Vinod Bharathan | Vinod Bharathan

Music that inspires my filmmaking

27-03-2012

Let there be NO doubt that music is my FIRST LOVE. Nope, I was not born with a camera stuck up my arse, I discovered filmmaking as a talent only in 2008. The roots of my music addiction are clearly visible in the films that i make. Let me take you on a tour and show you some of the bands that helps me blow the “writers block” into oblivion.

Jack White ( White Stripes)

Jack is such an anti-rockstar off stage. But once he is behind that guitar, he turns into this monster of a rock star. He to me is the definition of “PASSION“.

And the Oscar goes to…

By: Vinod Bharathan

26-02-2012

Awards, Inspirations, Nominations

It is really cool to be nominated or win at film festivals. I did enjoy 4 nominations and a win last year. But the one side of the story you don’t hear from me is the amount of rejections i get, before i make it a win. I had to learn that lesson at my first attempt with my film “Regular Jobs“. I thought ‘Regular Jobs‘ was a pretty good job done. And since it was my first ‘real film‘, i shot it all across the global film circuit. With high expectations, i waited. There is a minimum 6 months wait for the festivals to announce the final list. Then it comes, the pile of rejections, some with kind words, some harsh. You don’t really get it. How can that be?

In 2012, everyone is a filmmaker (like everyone is a photographer, dj, graphic designer, real estate shark, … all the cool jobs are taken), the amount of films that reach a film-festival is an unbelievable 2000+. Sundance film festival claimed that they recieved 10,000 entries last year !!! So, your film is the tiniest needle in the hay stack. There are two key factors that can get you into the ‘second sort‘ – The film look (professional kind) or a bloody good plot (where poor filmmakers like me has a shot). Forget about lobbying, it ain’t worth it if it isn’t the Oscars, Cannes or Sundance.

A rejection from a film-festival (or anywhere) can induce damage to your ego, self-confidence, and you might never work again. But if you train to take blows, you can pull yourself up, and hold out the next round.

Watch this video below with Steven Spielberg and his expectations about his brilliant film, The Jaws. This is every filmmakers story which you don’t get to see.

Moose and sunset – Mobile filmmaking

By: Vinod Bharathan

21-02-2012

Awards, iphone film, mobile filmmaking, Nominations

News Flash: MOOSE AND SUNSET was selected to be screened at WOMEN+FILM -VOICES at DENVER FILM SOCIETY, DENVER,U.S.A., along with ETHEL on the OPENING NIGHT.

As spontaneous as i am, i committed myself into making a 3 minute video for a film festival in Denver, U.S.A. I was surfing/researching the inter webs for trends in filmmaking when i heard about the film festival – WOMEN + FILM- Voices (The Denver Film Society ). I shot a mail to them showcasing one of my films (LIMBO) made using the iPhone. They responded on how good it was, but since it didn’t have anything to do with the theme of the festival “Woman and Voices“, they couldn’t use it much.

Now, in the field of networking, one must utilize the opportunity of personal contact one can get. And since person in charge responded to my mail personally, i decided to not let go of this opportunity.

My first idea was to shoot a film with ‘cinematic‘ look to it (as in, a beautiful girl looking pretty, in a beautiful surrounding). But then it occurred to me that one of my close friends might have a good story, and asked her if she would like to share it. 10 minutes and a coffee later we decided that – ‘we shoot tomorrow !‘.

Oh wait ! i have been wanting to experiment my cinematographer skills like those videos posted on Vimeo, with Olloclip, Mobislider,Glif…. and the list just goes on. With just one day to order and get this stuff (from U.S.A. to Denmark), i give up on that idea and use my conventional tool, the hardware clamp as my camera grip, and my expertise to get the project done.

We meet up at the next day as planned. I had worked a plan on how to go about with the content of the film. Hege had filled up info within the template i had given to her. And therefor, the work process was easy peasy japanesey. It was just Hege, Me and the cat, who were working at the ‘set’, therefor no behind the scenes were recorded. But i might make a ‘making of’ video pretty soon.

