Normally a 32-bit system (x86) can support maximum of 2.75 to 3.25 GB of RAM (depending upon your system configuration) even if you are having 4 GB or more RAM. A 64-bit system (x64) can support up to 128 GB of memory. This is because Windows doesn’t allow users to use more RAM in 32-bit due to licencing issues. Here i’m going to show you how to bypass this issue and use 4 GB or above in a 32-bit Windows system.

In order to try this you should have a 32-bit system and 4 GB or above of memory (RAM). Then follow these steps:

Step 1: Check out the system properties

Right click “My Computer” & click Properties. You’ll get a window showing your system configuration. This will look similar to the image below. Here only 2.96 GB is available out of 4 GB.

Step 2: Download the patch from here

Step 3: Run this software with administrative privileges

Right click on the downloaded file “Staforce-4GB” and click “Run as administrator” and press “Yes” on the following window.

Step 4: To use this patch

Follow the images as shown here.

Step 5: Restart your system

Now when the system boots choose “Microsoft Windows > 128 G Memory”.

Now your Windows 7 boots as usual. Now you can completely use your RAM with full efficiency.

Set to blaze on the 9^th of July in India,  the third sequel of the Twilight saga, Eclipse has already been released in the west (30^th of June). In spite of the fact that the third book is not considered to be the most hectic and eventful of the lot by many readers (which wasn’t the case for me though and few others too I hope!!!), the movie has been otherwise, revealing innumerable myths about the Quilliettes  (imprinting!!!) and the vampires.

The movie could probably be the best in line as of now in the saga with Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) coming as close to mutating into a bloodsucking vampire fusing forever with her eternal love, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) though this part is (he he!!!) in the next book ! She is faced with multiple dilemmas ranging from her decision to adopt immortality to Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), her jolly time playmate who for once was the reason she was alive even now, trying to make her realize her love for him  which makes the paranormal romance more or less, an almost perfect triangle.

The movie is centered around the continual Seattle attacks which are later discovered to be a plot by the flame-haired Victoria (played by Bryce Dallas Howard replacing Rachelle Lefevre) who with her freshly hatched passe of newborn vampires is out hunting for Bella to take revenge for the loss of her mate James, slayed by Edward in an attempt to save Bella.

Team Jacob and Team Edward put up a great team effort at the end paving way for new tensions in the next book, “Breaking Dawn” ,between the two teams and in the process spurting friendship between the two opposing  packs (in the mildest possible form i.e…!!!)

For characters with such vexed mindsets,  the main actors have done a fair enough job according to many fans but  the critics claim their performances have been “extraordinarily dull”??? However, the movie is sure to appeal  to its teenage audience resurfacing feelings of sexual tension, compulsion and chastisity as in the book.

And it also looks like the“30 Days of Night” Director, David Slate surely did his fair share of homework indoctrining  himself into the world Stephenie Meyers crafted and established in the minds of millions  across the globe, making the movie more than just up in the intensity level which he proves in the movie’s climactic scenes.

The earlier Twilight movies were more on the “sweeter and cuter” side but this one here brings in more action and fights for the guys making it something that they would actually want to bring their dates to!!!

Nagra-brand tape recorders were the standard sound recording systems for motion picture and single-camera television production until the 1990s. Their physical appearance, with the single transport selector and large reel-to-reel tape deck are still the stereotypical image most people have of a professional tape recorder. Nagra recorders are produced by Kudelski SA, based in Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland. The machines were initially designed by Polish inventor Stefan Kudelski, and his company won numerous technical awards for their precision and reliability.

The reputation of Nagra equipment is firmly established among audio professionals. Whether in the television and cinema industries or among radio journalists, Nagras are always appreciated for their sound quality and reliability. Equipment such as the Nagra 4.2 and the Nagra IV-S Time Code are seen as benchmarks in terms of sound recording for cinema productions and have been used on film sets the world over. The performance of this equipment has been recognized with three Oscars® and an Emmy® Award.

