Sunday 13 October 2013

Production blog and Teaser Release of " ZINNIA " Short Film


The reason why some film enthusiast turn's into a " STORY TELLER " is the desire to tell his own story. I have gone a lot of metamorphosis in the past year by doing freelance works which I didn't even Imagined in my life I would do. It was a great mixture of Knowledge, Experience and humility. All these experiences can be reflected in the work of " Zinnia ". Here I am to share the first day experience and how we started from script to shoot off " Zinnia ". Before that better watch the Teaser to get Interest.


I woke up at 5 P.M, I promised my grand father that I would drop him to the station and I over slept. I felt a strange emotion of Guilt and love towards that incident with my Grand father because we rarely meet for years  .within a few hours I got a thought of how would It be If I caused the same emotion to my audience with fiction and drama. I was against dramatization of the story, but something pushed me to do it. Thus it started, I wrote the screenplay in a week by doing proper homework on all basics of story structure, 3 act 's blah blah......., I have made a previous short film which is a  science fiction . The response was mixed. It was criticized for confusing story and creepy Visual effects .at the same time praised for it . In fact it gave me a lot of opportunity's like directing a commercial .well that's another topic ( I even have  a thought of writing a book how not to make a short film  )  . I wanna get away with Epic quality and Super naturalness  of my previous films . That's the reason why I choose  this simple script and I decided not to invest any money and to just use perfectly the tools I have , It was just like an exercise of film making



                                                         I acquired enough knowledge on to make a neat film from story to Render . And stayed away from telling this idea to anybody by posts on fb and stuff because I wanna make it before publicizing it. Coming to the matter of what I have it's nothing but a computer with 2GB ram and a 512MB graphic card and skills to all Film making Departments  ( except sound mixing ) . I gotta get all the equipment by favors . It started with Camera to Lens , Gear, Lights and even skill . I take this opportunity to thank all those who funded for the films 


Canon 550d :- Rahul Raj


Canon 600d :- Sri Harsha Nagula

Canon 500d and Lens :- Sahith Chowdary

Steady Cam Rig :-  Suresh Krishna



Lights , diffusers and Reflectors :- James Wilfred



The complete 80 % of picture has low light environment  so we choose  prime lens to shoot we took to return in a single day and used it for almost 5 days ( for which I faced pretty problems ) . It was about 4  A.M and we dint get the 550d so we thought we should cancel but It was Harsha's 600d which  saved the day . The most common thing in short films is every one wanna act but they are never prepared for the hard consequences this film includes shooting from night 12 am to 3 am ( or even 5) and shooting in public places like bus, main roads and railways stations . It was all overcame by Kiran Varma and Rakesh . he was a last minute decision without any audition and stuff .I took him because I know him .well coming to my Cinematographer it's his first venture as short film  , as he is an experienced still photographer in tollywood doing for films like Yevadu , SVSC etc...., so the team was done and with good pre- production . I opted a shot division list and followed exactly it was a great method I guess .



 The shot list was a bit confusing the first day . I was confused to the order of shots, In a nutshell I Didn't follow much of the shot list ( But I learned to use it effectively from the 3'rd day ) . we were trying to get a night effect by lights and gels . that took almost 50 % of the time . and I realized what's the most hardest job of cinematography . we shot for 7 hours to get 1 and a half min  of the film . and crew slept at 6 am while I was watching dailies . I did a bit fun by shooting them in awkward sleeping modes .and after watching my dailies I slept at 11 A.M. That's the Joy of Indie film making .



  ( DURING LOCATION SCOUT)




Sunday 7 July 2013

How to get ultra- slow motion video with CANON 550D by Kagita Vidyadhar

Every one has a wish to create DIY cinematic effects at home like , green screen shots, slow motion , vfx shots etc...,


so, here's how you can get a super cool slow motion video with a Canon 550d or 5D

NEEDED :-

1) DSLR  CANON 550D

2) Twixtor plugin

3) After effects or premier pr

4) Props ( water splash, ballon burst ......any thing else  )


STEPS :-

1 ) Set the camera settings as
Shutter :- 1/2000
ISO -400
Aperture :- 5.6 ( keep as low as possible )
Lens :-  kit lens ( any lens can be use 50mm preferably )
 Video mode :- 720p 50fps

2) Adjust with any external lights as high shutter may use  more light.

3) record it


4) edit with the following software as suggested by VFX bro
http://youtu.be/ycjwORvHUlw


 ALL THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!  by KAGITA VIDYADHAR


Monday 27 May 2013

5 Important points for Cinematic look by Vidyadhar

Five Important points which I personally believe which are important for cinematic look are ?

 1) LIGHTING

2) LENS

3) DETAIL

4) SOFTWARE'S

5) ASPECT RATIO


LIGHTING :- The most important department which does the 50 % of the job of getting cinematic look . It's is not about getting expensive lights .It's about using available natural light effectively. we can even use candles. the best way to study lighting is study nature and see them . most of the films are shot at a particular time called "Golden hour" . which is the time before sunrise and after sunrise.


LENS :- Use prime lenses like 50mm and 35 mm with lowest aperture possible like f 1.4 and f1.8 which helps to  generate depth of field and shoot at low light.


In Stanley Kubrick's film BARRY LYNDON they shot the above scene under 3 candela which is about 45 times less bright than a 25 watt compact light bulb. . they used the Zeiss prime lenses which have some of the fastest apertures ever created. The difference between a f/1.2 lens and a f/0.7 is almost 2 full stops.


DETAIL :- If you don't have detail there's no use of even world's expensive software. the reason why we cant shoot a feature film with iphone thought it has the same resolution as canon 5d and 7d .the reason is detail , sensors and dynamic range. that's the reason why we opt for Blackmagic or RED camera's sometimes.



PROGRAMS :- Once you have the detail u can play with it in software's and develop the mood required by using software's like Davinci resolve , colorista , Magic bullet etc...,


ASPECT RATIO :- The ratio of length to width ratio should be 2 :35 :1 which is called the cinema scope effect .

The above scenes are from my short film ZERO

I hope I shared my knowledge enough : ) Have a good day .

Monday 28 January 2013

"Zero " progress and experiences and ( Zero short film poster )

I have never been so far in making " Zero " till now . It was two years of commitment. I wanna share how I started " Zero " . by the way this is our short film poster and please do support us by clicking the link https://www.facebook.com/pages/ZERO-A-short-film/534513319906237?ref=stream and helping in publicity.
    

First script treatment, it was 3 pages and a 6- min expected short film. it was inspired by a physics theory of Arthur C.Clarke called  quantum teleporation and mass cloning . after several problems and finally at a script of  9 pages and expected 20-30 min . I should admit that I made this film in a hangover of Hollywood sci-fi films like Matrix, Source code, Tron (1980's ) ........and many other it was completely unconscious inspiration .


                                                       When I first started the shoot in 2011 we went  a scout for the locations as we need to new world atmosphere. which shl'd resemble earth but not earth . we did 60  % of the shoot. later it was cancelled by some other reasons. I was alone . but at some bottom of my heart said never give up  so made  a new team again . people say whatever happens is for our good . well this 2 years of my life proved it . again I started the shoot with new team , this time we did more research on technology and other stuff, and again many re shoot's happened because they weren't matching the required visual effects . finally we finished shooting and the visual effects are done ,just editing and sound is left . I wanna tell one word  " ZERO WAS MY FILM SCHOOL " . I have learned something may be which I cl'dt  even learn in a film school.