Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Suneesh got State Television Award

If you remember, last year i have introduced Suneesh Surendran and his documentary film "Day 3" in one of my blog posts. Today Kerala State Govt has announced Television Awards for the year 2008. Suneesh was selected as best documentary film director for this documentary. lets celebrate..!!

Let me repost my earlier write up on Suneesh

Suneesh Surendran is my very close friend. He is now working in Rose bowl channel. His latest documentary was screened in the international video film festival at Trivandrum. it is a shocking documentary about killing of street dogs in a remote village in Trivandrum. the whole documentary was shot in a day and made within a week. This documentary was telecasted many times in the channel.This time also Suneesh has proved his sense of sound and visual framing through this documentary. He got the craft with him but subject wise lacks depth. He is one of the rare documentary film makers in kerala who uses sound extremely sensible manner. In a way he plays with close ups and sound. His earlier documentary got special jury award in Malayalam Television Awards given by Kerala Govt.

I think he has the caliber to become a very good film director in malayalam. He has the talent to bring aesthetic changes in malayalam film industry..... Hope he will get the opportunity and exposure...

Monday, January 25, 2010

Globalization: Challenges and Opportunities

a) Impacts of multiplex boom
Multiplexes have introduced new marketing and exhibition possibilities in front of Indian film industry. The commercial operations of India’s first multiplex-PVR Anupam launched on June 1997 at Saket, New Delhi. Now there are more than 100 multiplexes operating in India. Multiple screens in multiplexes have created new spaces for low budget and art films. Before, those films can’t be screened in major theatres because they usually do not pull as much viewers to the theatre. Big theatres can’t function if the viewer attendance is mediate or low. But screens with lesser seats are very suitable for low budgets films. It will promote production of art cinema in near future.
But multiplexes are alienating lower class from theatres. This growth of the multiplexes has resulted in the average ticket prices to rise as high as Rs. 220 (US$ 4.5) from a low of Rs. 25 (US$ 6 cents). Due to the heavy ticket charge majority of population can’t approach multiplexes. Their dependence on television and cable network is increasing drastically. Majority of films are also targeted to a particular section of society (who has purchasing capacity). It will contribute the rise of the class difference in society. So the democratic space created by traditional theatres is vanishing gradually from cities. In Indian context it will create negative impact in a long run.

b) Digital Cinema- new possibilities

India is on the verge of becoming the largest digital theatre country in the world - a revolutionary opportunity waiting to be tapped by potential investors. For a country as large as India, film distribution and exhibition is a completely different ball game. Today around 12,000 theatres in the country are being serviced by around 300 celluloid prints released for a mainstream commercial film. As these prints are insufficient, they are first released in ‘A’ class cities and thereafter re-circulated to the ‘B’ and ‘C’ class cities in the country. After having run for a couple of weeks in ‘A’ class cities, the quality of such prints deteriorates considerably. This impacts the occupancy rates in the already run-down theatres and also the ticket prices. Further, during the period when the new releases are running in the ‘A’ class cities, pirated copies from these celluloid prints are developed to cater to such audiences in the ‘B’ and ‘C’ class cities. But all this is now set to change. Theatres across the country are now going digital thanks to the pioneering initiatives by companies such as Mukta Adlabs and few others. Such companies are now taking control over these run-down theatres in ‘B’ and ‘C’ class cities and up-grading them to a digital theatre. The costs of upgrading to a digital theatre costs is estimated at about US$ 22 thousand per theatre, which requires the installation of a digital projector and server to run the digital prints. As a result of such digitalisation, such theatres are able to obtain prints at the same time that the film is released. This coupled with superior quality is resulting in higher occupancy rates and higher ticket prices. As most companies are working on a revenue-share basis, the break-even time for such projects is estimated to be less than two years.

As a result of the digital projection system, the quality of the films being screened has shot up significantly impacting the occupancy rates, which have been reported to increase to almost 50 per cent in some of these large-seating single screen theatres. Since the films are screened at the same time the films is released nation-wide, theatre owners now have the wherewithal to charge higher ticket prices as well. Film processing companies are also gearing up to cater to this potential demand of churning out digital prints. The cost of producing a digital film is estimated to be a fourth of the cost of a celluloid print- hence the film producer too is excited as now he is able to generate a much larger number of prints than earlier. This not only helps in a larger release of his film but more significantly able to curb the menace of piracy which was depleting his box office collections by almost 90 per cent. If one were to aggregate the number of theatres that are planned for the digital conversion, this would aggregate to about 10 per cent of the theatres in the country today. Hence, the balance 90 per cent of the theatres is waiting to be digitalized!
Digital revolution can also provide alternative display spaces for digital films that bear potential as a distinct genre. Redefining film form and content, digital films could prompt and occupy viewing spaces as differing from conventional films. It will also promote ‘walk through’ films that require simultaneous projection on more than one screen, not necessarily of conventional theatre size.

Friday, January 15, 2010

ill-effect of solar eclipse

During Annular Solar Eclipse (ASE), two scientists in Delhi have demonstrated the ill-effect of solar eclipse on your financial condition.