Madh Island, Mumbai, is dotted with bungalows that are often used for shoots. They are called shoot bungalows – as compared to the private or company bungalows that dot the landscape.

We were shooting for a show called Golden Age, hosted by Kitu Gidwani – that goes on Samay Mumbai from next week. The show is aimed at an audience above 50 – and seeks to ‘empower’ them through a combination of information, case studies and representation .

kitu

(Kitu Gidwani – Golden Age, Samay Mumbai)

More on the show closer to launch date……

Being in Madh, gives you access to the beach – and with that a whole different ecosystem At one end you have shoot crews bustling and shouting out instructions …

the crew

And, at the other – across the wall- you have a much quieter mode of life – where conversations seem to be much more muted. and, people seem to have the non verbal communication of those who work hours together and are in perfect synch

slice of life - fishing village

A shoot – in addition to talent, equipment and crew – is also props – that give the sorroundings a different kind of ambience

flowers

Something like this simply adds a dash of colour to a frame. All those little splashes or little touches that one sees in a frame (or more likely doesn’t see) takes time to achieve.

flowers3

Often, I run out of patience when propping is being done _ and I usually try one of three things a) spend time with the talent – trying to get the best out of the content. Usually the best way is through conversation on the topic – this allows for an exchange of ideas and usually a better take for camera. b) meditate – staying calm is absolutely necessary on the shoot floor. I personally have issues with loud decibels or rudeness. I push aside those tendencies with just finding a corner and meditating. c) click – another way of relaxing. I tend to shoot in interesting places, and I like documenting those places & people – and there is always enough downtime – unless I am also directing – to click

perched

And, of course, if i am lucky – i truly get a great Arabian Sea sunset ….

flame

gold

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footprints in the sand

all of us have lives that are footprints in the sand.

but, each life has value. not just in the monetary sense but in the civilizational sense. each life has love, family, friends and experiences. and, their loss matters.

this is the crux of the film, on disaster risk reduction, that i am working on. it is not about millions or billions or lakhs. It is about the one. the individual. And, how it needs to be at the centre of policy making

shoots, edits, trying to make sense of policy. it’s like being back in school !!

more on this later…..

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The New Year has been good. I haven’t had a single day off :)
January started with me traveling to Shimla for a shoot. The story is that of communities – and how they understand, appreciate and prepare to beat the effects of natural hazards.

Shimla lies in an earthquake prone zone. The last earthquake struck a century ago. Experts predict one any time now. Also, parts of the state face cloudbursts, landslides, floods etal. We worked with all aspects of the system – from the individual household to the state machinery with the NGO acting as a bridge, a catalyst, educators and as sensitizers . It is nice to see the system at work.

two shot

two children at a school that is being retrofitted to make it earthquake proof.

I finished the documentary “Lessons that Matter” that charted post Tsunami long term rehabilitation in 3 countries. In Damniyamgama village in the Kalutura district of Sri Lanka, rehabilitation took the form of an eco-village that is built on age old traditions of living in peace with nature and the surroundings and self sufficiency. In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India – this was in the form of Swayam – a micro credit programme that sought to break the cycle of dependency that is created after a disaster. In Banda Aceh, Indonesia – the initiative came with a Tsunami Resource Centre – that resolved to train future generations to survive hazards.

The Crew - dealing with kids
At the Sarvodaya Eco Village, Damniyamgama, Sri Lanka. Children at the pre primary schoo.

I will have detailed posts on each of these soon… but , i am actually running. We travel to Balasur in Orissa tomorrow to tell the story of how communities are gearing up to prepare for cyclones.

And Finally,
Jhing Chik Jhing - Cogito TV’s first Marathi feature film is progressing through post production. We are all terribly excited about it. Saw the first cut on Sunday. It was good. it hasn’t been dubbed yet, the music isn’t on yet, the tranists are not yet done — yet it holds. Bharat Jadhav is brilliant and so is Chinmay Kambli. murmurs of Cannes have begun.


Chinmay Kambli & Arti More – Jhing Chik Jhing


Bharat Jadhav, Manasi Juvekar, Chinmay Kambli & Aarti More – Jhing Chik Jhing


Dilip Prabhavalkar in Jhing Chik Jhing

Hopefully the rest of the year should be like this :)

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Sri Lanka was good fun. We shot for 3 days at the Sarvodaya Village in Kalutara.
The shoot was exhausting. It was hot, humid and i have come back nicely browned.
there are 7 hours of footage and i have to make a 10 minute film – so editing ought to be fun :)
The Andaman leg of the filming is also done.
more on both of these in the coming days.
On the 17th, i had a free day and caught the goodies at the National Museum of Colombo.

