00:00:19:10 - 00:00:41:01 Speaker 1 Welcome to Frame Forward. In today's episode, we're speaking with Ranjit Mullakady. He is the founder of Central Alberta Film Festival, and he's going to share with us a little bit about what does the future of film festivals look like? What kind of technology are we going to be filming movies on in the near future? And also talking a little bit about Bollywood. 00:00:41:17 - 00:01:18:14 Speaker 1 So take a journey with us as we go from the frame we're on and move one frame forward Today, I'm with Ranjit Mullakady, who runs the Central Alberta Film Festival and is a filmmaker here in Red Deer as well. So, Ranjit, tell me a little bit about Central Alberta Film Festival and how you got that started. 00:01:19:18 - 00:01:51:16 Speaker 2 Well, I came from Bollywood and when I came here 25 years ago, there's no filmmaking and small place like that here. So I've been cruising around looking for a filmmaker to put it together, but I couldn't find any. So I decided to create a central Alberta film festival, which is people can talk about film. These days. Films are made in so many ways. 00:01:52:22 - 00:02:20:05 Speaker 2 In the past, they used to use film, and today's world we are using a digital world. It's so much different than the film. Film, you have one shot and digitally you can erase, take two erase. I think the film festival started in this world. There is a specific market for the film which is have a certain people can do it. 00:02:20:14 - 00:02:49:20 Speaker 2 It's like Hollywood, Bollywood. They have a certain company. They are occupied as their own entity. But how about the other small people who want to make film that they're going to showcase? They didn't have a platform So in the world of creativity, turned into a film festival so everybody can show their films. Everybody can enjoy their own work on a bigger scale, like Hollywood movies. 00:02:51:02 - 00:02:51:17 Speaker 2 That's my thought. 00:02:52:06 - 00:03:18:06 Speaker 1 Cool. So you've been able to help filmmakers to showcase their films on a bigger screen, which is awesome. I know a few of mine have showcased it at CAFF, so that's really cool and I appreciate that. And I've seen other local filmmakers. I've also seen films from all over the world. So Central Alberta Film Festival actually does take in international productions sometimes. 00:03:19:15 - 00:03:24:00 Speaker 1 How how do people get their films into a film festival like yours? 00:03:24:06 - 00:03:59:04 Speaker 2 Film festivals have a platform called Film Freeway. So Film Freeway is a massive platform. Anybody can submit that film then. So we have a judges select and the good movies go on bigger screen when I made one movie, and I send it to film festival. When I saw my own movie on a bigger screen, like like a Hollywood style movie on that same theater and my films running my heart gone. 00:04:00:22 - 00:04:25:04 Speaker 2 Wow wow. So that's kind of that's kind of a happiness fun I'm looking for. And the other filmmakers, other filmmakers have that same desire I wish my family, my film will be on the screen so I can watch, mostly because bigger screen than the TV. 00:04:25:23 - 00:04:27:13 Speaker 1 Mm hmm. Cool. Thank you. 00:04:30:01 - 00:04:36:17 Speaker 1 Now, there are how many film festivals do you think there are in the world right now? 00:04:37:09 - 00:04:44:14 Speaker 2 Well, according to my calculation, per city have one film festival. 00:04:46:10 - 00:04:55:17 Speaker 1 So if every city has a movie festival there's a lot of cities. Probably thousand or more. 20. 30,000? I don't know. There's a lot of film festivals. 00:04:55:17 - 00:05:22:06 Speaker 2 A lot of festivals. So of. In terms of Alberta. Mm hmm. Think about it. How about I have a small city and, say, one province, Calgary, have Edmonton, have Okotoks, you name it. Every single small city you have a film festival. Is are they successful? Yes, they're because A small city. Have ambitious people who want to create their own film on a bigger screen. 00:05:22:12 - 00:05:28:23 Speaker 2 Mm hmm. So they make them film and submit a film festival and join them to watch it on a bigger screen. 00:05:30:19 - 00:05:52:04 Speaker 1 Cool. So looking at film festivals around the province or around the world, what are some things that that you're looking at in the past, the present? What's the future of film festivals? Are we are they going to continue to be the same as they are or what are some changes that you're seeing in film festivals. 