Many literary figures fail to make an impact as screenwriters. There is a basic difference between cinema and literature. Cinema is an aggregate of several brilliant technologies, and personalities. Literature is an aggregate of several personal thoughts of a single individual. Cinema is a teamwork, whereas literature is an individual effort. Literature can afford long prose to build up a scene, whereas the same impact can be captured in cinema by camera movements. As cinema is a visual medium, a jerk of the head of a flutter of an eyelash can have the same impact as that of the several written pages. Writers sometime are so prolific with words that the scene becomes unfilmable. The cinematic techniques are used to translate a writer’s ardour. The greatest contribution is that of the director and the editor. Music and cinematography too are helpful. In cinema, space and time are to be handled deftly. Cinema requires a new breed of writers. Their fiction makes the imaginative spaces real. Cinema also uses silence very effectively. Silence speaks far more than the speech.
Month: April 2015
Taylor’s 8 Weddings and Seven Husbands
In 1950, Taylor married Conrad Hilton Jr called Nicky who was a hotel magnate. She was 18 then when she wed first.It was six years after hitting the big screen at the age of 12.This marriage between May 6, 1950 and Jan 29, 1951 lasted nine months and then she was divorced.
In 1952, she married again to Michael Wilding who was a British actor. This marriage between Feb 21, 1952 and Jan 26, 1957 lasted 5 years. Then they were divorced.
In 1957, Taylor married third time. Her husband was Michael Todd, a film producer.They enjoyed the marital bliss from Feb 2, 1957 to March 22, 1958. Todd died in a plane crash in 1958.
In 1959, she wed to Eddie Fisher, actor and singer and her previous husband Todd’s best friend. Eddie had split from actress Debbie Reynolds.The marriage lasted from May 12, 1959 to March 6, 1964.
In 1964, she married Hollywood actor Richard Burton. She fell for her co-star on the sets of Cleopatra. This marriage lasted from March 15, 1964 to June 26, 1974.It was 10 year period.
In 1975, she remarries Richard Burton but divorced again in 1976.The marriage continued between Oct 10, 1975 and July 29, 1976.
In 1975-76, she chose Ardeshir Zaheri, Iranian ambassador to Washington, as her companion.
In 1976, she married John W Warner, US senator. It was a marriage between Dec 4, 1976 and Dec 7, 1982.
In 1991, she married Larry Fortensky, a construction worker. They married at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch.There was a divorce in 1996. The marriage lasted between Oct 6, 1991 and Oct 31, 1996.
Elizabeth Taylor expired on March 23, 2011.
Sports Marketing — Cricket in India
DD used to televise cricket matches and did not pay anything to the Board for the transmission rights prior to 1993.The whole scenario changed when the Board sold the transmission rights of the Hero Cup in 1993 to a private channel.DD objected to this, and the issue went to the Court, which upheld the Board’s right to sell the transmission rights. This opened the floodgates of revenues for the Indian cricket. At this time, two private sports channels ESPN and Star Sports started bidding for cricket rights jointly.They entered into an agreement with the Board for 1995-1999 for a sum of 5 million dollars. The cricket Board’s administration during this period put Dalmia at the helm of affairs. The World Cup rights in 1996 were sold to Mascarenhas managed Worldtel. Dalmia got the opportunity to preside over the ICC and stated Champions Trophy; the rights of which were sold.In 1999, the transmission rights were negotiated again, and Prasar Bharati received them., after agreeing to pay the Board a sum of 5 crore 40 lac dollars (Rs 227 crore). The agreement had two components — overseas transmission rights and Indian airtime. Zee Telefilms got the domestic rights, and TWI-Stracon the overseas rights. Later, there was competition amonst channels for transmission rights, and the Board decided to test the bidders against the criterion of experience. Zee rights were denied on this ground, and they were awarded to EPPN. As the matter became sub-judice, in the interim Prasar Bharati was given the rights. Later, the Board elected Pawar as President and new bids were invited. Nimbus won the contract for 2006-2010 against 61 crores.Sony Max has now bade for IPL for 10 years against a sum of rs 4030 crore (1.06 billion dollars).
