Album: Brian’s Big News

Brian is headed to Mumbai, India   June 20th.  The company will get him his passport and the shots he needs.  This is the same city that Slum Dog Millionare was filmed in (see link below for information and pictures of the city-it is the second largest city in the world with extremely wealthy areas and extremely poor areas)  His job will be to train the native Indians the vfx that he does here.  The goal is to have them working on their own full length features so the company can accept more work from the movie industry (apparently they have to much work in LA).  He is very excited, a little nervous about the language barrier.

This from Aunt Chris:

Wonderful! Liz and I were in Mumbai (they still call it Bombay over there) two years ago (as well as in villages and down on the coast). India is a country that assaults every one of your senses. It’s a country of complete contrasts. The rich are extremely well off, but the masses live in dire poverty – totally visible and haunting as you literally step around parents and children sleeping under makeshift netting along the sidewalks, which are hardly sidewalks. Many Indians deny it, but the cast system is still going on in rural areas. Actually, there is no distinction between sidewalk, tree lawn, curb or street. Every kind of vehicle is on the roads – from trucks to camels to scooters to vegetable carts drawn by donkeys to 3-wheel taxis, and there are no stop signs or traffic lights, only non-stop honking. There are just so many people, there is little sense of personal space. They speak English, though it’s not always easy to understand. If he can get to New Delhi to the Taj Mahal he should, though he’d probably have to fly (it’s a big country!). We were not able to, and I’m sorry I missed it. He will probably be in nice places, but hopefully he’ll get a chance to get out and about some. I though Slum Dog Millionaire nailed it, though many Indians were upset about how it presented them. It’s an absolutely fascinating country — I look forward to hearing about his experiences (hopefully on Facebook while he’s there). Chris

This Note from Brian on June 12:

Hey Dad, thanks for the pic. of keith and I. looks like a frameable one.  i am forwarding all the information i know so far, still havent had the official word about leaving. on the up side, neither has anyone else. friday was a really busy day for the finnancial department, hiring in new roto and paint artists to start on Monday.  i’m guessing that was the jam up.

the team im going with are young and excited to go, I like them and they like me, although we know very little about each other than being categorized as “hardworkers”.  i feel like were going to have a great experience together.  talking with one of the more enthusiastics team members last night i was able to recover a little more information about what we are doing exactly. from the sounds of it we are starting from scratch to train these people to a professional level in a matter of 3 months… He told me about previous artists who had trained there. “They had trouble because the indian trainies would say they understood something (for fear of being fired or yelled at) and really not have grasped a single piece of the tutorial.” However, the previouse trainers are no longer with the company,due to multiple excursions outside of the work area( without giving notice) and complaining about living conditions.which i have to say look pretty nice to me. He told me that it is best to come across as someone who had to once learn this process too and who had to ask alot of questions to get where they are today. basically encourage asking questions, no question is a stupid question kinda thing. the culture shock, i am expecting to be pretty intense. i plan on picking up a couple books on culture as well as language. although it sounds like they have a pretty good grasp on English.  i was thinking about putting together a video tutorial that takes the artist step by step through the basic process, so that even if they are to nervouse to ask a question they can review the tutorial. well, this started out being a message to you Dad but i might as well send it to everyone, I’d appreciate any advice.

the company provided information on living conditions and what to expect in the message below

B p.s i may not have everyones current email Adr. .

Some Photos from Brian’s Facebook:

June 14, 2010
Linda