Pro Tip #6 - Portfolio sending

These tips are for all the actors, directors and anyone who attaches their body of work in emails.

When sending out your work, be it images, videos or files think of the person on the receiving end as well as what you are trying to showcase. Sending an email full of attachments may not even go through if the receiver has a limit to attachment size. Not to mention that they then have to download these in order to view them. Remember a lot of people read their emails on their mobiles and most will not have the patience to wait for your entire work to come through.

So how to get noticed and make sure your work gets looks at. Here are some tips you could follow.

1. Send one link with all your work. The link should lead the person to see all your work online, e.g. a website.

2. You don't have a website, you can still use what's free and available.
Like a link to a photo album on Gmail or G-drive, if you have videos, you can have a separate blog with your work or even an Instagram or Facebook page with only your work that needs to be seen.

3. If your an actor or photographer and still want to attach your work, send a comp card.
That way in one image the person gets a quick idea of your work. Don't forget to put the link to the rest of your work on the image.

4. For directors, cinematographers, music composers etc, you may have multiple files to share.
Do not paste multiple links in the body of the email.  Instead send either a short montage or a playlist with individual work.

5. Remember its important to customize your showreel especially if you are sending this for a pitch. You want the showreel to match the pitch, like beauty work to a beauty client or drama work for a storytelling script.

6. A playlist can be easily made on youtube for videos.
You can have different playlists for the variety of work you want to showcase.
Like different playlists for a director could be under the genres - comedy, action, vfx, beauty etc.

7. If you have to send different genres of work do not send more than 2 - 3 links.
If using your website make sure there are separate tabs that can quickly take people to the desired section on your webpage quickly.

7. Link to FTP's or sites like we-transfer where one has to download the files before viewing is a big NO-NO.

8. Use hyper-links ideally or at least make sure your link is clickable and the person does not have to copy & paste in the browser.

Keeping your email neat and short is always the way to get people to glance at your work. If they like it, then further conversation and detailed work can be shared at a later stage.


Check out more professional filmmaking tips here

Don't forget to read

Pro-tip #5 - File Naming

Pro Tip #7 - Up your skills

I am coming back home

Watch it on youtube if possible.

A song that was sung by me many years ago for a commercial but was not used back then. Finally added visuals shot by me over a period of time to it and made send to release it the day I moved back home after being out of the country for close to 5 years

CREDITS:
Music Composer: Rupert
Sound Engineer: Micu
Singer: Auggie

Filmmakers Talk #12 - Creativity Ends

Post your funny comments that you may have come across and it just might make it to the Film-Makers Talk List

Some past Talks:

FT#11 Fix In Post

FT#10 Producer to Client

*This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, quotes, places and incidents mentioned, either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, from the film industry or outside the film industry is entirely coincidental.

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Filmmakers Talk #11 - Fix in Post

Of course you have heard this..

Post your funny comments that you may have come across and it just might make it to the Film-Makers Talk List

Some past Talks:

FT#10 Producer to Client

FT#9 Post Producer to Agency

*This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, quotes, places and incidents mentioned, either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, from the film industry or outside the film industry is entirely coincidental.

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Filmmakers Talk #7 - "This has to be delivered now"

This one is dedicated to all the Agency & Client folk who wake up just before the deadline and go "This has to be delivered now.."

Post your funny comments that you may have come across and it just might make it to the Film-Makers Talk List

Some past Talks:

FT#6 - Brief to casting

FT#5 - Dedicated to clients

*This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, quotes, places and incidents mentioned, either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, from the film industry or outside the film industry is entirely coincidental.

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The story behind GEM Hospital's AD Series

The story behind GEM Hospital - a series of 4 commercials made in very very low budget.

One directors illness is another directors film.

One evening at 5 pm I get a call from a producer asking me what I was doing the next day,
"Free, but why?" I asked,
"Can you direct some AD films tomorrow?" he went on
Shocked for moment then all the questions flowed "What, Tom? Where? How?"

So the director who was to direct these AD's fell ill and the location, actors, DOP etc were all booked and advances paid in some cases would all be lost, so I got lucky. (In a very low budget film thats like all money spent) I asked for the scripts which was promptly emailed across to me and I read them, there was no treatment note or references, or any homework done by the previous director or if done were not shared and by this time it was 6 pm, with all the chat over the phone and the booking of tickets I was off to the Mumbai airport by 7pm for a 8:15 pm flight, still talking to the producer on route,  passing on a few instructions of things that could be done and with questions still flowing I was off to Chennai.

In all the confusion of trying to answer my questions, booking my tickets and making sure that I got to the airport on time the producer missed his flight, he was coming from Bangalore, luckily since the distance is not too much he caught a night bus to reach early in the morning, so much for our plans of meeting late in the night to discuss details. At least I got to meet the DOP and discuss with him the way he was looking at these films, I was still trying to get all the films clearly into my head to see which way I could treat these films the best.

At 6 am I finally met the producer, we had a short discussion where I learnt that the client was a friend of the producer and on his request was ready to invest a tiny sum to make a few commercials. We reached the location which I was having a look at for the first time, followed by the actors, briefed them along with makeup and choose the costumes (which were self owned options carried) Then along with the DOP made a shoot plan and and the rest is there for you to see.

4 commercials all shot in one day with a turnaround for shoot less than 12 hours (at least for me) These are my showreel versions, the client versions ran in theatres and a few cable channels in the south region of India. Do let me know what you think of them.

"Missed Call"

"Treadmill"

"Sweet Tooth"

GEM Hospital Sound Sleep*

*For some reason the last video has some glitches post upload in youtube, tried various exports so click on the link above to see in Vimeo.