Sunscreens
When skin is exposed to the harsh sun or a source of heat, it can cause burns, result in darkening and ageing. There is added risk of getting skin cancer. The UV or ultra-violet rays of the sun affect the skin. There are two categories of UV rays — UVA rays are more harmful as they cause long term damaging effects on the skin and UVB rays which are less harmful as they cause sun burns and photo ageing. Sun Protection Factor ( SPF ) is the criterion of the rating of sun protection offered by a product. These products are of two kinds — sunscreens which allow a little filtering of UVB rays in the skin,and sunblocks ( which contain zinc oxide ) that deflect UV rays from the skin altogether. SPF is calculated by the amount of time needed to cause a sunburn on protected skin to the amount of the needed to cause a sunburn on unprotected skin. Sun protection production have an SPF ranging from 2 to 90. Physical sunscreen have an SPF of 20 and very less chemicals. Sunscreen with chemical’s have SPF exceeding 20, and as the amount of chemical increases, the SPF increases. In indoor conditions, say in a kitchen, one can use a product with SPF exceeding 20, and as the amount of chemical increases, the SPF increases. In indoor conditions, say in a kitchen, one can use a product with SPF 15. As water washes away the product, one can used waterproof sunscreens while swimming. As chlorine in water makes the skin dry, one become susceptible to tanning. One has to use sunscreens with SPF more than 30 because lesser than 30 offer only partial protection. These preparations offer protection for 3-4 hours against UVB rays but not much against UVA rays. Therefore, one has to use these products every 2-3 hours, especially when outdoors. These products can be mixed with moisturizers. To avoid stickiness, calamine lotion can also be mixed.
Sunscreens do not affect the absorption of vitamin D from sunlight. Oily skin can cause and worsen existing acne. Oily sunscreens therefore are avoided. One should use gel or lotion-based sunscreen. Also sunscreen with matte effect should be used.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Campaigns
China’s TCL corporation offered free health check ups for consumers who visited any of its 24 retail branches in India. It is a consumer electronics company and it sets to distinguish itself by showing concern for consumers health. Companies donate a certain percentage of sales for socially relevant causes such as water-harvesting, education, women’s empowerment. Coca Cola’s ‘drops of joy ‘ campaign features an emotional narrative where deaf and dumb are employed to inspect bottles by them.” Drops of joy ‘ cover all their cola and non-cola products. PepsiCo takes initiative on its activities on water and waste management. Honda campaign ‘ Nature rides with Honda ‘ features its concern for safety, environment and energy conservation. SKF, a bearing maker, burns lot of steel, and is thus concerned about reducing environmental pollution of carbon monoxide emissions.In their ad, a toddler is shown riding a toy car in the lush green field with the tag line ‘ We’re driving India to a cleaner future.’ It conveys their concern for future generations. Tata Tea’s ‘ Jaago India ‘ commercial connects the awakening effect of tea to social awakening. WorldSpace has launched a Go-green initiative. When a company shows concern with social causes, it empathises with the consumers. They then favour such a company and its products. Other things being equal, consumers tend to prefer brands associated with a good cause. There is likely to be an indepedent CSR audit of companies in future. Though in the short run these companies are a drag on the bottom line, they bring more returns in the long run.
Ibne Safi
Ibne Safi was born in Allahabad in 1928. He was a prolific and popular writer of Urdu crime fiction. He migrated to Pakistan soon after independence and continued to be popular in India for close to three decades owing to the availability of high quality translations.He passed away in 1980 in Karachi. He has extensive body of work — around 125 novels in the Jasusi Duniya series dealing with the exploits of Col Ahmad Kamal Faridi and his sidekick Capt. Sajid Hameed. There are another 120 odd books dealing with Imran, a buffoon who is a secret service chief. In all he produced around 241 detective novels. He put two novels a month at his peak. In 2010, a few Indian publishers approached his Karachi-based son for rights to translate his novels into English. Ahmad Safi, his son, has launched recently the translations of four of his father’s novels into English. These are Poisoned Arrow, Smokewater, The Laughing Corpse and Doctor Dread. The translator is Shamsur Rehman Faruqui. These books could be seen as the origins or at least the foreshadowing of some of the coventions of popular Hindi cinema of the 1970s and 1980s. The heroes were pitted against the villains. There were extravagant action scenes. There was a dose of comedy and romance. Javed Akhtar was inspired by Ibne Safi while creating larger-than-life characters such as Gabbar Singh and Mogambo. The sub-continent thought the West to be morally lax and a foreigner was not easily acceptable.
Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Plants
Municipal waste is put on land reserved for this purpose, but with the rise in municipal waste in urban India, there is no land to fill such an enormous amount of waste, the estimated the waste production being 165 million tonnes by 2031 and 436 million tonnes by 2050.Right now India generates 70 million tonnes of waste a year, of which 80 per cent is dumped without precaution in landfills. These landfills emit toxic gases such as dioxins and greenhouse gases such as methane. The second method of waste disposal is composting which has not worked as the waste has not been segregated due to several reasons. Since we cannot stop the generation of waste and other methods are found ineffective, in the short to medium term, an alternative is to use WTE plants to take care of what cannot be reused or composted. Waste that is organic and 50 per cent is organic, can be gasified or composted. The problem is non-organic waste or mixed waste.