00:05:53:04 - 00:06:27:00 Speaker 2 Film festivals, in terms of changes that have been happened since pandemic I believe some people want to do online and some would like to do it on a bigger scale. And my personal opinion if I'm a filmmaker, I would like to see it on a bigger scale rather than computer. And today's world, most of them are wanting to see their film in the conventional Film Festival on a small screen. 00:06:27:18 - 00:06:35:06 Speaker 2 But that's my personal choice. I would like to see my biggest film on a bigger screen 00:06:35:16 - 00:06:58:12 Speaker 1 Makes sense. So you think as much as you love the big screen, a lot of festivals are catering more to that small screen so that people can watch from all over the world? Right. So if I'm here in Canada and I submit a film to a festival in India, it's I'm probably not flying there to go and represent my film unless it's like a very high budget thing. 00:06:59:16 - 00:07:07:16 Speaker 1 So I can see my film at the festival. But online, that's a that's an interesting thing. As we get more connected. 00:07:09:07 - 00:07:38:00 Speaker 2 So there's another financial way you can tell. You can consider that if I wanted to wanted to watch a movie in a bigger banner or bigger any bigger film festival, I can stay home and watch with all my family rather than spending on air ticket and go sit in one chair to watch the movie. It's a one person. 00:07:38:00 - 00:07:48:20 Speaker 2 Get so much expensive to go and go to the other side of the world and watch movies. I'd rather sit home and watch with my family under a bigger banner. 00:07:50:11 - 00:08:12:19 Speaker 1 That makes sense. Looking at film festivals from an international perspective, right? So if I have a film that I've made here in Canada, again, let's say India, I'm sending a film there. What sort of differences do you think we might see at a film festival or a film market or different places around the world? 00:08:12:20 - 00:08:53:17 Speaker 2 Every city have a different demographic so they're looking for film. What that audience like, if your movie is built in a way international, people are going to like it, so everybody would accept your film. If it's not, then you have it. Certain cities gonna accept. If I happen to submit to ten film in ten different countries, I probably got like, maybe five and five will reject it. So that always happen in the film. film 00:08:53:17 - 00:09:08:16 Speaker 2 And the film market is so, so it's a fine line between the audience and the film. If people like it you're going to get super hit, if they don't like it, you're going to hit the floor. 00:09:12:23 - 00:09:24:22 Speaker 1 Let's talk a little bit about Bollywood. So that's where you began to get excited about film. Tell me about your your your experiences with Bollywood. 00:09:25:12 - 00:09:58:04 Speaker 2 My journey with the Bollywood was when I was 21 so three shift, I work three shift and 2 hours sleep. Get up and go again. Wow. So in Bollywood, I believe when I was growing up and done in a year, one movie these days. Three months. Yeah. Three to four month. They are so talented, they can do one hour job in 15, 20 minute. Bollywood 00:09:58:04 - 00:10:07:17 Speaker 2 Take a lot of people. Mm hmm. And one said you probably have 60 or 70 people working on one project. So everything goes so fast. 00:10:08:06 - 00:10:08:13 Speaker 1 Right. 00:10:09:06 - 00:10:23:01 Speaker 2 Mm hmm. Editor Color correction. Everything done in the theater release day is already on the platform. That means that marketing is huge. Marketing. The video marketing is unbelievable. 00:10:23:14 - 00:10:32:03 Speaker 1 Tell me some of the differences. What you see with Bollywood marketing versus what, I guess North American film marketing looks and Bollywood. 00:10:32:03 - 00:11:01:01 Speaker 2 I don't know, because I left in India for 23 years So the way they marketing, they hit every single democraphic from kids from adult to the kids. They just blast every single radio station. A poster on the street. They have a poster. Every single car, every single bus, every single moving vehicle. They have billboard. And their billboards are huge billboard. 