Thursday, March 26, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
IPOD మర్చిపోయారా....మీ ఫేవరేట్ సాంగ్స్ వినలేక పోతున్నామే అని బాధ పడుతున్నారా?
సంగీత ప్రియులు వేరే ప్రదేశాలకు వెళ్లినపుడు...IPOD మర్చిపోయనపుడు ekkadainaa.. ప్రదేశాలలో ఇంటర్నెట్ ఉంటే ఇక మీకు ఆ సమస్య ఉండదు...మీ ఫేవరేట్ సాంగ్స్ అన్నీ in.com లో వెతికి పట్టుకొని మీ సొంత ప్లే లిస్ట్ తయారు చేస్కోండి. అన్నీ భాషల పాటలూ ఇక్కడ లభిస్తాయి. ఎక్కడైనా మీ పాటలు ఇంటర్నెట్ ద్వారా వినండి.. మీకు నచ్చిన పాటలను మీ ప్రెండ్స్ కు మెయిల్ చేయండి...అంతే కాకుండా మీరు ఇందులో sign up చేసుకుంటే మిగిలిన మెయిల్ సర్వీస్ లయినటువంటి gmail, yahoo, rediff ల లో వలె మెయిల్స్ కూడా పంపించవచ్చు అంతే కాక in.com లో నుంచి ప్లే అయ్యే పాటలు మన కంప్యూటర్లోని పాటల కన్నా చాలా హై క్వాలిటీతో ప్లే అవుతాయి..ఎక్కడా సాంగ్ స్ట్రక్ అవ్వడం అనేది వుండదు...చాలా స్మూత్ గా ప్లే అవుతాయి.In.com ద్వారా ఇంకా మీరు గేమ్స్ కూడా ప్లే . చేయవచ్చు
కొన్ని paatalaku...
Sunday, March 15, 2009
బాలీవుడ్.... పైరసీ
At a Video Store near you…
The rabid infestation of the cancer known as piracy has completely devalued each and every film, big and small, and ultimately killed the experience of watching a film on DVD. Now every film from Billu Barber to Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge, from Delhi-6 to Jai Veeru (yes I know that film JUST released in theaters this weekend!) is sitting on the counters of the video stores in a poor quality, washed out pirate copy.
The stores here in Vancouver sell (not rent, sell) these crap quality copies of pirated DVD ripoffs 3 for $10.00, so of course 95% of the customers, who view these films as nothing more than time-pass (and yet they buy every freakin one: for that price why not? If its crap just toss it or worse, give it to a friend to they can save that $3.00 and put it towards their next meal deal at McD’s!) clamor to get their three for that week. Some even come a few times a week. This is even worse than the previous trend of stores having monthly memberships where one could rent up to 20 movies a month for only $10.00. We have sunk to an all-time low.
The clients are not to blame: they go with the cheapest most conveniently available option. They don’t give a shit, because for them buying 3 films for $10.00 is better than spending anywhere from $25 to $50 on taking their family out to the theater. Why bother anyways? When the latest Hindi film playing in the cinema receives bad reviews, audiences rush to the video stores because, even if its not worth watching in theaters, they still want to see it. The other issue of course being who the hell’s going to buy original DVDs when they can get a cheap ass disposable copy instead?
Given that the vast majority of their customers have seen the shitty pirated copies, video stores have little to no incentive to purchase the originals of the smaller films or the ones that flopped badly when they do release on DVD. Only the big films are purchased, and that too only a handful of copies. And so the vicious cycle is further perpetuated.
The sad truth, and yes I know we all know this but I still think it needs to be stated, is that none of the revenues from these pirated DVD’s go to the Distributor who paid for the films rights and are getting ripped off, and so the Distributors thus have to purchase these rights at a lower price from the films producers, who, no matter how good or bad their films may be, are still entitled to the royalties earned from their film being released on DVD. The whole damn industry suffers as a direct result.
So how much money is the film industry losing because of piracy? The production houses (big and small scale), the independent producers, the various distributors and the exhibitors world wide, how much are they losing because of this racket? Well, I did a bit of research and found this article , for which there’s also a video post, and was shocked to learn that "Industry estimates say this means more than 400 million dollars in revenue loss for India’s entertainment industry". Could that be right? $400 Million?? That’s mind-boggling!
So what can be done about this? I may be quite ignorant in this matter, but what’s stopping the major distributors like UTV Motion Pictures or Eros Entertainment, or even the smaller ones like Rainbow films or others like them, from outsourcing a small third party company to go out to these stores and confiscate any pirated DVD’s? (There are over 60 video stores in Vancouver and surrounding cities alone, can you imagine how many pirated discs are out there right now??) Heck, they could get they same guys to distribute the official copies upon release. That way, the video store owners have someone auditing them regularly and ensuring that the stores don’t carry pirated DVD’s while at the same time promoting films when they do come out on DVD.
