To all the people comparing the domestic abuse in Animal to Scorsese films.
There’s a clear difference in how Scorsese presents these kind of scenes vs how SRV presents these scenes.
Trigger warning. Screengrabs of Domestic Violence from Raging Bull.
(1/12)
Not so fun fact: When I had my knee surgery few years ago, there was a woman in the room next to mine in the post op recovery who had developed a UTI because she never used the washroom for a couple of days when she had gone to Kedarnath on a pilgrimage. She passed away.
#ChandiniChowdary
was the only girl on set in the Himalayas.
She used to refrain from drinking water as she wouldn't be able to use the washroom from 7 AM in the morning until 8 PM in the evening. Hats off to her courage and stubbornness.
-
#Vishwaksen
at
#Gaami
Pre Release.
Watching Bhagavanth Kesari and spotted this uncanny resemblance between these Tarkovksy and Anil Ravipudi shots.
Both are using similar techniques in composition to communicate two extremely different ideas through that framing choice.
Slightly long, pretentious stylistic breakdown and technical thread, brace yourselves.
When it comes to PC sir’s early work vs recent work, I have a theory. His work through the years, for me, can be bifurcated into two styles, expressionistic and naturalistic.
The story of Gaami and its making is being sold to the audience as a story of perseverance through the power of marketing and orchestral music.
But to me it is a cautionary tale of half baked ideas and half baked execution.
This is gonna be a bit of a long rebuttal so please bear with me and read through the whole thread.
Firstly he never says anything about skilled or unskilled.
Most of the films/shows in India lack proper budgeting and time for pre production.
(1/5)
All you boys tweeting at
@ssrajamouli
@urstrulyMahesh
to shoot their film on Imax need to calm the fuck down. I remember watching Skyfall on imax many years ago which was shot on a 2.8K Alexa mini. It’s not about the fucking cameras, it’s about how you use them.
What a time to be discussing films in India
Producers asking critics not to post reviews
Critics asking audience to not watch films with a critical mind of their own
Producers laughing their way to the bank
Critics taunting audience because producers are making bank
Personal Story Time :
#SwaasaMeedhaDhyaasa
and
#Anxiety
5 years ago I lost my best friends with whom I started my filmmaking journey in a car crash. Few days later it finally sunk in that I had lost the people who were my emotional rocks, I had my first full blown anxiety attack
Ok let’s do this one last time
I finally have all the answers I need for myself as to why Animal is a movie that just doesn’t work on any level of filmmaking
After this thread I’m done discussing the film forever and you’ll probably see why I have arrived at my conclusion(1/11)
Watched Keeda Cola finally last night.
Full on laugh riot.
Another film that people don’t seem to get at the time of release because they had boxed their expectations of what a
@TharunBhasckerD
film should be instead of watching the film for what it is.
Karna has always been and will always be the greatest archetype for writing a mainstream Indian film hero’s journey. It has been the template since Sr NTR’s films, Amitabh’s angry young man films, Mani Ratnam’s Thalapathy/Naayagan and will continue to be “The Template”.
I want to see the films of these telugu peeps with “Director” in their handle name. Em direct chesinaru ra babu? Koddhiga maaku chupisthe memu kuda judge chestham about how good you are at your job?
We have fantastic technicians in our country. Actually in my opinion I would go as far as saying that it’s actually because of these fantastic technicians, half the mediocre films produced in our country are elevated because of their work.
(4/5)
Films like Gladiator/300 were shot in 60 days because literally every frame of those film is storyboarded and the VFX is first pre vized before they start working on the production.
(2/5)
Really have to give it to Chandini for her dedication to the project but this isn’t something to flaunt about on public platform. It’s a dangerously unhealthy thing to do.
I know you want to fanboy over everything your favourite directors say but please don’t pass off statements like this against our fantastic technicians who put in their sweat, blood and tears for the work they do.
(5/5)
This where Animal as film is almost dead on arrival.
Because Animal isn’t a character study. It’s merely masquerading as one.
Animal is a mass masala film that doesn’t have space for interpretation in its design language.
(6/11)
This is why the film starts to feel like this is either the Director’s point of view or what he wants his audience to take away from those scenes.
This is why the film and the filmmaker end up feeling like they are morally bankrupt to the audience.
(12/12)
Mathu Vadalara 2 on cards; to roll from Feb 1st week
Sri Simha and Satya will be returning to the sequel, which, like the first part, will be a Hyderabad-set drama. The makers are planning to kick-start the production from February 1st week and complete it by the mid of April,
Indian production houses have caught on in past decade about how important preprod is but while some of the productions give you time, rarely is there enough money budgeted for pre prod.
(3/5)
Analyse the film from multiple perspectives instead of reacting to the “mass moments” and cheering for them.
Mass moments in Indian cinema are designed to appeal to that caveman inside us but we are better than cavemen.
Right? Right?
(11/11)
@Su4ita
Don’t you think it’s a bit much to say that the film is peddling hindutva just because of one scene that too a scene where a character inspired by a real life freedom fighter who actually dressed like Ram. Seems bit of a stretch.