The content was filmed using the Filmic Pro app in my iPhone4, and later transferred to my iPad using the Photosync app. It was color graded using Movie Looks app, and then fully edited on the iMovie app on the iPad. I even used the default music sample from the iMovie app.

Most importantly, Hege was content with the film, as it is a very personal story being told there. I was very careful not to ‘cheazy’ it up. This is my way of saying, ‘i support’ to one of my very strong and creative friends.

Here is the ‘Making of’ video

just a fun project

By: Vinod Bharathan

17-02-2012

pre-prod notes

I can take my procrastination habits to extremes. I should be editing my film “Karma Currency“, but instead i find easy to do more exciting things and get away with a great alibi. I’m a storyteller, telling lies to myself !

I’m on paternal leave for four months to take care of my 7 month old baby girl, and i’m loving my new job. But, this weekend, both mom and daughter is off to their side of the family tree, to spend a small winter vacation. Just enough time for me to make a new short film (or edit the ones waiting).

After all those weekend projects, finding a plot has become as easy as lying. They always start from what lengths i want to push my luck with regards to the material requirement i would need to make that film. I have done the extreme minimal, one actor, one place, one plot bit - LIMBO. So, maybe not that stingy after all, my next project shall be. Two actors and a place - thats where building of the plot begins this time. 2 hours later, i have a plot, a good plot structure. Now before i get to the next phase of development of the plot, i need to find if the people that are required to tell/act the story/plot have the time to do so. So, i start meeting my casts, and do more – lying.

“its more of a fun project” i say, and thats my alibi for covering up the suspicion behind the “film to be shot tomorrow / if possible“. I often find myself trying to explaining the casts on how i would find the material (props and locations) in this short time, but i much rather they ask me more about the character they are given and surprise me at the rehearsals.

4 years into filmmaking, and several awards and nominations later, i ain’t got time to make “just another fun project”. Every detail is meticulously planned, so i get the maximum out of the ‘zero’ dollar we will be spending, and the maximum of the “talent time” being used. ‘Zero’ dollar?, what about the bills at the café while making meetings and pre-production plans, the expensive ‘anti drip’ makeup? NO, its never ZERO BUDGET. But quoting “ZERO BUDGET” on the credits makes a non-filmmaker (90% of the audience) go “WOW !!”

That said, i have 2 more days on my hand to complete my “fun project“. Wish me luck.. No, FOOK IT, i’ll do it any way !

In a matter of minutes

By: Vinod Bharathan

17-02-2012

press

An interview with Anasuya Menon, Senior editor of a reputed national newspaper of India – THE HINDU. link to the original article here

Vinod Bharathan is receiving accolades in short filmmaking. One of his films was shot using the mobile phone camera

A scratchy screen, bits of stunning footage, scratchy screen again, snatches of thumping music…then back to a gripping visual. Short-filmmaker Vinod Bharathan’s “show reel” on YouTube is an exciting prelude to his films. A search online yields bewitching results. Fleeting emotions, portrayed through elaborate visual drama that will keep you engrossed, even succeed in reviving long-forgotten feelings of anger, pain or fury. One of these films were shot using a mobile phone camera.

Vinod, who hails from Kochi and is settled in Copenhagen, is breaking new ground in short filmmaking. His ‘Limbo’, all of three minutes, recently won the ‘best film shot using a mobile device’ award at the IndieFone Festival, U.S.A. Another film, shot in Kochi, ‘Karma Code’, was nominated at the International Film Festival Ahmedabad 2011 and ‘Show Me Justice’ film festival in the U.S. ‘The Suspect’, a thriller with some brilliant acting and classy angles, was the official selection at the Google+ Live Online Film Festival.

After his course at the Copenhagen Media School, Vinod started a film production group called FookDat, which makes “zero-budget” films. The cast and the crew work for free and in return the group shares the work as their portfolio and experience in film making. The organisation is not a fixed group of people, but a rotation of talented cast and crew. It has churned out eight short films.

