Today’s moon is supposed to be a “Supermoon” – which sounds like something out of a science fiction story, if you read the Wikipedia article! Anyway, I thought it would be a good thing to take a photo of, so here’s my shot –
I just posted this image on Facebook with that line from “Why this Kolaveri Di?” (I know, poor attempt at humour, but I couldn’t resist), but then thought I’d put it up here as well, in it’s larger size. Click the above image to see the 1503 pixel wide JPG (it has EXIF info intact).
I think this is the best shot of the moon I’ve taken so far (earlier attempts are mentioned in a previous post). Contrary to what you may think I didn’t use a tripod for this. It was taken handheld, at ISO 200, f11 and 1/125 sec. Lens was the 55-250mm and this was obviously taken at the 250mm end. As far as I remember, I used live view and focused manually. I took a bunch of photos, this was the best one in terms of focus and sharpness.
Cropping and a little bit of playing with levels and desaturation was done in Photoshop, and as for the font, you can always count on Futura to add elegance to anything.
[Note: This post was drafted on 15-Apr-12, rather than update it with another 15 days worth of stuff, I decided to publish this, and then write another post to cover the additional information.]
I’d mentioned in the last post that my brother spoke at Pecha Kucha Night Hyderabad Vol 8. Well, the official video for Varun’s presentation is up on YouTube now, and that’s what I’m opening this post with!
Here you go –
Great presentation, isn’t it? In case you missed it earlier, this post should tell you about what Pecha Kucha Night is.
Recent Trailers of Note
The trailer for the upcoming remake Total Recall is an interesting one, and it looks pretty flashy. It seems to be following the Schwarzenegger movie quite closely (some of the setups and lines are translated intact here), although this one isn’t set on Mars. Colin Farrell plays the character of Douglas Quaid, and Kate Beckinsale is Lori and Jessica Biel plays Melina (the character that Rachel Ticotin played in the 1990 movie). The trailer reminded me of Minority Report a little bit.
I didn’t know this, but my friend Kashyap Chandra had this to say about the tracking shot at around 1:06 in the trailer –
That shot is One Hundred percent practical. Zero CG camera movement. They actually rigged up the RED One cameras to move around the room at speeds of upto 35 mph!
That’s pretty fascinating! I assumed that was CG.
Talking about trailers though, this is probably the highlight of the recent past – the trailer for Rian Johnson’s science fiction movie Looper –
Incredible, isn’t it? Just check out that makeup on Joseph Gordon-Levitt, making him look like a younger version of Bruce Willis. The concept is interesting too, and I really like the music in the trailer. Obviously I was interested to know what was the exact track used, and a little Googling turned up the answer. It’s a track called “K.I.L.L.” by Nick Murray and Mark Moore. You can listen to it on this YouTube video titled Music from the Looper Trailer.
One Year and 15,825 Photos
April 2, 2012 marked one year since I got my Canon EOS 550D camera. And on that date, the number of photos taken with the camera numbered 15,825. Interesting milestone, eh? It has been quite a journey reaching this number, and I’ve enjoyed every bit of it.
@Galactica_gk’s Hyderabad Visit
Between 5-8 April, my cousin Girish visited Hyderabad. It was a hugely entertaining long weekend.
Here is how I received him at the airport –
I was flashing this paper with his Twitter handle, I thought someone would notice and smile, but no – it didn’t seem like anyone had a sense of humour about this. There was a guy from a hotel who was also receiving someone and he asked me why I was holding up this? Had I never seen my cousin before? I told him it was just for style.
We had a midnight movie screening every night that he was here, and I got to revisit some of my favourite movies – Fight Club, Grindhouse and From Dusk Till Dawn. Apart from this we saw 3 in the theatre.
Along with family we visited Golconda Fort, Salarjung Museum and had lunch in pitch darkness at Taste of Darkness in Inorbit Mall (this restaurant is the only one of its kind in India).
Another interesting thing which happened, is that one day, we were discussing about Jyothika and I wanted to search for the article on Wikipedia, but instead of doing that I typed the name into The Pirate Bay. And I was wondering why the autocomplete wasn’t working!
On the way back home from the airport, I took the above picture of the moon. Was shot handheld and is a definite improvement over the moon photo I took a year ago.
Insightful Commentary about Commentary Tracks
At FilmSchoolRejects, they write articles about commentary tracks on DVDs (this feature is called Commentary Commentary). I recently came across a bunch of these and found them very interesting to go through. Thought I would share two in particular, which I found very insightful.
