redirection

I do not want to close this just yet.
Not till I know all the effects of this vs. that

Till that time though...

I have migrated to Wordpress.

visit: http://shauryashaurya.wordpress.com/

please update your favorites.

cheers!

:):):)

...and a director must

A director must be able to write:

"We're willing to write for other people but we wouldn't direct a script written by somebody else...writing a script takes a few weeks, sometimes a few months. Directing a film can take up to two years of our lives. So it better be worth it!" - Ethan Coen

"...director who realizes somebody else's screenplay without being involved in it becomes a mere illustrator, resulting in dead and monotonous films" - Andrei Tarkovsky

...but, a director must always think in images (and draw and animate!):

"We like telling stories. But we don't see the writing as the best form to do that. It's just a step. We really think in terms of images." - Joel Coen

"...I would advise any future filmmaker to take a stab at animation...when you work in animation you control everything and do everything yourself: costumes, sets, lightning, framing and even, in a way, actor direction" - Jean-Pierre Jeunet

"When you're sent something and read it, either you can see it while you read it, or you can't." -
Steven Soderbergh

"It is not a just image, it is just an image" - Jean Luc Goddard

"I dream for a living." - Steven Spielberg

also, a director should be able to shoot and edit (and record sound) :

"The film of tomorrow will not be directed by civil servants of the camera, but by artists for whom shooting a film constitutes a wonderful and thrilling adventure." - Francois Truffaut

"I'm obsessed by the camera" - Bernardo Bertolucci

"What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out." - Alfred Hitchcock

"Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second." - Jean-Luc Godard

"...to film the unspoken" - Claude Sautet

A director may steal:

"...one could say that the tribute is borrowing and then copying is theft. For me, only theft is justifiable. If it's necessary, one should never hesitate; every filmmaker does it"- Pedro Almodovar

"I steal from every movie ever made." - Quentin Tarantino

"Self-plagiarism is style." - Alfred Hitchcock

but, the director better know what he is talking about:

"I think the duty of a filmmaker is to tell the story he wants to tell, which means that you have to know what the hell you're talking about." - Martin Scorsese

"I'm a storyteller - that's the chief function of a director. And they're moving pictures, let's make 'em move!" - Howard Hawks

"If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed." - Stanley Kubrick

and although he may not know a lot else:

"...its a tension between knowing exactly what you want or being able to change it according to the circumstances..." - Martin Scorsese

"The biggest danger I would warn any future filmmaker about is to think that you know everything about cinema." - Woody Allen

"I don't think there's any artist of any value who doesn't doubt what they're doing." - Francis Ford Coppola

"...when I get on the set, I don't know anything." - Woody Allen

he should still be a know-it-all:

"The profession of film director can and should be such a high and precious one; that no man aspiring to it can disregard any knowledge that will make him a better film director or human being." - Sergei Eisenstein

A director must think different different different:

"I failed to make the chess team because of my height." - Woody Allen

"The concept of absurdity is something I'm attracted to." - David Lynch

"A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order." - Jean-Luc Godard

"Why pay a dollar for a bookmark? Why not use the dollar for a bookmark?" - Steven Spielberg

"Thank God I'm an atheist." - Luis Bunuel

and whatever happens, a director must keep trying trying trying:

"I associate my motion picture career more with being unhappy and scared, or being under the gun, than with anything pleasant." - Francis Ford Coppola

"To be or not to be. That's not really a question." - Jean-Luc Godard

"Most of the time I don't have much fun. The rest of the time I don't have any fun at all." - Woody Allen

A director must always stay true to the self:

"All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography." - Federico Fellini

"As for me, well, I make films for myself" - Martin Scorsese

"Each time I view my work after a film is finished: I see only the mistakes" - Jean-Pierre Jeunet

"...it has to do with the way you tell that story..." - David Lynch

but then, when it's all there, the director must, in the end, lie:

"Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering." - Steven Soderbergh

"I have always preferred the reflection of the life to life itself." -Francois Truffaut

"Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world. " - Jean Luc Goddard

of a meet-cute, I never met

I want to write a love story
A tale I've never told
of a meet-cute, I never met
and a sex-rack too bold

I want to tell a tale
All the passions wild
of desires never done
and mistakes untold

I want to fib
but I know the lie
of a heart that speaks
around the waters too cold

CIRCLE

And all this time, the author kept apologizing for it all. He’d tell the truth and that would be good, but the truth was blasphemous and that would be bad.
Good for some, bad for some.

