Happy New Year

Shamefully this is my first blog post of 2013. However I hold a valid reason for neglecting my blog as this year has already been buried in late night shoots, and clocking up thousands of miles driving up and down the breadth of England!

This year I have been working for ROK TV. Since I have been involved with this relaunched production company I have been involved with many wonderful and exciting projects. Primarily working as their in-house camera operator and editor; I have been busy with many development projects and productions.

Coldwell Television is one of the many apps which ROK have developed. We stream out Live boxing matches out from Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool and Doncaster to Apple devices, Android devices and over the Internet.

The shoots are hard work! 12-bout long fights make the boxing nights seem to go on forever. Having started out as a camera op, I have moved on to vision mixing for the events and running graphics (assisting the director.) Set up would consist of arriving 4 hours prior to doors open, to set up cameras, directing/stream/commentator stations and hundreds of metres worth of cable runs!
The work is simple enough, it only gets tedious on slow fights in particular making the long drives home take its toll. That said, the events are always good fun - it makes a great change from being stuck in an office with a temperamental toilet and is the perfect excuse for a well deserved lie in the morning after!

Setting up the master shot

Live editing at the Vision Mixing station

From behind the directing, mixing, and streaming desk

Coldwell Boxing event about to start

Here's a little peak at the mastering workflow!

It's not been a strange sight to see multiple machines running multiple renders and exports in the office.

Back in February, ROK had published Angie McCarthys recent book and as part of the launch, had hosted a Beatles Tribute event which ran over 2 days at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

Here I was working mainly as an AV camera op for the event. This was a great event, yes the nights left me physically mangled afterwards but it was the type of work I would jump at the opportunity to do again. Working with the director in finding different shots during performances meant I was on stage with the acts. Being so close to the action that I nearly blasted off when the streamers blew for the finale! Definitely something I would love to do again! Met many wonderful people and the acts were impressive.  Photos from the event were taken by Atul Patel.

Shot from the DVD

With 2 of the Tribute bands

I've had the chance to film and work with the snooker pros: Jimmy White and Ronnie O'Sullivan as part of ROK Stars' sponsorship. We produced a snooker app for Jimmy who is an incredibly humble and accommodating guy.

Setting up a shot for the App

Filming press conferences with the guys on the other hand allowed me to have a taste of video journalistic work and left me with one impression...

Frantic!

With the Press

I was once sent to cover a press conference independently and was very anxious about this. I knew I had to cover it professionally and deliver good quality. But after I realised how quick you had to be and seeing how BBC and Sky managed to make the best of an imperfect situation - I understood the reasons as to why press conferences look and sound the way they do. Sometimes there isn't enough space to set up comfortably, or your mic will be placed perfectly and the speaker moves away, in one case I had set up the camera and the speaker sat behind a booth which covered his face! So all in all it would be something I would like to avoid...

Unless more of them handed out cake, cookies and doughnuts like this one!

So that has been the most of how work life has panned out so far.

During all this I had not forgotten the folks at Blue Hippo who had been extremely busy themselves working on their Greenbelt at 40 project. Through emails and keeping an eye on their social networks I got to stay up to date with all their news. Last weekend happened to be the premiere of the film at the festival itself, and as gutted as I am to have missed it, I have no doubt that it went down successfully.

Whilst I was not involved with the Greenbelt project, I did however get involved with a voiceover for a different project. This was the first time I had done some voiceover work and it was for a dvd project. I only had a small contribution but nonetheless felt nervous! It went smoothly and was very positive which made me reconsider about other on/off camera work prospects I could get involved with.
Now that the Greenbelt at 40 film has been released, I will be pestering them once again to get involved with some more Hippo work!

I have replaced my gig-going with catching up on much neglected reading and ever longed swimming. Over the last year or so I have read Burroughs' 'Naked Lunch', Kerouacs' 'On The Road' , Krakauers' 'Into the wild' and have just finished Nicholas Krisof and Sheryl WuDunns' 'Half the Sky' (...of which the last 3 in particular were outstanding reads!)

I had been reading 'Half the Sky' at a monumental time in recent months with certain events of India being in the spotlight globally. I have wanted to write about this issue for a long while but its difficult to know where to begin. The overwhelming news and stories of female suffrage in modern India has been just that: overwhelming. Time and time again I find myself brought to tears with each article, report and interview on the shocking behaviour of individuals from India. There is a serious problem if a women in India cannot even go about her day, do her job or walk down a street without the fear of being ambushed, maybe kidnapped but perhaps almost undoubtedly raped. I never thought this would get to the point where woman in India are not safe and Indian news reports consisted of urging women to take up some form of self defence. Why not a re-education of equality to the Indian public? A social conduct and understanding of decency? or perhaps something as simple as reinforcing the law and its consequences of committing such a monstrous crime?