“For me Dark City is a film of hope and optimism. It has a firm belief in the individual winning out over the mass mind, and I think that’s a very important feeling to have in this world.” – Alex Proyas
Type Camp India – Nice article by Todd Macfie from I Love Typography.
Mike Shinoda on scoring The Raid – Insightful interview with Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda on scoring The Raid: Redemption and on the direction of their next album.
Pecha Kucha Night Hyderabad was mentioned on the Worldwide Pecha Kucha website. They posted the Behind the Scenes video – and I appear twice in that video.
Two more quotes from Facebook – this one from Arrow in the Head on April 5:
Happy Birthday Roger Corman! Thanks for all them years of monsters, boobies and blood!
And this one from my friend Abhishek:
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. (Tears in Rain Soliloquy) – Karthik Abhiram this one is for you 🙂
Collection of Tweets
As usual, here is the collection of tweets from 2-Apr-12 to 15-Apr-12.
RT @rob_sheridan You guys. Go see “Cabin In The Woods.” Don’t read anything about it. Just go before someone spoils it. Super super fun and inventive.
RT @omgthatspunny Why did the capacitor kiss the diode? He just couldn’t resistor. #punny
RT @mihirfadnavis Drinking Mogu Mogu with its little bits of fruit feels like accidentally swallowing your own mucus. #SardiKiGuthliyan
RT @AapChutiyeHain People connecting randomly on LinkedIn by mentioning you’re a ‘friend’ without even a message, jai veeru ki dosti ki kasam #AapChutiyeHain
Tweets 14-Apr-12:
@Galactica_gk It’s good, as I remember – lots of gore, action, weird stuff, more cartoonish than the previous ones! Writer is Joss Whedon.
@Galactica_gk I actually haven’t seen this “Assembly Cut” version… I should also plan a day for watching all 4 back-to-back 🙂
From the end credits of “Planet Terror” – “Mr. Rodriguez’s Chef – ROBERT RODRIGUEZ” 🙂
In kdenlive, I really like the “Technicolor” effect under the Colour Correction tools. Gives a nice boost to saturation in a video.
If you see the “scratch-free” version of @RobertRdz’s “Planet Terror” you’ll realise the genius behind its cinematography / lighting!
RT @Galactica_gk James Cameron’s Aliens is better than Alien. Could be because of the extra ‘S’ or more Aliens. @karthik82
RT @laughbook *Stalking crush on Facebook* * Accidentally likes status from 2009* *Deletes Facebook* *Sets computer on fire*
RT @mihirfadnavis I wouldn’t be surprised if someone finds RGV hiding in the bathroom of a girls hostel brandishing a camera and licking his lips.
Tweets 13-Apr-12:
RT @psam @dharmeshG Official synopsis for Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’ | http://bit.ly/IuG9Sn
RT @rob_sheridan It’s cute how flight attendants tell you sternly to “completely power off your cell phone” and then carry on as if ANYONE actually did that.
RT @Deepu2rebel Quentin Tarantino was in India past months, He spent almost 20-30days here. Delhi, Mhmbai and many other places. Should’ve met him #lifetime
RT @Nader230 Dropped my N8 while crossing the road. Minor scratches, screen as good as new, still working perfectly! @nokia @Nokia_Connects
@Nader230 @nokia @Nokia_Connects That’s not surprising 🙂 I’ve dropped my N8 a few times and I think the phone doesn’t care one bit 🙂
RT @cliffordsouza SRK – “Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahin, namumkin hain.” New York Airport officials – “@AapChutiyeHain!”
RT @planet5D #VincentLaforet New Zeiss wide angle SLR Lenses – and how they stack up against their Canon EF counterpart #HDSLRnews http://bit.ly/Ik8ud7
RT @jakefogelnest Is it true that Friendster just bought Polaroid for eleventy-billion dollars?
#NowWatching Kickboxer (1989) – Good oldschool 80s action stuff with Jean Claude Van Damme.
So far, “Kickboxer” feels like an Americanised version of a 1970s Hong Kong martial-arts movie!
The training montage in “Kickboxer” reminds me of “The Fearless Hyena” and “Kill Bill Vol 2”.
Man, what gruelling training Van Damme goes through, to learn Muay Thai… one should take this stuff as inspiration when exercising!