Hate it when directors work on 3,4 projects simultaneously and they tell you to handle some of the pre prod work before they come join the team. Then they come in a week before the shoot and take a huge shit on the work done so far and go in a completely new direction.
I hope I can go back someday and show some of them your film.
Because your film is an audaciously entertaining testament to a belief I have long held.
“Art & storytelling is the purest form of revolution”
Signing off this app for this year with the most beautiful shot of mine this year.
A shot so pretty that it didn’t fit in with the rest of the film we were making.
As Deakins Dada says Cinematography isn’t about crafting beautiful shots.
When your protagonist mouths lines about cave man mating logic as if it’s an idealistic, aspirational thing without any sense of irony on behalf of the film or filmmaker…
YOU KILL THAT SPACE FOR INTERPRETATION
(8/11)
While our Telugu cinema twitter youths/bhooths were fighting about Bob or Babu last night
I went to see Double Engine last night🤘🏽
It was exactly what
@rohitcjs
&
@campsasi
promised
A Telugu film unlike anything you’ve seen. A coming of age story treated like an acidic western
Now I’ll come to animal. I don’t have screengrabs from the film right now to present this argument with absoluteness.
But in the film SRV constantly prefers to linger on the close up of Ranbir to give what the character is saying more emphasis and weight. (11/12)
Almost everyone who loves movies with a passion, deify some artist or the other in the industry through statements that are hyperbolic in our lives or on this app.
This is just basic human nature guys, calm the feck down.
One of the first things we learn in film theory and analysis is how filmmakers use wide/mid neutral shots to present a scene with objectivity.
Filmmakers use close ups to emphasis a point or take on the point of view of a character or the filmmaker themselves. (8/12)
So my only thing to all the people claiming that Animal is apparently a deep film that us peasant brains don’t understand it, I implore you to look at the film through a dialectical lens.
(10/11)
@karthiksubbaraj
your film took a while to grow on us. For the first half while all three of us could see and were entertained by the influences/references your film wears on its shoulders, we were still like “but what’s is all of this leading to?”
Earlier this year I had the opportunity of watching Kanu Behl’s Agra
@MumbaiFilmFest
.
A film with a much more depraved protagonist than Animal. Probably one of the most vile and unlikeable protagonist ever put on screen. (2/11)
Thanks
@TharunBhasckerD
for speaking publicly about your experience with anxiety. Love ENE so much man, for me personally it feels like I’m reliving a memory with my friends again. Can’t thank you enough for that.
My dad grew up on a staple diet of what Tarantino would call the “Cinema of Cool”.
Whenever someone asks my dad what his favourite film is he’d say “Dirty Harry” *ing Clint Eastwood without a single moments delay as if he was in a mexican stand off in Sergio Leone film.
Even the people closest to you will have trouble processing the information when you first come clean about the mental health issues you have been facing. It is at times truly a lonely battle you have to fight for yourself regardless of having a therapist or meds to help you.
Haven’t been very active on this app lately, time for some film hot takes.
“Kill” was boring, a few gory kills here and there don’t maketh a good movie.
“Joker 2” trailers look great but pretty images with Frank Sinatra music, don’t maketh a good movie.
Thanks
@IIsankalpII
for recording the space on Save the Cat and script structures. I couldn’t join in yesterday. But yep absolutely agree that you need to understand filmmaking & screenwriting rules before you break them.
And in films like “I” PC sir straight up clips saturation and highlights to a level of jarring. To shoot those early PC style expressionistic frames on digital cameras just isn’t possible because digital doesn’t naturally have that film like roll off in highlights and saturation.
Scorsese is mostly known for his stylised filmmaking. But the influence of Italian Neorealism on his films is huge.
Films from that movement are probably the best examples of how filmmakers use objective framing. Please watch, read and learn about these films. (9/12)
I’m guessing people think I posted this as a joke
People keep dividing Art and Commercial films as separate entities
Regardless of what kind of films you like the language of film always begins with what’s in frame and how you choose to frame it within the context of your film
Watching Bhagavanth Kesari and spotted this uncanny resemblance between these Tarkovksy and Anil Ravipudi shots.
Both are using similar techniques in composition to communicate two extremely different ideas through that framing choice.
Whereas my mom grew up on a staple diet of Indian melodramas and having spent time in Kolkata in her formative years, the cinema of Satyajit Ray as well.
I inherited my love for various kinds of films through them.
The greatest inheritance that I could’ve asked for.
Although I love and enjoy stylised films, the films that usually move me the most are the ones where the idea of film making style is invisible and the camera being there with the characters in intimate spaces feels almost incidental. Tótem was just heartbreakingly beautiful.
Back when I used to teach I found that most film students often have this mental block (I used to have one as well 😅) that documentary films and narrative films are separate forms.
We tend to look at documentaries as objective truths and narrative films as constructed truths.
In this first screenshot. You have the wife on the edge of frame with a lot of negative space leading to the door.
It is crystal clear what to infer from this frame. “Scorsese wants to you feel very very scared about how cornered the wife is”. (3/12)
My dad must have turned to me and said “This is brilliant” because of your uniquely twisted plotting at least three times during that second half.
