody Allen. It’s a fantasy rom com, which travels back in time to the 1920’s, to the world of Ernest Hemingway and his celebrated luminaries from the literary world. The character which stood out for me in this film was Hemingway’s, such an inspiring personality.

I’m currently reading one of his non-fictional books, and yesterday I read a passage from it. Now, I just can’t get past it. For an Amateur writer (I know "writer" is too strong a word for a guy who doesn't know the basics of grammar :-)) but still these words are so beautiful and inspiring.

Read on …

A Moveable Feast:

Chapter 7: “Une generation Perdue” A Lost Generation

When I was writing, it was necessary for me to read after I had written, to keep my mind from going on with the story I was working on. If you keep thinking about it, you would lose the thing that you were writing before you could go on with it the next day. It was necessary to get exercise, to be tired in my body, and it was very good to make love with whom you loved. That was better than anything. But afterwards, when you were empty, it was necessary to read in order not to think or worry about your work until you could do it again. I had learned already never to empty the well of my writing; but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.

~ Ernest Hemingway 

Cheers 

Pradeep Kumar

Filmmakers: A Point of View

In the pursuit of Cinema over the past four years, I've seen so many views, ideas, people, fights, delusions, and critical analysis, both from the good and the bad.

The primary and the most important aspect of the art / business of Film-making (meditation or whatever else you want to call it), is the Filmmaker or the Director. The whole world knows and adores the famous and illustrious Actors, but for a thriving film industry, the talents of strong filmmakers matters the most.

Although Cinema had its supremacy in the past, I don’t think it can change any society as a whole. Cinema can have minor influences in good and bad ways in our present conditions. However good Filmmakers have the power to influence and impress generations.

Yes, “GOOD Filmmakers” is subjective. It may vary according to the industry, business aspect or it can purely depend on the art value.  But both do exist, even though most people involved, including some Filmmakers, are always DUMB enough to be at loggerheads with each other.

So the breed of Filmmakers is an interesting case study. These creators range from humble, reclusive, and eccentric, to the loudest and the most pompous freaks of nature, who claim to know the formula for success. The wide variety in personalities makes all of them unique. So it is indeed logical that in cinema, all these people will make all sorts of films, from Docu-Dramas to Hyper Realism, from Art House to Summer Blockbuster Commercial cinema.

The laymen, or the general audience, choose what they want according to their needs. And accordingly some films get critical acclaim, and some make millions of dollars at the box office, and many do strike a balance. 

Art house veterans ridicule mainstream or commercial cinema, and the commercial guys return in kind or just ignore. But one of the DUMBEST things to witness is the extreme arguments and fights between the Filmmakers regarding which is better or good. The animosity is as old as the history of cinema itself. No matter how much you dislike any form of cinema; there will be an audience for it. It can be a niche or it can cover a wide majority of the world’s population. 

I indulge in extensive research and analysis about filmmakers, genres, different aspects involved in film-making. Also have arguments and fights, but I do have a limit and it will never reach an extreme most of the times. I do make an effort to understand but certain times I do let go. I refrain from wasting my time by discussing things after a point. I love most genres except for extreme commercial cinema were Logic is nonexistent and the other extreme of self-indulgent cinema, absurd works which makes sense only to the ones who've made it; but still I wouldn't ask them to stop. 

Cinema is primarily an art form for entertainment, and through that entertainment one can have beautiful and meaningful experiences. Identify your strengths and explore.

Happy Film-making…

Cheers

Pradeep Kumar

RAGGING

“Ragging is good for developing friendship” is more like saying
“Rape is good for a healthy sex life”

- Pradeep Kumar

My Beliefs - Part 3

My Beliefs - Subject to change when I'm Wrong.

In the land of BOOTLICKERS, I will choose to CUT my Tongue :-p

Introverts are more often misunderstood as Self Centered Pricks : )

When people try to figure you out, you will have a thousand Definitions.
All of which can be False, True or Both...

People who try to impress and please everyone by playing it safe - show some guts please... might help you to improve your Personality.

Despise the ones who are ALL TALK and NO WORK... (I do despise myself at times : )

Never beg for Respect. When you are actually good at what you do... it is inevitable.

