Category: India

Post-production technology in Bollywood

The Indian Express has a great article on the use of technology in post-production of movies in Bollywood. Although all of this material is familiar, I was unaware of how extensively this is used in Bollywood, and also some of the details are very interesting.

For example:

Is not only the fact that producers and directors want their films to be processed in digital labs after the shooting is done. Film makers are even going to production houses with the rough sketch of the storyline and using the latest technologies extensively to visualise their movies before the first shot is called. Post-production houses have even started moving to the role of pre-production by providing facilities such as pre-visualisation, character designs, story boarding and layouts. This helps director do his homework before going for the actual shoot.

Before and after: an animated van is rendered by PrimeFocus for a commercial. The image on the left is a sketch. The one on the right is the rendering of the same.

Read the full article. It is quite interesting.

Annual H-1B visa cap met in one day

CNET News is reporting this:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said Tuesday that it had received 150,000 applications as of Monday afternoon for the controversial work permits, which allow foreigners with a bachelor’s degree in their area of specialty to be employed in the United States for up to six years.

That’s more than enough applications to meet the cap for the visas, which currently stands at 65,000.

This used to take many months in previous years.  Last year it took two months.  And I’ve heard that the cap does not apply to Indians and Chinese, but I am not sure of the accuracy of that information. But in any case, this is an interesting development.