THE ARTISTS ( indie filmmakers podcast)

ILO ILO is now playing on #Mubi.  We talk to writer-director-producer Anthony Chen who won the Camera d 'or for his debut feature.

1) ILO ILO got praised by the masters of cinema including Alfonso Cuaron- 

what went into making it.

2) Producing your own work-

3) Writing a well-woven script like ILO ILO- instinctive vs calculated.

4) The Director as a writer when writing. 

5) Why make films? 

SHINE YOUR EYES, had its Berlinale premiere (2020) just a month back. Directed by Matias Mariani a prominent name in Brazilian cinema, Matias talks about the future of his film as everything has gone under lockdown, the festivals have been canceled and the future is hanging in the air. He also gives us pointers on the process of making his film in Brazil, the art and culture there and also how he gave the 70's Hollywood films look to his film using super Baltar lenses and more. Matias has written prominent films like PENDULAR (FIPRESCI BERLINALE 2017) and also produced FISH DREAMS (CANNES CRITIC WEEK), DRAINED (SUNDANCE) ETC. Find him on www.primofilmes.net/matiasmariani

Some of the pointers.

1) Getting premiered in Berlinale 2020 - in the panorama section

2) Marketing strategy during the festival 

3) The next step post-COVID 19- and cancellation of festivals

4) Brazilian cinema (brush past Bacurao)

4) Funding/Process of writing his film/ designing the 70's Hollywood look for SHINE YOUR EYES

5) Brazilian art and culture now and from now.

6) Predicting the future of films post-Covid 19.

We are chatting with Dr. Biju Kumar Damodaran- three times national award winner. His recent film- TREES UNDER THE SUN- got a limited release via PLATOON ONE FILMS.

The most important points are:

1) No Spaces for art-house and indie movies.

2) Where can people watch award-winning films from festivals?

3) Every village in Kerela has its own film festival

4) Reaching to the audience in India outside festivals. 

5) How to create spaces 2 show theses films-

6) Malayalam film industry- 200 films per year.

7) Selling the films to local channels- award winners are not considered as mainstream. 

8) Why do you want to make films is the most important question  a filmmaker should ask himself/ herself before starting out.

Brought to you by Metaphysical Lab

MUSIC- BEN SOUND.COM

Special thanks- Platoon one films 

In conversation with the producer of Andhadhun (the blind melody) Sanjay Routray of Matchbox pictures:

Some of the pivotal points of the conversation:

1) Figures of Andhadhun :)

2)Actors being apprehensive to play a blind protagonist until #Ayushman Khurana 

3) What made Andhadhun work- the universal narrative

4)Focus group and their relevance

5) Working with first time directors- Khosla ka Ghosla, Paanch, Makdee, Matrubhoomi

6) Who is watching so much content on OTT

7) The vision of an indie producer/production company

8) Don't underestimate the intelligence of the audience

9) Release strategy of Andhadhun

10) Biggest Vaccum in the industry right now,

(Podcasts are best experienced with an earphone)

Barnabas Toth has twice been shortlisted in the Oscars: Last year for his short film Chuchotage and this year for his feature film THOSE WHO REMAINED.  He joins us from the land of Bela Tarr. 

Some of the pointers of the conversation:

1) being selected in the top 10 out of 93 entries.

2) campaigning for Oscars

3) The elements of drama in the writing and the execution

4) selecting a story for its emotional quotient.

5) funding in the Hungarian industry

6) How does a city influence an artist? 

7) Who is going to win on Feb 9th oscar 2020?

Music courtesy: Bensound.com

Brough to you by Metaphysical Lab

Bhawana Somaaya, is a renowned film critic, journalist and film historian. She was honored with the Padma Shree in the year 2017.. Chk her at www.bhawanasomaaya.com

We question:

1) The changing role of a film critic

2) Picking up content from a heap of content

3) The value of stars given for a film

4) Is a popular content a good content?

5) Who is watching all this content?

6) Cinema is dead?

7) There is no other Bachchan!

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An inspiring chat with Ravneet S Chaddha, whose film Subira, is an official entry from Kenya to the Academy 2020.

We wish her good luck in this journey!

1) Finding your calling after being married with kids

2) Fighting for your calling

3) Trying to learn making films

4) Learning how to write films - via Syd field:)

5)  Dropping the kids to her parents and becoming an assistant director

6) Making her short film Subira

7) Shooting videos of her family and friends and editing it. 

8) finding a producer for Subira the film

9) Getting an experienced team on board.

10) An official entry of the film from Kenya.