00:11:01:01 - 00:11:29:17 Speaker 2 It's bigger than a building. OK. They wrap that commercial is wrapped around buildings. Wow, yeah. I didn't see one single bit in Canada, and that's a different between India and Canada. It's they have a specific role. City permits. Mm hmm. Well, how one city allowed to do and how long they're allowed to do. And in India, no problem. 00:11:31:18 - 00:12:00:19 Speaker 2 It's biggest. You can see is like maybe a seven storey building that that big of a banner. They put it up. Wow. Yeah. Cool. So there are some streets in Bombay. It's. Sorry, Mumbai. When I when I was growing up, that was called Bombay. Now it's Mumbai. So that's every single city, every single street. Have a poster. Hmm. 00:12:01:01 - 00:12:15:18 Speaker 2 You go to a restaurant that's a poster that in the new film is coming. So if a producer produced a film for $1,000,000,000 and they cover it in a week or two. 00:12:16:21 - 00:12:17:06 Speaker 1 Wow. 00:12:17:13 - 00:12:27:17 Speaker 2 Yeah. Because they released all across India in one time. Yeah. And they called money within within the first week or second. 00:12:28:15 - 00:12:44:04 Speaker 1 So last time you were back in India, what did you see that was different from when you were 21 years old versus what you saw? Did you still are the the advertisements you're seeing big ads. Are those still the same? Has it gotten bigger? Has it changed? 00:12:44:09 - 00:13:12:17 Speaker 2 Good question. Back in the day, they have a posters take a camera and a poster and stick them on the wall and stick them on the banner. Now they have a huge electronic board. Every single place have electronic press, a button all changes, super electronic and all the devices they market, every single devices is generated in India, TV, cell phone, you name it. 00:13:13:05 - 00:13:13:10 Speaker 1 Yeah. 00:13:14:04 - 00:13:15:14 Speaker 2 Every single kid's going to get. 00:13:16:13 - 00:13:32:03 Speaker 1 So looking at all films are promoted in India versus here. So you're seeing bigger promotions, bigger marketing. Do you think that there's room for that type of marketing here in Canada or in North America? 00:13:33:07 - 00:13:59:12 Speaker 2 Well, there are there are some platforms, but it's you have a limited. Because of the city. Yeah. And also, these days, devices get all the promotion. You don't see I don't see any poster or film poster on the street. Right. I don't see any film poster in the banner of building. Everything is on a device. TV electronically. That's what I would say. 00:13:59:19 - 00:14:20:04 Speaker 2 Electronic commercials, banners, everything electronic. But here, when trailer comes out, every single devices have. Mm hmm. But think about the people don't have a cellphone, how they get to know. 00:14:20:22 - 00:14:40:22 Speaker 1 Right. What would you say would be a great way to overcome that gap, to make sure that people are seeing the promotions for movies that are coming out? Or should they? I guess that's another question is what do you think the future is of promotion of of movies? How are we going to find out what movies are playing? 00:14:41:15 - 00:15:03:01 Speaker 2 Well these days? In the back in the day, I have old phone means. I have five years of one and two days for three months old is old phone. So every every month there's a new technology comes before even bring things that technology is very far ahead of yet. 00:15:03:09 - 00:15:13:18 Speaker 1 Right. Are there any technologies that you can think of right now that you think are going to be coming, whether it's soon or years from now? 00:15:15:14 - 00:15:32:05 Speaker 2 I know in the future, probably you don't have to sit anywhere. You don't have a restaurant all the food comes. It comes to your door. You don't have to cook. Mm hmm. You don't have to make a film with that. Think about it. Your film is done. 00:15:33:07 - 00:15:40:10 Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. Yeah, that could be a thing. Yeah, for sure. Right. As soon as we start to tap into people's brains. Yeah. Your imagination creator. 