It was in 1951, that the Nagra takes a concrete form: a portable audio tape recorder with exceptional specifications, i.e. light, small, self-contained, portable and high quality. In 1952 the first customers, Radio Lausanne and Radio Geneva placed official orders for the Nagra I. Production of the Nagra II began in 1953. The Nagra II is quite sophisticated, driven by a Gramophone spring from language laboratory equipment, and with excellent subjective and audio quality. In 1958 the Nagra III sees the light of day. It was a solid-state machine employing an electric motor with closed loop servo speed control. It was a fully transistorized machine with all the modules enclosed in metal cases. It was powered by conventional “D” type batteries. Moreover, it was equipped with a true peak meter called a “Modulometer”.

Stefan Kudelski invented the “Neopilot” system, and the first Nagra III machines equipped with the system were sold in 1962. Kudelski SA defines Neopilot as follows: “Full track monophonic recorders (Nagra models III, E, IV and 4.2) use a patented system in order to control the speed of the NAGRA during playback to ensure it turns at the exact same speed as the reference (Projector / Camera / Perfo-tape machine). The frequency of the pilot signal is 50/60 Hz and is often derived from the mains. The signal is recorded as a twin track signal 180° out of phase so as to be invisible to the full track playback head. The start point is indicated by the clap of the film clapper board and the synchronization to the magnetic film is maintained using the pilot signal throughout the take.”

Nagra recorders are identified by their model number, which indicates their technological generation and features:

• Nagra I – The very first prototype with clockwork motor and miniature tubes, appearing in 1951.
• Nagra II – The first production model, miniature tubes equipped, clockwork motor, appearing in 1953.
• Nagra II CI – The second generation fitted with printed circuit boards replacing chassis wiring, appearing in 1955.
• Nagra III NP – The first Nagra usable for film work, appearing in 1962.
• Nagra IV-L – Monaural, featuring two microphone inputs and a built in audio limiter. Introduced in 1968.

• Nagra 4.2 – Same as the IV-L, but added powering for microphones and built-in equalizers. Introduced in 1972.
• Nagra IV-S – Stereo Nagra, recording two-track stereo. It had dual level pots, limiters, and equalizer presets. It was introduced in 1971. Originally it was available with a pilottone crystal, and then in 1984, with timecode support. With timecode support an IV-S became a Nagra IV-STC.
• Nagra IV-SJ – Stereo Nagra for instrumentation and logging. Pots are replaced with switches to set gain in precise steps, no limiters, and when present, the microphone inputs are for high-voltage unbalanced instrumentation mics rather than low impedance balanced with T-power and phantom.
• NAGRA E – A simple, single-speed (7.5ips), mono recorder aimed at radio reporters was introduced in 1976.

In addition to these field recorders, Kudelski S.A. produced a studio recorder called the Nagra T-Audio, designed mainly for use in telecines for transferring dailies. All of the above machines use 1/4″ tape.

Kudelski SA has also produced a series of miniaturized reel-to-reel recorders using 1/8″ tape. These machines are referred to as SN (for Série Noire) and production was originally ordered by President Kennedy for the United States Secret Service.

Aside from its line of motion picture sound recorders, Kudelski S.A. originally produced and continues to produce high-quality recorders for electronic news gathering, radio, and music recording. The ARES-PII hand-held recorder for journalists, and the Universal digital recorder, the ARES-BB+, both introduced in 2004, are state-of-the-art digital recorders recording to compact flash PC cards. They offer USB file download and can record both linear PCM or MPEG compressed audio.

Although digital recording is now the norm for most dialog recording in motion pictures and television series, sound effects recordists still use analog Nagra tape recorders for certain kinds of background sounds, particularly explosions, gunshots, and other loud sounds of extreme dynamic range. Engineers advise that while digital recording is technically more accurate, analog tape recording still has the edge in terms of being able to handle unexpected signal overloads.

]]> http://mediasplash.in/2010/07/nagra-recorder/feed/ 0 http://mediasplash.in/2010/05/in-love-with-ingmar-bergman/ http://mediasplash.in/2010/05/in-love-with-ingmar-bergman/#comments Sun, 30 May 2010 07:45:09 +0000 arunkarthick http://mediasplash.in/?p=999

No way! I’m not writing a review of a Bergman film. This post is just to share my experiences of how I got drugged to this master filmmaker. I’m a firm believer in the statement that watching a good movie is a feeling, a sensation that can never be described completely through words no matter how hard you try.

“Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.”

- Ingmar Bergman

Bergman is such a sensation. Ingmar Bergman’s mature cinema provokes the viewer into an intimate engagement in which a range of uncomfortable feelings are opened up, shared and laid bare. And this often occurs, quite literally, face-to-face. Recently I watched six of Bergman’s films in a span of three days and the kind of feeling all those movies gave me was breathtaking. After every movie I used to sit in the dark trying to get over these haunting experiences. Ingmar Bergman had his own unique way of telling his stories (which are mostly autobiographical) with collaborations with cinematographer Gunnar Fischer in the 50s and Sven Nykvist in the 60s. The latter and Bergman remained together for decades going on to produce magic on the celluloid with disturbing and arresting imagery. There is a definite transition in Bergman’s narrative style from the late 50s to his post modernist films starting from the 60s. Below listed are six of his most important films which transformed him from a good director to a great auteur and gave me a wonderful viewing experience lately.

WILD STRAWBERRIES (1957)

Wild Strawberries

This is my favourite Bergman film not just because of the reason that this was my first Bergman film or maybe because I watched it before THE SEVENTH SEAL. Wild Strawberries makes you sit glued right from the opening dream sequence. Wild strawberries tells the story of a professor and the hallucinations of his childhood days as he drives to receive his honorary university degree. Helped with some excellent performance from Bergman’s idol Victor Sjostrom (who was a director himself) the movie is a wonderful blend of realism and surrealism. Ingrid Thulin and Bibi Andersson constantly remind the old man about what he is and he discovers himself in his dreams. Berman visited his childhood home once and was hallucinated with memories and thought that it would make a good film so he wrote the screenplay when he was hospitalised in 1957 along with the screenplay of THE SEVENTH SEAL. The film won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 8th Berlin International Film Festival, “Best Film” and “Best Actor” at the Mar del Plata Film Festival and won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film in 1960. It was also nominated for an Academy Award for Original Screenplay.

THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957)

The Seventh Seal

KNIGHT: Who are you?

DEATH: I am Death.

KNIGHT: Have you come for me?

DEATH: I have been walking by your side for a long time.

KNIGHT: That I know.

DEATH: Are you prepared?

KNIGHT:My body is frightened, but I am not.

DEATH: Well, there is no shame in that.

Who can forget this conversation!!!

The Seventh Seal is Bergman’s most famous work. It’s beautiful high-contrast images of medieval Sweden and von Sydow’s anguished performance made for icons of a new existentialist cinema that resonated deeply with a world at the height of the Cold War. To late-’50s audiences it asked what metaphysical schemas and values humanity can possibly live by in a time when apocalyptic death is a daily threat, and when structures of belief seem to bring only regression, blindness and servitude. Set in the 14th century when the plague was causing Black Death a knight and a squire return home and the knight suddenly has an encounter with death. The knight asks death to play chess with him and at last death wins through a tough competition. This movie reminded me of a short story by Tamil writer Pudhumaipithan’s “Kaalanum kelaviyum” written in the late 40s in which an old lady has an encounter with death and outsmarts it through her wit. The seventh seal is considered a major classic of world cinema. It helped Bergman to establish himself as a world-renowned director and contains scenes which have become iconic through parodies and homage.  The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival.

THE VIRGIN SPRING (1960)

The Virgin Spring

The virgin spring is a gruesome tale set in medieval Sweden when Christianity was just in the ascendancy over Paganism, about the rape and murder of a girl and her father’s quest for revenge. A huge success, winning the first of Bergman’s three Academy Awards for ‘best foreign film’, it is nevertheless in many ways his least interesting work from the period. However, it does mark the beginning of the filmmaker’s collaboration with cinematographer Sven Nykvist, replacing Gunnar Fischer (whose richly textured, densely lit images were so important to Bergman’s ’50s work). This would turn out to be one of world cinema’s most important and productive director-cinematographer partnerships, continuing to the end of Bergman’s filmmaking life.

