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Tu: A Stupendous Specimen of Film-making

By DU Beat May 22, 2019

Here is my review of Tu (you), a short film by Royals Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films starring Sayani Gupta and Arjun Radhakrishnan.

Tu, a short film directed by Rahul Nangia, is a meticulously crafted tale of two ill-fated lovers told in under eight minutes. In its run time, it successfully establishes the relationship and its conflict. The tonality and lighting are dark, their space seems claustrophobic, the blatant intimacy between the two leading characters in the opening shot itself makes you uncomfortable, and ever since the beginning, the audience understands that their relationship is doomed.

The film runs on a single string conversation between the two lovers where the writers have brilliantly woven their love story which unfolds in front of your eyes. Over the course of this conversation, you realise that her name is Supriya, while he is a Murtaza; that their inconspicuous meetings are going on for a long time now; that she is the one who is rebellious (because she arranges the rooms for their meetings); that he is utterly scared of his father and works at his shop; that she is engaged to another person; that he is still economically dependent on his father (his phone is taken away because the bill was INR 3,000) and even though all this is an age-old, monotonous, repetitive conflict you still become completely invested in their story.

Visually, the short film aims at making you aware of the couple’s comfortable relationship. Throughout the film, we only see the two characters totally invested into each other, giving us a closer look at their bond which further fuels our pity for them. In the midst of this, using the narrative of them watching their old video at Mumbai’s Lover’s Point, out in the open, under the blue sky, near the uncontrollable waves of the sea and away from their present situation works wonders for the film. It symbolises the naivety of love, which transforms into a complex cacophony when it transcends the societal demands and rules.

The ending is ambiguous, but anyone can complete the story without any faults because it is a story which has been told a million times, one which we all have heard, read or watched. The last sequence leading up to the end shows the two characters panic-stricken, running around in their limited space, the rebellious girl finding an escape while the scared boy all set to face the reality, with their wobbly voices running in the background. You can hear the tears in their voices and the rawness of their fear. Herein, again, the screen miraculously cuts back to that happy video, making our heart sore for the hopeless lovers. The video has a cinematic zoom-in and out between timelines.

In its short run time, Tu is successful at making you feel things for the poor couple, a feat that many-a-times even 3-hour long Bollywood Romances are unable to achieve. Watch it for its simplicity in storytelling, sincere and honest filmmaking and utterly graceful performances by the lead characters.

Image Credits: Film Companion

Sakshi Arora

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Interviews

In Conversation with Prajakta Koli, A YouTuber Who Remains MostlySane

By Khyati Sanger January 11, 2019

Prajakta Koli, the owner of YouTube Channel MostlySane, spoke with the same fervour to DU Beat like she does in her videos.