00:15:40:15 - 00:15:49:17 Speaker 2 Yeah. So if you have a chip in your brain, you think about it. Hey, I want to do that film in this way, and it will create on the screen immediately. Hmm. 00:15:50:21 - 00:15:55:02 Speaker 1 I can see that. Yeah. We'll have to talk to Elon Musk about something like that. eh. 00:15:56:10 - 00:16:00:05 Speaker 2 Want to edit? done press play. 00:16:00:09 - 00:16:34:15 Speaker 1 Yeah. Cool. Cool. Yeah, I think you could be right What? So we've talked a little bit about on this series. We talked a bit about virtual reality as the next That's where film is kind of starting to go or content creation is starting to go. What do you think about other things like that? Like virtual reality, or are you going to be watching a movie in a virtual. Is Central Alberta Film Festival, going to be in a put on goggles and go to the festival? 00:16:34:16 - 00:17:02:06 Speaker 2 Yeah. So and in my opinion, the virtual reality is it's kind of making a couch potato. Mm hmm. Yeah. So you can you can watch either either sit at home and connected to connected to this movie and sit at home and lay down and watch movie or you have to interact with the human. The future is coming that nobody is going to get up. 00:17:04:06 - 00:17:38:23 Speaker 2 People are going to sit there and sit on the couch and watch a movie There wouldn't be a theater since television stars, I don't know. I mean, seventies and sixties, there was a theater every single corner since TV starts, there is no theater. The theater sales went down to 99%. Now most of that theater shut down. Then they created a then they created a live, live shows. 00:17:40:05 - 00:18:00:20 Speaker 2 Even people like Move On to TV because of the live show If somebody wants to watch hockey, they don't have to go to the stadium. They can watch at home. Right. Even better quality Back in the day, you had to go to the stadium and watch the show. Hmm. That's the difference. 00:18:02:23 - 00:18:32:18 Speaker 1 So. So, yeah. So you're seeing more and more moving towards watching movies in our homes. Smaller screens yes. Whether it's a TV or cell phone or virtual reality, it's we're bringing it smaller and smaller. What do you think that's going to do? To the types of movies that we make? I'm thinking right now when I go to the theater, I'm not going to the theater to watch a romantic comedy or a drama. 00:18:32:18 - 00:18:52:21 Speaker 1 I'm more likely to go for the big blockbuster things with the effects and the superheroes blasting buildings apart because it looks and sounds cool on a big screen. That doesn't look as cool on a little screen. Do you think what do you think is going to happen as we get to smaller and smaller screens? Are we going to see less of that or are we still going to see those big things? 00:18:53:11 - 00:19:22:10 Speaker 2 See theater not going to die? That for sure. Theater experience. You're not going to get the same experience in the virtual reality. You might get extra extra entertainment, which you can't get in theater, but you might get in the virtual reality but theatre experience a totally different experience. Got it. Got to go and watch in a bigger screen to enjoy the real movie. 00:19:22:12 - 00:19:33:23 Speaker 2 Virtual reality. It's OK. in a certain period, I don't know you. Probably some people are going to get bored. They're going to hurt eyes. I don't know what that is going to do to human. 00:19:35:04 - 00:19:40:20 Speaker 1 I don't know. And I don't know if that how much research has been done on virtual reality of putting a screen right there. 00:19:40:23 - 00:19:41:21 Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, I. 00:19:42:05 - 00:19:47:19 Speaker 1 I remember when I was a kid, it was don't sit too close to the TV yeah. So now I put it right there. 00:19:48:00 - 00:20:18:10 Speaker 2 See, my most, most worried about virtual reality is that then people started walking on the street and watching movies, and somebody's going to get hit. Maybe an accident, a jump of a cliff and jump a hole. I was worried about that. As long as they created that attached to the wall, people would move if they if the virtual reality made wireless then would be a big accident. then that would be over and beyond, like what you can do to a human. 00:20:20:11 - 00:20:45:18 Speaker 1 So at festivals, what you're seeing is maybe more going towards online probably. How does that affect the type of content that filmmakers should be making? Should they be creating content that fits smaller screens better? Is that what we especially independent filmmakers, should we be creating more of those things that suit a smaller screen? Does that change our framing? 