Colomboscope 2014 Highlights - Video Recaps for the 4 Days

We were able to cover some interesting sessions from this year's Colomboscope. The event which covered a wider range of literature, music, film and dance acts and was held at some interesting venues such as Whist Bungalow in Modara, Rio Cinema in Slave Island and Grand Oriental Hotel in Fort

Here's a recap of some of the interesting sessions we managed to cover, in 4 short video sequences. Also there are two full sessions: Keselmaduwa by Venuri Perera and Terry Riley's "In C" performed by Chamber Music Society of Colombo.

Btw we revamped our website - mathawaada.com have a look and let us know what you think. :)

Enjoy...

Colomboscope Highlights (Playlist)

Keselmaduwa by Venuri Perera 

Terry Riley's "In C" performed by Chamber Music Society of Colombo 
(St. Peter's Church, Fort, Colombo)

Royalty free Music for Filmmakers and Other Projects

Recently I have been involved in editing one of our short documentaries and was trying to get some good music to compliment the visuals. Obviously the best option is to work with a composer to get the right music done for your requirement, but for many of us independent filmmakers this can be tough and costly. But luckily there are many like-minded musicians who would like to collaborate and who would like to allow their music to be used for free, its just that you need to locate the right site.

I did some research and these are some good places you could try and find some good royalty free music for both commercial and non commercial purposes.

YouTube Audio Library
www.youtube.com/audiolibrary

Launched in September 2013, this place features some great music that can be used for both commercial and non-commercial projects. Its a great initiative by Youtube, where even musicians and artists can submit their work to be featured.

mobygratis

www.mobygratis.com

Moby started to give out some of his awesome music to filmmakers for free several years back. Now the site has been updated and relaunched to offer a large number of tracks from his album. You could apply for a track and it will take only 24hrs to get approved most of the time. 

Free Music Archive

freemusicarchive.org

Personally this is the best place for me. Free Music Archive is a great initiative, where you would find a wide variety of music for your projects. It also arranges music under "curator" categories where the admins does a great job in bringing music from creative commons licenses as well as other reputed organisations into one place. Its also a great place to discover free music!

There are two more places that I would recommend,

Jamendo

www.jamendo.com/en

This is a great place to discover great free music! Since almost of of the music here are licensed under creative commons you can find tracks for non-commercial projects for free. You could also contact the artists directly and see if they are willing to give their music to your projects. 

Vimeo Music Store

vimeo.com/musicstore

Vimeo started off a music store for filmmakers as well. This site features both paid and free music that you can use for your projects. I haven't really used this directly but since its vimeo it should have some great tunes in thier library.

What do you think of the above sites? Are there any other sites which you have had an experience with?

Good luck with your productions!

New Era in Sri Lankan Cinema - A Dream or Reality?

Yesterday I was able to attend a lecture presented by veteran Sri Lankan filmmaker Ashoka Handagama titled “A New Era of Sri Lankan Cinema - More than a Dream”.  Handagama, not only a well known and controversial director but also a top figure at Central Bank of Sri Lanka working as Director of Communications. Although as a filmmaker, he’s known to focus on controversial issues and had attracted both praises and criticism from different ends, his lecture seem to distance him self from the rebellious character and focused on a detailed and a structured plan on revitalizing the Sri Lankan Cinema Industry.

Kadaunu Poronduwa (1947) considered to be the first Sri Lankan film to be produced 

Sri Lankan Cinema Industry, which flourished and reached its peak in the late 70s, came crashing down during the 80s and was lagging on its knees during the 90s and even now. The number of cinema halls and even the total cinema admissions have reduced drastically compared to the golden age of the 70s. Miscalculated government policies, television and also the communal and social unrest that prevailed during the early and late 80s crippled the once flourished Sri Lankan Film industry with little  hope for a revitalization. Mr.Handagama pointed out some attempts made during the 90s to revitalize the Sri Lankan Film industry, with appointment of a commission to look into the crisis headed by Professor Senaka Bandaranayake. Though the commission report published in 1996 identified several factors that needs to be improved in order to revitalize the industry, these were not properly implemented or practiced. After one and half decades later, Sri Lankan Film industry is at almost non-existent with only a handful of quality films being produced. Local film industry has lost its mass market appeal and few quality halls remaining are invaded withHollywood and Bollywood blockbusters, without much success to the local filmmakers.

An International Film Festival?

Proposal made by Handagama was to revitalize the whole industry by exposing the Sri Lankan Cinema to the International Markets, and vice versa through an extravagant mass scale film festival that would in turn entice enthusiasm about film, promote local productions and also benefit Sri Lankan tourism industry through entertainment tourism. The idea here was to make this film festival, termed “Colombo International Film Festival” which will bring in International films, directors and the film community to Colombo while also promoting selected locally made films during the festival. The event will provide opportunities to promote local productions and networking whilst promoting Sri Lanka as a destination for film locations.

