Waterborne, an Indie movie released on Google Video for $3.99, has been declared as a hit. The director Ben Reki, is an American Desi, and his interview appeared on rediff a last month. It revolves around a bio terrorist attack on LA, with Ajay Naidu (the neurotic software guy in OfficeSpace) in lead.
I haven’t watched it yet […]

Sanyo has just released a sub-$1000 consumer pocket HD camera. Doesn’t have any indie shooting features, its purely a consumer pocket cam. Like my dream cam HVX200 - this one is tapeless solid state memory cam. Die tape Die!.
But it has successfully hit the magic under $1000 price tag - heck its not even […]

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Director Priyadarshan’s interview in Mid-Day about his new movie:
Many films on winning a lottery have been made in Bollywood over the years. Always in a lighter vein. It is Priyadarshan’s turn now to do one on this subject in his inimitable style… the way only he can handle situational comedies.
This one is called ‘Malamal Weekly’. […]

In a way that’s true - Peter Jackson has signed up to direct the hit Microsoft videogame HALO - with MS getting 10% of all sales. I can’t imagine BillG and PeterJ going on press tours promoting the movie - it would be a riot! While I was expecting a more human drama from […]

Traditionally movies have been so much removed from real technology to point that its laughable. This fact has been repeatedly demonstrated by fake geeks in those summer blockbusters. They type ‘Search Password’ in a black screen and get the exact password blinking in a big white box or command the computer: ‘Access Secret Files’ which […]

Is it a black XL2 ? Looks like it - but no, its the New HDV camera from Canon. Canon was holding its card tight until the last moment. When JVC and Panasonic was going media blasting with their HD Cameras everyone was looking at Canon - ‘Dude, are u going to say something?’ […]

I am all ears when it comes to mexican maverick Robert Rodriguez - I just like his ideas, enthusiasm and hi-octane energy (if only his movies didn’t suck most of the time). But you’ve got to give it to this guy - he is damn versatile, from Vampire Movies, to Children’s movies (SpyKids123), to […]

Many theaters have been less than enthusastic about moving to Digital Projection systems for the lack of any standards. They were too afraid to invest $100K on a digital projector only to find it rendered incompatiable or obsolete in a format war between studios. Not anymore.
In 2002 all major studios (Universal, Disney, Warner, Fox, […]

Over the weekend, I watched 3 critically acclaimed films:
- Danny Boyle’s ‘Trainspotting’, and
- Multi Oscar nominated ‘Very Long Engagement’
- David Cohen’s multi oscar winning Fargo

Very Long Engagement - From the director of Amelie - the lesser said about ‘Very long… ‘ the better - it may have gorgeous cinematography, wonderful production values and great direction […]

Another rehash of Hideo Nakata’s Japanese Horror flick following the heels for Ringu and Grudge. Hideo Nakata who has great success with creepy modern day horrors, meaning, you don’t see his characters locked up in a vampire infested 18th century castle in nowhere land - but his character carry cell phones, live and work as […]

IMDB Tagline: Fight and you’ll never survive….. Run and you’ll never escape
This is one gun happy film, both hard hitting and brutal in its portrayal of Rio’s slum gangs. Starts out as a total mess, where you find it hard to recognize who is who or what the heck is going on. But slowly the […]

Maria full of Grace follows Maria, an innocent flower girl, as she steps into a dangerous world of drug trafficking. Before you conjure up blood soaked gun throttling mafia gang buster - no, it has none of that, what it has is a simple story of a strong willed girl surviving some of her darkest […]

‘Saw’ is a nail biting Indie thriller set in a single room with just 2 principle characters. One of the sleeper hits of 2004, this Australian film helmed by 27 year old debutant director James Wan, manages to keep you guessing with its riveting screenplay.
Written as an ultra low budget flick ($22,000) it got the […]

News: Indian Censors advocate a Ban on smoking on screen.
Are today’s youth influenced by what they see in the Media (TV, Movies and the Videogames) ? Is Hollywood to blame ?
Well, here is a direct Q&A with Mark Taylor who survived Columbine High School Shooting where many young students were massacred.

Was there a connection between […]

Ismail Merchant the longstanding producer/director duo of classy independant films, died today in London. Indian born Merchant along with James Ivory, an American, made some 40 films together and won six Oscars spanning 4 decades. Infact, they are featured in The Guiness Book of records for longest standing partnership in films. Their movies were […]

Sony today released another HD camcoder HDR-HC1 - the smallest ever. So now Sony has 3 HD camcoders - new HC1($1700), Fx1 ($3500), Z1u ($5000). It probably will have a 1/3″ CCD (/CMOS) given its price range. It does a 1080, interlaced of course, and a Cineframe 24p simulation.
With its pictbridge, 1-megapixel stills, […]

Steven Soderberg - the stylish director known for Oceans 11/12 and Traffic - is trying a new form of distribution. If you are thinking ‘Internet ? why even I distribute my home videos in Internet’ - no, not only Internet. His next film ‘Bubble’ is going to be simultaneously released in theaters, DVD, pay-per-view TV […]

Today I came across an article being discussed in LazyGeek’s blog. The Outlook article (link) talked about the hypnotized slumber the Indian audience are being subjected to, diminishing their capacity to perceive & recognizing quality. The article touched upon certain valid points and missed others completely.
To recognize that there is a […]

Panasonic HVX200 becomes the first camera under $100,000 to record high-definition 1080/24p. The ONLY other camera is Sony’s CineAlta, a $100,000 camera which, Lucas and Rodriguez used in ‘Star Wars II’ and ‘Once upon a time in Mexico’. They both use Sony exclusvely

Also this $5995 camera does what a $65,000 Varicam does - variable frame […]