Sid Anand Kumar is a Producer with SAREGAMA Yoodlee films. 

Some of the pointers of the conversation

1) Creating content/ films in the era of content proliferation

2) Who is the audience?

3) Parameters of structuring your content

4) Filmmaker should have an inherent need to reach a wide audience

5) Parameters of studios like Yoodlee.

6) Where are the films that once were in Cannes etc- could they be monetized?

7) Don't emulate the masters- like Ray.. it's a different era.

8) Yoodlee 1.0 to 3.0

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STUDIO SPACE SPECIAL THANKS- EPLOG.MEDIA 

MUSIC COURTESY- BENSOUND.COM

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How does it feel to get your film 'bidded' for in Sundance? 

This and more from the most self-aware filmmaker Q- who clearly defines the Y of making a film.

Some great takeaways from this conversation:

1) Being your own indie producer

2) First few things that you need to do when you decide to be an indie filmmaker

3) How to insulate yourself from losses and defeats

4) Designing your film for the festival- yes you have to do!

5) Funding ur films

6) indie vs ott

7) Make films wo profit motivation- essence of a company.

Film Critic with filmcompanion.in and columnist with The Hindu Rahul Desai dissects our favorite film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

So how many times have you seen the film? 

1) Talking Gondry n Nolan in the same breath

2) Making a film timeless...

3) Defining classics in today's times

4) Art will leap across generations

5) Feelings and its definition

6) Audience vs critic

7) Screenwriting templates

8) Bollywood version of ESSM

Special Thanks EP LOG MEDIA ( for the studio space)

Music: Bensound.com

Brought to you by: Metaphysicallab

1) Artists create their art to heal their own soul

2) Making films in Bangladesh

3) If you have a strong desire the universe will make it happen

4) You must keep trying, things will happen when thye are meant to happen.

5) Preparing the actors philosophically before the shoot.

6) Following the screenwriting template.

7) Female technicians in Bangladesh

Our EP 20 SEASON 2 of THE ARTISTS PODCAST features Paolo Bertolin

Paolo is a film programmer, critic, and journalist. 

He is a consultant with Venice international film festival and in the selection committee of  Director's fortnight Cannes and more....

We interact with Paolo straight from Italy about wearing different hats.

Also, about maintaining the objectivity in watching different contents from different continents.

The Definition of FEELINGS IN THE TIME OF OVER CONSUMPTION

Things that .a festival looks for in a film selection of 1 out of 300

And why isn't there a film from India selected in the main competition Cannes. 

Brought to you by : Metaphysical Lab

Music- www.bensound.com

Hi Guys, we are in the end of season 1 of THE ARTISTS- and we will be back shortly with some more eclectic conversations .

MUSICCOURTESY- KEVIN MCLEOD... 

Conversation with the insightful Melina Leon all the way from Lima Peru 

1) selection in cannes- beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

2) film industry in Peru

3) female technicians in Peru 

4) Challenges of being a female director 

5) Designing your film for the film festival

6) Separating your writing from directing

7) Importance of feedbacks. 

8) Do not hurry if the pressure to submit to any festival is mounting! - FINISH YOUR FILM FIRST

With the inimitable Smriti Kiran, the artistic Director of MAMI

We dissect film festival  strategies and more..

1) Building an institution like MAMI

2) OTT/ DIGITAL- THE FUTURE OF MOVIE MAKING AND CURATION

3) ROLE OF AN ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

4) DEFINING THE VISION OF A FESTIVAL

5) QUALITIES OF A READER

6) CHALLENGES OF A FESTIVAL

National award winning filmmaker for the film Dharm starring Mr Pankaj Kapur Bhavna Talwar, juggles between 

producing and directing and between Indian and International projects.

Some great take aways from this  banter:

1) Double roles of producing and directing- which is easier

2) Indian crew vs international crew

3) system for indie filmmakers who are making their master pieces. 

4) daily habits of indie filmmakers to stay inspired- includes a reading from OSCAR WILDE by Bhavna

ADVICE TO INDIE FILMMAKER OUT THERE- 

DONOT GET DEPRESSED AND DEF DEF DON'T TRY TO KILL YOURSELF, FIND AN ANCHOR IN YOUR ART- A WONDERFUL CONVERSATION WITH DEVASHISH

1) VULNERABILITIES OF BEING AN INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER

2) LIFE AFTER 2 FEATURE FILMS- AJJI, BHONSALE

3) STUDIOS VS INDIE PRODUCERS

4) BEING A FILM ENTREPRENEUR

5) SHORT FILM CLUB AABOBO

6) LACK OF FILM COMMUNITY AND SUPPORT IN MUMBAI VS OTHER CITIES AND COUNTRIES

7) SCRIPT LABS- ?