THE SILENCE (1963)

The Silence

Bergman made ‘The Faith’ trilogy - Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light (1962) and The Silence (1963) – set the tone for the increasingly harsh explorations of the human condition. THE SILENCE started Bergman’s minimalistic narrative approach with a lot of visual language and very limited verbal conversations. Bergman has commented in numerous interviews that the film marked a point of final exit from a set of religious problems that had been dominating his films since The Seventh Seal. The plot focuses on two sisters— one a fledgling woman with a young son, and the other, a terminally-ill literary translator— and their tense relationship coming to a surface whilst staying at a Central European hotel during a culminating war. Rather than philosophical explication, The Silence’s almost wordless images generate our experience and reading of a very open film, concluding the loose trilogy in an unexpected way. The complex combination of an uneasy realism with stark formalism makes for clean and complex deep-focus shots matched with hyper-diegetic sound. The formal affect of Bergman’s sound-image compositions are given space to speak louder than ever.

PERSONA (1966)

Ingmar Bergman Persona

Perhaps the best of Bergman and his most personal work. Right from the first few shots of film projector, an erected penis and a boy trying to touch a blurred image the movie is enigmatic and to be very frank I did not understand it fully until the revelation came in the last scene. This was a movie that kept on reminding me that I’m just an 18 year old wannabe filmmaker watching the magic of a great auteur on celluloid. The film explores an encounter between two women. The women’s lives to some extent run parallel to each other: one has aborted a child, and experiences grief, while the other tried and failed to abort her son and now experiences guilt over her lack of affection for him; the first is engaged to a man who criticizes her, and the latter is married to a man extremely devoted to and almost worshipping of her. The character’s names translate to Soul and Birdly (birds being associated with coldness and winter in Swedish), and symbolize the themes of the film: young and naive Alma encounters bitter and cold Elisabeth, triggering existential crisis. Persona is considered as one of the major works of the 20th century by essayists and critics who referred to it as Bergman’s masterpiece. Other critics have described it as “one of this century’s great works of art”. Out of a genuinely avant-garde prologue emerges a story in which an actress refuses to speak, while a nurse is assigned to her ‘recovery’. Most of the film takes place in and around a beach-house. But the women’s experience of space and time, along with the viewer’s grasp of these forms and Persona’s narrative, suffers increasing interruptions as it builds into one of the most difficult, open and generative feature-films ever made. Liv Ullmann’s silent portrayal of an artist confronting and performing her own ontological lack is dominated by twitching lips, ambivalent gazes and vampyric desire. Bibi Andersson plays the chatty nurse whose perfectly adaptive nature leads to being sucked into her companion’s showdown with negativity – so that she too is made to examine what, if anything, lies behind her own socially-ordained mask. This was one of the earliest films to introduce fast cutting .Well this would be a definite film in my repeated viewing list as it calls for multiple viewings to understand its genius.

HOUR OF THE WOLF (1968)

The Hour Of The Wolf

An artist in crisis is haunted by nightmares from the past in Bergman’s only horror film, which takes place on a windy island. During “the hour of the wolf” – between midnight and dawn – he tells his wife about his most painful memories. Hour of the Wolf originated from a manuscript with the working title “The Cannibals”. Bergman began work on it in the spring of 1965, during which time he suffered a minor nervous breakdown. In the end, the manuscript resulted in not one but two movies, Persona and Hour of the Wolf. Together with the former work, Hour of the Wolf is probably one of Bergman’s most personal films, though almost all of his films have autobiographical elements. It is filmed as if it were a true story about an artist who has disappeared. The story of the artist and his life just before he vanishes is based on interviews with his wife, and on his diaries. The film features lots of intentionally overexposed shots giving the creepy gothic feeling along with the expressionistic performance from Max von Sydow .  This film is much like its predecessor persona in its theme of two souls experiencing the same feeling. Liv Ullmann shares the screen space once again as one of the troubled soul.  A horror film unlike the modern ones which focuses more on the characters and their emotions. Berman establishes his triumph in this genre too!!!

Woody Allen – “probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera”

Krzysztof Kieślowski - ”This man is one of the few film directors—perhaps the only one in the world—to have said as much about human nature as Dostoevsky or Camus.”

