Mark Toia
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If you haven't had the pleasure or pain of working in india, let me tell you this, it's an experience. Love it or hate it, it's something you have to do once in your life. It's an amazing place!.
Wonderful people, great hard working film crews, but it's a complete utter chaotic mess, and the locals freely agree with you and laugh... Mumbai (Bombay) especially!.
There was an American director in the same hotel, we met up for dinner... nice guy.. But he was a train wreck!. I think he thought Bombay and LA film making is the same. A few words of encouragement and advice and he braved another day. but he will have stories to tell for ever.
For the novice film makers... beware, Mumbai is not a place to learn your craft... But for the hard core experienced shooter, it's one of those amazing places in the world that just cannot be replicated. It's a cinematographers dream! and a directors pearl. But the secert is to gathher the right poeple around you when your there... The place just opens up like a flower for you.
I've been skipping over there every few years to shoot projects and one thing that dawned on me the last shoot I had there, was how the perfect RED EPIC suites this country. Better than any other camera in fact.
Even though 35mm is still king in India, because a lot of DP's own there cameras and don't want to convert to Digital for the sake of there prized precision being obsolete before its time.
But the writing is on the wall and the next wave of indian film makers will convert before there very eyes and leave the old thinkers hi and dry. EPIC will invade Bombay like a tidal wave once a few big name local DP's get a real taste of it's power. The Alexa is having a good go... but inidans are very smart. They look at specs & Prices and do the due diligence a lot better than some.
Post houses in India are really embracing RED as well.. To be honest, the few I spoke with were more in tune with RED than some post houses I've worked with in LA... seriously. And some of these post houses were setup bigger than Ben Hur. Very impressive systems in place and some massively experienced people at the helm. They talk about pushing a movie out the door per week..... not per 1/4... Some amazing stats.
Why EPIC plays right into the hands of India is because its fast to use, cheap to buy (compared to Alexa, you can buy 3 EPICs to one ARRi)... And not to mention 6 times the resolution and way faster frames per second... So everything I just said falls perfectly into India's logical thinking. Indians are mathematicians... and this is simple math for them all.
If you have shot in Bombay, you will know that a small crew is about 100 strong... in our case we had upto 300 cast & crew running around on one day. (any other country 1/4 that).
The traffic is unbelievable, like nothing on this earth. A billion people have to move around some how..
So your 2 day shoot 20 crew shoot in most countries will turn into 4 day 70 to 100 crew shoot there... It's just a fact and I see it time and time again... indonesia and China are the same.
(Not HONK KONG)
BUT!!!!! with the EPIC, I can shoot twice as fast with out any compromise. meaning you can move onto another location quickly, or setup another shot even quicker.. (if traffic permits)
Here's an AD we shoot there a couple of months ago... A huge 127 setups... over 2.5 mad days. Seriously... I could never do that with any other camera I have owned... ever...
http://www.zoomfilmtv.com.au/ftp/Toia_latest/Koryo_Clones_1280.mov
I'm really looking forward to seeing Indian FILM & TV evolve over the next 24 months... It's going to be really fun to watch.
RED... you guys better start getting more manufacturing machines up and running... or we will all be in perpetual BACK ORDERS for years once India start ordering.
Go India!
Wonderful people, great hard working film crews, but it's a complete utter chaotic mess, and the locals freely agree with you and laugh... Mumbai (Bombay) especially!.
There was an American director in the same hotel, we met up for dinner... nice guy.. But he was a train wreck!. I think he thought Bombay and LA film making is the same. A few words of encouragement and advice and he braved another day. but he will have stories to tell for ever.
For the novice film makers... beware, Mumbai is not a place to learn your craft... But for the hard core experienced shooter, it's one of those amazing places in the world that just cannot be replicated. It's a cinematographers dream! and a directors pearl. But the secert is to gathher the right poeple around you when your there... The place just opens up like a flower for you.
I've been skipping over there every few years to shoot projects and one thing that dawned on me the last shoot I had there, was how the perfect RED EPIC suites this country. Better than any other camera in fact.
Even though 35mm is still king in India, because a lot of DP's own there cameras and don't want to convert to Digital for the sake of there prized precision being obsolete before its time.
But the writing is on the wall and the next wave of indian film makers will convert before there very eyes and leave the old thinkers hi and dry. EPIC will invade Bombay like a tidal wave once a few big name local DP's get a real taste of it's power. The Alexa is having a good go... but inidans are very smart. They look at specs & Prices and do the due diligence a lot better than some.
Post houses in India are really embracing RED as well.. To be honest, the few I spoke with were more in tune with RED than some post houses I've worked with in LA... seriously. And some of these post houses were setup bigger than Ben Hur. Very impressive systems in place and some massively experienced people at the helm. They talk about pushing a movie out the door per week..... not per 1/4... Some amazing stats.
Why EPIC plays right into the hands of India is because its fast to use, cheap to buy (compared to Alexa, you can buy 3 EPICs to one ARRi)... And not to mention 6 times the resolution and way faster frames per second... So everything I just said falls perfectly into India's logical thinking. Indians are mathematicians... and this is simple math for them all.
If you have shot in Bombay, you will know that a small crew is about 100 strong... in our case we had upto 300 cast & crew running around on one day. (any other country 1/4 that).
The traffic is unbelievable, like nothing on this earth. A billion people have to move around some how..
So your 2 day shoot 20 crew shoot in most countries will turn into 4 day 70 to 100 crew shoot there... It's just a fact and I see it time and time again... indonesia and China are the same.
(Not HONK KONG)
BUT!!!!! with the EPIC, I can shoot twice as fast with out any compromise. meaning you can move onto another location quickly, or setup another shot even quicker.. (if traffic permits)
Here's an AD we shoot there a couple of months ago... A huge 127 setups... over 2.5 mad days. Seriously... I could never do that with any other camera I have owned... ever...
http://www.zoomfilmtv.com.au/ftp/Toia_latest/Koryo_Clones_1280.mov
I'm really looking forward to seeing Indian FILM & TV evolve over the next 24 months... It's going to be really fun to watch.
RED... you guys better start getting more manufacturing machines up and running... or we will all be in perpetual BACK ORDERS for years once India start ordering.
Go India!
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