Monday, May 9, 2011

Even Impossible Says I AM Possible! http://indiemag.wmiff.com/Bollywood_Visions.html



"Even Impossible Says I M Possible!"








Award Winning Director and Filmmaker Rohit Gupta



Award Winning Filmmaker, Rohit Gupta is known around the world for winning several awards and accolades for his two films "Life! Camera Action" and "Another Day Another Life". There are many filmmakers out there that have won several awards as well but few have succeeded with their first two films. Having set a high standard of challenges and goals, Rohit tested the waters of the process of filmmaking. He questioned the process and decided to take it to his own level and with this, he succeeded. Find out more about Rohit and about what his plans are for the future of filmmaking.

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WMIFF Mag -
How did you manage to shoot “Life! Camera Action” with only a two member crew?


Rohit Gupta - Quite, frankly, I did not set out to make it with only a two-member crew. We actually had two to three people rolled in and out for a brief period but for the majority of the way, we were consistent with only two people. When I look back, I feel blessed it happened this way. I have never understood the word impossible and now it simply doesn’t exist (laughs). Thanks to all involved for making it happen.




On Locations in Jersey City, NJ with Ravi Kumar





WMIFF Mag -
How long have you been making films? Is “Life Camera Action” your first film?


Rohit Gupta - I started at the end of 2008 when I enrolled into The New York Film Academy for a four week course, which then I extended to a one-year film-making course. As a part of my first film assignment, we created “Another Day, Another Life” (2009), a five-minute film shot in seven hours and edited on my Mac Book Pro. “Life! Camera Action”, which is an eighty-nine minute full length feature film, is the evolution of my second assignment, a ten minute semester project.




Rohit as the guest speaker at the New York Film Academy open house in Mumbai, India at the launch of their first filmmaking workshop ever, in India.





WMIFF Mag - What inspired you to write "Life! Camera Action" and "Another Day Another Life"? Did you base either of the stories on anything factual?



Rohit Gupta - Another Day Another Life is written by NYC based Screenplay writer, GiriMohan Coneti. He responded to one of my ads looking for a screenplay for a 5 minute film. One sat evening he emailed me 10 lines and this is where it all began - now with over 25 international accolades and awards globally and still counting...




Based upon my second assignment, Los Angeles based Screenplay and lyricist, Amanda Sodhi, now the co-writer of “Life! Camera Action” responded to another ad from me looking for a screenplay for a 10 -15 minute film. She had originally scripted a fifteen page screenplay with a female protagonist. I attempted to do justice to her thoughts with this script and take it a few steps forward. We usually see men portrayed in these types of roles as the world tends to revolve around them. I found myself curious and intrigued to see how a female would react, feel and look in such a situation. I simply followed the script and quite honestly I’m unsure if anyone else has gone through the exact same situations as in this film. From my perspective, it’s not a true story but rather a shade of reflection of reality. It's amazing how it all happenned.




Scene from "Another Day Another Life"





WMIFF Mag - Can you give us a brief synopsis about "Life! Camera Action" and "Another Day Another Life"?


Rohit Gupta - “Life! Camera Action” is a story of Reina, a young Indian-American woman who sets off to pursue a career in filmmaking against the wishes of her parents. She struggles to complete her annual film project, working with her classmates and with encouragement from unexpected quarters. As she tries to make ends meet, Reina begins to see another dream, to prove to her parents that her drive for films is sincere. While being born with a personality may be an inherent gift from one's parents, to live as a personality is an achievement of our own and a return gift to one's parents.


“Another day Another life” is about a man's tryst with his destiny in these tumultuous economic times. For a young man, his job, his investments, his dwelling and most importantly his love is what keeps him going until the day he loses all of them. His rage and yearning to salvage his love are so conflicted that he reacts in the most conventional fashion. But, what if that conflict itself rescues him from the brink of disaster?






"Life Camera Action"




WMIFF Mag -
How did a ten minute project turn into a feature film?


Rohit Gupta - I wanted to make a feature film to gain the experience firsthand and to find out what all the hype was about. For me, other than “Evolution” being in its strictest sense of the term, there was no intention of making a feature film at the time at all.