00:20:45:18 - 00:20:49:19 Speaker 1 Like what happens as we move towards these smaller screen productions? 00:20:49:23 - 00:21:15:19 Speaker 2 Yeah, if the production wanted a smaller scale, which is cheaper and best, you can shoot film in a cell phone, which you can fit on a smaller scale, you're not looking at that small pixel to be a huge, big blockbuster cinema theater because that going to distorted image but you're watching in a three by five screen, you don't have to shoot in 6K. 00:21:16:05 - 00:21:26:15 Speaker 2 Right. Yeah. You don't have to shootin 2k, 1080, even 720 would work because you're watching right there. right to the eyeball. 00:21:26:21 - 00:21:52:18 Speaker 1 Right Speaking of cell phones, so Central Allberta Film Festival has been doing cell phone or smartphone filmmaking challenges the last couple of years. And I'm seeing that with other festivals as well where they they may have done a 48 hour film challenge and it was making whatever with whatever cameras and now more and more going to that smartphone challenge. 00:21:53:04 - 00:21:56:20 Speaker 1 Why do you think that is and do you think that that's going to keep going in the future? 00:21:58:05 - 00:22:37:00 Speaker 2 Well, cell phone being created in a way. People have lots of fun with it and also capture every single footage you can find in a high res quality. The biggest expensive camera quality and the cell phone quality is it's pretty much pretty much close, but it's not there yet because expensive camera is has something to do with the pixel cell phone is just too just to see the variety of content any of way. 00:22:37:03 - 00:22:42:16 Speaker 2 You don't have to do editing. No color correction. Just take it with you and watch. 00:22:43:01 - 00:23:10:07 Speaker 1 Right. So now we're seeing more and more where the technology to make movies is getting cheaper and cheaper. Right. It used to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a camera, and now we're getting really high quality cameras for hundreds of dollars. Thousands of dollars maybe. Is this going to change? How many filmmakers are we going to have just everybody with, you know, picking up cameras and taking videos and we're using cell phones. 00:23:10:16 - 00:23:22:04 Speaker 1 What are you seeing with your festival as far as people submitting things? Does it look like it's more and more lower quality? Or is the quality still there with these newer technologies? 00:23:23:06 - 00:24:11:08 Speaker 2 Quality is there, but they are using a different equipment, different quality, but only technical people can understand what is the difference between cell phone and film and a real camera film. in the future is. I think most of the people who start filming on on cell phone. Yeah, because five years ago I went to India and I want to shoot a small movie and they said, this is 7D canon, 7D and they said the bigger blockbuster star will film in that movie if that camera really did. 00:24:11:10 - 00:24:11:17 Speaker 2 Yeah. 00:24:12:07 - 00:24:12:20 Speaker 1 Oh wow. 00:24:12:21 - 00:24:19:01 Speaker 2 70D and 60D. They film on a 60D with the blockbuster superstar. 00:24:19:08 - 00:24:19:16 Speaker 1 Yeah. 00:24:20:02 - 00:24:29:07 Speaker 2 Interviews and the film and some of what you see what happened during the film. Some shots are missed. 00:24:29:14 - 00:24:29:21 Speaker 1 Mm hmm. 00:24:30:05 - 00:24:42:02 Speaker 2 So they are not going to spend $100,000 to shoot that film, right? Just go and take a DSLR and shoot that small scene in a small camera. Put them in there. If a few second shot. 00:24:42:10 - 00:24:42:19 Speaker 1 Yeah. 00:24:43:02 - 00:24:53:13 Speaker 2 So I seen it I seen in one of my buddies doing it, and he was a cameraman and he did awesome job with 60D. 00:24:53:21 - 00:25:12:05 Speaker 1 Right? Yeah, that's, that's really cool. So more and more we're seeing professional grade films that are made on cameras that are not really considered like the top, top, top, you know, tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now we're looking at cameras that you can get for 1500. 00:25:12:06 - 00:25:12:16 Speaker 2 Bucks. 