Vinod says he never dreamt of being a filmmaker. A logistics co-ordinator by profession, he used to toy around with the camera making small documentaries of pub-crawls and office parties, which received rave reviews from his friends. From then on, he started taking films seriously. His latest, ‘Karma Currency’, was produced partially through crowd funding, a concept by which the public contributes funds for a film.

Excerpts from an interview:

Have mobile phones brought about a new culture of filmmaking?

We are constantly looking for new dimensions of filmmaking, and the latest trend in short films is mobile filmmaking (using a mobile phone to make a film). ‘Limbo’ was made entirely on an iPhone. There are several mobile film festivals blossoming and it looks like that it is going to be huge in the next few years. The invention of DSLRs (digital single-lens reflex), too, has made filmmaking more democratic. These inexpensive cameras can emulate the visuals of a traditional 35 mm professional film camera.

Are short films restricted to film festivals? Has technology such as YouTube helped in taking them to a wider audience?

Short films are not restricted to film festivals. The audience for short films are basically people with access to the Internet. It is totally dependent on the filmmaker of the short film to choose his audience, be it at festival or free on the Internet. Filmmakers use festivals to assess their creativity. In the early ages of filmmaking, short films were ‘art’ or experimental stuff. With no place to screen or gain monetary rewards, they ended up as Polaroid holiday snapshots, in a personal album. Things changed with the Internet. You can now watch a short film on a computer while at home, in between chores. Sites like YouTube have only propelled the exposure of short films at supersonic speed.

Karma Currency, your most recent work, was produced through crowd-funding. What is crowd-funding?

Crowd funding is a concept that’s huge in the Americas; while Europe is still a bit shy to take the plunge. Two of the well-known crowd funding web portals are Kickstarter.com and Indiegogo.com, where one creates a pitch to the project that requires public funding, and tries to sell it to as many contributors as possible. These contributions are not donations, as there are paybacks for contributions (paybacks– posters, flyers, DVDs of the project, sample of the project, t-shirt with logo…etc). For Karma Currency, I used Indiegogo.com and we raised about Rs 2 lakh in two months.

What is the future of short films?

Short films are here to stay. But there is a notable change in the length (time) of short films winning awards. ‘Limbo’, for example was just three minutes. I have seen short films of length under a minute win awards. But the standard length is between three and 15 minutes. The number of filmmakers has increased owing to the easy access to cheap recording equipment. The organisers of Sundance film festival claimed that they had no less than 10,000 submissions in the previous years.

What is your inspiration as a filmmaker?

I’m a visual artist too and flirt with photography… I have won awards in photography as well, but hate to call myself a photographer. I indulge in photography because it can be created instantaneously, without a script, without a film unit, without pre-production. Photography is the core form of cinema—24 pictures (frames) per second make a motion picture.

What is your next project? Have you considered doing a full-length movie?

Karma Currency is on the edit desk. I will be writing the script to a full-length film to be filmed this year.

FILM CLUB – get some contacts

By: Vinod Bharathan

09-02-2012

by the way, Prod notes

As an newbie to filmmaking world, the first thing you will do with your film is, sending them to festivals in hope for an award. Your first productions is like your baby – very pretty in your eyes! Your expectations will be slashed down to slices, as you have committed all the newbie mistakes, totally ignoring that fact that every one with a device that has a camera on is now a filmmaker, and they too has submitted their films to the same festival. Your film now ends up on Facebook starving for “likes” or “hits” on Youtube.

I’m gonna reveal a secret place where you might not get “like” or “hits“, but you get “contacts” instead – Film-Clubs. Yes, every town has a few film clubs. This is the place where film enthusiasts gather to watch free films over beer or coffee, socialize, listen to the the creators of the film, shoot questions and get answers from them. This is a fantastic place to network, as people stay behind at the end of the show and meet other people.