It first started when our co-writer, Amanda Sodhi of “Life! Camera Action”, sent me a fifteen page write up based on what was required for my fifteen minute film assignment at the New York Film Academy. I ended up shooting it in approximately three and a half days in March of 2009. When I edited the footage that was based on fifteen pages, it ended up being thirty-five minutes long. This pleasantly surprised and intrigued me, as I instantly realized that this entire process is an absolute evolution and was not confined by any rules since they apparently did not work. As per the books, each page is supposed to be equivalent to one minute of screen time. This clearly was not the case in front of me.


Also, while traveling with “Another Day Another Life” to international film festivals such as Cannes, UK and others, I met with a lot of people and heard their stories of hardship and their heartbreaking challenges that they had to go through to complete their films. I found that some people, who had been in the industry for a long period of time, had difficulties making one film and it started to make me wonder why. Personally, I had an unbelievable amount of fun while putting together “Another Day Another Life” and I found the entire experience a lot of fun and a very cool thing to do. I was surprised by what I had heard and felt that there surely there was a disconnect somewhere. On the other hand, I had been a huge fan of Kevin Smith, since I saw his first film “Clerks”. Kevin Smith is someone who made a black and white film on a shoe string budget, which changed the face of independent film-making in the US. Another favorite is Robert Rodriguez, who made “El Mariachi” for $7000, which became an instant success at the Sundance festival. Globally, there is Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez of “The Blair Witch Project” and more recently Oren Peli of “Panoramal Activity”. Then there are the Bollywood hits: Love Sex Dhokha, A Wednesday; Kukunoor’s Hyderabad Blues” to name a few, who all may have done more or less similar things with faint experience and ultra low budget, no so called stars attached and with less or no formal education defined their own paths. This approach has been my inspiration.


Having had recent exposure to the international distribution setup, I knew that short films were a tougher market penetration with no return on investment for the distributors. The effort and process is the same in making a short or a long film, so why not take an opportunity that has presented itself, along with the then frame of mind and go for a feature-length. Thus, move forward in the direction to create a global platform for all involved, along with an attempt to provide a valued proposition for the audience, return on investment for the distributors and establish a brand.





Best Supporting Role Nominated actor at the WMIFF 2011- Noor Naghmi


WMIFF Mag - How have both of these films done in the film festival circuit? Please tell us about your achievements so far?


Rohit Gupta - Between both films, we have won over forty accolades and awards to date, at several film festivals globally including Cannes 2009. Since I am not a so called “established name”, we are doing the festival competition circuit with the primary goal to have distribution for “Life! Camera Action” (laughs)

One of our more recent exciting developments is that “Life! Camera Action” has been nominated for seven categories at the 2nd Annual World Music & Independent Film Festival. We have been nominated for Best Screenplay (Rohit Gupta & Amanda Sodhi), Best Drama, Best Actress (Dipti Mehta), Best Supporting Role (Noor Naghmi), Best Supporting Role (Swati Kapila), Best Original Soundtrack (Manoj Singh), and Best Director (Rohit Gupta). WMIFF will take place from August 15-August 20 in Washington, DC, followed by a red carpet gala award ceremony at the Capitol Hilton.

The film has also been nominated for "Best Feature Film in North America" at the 2011 Swansea Bay Film Festival, which will take place from May 5-15 in Britain.

Altogether, “Life! Camera Action” has won sixteen International accolades and awards to date, including unbelievably four awards are from the Accolade International Film Awards competition based out of California. From there, we received: The Award of Excellence for a Feature Film in 2010; The Award of Merit for Best Cinematography; The Award of Merit for Dramatic Impact; The Award of Merit for Direction. The fifth award was for the Award of Merit for a Feature Film in 2010 at The Indie Fest, another international film competition based out of California.


The film premiered at the prestigious MIAAC 2010 Film Festival (NYC), was screened at IIFF 2011 (FL) alongside two known Bollywood movies; Dhobi Ghaat and Udaan, and opened the Museum of Fine Arts Boston South Asian Film Series (BSAFF) 2011 this month.