Good.
Bad.

God.
Devil.

God, Pure Good
Devil, Ah! Well…

You.

God did good. You were happy. God got popular. Devil got pissed.

Devil impersonated God and made a Devil of the God. The devil probably hired a PR agency to finish the job.

The new God setup a church and asked you to pray pray pray, for it was all suffering suffering sad. You did. Meanwhile the new Devil asked you to love love love and have a good time, for it wasn’t all that bad. You wondered.

Eventually, you stopped crying and started having a good time. The new Devil got popular. The new God got pissed.

God impersonated Devil and made a God of the Devil. The God also gave that same PR agency – free will.

The new Devil sang while you loved and lo! There were diseases for you that only monkeys could have before. You loved and you lost and you cried and you wept.

The God setup a church and asked you to save, help, heal everything, for it all did matter. You did. You wondered. Meanwhile the Devil asked you to eat, shit, fuck everything, for none of it mattered in the end. You wondered. You did.

Eventually, you may stop crying and start having a good time. The God gets popular. The Devil gets pissed.

More business for the PR agency where you work.
It’s called life-something isn’t it?

And all this time, the author kept apologizing for it all. He’d tell the truth and that would be good, but the truth was blasphemous and that would be bad.
Good for some, bad for some.

So, he’d apologize and do it all over again.
Good, bad, bad, good, bad, bad, good, good, bad, good, good, bad…It was his nature.

the Temp-Sample

we start in the middle of nowhere and this is where it will
all end too. There is a light in the window of the house
that is in the middle of nowhere. A shadow appears in the
window.

SHADOW
I have been sucking on stale donuts
all day. When will my misery end!!!

the house explodes! but the explosion cannot be seen from afar
as the the fog moves on! We see the hand of a man who walks up
to the remains of the house.

HAND
your misery ends when the monitor
is switched off and Alice walks
into the wonderland! GOOD BYE!

and that is how it ends...in the middle of no where.


....
I was trying a new scriptwriting service online and this is the temp-sample attempt I made while testing the features. Nope, not for me, I'd stick with Zhura for now... :)

The sound made by one

There's a peculiar habit I have. Whenever I read , I can't help writing down snatches of text that appeal to me. Not so much "quotable quotes" as "tasty text". I have several diaries full of such text now. If you read them, they appear like notes of a larger story - a celestial shaggy dog if you may, wet, sloppy, in your face and completely cryptic.
Speaking of cryptic shaggy dogs, I am always in awe of the Illuminatus! trilogy. Almost every other paragraph is a "tasty text" and most are too long to quote. Lately a single line from the book inspired an entire story out of me. I will post the story here in some time. For now here is another "tasty text" from the book:

How do we know whether the universe is getting bigger or the objects in it are getting smaller? You can't say that the universe is getting bigger in relation to anything outside it, because there isn't any outside for it to relate to. There isn't any outside. But if the universe doesn't have any out-side, then it goes on forever. Yeah, but, its in-side doesn't go on forever. How do you know it doesn't shithead? You're just playing with words, man.
- No I am not. The universe is the inside without an outside, the sound made by one.


...as I said...trippy!

A notable mention on #tweetcoding YAY!!!

post #twex I got really interesting in another experiment...

#tweetcoding was a kick ass code contest by Grant Skinner (thanks a lot @gskinner!)

prtcipnts hd 2 code sth. cool in ls thn 140 chrs!... and @machine501 setup an online compiler to showcase all the #tweetcoding going on... again thanks to @machine501 for making it so easy for me to follow it all up!
.
and now the results are out!!!