Ang Lee - “For me the filmmaker Bergman is the greatest of all…”

Entertainment through mobile phones have been present since the time when mobile handsets were equipped with monotone ringtones and the user had the ability to personalise them. Today mobile entertainment have evolved by leaps and bounds. Current generation premium handsets are equipped to perform as a digital camera, personal media player and a portable internet device.

India, although boasts of 585 million subscribers, still uses mobile phones primarily for voice calls. With spiraling voice call rates, it is no surprise that India along with Brazil are the countries with lowest ARPU’s in the mobile wireless communications sector[1]. Therefore it is of critical importance that VAS (Value Added Services) market is monetised.[2]

The VAS market in India contributed to 7% of the total revenues for the mobile operators in 2006. It was $679 million at the end of 2006 with non voice revenues increasing every year.[2] In 2009, the VAS market contributed Rs 6000 crore accounting to 10% of the operators revenue. The figure is predicted to go up by 18% by the end of 2010.[3]

A pattern regarding the growth of mobile entertainment can be derived from the following data:

VAS Performance- 2005[2]

VAS Performance- 2006[2]

VAS Performance- 2009[1]

The most noticeable trend is the shift in the SMS usage by the mobile consumers. The year 2005 had 80% of VAS being used for SMS (P2P,A2P P2A), 2006 had 55% and 2009 has 49% of the VAS being used for SMS. This phenomenon is due to consumers engaging other VAS products such as CRBT, Games, Email and Data. CRBT’s has had an appreciable rise in terms of percentage consumption. 13%, 35%,49% for the year’s 2005, 2006, 2009 respectively.  Another area of promising growth on the VAS front is data. Email, data and GPRS usage has grown over the years. From an insignificant 1.5% in 2005 and 2006, GPRS has grown to a significant 8% in 2009. Games had a noticeable rise from 1% in 2005 to 3% in 2006. The above figures indicate the consumer’s deflection from the voice model to more data oriented applications.

Data and Voice Break up[2]

The above bar graph indicates the penetration of VAS in the Indian market. Although the growth has been gradual, the VAS intake may go up with the introduction of 3G. According to Mr. Pankaj Sethi, Tata Teleservices, Data services have been contributing to 10% of the VAS market. With 3G, the data consumption could go up. Pricing is also important as India is a price sensitive market.

Currently the EVAS (Entertainment VAS) has been contributing in the fashion as stated below : [1]

The Hindi film industry is the biggest driver as far as EVAS is concerned, followed by regional content, cricket and devotional.

The influence of 3G on the mobile entertainment growth could be accurately studied by analysing the pre 3G and the post 3G scenarios. Unfortunately 3G is yet to be fully functional in the country. Although this is a limitation, few logical predictions can be made about the changes in VAS and EVAS with the introduction of 3G.

• There is a fair chance that data usage would significantly increase. This means that the consumer would be able to stream audio – video content whenever he or she wishes to. BSNL, currently in its 3G offering facilitates the user to watch television content (ex: reality shows) on mobile phone.
• With adequate data bandwidth available, the content creators may not hesitate to invest in made-for-mobile content. These are content that are specifically designed and produced to be accessed on a mobile screen. A current example for made-for-mobile content is Airtel Talkies which provides audio clips of hindi films for its subscribers.
• SMS’s are one of the mediums to  facilitate access to content in mobile phones.  Provided the right pricing, there is a major possibility of SMS’s contributing less in the VAS revenue mix when 3G is established. We may ape the ‘American model’ wherein Emails are use over SMS’s for accessing content as well as text communication.
• A major hindrance to accessing content on mobile phones are the mobile devices themselves. As per Mr. Subash Ghosh,UTV New Media, of the 500 million subscribers in the country, only 10%- 12% have high end handsets. Still a smaller percentage above use data services. On the other hand, Mr Pankaj Sethi believes that this issue would be bypassed as OEM’s (Original Equipment Manufacturers) like Micromax have come up with 3G enabled mobile device priced conservatively at Rs 3500- Rs 4000.

Even before the introduction of 3G, there was a pattern change happening in the VAS market. With low voice call rates and lower ARPU’s, the fraternity has to think of alternate ways to generate income. This makes VAS and EVAS a logical choice. As per my opinion the VAS market in India will continue to evolve gradually with newer and innovative products/services coming in. 3G may will make the process quicker.