I had been screening my films at a club called KLUB KURZ. KLUB KURZ is a frequent film club that gathers and screens some very good short films. The organisers of KLUB KURZ is very good at roping in some industry heavy-weights to show case their previous works. At the club, they often have the director describe the film through and introduction, and later Q&A with the audience. They do have a good mix of Amateur and professional films at their screenings. My film ‘REGULAR JOBS‘ was showcased with KASPER GAARDSØE, an output of the DANISH FILM SCHOOL and now a busy director of primetime danish television series (Director – Lykke – Danish primetime TV series).

I did get to make some good contacts through their club meets. I met KAT HERLO, and actress, at the screenings. She has then worked in a few of my projects and one of them being LIMBO, which i won a best film award.

Anatomy of my posters

By: Vinod Bharathan

15-01-2012

Inspirations, Photography, post-prod notes, side projects

It is sunday morning and i should be at my editing desk. Since i edit my own films (as i’m poor to afford an editor) , it can be a bitch to start on a less exciting job after shouting “lights, camera and AAACTION!” So, here i am, procrastinating again, creatively. I thought it would be fun to explain my posters.

An honest filmmaker will set the mood to the film using his poster. This avoids misunderstandings and wrong expectations. A correct mood setting poster works a long way into letting the audience into the premise of the film.

Regular Jobs (2009)

Regular jobs was my graduating project from Copenhagen Media School (a.k.a Rampen, Københavns film og foto skole). This is one of the first time i relayed entirely on the plot. The setup was very ‘Reservoir dogs‘ meets ‘Collateral‘. The bank robbery, millions of dollars, American gangsters and Muscle cars were the spice of vision. A frame grab of the car toned into red, browns and blacks conveys the gritty nature of the scenario.

The Suspect (2010)

When i wrote the script to The Suspect, i had planned to make it a story happening next doors a random day. My friend had allowed me to shoot the film at her apartment. As i made a study of her apartment, it had a very ‘Gotham City‘ looks to it. Her apartment was very girly and the building was an 18th century build. I now decided to take the girly things down and splash a poster of Brooklyn in 1800 on the wall. An old dial telephone added to the timelessness of the film. I decided to give the main character a mask to create a better visual impact. But it was coincidental that i had taken a picture of street in Copenhagen a few days before that fit right into the mood of the film. I did later shoot the opening shot of the film at the place where i shot this picture, which of course ended up as the posted of the film.

designing the looks by Cecile Mindegaard

the storyboard

The Suspect - poster inspiration

The Suspect - The final poster

Karma Currency

This film is currently on the edit desk (which i should be working on right now !). The filming of Karma Currency was very hectic (10 days in INDIA) and i never managed to get a photographer as a crew member. But thankfully, Jeena Chacko, who was the script supervisor of the film is an excellent artistic photographer too. She was roaming around and taking pics of the set and i noticed that she was taking a pic of the Police Chief (Played by Rone). I saw that the Police constable (played by Ahamed Shaheen) was lurking around the scenario, and i asked him to step into the frame. And just like that, i managed to get a poster material. I played it with grunge overlays to tune it to the match the mood of the film.

See how the iPhone is very visible in this pic

The orange band covered the iPhone tragedy

Poster 2

On the third day of shoot, we were driven to this location early morning. It was a beach and was full of character. Fishing boats, fishermen and a broken down shack. This set the excellent mood of the opening shot. Jeena and i took some test shots, and i decided what would be the opening shot and the landscape poster of the film.

Testing the shots

Poster reference

final Landscape poster

On the closing note

I use the current poster of the project i’m working on, as my google splash screen as a reminder of an unfinished project.

Successful crowd funding – my mantra

By: Vinod Bharathan

10-01-2012

by the way, Inspirations, Prod notes, side projects

Yes, i have managed to raise 4000$ in 60 days using the crowd funding platform IndieGoGo. I would like to share my mantra with you. There are tons of sites teaching you how to go make a successful campaign. I’m not going to give teach you anything. I’m just going to tell you how i got about my campaign and made it work.

Research.

yes, take time to do that. See what others have done. I aimed more specifically after campaigns that looks a lot like what is was planning to do.