00:25:13:00 - 00:25:25:15 Speaker 1 Being used to make a feature feature films or things like that. That's really cool. Mm hmm. Tell me a little more about Bollywood for VFX. 00:25:25:22 - 00:26:01:18 Speaker 2 Most of the film are edited. Hollywood movies are edited in India, OK, VFX done in India, and they figured out why they cannot do it for their own film because because of low budget. Right. Even though billions of dollars of low budget in in Hollywood, in Hollywood and Canada, they if they make movie, they half of the movies edited in India and color correction in India, which is called Bangalore. 00:26:02:06 - 00:26:02:16 Speaker 1 Right? 00:26:02:21 - 00:26:17:04 Speaker 2 Yeah. They they have a special whole, one story building and it's full of editing suite that there are like 50 or 60 people working there just for editing for VFX. 00:26:18:03 - 00:26:20:08 Speaker 1 So as labor costs just a lot and. 00:26:20:08 - 00:26:20:22 Speaker 2 Labor costs. 00:26:20:22 - 00:26:26:08 Speaker 1 Lower than that but still high quality capability. 00:26:26:17 - 00:26:33:06 Speaker 2 Frozen. Frozen VFX is done and most of the scenes in India. 00:26:33:16 - 00:26:34:03 Speaker 1 Really. 00:26:34:05 - 00:26:57:17 Speaker 2 Tangled. yeah. Yeah because I have friends in Bangalore who, who do these things, but they're very expensive compared to me. But if I, if I go to India and do it for do the same stuff over there, it will be cheaper for me. Wow. But being a Canadian, if I go back to India and make a film, they are expecting more from me of course. 00:26:57:17 - 00:27:25:13 Speaker 1 Right I'm bringing in outside money. It looks like an international production looks like. Oh, you know. Yeah. And same thing here in Alberta. We look at Calgary is really heating up as far as film production and what are we trying to grab? We want that American film crew to come on, come on, use our spaces because we do definitely see the the higher budget things. 00:27:25:13 - 00:27:28:08 Speaker 1 So that's what we see when we see international production. 00:27:28:11 - 00:27:29:12 Speaker 2 That's bring money. 00:27:29:12 - 00:27:30:06 Speaker 1 Into the economy. 00:27:30:06 - 00:27:53:00 Speaker 2 So yeah, I see. Because of pandemic, I lost one one production from India, supposed to come and do film just after the pandemic starts. They're supposed to come and do in Banff and I was supposed to be line producer and they got canceled and the whole movie went sideways. 00:27:53:16 - 00:28:35:03 Speaker 1 Yeah. A lot of yeah, a lot of films kind of went sideways during the pandemic. And now we're picking back up again at full steam again. But thinking about international co-productions, things like that, your when we talk about somebody going to India to do some part of the filming or a part of the VFX or post-production, or somebody coming from another country from the United States to come to Canada, are you are you seeing more do you think there's more and more international co-productions, or are we going to start to kind of get smaller again as we go back to those smaller scale movies for the smaller screen? 00:28:35:03 - 00:28:36:16 Speaker 1 Or is it going to be international? 00:28:37:16 - 00:29:15:19 Speaker 2 Yeah, I believe so. If it will still be in a film in a bigger camera. Uh, but internationally they still want to do an international business transaction. Still people are going to go here and there because people have a different vision than the smaller, small device. If they are real producer director, they want they don't want to do it on a cell phone because it doesn't look like even there's a camera all the artists, all the side actors and all the actors need to know a real performance. 00:29:16:04 - 00:29:36:14 Speaker 2 They want to do a real performance. If you have cell phones there's cell phone focus. Actually, you don't narrative all that stuff. I know you don't put them on a stage and have 100 people dancing. Do you have that do you think that cell phone going to motivate them? No no. 00:29:37:11 - 00:29:42:23 Speaker 1 Put a big camera, a big lens there. It looks cool. Exactly. 00:29:43:00 - 00:29:49:12 Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah. And more lighting. Some give give motivation and motivation. And also they perform well. 00:29:49:20 - 00:29:50:04 Speaker 1 Right? 