Nostalgia unleashed. Kunnimanikal on YouTube

At last.. The video that I have been aching to show everyone is here.


Here are the Tech details

Vocals: Unni Menon, Master Sreehari

Cast
Sameer : Surendran / Master Sandeep
Joy : Sajeevan / Master Arun
Appukuttan : Sunil / Master Shyam

Lighting: Pappan
Art: Ravi

Location: Vadakara outskirts.. Kadathanaad area.

Camera: Canon XH-A1.
Format: HD 30fps
Tools: Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Magic Bullet, Canopus Procoder

Consultants : Sudesh Balan, Balagopal Ambalakkat, Anand Somasundaran, Santhosh Kumar RKC.

Thanks: This list is very long and I am afraid that I might miss out someone. The on man army thing is only a joke. A lot of people played key role in this project. Its a miracle this video even got made. I am not questioning it. I am grateful for it.

Story, Camera, Direction, Music, Lyrics, Editing and Compositing : Me

Triggers

Sometimes I do get a jolt of nostalgia.. Something triggers it. It could be a song, a sound, a picture, a thought even the weather. For us Malayalees, having to leave God's own country is a soft pain. Kunnimanikal video goes beyond the theme of nostalgia but I've tried include some sounds and visual that is going to tug on your heart.

Here is an audio clip that might trigger something. Listen with your eyes closed and you're sure to remember something. Click here

If it did, let me know..

I'll post another unmistakable sound in a couple of days.

Tools that save your neck

Neck or any other part of the anatomy. Figuratively speaking.

I rolled the camera for the Kunnimanikal video. It turned out alright. I am happy with the final video. An overcast sky mute the colors quite a bit. I had to do some color correction to make the childhood images more cheerful.

Here is an example:

The last day of the shoot. Its do or die time. It was raining. Light was falling quickly and I shot this near a canal. The structure, now abandoned, was built long time ago to house a water pump. Its amazing how a tree managed to grow so well on top of that.



Anyway, the results are dramatic. You can see the transformation from a gloomy rainy evening to a hopeful dawn. Like I said in my previous post.. Its democracy time in media. Tools are available. All it takes is some patience and will power.. and some luck!

Democracy in media

There was a time when editing a video was a mystery. Cheap PCs, the advent of digital video and the availability of non linear editing software changed all that. One company I would like to thank is Adobe. Now, Mac folks, before you are ready to chew my head off, read further.

When I started creating video clips and stuff, it was just out of curiosity. Just like music. I discovered that I had a talent for creating visual media. My boss at my job at Cingular was a great guy. His name is Dave Doyle. He helped me build some cheap but powerful machines. He also got me some 'cracked' software. I remember working in Premiere 5.0 and editing some video of my daughter. This was 8 years ago. Even with the crashes and burns with Premeire, the experience of creating a video was exhilarating. Adobe got their act together with Premiere a few years later. But I was hooked in to the possibilities. Then came After Effects which in my opinion is the most powerful compositing software out there. Only your imagination is your limit.

By the time, I started with Kanmani, digital video had matured to a great level. Apple made headways with their cool machines and Final Cut Pro. HD video was already mainstream. We shot the first Kanmani video on HD but edited in SD (Standard definition). Premiere wasnt capable with the current hardware and we barely had access to any good Mac system. The visual beauty of Kanmani belongs to cinematographer Sudesh Balan. A person who knows his craft. I still wish we had edited the video in HD but we did with what we had at that time.

Kunnimanikal is a whole different story. I would have very much like to have Sudesh do the cinematography for Kunnimanikal. It would have taken the story to a whole different level. It didnt work out. Even though I had the story and script ready, by the time I started to produce the video, I only had 10 days left for my return trip. As far as I was concerned, I'd rather try and fail and not attempt making it at all. So I shot Kunnimanikal with 6 actors and a crew of 3 people. There were no fancy cranes or rails or huge reflectors or anything. I prayed for at least one day of sunshine and clear sky.. The prayes went un answered. But the overcast sky let me shoot all day in those 5 days. I left for US on the 6th day. There was no time to even preview the footage.

When I got back, the first thing I did was upgrade my PC. Frys had a sale for a Quad Core processor. The experience building my own PCs paid off. WIth less than $600, I had upgraded my PC with a Quad core processor, 4GB of ram and 2 SATA hard disks 500GB each.

