PAKISTAN! THE VICTIM OF PIRACY

The rapid growth of technology has brought lot of comfort to people in nearly every department of life। No matter it is their personal life, social life or working life। The technology has luckily made people like us also to dream of making a film. Thanks to the Modern Technology (digital cameras and editing systems)for encouraging us to see this dream, and thanks to movies like “CLERKS” to make us believe more and more that our dream can come true.
Though everything related to filmmaking is fascinating except for one………Piracy ! The activity which has not only troubled low/no budget filmmaker but even to big studios and huge production houses। And Pakistan film industry is one of the most severe victims of piracy. Pakistan is ranked at the top 3 countries involved in piracy. I have forgotten the other two names but I remembered the name of Pakistan.

Being neighbor of India and having nearly the same language Pakistani people has always been FAN of Indian movies. In the year 1965 when Indian movies were banned in Pakistan due to the war of 1965, people started smuggling it through the borders. This was the time when VCR was a new discovery. At that time even Pakistani movies were doing business up-to some extent but the results of foolish cencor ship policies of General Zia had started to occur. That was the time when the quality of Pakistani movies had started declining. Because of smuggled Indian movies with more quality(in terms of script, direction, and production) people started preferring to stay at home and rent out video castes instead of going to cinema houses to watch Pakistani movies.
And then came the era of Computers and everything got Digital। Computers got more and more cheaper day by day. CDs and DVDs were easily available on stores. The price of CDs these days is RS 30/- (Nearly less then a half US DOLLAR) and for DVDs is RS/- 90(Something around 1.5 US DOLLARS). Rainbow centre in Karachi is the biggest market of pirated CDs and DVDs. How much piracy is active in Pakistan? You can judge yourself by an example. When I visited rainbow centre 2 weeks after the release of SHREK 3 and SPIDERMAN 3 they both were available for sale (though I didn’t purchased them as I don’t have interest in movies with lot of post production work and animation involved). It was really shocking for me. The above example was just to tell you about how active piracy in Pakistan is. Hollywood is a little luckier than compared to Bollywood. Because people over here are not educated neither they have the skills to understand English. So majority of the movies released via piracy are just kept in showcases.


But the Indian movies as soon released in India are also releases in Pakistan on DVDs and CDs. The local cable networks purchase them and show them on cable. It results as any Pakistani movie released in Pakistan doesn’t gets the attention which it should have received. A question here arises that why Pakistan’s government do not take any action against these people. Well there are two reasons. First that these shops in RAINBOW centre belong to high ranked government officials. Secondly these people also provide all sort of software including all the operating systems. If the government bans the piracy, the education of software engineering will rise a lot as nearly new university/college/school is able to purchase the original softwares. Pakistan’s literacy rate is already very low. So any ban will influence the education system too.
I personally believe piracy isn’t right as it ruins the hard-work of filmmakers secondly due to piracy even Pakistani movies are not getting any attention as a result majority of the cinemas are closed, staff of cinema houses is getting unemployed.

Mouthing Pictures

Friends sometimes pictures really make you laugh। I will try to make a collection of pictures like this on my blog. Till then have a look at these funny pictures



ESEEL WORLD MAI REHOONGA MAIN…।GHAR NAHI JAONGAA MAIN

Delicious

Let’s see which one of us win ?

Mom what’s cooking today?

Who’s coming with me to arrest Usama bin Laden !

Nasha yeh pyaar ka nashaa hai ! yeh meri baat yaar maano

Is India Really Interested in Joint Ventures with Pakistan?

In the modern world Indian cinema industry is considered as the biggest film industry of the world। Though the Hollywood people might not accept it but it is true that Bollywood release the highest number of movies in a year। More over they have the biggest number of viewership in the whole world। Interestingly Hollywood has also started investing in bollywood movies। The recent example is of Sanwariya। But over here i am not talking about HOLLYWOOD + BOLLYWOOD। Over here the topic is Is India Really Interested in Joint Ventures with Pakistan?।






I see many Pakistani Filmmakers who are very much willing for the joint ventures between Pak-India। But the question here arises is India really interested in joint ventures???
Being a fan and neighbour of Bollywood i have a strict eye on Indian Filmmakers। And i have never seen any reliable Indian filmmaker really talking about joint ventures with Pakistan। Though the King maker of Bollywood Yash Chopra once said there should be joint ventures between Pakistan and India, but that was just an statement।








