The Last 3 Minutes

This time, I'd like to delve into the realm of a captivating short film titled "The Last 3 Minutes," directed by the talented Po Chan. My journey into this film commenced a few months ago while perusing short movies on YouTube. Initially, I stumbled upon the behind-the-scenes footage, offering a glimpse into the meticulous crafting of the film. This preview left me intrigued, as the sheer multitude of locations and cast members hinted at an ambitious production that likely demanded substantial resources. An assessment that proved correct, marking it as a high-budget cinematic endeavor, certainly not within the reach of an average individual.

The filmmakers chose to employ the Canon 5D Mark II, a renowned powerhouse among cameras, for their project. In conjunction with this cutting-edge equipment, they harnessed an array of lenses to capture their vision:

EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM

EF 35mm f/1.4L USM

EF 50mm f/1.2L USM

EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM

EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

This judicious selection spanned a diverse range of lenses, a testament to their meticulous approach. Yet, what truly captures the viewer's attention is the film's undeniable allure. Once you begin watching, it becomes virtually impossible to divert your gaze until the climactic conclusion. The filmmakers adeptly integrated distinct color palettes that seamlessly correspond to various temporal and geographical shifts in the narrative. The transitions between scenes are executed with special effects that command attention. Camera angles are deftly orchestrated, ensuring a clear and comprehensive understanding for the audience.

Further observation reveals an intriguing aspect—each shot appears meticulously framed as if seen through human eyes. This technique imparts a uniquely immersive quality, compelling viewers to feel as though they're experiencing the story alongside the main protagonist. The narrative itself revolves around nostalgic memories from the past, an approach that effectively immerses viewers in the same emotional journey as the lead character. The result is an experience that makes one feel not merely an observer, but an integral part of the film's fabric.

The marriage of music and visuals stands as a testament to the filmmakers' prowess. The music seamlessly complements the narrative, evoking a sense of timelessness. This symbiosis avoids any dissonance that might detract from the overall experience.

In summation, "The Last 3 Minutes" stands tall among the cinematic gems I've encountered, leaving an indelible mark on those who engage with it. I hope this discovery brings you as much enjoyment as it has brought me.

My 2nd Mother

As most of you are aware, I hail from the beautiful land of Sri Lanka. A quick perusal of my blog reveals a consistent theme—many of the visuals I've shared are intimately tied to my homeland. It's impossible to discuss my country without acknowledging the pivotal role played by my alma mater, a place that has been instrumental in shaping my journey. Within these lines, I delve into the significance of my college crest.

Named Royal College, my alma mater holds a revered place in the hearts of Sri Lankans. The image above features the official crest of Royal College. A golden hue forms the elegant outline. The centerpiece of the crest portrays an elephant alongside a towering coconut tree. The elephant embodies strength, while the coconut tree pays homage to the endemic nature of our nation's flora. Coconut trees hold immense cultural significance, as every part of the tree finds utility in Sri Lankan daily life. An elliptical shield encases the motto "Disce Aut Discede," circling the edge, signifying "Learn or Depart." This shield is crowned by the word "Floreat," which is adorned with a regal Crown. Laurel wreaths flanking the shield symbolize prosperity.

Originating in 1922, the crest carries a heritage that spans decades. Its distinctive oval shape is harmoniously balanced, facilitating the placement of other elements in a manner that offers viewers a clear and comprehensible visual experience.

With this, I conclude my exploration of the crest's significance. Until we reconvene in my next informative post, I bid you farewell.

Tears of the nature 02

I thought it would be great if I talked about another picture photographed by a previous photographer, Dinesh Vora.

This picture was taken via powerful macro lens. My thoughts are, probably this photographer likes to take these types of macro photos, and I say this because he is really good at it.

The theme of this picture is pink. It is so hard to say whether these rain drops are on the image or not, but I guess it is some kind of flower or maybe part of the flower. The main object in this image is the rain drops, so this tells me that the photographer has worked hard just to focus on the rain drops same as the previous picture of the photographer.

If you look carefully you will be able to see the small objects, which are in focus range. The great thing is, they are all crystal clear! As you can see in the image, there is quite small range focused in the picture. The photographer has probably used small aperture.

When using small aperture, photographers are able to focus on a particular object by making background and foreground out of focus. You can see this from the picture above.

Overall, this image gives a unique look and it is attractive which will catch the viewer’s eyes so easily. This is one of the greatest pictures I have ever seen on the other hand I am looking forward to bringing more pictures made by this photographer.

Tears of the nature

In this post, I would like to talk about a picture which was taken via powerful macro lens. A friend of mine sent me an email yesterday including other pictures like this one. I would like to share with you a few words from that email...

“If you look carefully you can notice these beautiful tears of the nature in leaves and flowers before they fall down the plants or get vaporized in the heat sun-rays. These pretty brilliant macro photos of water drops were taken from plants just after rain.”

They are actually tears of nature tears of happiness. As mentioned in the email a photographer named Dinesh Vora has taken this picture. I tried to find out more about this photographer but I failed to do so.

Firstly, when talking about this picture, it is clear that there are rain drops on a spider web. Others may say that this picture is not real and it has been designed by some graphic software, but the truth is, it is real. As I mentioned before, this picture was taken via powerful macro lens which is quite important when taking photographs, because it is hard to see from our eye.

Secondly, the photographer has done a great job to get the subject (rain drops) clear to the viewers. They are all in focus, not just the raindrops but also the little spider web. Colours of the picture are awesome. It mainly contains the colour brown and a bit of green on the bottom right corner of the image which makes the picture more unique. When you look at the reflection of the rain drops, it simulates the objects around the background, it could maybe be a leaf, well, you might have a different idea.