“Another Day Another Life” has won multiples awards and accolades at over twenty-five international competitions and festivals in the US, Canada, UK, EMEA, including official selection at the "Short Film Corner at Cannes 2009".


More recently, "Another Day Another Life" has recently been nominated for the Best Screenplay (GiriMohan Coneti) and Best Cinematography (Carlos Deuringer, Rohit Gupta) at the 2nd Annual World Music & Independent Film Festival 2011.





Prep for the opening event of Film People 2010. Rohit Gupta was invited and interviewed along side Tim Bourne – Executive Producer of the Oscar Winning film Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock - by the Vice Chairman of the North Carolina Film Commiss





WMIFF Mag -
What is next for you? Are you currently working on any projects or will you be in the near future?



Rohit Gupta - I thrive on Ideas and their immediate execution. “Another Day Another Life” was a teaser, “Life! Camera Action” just trailer. Movies are yet to be made…(laughs).



 




WMIFF Mag - What does filmmaking mean to you?



Rohit Gupta - Magic! Besides, I think that a medium through which I talk to myself with the addition of seeing my thoughts and that’s magical. If I find another medium more exciting than this, that would be it. (Laughs)




"Magic with the hands of expressions"



WMIFF Mag -
Is there any person that inspires you the most? Where do you see your film career going? Where do you see yourself in five years?


Rohit Gupta - I think my personality is the sum of my experiences. I think everyone I have met in my life has directly and indirectly inspired, encouraged and/ or influenced me . I don’t come from the film industry background nor was I exposed to observing or witnessing the process of making a movie.


In regards to professional or known people, the list of names is endless, but if I had to name a few, it would be some well known people such as “ShahRukh Khan”, commonly known as Bollywood King, Shahid Kapoor, Anil Kapoor from “Slumdog Millionaire” and from the west, Kevin Smith of “Clerks”, Will Ferell, Michael Bay, Jackie Chan, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Jack Welch. As mentioned, the list is endless. I believe that it’s not about which industries they work in but more their achievements. What they wanted to gain with pure self belief is what excites me and this is what makes me look up to them.


Until I continue to find differences between the so called “real” and “imaginary world”, I will continue to talk to myself via this medium but you never know at the pace technology is evolving. I mean, who knows, I may find some other medium of expressing (laughs).


I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, so why worry about five years from now. Tomorrow is based on what we do today, so the more important question would be what am I doing now to define my tomorrow? As of now, I am interviewing with you and this will shape a better tomorrow for me, so here you go… (Laughs)






WMIFF Mag - What has been the biggest learning experience so far? Not changing the storyline, is there anything that you would have done differently in the process of making either of your films? If not, did you have good guidance and from whom was your guidance?


Rohit Gupta - The New York Film Academy certainly helped to get the ball rolling, aside considering myself lucky. Not knowing a single soul, I moved to New York City from North Carolina to join this film school all based on digital marketing and advertisements. Once I was there, I was able to connect with people whom either believed in me or had nothing better to do (laughs). I simply did whatever came to my mind. Technically, I learned the most from the team I collaborated with including our Post Prod Supervisor (Carlos “Martinez” Storm, Dir. Of Photography - Ravi Kumar and Manoj Singh (Music Composer), Shashi Rajput and Praveen Kumar (Editor) and some of it at the New York Film Academy. I still have a long way to go and lots of people to collaborate with and learn from.



When you think about the whole film process, obviously, the actors were highlights but when it comes to the core of making a film, behind the scenes work counts just as much, if not more. For example, my former colleagues and now dear friends, Raj Mehta and Shashi Rajput helped and guided me to put together “Another Day Another Life” by assisting and editing. As we got into the film, somehow I knew that the true turning point would be the music, and our composer - Peter Roessler, who enhanced “Another Day Another Life” by blowing my mind away to what I was looking for and may be more. To me, I believe everything fell into place magically as it was destined to be.