It's most baffling as to why after the heartbreaking events of the Delhi rape case have seen a surge of trend and almost 'coolness' to gang rapes. 8 months later - very little has moved on. Is this the proof which confirms India is capable of no more change? or maybe its just not worth improving the lives of women? and most shockingly why is it that when this issue is raised in Indian common house for debate, it is passed off and 'not to be confused with politics?'

As you can see I have many questions along with the rest of the world out there, but I continue to grow frustrated and impatient of shedding tears.

So as I sign out, I leave in hope of earlier nights, more travels and prevailed justice!

The Voice and the Lens

The Blue Hippo project is still underway, it's starting to snowball and gather some momentum now which is very exciting! Blue Hippo's current LAST SHOP STANDING has also generated national and international screenings and acclaim! To find a screening near you, check out this nifty little map on their website: http://lastshopstanding.com/screenings/

I'm also currently working on a project for an exhibition to be held at the IKON Gallery (Birmingham) next month. The exhibition, titled The Voice and the Lens, will be exhibited from 8th-12th November and the programme can be found at: http://www.ikon-gallery.co.uk/programme/current/event/710/launch_screenings_and_performa/

I am working with a member of choir - Ex Cathedra, to discover the jewels and treasures of performance work. What is so special about singing and why are choirs great to be involved with? I have had great fun filming and following our subject and understanding the years of hard work involved with fulfilling such a passion. You don't have to be a professional to enjoy the benefits and highs of singing.

This project is now in it's edit and soon to be available to watch online after the gallery screening.

What's On?

So I've spent a lot of time conducting some research for my recent project with Blue Hippo Media. We're working on creating a series of short films with the Mashriq Challenge Resource Centre (Birmingham) who deal with Asian women of ethnic minorities who have suffered from an unstable emotional well being. This centre brings the women together to befriend, unite and support them in their life's challenges. We are also working in correspondence with the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. These films will address and highlight the causes, issues and the consequences of what some women have gone through. They will evoke an awareness with how these issues are culturally perceived.

At the moment I'm looking at a broad range of films and works from movements dedicated to helping oppressed women around the globe (Half The Sky, Apne Aap) to television shows who address and get involved (Satyamev Jayate, Mann Ki Baat) and feature films (Provoked, A Beautiful Mind.) 

I have also been looking at short films like Touretters Haiku which I was most impressed with (bottom link) documentaries (Tulisa, Stephen Fry) and even some literature (The Yellow Wallpaper.) We decided to look at absolutely everything and anything so that when we have found a writer, we should be able to easily pick out themes and develop our plot from there on.

I've also been asked to attend the BCU Student Awards (The Trevor Awards 2012) this year to present the Blue Hippo Award to a film student (the award which I won last year!) This is a little nerve-racking as I've never been too great in front of an audience and in honesty I feel like I've only managed to achieve so much within the last year. It's certainly all been snail paced!

Alongside this I've been applying for many jobs, trying to decide which path I should venture down now and also planning on updated the good old www.amritpalsembhi.com which needs to have buckets of photos, videos and information pumped into it!!

Last Shop Standing

I'm currently working with Blue Hippo Media and they are producing a documentary about the decline of Independent Record Stores in the UK. Their campaign is at http://www.indiegogo.com/Last-Shop-Standing-Documentary-phase-2 and here you can donate towards the project and claim great perks... which gets your name on the film!

Blue Valentine

I watched Blue Valentine last night with my sisters. Great film - about the realities of what actually happens to particular couples after they go into marriage thinking its a fairytale, the wearing out of connections and how it becomes ok to disregard each others' feelings. It was very realistic - I felt like I was really looking into the characters (Dean and Cindy) life..
I'm still trying to depict how: but throughout this film there remained an uneasy atmosphere. As if something big was about to happen. Something extreme was to occur - blowing everything out of context, but this wasn't resolved as I would have wanted it to be. The entire film was centred around these two people so much that I started to feel claustrophobic myself. Perhaps this is because Derek Cianfrance wanted the audience to relate to it as much as they could, seeing the two different points in their lives and how it was so clearly and predictably mapped out (I can think of many who fit this right now!) It is a plotline which is done a lot, however these actors work well together and the soundtrack, I admit, was charming. Overall an enjoyable film - but a tad too cheesy, would have liked to see a glimpse of their future self in the early days.

My Facebook page & Website (admittedly of which I need to be using some more!)

www.facebook.com/pages/Amritpal-Sembhi-Filmmaker/223974837645039

www.amritpalsembhi.com

Hope it is of some interest :)

New Showreel

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R8l_ZJllpU