Sita and Nina

03:31
Christmas eve, 2011
I was enjoying my Christmas holidays at 'Venice of the East'(Alappuzha, Kerala) with my Grand Parents.
Out of nowhere, I received a call from this friend of mine Nithin George (Yeah the same celeb. Founder CEO of QPlay Tech). He asked me whether I would like to attend the Fourth International FOSS Conference, Kerala which will kick off in 2 days at Trivandrum, Kerala.

I was really not in a mood to disguise myself as a Nerd and attend a conference. But in no time I changed my mind for two reasons. First of all, Nithin is one hell of a leader. I thought I shouldn't miss this opportunity to be with him. Secondly, the dignitaries and speakers were quite vibrant. So it won't be such a nerdy meet as it sounds.

I was trying to surround myself with talent and dreamers. Back then, I was not certain about my future and career. ( To be frank, even now I'm not certain! )

Ah let me get back to the point.

So, on 26th itself, I left to Trivandrum aka Thiruvananthapuram and from 27th - 29th December, I was with Nithin and many other IEEE student volunteers within the bounds of Technopark, Trivandrum.

During the morning plenary sessions of 28th December'11, Ms. Nina Paley, the Independent US Filmmaker and animator remotely spoke to us via skype. I was eagerly waiting for her speech as I have heard that her animation movie ‘Sita Sings the Blues’ created history by drawing 100% positive ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ reviews.
( Of course I prefer Rotten Tomatoes reviews over IMDB rating! )

Nina was moved by Hermit Valmiki's 'The Ramayana', and when her husband broke up with her, she felt there is some connection between her life  and deity Sita Devi's. She decided to convey the same through an animation movie and the self taught animator set off. For heaven sake she was not retelling Ramayana. She decided to explain her viewpoints on it, establishing the connection between the incidents that occurred in her life with that of Sita’s.



She counted it as a classic epic and made her interpretations.
But while trying all those slapstick humour arguing the behaviours of each lead character and other such ambiguities of Ramayana, she forgot the fact that, Ramayana’s sacred here in India and it’s a part of Indian culture. Religious institutions and communities were not happy about the movie and the way Deities were animated in the movie. Nina Paley intended no offence, but some groups debated her deeds and even did their best to sue her.

The movie’s  wiki doc starts like this >>

" Sita Sings the Blues is a 2008 animated film written, directed, produced and animated entirely by American artist Nina Paley (with the exception of some fight animation by Jake Friedman in the "Battle of Lanka" scene), primarily using 2D computer graphics and Flash Animation.
It intersperses events from the Ramayana, light-hearted but knowledgeable discussion of historical background by a trio of Indian shadow puppets, musical interludes voiced with tracks by Annette Hanshaw and scenes from the artist's own life. The ancient mythological and modern biographical plot are parallel tales, sharing numerous themes. "

Apart from content based controversies, copyright issues also gave Nina headaches. In fact she initially made sure that Annette’s recordings were not covered by US copyright laws, but a lot of copyright issues surfaced. Copyright holders demanded hell lot of money and ultimately, she had to take loans to license the music for her movie.

She spoke about all her bitter experiences and how she fought against copyright issues. The whole commotion turned her into a free and open source activist it seemed. She added that she decided to release her film online with a copyleft licence because she doesn’t want her film to be like 80 year old Annentte’s recordings.

I would like to quote her words from the FAQ page of the film’s official site.
“My first concern is Art, Art has no life if people can’t share it.”

Later when I had an opportunity to access free wifi, I downloaded Nina’s work.

March 2014
“ Putil station Malad..
Akala station Malad..
Next station Malad.... ”

I was slipping into deep sleep, but somehow, those words echoed in my ears.
“Holy shit... Malad”
I woke up. Literally, I jumped up and ran out of the local train.

As I have mentioned in my previous blog post, I got relocated to Mumbai taking a long break from IZE. On a vacation, more like a journey chasing dreams.