Colombo Museum Black White

The museum ….

Buddha at the Colombo Museum b/w

The Buddha….

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The Boats

Am off to Sri Lanka. It is work :)
Will be near the beaches filming for a Documentary on Long Term Rehabilitation Strategies.
With work like this, one doesn’t really need a break :)

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the-shoot-speed-jamming.jpg Coca Cola Speed Jamming – connect ho jao. produced by us for Zoom. As always – the behind the scenes was a closer photo finish than the contest. Good fun – all in all. I really miss the process.

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I love the shoot floor. The activity. The entropy. The sense of something being created. The feeling of building something. And there is nothing like the day before the shoot. Light - at Film City Lights - Film City 2 Fixing the Lights - Film City

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control room - film city Control Room put up for the Show at film city The show – "Coca Cola Speed Jamming" The venue – Studio number 15, Film City The Date – 7th July (yeah! we actually shot on 7.7.7 and that was by default, not design.) The Channel – Zoom Great fun. Great crew, good participants, and an action packed time. Sometimes the behind the scenes can be as hairy and tension filled as a suspense film. Telecast date – 21st July.

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Today is Cogito TV’s fourth anniversary 4 years of being an entreprenuer. What have I learnt? Humility – possibly, Patience – definitely. Above all, the sense that i have to do my best to succeed because going back to work in an organisational set up is scary !!

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The first day at FICCI Frames. I attended most of the television sessions that took place. The first was on the "Regulatory Freamework in the Entertainment Industry" – an interesting topic given the government’s desire to regulate, various Public Interest Groups deciding to act as ‘moral’ policemen, and the industry’s inability to work as one and put up a common front. The main presenters were Amit Khanna – who made an impassioned plea for the government to stop ‘moral’ policing, Kunal Das Gupta – Chairman of Sony Entertainment television, who pointed out that the Government’s policy deters choice by making it impossible for niche channels to survive, Philip Graf – deputy chairman of the British communications watchdog OFCOM – who shared the regulatrory approach in Britain, and SK Arora – Secretary I&B ministry who put forth the Government of India’s stand on regulation. S.K.Arora said that the Government’s regulatory policy was based on a 4 pronged approach: A) Provide consumer’s with choice at an affordable price. Within this:

- The model appropriate for Inda, according to the Government, was a mass volume low margin model

- ‘must provide’ ‘must distribute’ model as opposed to one based on exclusivity

- Channels must provide content on a ‘non-discriminatory’ basis

- Any network must provide channels to all platforms, it is the variety of platforms that will provide the choice

B) Inducing & Facilitating investments, both domestic and foreign C) Providing level playing field across the board D) Support the Industry to go global While the Government’s intentions are laudable – and I think that they are acting in what they think is ‘public interest’ – and i don’t have issues with their overall goals, there is something particularly lopsided about the way policy number 1 " consumer choice’ is being implemented. Currently as per CAS guidelines, every pay channel that is being delivered to the home can charge a maximum MRP of Rs. 5. If toothpaste was priced the same way that television is …. then we will all be using vicco vajradanti. The whole point of consumer choice is that we choose to buy everything at different prices and we as individuals figure if something is worth the price or not. And, the whole point of being a business is that we choose to make samething that we sell at a particular price and it is upto the business to figure if it wants little money from lots of people, or lots of money from a few people. It is, therefore, upto the consumer and the business to figure out whether a product sold at a particular price makes sense or not. Whether i want to buy a movie channel at Rs.30 a month and see 30 films or see a movie once a week on a GE channel and pay Rs. 5 per month. And, let’s face facts — content requires money to make, and if channels and content creators to invest in different types of content that offer consumer ‘choice’ then the revenue models need to commensurate with the risks taken. Otherwise evreyone will take the least risk path – and give us wall to wall soaps or reality shows and that is reall what is happening with television. But, in a certain way the solution lies not so much with the Government as the industry. If it, as a unified body that believed in itself and its growth pattern, provided a working solution to sort out the current mess – then maybe, the Government will not feel this tremendous urge to interfere.

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