References.

1.  Mr. Pankaj Sethi, Tata Teleservices

2. Future of Mobile VAS in India, December 2007, Mr.Mohit S Gundecha, Prof Tom Kosnik, Stanford University/ Mr. Kunal Bajaj, BDA India

3. Mobile VAS summit 2009 Report, September 23- 24, 2009

4. Mr. Subash Ghosh, UTV New Media

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter has launched a new version of the Unicorn. The CB Unicorn Dazzler is priced at Rs. 62,900/- (ex showroom Delhi) and will come with five speed transmission, digital instrumentation, 17 inch alloy wheels and rear disc brake. The bike is strictly Bharat Stage III emission compliant. According to Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), the Dazzler will give a mileage of 60 kmpl. The company will continue to sell the existing Unicorn, which is priced at Rs. 59,285/- (ex showroom Delhi).

Various advanced equipments have been added in the bike which makes it the best in its segment. Powered with 150cc reformed engine, the bike delivers excellent performance with 14 BHP power. It is equipped with tubeless tyres and alloy wheels and offers best pick-up and mileage combination in the segment. CB Unicorn Dazzler will deliver a mileage of 60 kmpl*. The bike is equipped with maintenance free battery & viscous air filter for more convenience.

The CB Unicorn Dazzler will be available to the customers by the end of May, 2010. The bike will be available in four attractive colours – Armour Gold Metallic, Pearl Nightstar Black, Sword Silver Metallic and Pearl Siena Red. Present at the launch event were: Mr Atsushi Amataka, President, Honda R&D India; Mr Shinji Aoyama, CEO & President, HMSI; along with Mr N.K. Rattan, Operating Head – Sales & Marketing, HMSI.

An Air India Express flight Boing 737-800 burst in to flames when it missed a safe landing on a table top runway in manglore airport killing 158 onboard passengers instantly. The flight was from Dubai and was trying to land at a tricky hilltop airport in Manglore (southern India), overshot the runway and crashed over a cliff.

The below link shows a list of passengers onboard.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tfCk4KBQUfwls4T76yUmObA&output=html

Though the runway was a tricky one, it was 8000 feet long which was sufficient for a 737 to land. But what actually went wrong was that the first point of contact between the flight and the runway wasn’t within the first 2000 feets which led to the overshoot. Reports say that the The plane hit a radar pole just before falling off the cliff.

A table top runway is one such which can be found in hilly areas. Such runways are usually built by leveling hills.

Some news state that the Boeing 737-800 appeared to skid off the table-top runway in rain and plunged into forest atleast 100 feet below.Eight people survived from among 166 passengers and crew on board.

The pilot was Serbian and said to be highly experienced with over 10000 hours flying and with a Commando designation. The co pilot who was an Indian was also experienced.

The flight’s black box has been recovered, the United Arab Emirates state news agency WAM said. Air India official Nambiar said the search for the flight data recorder was still going on.

Dense black smoke billowed from the wreckage of the flaming Boeing 737-800 aircraft in a hilly area with thick grass and trees just outside Mangalore’s Bajpe airport.

There were unconfirmed reports the child taken to a Mangalore hospital with severe burns, but the child’s fate was not immediately known.

Workers pulled scores of burned bodies from the blackened tangle of aircraft cables, twisted metal, charred trees and mud at the crash site. Many of the dead were strapped into their seats, their bodies burned beyond recognition.

Indian officials said that conversations with the cockpit and other records showed the flight was operating normally before the touchdown.

“There was no distress indication from the pilot. That means between the pilot and the airport communication there was no indication of any problem,” V.P. Agarwal, director of Airports Authority of India, told local television.

Amazing News: Vikram Aditya Motwani’s debut feature, produced by Anurag Kashyap in Un Certain Regard section in this year’s Cannes festival! Along with the masters like Jean Luc Godard, an Indian debut will share the screen at the Un Certain Regards section of the 63rd edition of Cannes Film Festival, 2010.
Udaan is directed by Vikramaditya Motwane. Noted Indian director Anurag Kashyap along with Sanjay Singh is the producer of the film. Film stars Ronit Roy, Ram Kapoor, Rajat Barmecha and Ayan Boradia. Un Certain Regards is a competition section that carries the second most prestigious award at the festival. Motwane has also collaborated earlier with Anurag for his Dev D.