Khyati: There is a certain blurring of lines between a fan and a friend to create a loyal community in the type of career you’ve chosen. They might feel entitled to some kind of personal information about your life. How do you feel about that?
Prajakta: Fair question. It depends on where you draw that line and your communication with your followers. If from the very beginning, you go like, “we are friends, family, best friends” and then later you go like, “but this is my personal life” then it’s wrong. But if you have it clear that “listen, I am here for you and you’re there for me,” then you can draw a line. I feel like you have to work on it from the very beginning and make
it clear.
A lot of young people are on the internet and they spend so much time there that they don’t have actual relationships. They have people they go to places with but at the end of the day, they would rather come home and write an email to their favourite YouTuber.They message us saying they had a really bad day, or a breakup. That tells us that the trust and loyal the factor is too hyped. I try to reply to most of them but there are so many emails and its so heartbreaking! I don’t think they reach out to me for a solution, but they only want someone to share it with. Sometimes, they are so lonely because of the amount of time they spend away from people, staring into their phone screens that this becomes their comfort zone.
K: What is your opinion about people blatantly saying that you “copy” a few other YouTubers?
P: Luckily for us, it has come down in the past two years. In the beginning, I completely believed them. I didn’t even realise that I was copying her, but I was. If you watch Superwoman’s (Lilly Singh) videos, they are so infectious! I have spent a whole summer, watching her videos, it had to rub off on me! It took me time to find what my audience liked to watch, and what sort of content I liked creating. Finally, I think I know this is my area, and I can experiment here.
K: Does one always have to club YouTube with other jobs to earn enough to be able to sustain oneself?
P: I don’t think you can do a full-time job and have YouTube on the side. It requires your undivided attention. Full time job karke jaan hi nahi bachegi (You don’t have enough strength left if you’re in a full time job), especially in metro cities.
Weekends pe hum pade rehete hain ki hila nahi ja raha bhaiya bilkul bhi. (On the weekends we just lie around, like, dude I can’t even move!)
It is like a start-up. It takes some time to get the ball rolling. I have been pursuing my YouTube career for almost four years now and I have started making substantial money only this year. I am fortunate that I come from a family where my parents gave me the support to try out YouTube. Otherwise, you fund yourself. You’re your own boss, it’s
a beautiful job. It’s difficult in the beginning. I won’t say it’s not for everybody, but it’s not easy.
K: Do you think the influencer business is credible, considering a seven-year-old is the highest earning YouTube influencer of this year?
P: That is a creator to creator decision. I began with one video a week. Moved to two videos in the second year. For the past year and a half, I have been making three videos. It happened in the reverse order for me. If you know your
quality is getting compromised, you are losing out on momentum. I believe nothing works other than content, yaar! You could have the money to pump in videos and attract more people but if your content isn’t good, it won’t help
you. Before investing in camera, mic, and stuff like that, make your content better. Be consistent. You’ll lose out on the momentum if you go missing after posting a good video. Listen to your audience, they are very honest on YouTube. Give it some time. You don’t become famous with one viral video.
K: What is your opinion about the recent crackdown on fake subscribers that occurred on 13th and 14th December?
P: YouTube did a clean-up. Kaafi logo ko kaafi heart attack aaye. (So many people got heart attacks!) YouTube does this clean up regularly. The dead and inactive accounts are removed. It’s chill for you if you haven’t bought any
numbers. It’s great, it’s healthy for YouTube. Most of us have organic numbers. Inactive accounts are removed so there is always a slight drop that happens, but everyone knows this is going to happen. They weren’t giving you views or engagement anyway. This year, our drop was only 2000-3000 followers, which is hardly anything!
K: Do you think that the influencers must be answerable for the brand they endorse since it is a powerful recommendation for the viewers?
P: That is something we follow. Every brand deal we do, we make sure it comes very organically to the channel. I can’t make any forced integration especially since I am a comedian, I can’t afford to look like a sell-out. I can’t let people think I am talking a certain way since I am being paid to do so. We try to make sure that it fits in with the content. I have a certain kind of responsibility towards a brand. We know that since we have a loyal audience, they
will trust us blindly. It also threatens our credibility, we lose trust so it’s like a two-way street.
K: How was your experience at United Nations (UN) and why do you feel so strongly about cyberbullying? Do you think YouTubers have it worse?
P: UN was amazing. When I got the news, I was like “STOP! Don’t joke!” But it happened! We entered the
headquarters and I had thought that entering the building will be super dramatic, but the most chilling experience was at the hallway, which has the flags of all the countries of the UN. Going there and touching the Indian flag for the first time in my life was something I’ll never forget! I had not touched the flag in 25 years of my existence. Just
being on that podium and speaking and having your name flash on that screen, still gives me goosebumps. I
am so grateful!

I think we have reached a point where everyone has experienced cyber-bullying. YouTubers are more highlighted and thus, more prone to it. Nobody has it any worse. It depends on how you deal with it. Some believe in showing them their place. I personally chose not to react to hate and trolls, because then you end up giving them the
validation that they don’t deserve in the first place. Self-censoring is very important.
Let’s all use the internet wisely for a positive purpose. It’s like the yin and the yang. There is so much darkness, but it is also a platform where people get to speak and be themselves. Let’s use it more for that and be responsible consumers!