Never argue with a Narrow minded IDIOT, he or she will waste your Time.

If you do not Adapt / Update yourself; you will be Obsolete, History, Incompetent, Boring etc...

LE STUPID - Keep Changing the Mirror and hope for Better.

Even with Everything...
We look Ugly.
So don't even Think of...
Peeling your Skin.


Cheers
Pradeep Kumar

Yours Truly, LOVE.

Yours Truly, LOVE.  was my graduation film at L V Prasad Film & TV Academy. It was an amazing 2 years at film school where I learnt much more than just Cinema.

I have to confess that I did have plans to quit film school by the beginning of the second year, but I also like to finish what I start. So with lot of reluctance and lethargy, I did finish my final project for a sole reason, that I had committed to this project which was not mine alone and was also the Cinematographer's and the Editor's graduation project. 

I had four different stories and had to settle for a simple one which was extremely complicated to execute due to some unique circumstances. I always liked a challenge and I'm happy to say that I managed to deliver even when many "well wishers" would have loved to see me fail. (pun intended) 

No filmmaker will be 100% satisfied with his final product. I'm happy with the 60% I got. THANKS to my team who made this possible. THANKS to your constant patience with my short comings. 

Extremely Happy that my Film was part of  the following Film Festivals:

• 10th Kalpanirjhar International Short Fiction Film Festival (2012) - Kolkata
• Cut.In Student Film Festival of CMCS, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (2012) - Mumbai
• Reelshow International Online Student Film Competitions - Finalist for October, 2012
•  SIGNS 2013 - 7th Edition, Federation of Film Societies of India - Keralam.  
• THIRD PRIZE - 7th Asan Video Awards, Asan Memorial College of Arts & Science (2013) - Chennai.
• FIRST PRIZE – Mise En Scene Film Festival, Parampara (2013), Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi.

Cheers

Pradeep Kumar

Women are Crazy... Men are Stupid

George Carlin on Men and Women... Warning : Explicit Content  :) :) :)



Cheers
Pradeep

DO NOT JUMP TO.........

CONCLUSIONS :)

I'm much more than this blog. Do not get fooled... lol...

Cheers
Pradeep Kumar 

My first short film - exist

Exist was my first short film as a Director. This was my third project at film school were we had to make a silent film as part of our Continuity Exercise. I had written and posted the story in my blog a while ago. I just finished re editing the film and also added background music. We shot the film using a Sony HDV camera, the whole shoot was completed in one day.

I have to thank my cast Manoj Leonal Jahson and Mayank Gupta. Thanks to Rakesh Rawat my cinematographer, was amazed to see him climb up a tree not thinking twice about his own safety to shoot an overhead shot. As its a very slow paced film, I did bug my editor to death to get exactly what I wanted. Thanks Akruti Roa for putting up with my constant nagging while editing. Also thanks to all the people who helped me in making this film.

This film is dedicated to my dear friend Manoj Krishnamoorthy, will always look back at those memorable days and remember him smiling.

Hope the film is worth your time.

Cheers

Pradeep Kumar

An open Letter to all the Haters :-)

Facebook in one of the main platforms through which people exist. The active ones, these are the people who share anything and everything on social media. The second group are people who are occasionally active and the final group are your purist voyeurs, they just log in to see what others do. We all know to which category we exactly belong to.
I have seen many hate mails and open letters in the blog world, people generally whining about writing styles, content. People ridiculing others for their lack of English knowledge (mine is very bad), for having opinions etc. This outraged and offended group have now taken over social media too. These people think that the Internet / Blogs / Social Networking Sites etc... are their Ancestral wealth. Sorry idiots, its not. I'm surprised to see many who take the term HOME PAGE quite literally. Wake up people it is not YOUR freaking HOME page. It is Mark Zukerberg's Home page and we all are just guests here. I have every right to say what I want to and so do you. If I get annoyed with your comments and opinions, that is primarily my problem and the simplest solution is to keep away from you.

Social Media has become the new world of entertainment where you are the star as well as the audience. It's a large scale reality show in which millions of people participate with blind faith. So If you are unhappy about others opinions and activities, get the fuck out, If not, then stop whining and start irritating :-) 

Cheers to all who live and let live. 

Cheers

Pradeep Kumar