00:29:51:16 - 00:30:07:01 Speaker 2 Every single actor have a different way of performing. But if I had a cell phone sitting there and somebody is watching is it's a cell phone ah whatever, and they have a big lights and a big camera, a big production, I'll go and check it out. 00:30:07:21 - 00:30:22:10 Speaker 1 Yeah, so I'm just going to ask, do you have anything else that you'd like to share either about film festivals or marketing films or Bollywood and international kind of the different topics we've talked about. Anything that you want to share? 00:30:23:09 - 00:30:47:19 Speaker 2 Yeah, I would like to share what happening in Red Deer. Yeah, Red Deer is a niche market, hundred thousand people living and 100,000 talent. You think about each person, each person come out with that talent. This city will grow faster than India. Any other city we have a talent, but we don't have a source. If we have a source, we have a talent. 00:30:48:13 - 00:30:56:13 Speaker 1 So by source, you're meeting a like a project or a thing that pulls everybody together to bring their talent out so they can put their talent into something. 00:30:56:13 - 00:31:00:16 Speaker 2 yeah something and make a bigger, bigger explosion in Red Deer. 00:31:01:01 - 00:31:26:21 Speaker 1 Yeah, that'll be really cool. Thank you, Ranjit It's been a great interview. And if anybody has any questions about any of the topics we've talked about today, please feel free to find us on Facebook or any other social media that we may be on and ask any questions and we'll try and get some some answers if you want to make contact with Ranjit. 00:31:27:16 - 00:31:30:15 Speaker 1 Ranjit, is there anywhere that people could find you online? 00:31:31:06 - 00:31:41:17 Speaker 2 Yeah, you can find me at a centralalbertafilmfestival.ca Perfect. You can find me or it can email me and at ranjit@cafilmfestival.ca 00:31:42:01 - 00:31:43:19 Speaker 1 That's perfect. 00:31:43:21 - 00:31:45:13 Speaker 2 Thank you, Jason. Thanks for having me. 00:31:45:17 - 00:31:47:22 Speaker 1 Yeah, thank you. Thank you. It was a great interview. 00:31:53:11 - 00:32:18:04 Speaker 1 Looking over the interview with Ranjit Mullakady, I one thing that I noticed very much is that we really, really touched on marketing in a heavy way, right. From the idea that cameras are part of what gets us excited about films. The bigger camera gets the actor excited to really be in their role because they know that there's a big camera on them. 00:32:19:15 - 00:32:51:00 Speaker 1 But these smaller, cheaper cameras are allowing more and more people to get into film making so that they can get excited about creating new projects and that when it comes to huge productions, they're still able to do the big things, put a big poster on the side of a building, billboards, ads, all over social media. And for the smaller film maker, we're looking at marketing that is going to be more grassroots. 00:32:51:06 - 00:33:30:03 Speaker 1 It's going to be just the way we've seen with things like Indiegogo or Seed and Spark, where we create a campaign and maybe we give away some t shirts and we give away copies of the movie to people who fund a certain amount we're going to see more and more of that as we move into the web3 Crypto NFT Space As filmmakers create NFTs that will capture some of the magic of that film and be able to share that with their community and build community around that so that by the time the film is even in production, there is a large community of people excited about it. 00:33:30:12 - 00:33:55:01 Speaker 1 And when it's done production, they are going to be going out and sharing that production with all of their friends and family and getting people excited about it. And I think that that's where independent filmmakers are going to go with their sharing of their productions. And when we look at film festivals, film festivals, the purpose, it varies depending on what your project is. 00:33:55:07 - 00:34:31:01 Speaker 1 If you come in with a high quality feature film, you're going to the big film festivals because you want to sell it to a distributor to be able to get the theatrical releases. If you're looking at short films, you're taking those to festivals to be able to gather attention for your projects, to your quality of work, hoping to be able to elevate your career and the careers of those people involved with your short film and often when we look at the smaller festivals, there isn't distribution there. 