Firebase a.k.a. Oats Studios Volume 1: Firebase (2017)Directed by Neill Blomkamp Oats Studios is a platform from filmmaker Neill Blomkamp, for releasing experimental short films. Last week I'd featured the first Oats Studios film, "Rakka". A few days back, the second short, "Firebase" was released online (its actually the third video, the second being a 2 minute mock advertisement). I felt the first film, while very well made, was too similar to Blomkamp's earlier works. This one feels quite different. I liked it better than "Rakka". This film is set during the Vietnam War, when a solider Hines is brought in to one particular base, to counter an individual with strange powers. It would be a spoiler to give more details, suffice to say, the film combines science fiction elements (influenced by "Watchmen" and "The Matrix") and body horror in a jungle setting in a unique way. I enjoyed it quite a bit, also the effective blood and gore effects. This is a drawing of one of the characters (the "River God") from the short. It was done with colour pencils, markers, micron and white gel pen on Canson paper. #271 / 4-Jul-17
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[Startup Cricket League 3 Special]Thor: Ragnarok (2017)Directed by Taika WaititiFor the upcoming third season of Startup Cricket League, @im_gunda has invited artists to create art based on the theme of "3". I had done one piece of art earlier for it, scroll back in my feed to see it. This is the second submission. Unlike the earlier art, this doesn't directly feature an interpretation of "3". It's a regular #DailyMovieSketch drawing, but the relation to "3" is in the choice of movie – I wanted to pick a "Part 3" in a movie series, which is expected to be absolutely badass. While I enjoyed the first two "Thor" movies, they are the lower ranked ones in my Marvel Cinematic Universe list. This one blew everyone away with the fantastic trailer, and it looks like it will be the best "Thor" movie till date. Also, if they do it well, it might be among the best MCU movies (it will be the 17th MCU movie to be released). The inspiration for this drawing partly came from "Baby Driver" and it's choice of music. The trailer for "Thor: Ragnarok" made excellent use of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song". Since I already drew Thor from the trailer, I thought I'd draw The Hulk in his Gladiator / Planet Hulk outfit. I loved the bit in the trailer when the Hulk is revealed, and Thor says "Yes! We know each other… he's a friend from work!" (who doesn't?) The drawing was done with pencil (and a touch of colour pencil) on A5 watercolour paper, and scanned.#The3Art #SCL3 #SCL2017 #270 / 3-Jul-17
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Baby Driver (2017)Directed by Edgar WrightI'm a big fan of Edgar Wright's movies. I really like his Cornetto Trilogy ("Shaun of the Dead", "Hot Fuzz", and "The World's End") and all the other movies in which he has had a hand in ("Tintin", "Ant-Man") have been great too. "Baby Driver" was on my Awaited Movies of 2017 list. It was released in theatres here on Friday, and I saw it yesterday (along with @varunabhiram, @kashyapchandra and @hrishidiwan). The movie is an action comedy with an ensemble cast. Ansel Elgort stars as Baby, a getaway driver who has worked with crime boss Doc (Kevin Spacey) for a long time, and wants to get out of the business. He has a condition called tinnitus due to which he has a constant hum in his ears – and he has to keep listening to music to drown that out. He falls in love with waitress Debora (Lily James), a romance that may be in danger because of his job. Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Jon Bernthal and Eiza González are all amazing as the various criminals who are part of Doc's crew. Edgar Wright has always had a flair for timing visuals to sound and music in his movies, and that is taken to an entirely different level here. Literally every shot is perfectly timed to the sound or music in the soundtrack. The technical excellence in the cinematography, editing, choreography and sound design is something to be seen to be believed. The movie has an excellent soundtrack and you could almost consider it a musical. The acting as I already mentioned is amazing. The action scenes are great. The only downside is that the story isn't anything extraordinary but it still keeps one's interest. I think "Baby Driver" is one of the best movies of the year so far. So entertaining and brilliantly made. I'd rate it a 9/10.This is a sketch of @ansel Elgort as Baby from the movie. It was drawn in pencil and this is a scan. #269 / 2-Jul-17
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Rakka a.k.a. Oats Studios Volume 1: Rakka (2017)Directed by Neill Blomkamp Some weeks ago, we got a trailer for a project called "Oats Studios", from filmmaker Neill Blomkamp. Under this banner, experimental short films were to be released. The first film, a short called "Rakka", was put out a couple of weeks ago. The film is an alien invasion story. An alien race (Blomkamp calls them the "Klum" – rhymes with plume) shows up on Earth, harvesting and conducting experiments on humans, and transforming our world into something that resembles theirs. There is a Resistance, but they seem to be on the losing side. Amir, a young man who has been experimented on by the aliens and survived, might help them turn the tide. Sigourney Weaver stars as Jasper, one of the Resistance Leaders. My favourite Neill Blomkamp film is the awesome "District 9" (2009). I liked his "Elysium" as well, but have not seen "Chappie". "Rakka" seemed to echo the tone and style of his earlier works. That's probably the one criticism I have of "Rakka", in that it seemed quite familiar. However, I thought it was very well made, it has high production value and a gritty and intense tone. The visual effects and the bloody and violent action scenes were also nicely done. If this had been a feature film, they could have probably resolved and tied up the characters' stories. But what we get now is a bit of world building and then when things start getting interesting, the short ends (which is probably a good thing, to go out on a high note). Overall it's a very good film and mandatory watching if you're a science fiction fan. Do read Neill Blomkamp's explanation / breakdown of the short. I drew Sigourney Weaver as Jasper from the movie (from the scene where she says, "cut off its fucking head"), it was drawn in pencil and then scanned. #268 / 25-Jun-17
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I had the opportunity to take over the Sodabottleopenerwala Instagram account today. From noon till about 8 PM, I was posting stories and pictures on the account. Do check out @sbowindia to see them. I took this one flatlay photo, showing Tea and Bun Maska (one of my favourites there), my laptop and my sketchbook, with my Wonder Woman drawing. #samsung #galaxys7
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#ThrowbackThursday A drawing from more than a year ago. This is sketch number #25 on this account, and was one of the drawings that people liked when it was exhibited at The #ArtConf Hyderabad 2017 last month. This is a sketch of Marla Singer from "Fight Club", one of my all time favourite movies. This is a scan. The original drawing (framed) is for sale.
