Sculpting in Time

Here's a sneak peak of the title page I designed for the feature length screenplay I just finished writing, Samurai Showdown. It's the fifth completed feature length script I've written and the first one I was hired and paid to write. It's an adaptation of a popular video game franchise by SNK. The script is going to the Berlin Film Festival this weekend in hopes of raising the final finances for the film to be produced. There is an acclaimed Hong Kong director attached along with an incredible Anime director who would create Anime style flashbacks and an opening intro. If the film goes into production, it will be a huge stepping stone for me and help establish the resources I'll need to make my feature film directorial debut. Stay tuned for updates on my twitter...

Posted via email from ZAFFI Ponders

Battery Park

2010-02-02T11:13:00.000-08:00

I made this awhile back after spending the afternoon in Battery Park by myself.

Bike

2010-01-31T12:17:00.000-08:00

Secret vid from the vault.

Blue Fire

2010-01-30T16:42:00.000-08:00

This was the original edit for the first of the 3 music videos I made for Blu Mar Ten. Unfortunately, I was unaware that I was required to have people in the video. Not a problem at all, as the final version turned out much better, but here's the original 'fire stem edit' as I'm calling it, of 'Believe Me' by Blu Mar Ten.

Stanley is ready for the rain!

2010-01-30T16:38:00.001-08:00

Stanley is ready for the rain!, originally uploaded by rasdourian.

My puppy is just too darn cute.

Slip Slop

2010-01-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see. - Martin Luther King

Visual by me, sounds by Praveen.

Starz of the New Year

2009-12-27T21:45:00.001-08:00

Grapes, originally uploaded by rasdourian.

Shine bright.

Art Walk

2009-12-14T13:08:00.001-08:00

A few months ago I had the pleasure of checking out an interactive art installation in NYC by artist Ernesto Neto. I was blown away by how cool it was and how kid friendly it was. My GF's nephew Dean gives us a guided tour of the exhibit while the sounds of Casino Versus Japan transport us back to our childhood and the sense of wonder it must feel as a child to experience such a work of art. Photos on Flickr. Enjoy!

Streaming Subconscious

2009-11-13T05:51:00.001-08:00

Streaming Festival Student-Edition Invitation Card 2009, originally uploaded by The ART of Ryan Seslow Retrospective.

Ironic that in my previous post I praise the very artist who was kind enough to feature my student works in a online streaming festival he was curating. What am I talking about? The streaming festval is a platform for college level Art students (undergraduate and graduate) to exhibit, prepare, speak out and receive feedback for their works that examine the medium of video and experimental film. Ryan Seslow, the amazing prolific artist, has chosen some truly original pieces of video/audio art to be featured in this very cool concept including some of my early NYU films. The films will be streaming from November 13-19th here so please enjoy some streaming awesomeness.

Transcending Twitter Potential

2009-10-21T17:13:00.000-07:00

"Transcending Situational Potential"
by theongoingrms

Ryan Seslow is an amazing multi-disciplined artists and professor who I've had the pleasure of meeting via the magical social networking tool, Twitter. Ryan was one of the earliest people I began to follow and he instantly blew my mind with a plethora of amazing artistic content. I also became fascinated with his personal artistic works which include a wide variety of Warhol-esque techniques and cultural references on iconic touchstones. I could go on and on about Ryan's art but am more inclined to direct you to his insane Flickr page which gives you more than a glimpse into this prolific artist's body of work.

"Transcending Situational Potential" is a new short art film Ryan made that is extremely evocative and insightful about the birth of creative impulses. It's a surreal journey of complicated ideas but if you focus and pay attention, I guarantee you will be able to relate to your own creative urges. As Professor Universe and the fragmented personality soliloquize, I was mesmerized by the images that the words evoked. My favorite section of the film is entitled "Expression is in Motion" in which Ryan dissects footage of a crowd of people walking down a street as an omniscient voice muses on in poetic verse. As the images slowly unfurl and the movement grinds to a near halt, we begin to see subtle distortions in the footage. As if they were waves radiating from invisible shadows, Ryan's beautifully shows us the potential in all of us even in the simplest subtle of movements.

My dog is online

2009-10-08T20:12:00.001-07:00

Posted via email from ZAFFI Ponders

Practice Ponder

2009-10-08T06:14:00.001-07:00

Art to the Abstract

Posted via email from ZAFFI Ponders

#IFPFilmweek Roundup

2009-09-28T07:38:00.001-07:00

I had the privilege of attending IFP Filmmaker Week, winning tickets courtesy of the amazing independent crowd-sourcing fundraiser company IndieGoGo via Twitter (thank you social media), and I must say there were some interesting thoughts worth sharing on the current state of independent film culture. For those unfamiliar with the event or the organization, IFP is a nonprofit company that has evolved into the largest organization of independent filmmakers, and is also the premier advocate for them. IFP film week gathers independent filmmakers, distributors, producer, critics, lawyers and anyone from the gamut of the indie film-making world, putting them in panels to discuss a wide variety of topics. I did my best to live tweet the panels I thought were interesting, but due to lack of wifi and bad cellular reception I was only able to quote a few of the speakers. I'll do my best to recap some of the important points that kept coming up.