This is not all that costly of an option; its effective, and above all else it has many obvious benefits. It would kill piracy at the local level, forcing video stores to purchase and rent out only the officially released copies. This in itself would help distributors regain a huge portion of their currently lost revenues. It would better promote films, both on DVD and in cinemas, again leading to regaining lost revenues and also increasing the value of every film. It would eliminate the bulk-buying of films and thus customers would have to pay to rent each film (the way they do at Blockbuster and other mainstream video stores), so they would be more selective and thus again value the better films even more. And of course, audiences would no longer be subjected to poor quality, pixelated, washed out and sometimes even incomplete DVD copies of Indian films. Again, by watching the film on a crisp, clear high quality DVD, it ups the value of each film and especially the good ones.
Why someone hasn’t taken the initiative yet and cleaned up this mess is beyond me. But someone needs to step up and create a system to battle this disease, this infestation, because its eating away our beloved industry and its devaluing our favorite films on a weekly basis.
I don’t know if its gotten this bad everywhere or if its just in my part of the world. Would really, really like to know, so please everyone provide some sort of feedback on this. And of course, suggest ways on how we, in our own cities, can help battle piracy.
The rabid infestation of the cancer known as piracy has completely devalued each and every film, big and small, and ultimately killed the experience of watching a film on DVD. Now every film from Billu Barber to Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge, from Delhi-6 to Jai Veeru (yes I know that film JUST released in theaters this weekend!) is sitting on the counters of the video stores in a poor quality, washed out pirate copy.
The stores here in Vancouver sell (not rent, sell) these crap quality copies of pirated DVD ripoffs 3 for $10.00, so of course 95% of the customers, who view these films as nothing more than time-pass (and yet they buy every freakin one: for that price why not? If its crap just toss it or worse, give it to a friend to they can save that $3.00 and put it towards their next meal deal at McD’s!) clamor to get their three for that week. Some even come a few times a week. This is even worse than the previous trend of stores having monthly memberships where one could rent up to 20 movies a month for only $10.00. We have sunk to an all-time low.
The clients are not to blame: they go with the cheapest most conveniently available option. They don’t give a shit, because for them buying 3 films for $10.00 is better than spending anywhere from $25 to $50 on taking their family out to the theater. Why bother anyways? When the latest Hindi film playing in the cinema receives bad reviews, audiences rush to the video stores because, even if its not worth watching in theaters, they still want to see it. The other issue of course being who the hell’s going to buy original DVDs when they can get a cheap ass disposable copy instead?
Given that the vast majority of their customers have seen the shitty pirated copies, video stores have little to no incentive to purchase the originals of the smaller films or the ones that flopped badly when they do release on DVD. Only the big films are purchased, and that too only a handful of copies. And so the vicious cycle is further perpetuated.
The sad truth, and yes I know we all know this but I still think it needs to be stated, is that none of the revenues from these pirated DVD’s go to the Distributor who paid for the films rights and are getting ripped off, and so the Distributors thus have to purchase these rights at a lower price from the films producers, who, no matter how good or bad their films may be, are still entitled to the royalties earned from their film being released on DVD. The whole damn industry suffers as a direct result.
So how much money is the film industry losing because of piracy? The production houses (big and small scale), the independent producers, the various distributors and the exhibitors world wide, how much are they losing because of this racket? Well, I did a bit of research and found this article , for which there’s also a video post, and was shocked to learn that "Industry estimates say this means more than 400 million dollars in revenue loss for India’s entertainment industry". Could that be right? $400 Million?? That’s mind-boggling!
So what can be done about this? I may be quite ignorant in this matter, but what’s stopping the major distributors like UTV Motion Pictures or Eros Entertainment, or even the smaller ones like Rainbow films or others like them, from outsourcing a small third party company to go out to these stores and confiscate any pirated DVD’s? (There are over 60 video stores in Vancouver and surrounding cities alone, can you imagine how many pirated discs are out there right now??) Heck, they could get they same guys to distribute the official copies upon release. That way, the video store owners have someone auditing them regularly and ensuring that the stores don’t carry pirated DVD’s while at the same time promoting films when they do come out on DVD.
This is not all that costly of an option; its effective, and above all else it has many obvious benefits. It would kill piracy at the local level, forcing video stores to purchase and rent out only the officially released copies. This in itself would help distributors regain a huge portion of their currently lost revenues. It would better promote films, both on DVD and in cinemas, again leading to regaining lost revenues and also increasing the value of every film. It would eliminate the bulk-buying of films and thus customers would have to pay to rent each film (the way they do at Blockbuster and other mainstream video stores), so they would be more selective and thus again value the better films even more. And of course, audiences would no longer be subjected to poor quality, pixelated, washed out and sometimes even incomplete DVD copies of Indian films. Again, by watching the film on a crisp, clear high quality DVD, it ups the value of each film and especially the good ones.
Why someone hasn’t taken the initiative yet and cleaned up this mess is beyond me. But someone needs to step up and create a system to battle this disease, this infestation, because its eating away our beloved industry and its devaluing our favorite films on a weekly basis.