“Life Camera Action” has been even more an exciting journey and I truly believe that the credit of direction does not solely belong to me but more so, it belongs to each and every member associated to making this film. Everyone did their part and the film got its final direction by a very cohesive and collaborative process. I think of myself just as a facilitator, who helped to put things together. As I said above, these people and this film was destined to be.




Scenes from "Life Camera Action"



WMIFF Mag -
What has been the biggest reward for you so far? Is this type of career for anybody or does it take a special type of person? What do you recommend for filmmakers just starting out?


Rohit Gupta - I will get my reward when all involved in this process gets something out of the success of this creation. If it helps them to take one step forward towards their self defined, designed goals and dreams, I will be happy.


I created these films for myself but depending on what one’s goals are, my advice would probably be relative. I am purely still learning, so I cannot properly advise, except basing what my few experiences are. Simply put, in my opinion, making a movie is over-hyped, just like any activity, business, education, etc…, There is nothing more or less to it than just doing it now. I look at it this way, as mentioned above, I came from a no film background without any inkling of filmmaking until I joined New York Film Academy in late 2008. The next thing I knew, after putting in time and having fun, we won some honorable awards.


Having said this, when we can make two internationally acclaimed films with over forty accolades and awards, winning film festivals in a span of eighteen months, I will be very interested to know why someone else can't. I say, just execute what you feel without any external influences. Unless you do this, you will not know why and you will not know what you like. Only when you feel something strongly, will your audience connect. To me, this is the ideal definition of success. With the combination of pure excitement, belief and a drive beyond one’s control and compassion in your heart, one will find that all will fall in place magically.


The key also is to be yourself. If you try to make everybody happy, you will lose yourself. In the end, if you are happy, then everybody around feels this energy and in turn, feels happy, too. It’s just like anything else in life and there is no mantra to it.


Another key thing is to make sure that you have your financials are in order and that you are well prepared. Making a movie is just 50% of the job, the rest is marketing, advertising, PR, etc and all for the right reasons. It’s elemental to entice the viewer for the right reasons, not because the trailer shows that the film is amazing but more so for when you see the film, you won’t become disappointed. The whole intention is not to mislead or misguide anyone. Awards, marketing, making a movie, operations, publicity, etc…, are simply individual elements of the bigger engine, aka the” Entertainment World”, and for this engine to perform to it’s max, all the elements have to fire together.


Visual medium, which influences every human being in one way or another, is in my opinion, one of the most powerful communications tools gifted to mankind. I wonder how one can look at a script and conclude the fate of that creation at that very point. I love the entire process, especially the phases where the written words go through the film, which include editing, scoring, sound designing, color correcting, mixing, etc. and how at each level the original image only keeps getting enhanced and results in the final image.


If you are making films for others, joining a production house would be a great way to learn how things operate in an industry. However, I have not walked that path so I can't say if that’s how to achieve that goal. I love making movies because it’s almost like doing nothing, and what can be better than doing nothing. Besides, just like any other sport, this is a hobby for me so the essence of making everybody happy doesn't exist. It’s about getting indulged into a process without even knowing it. This is what I think makes the difference for me.




In recording studio - recording a scratch song for the final song sung by renowned bollywood singer KK





WMIFF Mag -
Where can people find out more information about you?


Rohit Gupta -

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3262424/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Life-Camera-Action-A-Rohit-Gupta-Film/122464481138311?sk=info

www.RNGfilms.com


WMIFF Mag - Do you have any additional comments that you want to share with the viewers?






Rohit Gupta - If you want something that you have never had before, do something that you have never done before. Even the word impossible says “I M POSSIBLE” I personally don’t believe in waiting for tomorrow, so if something has been decided, execution must begin instantaneously. It doesn’t matter how many people stand by you or not. With pure heart, self belief and perseverance, you will breathe life into your visions and the world will watch it in awe. For me it’s not about winning or losing, it’s more about experiencing a very cool journey where the only rule of this game is that there are no rules.






Best First Film Award (North America) for "Another Day Another Life" at the Swansea Bay Film Festival 2009 in the UK



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FILM TRAILERS


"Another Day Another Life" Directed By Rohit Gupta







Life! Camera Action Directed By Rohit Gupta


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