The only Filmmaker who has really shown some interest is Mahesh Bhutt. But i will not even call those films a real joint ventures. He just picked a female star Meera for his few films(peoples say Meera herself financed the movies) and he took a couple of Pakistani playback singers for his movies. I personally don’t think this is called joint ventures. May be these were just the tactics by Mahesh Bhutt to release his films in Pakistan as according to Pakistani law no Indian film without Pakistani people are Pakistani finance(even a small portion of finance) can be released in Pakistan. So he was left out with only one option to take a singer or actress for his movie. Another stunt (intelligent people say it was an stunt) which he played was that he hired a person named sohail khan and when ever a film by Mahesh Bhutt is released Sohail Khan is named as a co-producer. But the newspapers have revealed a secret that when the same film is released in India there is no name of Sohail khan as a co-producer. Isnt it s
hocking? ........amazing?......surprizing?.......suspected?............If Sohail Khan is a co-producer then why isn’t his name shown on the films which are released in India? WE can’t even say that India has media rules like of Pakistan that no film with Pakistani financer can be released in India?
I personally believe India is not interested in joint ventures with Pakistan. It is only Pakistani Filmmakers who are running after India and begging for joint ventures

SHOOTING SPOTS IN PAKISTAN

Pakistan has been one of the luckiest countries when it comes to natural beauty। In-fact i was surprised when a tourist who has visited SWITZERLAND also said Pakistan is more better in natural beauty than SWITZERLAND। But when i started searching i really had to say yes this is the HEAVEN on Earth.

These places have not been captured in Film Cameras in a the way they should have been. The only reason is lack of technical knowledge and facilities. But i am sure when ever i will plan my first romantic movie i will surely capture the beauty of this piece of Heaven in my CAM।

Though filmmakers coming from abroad will have problems like language problem, lack of good hotels and stay etc etc....but that is for sure they will really enjoy shooting here। The locations are ideal for romantic films and for filmmakers who are willing to show natural beauty in their movies.

The famous places for visit (and shoots) are Kaghan, Kalaam, Jheel Saif-ul-Maluk, Sawat and many more. And you will find the people also friendly here.

I think this can be a great place for Filmmaker’s Honeymoon too........... :+)

3D ANIMATION ! THE GRWOING INDUSTRY IN PAKISTAN

3-D Animation industry is more than a billion Dollar industry all over the world. specially Philippine and Korea are highly preferred countries. But now a days even India and Pakistan are growing immensely. Though India is more advance but is also more expensive then Pakistan. I will not compare Pakistan and India. The reason is i am myself not sure which is more better. These days i have heard that India (Yash Raj Films) is planning a movie with collaboration of PIXAR. But at the same time Pakistan (Post Amazer) has already worked on an international project of 3-D animation on the movie Son of Mask ।

More over Pakistan’s top class animator Mukeem Khan has also worked on international project of FINAL FANTASY। So the good thing is that we have showed that we have the potential to work at and for international market। But over here i will be talking about the local industry.

In the last few years media industry has got a great boom. And so the advertising field too. Lots of animation and quality post production work has at-least brought us at a level where we can easily compete the Asian market. The reason i am not talking about the whole world is that we are still far back in creating concepts. The reason for it is that nearly all the companies when comes too Ad agencies they believe Pakistan is still a country on un-educated people who cant understand the indirect concepts of Ads (I think they are living in the fool’s Heaven)

Coming back towards 3-d animation we have production houses like Post Amazer, Sharp Image and H2O who have really worked well. Pakistan is lucky to have training institute like Arena Multimedia which has some high profiled teachers, And many quality students have come out from this institute. Though the Pakistani animators in general are not experts but the reason for it is that no production house has dared to enter into animated filmmaking, neither we have the best machines available for rendering.

But many animators believe that some day they will launch there own animated movie. Though the speed is slow but after all slow and steady winds the race.

I CAN SETUP MY OWN DISTRIBUTION COMPANY ?

Last night when i was on my bed and was dreaming about making Dollars (Hey guys believe me i am the best day dreamer in the world............lolzz) from my low budget movies suddenly a point stuck in my mind about the distribution issue. As we all know that the job of distributors is to promote filmmaker’s movie doing advertising, making more film copies and deducting 35% of gross revenue straight away without thinking of poor filmmakers (Like me). Though i don’t have any detailed information about the percentage of distributors but still i have heard from many friends that the percentage is too high.
So one thing which hit my mind that why cant we setup our own distribution company?????
Though there was a time when expenses were high . Specially the cost of making copies of film. But now everything is going digital. Thanks to the technology. The biggest expense is cut off straight away. Many theatres these days are getting digital projection too. So don’t you people think it is very much easier to do the distribution?.
Now comes another question how to make a marketing and promotion plan?? Specially with low budget? Well this is the question of which i completely have no answer. Except for one foolish trick and that is:

Brain storming. Well if i have no or small amount of money i will do brain storming with my friends. I will also like to take help from university friends which are doing specialization in Marketing. Friends can always be helpful.

Though the profits might be lower if we distribute our self but still all will be our and no distributor will be exploiting us. Just what we need is a marketing GURU. More over you have a chance to make friends at many filmmaking forums where you can find very friendly and nice people. Like www.indietalk.com, www.filmmaking.net, www.allthingszombie.com (For horror movies)
People here are very friendly and can support a lot in making a marketing and promotion strategy.