Adobe Premiere smiled at me this time. Editing in HD was now possible! And I started my work on Kunnimanikal.

So how does democracy fit in here? The truth is that the only thing that stands in your way to tell a story now is your will to do it. Period. Its not rocket science anymore. There is a price to pay but if you want to do it, you can. And if done right, no body cares if it was done at and editing house where you spent hundreds of dollars a day or at your own home PC or Mac with affordable tools.

With blogs, social networks and video sharing sites, you are virtually unstoppable.

No more mysteries.

Kunnimanikal Trailer Released on YouTube

Kunnimanikal Video Release

The kunnimanikal video will be released on the web in 2 weeks on the web. I am hoping to get a TV release before that but there are sensor board approvals required for music videos which will delay the process quite a bit. But I am sure that this video will reach far through the web than TV.

This video is for all Malayalees that has fond and nostalgic memories about their childhood in Kerala.

Editing is in the final stages. The initial reaction is very encouraging. I cant wait to put it out and see the impact it is going to make.

Kunnimanikal: Photos Part 4

Some more photos from the video.

Rain and nostalgia

There is something about the monsoon season that brings out nostalgia. When I went to India this time, it poured like crazy almost all the 10 weeks I was there. I prayed hard for the last day of my shooting to have some sunshine with no luck. However, the ambiance seems to have played to the advantage of the music video.

Kunnimanikal: Photos Part 3

Here comes a bunch of melancholic screen shots

Kunnimanikal. Stills from the shoot.

These are all scenes from the Kunnimanikal music video. There is a lot of story and drama told in the 6 minute video. Its fun editing this video really. I only wish I had more time. I hope I can release it soon.

Kunnimanikal Video. A brief history

The work on the Kunnimanikal video started over a year and a half ago. Thats a long time!. But what it was then and what it is now are two different things. My first experiments with video started there. The first story was about 2 people. A man and a woman who had no connection. They are just going through their lives sad with nostalgia. Quite an insipid storyline. But some people did like it. I was not happy about it. I had a colleague of mine and another girl act for the whole thing. Balu and I spent a lot of time on this thing. Soon I realized that the girl's role wasn't working. People were confused by the relationship. Splitting the story lines was not working. So I canned that part. Then I went to India and shot scenes with a kid. I had everything to make the video but.. I wanted something more significant.

I then started toying with an idea about coordinating with people around the world making a single video. That was in the works and then got thrown out.

Finally, during this vacation when I went to finalize Kanmani, I shot Kunnimanikal again. This one has a good story line and some excellent actors. Not the glamourous looking kind but with everyday people.

Its about friendship and childhood nostalgia. Shot in the rainy season, the visuals will bring a lot of memories to anyone that watches it. The editing has started. 5 days of shooting. about 5 hours of video. Now I have to cut it to a 5 minute song. Stay tuned. This is probably the first Malayalam music video to be shot and edited in HD.

Balachandra Menon

Yesterday morning 5:00 am, the phone rang. I was recovering from a flu so my sleep wasn't deep. Divya picked up the phone and gave it to me telling me that it is someone called Balachandra Menon. The moment I heard the voice, I knew that it was The Balachandra Menon who had presented us with a whole bunch of great movies. He said that he had seen the Kanmani video and he liked it. He said the lead girl was excellent. He is looking for a new heroine for his next movie and wanted to find out if Suman would be available for that project. I told him that I'll consult with her father and let him know. Unfortunately, they were keen in getting her finish her studies than pusuing a career in movies yet.

I called him back to give him the news. He thanked me and told me that he understands that totally. Anyway, its an honor to me that he watched the Kanmani video.

Okay, a lot of people has been asking "So.. what happened? No news at all.."
Here is the answer.. Kanmani is still being worked on. I am not giving up. Currently work on the second video has started. If it takes me to make 7 videos of all the songs and then sell Kanmani as a video album I will do it. Being a one man army has its benefits but it gets tiring sometimes. But I guess it has everything to do with will power and persistence.

After the Kunnimanikal video, I will start up the Venal video which will be the first of its kind in Kerala. A new project will get started today evening with Prasad Bhandarkar as well.

Here are a couple of teaser photos from Kunnimanikal video: