TVC: Story of Shubhpreet– iBall
By Malay Desai By: Palasa Creative Place Electronic firm iBall’s new web film tracks the journey of amputee Shubhreetfrom her home Sangroor to the platform of a popular talent show. Shot in documentary style, it features Shubhreet’spreparation for a dance performance, with her voiceover talking about her travails, inspirations and challenges. The camera follows her to her fitness centre, dance centre, home and eventually shows her friends and family cheering for her as she appears on a TV screen. ‘Main apni life mein khushhoon, main kisi ki parwah nahin karti,’ the film ends with her quote, and the copy saying that she’s the first runner-up at the talent show, followed by the tagline ‘iBall supports terrific performance.’ Do we A little over three years ago, our top GECs foundanother waveto go at each others’ primetimes with, that of talent shows. It was also the time when one of the most iconic shows on Indian television, KaunBanegaCrorepati, had re-struck TRP gold by showing contestants’ backgrounds, most of which were ridden with poverty, disability or desperation. The ‘human interest’angle was the new golden goose of the industry. Circa 2014, it’s still on. While KBC continues featuring contestants with ‘blind mother/old father/unwed sister syndrome’, nearly all talent shows harp upon finding stories of human achievement to play up and roll the cameras and tears with. With iBall’s new web film, a clear and risky departure from its glitzy route with HrithikRoshan, the human interestsyndrome has arrived in long-form web films too. iBall’s motive is to show how its tablet was part of this girl’s extraordinary journey and stress on the key words – terrific performance. The film’s been shot and edited with deft hands, directed well by the Bollywood director ShakunBatra (whose recent assignment included SRK in Emami Fair and Handsome) and plays up the story with less melodrama and more sensitivity. But whether we, the viewers see the link between an Android tablet and an extra-ordinary dancer, is the underlying doubt here. I don’t, just as I didn’t see any connection with a laptop brand recently showing a lady taking it out for yoga (really?) or PreetiJhangiani using ‘computers’ to depict ‘21st century girl’ to sell NimaSandal soap. Who takes cumbersome tablets to dance rehearsals? A better fit could’ve been iBall’s Andy brand of phones, though getting an unknown name after KareenaKapoorwould have been an issue. That said, all cynicisms done with, human interest stories have the power to create a strong bond with the viewer – whether they come across through talent shows, KBC or an iBall ad. The indigenous gadget brand will hope this 1.44 minute effort will strike a personal chord; before it unravels more tales of ‘terrific performers.’ Meanwhile, I wonder if we’ll ever see a rich brat with a perfect childhood making it to KBC’s hot-seat. To watch the film feed in ‘bit.ly/ViewTubeSept8’ to your browser. Social Newsfeed Your regular dose on the shifts in the social media universe Malay Desai Instagram’s first standalone app - Hyperlapse First up, if you have been thinking you have it in you to pick a camera and shoot a really edgy film with stylish cuts,Instagram’s new standalone app, its first in fact,Hyperlapse is for you. Unfortunately, you are among millions who think a phone’s fancy feature is going to help you feel like Santosh Sivan (just like many today believe Insta has made them Richard Avedons), but that’s not the point. Hyperlapse is when Instagram’s video meets a high Ram GopalVerma. It allows users to create on-the-go time-lapse videos. To make it work, you just have to shoot a video, select a playback speed, save and share without cumbersome tweaking. The app has a powerful feature in image stabilisation, which means your shoots in local trains or Ganpati processions will still look cool. Hipsters across the world have taken to this new app, and we must give a thumbs-up to Insta’s simplicity. Santosh Sivanlikes this AAP ka Jhadoo’s swipes on social Now about this writer’s favoured political party which every now and then manages to embarrass him. This time though, I have witnessed some flaunt-worthy work by AamAadmi Party on its social media channels. The day when Modisarkar completed 100 days in office, AAP dug out BJP’s ‘we will bring back black money in 100 days’ promise and began going to town with it. The approach was tongue-in-cheek, with the hashtag #BadhaiHo being used by tweeters and on images to fake-congratulate the government in (not) accomplishing its job. Even if the sarcasm may have hit some dumb NaMo trolls, it was worth it. Later, we read an interview with AnkitLal, the IT admin and National Council Member of AAP on Social Samosaand were heartened to know he’s taking all the abuses and trolling on the chin and going ahead with his motive of engagement. Watch out for the party’s channels for a relentlessly critical view of ‘Acche din.’ Mayank Gandhi likes this PritishNandy wants to Netflix India And finally, ending with the small ray of hope that one of our media barons will get us something akin to America’s Netflix. PritishNandy has been reported to have come up with a new service, Ogle, which we read is aspiring to be similar to Netflix and Amazon’s instant video. Ogle will be able to stream high-quality content on multiple devices thanks to compression technology, which would eventually lead to a growing market for all kinds of TV shows, old and new, regional and English for internet users across India. It’s a fairly ambitious plan, and one that he’s not the only one making. By the end of this year, he says, we’ll know of Ogle’s partnership with a mobile network and the subscription plans would roll out from Rs 500 onwards. How MrNandy is prepared to battle that unbeatable little bug called ‘torrent downloads’ is what we want to know. Netflix likes this
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