Feature Image Credits: Mid-Day

Khyati Sanger
[email protected]

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DUB Speak

How Troye Sivan is Breaking Barriers

By Bhavya Banerjee January 21, 2018

In our society, there is a stigma that surrounds social media influencers. Mainstream media today continues to discredit them for their talents and treat them insignificantly because of the unconventional way they achieve fame. Their success is reduced to an attribute to mere luck. The society always puts them a rank below conventional pop artists and actors. Troye Sivan is one such social media influencer who broke the glass ceiling and successfully transitioned into the music industry as a pop artist.

Troye Sivan has accumulated the type of success that every YouTuber dreams of. He started his journey through his YouTube channel in 2007. His mixture of comedy vlogs and song covers, as well as a few original parody songs, caught the attention of many as he currently has over 4 million subscribers on his main channel and over 2 million on his official music channel with Vevo.

Troye released his first album called “Blue Neighborhood” in the month of December in 2015. It soon became a hit and was noticed by pop icons like Taylor Swift and Lorde. He was even nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards (VMA’s) for his debut album and won the “Best Song of the Year” award at the 2016 ARIA Music Awards.

Despite his tremendous success in music, Troye is also breaking barriers in terms of being an icon and inspiration for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer+ (LGBTQ+) Community. One of the most viewed videos on his YouTube channel is his “Coming Out” video in which he openly declares that he identifies as gay. His Blue Neighborhood trilogy reflects the hardships that are faced by the members of the LGBTQ+ community and he has even helped his fans come out at his concert to their parents.

His success is not only limited to music. Troye Sivan was recently named the face of Valentino’s Men Spring-Summer 2018 collection and has also starred in multiple films like the X-Men series.

His transition from being a social media influencer to the mainstream music industry was certainly not an easy one. However, his work ethic and talent is what outshone the stigma that surrounds social media influencers and helped him have an immensely flourishing debut. He is not active on YouTube anymore and posts very rarely however he interacts with his fans regularly on other social media websites like Twitter and Instagram. He recently released two singles from his upcoming album called “My My My” and “The Good Side” and got the opportunity to perform at Saturday Night Live (SNL) as their musical guest.

Feature Image Credits: Coup De Main Magazine

Bhavya Banerjee

[email protected]

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Fandom

The ‘Baffling Buffering Game’: The new age YouTube Sensations

By DU Beat October 26, 2016

YouTube, has emerged as a game changer that houses some incredibly talented content creators. It does not restrict itself to a specific content and caters to almost all kinds of audiences. Mentioned below are a few of our favourite YouTubers:

Superwoman (Lilly Singh)

YouTube Channels: iisuperwomanii and iisuperwomanii vlogs

“Waddup! It’s your girl Superwoman!”. Often referred to as the Queen of YouTube, she is one of the most hard working person alive! A comedian, she excels but never confines herself to that category. She has recently started the much appreciated #GirlLove campaign which featured Michelle Obama. Some of her most popular videos are – ‘My Parents react to’ videos. She went on a one of a kind world tour and won a Streamy this year for her feature film, ‘A Trip to Unicorn Island’. Lilly’s book, ‘How to be a Bawse’ will hit the book stores in March, 2017.

Lauren - Do It Yourself Specialist — Lauren – Do It Yourself Specialist

LaurDIY (Lauren Riihimaki)

YouTube Channel: LaurDIY

LaurDIY is a fashion blogger and a DIY specialist. She recreates some famous Pinterest ideas and gives easy ways to DIY expensive room decor items and some urban outfitters. She re-started vlogging last week but she had been available in the vlogs of Alex Wassabi, a lovely fellow YouTuber and her boyfriend. Lauren is currently working on her #HALLAURWEEN series for DIY Halloween costumes.

Casey Neistat

YouTube Channel: caseyneistat

Well known for his drone videography, Casey is a YouTube vlogger and filmmaker. From making videos with Karlie Kloss to reviewing the latest gadget to vlogging about his family and friends, he has his 5 million strong subscribers hooked. Founder of social media company-Beme, Casey is one of the richest YouTubers and has won several awards including a Streamy’s (First Person) recently.

Ryan Higa

YouTube Channel : nigahiga

Tee Hee! Member of comedy group YTF, Ryan is one of the funniest guys on YouTube. His ‘Dear Ryan’ series, ‘movie in minutes’ series, ‘how to be’ series and almost all his videos are hilarious. This year he initiated the “Roast Yourself Challenge” with over 9 million views and called out famous YouTubers Jenna Marbles, D-Trix, Pewdiepie and KSI to do the same.

Tati Westbrook

YouTube Channel: GlamLifeGuru

YouTube make-up guru and Hollywood makeup artist, Tati is now a household name amongst makeup enthusiasts. Known for her amazing makeup looks and tips, her product reviews are also the most reliable. Product giveaways aren’t uncommon on her channel.

Tooba Towfiq

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Swareena Gurung

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Uncategorized

The new age advertisements

By Nishita Agarwal January 4, 2016

Advertising, the one word that reminds us of the ads on YouTube that cannot be skipped, the reason why we need to spend more money to buy HD packs, or the reason why we think it’s okay to enter the movies a little. Though, it is true that we may try to avoid advertisements as much as we can, but we see companies and organisations spending lakhs of money and assimilating a perfect workforce that’ll devise such a marketing campaign for their product that their approach gets imprinted in the minds of people. And, in the modern times we see such varied and innovative ways adopted by the companies to achieve this goal. Let’s take a look at few of the examples here:

1.) Remarketing

Have you ever been to an online shopping portal and fiddled through some products without really buying anything (more or less like window shopping) and saw the advertisements of the same products popping up on the right, left, upper or every part of your screen whenever you visit any other website? Yes, that’s called remarketing which lets the shopping websites like Jabong and others to display ads to people who have previously visited their site as they browse anywhere else. This is an example of finding a target audience and customising the marketing strategy as per their interests.

2.) Zomato deciding to advertise on porn sites

It was found that porn is the most searched item at 1 am, a time which is also ideal for ordering late night food. And Zomato, the rapidly growing Indian start up, wasn’t afraid of using the former to market the latter.

Zomato wanted to tap into the already buzzing late night delivery space with an innovative marketing strategy. This is when they decided to cash on the idea of turning to porn sites for advertising as they are fairly busy at night and even the cost of advertising is significantly lower than other platforms. The result was that the campaign generated large number of clicks on the ads and great number of app installations. This sure makes you understand to not pass off any idea as frivolous or funny, without realising its true capacity.

3.) Metros getting colourful with advertisements

We had all seen hoardings in and around metro stations of different mobile phones and insurance policies and what not. We even saw the inside of metros being used to advertise the promises of AAP or the win of BJP but only recently we saw metros covered in advertisements, quite literally. Our grey-silverish metros are turning colourful with huge advertisements of different products enveloping them. This is an example of companies making use of the huge foot-fall that is seen in the metros of our country to make the people aware of their products.

4.) Companies taking up social messages to connect with the people

What is the easiest way to leave an impression on people or to make them remember what you have to say? It is when you become their voice and start taking up social issues which need to be talked about and tackled. This is what is done by various brands that have used their resources and market value to bring to light various issues or do away with taboos prevalent in the society. Some of the examples could be the “Touch the pickle jar” campaign by Whisper which worked on eradicating taboos regarding menstruation and encouraging women to continue doing everyday activities. Also, series of advertisements by Myntra’s exclusive ethnic wear brand ANOUK are making round these days which highlight the discrimination a woman faces in the workplace just because of her sex, features a lesbian couple shedding light on LGBT rights and talks about being a single mother.

[youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=anouk” width=”500″ height=”300″]

5.) Unconventional casting

Gone are the days when one witnessed companies running behind the top actors of the industry to endorse their products so as to connect with the masses more. Only recently, brands have started approaching personalities which maybe famous with the youth like stand-up comedians and YouTubers. For instance, the YouTube channel Old Delhi Films made a humorous and quirky advertisement for Myntra listing out the hassles of offline shopping and why it’s better to switch to the online mode. Even Micromax approached the famous comedians, Kanan Gill and Biswa Kalyan Rath for advertising their mobiles in a twisted yet funny way.

[youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvzl_KwpG6Q” width=”500″ height=”300″]

And Motorola did the same by approaching the group of comics, The Improvisers.

[youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr49VOT4fOM” width=”500″ height=”300″]

With the growing popularity of YouTube and an increase in dependency on Internet, we can only predict this trend to thrive.

Image Credits: Google Images

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Sounds

Top 5 Music Albums of 2015

By Nidhi Panchal December 28, 2015

Music videos are a vital part of songs and help the listeners to visualize the song from the perspective of the artists themselves. There are times when the music video becomes the sole reason for the success of a song and no one knows this better than Drake and Bieber. Music videos in 2015 awed and won the viewers through strong vocals, dancing, creative storylines and great production value. Here is a ranked list of top five music videos of 2015:

1. Drake: “Hotline Bling”

Director: Director X

Well, this is the video which triggered thousands of hilarious memes, buzzfeed lists and parodies. A dream come true for the GIF makers; it was as if Drake knew that his dorky dance moves would instantly be GIF’d by the internet. Drake’s drunk-dad dancing moves on a retro-futuristic set with a handful of dancing girls were so ridiculous and silly that they actually managed to grab the attention of the masses, making this song this year’s biggest novelty hit and putting this video on the top of our list!

2. Taylor Swift, featuring Kendrick Lamar: “Bad Blood”

Director: Joseph Kahn

A year without Taylor’s video is not possible and this year was no exception. From, ‘Wildest Dreams’ to ‘Bad Blood’, Taylor hooked us with her videos yet again. ‘Bad Blood’, insanely hyped and one of the most awaited Taylor’s videos, released in May. In this star-studded, futuristic clip Taylor is surrounded by her celebrity besties, including Selena Gomez, Lena Dunham, Hailee Steinfeld, Ellie Goulding, Zendaya, Hayley Williams, Lily Aldridge and Karlie Kloss. This video has a lot of elements from Mission Impossible, Hunger Games, Divergent, Tron, Avengers and many more with Kendrick Lamar’s remix. This video with its star girl power and action sequences grabbed the second spot on our list and also, made us rethink our #squadgoals!

3. Sia: “Elastic Heart”

Director: Sia

Choreographer: Ryan Heffington

After Sia’s ‘Chandelier’, Maddie Ziegler comes back with her same large, crazy eyes and maniacal intensity in Sia’s ‘Elastic Heart’. But, this time she’s not alone as she and Shia LeBeouf engage in a performance-art ballet inside a huge bird cage. With Sia’s vocals, Maddie’s Dancing, LeBeouf’s intense performance and a stunningly powerful expression of loss at its conclusion, ‘Elastic Heart’ won our hearts and gained the third spot on our list.

4. Major Lazer and DJ Snake featuring MØ: “Lean On”

Director: Tim Erem

You would really have to be dead to know not have heard or seen this song’s video. ‘Lean On’ is a highly commercially successful song of 2015 and reached on top of many charts globally. This song was extensively shot in India. And, it also happens to be that one song which was not only played on the English music channels in India but, it was played on Hindi music channels too. This song with it infectious beats and crazy dance moves clinches the 4th spot of our list!

5. Carly Rae Jepsen: “I Really Like You”

Director: Peter Glanz

Seriously, who wouldn’t want to see Tom Hanks lip-syncing a frothy bubblegum pop song? Well, this song by Jepson has Tom Hanks walking the streets, lip-syncing on her girlish voice with the chorus hook “I really really really really really really like you” makes it downright adorable and comic. This carefree-happy song ends with Jepson and Hanks dancing down the street with a big group of dancers and an unexpected cameo from Justin Bieber (yeah, that guy in the end was not his lookalike!).

These were our favourite music videos of 2015. Let us know your favourite ones in comment section!