The Winners :
diagonal snake by @tomee6
Tunnel of Stripes by @piXelero (a personal favorite!)

The Runners-ups :
the drummer by @vectorcinco
Ghost Marquee by @dickwolf

Congratulations everyone! awesome work!!!

and there were some entries that got a Notable mention ...and My entry was amongst them:
The time-sketch by @shauryashaurya
happy happy - Wooohooo!!!!

To all the judges of the contest, thanks so much! This was really encouraging! :)

take a look at the #tweetcoding winners page.

1. Check out all of the #tweetcoding (compiled) entries online
2. the #tweetcoding rules
3. link to @gskinner's blog post on #tweetcoding
4. @gskinner says here that the next round should be in around next month: am eargely waiting!!!
   

S.

P.S. #twex analysis is still pending (my apologies!!! - sum dum projkts @ wrk I need to fin firs.) but results should be out next month! stay tuned :)

alluvial deposits

WOW! I had like four stories to write and no time.
(can't say how many times I have made this excuse, but I have still not figured a way to not give an excuse and get it done.)

The ideas came to my brain and left out the other way to mingle with the collective.
Like rivers rushing out to sea.
And now all I am left with are alluvial deposits...

These are real fertile, volatile deltas. There may be more stories germinating in these deposits, but they'd be closer to the sea and likelier to be washed away.

It may be this, there may be that, but the point in the mean time was - there was another January with a lot of stories in it, that never got told.

May the Gods accept the sacrifice (of these tales) and bless me with a better year ahead.

Stories giving birth to other stories, tales feeding tales...may the fabled ecosystems of imagination continue to thrive


:) :) :)

S.

Happy New Year!

Wish you a happy-shiny, shiny-happy new year.

by the way, here's a calendar just for you. Comment to this post, leave your email and I'll send a printable pdf to you. :)

DYNAMITE-SAMOSA

This one's about dynamite hot samosas, naughty missing children and the shopkeeper with the warm cold-drinks.

(hopefully) Coming soon...

started a total tweet of an experiment

Check out: http://blog.learningmate.com/wordpress/?p=21

I started a total tweet of an experiment at work.
lotsa people show lotsa interest. Key is keeping it alive. I hope it all works out.

big thanks to Atul for making it possible.

I love it when "it" makes a difference.

:) :) :)

emosanal atyachaar!!!

check out the Dev.D trailer!!! (http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=jpCxyL86zYQ)

bloody wow huh!!!

It looks like Anurag is all set to rock again!

too good Anurag! way to go... total emosanal atyachaar!!!

yay!

THE ORIGIN OF LIFE AND WHY WE ARE LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACE

God created Life.
God, being a being several levels above Life.

The Life was given the power to control everything.
Life was magical. Wizard.

Life understood (and could make good use of):

• Gravity
• Elector-magnetism
• Strong Force
• Time
• Emotions
  

So whatever life would want, it would get, instantly.

Consider:
If it wanted a car below it's bum, it would not aim, and work and earn and yearn it.
If it wanted a car below it's bum, it would already have the car below it's bum.

If it wanted a golden lollipop while sitting in the comfy car, and cruise on a giant banana, it would already be doing so. Because that is all you can wish for, once you have magic and you have everything else that you can get from magic.

Life knew strong force, it could become any form it wanted and that is why it had no form.

Life was a mathematician, artist, linguist, computer programmer, film-maker all at the same time, and it did not need to be any of these at any time, since it understood (and could make great use of):

• Gravity
• Electro-magnetism
• Strong Force
• Time
• Emotions
  

Life existed for less than an instant of an instant and got everything it wanted from that minute minute of time. Just before Life would end, it would create more Life, so that every instance of every instance would be alive.

Life did not need God, at least that is what Life thought (we all do, don't we?).

God did need Life, for God needed to feel important (we all do, don't we?).

So the situation got uncomfortable.

