Strictly Personal

Posted via web from ajit’s posterous

The Independent gave Todd, Nic & I the 2009 Indies Arts award for filmmaking. A couple of quotes from the fantastic article by Marc Maximov. On Hello, Sorry, Whatever:

Prem is most interested in themes of romantic love and disappointment. His perceptive ear for truth in acting performances is matched by a meticulous eye for detail in editing, as evidenced by his remarkably assured recent short, Hello, Sorry, Whatever…

On our collaboration:

When we work on anything, I think what comes across when younger filmmakers watch us is a pure love for doing what we’re doing,” says Prem. “To some extent, we don’t have these gigantic egos. We tend to rely upon each other, and we have a lot of fun in the process. Me, Todd and Nic are extremely fun-loving people. Yes, we’re trying to do something great, and we’re ambitious with our goals, but I think we tend to really focus on having fun.

Link to article.

Obama unveiled his semi-ambitious plan to fund high-speed passenger rail. Long over due. I am pumped. This is going to be a major boost to this country. The positives I can see:

• Great for the environment.
• I can travel to NYC or anywhere listening to my iPod, reading a book, watch the countryside whip by without a hint of road rage.
• My car takes a break.
• Cheaper than flying or even driving. My recent trip to Connecticut must have cost at least $200 with gas, tolls and other stuff.
• I don’t have to rely on any fancy driving to get there on said time.

The cons as far as I can understand:

• People have less privacy. They can’t pick their noses in public train compartments. They have to hold their farts in a little longer. I don’t know.

I love the Flickr video flash player, might use it for smaller things ideas. Here is something I did last fall for the Carrboro Film Festival, it was an intro video that played before each segment. 

Have a rough draft. Sound mix and color correction remain. Optimistic about the film.

I am finally satisfied with the SquiggleBooth design. The previous design was terrible on Internet Explorer. In terms of functionality, it didn’t highlight the best stuff or even distinguish one post from the other. So I started from scratch and it was easier than I thought it would. In the past, when I have to redesign a Wordpress theme, I usually had to learn the method to the original designers madness before adding my changes.

Earlier this fall, I joined the Silver Bullets Tennis team for the fall USTA combo leagues. Amateur tennis at its best. A good reason to get out and hit some balls around and chug a couple of beers after.

Anyways, the team went undefeated during the regular season (Durham leagues). In the state championship, we made it to the finals where we lost 2-1. Disappointing. However, I remained undefeated in the tournament including the finals where I was part of a #1 seeded doubles team.

I am new to tennis but I took to it faster than any other sport I have picked up before. It almost has me regretting the years I ran track. My body seems like a perfect fit for tennis but even more importantly, it is a lot of fun. Track bored me, it took me a while to realize that. You can’t really sabotage your opponent in a track race. If another runner is faster than you, that’s that. It is not going to change at a track meet, the result was penciled in months before at some practice.

I especially love tennis because there is quite a lot of creativity involved. And that creativity involves knowing your opponents, their weaknesses and strengths. You can beat a better player on his good day if you have a better plan or you make better adjustments or you are better in the moment. There are many paths to success.

Part of why I think I had a good run at the states was because I had one partner and we had an excellent relationship on court. A relationship that didn’t always click in the past but through a lot of communication blossomed at the tournament. Just another lesson of not avoiding conflict in a relationship because in most cases, conflict bears stronger fruit.

Rob Baldus reviewing the Secret City Film Festival shorts for the Tennessee local paper Metropulse says this of my short film Dear Stranger:

In his quietly aching study of bereavement, Ajit Anthony Prem reminds us that it’s the invisible world that is the real one. Not only that but he proves that cinema can portray this inner life as effectively as any novel. Just a few silent seconds spent in the company of a stranger on a subway train are enough for Rosie (Nikki Alikokos) to spiral out of control, losing herself in a deep, grief-stricken fantasy of a life she will never know. Dear Stranger has a voiceover but works perhaps even better as a silent film, illuminating the arbitrary, capricious nature of love, the emotional continents that separate us from our partners, and the virtual impossibility of living just one life. The effect is almost unbearably poignant.

So well expressed. All the ideas that excited me about this film can be found in this article.

Banana Bus will play on Friday, October 3rd at 5:30pm in beautiful Athens, GA. I won’t be there for the screening but hope to be there for the filmmakers meet up on Saturday.

Festival site – Schedule