A lead has asked me to be here in a film and tv production company studio and see how professionals edit using Final Cut Pro. After all, to be a filmmaker I have to be a jack of all trades right? So I thought I must utilise this opportunity to know more about the post production dept.

I got adapted to Mumbai atmosphere very quickly.
Life’s good.
For a week I have been sitting lazily on a red bean bag and staring at a Macintosh screen. You know what; I really admire editors for their unending patience.

At some point, to stay away from boredom I started to clean up junk files and folders in my laptop and happened to find ‘Sita Sings the Blues’ file in a folder named ‘Open Source files’. I never knew I still had this with me. Actually, I downloaded it to re-edit and make my own version. But in between I got mixed up with the event and I left it untouched for all these years.

And yeah with zero formal knowledge in editing, I cut the movie into chunks, removed the controversial scenes and re-arranged them a bit using Sony Vegas Pro 11.

Watch it for yourself.


Sita and Nina from Georgy Abraham on Vimeo.


 Not good enough, huh!?
Pardon me...I’m still learning... I’ll do my best next time.

Regards,
Lone Warrior.

" Miles and miles to go before I sleep...."
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October Sky & Me!

07:11
Some of my friends asked me, why did I type in my blog post 'How I landed at IZE Creative' in contradiction to some older posts. Read this out first.
The one movie which changed my life is the biopic named ‘October Sky’[1999], directed by Joe Johnston starring Jake Gyllenhaal. The screenplay was adapted from the autobiographical book ‘Rocket Boys’ by Homer H. Hickam, Jr. The movie gives a brief account on a 16 year old boy Homer Hickam(a Coal Miner’s son ) from Coalwood,West Virginia who drew inspiration from the launch of Russian Sputnik 1 and started his voyage to become a Rocket Engineer at NASA.

Watching this movie became a turning point in my life. I became more and more interested in Engineering and once again I told to myself that I should do Bachelors in Engineering. Earlier, I had day dreams that I will become an engineer, work for a couple of years and then switch my career to do something creative (like dream for living and make movies).
:-|
The moment 3rd semester classes kicked off, I realized that engineering is not my future. Yeah I was not in love with Electronics & Communication Engineering, rather it was a mere infatuation. I found most of the theory papers mentioned in the syllabus are pointless. I don’t think anybody will ever make use of these rubbish facts. I wonder why Indian educational system gives more importance to theory portions, leaving behind practical side. 70-80% of total credits are awarded to those who learn rubbish theory, while labs, practicals and projects are considered as side business for students.

Just like all other typical BTech students, laptop enabled me enough freedom to collect innumerable movies. I had no time and often I missed my dinner at mess, but never missed watching 2 movies each working day and atleast 3 movies every weekends. Believe me, I’m not exaggerating. I am an addict, not just a mere movie buff.

Everybody who knew me advised to step aside and quit engineering. I couldn’t do that. My parents didn’t force me to take up this degree in engineering. It was me who chose this profession. I couldn’t admit that my plans and deeds are failing. I had no good reason to stick on to engineering though, but I did so. I don’t know why I decided to spend 3 more years there. Even when I had no chance of winning the game, I fought with my tongue and stated that I know what I am doing.

I was in search of solitude to think clearly. I reached at an early clichéd assumption that I might get better if I can find a profession close to my passion. I’ve never been good at anything, except in dreaming.
I tried various options during this course of time, but none went well. Most of my classmates also knew that they were not dreaming to do their bachelors within the bounds of such a syllabus and that to in such an unprofessional college.  (I’m being a bit harsher huh!?) But all of them were ready to accept the fate and do their best. But I was not ready to swim along the wind.

Why should I care others? I started acting weird like a nerd who is always interested to go beyond the bounds of syllabus. It’s a universal truth that colleagues will do their best to stay away from nerds. Don’t know why, I was Goddamn happy. May be it’s because these so called college-mates were not even close to my schoolmates. By the way, I didn’t mean that I hate anyone either. I was not happy with that campus and those who were doing their bachelors there.