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Startup Cricket League 3 Special / Nolan Batman Trilogy Miniature ArtFor the upcoming third season of Startup Cricket League, @im_gunda has invited artists to create art based on the theme of "3". This is my contribution. This is based on the concept of 3 equals 2 plus 1, and I made miniature drawings of the villains from Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy. The 2 and the 1 are the size of a 2 and a 1 Rupee coin respectively. There is no 3 Rupee coin, so that's the size of a 10 Rupee actually. The miniature drawings are inspired by the works of @anindianminiaturist, @lorraineloots, @chrismclellanart, @klibecap and @woodcastles. Of course their work is so much more detailed, but I think this isn't bad for a first attempt. This was drawn with 0.5mm 2B mechanical pencil on a sheet of A5 200 GSM Watercolour paper and scanned. I actually scanned the coins separately and pasted them into this. #The3Art #SCL #SCL3 #SCL2017#267 / 18-Jun-17
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Inside Man (2006)A Spike Lee Joint As some of you may know, I am part of the organizing team of Cinephiles Film Club at Hyderabad. Last week, we conducted a movie quiz (questions are in a comment, on this post), in which one of the questions was based on this movie. The question was, which Bollywood song is used for the opening and end credits of this movie. I love the opening scene of this heist movie. Clive Owen speaks directly to the audience – and says "My name is Dalton Russell. Pay strict attention to what I say, because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself. I've told you my name – that's the 'who'. The 'where' could most readily be described as a prison cell. But there's a vast difference between being stuck in a tiny cell and being in prison. The 'what' is easy – recently I planned and set in motion events to execute the perfect bank robbery. That's also the 'when'. As for the 'why', beyond the obvious financial motivation, it's exceedingly simple – because I can. Which leaves us only with the 'how'. And therein, as the Bard would tell us, lies the rub." Cut to, Opening credits. Beautiful! I rewatched this movie on Netflix recently, and I drew Clive Owen from the opening scene. This is one of only a couple of scenes in the movie where his face is visible! The drawing was done with pencil on paper and scanned. #266 / 15-Jun-17
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Maanagaram a.k.a. Nagaram (2017)Directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj I signed up for Amazon Prime Video after quite a few people told me about it. In India, it's available at a very low price, INR 499 per year, so it was a no-brainer to get it. This was the first movie I saw on Prime Video, a few days ago. "Maanagaram" is the original title of this Tamil movie, it was dubbed into Telugu as "Nagaram" and released in theatres here a few months ago, but I didn't have the chance to see it then. The movie tells the stories of four characters in a big city (Chennai), and has the plot lines intersect in a case of kidnapping. It's actually better to watch the movie with little knowledge of the plot, it's more interesting that way. The actors, Sundeep Kishan, Regina Cassandra, Sri, Charlie, all give very good performances, and the story is engaging. One clever aspect of the screenplay is that none of the main characters' names is ever revealed to the audience. The only criticism I have of the movie is that some scenes seemed stretched out more than they needed to be. The movie would have felt even more taut had it been shortened a little. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it and it's a credit to all involved for making it a thoroughly efficient drama-thriller. I drew Sundeep Kishan from the movie. This was done in 2B pencil and scanned. #265 / 9-Jun-17
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Rick and Morty (2013-present) Created by Justin Roiland and Dan HarmonI recently started watching this show on Netflix, so far I'm on Season 2 Episode 4. An entertaining sitcom about obnoxious alcoholic mad scientist Rick Sanchez and his grandson Morty getting into adventures across the multiverse, it's fun to watch. The lead characters are obviously a parody of Doc Brown and Marty from "Back to the Future", and the show takes inspiration from many other science fiction properties. Each episode being just half an hour long, it's easy to watch the show. I drew this in pencil and scanned it, and added the colours in Photoshop. #264 / 8-Jun-17
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