The Pitch

A video pitch with a pretty girl narrating will sell, but when you are selling to your friends, you better be honest. As mentioned in the crowd funding-tutorials, i made an honest pitch fronting myself in a video. I chose YOUTUBE over VIMEO, as all that HD matters only to you. Youtube plays on anything on any bandwidth.

Setting target amount

I set it at 4000$ because i felt that any amount lesser than that would look less serious. I was ready to call it a success even if i managed to just pull half the target amount. But i kept that thought to myself and sold it like the target sum mattered. A friend of mine asked me if the target amount was too ambitious, but i have learnt that ambitiousness is a brand that sells.

Setting the length of the campaign

I chose to run the campaign for 60 days knowing that it will cover two salary seasons. I chose to start the campaign in the mid of the month, so i could give me and my contributors time to ease in and out of their decisions.

The perks and promises

The perks and promises to which you sell are of very less importance unless you are handing over private autographed photos of Tom Cruise, You know what i mean? People contribute to you because they like what you do. They contribute of pure good will. People who knows you closely, tend to contribute more than the others. But remember to treat all equally, every drop counts.

Sorting your network

I divided my network into 3 sections. 1) Closest friends 2) Acquaintances 3) People with Money and willing

Making the move

Even before i opened the campaign to the public, i sent my first set of VERY PERSONAL mails, WRITTEN INDIVIDUALLY to the first bunch, the closest friends. They will now jumpstart the campaign. They pushed the slider a quarter way in just a week.

With the slider quarter full and the campaign breathing life, i publish the campaign to public on social media. The news will spread to the second bunch, the acquaintances and the ones missing out on the first bunch.

After the first “harvest“, i let the campaign lay low and rest, while occasionally updating stuff on the page for variety. And meanwhile, campaigning (keeping it alive) the PROJECT on social media.

Just in time for the second salary season, i send personal mails to all who has not funded yet and the third bunch as well. By this time (40th day), i had already surpassed the mid-target mark. The campaign is already a success as far as i am concerned.

Time to seal the deal. The final bunch of contributors are reminded, and they do what they do best – make things a success.

http://www.indiegogo.com/karma-currency

KARMA CURRENCY – Post filming.

By: Vinod Bharathan

20-12-2011

Prod notes

And so, its a wrap! I shall try not to give a repeat of the same boring production related story since every production has one. But instead, is shall tell you things i will try to avoid on my next project in India (this shall be a personal note to myself aswell).

Never again, attempt another 10 day project in India.
Never again, risk a key character without casting.
Never again, work without the complete key crew.
Never again, just work with somebody average!

I will be using the next few weeks to edit the film, and i do plan to make another short trip to India to take care of the other needs like audio dubbing. I have managed to design a website for KARMA CURRENCY as well. please take a look at it by clicking here.

Karma Currency – Day 4

By: Vinod Bharathan

10-12-2011

pre-prod notes, Prod notes

It somehow seems to me that the industry professionals wakes up only post-lunch, and post-sun time (4pm approx). Every meeting of mine has somehow been pushed to that time. Is it because they don’t want to eat lunch not made by their mom’s or get tanned too much? (dark skin is still a drawback). That renders me with waiting and worrying about them to respond since morning ! I cannot get about to doing other stuff before all of the plan is charted out. And now it is the fourth day already.

I was quite surprised that every one at Karma Code unit was wanting to do this new project as well. That saves me half the trouble. But since Karma Currency is aimed ten folds further, the pre-production has to be hectic too. My Associate Producer is delayed in Dubai, and it is him who can now collect the final items before we decide on the filming dates. And once the dates are on, we are on fire. but the problem is that we have only 5 days left to burn before i leave back to Copenhagen.

But hey, i just came across this quote by Leonard Bernstein “To achive great things, two things are needed; A plan, and not quite time enough”

Page 1 of 212 »

— Vinod Bharathan

Music that inspires my filmmaking

And the Oscar goes to…

Moose and sunset – Mobile filmmaking

just a fun project

In a matter of minutes

FILM CLUB – get some contacts