My mom had an instant connect with the tribal people and their oneness with nature.
He’d bring an expressionistic style to a lot of the shots in Nayagan, Thiruda thiruda but when he shoots a Khushi he’d mostly keep it naturalistic.
When I say expressionistic, I’m referring to his high contrast style with a lot of heavy reliance on backlight and use of color.
I’m condensing this aspect of filmmaking quite a bit. But please go read more on this to understand how lensing and camera angles are used to present objective/subjective points of view. (10/12)
People who took up arms because they were discriminated against and subjected to inhumane treatment by their fellow countrymen.
But they left the separatist groups because they found that violence wasn’t their answer as it didn’t achieve any peace within themselves or their land
You can get close to it if you have a great colorist in DI but I think PC sir genuinely wants to push these images beyond their capacity and see what he ends up with. I really want to interview the man about this as someone who’s so inspired by his early work.
Scene description from Raging Bull: Jake LaMotta has just found out that his wife has cheated on him and is having rage fit. His wife goes to the bathroom to hide from him. (2/12)
Anxiety made me lose even more friends as I was unable to pick myself up and go out with them when they’d call me to chill. And I didn’t have the courage to tell them that it’s these anxiety attacks that keep me from meeting them and that I’m not an asshole who’s avoiding them.
It felt as if some imaginary hands were choking me or someone had placed a huge rock on my chest and made it so that I couldn’t breathe. I never felt so crippled in my life. Little did I know this wasn’t just something that I’d have to deal with physically but also emotionally.
Really needed this trip to Mumbai. To screen our documentary on the big screen and interacting with the students & faculty at our film school. And most of all spending some downtime with my batchmates.
also to any one else who bothered to go through this thread and deal with anxiety, check out the video linked. Not a cure all but definitely one of the things that helped me manage my anxiety.
#SwaasaMeedhaDhyaasa
#Anxiety
So excited to share that our documentary featurette 'MAIN THANSU DUR NAHI' has been officially selected for the competition section at the 18th Mumbai International Film Festival 2024
@miff_india
organized by the National Films Development Corporation of India (NFDC)
@nfdcindia
Images from a digital sensor aren’t really pleasing on the eye in over exposed or extreme contrast/extreme saturation scenarios unless they are shot & graded in a certain way where you don’t clip your colors or your exposure but bring them right to the edge of data clipping.
The superhero genre is dying because no one is making inventive choices like this anymore
More musical stand offs and interpretive dance offs than people shooting laser beams out of their hands
With some slight peppering of Jon Hamm narrating philosophical & anthropology theory
There are other monikers in his work for them to be described as expressionistic choices in cinematography but that will require a detour to art history and film history which is too much for a thread. 😅
Dibakar Banerjee isn’t just one of the best directors in India right now, he’s one of the best directors ever. Period.
Sad to see that he can’t get his films released or made because they might ruffle some feathers of the ones in power.
Netflix didn't release a film by Dibakar Banerjee.
It was about "generations of an Indian Muslim family experiencing bigotry".
It was completed but Netflix "signaled to Banerjee that if BJP left power, the political climate may be more amenable for the film."
A political
The camera then pans along with him to arrive on a two shot.
Now we are in objective sense of framing where both the characters occupy equal space in the frame.
Both of them are abusive, one uses emotional abuse and the other physical. (5/12)
It’s most likely a 20/20 or 40/40 muslin cloth rigged behind the actor which is then flooded with backlight using HMI lights.
Used a similar technique for this shot on my short film albeit on a smaller scale.
This guy might have gone to film school but he must have missed the first few weeks where they teach you to apply feminist and other anthropological theories to analyse films. You might understand the technicalities of filmmaking, doesn’t mean you get the techniques of film.
Kanu Behl’s film uses its unlikeable characters to explore themes of repressed sexuality, gender power dynamics in a society/family that’s heavily entrenched in patriarchy
The film isn’t out yet so I’m linking this interview of Kanu from Cannes.
(3/11)
Once the switch to digital happened his collaborations with Balki which fall into the more naturalistic zone work really well because that’s what the digital sensors can handle.
@IIsankalpII
AI focus pulling would be great for continuous subject/object tracking and static shots
But sometimes you do need the human element to react to the actors’ rhythm which isn’t always the same in diff takes.
In this fantastic interview with
@ChalchitraT
Kanu talks about filmmakers leaving space within the film and its filmmaking style for the audience to come into the film and form their own interpretations of a film.
Watch from 4:15 mark
(5/11)
“Life ae cinema, evadi cinema lo vaade hero” annatu.
Evadi heroes or gods vaadiki untaay. Mii pani meeru chuskondi, mi heroes ki mi directors ki meeru elavation lu icchukondi.
This just as ridiculous a logic as the one that Telugu film producers were using recently by asking reviewers not to post their reviews for the first couple of days after a film’s release.
If you hate superhero movies, don't review them. If you get triggered by certain subjects, stay away from discussing them. If you find stand-up comedians offensive don't follow them. Consuming something you know you are going to hate and then complaining about it is ridiculous.