00:34:31:08 - 00:35:08:00 Speaker 1 The smaller festivals don't have distributors out there trying to buy films to sell. They don't have a film market where people are going to be going around and, and picking things to to buy or market or whatever those aren't really a piece of those smaller festivals. The smaller festivals, it is more about networking. It's about getting to know other people, building those relationships with other filmmakers and with actors and the arts community in that area. 00:35:08:18 - 00:35:38:12 Speaker 1 And surrounding regions. And so that's a really cool thing. I know myself at smaller festivals or film festivals like Central Alberta Film Festival. The best thing that I get out of that is meeting people, getting to sit down at a table with a filmmaker from Edmonton and being able to chat about some project ideas and just banter ideas back and forth and potentially even build a relationship that could turn into a co-production at some point. 00:35:39:20 - 00:35:59:21 Speaker 1 I think that the world will continue to want those types of festivals. Many filmmakers will continue to want to meet in person at those festivals to be able to share their work, see it on the big screen, like Ranjit said, and to be able to say, Wow, you know, like this, this, this is what worked, this is what didn't. 00:35:59:21 - 00:36:25:04 Speaker 1 When you can see it on the big screen, be able to discuss ideas. How did the film go? Have somebody come to you and say, Hey, I liked how this scene went or ask questions. I was confused about this part and be able to help improve our skills and build our quality towards the next project. And there's also a new move towards online. 00:36:25:07 - 00:36:53:16 Speaker 1 Now, of course, coming out of a pandemic a lot of festivals began to do online festivals temporarily. Some of those are switching back to live. Some of those are continuing, but with a live and an online portion. And I think that that will continue and that will help for people to be able to see the films and enjoy the films without having to spend the money to travel. 00:36:54:13 - 00:37:20:03 Speaker 1 I think there's a huge interest still in traveling to go to those festivals, though, because of the networking aspect, and especially if you have a film to sell, you're going to want to be there in person to be able to sell at those larger festivals and at the smaller festivals to network, because it's kind of hard to network online unless it's in a virtual virtual reality festival. 00:37:21:06 - 00:38:08:03 Speaker 1 I know that granting wishes cinema, which is on crypto voxels, it is a virtual reality cinema. They hosted their first film3 web3 film festival on on their thing in spring of 2022, and that was really cool, you know, purchasing tickets with cryptocurrency and being able to have a meeting up on the rooftop of of this theater and you know look at some previews up on the rooftop and then to go into the actual screening room and be able to watch the movies in there with it were kind of a cool experience. 00:38:09:06 - 00:38:53:14 Speaker 1 And so I think we are going to see more of that. I don't know that that's going to be taking over anytime soon. It's, it's at this point it's still much more authentic to sit in front of a screen at a live festival. But I think there is potential I think we might be headed that direction. And with people being able to when they are helping to fundraise for a project like that, for a film online, and then be able to go to a virtual festival and be able to get a free ticket because they helped with fundraising and things like that, I think there's more possibilities for that. 00:38:53:21 - 00:39:24:23 Speaker 1 With that online model that I think is coming on. But there will always be always be room for the regional festivals so that we can get together over a real pint of beer and talk about the movie that we just made and the movies that we just saw on the screen and be able to share war stories from making the films and be able to build new networks and connections. 00:39:25:04 - 00:39:52:17 Speaker 1 And that is the final frame. If you want to find out more about Central Alberta film festivals, take a look at cafilmfestival.ca. And if you want to find out more about anything else you've heard on this program or to see other episodes check out our Frame Forward website as well. Thank you very much and I'll see you next time as we move on frame forward into the future.