LAXMI TAKES ON OCTOBER

This was a good month for our little leopard, as the film In the Spirit of Laxmi screened five times. P2 set sail for the US in early Oct. to attend some these screenings and landed back in Asia to bring them to a close.

During the first week of October Laxmi opened The South Asian Film Festival in Florida. We are happy to report that The Orlando Weekly gave the film 4/5 stars, and you can find their review here.

The film then traveled to the esteemed Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival where it played as part of National Geographic’s Big Cat Day. The backdrop of the festival is the stunning Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Jackhole was great opportunity to connect with old friends from DC and beyond. The photos below were captured by the talented DOP Mark Emery whose informal tour of  Yellowstone was my festival highlight.

From WY the film headed west for one of favorite US festivals The Bend Film Festival, set in a groovy little town in Central Oregon where the Laxmi enjoyed Friday and Saturday screenings. A highlight of the weekend was meeting fellow filmmakers: Sara Terry of Fambol Tuk, Alex Dawson of Wild Horses Wild Ride, and Jen and Grant of The Clean Bin Project on a panel where we discussed documentary films and social change.

At the end of the month Laxmi had her first screenings in Asia as main character Gerhard Weihahn was asked to speak in Singapore at the CondeNast Savers Conference World Savers Conference: 2011

Our last and final screening was hosted by American Express in Singapore. Following a cocktail reception and live Rajasthani music we screened the film at the LIDO cinema on Orchard Road.

Thanks to all those who came and supported at our screenings this month!

First Film exposed....

Four weeks ago I received the type of call you hope to get as a cameraman, a call about going to Mongolia on a shoot for National Geographic with Market Road Films, we’d be shooting recreations for show on the last days of Ghenkis Ghan. In the weeks leading up to the shoot, I traveled to NYC to meet with the crew; Tony Gerber, Innbo Shin and Stuart Dryburgh. During these pre-productions meetings, I learned that we would be shooting film. Film I say! In today’s documentary and commercial world this is a luxury afforded to few, and amazing opportunity to learn from one of the best DoP in the industry, Stuart Dryburgh.

A month later on the Steppes of Mongolia and I am loading film for Mr. Dryburgh, setting up a focus / frame chart. We’re in a Ger tent camp 70km outside of Ulaanbatar with four assistants and the Arri 416. The wheels of the shoot are in motion, and after the weeks of pre-production we finally had a chance to shoot, and use the equipment that we’d been discussing.

For many the idea of doing a chart test isn't that exciting, (Note: Chart Test is typically done on the first roll of the first day of the shoot so that the post production facility has a reference of how the camera is calibrated. Also - the chart usually has the project name and the DoP that is shooting...in other words, the chart is for calibration purposes for the post facility) for others - it means nothing. Well, I must say, I am in a third category, that being the category of complete excitement about rolling film on a white piece of A4 paper with frame marks on it!!


In conclusion - the first day ended with me staring at the stars through the top of my ger, waiting and wondering what the first day of our Mongol adventure would hold!

Street Scenes in Ulaanbaatar

Finally I am starting to feel like I am getting stuff done. After an impromptu gear check through yesterday afternoon, I got myself in order and started to really hone in on the technicals of this shoot. With two very different sets of camera equipment at play here, it's been a bit of a mental rubix cube to sort through all the various connectors and cables and screws and ....(blah, blah, blah) that each camera needs in order to work together.

The most frustrating moment so far has been retrofitting the 25 - 250 Angenieu Lens onto the Sony F3 as the rods on the F3 don't match the support arm for the Anegnieu...I know, crazy right!

Anyway - it was another good day of pre-production; tracking down two generators to power our lighting needs while shooting on the steppes of Mongolia, coordinating a viewing of the ATV we will use to schlep gear to and from base camp, scouting camera stores for various adaptors for our cameras, and last but not least - sitting in traffic!!!

MR

UB Traffic Cam...

This is my second installment of the Ulaanbatar Traffic Camera. Well, it's what I am calling it anyway; You see, I decided during my four hour, less than 5mile journey yesterday, that I would take some photos of what I was seeing out the window - as a way to pass the time but also as a way to capture a bit of what Mongolia looks like on any normal rainy Tuesday afternoon.

I want to say that I have officially never been in such a bad traffic jam for such an extended period of time. Our driver turned the engine off twice for an extended period of time - and that's always a bad sign. In fact, the traffic was so bad, that myself and Darya got out of the car and walked the remaining mile to our destination. Not only did we beat our driver, but we were able to conplete our task at the location before the car even showed up. I know that reading about traffic is almost as bad as having a conversation about the weather with a complete stranger, but I feel compelled to discuss how incredibly bad the traffic is in UB because it doesn't make sense that there is this amount of it.

Here's a statistic that astonished me yesterday; more than 300 hundred new cars are put on the road in Ulaanbatar every day. So, what is happening in UB is that the country is finding itself in a strange position as it is progressing at a rate faster than their infrastructure can handle. The roads are so bad, filled with pot holes, overflowing with puddles with the slightest of precipitation. The pedestrians don't respect the power of the vehicle which creates a bottleneck of cars at every intersection as they try and weave around the pedestrians that have jumped in front of them. It's horrible and unfortunately, unless they invest a lot of money in fixing the infrastructure, these problems and others will continue to happen in the city.

MR

UB Day 3...and lots of traffic

On day 3, I ventured into the unknown side streets of Ulaanbaatar  only to be greeted by unrelenting traffic...traffic that rivals downtown Mumbai or heading west on I-495 at rush hour in New York City. The difference between the traffic in UB is that you have to add a layer of thick dust to the environment and the aroma of diesel engines as most of the vehicles are older imports.

All in all - it's a part of Mongolia I would stay away from. With that said, it's currently the only part of Mongolia that I have been to so I am hoping that when I do get to another part (ie. the steppes) I will be pleasantly surprised by it's grandeur and beauty. We will see - but from the reports from the team that went and scouted the locations yesterday, there is going to be no lack of 'big sky' wonder.

Below are some images I shot while riding, more like sitting, in traffic in UB. 

On Set in Mongolia with National Geographic

When I left New York, I knew this shoot was going to be different; it started with United canceling my flight and rebooking me on a flight out of a different airport - that's always fun. It ended up being one of the longest journeys yet for me. Almost 48 hours from door to door. However, the excitement of arriving in a foreign country at 4am gave me the needed jolt of adrenaline to keep me from being too disgruntled about the 10 hour lay over in Beijing or the lost bag courtesy of China Airlines.

Mongolia is going to be very fun. It's a different place; slower. But I am very excited to get out into the openness and see what the 'steppes' have to offer. From the looks of them, from UB, it appears it's going to be a very colorful and picturesque location. The city will prove to either enchant me with what its' gritty side streets hold or disappoint me by revealing the shallowness and short sightedness of the city planning. In either case, I look forward to exploring the dusty town of 1million people to see what lies beneath the thick layer of caked dust that engulfs the city.

Below is the Chinggis Khan airport at 4am.

In the Spirit of Laxmi Wins Best Short Documentary !

We are delighted to announce that In the Spirit of Laxmi has won Best Short Documentary at The Gold Coast Film Festival. 


Selected by the jury: 
Luke Geissbuhler – DP of Helvetica, Objectified & Borat
Jeremiah Newton - producer of Beautiful Darling
Mark Romeo – producer of Blue Gold
Craig Teper – director of Vidal Sassoon: The Movie

It's a very exciting time for the film and we would like to thank all of our collaborators!