8) FILM MAKING VS FILM DISTRIBUTION EG EISENSTEIN

9) HOW NOT TO KILL YOUR SELF AND ANCHOR YOURSELF IN YOUR ART.

Hi guys, we are not publishing this week. 

Do check our episode the coming week. 

music kevin mc leod's. rocket power

2000 people come to Mumbai daily to become the next superstar.

How are they getting channelized into the system. This and more with the head of Times Talent Ranimol

1) Staring of Indian talent agencies- 13 years back VS CAA/ UTA

2) Still new and unstructured

3)How they handpick artists

4) First thing an actor should do when they come to Mumbai

5) Information is the key

6) casting couch

7) The Future

There are no OTT platforms in India that specialises in short docus- our contention 

Also, retaining the IP of your content and more.

1) Doubling up as a producer director

2)Finding your audience.

3) festival plan, strategy, press kits, publicist , press reviews, sales agent and more

4) Becoming a film entrepreneur

6)Distribution vs sales.

And we are back with the inimitable writer/ director/ producer Larry Gross:

Reading Poetics before hearing this would be nice.

1) Kind of characters you choose to write about, commits to a certain kind of story.

2) World of stories- engaging it in probability.

3) concept of reversal with examples

4)balancing the left and the right brain while writing.

5) How many drafts till you stop writing.

6) Objectivity of being a writer.

7)  Despite all the rules- what makes a movie work.  

7) Designing a script- Hitchcock

Watching/ Rewatching:

Manchurian Candidate, 

letters from an unknown woman, 

persona, 

The edge of tomorrow, 

Ground Hog day, 

Collateral.

There is so much more in the talk that we had to edit out- if you randomly want to hear it- please mail and we will share the unused parts- metaphysicallab@gmail.com

Sanjay Chaturvedi , talks about listening in layers and filtering  sounds to create some of the most amazing sound designing 

experiences in Cinema:

 1) The culture focuses on checking the pixels of a cellphone but not the microphone quality of a phone 

2) Sound is like the yogic sustem enabling us to see the inner world of stories

3) Digetic and non digetic sounds

4) Writers should understand the potentialities of all departments of storytelling

5) 5.1 dolby  vs sounds on OTT platforms

6) casting/ art/.. everything is related to sound

7) 50 percent of the film is sound- but the budgets are skewed towards visuals. 

8) #savingprivateryan #gamesofthrone

Disclaimer: There are some sound glitches on this Podcast episode which cannot be rectified- nevertheless 

we hope you can enjoy it .   

Some great takeaways:

1) Challenges of different forms of writing- films, books, OTT, advertising, articles.

2) Writing #RAAZI the film that went on to make 200 crore plus- process, TG etc.

3) Working with different minds- (including the director who is a writer)

4) Looking beyond yourself and your character

5) What breaks the content clutter

6) Improving everyday

#metaphysicallab #itunes #spotify #anchor #bhavaniiyer #suchitabhhatia #theartists #raazi #lootera #OTT

Cannes is round the corner and we just bumped into the lead actor of the short film GOYAVE getting screened on MAY 18TH

Ingrid Jean is an actor and founder of Chelsea Film festival. Some of the topics we covered on acting and performances:

1) preparing for a role

2) Various approach to acting eg #leestrasberg #film and #theatre 

3) Working in a new language and a foreign crew.

4) Getting an agent 

5) Technique of method acting

6) traits of an artist

7) Chelsea Film festival- choosing films and kind of stories.. 

#metaphysicallab #ingridjeanbapiste #suchitabhhatia

Most of your answers on indie film distribution  will hopefully be answered in this podcast, by this very rare conversation with one of the 

prominent indie film distributors Mr Sailesh Dave.  

The conversation includes:

1) Picking up the Sundance select- Taking the Horse to Have Jalebis- for international distribution

2) Strategy to distribute a low budget indie film 

3) Distribution strategies for a big vs a small  budget film 

4) Challenges to produce and distribute a small budget film like Sulaimani Keeda

5) Future of content creation and the role of algorithms

6) Distribution to Production- THEATRE EFFICIENCY INDEX.

Jonathan Wysocki a Sundance alumni shares his experience on crowdfunding his film DRAMARAMA on #KICKSTARTER

1)  Running your crowdfunding campaign -private equity, email data base, marketing, reaching the right people

2) USP of your campaign.

3)Budgeting your crowdfunded film

4)Indie vs the studio- dreading the studio system

5) Self distribution- Sundance creative distribution initiative

6) WGA VS AGENCY

7) LA Film industry- THE GRASS IS NOT GREENER ON ANY SIDE

Winner of the Golden leopard,  A Land Imagined is now on #netfilx. Had super fun chatting with the director #Siew Hua. 

Some Great Take Aways:

1) Choosing a story to tell. Why that #story? 

2) #Filmmaking in #Singapore- the scale of the industry and does that also influence the choice of the subject.

3) Handling rejections on the journey..

4) Philosophy and weaving the story with it.

5) Genre vs style 

6) Qualities of a filmmaker

7) GO watch the eternal- 2001 space odyssey #stanley kubrick

THIS EPISODE IS BROUGH TO YOU BY METAPHYSICAL LAB

Attributes and courtesies: Music- "Hard Boiled" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Had this amazing chat with Sunil Nair ( currently COO of ALT BALAJI)

Some great take aways:

1) Questioning why it's called OVER THE TOP

2) Downloading  the app vs active subscribers

3) Artificial intelligence and machine learning (the present and the future)- are we doomed or on the way? 

and why do we need #human content curation

4) Appointment viewing - solo viewing and it's implications

5) Apple TV. 

THIS EPISODE IS BROUGH TO YOU BY METAPHYSICAL LAB

Attributes and courtesies: Music- "Hard Boiled" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Very insightful conversation with Anders straight from Denmark. 

Some great takeaways while we discussed the process and principles of editing:

1) The qualities of an editor

2) Collaborating with a director and fitting into/ enhancing his/her vision- finding the good marriage.

3)Placing the audience in the scene and not looking at the scene

4) The most interesting ways to engage the clever audience

5) Working on the wall.

6) How themes and characters can beautifully enhance storytelling more than the problems. 

7) The #Danish government and the culture focusses on developing the cinema language and not just making commercial block busters.

8) how #filmbazaar is doing it's bit in the #cinema space

9) And why you don't have to always make #perfect #films

Had this very interesting chat with filmmaker & woman filmmaker #Sabiha Sumar:

This episode highlights her challenges of navigating her journey through her various award winning films.

Important pointers you will take from this episode:

1) Challenges n #mental toughness needed in this  profession.

2) Choosing a #story n making it #universal.

3)Challenges of making #Khamosh Paani (22 funding institutes & other hurdles)

4) Tough decisions to take when holding your ground personally n professionally.

5) Uncertainty n unpredictability of fundings.

6) Mind n heart balance.

THIS EPISODE IS BROUGH TO YOU BY METAPHYSICAL LAB

Attributes and courtesies: Music- "Hard Boiled" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Sharad Raj- An independent filmmaker and a faculty at film School shares his experience of crowdfunding his film- THE JOYOUS NIGHT OF A RIDICULOUS MAN which is an adaptation of shorts stories from Dostoevsky & PremChand.

Some of the take aways from this very insightful talk:

1) Why do  you need to crowd fund your film?

2) The strategy of crowdfunding with example #wishberry &  #thejoyousnightofaridiculousman #dostervesky#premchand

3) How to approach a casting agency with no money in your pocket? #bling #actors #theatre

4) Film festival strategy n the changing scenario of festival films- is mainstream Bollywood an influence? #berlin #cannes#venice #locarno

5) Is Cinema dead? #youtube #art #discern #editing #Kurosawa #Bresson #Ray #Ghatak #Ozu

6) The books n films to sharpen your seeing skills #David Bordwell n #Jamesmonaco

Enjoy the show!

THIS EPISODE IS BROUGH TO YOU BY METAPHYSICAL LAB

Attributes and courtesies: Music- "Hard Boiled" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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Aijaz khan's film Hamid is releasing in India on March 15th.  We chat about films and how it takes over our lives.

Some of the brilliant pointers which might help a filmmaker out there:

1) Why do we need to tell a story we choose to tell?  (inspired by #Simonsinek's WHY)

2) The imbalanced and skewed life of a filmmaker.

3) Toughest decisions filmmakers make to stick to this uncertain and tough profession.

4) The depressive phases in the life of a creative- how do we tackle that?  

5) ROI- return on investment- (the business side of making a film)

And much more. 

This episode is brought to you by Metaphysical lab

Few attributes and courtesies:

Music- "Hard Boiled" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Vector Image- FREEPIK.COM