International Film Festivals as a means of promoting and uplifting an industry has worked out well for many countries.  Apart from some of the major film festivals such as Berlin, Cannes, Los Angels there are other festivals such as Dubai, Busan, and Tokyo that have made a great impact in the region where it has helped the film industry of the host country immensely. One main example Handagama presented was the success story of the Busan Film Festival, in South Korea. In 1996 when it was first launched the Korean film industry was virtually unknown in the International arena, however, within few years, Korean films reached its golden era where many Korean film directors were able to make a name for themselves globally. It also helped the country to revitalize its industry and helped grow enthusiasm amongst the general public, where by now Korean Film Industry has become one of the top globally. This model has now become a favored strategic implmentation that has been picked up by many other countries as well, some of the examples are film festivals such as Hanoi, Indian.

The practical application of this model is yet to be taken up by relevant parties as this is just a proposed plan and suggestions. In the Sri Lankan context it may not be as easy as the Korean scenario and in terms of sustainability and profitability there may be questions. However, it’s great to see a new bold way of thinking has gone into this, where Mr.Handagama with his experience in the film industry and also as in his role as a banker had devised a fresh plan to uplift the film industry in the country. Of course this is just a first step in a long journey, however if this can be implemented correctly, this might very well be the spark that can reignite the Sri Lankan Film Industry back to its former glory.

Expendables 2

Bigger, Badder and Better.

The first and most important thing to say is that this movie is vastly superior to the first. Everything is just plain better from the dialogue to the action scenes.

Actions scenes really have to be given a mention as the action sequences in the first film were severely underwhelming. In this film we have much more personal encounters that are well choreographed especially in one particular scene that takes place in a small town. This is where the action sequences really take off and hark back to the glory days of the 80's action flick.

There are also numerous scenes where the 'Good Guy's' just stand around guns blazing 24-7 with people falling front, left, right and centre. These are easily my least favourite sequences in the film. In the aforementioned town scene gun bursts are tight and controlled which makes for a far more interesting action sequence overall instead of non-stop guns blazing.

Jean Claude Van Damme really shines in his first scene as a villain who is quite naturally of Belgian/French ancestry which allows him to just act without being hindered by the way he talks. It's a smart move and his first scene shows that he can act in comparison to the other actors in the movie. Sadly he doesn't get nearly enough meaningful screentime and I felt that he was a bit underpowered as a villain despite showing off his trademark kick several times.

Liam Hemsworth also deserves a special mention as he is easily the best actor in the entire film and steals the show in several scenes. However even he can't save the film from plain bad writing in certain sections. Overall his segments are somewhat stronger than the rest.

Certain cameos are much better than others. The humour is also significantly better in certain segments especially the Chuck Norris joke which I laughed at once during the actual scene and again when I remembered it at the end. Some of the action sequences were also funny, some of which was intentional and some of which wasn't. The same could be said for Stallone's acting.

I have to say Arnold Schwarzenegger really didn't seem to have his heart in this film at all, or he just plain can't act. Not sure which it is. Bruce Willis is interesting but never really hits home. There was however *some* good dialogue between Willis and Arnold.

Overall I'd have to say the film is worth a watch just to get a kick.  It doesn't try to be Citizen Kane and doesn't pretend to be either. It certainly doesn't take itself seriously and has it's moments amidst some cringeworthy ones. If you ever liked or laughed at the long gone glory days of the 80's action flick, you should definitely check it out.

I am Legend.

Interpretation. It is key to how we perceive the world that we live in. A specific set of events can occur but two people can walk away with completely different conclusions.

Let me give you a real example. I recently dusted off my brothers copy of Richard Matheson's I am Legend. Having seen the film many years ago I decided that I would definitely read it. I dived in and was hooked pretty much from the start.

Meanwhile I listen to the radio occasionally when at work. I hear Julian Marley is going to have a concert covering his father's songs. I don't think much of it since my feeling is that I'm not that in to Bob Marley. But as I keep being bombarded with the constant radio adverts I start to think that the songs are actually known to me, just that I have yet to make a mental association with the artist. I'm thinking maybe I should actively go and listen to some Marley.

I continue to read I am Legend and find myself unable to put the book down especially as it gets to its exciting climax. The Marley concert passes and is over. I complete the book and notice how it has deviated heavily from what I remember in the film. So I decide to re-watch the film to glean new insight and perhaps have a more complete experience.

I get the film and begin to watch. Early on Will Smith is driving in his car listening to what seems to be a familiar song. Yep it's Bob Marley. In fact there are a total of four Bob Marley tracks featuring in the film and Smith's character sings his songs on more than one occasion. There is also one scene where Smith's character berates another's complete ignorance of Bob Marley and proceeds to play his music. He then goes on to explain the significance of the artist, his lifestyle and philosophy. One of his songs also plays in the end credits to top it all off.

Another scene involves Smith's character arguing with the female lead in the film. She believes that she came just in the nick of time to save Smith's characters life and that everything was happening for a reason. That it was all the will of God. Smith's reply simply is 'There is no God.'

Now this is just a coincidence right? Or is it? Considering that both events occurred in the span of the same two weeks. I leave that up to you to decide. As for me it doesn't really matter. Things happen, the reasons are unknown. Some people choose to believe it's all just coincidence whilst others choose to believe that a divine hand is at play.

Who knows. I'm just going to go listen to some Bob Marley.