I don’t know if its gotten this bad everywhere or if its just in my part of the world. Would really, really like to know, so please everyone provide some sort of feedback on this. And of course, suggest ways on how we, in our own cities, can help battle piracy.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
.jpg)
Friday, March 6, 2009
టెన్ స్క్రీన్ రైటింగ్ టిప్స్ ....
1. FINISH ITActually finishing it is what I’m gonna put in as step one. You may laugh at this, but it’s true. I have so many friends who have written two-thirds of a screenplay, and then re-written it for about three years. Finishing a screenplay is first of all truly difficult, and secondly really liberating. Even if it’s not perfect, even if you know you’re gonna have to go back into it, type to the end. You have to have a little closure.
2. STRUCTUREStructure means knowing where you’re going; making sure you don’t meander about. Some great films have been made by meandering people, like Terrence Malick and Robert Altman, but it’s not as well done today and I don’t recommend it. I’m a structure nut. I actually make charts. Where are the jokes? The thrills? The romance? Who knows what, and when? You need these things to happen at the right times, and that’s what you build your structure around: the way you want your audience to feel. Charts, graphs, coloured pens, anything that means you don’t go in blind is useful.
3. HAVE SOMETHING TO SAYThis really should be number one. Even if you’re writing a Die Hard rip-off, have something to say about Die Hard rip-offs. The number of movies that are not about what they purport to be about is staggering. It’s rare, especially in genres, to find a movie with an idea and not just, ‘This’ll lead to many fine set-pieces’. The Island evolves into a car-chase movie, and the moments of joy are when they have clone moments and you say, ‘What does it feel like to be those guys?’
4. EVERYBODY HAS A REASON TO LIVEEverybody has a perspective. Everybody in your scene, including the thug flanking your bad guy, has a reason. They have their own voice, their own identity, their own history. If anyone speaks in such a way that they’re just setting up the next person’s lines, then you don’t get dialogue: you get soundbites. Not everybody has to be funny; not everybody has to be cute; not everybody has to be delightful, and not everybody has to speak, but if you don’t know who everybody is and why they’re there, why they’re feeling what they’re feeling and why they’re doing what they’re doing, then you’re in trouble.
5. CUT WHAT YOU LOVEHere’s one trick that I learned early on. If something isn’t working, if you have a story that you’ve built and it’s blocked and you can’t figure it out, take your favourite scene, or your very best idea or set-piece, and cut it. It’s brutal, but sometimes inevitable. That thing may find its way back in, but cutting it is usually an enormously freeing exercise.
6. LISTENWhen I’ve been hired as a script doctor, it’s usually because someone else can’t get it through to the next level. It’s true that writers are replaced when executives don’t know what else to do, and that’s terrible, but the fact of the matter is that for most of the screenplays I’ve worked on, I’ve been needed, whether or not I’ve been allowed to do anything good. Often someone’s just got locked, they’ve ossified, they’re so stuck in their heads that they can’t see the people around them. It’s very important to know when to stick to your guns, but it’s also very important to listen to absolutely everybody. The stupidest person in the room might have the best idea.
7. TRACK THE AUDIENCE MOODYou have one goal: to connect with your audience. Therefore, you must track what your audience is feeling at all times. One of the biggest problems I face when watching other people’s movies is I’ll say, ‘This part confuses me’, or whatever, and they’ll say, ‘What I’m intending to say is this’, and they’ll go on about their intentions. None of this has anything to do with my experience as an audience member. Think in terms of what audiences think. They go to the theatre, and they either notice that their butts are numb, or they don’t. If you’re doing your job right, they don’t. People think of studio test screenings as terrible, and that’s because a lot of studios are pretty stupid about it. They panic and re-shoot, or they go, ‘Gee, Brazil can’t have an unhappy ending,’ and that’s the horror story. But it can make a lot of sense.
8. WRITE LIKE A MOVIEWrite the movie as much as you can. If something is lush and extensive, you can describe it glowingly; if something isn’t that important, just get past it tersely. Let the read feel like the movie; it does a lot of the work for you, for the director, and for the executives who go, ‘What will this be like when we put it on its feet?’
9. DON’T LISTENHaving given the advice about listening, I have to give the opposite advice, because ultimately the best work comes when somebody’s fucked the system; done the unexpected and let their own personal voice into the machine that is moviemaking. Choose your battles. You wouldn’t get Paul Thomas Anderson, or Wes Anderson, or any of these guys if all moviemaking was completely cookie-cutter. But the process drives you in that direction; it’s a homogenising process, and you have to fight that a bit. There was a point while we were making Firefly when I asked the network not to pick it up: they’d started talking about a different show.10. DON’T SELL OUTThe first penny I ever earned, I saved. Then I made sure that I never had to take a job just because I needed to. I still needed jobs of course, but I was able to take ones that I loved. When I say that includes Waterworld, people scratch their heads, but it’s a wonderful idea for a movie. Anything can be good. Even Last Action Hero could’ve been good. There’s an idea somewhere in almost any movie: if you can find something that you love, then you can do it. If you can’t, it doesn’t matter how skilful you are: that’s called whoring.”
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