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Filmmakers Talk #3 - The Editor

If you have never done "post-production" you would not have heard this...

Post your funny comments that you may have come across and it just might make it to the Film-Makers Talk List

Some past Talks:

FT#2 - Director

FT#1 - Producer

*This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, quotes, places and incidents mentioned, either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, from the film industry or outside the film industry is entirely coincidental.




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My VO - blast from the past

Just came across this after a really long time, had done the cricket commentary for this one. Check it out.

First Flight Courier's - "Cricket"

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Godrej AER - All 6 films

Recently did some work for the launch of Godrej AER. These videos and a few others were made for their sales and marketing launch across India. Inspired from the Mac vs Pc videos each of these were made in such a manner to highlight a feature of the product while comparing it to its rival products. Do let me know what you guys think of the execution.

"Long Lasting"

"Options?"

"Good Choice"

"On & Off"

"Sweet Smelling"

"Leaking?"

CREDITS

Client: Godrej
Product: AER
Director: Auggie Ferns (me)
Production House: DancingElephant PictureCo
Producer:Dipak Kapadia Bhushan Pednekar Rahul Kale
Asst. Directors: Mayank & Gurmandeep
Line Producer: Sunny Shah

DOP: Santosh Tripaathi
Costumes: Chaitrali Dongre
Post House: After Studios
Sound: Chester Misquitta
Agency: Creativeland Asia

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INKPAD (shorter edit) - Cannes (Shortlisted 2 categories +) Won SILVER

This is the 45-sec video entry that went along with the long version of INKPAD  for the Cannes Lions for this year 12. INKPAD has already won Bronze at the Adfest and Goafest this year and has been shortlisted under 3 categories now @Cannes 12.. check out the links below..

Cannes Lions - Direct Lions Shortlist

Cannes Lions- Promo & Activation Lions Shortlist

Cannes Lions - Media Lions Shortlist - Won SILVER................

Cannes Lions Silver Award Link 

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New Version of Now or Never in HD

For those who had not seen it Now or Never was a short film/commercial that was entered for an international contest, the reason given to us for it not winning was it lacked the achievement high that commercials require, we had avoided the comeback initially, but here is a new edit with a comeback and fresh music which has taken the film to another level. Please do watch it on full screen and let me know what you guys think.

CREDITS:-

Produced and Directed by - Amit Chitns & Auggie.

DOP: Kevin Pereira

Music: Melvin Saldanha

Cast (in order of appearance):- 

Croydyn Fernandes, 

Amanda Mendes, 

Swati Srivastava & 

Anurag Chitnis.

Cast (sequence not used is final edit): 

Noel Tauro & Iona D'souza

Special thanks: Irene, Ernest

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Now or Never (Short Film / Commercial)

Its time to get over your everyday fears, its time to break free, take charge, aim higher, conquer fear. 

It's Now or Never.

This film was entered in an online competition where the topic was "Now or Never" and the duration limit was 60 sec. (it included 10 sec of sponsors tags) These competitions are generally self-produced commercials, in this case, the sponsor didn't want a commercial per se but a short film The Brief received as follows

YOU HAVE 60 SECONDS TO MAX IT!

We won't tell you how to MAX IT...you tell us!
Make us laugh, make us think, make us dream...“WOW” us! If it's original, inventive, humorous and thought provoking…you'll get our attention. We’re looking for wild, unexpected and amazing films and the talented individuals behind them!  

After reading the topic and the brief we debated various ideas and finally we rested upon "Man vs Nature and Man vs Machine" as the base idea to the commercial. We did shoot one more sequence which is not included in the final edit. I composed the music myself. Please do leave your comments to what you think of our effort.

CREDITS:-
Produced and Directed by - Amit Chitns & Auggie.
DOP: Kevin Pereira
Music: Auggie
Cast (in order of appearance):- 
Croydyn Fernandes, 
Amanda Mendes, 
Swati Srivastava & 
Anurag Chitnis.
Cast (sequence not used is final edit): 
Noel Tauro & Iona D'souza
Special thanks: Irene, Ernest




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Cannes and Goafest Silver Winner

“I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse”, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) - The Godfather , (1972)

TIDE 

A Visual presentation made for awards to represent print, 
done for Leo Burnett through Pumpkin Pictures and directed by me.


Tide won the SILVER under the category - 'Household products and maintenance' at the Goafest 2010
Check page 3 - 


Goafest 2010 Results

This has now also won a SILVER at the CANNES 2010 for Design for the year 2009Check page 2

Cannes lions 2009 winners_Design_Lions_Winners


In order to help the design, this video was made to send for the nominations..

Mc Donalds

Also directed by me for awards was a film for Mc Donalds
again done for Leo Burnett through Pumpkin Pictures. 

Auggieism:- What would you call Auggie's winning a silver in short. 

Ans:-  Ag winner.

Ag - "Atomic Name for Silver"

atomic number 47. now get the rest....

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My first attempt at direction

"According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway. Because bees don't care what humans think is impossible." - Bee Movie

Check out my first attempt at direction,

These were made for a competition for the London Film Festival, (MOFILM)

I made both of these without spending a penny, got favours from a quite a few people

lack of budget (no money what so ever) did restrict me to a lot of compromises but it was good fun and a great learning experience none the less.

One is called Nokia beach, Other is for AT&T called blink

Do let me know what you guys think of this first attempt.

Auggieism:- What would you say when auggie shoots in smoky conditions

Ans: Smoggy




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