Building your audience is key! That, above all, was the strongest and clearest message to the independent community. "The beauty of the internet is it's limitless bounds, we can do anything with it." said Gary Hustwit, director of Helvetica, talking about his internet following and how the number of people on his email list has helped foster his films. "Facebook, Twitter it's all part of making the film, it doesn't stop after the film is done, it's what allows me to make the next film. And don't forget what we are making has value to websites, they're looking for cool content" talking about the trailer for his new documentary "Objectified" being featured on Gizmodo.

"You have to find established audiences, tap into them and bring them into your domain" said Bladimiar Norman of 42 west, a full-service public-relations firm for your film. "Drilling your content into crowds that are relevant to your film will have the biggest impact." Talking at the same panel, Crowd Sourcing: Building Fans, Bloggers, & Press Allies, IndieGoGo founder Slava Rubin told the crowd of up and coming filmmakers, "The ones who are successful are the ones who take action and take advantage of the tools available them" referring perhaps to the many easy tools sites like Indiegogo offer, including Twitter/Facebook integration, setting up screenings and handling crowd sourced funds.

One of the best panels I attended was "The Times, They Are A-Changin" with Ted Hope, Christine Vachon, Lance Weiler and Kenneth Woo, where the main focus was again the power of audience building and the benefits engaging your audience can reap. "It's important to build your audience before making your first feature, you need to think about it as part of preproduction" Ted Hope talking about the power of social media and twitter, and how social networks had propelled his next film "Super" with Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page and directed by James Gunn based on their collective number of followers on Twitter (Ted has 2 fantastic blogs, Truly Free Film and Let's Make Better Films that are must reads for all filmmakers). But Lance Weiler, creator of the workbook project (an amazing resource for filmmakers), hit home a big problem plaguing the concept of audience building, fractured audiences, "Audiences are becoming so fractured nowadays that it's hard to tap into them. How can we take a filmmaker and their audience and be able to share them with another?"

Personally I think this is one, if not the main problems facing the current independent film movement. We have tools and resources on how to make films, but we do not have a central focus for our audiences to tap into. We need to start thinking about ways of actively connecting our networks to promote the actual consumption of our films, as opposed to just teaching others how to make them.

"The Internet had changed everything, including independent film. It's never been easier to make a film but never been harder to build an audience." said Mark Lipsky, president of Gigantic Digital Cinema, a company committed to making quality, first-run independent films available to everyone, everywhere, anytime. "One of the biggest problems with Independent Films is the label "independent film" wad co-opted by the studios. We need to win back that label." he said, comparing how "There Will Be Blood" is labeled 'indie' by the media. Orly Ravid of New American Vision, has an ambitious new project The Film Collaborative to fix the problem. When it launches, it will be the first non-profit, full-service provider dedicated to the distribution of independent film. It will offer a full range of affordable distribution, educational, and marketing services to independent/non-commercial filmmakers looking to reach out to traditionally undeserved audiences, thus enriching the lives of filmmakers, audiences, and communities alike. This is a step in the right direction.

Overall, IFP Film week's panels provides independent filmmakers an invaluable tool of starting dialogue about our constantly evolving independent film culture. It's our job as filmmakers to engage our audiences in that very dialogue, but in a creative way. I think the most valuable nugget of information came from a young filmmaker, Asiel Norton director of the film Redland, who earnestly said, "The way I look at the web and social media is as another creative tool to create art. It's a tool to extend and expand the life around your film, but at the end of the day, the most important thing is to make a good movie"

Peaceful state of mind

2009-09-17T15:01:00.001-07:00

Stanley Blur Perfection, originally uploaded by rasdourian.

Calm, content, creative.

8 years later...

2009-09-11T06:07:00.001-07:00

RIP to all those who lost someone.

Kohta's Fiery Furnaces

2009-09-09T15:56:00.001-07:00

So my buddy Kohta, who animated the amazing intro and credits of Ai, is part of this cool music video competition on youtube. The competition is to make a video for the band Fiery Furnaces, as part of a competition/contest held by WNYC/NPR. All you need to do is click on this youtube link, and select "I love it!" (even if you actually don't) Kohta and his video making partner Madoka would surely appreciate it. In any case, your help is appreciated and of course, please do leave your comments and rate the video if you want to! Kohta is really cool and would love to hear your feedback (on the youtube page). You can check out his other work in his kitchen.