FEATURE FILM JURY:

Tim Burton, President

Kate Beckinsale ‐ Actress / United Kingdom

Giovanna Mezzogiorno ‐ Actress / Italy

Alberto Barbera ‐ Director National Museum of Cinema / Italy

Emmanuel Carrere ‐ Writer ‐ Scripwriter ‐ Director / France

Benicio Del Toro ‐ Actor / Puerto Rico

Victor Erice ‐ Director / Spain

Shekhar Kapur ‐ Director ‐ Actor ‐ Producer / India

FOUNDATION AND SHORT FILM JURY:

Atom Egoyan, President ‐ Director / Canada

Emmanuelle Devos ‐ Actress / France

Dinara Droukarova ‐ Actress / Russia

Carlos Diegues ‐ Director / Brazil

Marc Recha ‐ Director / Spain

UN CERTAIN REGARD JURY

Claire Denis, President ‐ Director / France

OPENING FILM: Robin Hood

IN COMPETITION:

Tournee (dir. Mathieu Amalric)

Des Hommes et des Dieux (dir. Xavier Beauvois)

Hors-la-loi (dir. Rachid Bouchareb)

Biutiful (dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)

Un Homme Qui Crie (A Screaming Man) (dir. Mahamat-Saleh Haroun)

Housemaid (dir. Im Sang-soo)

Copie Conforme (dir. Abbas Kiarostami)

Outrage (dir. Takeshi Kitano)

Poetry (dir. Chang-dong Lee)

Another Year (dir. Mike Leigh)

Fair Game (dir. Doug Liman)

You. My Joy (dir. Sergei Loznitsa)

La Nostra Vita (dir. Daniele Luchetti)

Utomlyonny Solntsem 2 (Burnt by the Sun 2) (dir. Nikita Mikhalkov)

La Princesse de Montpensier (dir. Bertrand Tavernier)

Loong Boonmee Raleuk Chaat (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives) (dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

UN CERTAIN REGARD

Blue Valentine (dir. Derek Cianfrance)

O Estreanho Caso de Angelica (Angelica) (dir. Manoel de Oliveira)

Les Amours Imaginaires (Heartbeats) (dir. Xavier Dolan)

Loza Los Labios (dir. Ivan Fund and Santiago Loza)

Simon Werner a Disparu… (dir. Fabrice Gobert)

Film Socialisme (dir. Jean-Luc Godard)

Unter Dir Die Stadt (The City Below) (dir. Christoph Hochhausler)

Rebecca H. (Return to the Dogs) (dir. Lodge Kerrigan)

Pal Adrienn (dir. Agnes Kocsis)

Udaan (dir. Vikramaditya Motwane)

Marti, Dupa Craciun (Tuesday, After Christmas) (dir. Radu Muntean)

Chatroom (dir. Hideo Nakata)

Aurora (dir. Cristi Puiu)

Ha Ha Ha (dir. Sang-soo Hong)

Life Above All (dir. Oliver Schmitz)

Octubre (dir. Daniel Vega)

R U There (dir. David Verbeek)

Rizhao Chongqing (Chongqing Blues) (dir. Xiaoshuai Wang)

OUT OF COMPETITION:

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (dir. Woody Allen)

Tamara Drewe (dir. Stephen Frears)

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (dir. Oliver Stone)

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS:

Kaboom (dir. Gregg Araki)

L’Autre Monde (Blackhole) (dir. Gilles Marchand)

SPECIAL SCREENINGS:

Inside Job (dir. Charles Ferguson)

Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow (dir. Sophie Fiennes)

Nostalgia de la Luz (Nostalgia For The Light) (dir. Patricio Guzman)

Draquila – L’Italia Che Trema (dir. Sabina Guzzanti)

Chantrapas (dir. Otar Iosseliani)

Abel (dir. Diego Luna)

