Friday, November 20, 2015

Spirit of Varanasi




Unni Mohan (friend designer visionary) call me up and wonder what I am doing. I am relaxed on a balcony in Pondicherry skeptical about the feature film I am making. He wonders if I am free to shoot a promo teaser for a scale model of the ‘Varanasi naav’.
A scale model floating with the floating lamps of varanasi will be a good visual I suggest him. This can be shot in Kochin. A few days of talks and discussions and I go to meet Unni and his Boss Jeevan .


Samudra is a pioneer in boat making industry in the south. Unni took me into the hull of a fishing boat as big as a bus or twice. I have fever. I take a train from trivandrum and get down at Cherthala and go to Samudra office in Kochi. Jeevan explains his requirement and I have my storyboard ready which is approved. I made it in the train on my way to Kochi.


The last time they ever made a video was some 15 years back or so with Rajiv Ravi as the filmmaker.  Now I need to be careful.
Boarding the Varanasi train from Mumbai I had a lot of expectations. An assistant was supposed to join me in Varanasi. He didn’t. 

The best part of the project was waiting for the morning and evening light. I would wake up at 5.30amand wait for the light and made a light intensity chart. This is usually prepared by me since I use daylight in most videos.  The chart is accompanied by photographs and two days observation. Rains usually change this plan. I have a back up led light and a big mirrors to reflect sun.  The sun was faithful and didn’t trash my footages.

Technically, The video was shot on Canon Full frame Dslr with an old cineprime Nikon 50mm lens and also a wide angle  35mm Helios lens. Both lenses are older than me. This would give a painting like look and also a clumsy careless retro look. (the color fade out look with low contrast I wanted for the place).

Design Objective--The final visualized video should give feel of Varanasi and should introduce the souvenir boat.  It should also introduce samudra.

Packaging- he most important contribution to the whole package was done by Ajmal Hasbulla the music director who took the visuals to a whole new level.
Sound design was done by Sam Santosh.

Met Rishab Dwivedi in Varanasi ( friend painter artist human )
The advertisment paid some of  my bills and there is bliss too.

Samudra Shipyard cochin famous in the ship building sector in south india is working with the Sankat Mochan Foundation at Varanasi.
As a tribute to the Hon`ble Prime Minister's Clean Ganga Drive, Samudra Shipyard have decided to contribute a portion of sales proceeds to the Swatch Ganga Abhiyaan.

direction camera edit
Krishand

Music Direction
Ajmal Hasbulla

Sound Design and Mixing
Sam Santosh

Vocals
Sarath Baby

Associate Editor
Girish Atuvalaipil

Production Controller
Rakhil Akkali

Colorist
Hari Prime

Associate Cinematographer
Shyamin Gireesh

Associate Editor
Rakesh Cherumadam

Creative Contribution
Jishnu Krishnan

copyright
jeevan Sreedharan
Girish Atuvalaipil

copyright suppor
Ajith Kesavan Haridas

Special Than
ks
Anami Lodge assi ghat
Niranjan Boatwala
Banras Travels
Akhil Vinayak
Dheerej M
G Radhakrishnan Nair
Rishabh Dwivedi
ShantanuYennemadi
Anmol Dharmadhikari
www.mapofindia.com
Koteswar Rao
and 
UNNI MOhan



storyboard scribble page 1


storyboard scribble page 2


storyboard scribble page 3
storyboard scribble page 4 - final image

screenshot color CC for look and feel



 



Monday, November 2, 2015

iNSTAGRAM

lost my phone in the ganges. 
Got a new phone.
Discovered instagram.
https://instagram.com/krishand.rk/

bliss