The Placebo Effect

The past two weeks were really something. I with few of my friends decided to make a short film on the topic "Say No to Drugs and Yes to Life".

This is a serious topic yet we had to give it a new look and wanted to approach the topic in a fresh manner without much of the stereotypes attached to it. My only concern during the shooting and in post production was that, the film in no way should make the audience feel like they have seen this before. The way the topic had to be handled and the movie's treatment right from the beginning to the end was very important to me.
I had two very good scripts at hand. One of the concept was mine, with the script and screenplay all done by me. I was quite happy to go with it, as it did not require too many actors and could have come out quite nicely.
But, i decided to go for the more challenging idea that my friend floated, it was very challenging and it took me some time to convince myself that i will be able to do it.

We all now knew what we had to tell, but the problem was how do we tell it without being too explicit, or too cliched...
I along with Samprita, Nikhil, and Rahul came up with the script and screenplay. I knew we had quite a challenge on our hands, but i also knew if things went as planned, we could pull off an astonishing short here.

I have shot two other short films earlier of about 5 min duration each. So, i was hoping for a similar experience this time round. I was overwhelmed when i realized that it would not be as easy as i thought earlier.
I had to get all the actors around and since everyone had some or the other creative inputs, i had to take all of them and consider how i would put it across. I think my mistake during this short film was that i did not go with a set screenplay instead thought that i would improvise on the sets so that would make me open to more ideas. Bad idea!

All i ended up with was too much of confusion and too much chaos in the budding actors, leading to time crunches and all in all a chaotic weekend, which i may never forget for a really long time, although i must admit, the rush that it gave me while calling the shots was immense and i will take a lot of pleasure that i was a part of it and i am very proud of this short film. I just hope i can put it on the net so that i will be able to get more views and suggestions and comments and brickbats.

I would personally like to thank Don (film shot extensively at Don's crib), Samprita (story, screenplay, choreography, editing, voice over, and for a lot of patience throughout the making of the film), Santhosh (for keeping his cool while we shot his bits over and over and over again, plays the drug abuser), Nikhil (for arranging the cameraman, the editing studio, basically getting this project onto the launch pad, plays the musician), Rahul (plays the racer, for his creative writing inputs, his voice overs), Neha (plays the athlete, who stood under the sunday afternoon sun for long time and we unfortunately had to edit the scene in the studio), Priyanka (plays the dancer who just could not control her laughter for some reason and just would burst into peels of laughter - she looks quite a bit like Cameron Diaz - hmmm have i found my muse already!!!), Marion (expert advise on how the scenes involving the drug abuser could be shot to make it look more authentic), Chandru (cameraman), Girish (asst cameraman), Suresh (Video Editing) and above all Srivatsa for helping us out from beginning to the end and arranging for the cameraman and editing studio and showing the faith in us that we could come up with a good short film.

It has a been a great learning curve and all i have are positives to take away from this project.
I hope the movie gets selected, if it does i will not be able to upload it on the net due to copyright issues, if not i will post it on youtube and will be available on my blog here as well.

In the end, you might feel like you just had a mind numbing, spirit crushing boost to the head but its just
"The Placebo Effect"

Steve and his Thinnovations

I watched the Macworld Keynote 2008 yesterday. I will immediately admit that i was not blown away.
Of course, if in your previous Keynote you introduced a product as insightful and as innovative as the iPhone, it would be really difficult for you to do a follow up to that.
Steve had four things to offer a Time capsule, iPod and iPhone software updates (all aren't free updates, he is charging $20 for the iPod touch software updates for the existing customers), the iTunes movie rentals - apple TV take2 to make the movie renting experience even easier and much more enriching, and finally the thinnest laptop the Macbook Air.

I felt the iTunes movie rentals will make a bigger impact more than Macbook Air.
Steve is now hard selling his apple TV. They have come up with a second take of the Apple TV which can be used even without a computer and which will directly stream rented movies, music, TV Shows, youtube videos on to your Full HD TV. Since, he has the backing of all major production houses - this might just be the next big thing from Apple.


Macbook Air is unbelievably thin. You are spell bound by the engineering team which came up with such a thin laptop.
The ad just makes you wanna have one of those. But, when reality dawns on you and when better sense prevails, you actually notice, that its functionality not the best laptop that money can buy you.

Although, If we just take the 2008 address by itself it had its moments i must say.

My moments:

The Blades of Glory preview - Will Ferrell rocks!
The Teton Gravity research clip - Whoa! Can they actually do such things?!
Steve opening taking out the Mabook Air from the envelope
Paul Ottellini Intel CEO handing the Intel processor as souvenir to Steve

Alternative Medicine

Its funny to note how most people perceive the term 'alternative medicine'. I am no medicine guy but alternative medicine to some extent has evoked interest off late in me. Alternative medicine comprises of any form of practice other than the commonly followed practice of medical science to cure diseases or ailments, this might include spiritual, religious or even your grandma's magic potion. So, in my quest for knowledge of this kind of medicine i recently came across Health Kinesiology.

Kinesiology is a science pertaining to the study of body movements in humans. Health Kinesiology on the other hand is not entirely based on science and it is not entirely related to Kinesiology.
It is interesting to note that many people would not be aware of such a practice. In India, i don't think there are many practitioners of this kind of alternate medicine.

It is process of healing the body from its ailments by taking a holistic approach. The practitioners 'listen' to the patients body by a process known as muscle testing to find out the body's ailments and the root causes for it. Treating the root causes over the due course of time either reduces or in rare cases completely rids the patients of their ailments.
Well, thats the theory of it anyway. Like most alternative medicines the science or the way it actually works is not clearly understood.
And just as in any form of medicine it has its believers and its skeptics.

It is not proven science, but, a good practitioner truly may be able to help the patient. Skeptics although believe it is just another way of making a quick buck. I am sure in a few years to come some of the celebrities will try it out and who know some might even swear by it for its magical cures and then HK practitioners worldwide will be smiling their way to the bank.

I would like to believe that most ailments not all, begin and end in the mind. You treat the mind the body heals by itself. A healthy lifestyle does help one to keep most illnesses at bay.

Cheers to good health!