For all Alfred Hitchcock lovers out there

I am a huge fan. I am sure there are plenty of them there who love Alfred Hitchcock.

He was a hugely sentimental man for a filmmaker. He believed in making an appearance in every film he ever directed.

There’s even a story of a film (not sure what the name is) where he finished the edit and realised he never made an appearance and there wasn’t any suitable shot for him to. So he decided to replace a picture of a man dead in the obituary section of a newspaper read in the film my film’s leading character. Quite a filmmaker. Quite a sentiment.

This is a fantastic video source that shows all his cameos, almost. Sit back and enjoy.

Stay curious!

Get busy living or get busy dying

Famous lines spoken by the Tim Robins character in The Shawshank Redemption.

Amongst many things a movie reflects like culture, time, perception, one important aspect is life itself. From time to time, screen writers have come up with rare gems that teaches us a thing or two. I used to have this little diary in the past each time I watched a film to see if there are lines I could steal and use it when appropriate. I still do, just that my phone has taken the place of the diary.

Here’s a 7-odd minute video of what life is and how important is to make right choices taken from various films over time. If you look beyond the dumb ones, you do see some gems inside them. Remember, these are the choices you make.

Stay curious!

Deliberate product placement in movies

Yes, there has been many and it didn’t start now. Way back in 1910s apparently. Here’s a great summary of all the products deliberately placed in movies. By deliberately, I mean, forced. To subsidize the budget of the films.

Hershey’s in ET was quite prominent and this video claims for Hershey’s to have paid $1m to get the placements in the ’80s. That’s a fair sum of money for the amount of placements in the film.

I wonder why ‘locations’ never used this technique. There are films you watch and feel ‘wonder where they shot this and wish I were there’ but no clue unless you google them or look at production notes (if you get lucky).

Quite a good curation though.

Stay curious!

A tribute to short films. In a scale you never imagined.

Short films are increasingly becoming popular as people’s tendency to sit through an elaborate narrative is increasingly becoming rare.

Personally, I love short films and I keep looking out for good ones in any form I could get hold of. We are story tellers in our profession too. It’s just that we don’t do a good job of it.

Johnny Walker and Schweppes have done some amazing experiments in saying brand stories through short films.

There’s has never been a concerted effort on a global scale to put spotlight to these short films industry. Not anymore, I hope. With Futureshorts, I think every aspiring film maker will have his / her opportunity to exhibit their work.

Their YouTube channel is filled with awesome short films (didn’t have time to see all of them but little I saw I loved it. Languages, culture, content, visual treatments, forms, animatics everything is unique from film to film.

I loved this one, absolutely wonderful.

They are having an event called Future Shorts ONE – connecting audiences across the globe in live simultaneous events. 

Launching on 6th November in 12 countries and 50 cities. Go check if your country / city is in the schedule. Vietnam seems to be the only Asian country. Europeans will have many choices.

Not very far from Academy Awards recognizing short film makers.

Stay curious!

First, an over rated book. Now, an useless film

What were they thinking? Didn’t they see the film after making it? Couldn’t they have stopped it?

One of all time worst films every made or at least, I have ever seen. Nothing wrong with the casting I suppose. James Franco, Javier Bardem, Julia Roberts, Richard Jenkins all of ‘em either Oscar winners or nominees in the past come together in this awful screen rendition of a very over rated book.

The IMDB review is kind to the film in giving 5 out of 10 after 6,000 votes. At best it gets about 3, 1 each for Italy, Bali and Javier Bardem.

If this is supposed to be a template for the women of today, it is the women who should be upset and angry. They definitely aren’t this clueless or insensible about their life. Liz Gilbert is not a representation of any sane women at that age.

You better Eat, Pray and Love the way you do normally. Save your money for something else or better, donate to a charity cause.

Stay curious! Stay sensible!