_ Flashback_
I was badly missing my childhood buddies, who are perfect friends for me. I don't know why they befriended me and they never wondered why I am so distinct from them in many ways. They gave enough space when I was in need of it, and were ready to be with me when I was a bit more joyous. But time went by and Fate forced us to choose distinct courses and colleges.
_Flashback ends_

On my way to traverse bound of syllabus I became an IEEE student member and started participating various events. Even I started organizing some at my college on behalf of our Student Branch. Thus I attended several meets and conferences in far away well reputed institutions. I finally started to bunk class for reasons other than to watch movies! Meanwhile, I befriended lot many friends from these colleges too. Some are weirder than me(in their own ways) though.

June 2011, Chennai
The most memorable moments of my life till date!
Along with some of my new friends, I had an opportunity to go to Chennai and attend an unpaid internship in ‘Advanced Robotics and Embedded Systems Design’. Sounds too geekier huh!? Not that bad indeed, just play school level Hands-on stuff and we got certified. I was the most lazy student of the batch, but was blessed to win a Line Follower Robo competition which our trainer conducted. Yeah Miracles do occur! ;D

Touring all around 426 km*km Metropolitan, trying new tastes and window shopping became our routine for those 17 days. Life was too good back then but after the internship I had to return back to my college. And some idiots who thought I became a part of some supercool tech company mentioned about me that, I became the first student from our college who attained such a renowned certification after completing a complex internship. I decided not cross them, why should I !? ;D

Once I was entrusted with new responsibilities, I attained hell lot more duty leaves and continued the drama as a Nerd in full thrust. By the way, as a side business I was piling up lot many backpapers (arrears) at one end and Parents were not at happy with this. They gave me final warning to quit all event participation and coordination stuffs. To let them know that I do respect them, I followed their orders.

I was not interested in this deep shit electronics and communication and had no intention in passing out. By mid-2012, I decided to think seriously on my ambition and future. The lead characters and the story of movie ‘October Sky’ played an important role in the most important decision which I took long ago. Then it struck me. I was moved by that movie and it made me feel that my decision to take up engineering course is absolutely right. If a movie could influence me at such an extent, I should have taken up Visual Communication or Film Technology as major for my Bachelors degree. I shouldn't have taken up a course just to make others believe that I'm educated and I work in some corporate firm.

“No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.”
-Ingmar Bergman

How true!

Paulo Coelho’s words in ‘Eleven Minutes’ enlightened me even more, “ Passion sends us signals that guide us through our lives, and it’s up to us to interpret  those signs. ”

Social Media enabled me to keep in touch with every individual who is working in movie industry. I started to beg for a chance to assist someone in direction department and set off. 
Guys, this process is not so easy as it sounds. I had no one to recommend me and I had no practical previous experience, other than being a living movie-wikipedia.

Nobody was ready to respond with a direct ‘No’ either! Each response gave me hope and made me wait until they next vacancy in their team.
As it’s said in ‘Megamind’, “ No matter how hard I tried, I was always the odd man out. The last one picked. ”

Totally screwed life and one year passed by. Yeah to worsen the situation, 4 year BTech course got completed!
You can imagine how vulnerable I would be at home. I couldn’t stay jobless forever either.

Now you may read my post (if you haven't yet), 'How I landed at IZE Creative'.
IZECreative became a perfect hide out for over 9 months.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to take a long-break from IZE.

Earlier this month, I got a chance to be an un-paid intern in TV&Film Production company based in Mumbai and assist (in direction department) the team. I’ll be leaving to Mumbai soon.

In short - tiring tedious works, sleepless nights and uncertain future ahead.

I’m all excited but at the same time damn tensed, as I will have to  stay (1-3 months) at Mumbai to gain this exposure and experience. I mean Mumbai is 24 hours away from my home. Also, I will have to expertise in Hindi asap!

Good Gracious Lord, be with me.
Sigh…

“Miles and Miles to go before I sleep..”

Regards,
Lone Warrior
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