Waste-to-Energy plants are essentially doing controlled burning or incineration of waste to convert it into energy. Waste-to-energy plants are resented as they spread foul smell and fly ash. In developed countries such plants are located in the heart of the city. There is no significant public opposition to them. The WTE plant if well run does not leave any ground for opposition. If not well-run,. it is very dangerous Smell mostly comes when waste is transported. Waste can be transported in closed containers or underground. That takes care of the smell part. Burning causes pollution but modern technology is used to make it minimal. At 850 degree centigrade, dioxins and furans which are cancer causing are not produced. There is a scrubber that prevents fly ash from going through the smoke-stack.The waste has low calorific value, especially Indian waste on account of its high moisture content. Some energy is utilised to remove water or moisture from the waste. Western technology is not suited to deal with this problem and hence Chinese technology is used by Indian WTE companies.
In India, several plants of WTE are operational. Ramky is one company that builds such plants. The Okhla Waste-to-Energy plant is located between Apollo Hospital and CSRI at Delhi.There are plants at Jabalpur, Pallavpuram, Surat, Jawaharnagar (Hyderabad). These plants produce energy ranging from 5 megawatts to 25 megawatts. There is significant reduction in pollution as compared to coal.
The plants are high-cost and have a long pay-back period. The monitoring of gas emission in real time is difficult. The regulation must be sound.The plants put many out of the job.
Some Bold Ads
Amritanjan balm is perceived as out-dated grandma’s therapy for pain relief. It was to be connected to youth. The love and affection route was used. A young man and his companion board a train, and he complains of a head-ache. A young woman follows him in the corridor, and offers to apply balm. As they retire for the night, the man assures that his wife is asleep on the upper berth while he reaches out to the young woman across the berth.The Agency is Shining Consulting.And the creative director Shombit Sengupta.
In Mirinda ad, a chief guest arrives at a college function. He notices people panting and breathless. The next day’s newspapers feature him and a teacher heaving and panting.The headline is ‘caught in the act.’ Created by Swati Bhattacharya of JWT. It is a tasteful but provocative ad. It has naughty tonality but it highlights the breathlessness concept of the campaign.
Lowe Lintas Aru Iyer Fasttrack ad shows an air-hostess entering cock-pit. As the pilot puts the plane on auto-pilot, the hands can be free for other activities — rather pleasurable activities. It was a little funny ad with innuendo, although in a classy manner. According to Piyush Pandey, innuendo is creativity, provided that it is culturally accepted.
Transactional Analysis (TA)
Berne has put forward a useful framework for exchanges and relating to others ( 1964 ) . It is called Transactional Analysis ( TA ) which suggest three ways of relating. Each individual has three egos — parent ego, adult ego and child ego. Parent ego is learned from parents. It is protective and moralistic. Whenever in any situation, there is dependence or the question of morals and values, the parent ego is activated. A superior may exercise parent ego while dealing with the subordinates. The adult ego is reality-oriented, problem-centred and mature. It allows one to cope with stress. The child ego comes naturally to a youngster. It is an ego in helpless situation and dependent situation. It is playful and inquisitive. A successful transaction occurs when a teacher’s parent ego interacts with a student’s child ego. There is conflict if the teacher’s adult ego transacts with a youngster’s adult ego.
Synthetic Biology
Synthetic biology is a rapidly expanding discipline that uses synthesized DNA, the genes of the most living organisms, to create biological functions not found in nature. These genes are edited ( using a computer ) and then synthesized from scratch ( using chemicals). In future, genes could be designed and printed. There are possibilities of finding solutions to problems of environmental pollution, shortage of food and energy. It is expected that synthetic bilogy would create food and fuel, drugs and chemicals. Scientists have found a way to write, erase and rewrite information into the DNA of bacteria called E coli. This ability to programme DNA could one dat let us switch off cells when they become cancerous.
Artemisin, anti-malarial drug, is currently extracted from plants. Funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the drug is created by inserting genes from various organisms into E.coli. This is a big milestone for synthetic biology, as the plants from which it is extracted are short in supply and grow slowly.
Viruses are seen as apps of biology providing infinite possibilities for us to credit new living systems. Viruses are chemical codes that add features to organisms they infect. A bacteriophase is a bacterium infected by a virus. Viruses can be used as diagnostic tools, as gene therapy.
Scaling is a big challenge for every synthetic biology application.Synthetic biology is drawing big research funds.