Video Highlight: BIRUKU

One of the cool things I enjoy (that I probably should post more often) while surfing Orkut is that you get to see a lot of unique armature film directors sharing stories via camera.

Over in the Independent Film-makers forum, Gowtham has posted his debuted film and is already receiving some (mostly) constructive comments for his short movie (which you can watch below or on Google Video).

Although I've heard this story before (a long time ago) this is the first time that I've seen it in video format. The film is fairly long (over seven minuets) so you may want to watch this on your lunch break or after work.

Despite the screen being blurry (which is either do to Google Video's format or the camera used in the shooting) the overall message is pretty good, although I won't spoil the ending for those of you who have never heard of this story before.

Improvements to this movie are best summed up by Parvati:

[...] the concept was really gud..maybe u shud work on it again and let the boy's frustration show through a couple of more sequences...also concentrate a bit more on ur camera work..for me personally the transition shot when amar gets a call didn't work...the sound quality is another arena u should pay attention to..but over all a gud fantastic first project- keep up the gud work!!!

Great film Gowtham, and thanks for entertaining all of us (or at least me anyways).

Note: Does anybody know of any other great forums (not filled with spam) where users discuss their film projects?

Video Highlight: The Color Of Life

(Note: Blogger is acting weird...this may be my last post for the day)

Over in the Short Films forum, Vikram has posted a link to a short film he made entitled The Color of Life.

Review: The special effects for the intro were very well done, almost theatre like and I expected a Hollywood class movie.

The lighting of the film however is very poor in the beginning, and I think next time they may want to shoot the film with more lights. Also background noise interfered as well (sounded muffled).

Aside from technical issues, the film had a great message in it, and the acting was fairly good as well. Hopefully these guys (and/or gals) will produce more films like these, as they were good at telling a very short story.

Do you have a film on Orkut waiting to be discovered? Stop reading this site and scrap me and I may post it here.

Video Highlights: Buddha Never Smiled

Rejeeb (over in the Short films forum) has just informed the Orkut world of their launch of a 30 minute movie entitled "Buddha Never Smiled."

Here is the preview video with its description below.

(Brief Summary) Its the story of soldiers who is guarding your country and my country... Who still doesent know what he is guarding for. And why. And he is there not to fight for his country, but for his own life.

Note: You may have heard of the phrase "Buddha smiled" which is in reference to when India became a nuclear power.

Looks pretty good. Hopefully Rejeeb will provide more details when the film launches.

PS: Don't forget to visit their site at BuddhaNeverSmiled.com

Video Highlights: Roshni-The Light

Over in the Short Films forum, Vikram (from India) has posted a video with a strong message for all those who enjoy the tobacco crave.

(Note: If you are unable to view this video here, you can check it out over at YouTube's website)

One great thing about this forum is that members are able to provide constructive criticism (rather than attacks) in order to help each other produce a better movie.

One of the best forms of this came from Yogesh who replied with:

Saw your film your production credit is excellent and SFX of that feels like a hollywood movie where did u manage that from; apart then that lighting is really poor. Even the script is dull. Is it your first film? Sorry to be harsh but it'll help you for your future.

Subject of Anti smoking is good but u never showed any reason for a person not smoking apart from death and every smoker knows everyone has to die sooner or later. Something more negative towards smoking would had been nice.

Advice well spoken. Perhaps Vikram could do a reshooting of this film (something I would look forward to) as this message needs to get across to every Orkut smoker lest they end up in this forum.