Btw… the music in “Kickboxer” is by Paul Hertzog, and if I am not mistaken, he did the music for the Van Damme movie “Bloodsport” also.
And I have not seen “Kickboxer” before (if I have, I don’t remember the movie), but I remember liking “Kickboxer 2”.
I should watch Kickboxer 2 again, and one bit of interesting info about that movie, is that it’s written by David Goyer (The Dark Knight).
Wow, they’ve included a dance number in “Kickboxer”! Van Damme dances!
RT @Galactica_gk Post-Midnight Feature #3 From Dusk Till Dawn is slapstick comedy and horror. The perfect combo. + writer is Quentin Tarantino. @karthik82
RT @omgthatspunny If the movie hero of the Matrix was a woman, would she have been called Ingrid? #punny
RT @funnyoneliners “Doctor! Doctor! How long do I have left to live?” “Ten.” “Ten what? Months? Years?” “Nine, Eight, Seven..”
#NowWatching “From Dusk Till Dawn” – Midnight… er… 2 AM Feature with @Galactica_gk
Tweets 7-Apr-12:
3 – Liked it. Felt like 2 movies separated by an interval, a bit overlong and second half had exaggerated drama. I loved the music. 7/10
I didn’t understand why the movie is called “3” though…
RT @edgarwright My 10,000 tweet better be something really amazing… oh fuck-
RT @SimpooSir To see Anil Kapoor in Mission Impossible 4, plz wear Red glassez. Just did. Mr. India Protocol. #Yuss
RT @arocks Titanic wasn’t a tragedy for everyone apparently. Just look at James Cameron 🙂
Just realised that @Galactica_gk and I watched “Grindhouse” on April 6, 2012 – exactly five years after the movie’s US Release date!
Midnight Double Feature 2- Grindhouse was very good. Planet Terror is intentionally like a Hindi movie. @karthik82
RT @scottEweinberg With respect to (virtually) everyone, WHY REVIEW SCREENPLAYS? Fucking hell! Food critics don’t review the recipe. Assholes!
RT @rajith_23 “Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.” – Lao Tzu
It’s a great feeling to wake up in the morning and find that your downloads are completed.
#NowWatching “Grindhouse” Theatrical Cut with @Galactica_gk – “Planet Terror” & “Death Proof” back-to-back as they were meant to be seen.
Tweets 6-Apr-12:
RT @rajith_23 Watched Housefull 2. Liked it. Keep brain at home . Don’t have any expectation. Full fun. Little long but fun..
RT @zombeaner Now you can watch this nutso trailer! “@TwitchFilm: First Trailer For Akshay Kumar’s ROWDY RATHORE Blows The Roof Off! http://goo.gl/fb/V7Md5“
RT @josephradhik I predict 2012-13 to be a crazy war between Canon and Sony for the HDSLR and indie large sensor market.
RT @vemana: @karthik82 Its awesome the way you digitally chronicle your life. It seems like you arent missing anything and not overdoing it either!
@vemana Thank you! I guess it’s more for myself that I am doing it, but if it’s interesting to others too, that’s great 🙂
RT @stupidusmaximus Happy birthday, Ajay Devgn. Here, have a vowel.
RT @YaavanoObba Gangarams closing. | Oh, that’s sad man. I’ll miss their bhujia and khatta meetha. | Dude. That’s Haldirams. | Oh then what’s Gangarams?
RT @dharmeshG Ashton Kutcher will play Steve Jobs in an upcoming biopic. #facepalmtree
RT @justkalpana this is quote is soo for me. “@kritzeln: Respect your first thought. Don’t worry abt length, grammer, tense. Vomit! #IndiaSocial12”
RT @AapChutiyeHain Whenever you feel you’re a failure in life, think of Tusshhaar Kapoor #feelbetter?
RT @mihirfadnavis Also, I would not watch a Total Recall movie that doesn’t have the three boobed lady.
RT @gurpreet_bhatia: @karthik82 cngrts. U wl never frgt d date of two reasons. #worldcupwin #poonampandey
#LinesNOTinTotalRecall2012 “See you at da party, Richter!”
#LinesNOTinTotalRecall2012 “Give dis people AAIR!”
#LinesNOTinTotalRecall2012 “Get your ass to Mars”
My Canon EOS 550D camera is one year old today! 1 year and 15,825 photos – it’s been a wonderful ride!