Diamond Girl

Today, I would like to discuss about a new video song called “Diamond Girl”. The singer, Sun-J Bandara, quite a new singer to Sri Lanka’s music industry, and this is his first song and video as I know it. I guess no one knew about him before, and he suddenly brought this excellent video song to the industry. I think you’ll agree with me that he gave a delicate production to the viewers.

The best thing about this video is that it has a nice story. I am not going to talk about the story, as it is easy to understand just by looking at the video. I pretty much like the song.

Now I would like to discuss the video’s visual side. The video has a nice cinematic effect; you will probably notice this by watching the first few seconds. I believe this entire video has been recorded using a DSLR camera because I see very sharp focusing techniques. Normally, it is not easy to do using a normal HD video camera.

Editor has used some special colour effects in order to get the cinema effect but not just that, there is a scene in the first part of the video where a small conversation happens; this technique has been used to give the viewer a cinematic view. But actually, it is not from a movie.

A few locations are used in this video, but for a video song this is more than enough. The costumes used also give a cinematic look to the video. Combination of the video and song is a perfect match.

Overall, the artist and the director of the video have done a great job working together. I am sure this singer will be successful.

Sigiriya Paintings

Sigiriya (Lion's rock), is an ancient rock fortress in Sri Lanka, surrounded by the remains of an extensive network of gardens, reservoirs, and other structures. It is a popular tourist eye catching place in the world, Sigiriya is also popular for its ancient paintings which are related to the Ajanta paintings in India. Before I talk about the Sigiriya paintings I would like to talk more about the history of Sigiriya.

The entire Sigirya complex was built by King Kashyapa (AD 477 – 495), and after the king's death, it was used as a Buddhist monastery until 14th century. Sigiriya has one of the most important urban planning sites of the first millennium. Now talk about the paintings.

The image above shows just one painting from the Sigiriya paintings. Most of the paintings have covered the western face of the rock, covering an area of 140 meters long and 40 meters high which is quite a big area. Probably the largest picture of wall in the world. There are references in some old books. Archaeologists have found that there were 500 ladies in these paintings. However, there are many more which are lost forever.

According to the Sri Lankan history, those paintings are unique when comparing with other old paintings in Sri Lanka. The line and style of the paintings differ from other paintings. The lines are painted in a form which enhances the sense of voluminous of figures. The paint has been applied in sweeping strokes, using more pressure on one side, giving a deeper effect of colour tone towards the edge.

Other paintings contain similar approaches to paintings, but do not have the sketchy lines of Sigiriya style, having a distinct artist’s boundary line. All paintings are handmade and they are protected well so that they last for a long time. Back then, they had limited amount of colours. But the painter did a great job by shading the colours. The painter has mostly used red, orange and green in order to finish the painting. It is not so easy to finish a painting by just using these three colours.
However, it has proved the painters talent.

Gihan De Silva

Gihan De Silva, a great and well known photographer in both Sri Lanka and USA. He is one of my favourite photographers and most of the time, I follow his techniques. Normally, I like all of the pictures taken by Gihan De Silva, but the picture above is what I like most because it has a special look.

As the main object of the picture the photographer has taken a female model. When we look at this image, our eyes focus on the main object therefore the eye catching object is the model. The whole image is in focus so the photographer probably took this image with small aperture. The balance of the image is fine. The head room has a fair amount of space between the models head and the top corner of the image. The model is looking directly at the camera therefore no need to consider about the looking space. It seems like the photographer has done some editing as well because the colours in the picture are not real but his editing has given a special look to the image.

Both warm and cool colours can be seen in the image but the whole image itself gives a cool colour effect because the model is wearing a black colour dress and as you can see, in the image the main colours are brown, orange and blue. They are all in the calm and cool colour category.

The image could be completely different if the model wore a different colour dress instead of black. Image background is a bit blurred which helps to focus on the model even better, but in terms of details, background is clear. This means viewers can easily identify what’s in the background.

However, Gihan De Silva has proved his talent once again by taking this picture. I look forward to bringing and discussing more of Gihan De Silva’s Photographs in my blog in the future.

Nil Diya Daharin

I wanted to talk about a video through my 3rd post. The title of this video is ''Nil Diya Daharin''. This song has been created to support Sri Lankan cricket team as they are playing for the ICC cricket world cup this year. The singer Nimantha Heshan is a new comer to the Sri Lankan music industry but he has good experiences in music industry. He has finished his degree in India and came back to Sri Lanka as he wanted to use his knowledge to his mother country.

For my third post, I wanted to talk about a video. The name of this video is “Nil Diya Daharin”. This song was created to support the Sri Lankan cricket because they were playing for the ICC world cup this year.

Singer “Nimantha Heshan” is a new arrival to the music industry and he has good experience in the music industry. He has finished his degree in India but went back to Sri Lanka as he wanted to use his knowledge in his own country.

This video is the singer’s first ever music video. The video director has used different locations in order for the video to be successful. I have been to most of the locations so I am familiar with the places therefore I know how it actually looks.

Director of the video has worked well to give a different view and to get those locations looking nice. The whole video has a slow motion effect which makes the video attractive it also helps to show the people’s emotions through their facial expressions.

Speaking of the colour effects, it seems like they have not added any extra colour effects. This means they have used the natural colours of the video as it was taken.

Cameraman has done a great job with fabulous camera angles. The crane that helped for some of the shots for this video has helped the cameraman’s job succeed. The plus point about this video is that, the audio suites the video very well. The video runs accordingly to the audio pattern. It will not disturb the viewer and it will help to keep both eyes and ears to the song until it finishes.

This video has become famous in Sri Lanka as everyone in the video has done their part very well. Been a fan of the singer “Nimantha Heshan” I like this song so much.