There was a tussle that lasted for an instance of an instance and after the longest brief periods, a truce came to be (that is all it takes for a truce).

Life: Life would de-evolve.
God: In return, Life would live longer.
Over-all: It would be livelier than it was now.

So, all Life went to the future, and God turned back time.

Life would live and spawn a parent.
The parent had lesser control (and understanding) of:

• Gravity
• Electro-magnetism
• Strong Force
• Time
• Emotions

Over millions of billions of years, Life de-evolved, until it only understood (and could make good use of):

• Gravity
• Electro-magnetism

Since, it lost the strong force, it gained the first form.
It became a small single celled bacterium, living for a little more than an instant, living beneath the great seas.

And, then God let the time be.

The small single celled bacterium, over a few millon years has evolved into you.

And this is why most scientists cannot find the true origin of Life.

For Life did not come from before the bacterium, it came after it.

God is still a being being several levels above it all.

:) :) :)

ideate regurgitate

These are ideas, (I find them to be cliches) that I must get out of my brain, to get it working smoothly again. Maybe they can (I am sure they can) become good stories once they get out.
If you do make something out of it, do let me know. If I and up making something out of these I'll put it up here... :)


The 9th Hurry

Man named Hurry Prasad googles for his name.
Google points out 12 results.
He starts looking at them one by one.
Finds himself at #9. The link pointing to him is dead.
8 of the 12 men listed are dead too.
He decides to meet the other 4.
Then what?

I had read somewhere that you can connect to any other person in the world, and the chain would have at most five links (some hokey theory, I don't remember the source... probably true... like monkeys typing Hamlet etc.)e.g. I know a friend, who knows another firend, whose brother's wife's uncle is the president. So I connected to the president in 5 steps.

Who knows where these 5 Hurrys would go?

but why Google?
why not the local telephone directory?
Google is global dude!

It's probably just another cliche...probably better
THE END


The Real Reality

Unrelated Bunch of People (UBP) have issues in their lives.

"Can't solve it" is a proposed reality show for a TV channel.
The production company is shooting the pilot.
Reality shows need live audience to sit and clap.
This show is very strange ( what is the strange ness???)
This is a Strange Reality Show (SRS).

Our UBP lands up at the "Can't solve it" pilot.

The SRS really gives them a new perspective on life and on their issues.
You know, the old "finding yourself" plot, only done in the way love actually did love stories.

The UBP goes back home with a fresh insights on their nature and their issues.
Still, some "can't solve it", but some do.
THE END.

The SRS really needs to be Strange and still be Real.
Plausible. SRS should not look made up, instead blend seamlessly into the story, add value to the story.


The Small Path

There is a small path I saw today.
I walked up it, it hel the promise of unseen explorations.
But, my view was blocked with a curtain of coconut trees.
Blah!!! Blah! Blah...

This is well aged cheese, Rich and inedible.
But, it could be so many stories... so many cliches...
It could BE!
THE END
.
.
.




There...
nice brain release!
Ah!

say YES.

Look
say YES

You can't ignore me
I am going to try

I mean
Look
say YES

Just 'cause I go speechless
when you are there

Hey!
Look
say YES

You've never forgiven me
for not saying it when I could

but
Look
say YES

'cause I could never forget you
but never said when I could

and
Look
if you said YES

I'll get a chance I
don't deserve

but hey!
Look
before you say YES

'cause you'd give me a chance you
once wanted to

and I
Look
before I say

you have limitations
I do too

and
Look
say YES

no limit is as
limitless as your no

your
Look
your YES

its not about skin
its not about sex

your
Look
your YES

its about skin
its about sex

just
Look
say YES

for a mad mind
a madder heart

but
Look
DON'T say YES

I am in my senses
for a mo[ment]

no, no
Look
SAY YES

my senses just
went out the door

and
Look
I cry

for you
to say YES

and
Look
I long

you you would
feel YES

and
I, I
will cry

happy-crazy to see
your sweet YES

and
I, I
will die

crazy-happy if
you did someday

say YES.