RED ONE ! MY FIRST LOVE

Just a couple of years back i was not very knowledgeable about cameras. The only thing about cams i knew was that HD’s resolution and the issues of transferring it to Film. The one day whiles reading about filmmaking in one of the leading newspapers of Pakistan i came to know about RED ONE. I soon started my PC and searched about RED ONE. The first thing which attracted me was the colour combination of RED ONE site. Black and Red combination is my favourite. I soon started looking the pictures of RED ONE and it was really great. And it is technically awesome .You can easily get the technical details at http://www.red.com/cameras/tech_specs। I really believe it has become my first love for filmmaking।
The good thing about RED ONE is that its resolution is 4k which will help the young filmmakers to get rid of issues like transferring of HD footage to Film। Though it will create a problem that indie filmmakers will not be capable of editing their footage at normal PC but still the GLAMOUR of RED ONE will take over all the worries। That’s what i think. I am just looking for that lucky day when i will get RED ONE in my hands

PAKISTAN ! The hidden Gold Mine for Western Filmmakers

Pakistan is ranked as a third world country in international world having a very very bad reputation। More over we are also gifted with the presents like sue-side bombing (Thanks to GOD they have stopped from last few months), war in northern areas with Taliban and many more issues. I will not say that my country is a piece of heaven on earth. But even it is true that the general public here is very loving and friendly with the people coming from abroad. Even we live our life like the people in US or UK or CANADA live. Though there are some differences which can be taken into account on the basis of culture, custom and traditions but as human beings even we are the same.

The reason to write all this is to tell you that any foreigner coming to Pakistan will not really face the conditions which are normally shown in Western Media. Hats Off to them.
At the current stage if we look at the Film Industry of Pakistan it is really a Gold mine for every filmmaker including the western filmmakers. The reason because of which i am talking about Western Filmmakers is that they have the advantage of currency and modern technology.
Before moving forward i would like to mention that here i am not talking about indie filmmakers। I am talking about normal filmmakers who should have at-least around 50k US dollars with their own HD camera and great grip on lighting department. The amount of 50K US Dollars will easily convert into around 30 to 32 lacks PKR. The amount might look low but still you can easily complete a great movie on digital format and can get a huge market of not only Pakistan but also India, UAE, UK and CANDA.

Normally the high costs of a movie are the result of casting big STAR in a movie। But interestingly in Pakistan the top most Hero is taking around 7 to 10 lacks and he is the only one to get this amount. The second biggest star is taking lower then 5 lacks. In case of casting some one from TV will really make your cost very low. If you will search out on internet you will found not a single name as a star of Pakistan. By which you might think that here is a lack of good and quality actors. But that’s not the truth. Recently a top Pakistani TV actress for the first time worked with one of the best filmmakers of Pakistan and the film was released not only in Pakistan but also in India after around 30 years. The great thing is it was distributed by SONY PICTURES. The name of the Film is KHUDA KE LIE (IN THE NAME OF GOD.) So this shows that at-least we have the potential. The only thing we are missing is a great filmmaker with finance. Because the majority of the financers of Pakistan are not willing to invest due to the poor condition of Pakistani Film industry. May be they are not that much confident nor they have the knowledge of digital filmmaking which will decrease the costs. More over they even don’t have the knowledge of modern film business like pre-selling and any other business plans. One major reason of their lack of confidence is the piracy of Indian movies but it has been proved wrong. When ever a good Pakistani film has been released it has done business and people have gone to cinema houses to watch that movie. In the last few years sadly we have made around 7 quality films and all those have earned revenue (and profits too). Few of them have also been released in other countries like KHUDA KE LIE in India, three local language films in UAE. I don’t the about the rest of them.

So how do Pakistan is a Gold Mine for Western Filmmakers???

The first thing a budget of PKR 25 lacks will be enough for the filmmakers to complete the movie on digital format. They can also get the market of India plus Pakistanis living in UK, US, CANADA and UAE. Due to the absent of quality films and filmmakers the market is completely open for any one who has even little mind. So any good film with high technology will definitely force people to come to CINEMA HOUSES as they are seriously willing to come to cinema.
The filmmakers might think they will have a communication problem with Pakistani people। Well i don’t think so. Hiring actors from TV medium will not cause a problem because they are well educated and can communicate easily in English. And even i will suggest you if you have any plan to make a movie in Pakistan then go with actors and actresses from TV medium. You will just need one extra person in the crew who can communicate well between you and the crew like light-man, spot boys etc.

I personally feel any market where transferring of the currency results as 1(US dollar) = 65(PKR), where there is no competition at the local level because of fear of failure, the costs are low, and people are willing to buy a quality product(meaning willing to go cinema to watch a good movie) is really a gold mine.

I request you after reading this post do take part in the poll and tell weather YOU think PAKISTAN IS A GOLD MINE FOR WESTERN FILMMAKERS or not?????


REGARDS