{WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30th, 2006}
NBC Universal First Annual Comedy Short Cuts Film Festival

Phew... for a short film fest it sure has a mouthful of a title.

So we made it to the top 12 out of 850 some submissions, and last
night was the NYC screening at The Village Underground. The place was
pretty chill (and chilly! boo rain and AC) with two levels and some
nice appetizers and tasties.

And the screens they had up were awesome -- all of the films looked
amazing... and they were all really funny and different... but we
managed to promote the event enough so that we won the Live Audience
Award for the evening!!! Woo hoo! This means a cool new Avid editing
system for offices. Oh how I love new toys. Now, it's just waiting
for it to arrive!

The celebration of the event has made me a bit on the slow side today,
and considering how much work I have to get done before The IFP Market
and the beginning of rehearsals for my play going up at Theatre Row,
and my thesis presentation for a play still with no name... well,
let's just say I need more than just coffee at this moment. BUT, I
managed to blog today, so I guess maybe the day is on the up and up.
YAY I WON!

Allright, I had to do that. Now I must nap.

--Rehana--

{TUESDAY, AUGUST 18th, 2006}
The Long and Short of It

It's odd, the days are still long in August but the Summer still feels too short. Time has been flying by while working away on both my short film and my feature... and all the hard work is finally paying off!

MDAM, as I've affectionately shortened the title of my short, has been accepted into the First Annual NBC Universal Comedy Short Cuts Film Festival.

They received over 850 submissions and we made it to the top 12. Now we're trying to make it to the top 5 and then win it for a pitch session with NBC.

Additional event information available on www.ComedyShortCutsNBC.com so if you're in NYC, maybe stop on by and prepare to laugh!

--Rehana--

{TUESDAY, AUGUST 8th, 2006}
The Sluggish Days of Summer

What is it about summer that has you drinking more coffee than during a production? It's very odd but I find myself chugging away on caffeine for no apparent reason. Well, other than the fact that it keeps my hands preoccupied as I resist doing rewrites on my next feature script.

In order to keep myself highly amused this summer, while waiting for Divya to travel far and wide, I've decided to work on my romantic comedy script. Because you know what, I'm not afraid to admit it, I'm a total sucker for romantic comedies. And musicals. And musical romantic comedies. While this script does have a dance number a la Bollywood with original lyrics, it's not quite a musical. But it has been accepted into the IFP Market in the Emerging Narrative Screenplay section. Very awesome! 40 scripts and thousands of potential producers and funders. Go get em. Now where's my coffee again?

--Rehana--

{MONDAY, JULY 17th, 2006}
Film Fest Frenzy

So… it's happened… my first New York premiere at a film festival… oddly enough on my birthday. It was for my short film, Modern Day Arranged Marriage, which we shot a few years before Hiding Divya. We never got a chance to submit it to too many festivals, being absorbed in getting HD off the ground. But it world premiered in Florence, Italy and then went on to play in Madrid, Spain before coming back round to my home city.

This weekend was a small sampling of what it would be like to be at a film festival for my first feature. Very exciting stuff. Lots of people, lots of buzz.

Needless to say, I was siked that my short, Modern Day Arranged Marriage (or MDAM for short!) went off very well. People laughing all the way through. It felt like a full six minutes of laugh track. And since it's a comedy, well, that’s a good thing =)

Afterwards, there were a good batch of programmers for other film festivals to approach us and request screeners, so that means that MDAM may just take on a life of its own.

I'm now antsy for Hiding Divya to do the same!

--Rehana--

{WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7th, 2006}
Pain Hurts

So we viewed the final picture and sound yesterday in DuArt's projection room!

Me, Rohi, Gitesh, Michelle, and Renato... all the people who have been watching rendition after rendition alongside of me. It's funny my DP was my left hand man and my editor was my right hand lady. They were both seated on either side of me while we checked for final tweaks. And the producers were bringing up the rear -- even in the final screening, always got my back.

You can just feel the history of decades of filmmaking in that room; it's amazing. Even more amazing is Irwin Young, the owner of DuArt. He just demonstrated such a knowledge and enormous capacity of love for the artform. Quite inspiring. And, aside from a few adjustments here and there, the film is complete.

Of course, I can't move my neck, but the exchange seems worth it. No really. I can't move my neck. Don't know what happened. Stress maybe? Tensing it up while looking up at the screen for 8 hours a day? Or maybe it's the thought of not getting to make huge changes to Divya anymore? Aw well. Nobody said filmmaking was easy. But it sure is phenomenal in every way. Who needs a neck anyways?

--Rehana--

{MONDAY, MAY 29th, 2006}
Work Hard, Play Hard

A friend of mine said you can't save up on sleep. After eight hours, your body just stops registering. Tell that to the bears I say. Wake em up in their hardcore hibernation session and say, dude, that's just not gonna work.

I'm saying this in hopes that somehow all the work hours that I took off this past Memorial Day weekend can be applied to my color-correct this week. I of course overplanned and didn't anticipate the gorgeous sun to be taunting me from my bedroom window all weekend long. So I'm convincing myself that the two hours of laziness can be used to give me extra mental energy during this week. After all, this will be the final touches to a locked picture. Final. What a word.

I met with my DP over the weekend to go over the look of the film. I decided that I wanted to treat the flashbacks as if they were indicative of the film of the characters when they were growing up. So for Linny it would be a 70s kind of look, for Divya a black and white 8mm effect, and for the fantasy sequence a supersaturated Bollywood type. And of course, DV treated naturally for present day. Here's hoping that the treatment of the film goes as easily in the labs as it was explaining it to Renato!

--Rehana--

{THURSDAY, MAY 25th, 2006}
Can I Be Perfectly Honest?

Ah, the words you honestly never really want to hear from anyone. And as I embark on my very first blog entry ever, I find myself repeating to myself the very same question I dread hearing from anyone else. Can we really be honest with anyone? Or in our non-fiction blogs? Or do we need to sugar-coat everything so as not to cause total mayhem and disruption in our lives?

I think more often than not we do censor ourselves. Whether it be for the good of the other person, or the good of ourselves not having to deal with the reaction, that's never clear. But even though honesty may be the best policy, it’s not always the most used. Funny that about one week before color correction (so exciting!) I've realized that this dilemma lies in the heart of this film. Once these characters can become honest with themselves, and with each other, then there is room for love to grow.

For some reason, realizing this gives me so much hope not only for the characters in the film, but with my own life. Strangely enough, yes, I do learn from the very characters that I create. And once the film is ready for viewing, I hope that others do too.

--Rehana--