Many people upgraded from XP to Vista years ago but ended up joining the band of disappointed users who ”upgraded” back to XP soon afterwards. It was not until recently when Microsoft introduced Windows 7 that they considered upgrading again, tempted by the new operating system’s intuitive interface and improved boot performance.
Since Windows 7 utilizes/requires less hardware use compared to Vista, there’s no need to spend a fortune upgrading to the new operation system. Suppose there is only one device you can afford to boost your Windows 7 computer’s performance, a fast and stable solid state drive (SSD) will be an excellent choice.
Fortunately, upgrading to a SSD is much easier than upgrading your CPU. As long as your computer comes with SATA or IDE interface, SSD installation is a piece of cake.
In contrast to a regular hard disk drive, a SSD has no mechanical moving parts that slow down read/write. Besides, Microsoft has tuned Windows 7 to run faster on SSD drives, with built-in support for the TRIM command, which is essential in maintaining optimum SSD speed and reducing long-term SSD wear. Therefore, it is highly recommended to use a SSD as your boot drive.
Do not hasten to dump your old hard drive. While running your Windows 7 computer with a SSD as a boot drive, use the old one as a backup drive. That way you can make the best use of your computer and enjoy a more efficient operation system.

Ritu (Malayalam) – A Shyamaprasad movie

“The only thing that never changes is change” and this perhaps is the theme of ShayamaPrasad’s Ritu (seasons), a film about the youth of today. Written by Joshua Newton, Ritu is a story about three friends. Their dreams, their journey, their bondage changes as the seasons pass by. One can easily associate this movie with their own lives as most of the youth today working for IT companies in tech cities undergo a similar phase in their lives. The reason why i want to talk about this movie is its screenplay. Very rarely we come across screenplays which give us an insight into the character’s depth. This is one of those movies which would’ve made a huge impact if it had been executed properly. The characters in this film are quite interesting. Joshua Newton has written this screenplay with good characters and plot points but i feel ShyamaPrasad, the director who had quite an outing with his last film Ore Kadal has failed marginally in the execution.

The plot is this – Sarat Varma returns from U.S to work with his childhood friends Varsha and Sunny. Sarat comes with the hope of cherishing their dreams which three of them had possessed from their budding days. But to his shock he realises that they have changed with the seasons and only he remains unchanged carrying all the lovely moments his friend gave him.
Let us now go into the characters:

SARAT VARMA

Sarath

Sarat though comes back from U.S, is not really interested in the western culture and has strong roots in following his passion (writing). His father is a famous writer who translates Bengali novels to Malayalam .At first he wants him to study computer science but later realises his literary talents and encourages him to right more. Sarat loves Varsha but soon realises she is not the one whom she used to be. Hiding his feelings he gives us an enigmatic insight into his life torn between friendship, love and ambition. He is calm, composed, knows what he really wants in his life but waits. Waits patiently for something to go in hand with him. His father’s death and his brother’s love for him makes him to do what he loves the most – writing. Debutant Nishan K P Nanaiah does a decent job and stays in our mind.

VARSHA

Varsha

Varsha enjoys a lonely and happy life in Bangalore, flirting with numerous boyfriends and new relationships before she meets Sarat. She missed her father her whole life and when Sarat comes back she tries to start all over again as they had a close romantic bondage from childhood. She hides a lot from Sarat , her secret is revealed once she confesses to him but in vain. Reema Kallingal delivers a good performance as the girl caught between dreams and reality.

SUNNY

Sunny

Sunny a happy-go-lucky lad who shows homosexuality traits befriends Sarat inspite of the trust Sarat had in him. He also changes his nature as many of us tend to in friendship. Apart from this there are some characters whose characterization interests us such as the fat worker who gets thrashed all the time, the company head Balakrishnan, the workaholic nerd and Sarat’s brother.

This film is a breezy revelation of sorts. Sometimes we look into ourselves and ask, are we true to ourself ? Have we been true to our friends? Well if not, this film will make you do so. Films like this ought to come as it provides an ample space for new talents to emerge. The cinematography and music suits well with picturesque locations.
Why do films like this don’t make it big? Is it our inability to appreciate new attempts or the conviction that trendy low budget movies don’t have in them the x factor? The factor that has been driving lots of Hindi films lately to great heights. While its counterparts such as Tamil cinema and Malayalam cinema lacks exposure to breezy, realistic and honest stories.