Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Life In A Day (2011) - CrowdSourced Drama / Documentary

What did you do on 24th July 2010? That’s the first thing which comes to your mind while you see this wonderful idea made into a movie by Scott Brothers (Ridley and Tony Scott) with Director Kevin Mcdonald. They came out with this idea and received 80000 submissions from 192 countries with footage of around 4500 hours – edited it into a movie with a fantastic background score and behold! You have an awesome movie to watch out with no Heroes or Villains J - it’s a treat to see what people just like you and me are doing on just a regular day of their life. Although, it was a special day for me – being my daughters 4th birthday – I can never forget it as it was a Saturday, drizzled throughout the day as we prepared ourselves for a party in Mumbai. One hell of a watch – I wish I had come to known a little earlier – who knows – you would’ve seen us too in the same celebrating my kiddo’s birthday. Check it out – you will not regret seeing something like this – a damn good watch – I am definitely keeping it for future viewings too.

The Movie: A unique concept on its own. It was made in partnership between Youtube, Scott Associates and LG Electronics. They actually sent around 400 cameras by snail mail to developing countries with which the videos were shot on 24th of July and sent back to them to be edited into a movie. People who shot these videos were asked some simple questions like, “What do you love”, “What do you fear”, “What’s in your pocket”. If you ask me – it was pretty good, has a very slow start but by the time you realize where it is going – you are totally engrossed in it and trust me – the last half hour of the video is totally outstanding. One reason I liked it more was its simplicity – I had no expectations what so ever from it hence the outcome, it was quite a heartwarming experience. The best part is – if that date in particular holds any interest or coincides with some activity that you did that particular day – it makes you happier. Like in our case – my daughter was born on the same day way back in 2006 hence I could gel well with it and all those thoughts kept coming into my mind while I saw so many people get on with their own lives in their own unique ways.

The Characters: Are all simple next door people like you and me, there is this kid who polishes people’s shoe to make a living, there is this Korean dude who is going around the world on his bicycle and it happens to be some 9 years and day on his journey – he wishes he could do anything to unite North and South Korea. Farmers working on their farm lands, kids playing on the beach, people attending a rock concert, a stampede in some part of the world, a kid is born, a giraffe delivering its baby, two roadies in some part of the world going on a road trip with their family pictures, an army man’s wife chatting with him online, a sick lady taking care of her kid, a gay dude confessing to his grand mother about his boy friend, a guy who just had a bypass surgery, who wants to live and have to go on a life support right as they shoot the video, a cow is shot twice in the head before being slaughtered, a chicken eaten raw by just adding some salt by a guy, a father who cant work as he has to take care of his 6 kids including a mentally ill son who believes god hasn’t forgotten them after giving them birth and they will be taken care by him.

Some Amazing Stuff: It has some damn gorgeous sky diving shots, the Korean guy picking up a fly of a window and setting it free in open, Some guy jumping in the pool with a hand held camera, a couple of under water shots of someone shooting fishes with a gun, It has so much of stuff captured in one single video that you learn what all is going around in places anywhere near you or at a distance. In the end when you see the end credits its funny to watch a long long list of Directors as they indeed credited everyone who sent them videos. All in all it’s a unique concept and a damn good watch – no doubt on that.
And that's us - Celebrating my daughters 4th Birthday :) on 24th July 2010

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