Nidhi Panchal

[email protected]

Image Credits: www,ioneglobalgrind.files.wordpress.com

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5 Reasons why YouTubers are the next big loves of your life

By Shubham Kaushik November 18, 2015

I found and fell deep into the depths of YouTube a few months ago. Despite the sleepless nights because YouTubers always seem to upload videos at odd hours, I have nothing but good things to say about this new-found internet-generation interest which is proof that a person doesn’t need expensive equipment, fancy settings or even a lot of training to be able to make a difference in people’s lives. Here’s giving you a few reasons why you should make YouTubers the next thing to check out in your free time:

1. YouTubers are regular

… or so they claim! It’s true through. Unlike your favourite musicians or actors, you won’t have to wait ages for new content if you’re a fan of YouTubers. A lot of them upload weekly videos, if not more often than that. Connor Franta, one of the most beloved YouTubers out there and with 5 Million subscribers, still manages to follow his Frantastic Monday uploads pretty regularly despite travelling and keeping up with other commitments and generally being a lot more accomplished than any of us can hope to be at 23 years of age. Many YouTubers also daily vlog (that’s video blogging, to you guys) so you might just be blessed enough to get new things to squeal about every few days!

Connor Franta (Image credits: cloudfront.net)

2. They like to stay connected to their fans

Staying connected for Youtubers means a lot more than just having social media accounts and posting all important updates about projects there. Almost all Youtubers I love and follow treat their fans like friends and follow them on twitter, reply to their tweets, fangirl over their fan-art and actually take their suggestions for what their next video should be about. Unlike other celebrities and people you follow, YouTubers are the most likely to value their fans and viewers a lot more because that’s their entire career and passion right there. Not staying in touch with what their viewers like could be potentially fatal.

Lilly Singh Supwerwoman (Image credits: news.com.au)

3. You’ll end up having a lot more than a sneak-peek into their lives

Not surprisingly, a lot of Youtubers’ families and friends also interact with viewers and fans, which makes for a pretty well rounded look into you favourite’s lives. Would you believe that Troye Sivan’s entire family is on Twitter and they all have around 50,000 followers? His dad, in particular, is a fan-favourite and gives us a dose of the dad jokes YouTube’s golden boy was brought up on.

Troye Sivan (Image credits: twitter.com)

4. YouTubers are into a lot of things other than YouTube

It’d be fair to say that Team Internet is made a diverse bunch of cool kids (they’re all giant nerds too, don’t worry). If you’re a fan of YouTubers, you’ll get exposure to music, books, movies and what not because your favourites will always be doing something or the other. Consider this: Troye Sivan is also an actor and a musician, and not just for the sake of it. He played a young Logan in ‘Wolverine, and his fourth EP WILD has been ruling charts and a lot of hearts recently. Connor Franta is a New York Times Bestselling Author, runs a record-label and is involved with a number of charities. Do you feel already feel as untalented as I do?

Troye Sivan WILD EP (Image credits: pbs.twimg.com)

5. They’ll introduce you to your new obsessions!

The best thing about YouTubers? There’s no exclusivity! All of YouTube is a big happy family and they prove it time and again by collaborating with each other. That is also the reason why it is so easy to keep getting deeper and deeper into the fandom because once you’re a fan of one YouTuber, they’ll collaborate with lots of others, and soon you’d have subscribed to ALL of them and will be having marathons of all of their 100+ videos to catch up. The things they’ll add to your life are not just YouTubers either. They’re very open about their favourite books and music and share their recommendations freely on various social media platforms. I found a lot of my current favourite musicians through YouTuber recommendations!

Dan and Phil and Connor (image credits: youtube.com)

Go and click that red icon to welcome new friends and interests into your life! Believe me when I say that your Mondays will be Frantastic, it’ll be worth all the Troye-ble and you’ll feel Amazing even if you’re not on fire (if you got those references, we’re friends now).

Shubham Kaushik

[email protected]

Featured Image: josephmur.files.wordpress.com

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