After graduating from the Academy of Art University in 2013, I immediately plunged myself into making Cold Pressed, my second feature film. Getting Cold Pressed produced took a lot of my energy, time and emotions; from raising the money, forming a crew, locking down the script, casting etc etc. I was basically a 1 man production company. I even named the production company after myself, A Viknesh Island Production. I must add that even though I did have collaborators however due to the low budget nature of the production, I couldn't afford anyone to be committed full time to the development, preproduction and post production phase. Making a movie is one of the toughest creative endeavor one could pursue, there are just too many moving parts and they are usually out of the creator's control.
One of them is the accessibility of sharing information and ideas, unless the production is able to afford a production office for all of the departments to come together under one roof, chances are there's going to be a bunch of emails going back and forth or meeting at random cafes or workspaces, which was the case of Cold Pressed. This could lead to miscommunication, misinterpretation or misunderstanding which very often does and again happened in the making of Cold Pressed.
Fast forward 7 years and 4 tech jobs later, I now find myself at the crossroads. I still consider myself a movie producer as I'm constantly developing story ideas into treatment or scripts, trying to raise funds either through grant applications or private funding. However, living in the Bay Area, you also constantly find yourself overshadowed by the technology industry. And as the saying goes," To survive in the Bay Area you need to be in tech."
I am a true believer in the journey rather than the destination. So why don't I combine my passion which is filmmaking with the experiences I have gained working as a customer success manager in various technology industries the past 4 years?
Independent filmmakers, especially in the development phase, are a very isolated bunch of people. It is during this moment in their journey where they need ideas, support, and guidance from other filmmakers to make sure that they stay true to their vision or some steering of the direction of the vision. With that mission in mind, I decided to plunge myself into the deep unknown world of software development. My software, The Martini, will be a film production platform for independent filmmakers that encourages collaboration within and across departments from any corner of the world as long as they have internet access. #coldpressedthemovie #themartinidotnet
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