Short Film Trajectory #8: Here it Is

What i have come to understand in SRFTI is that even though you are pessimistic, even though life seems bland and hopeless at all times, even though you are always skeptical of your choice of career and passion in the end there are times when you feel good about it. Like in the case of short film. After the project i was very ashamed of it. Disappointed and sad. I cried about it for nights. But as days months and a year passed by i started liking the film. Probably because i made other films which sought my disappointment and pessimistic attention. So in the end i like our short film called 'Gruhapravesham/Moving In'. I am making the film public over here. Anybody can watch it, screen it, use it, steal it and i will be happy if you give credit to the original makers when you do it. Thanks.

Short Film Trajectory #7: A Marriage and a Poster

Short Film Trajectory #6 Sound 

Short Film Trajectory #5 Of Hope

Short Film Trajectory #4

Short Film Trajectory #3

Short Film Trajectory #2

Short Film Trajectory #1 

 
 

 

 

SIGNS Film Festival 2015

When our film got selected in SIGNS Film Festival 2015 i was surprised. So far all the important festivals in Kerala were rejecting it. I thought that they must have made a mistake. When i participated in the festival because i was anyway going home for my recording of playback project i realized that most people there thought that Gruhapravesham [Moving In] was a film that needed to be watched. I was surprised again.

While i have my own guesses why it was being rejected by festivals like VIBGYOR and IDSFFK, i realized that it was all subjective. These guesses seemed to be the exact reason why the film was selected at SIGNS. The jury gave a special mention to the film. I had a talk with jury chairperson Deepa Dhanraj after the ceremony and what she said made me feel much better. It was a ray of hope after a long period of dejection. She said that she felt like showing the film to her daughter. Asked me to send her a link.

This is my festival diary. There were some really good films and some very bad ones. The biggest problem i encountered there was sloppy projections, pathetic acoustics and feeble turn out of viewers.

21st October
Anaadidhara G Aravindan
About folk dance forms of india. It is just information giving buthe has tried different and new things. Such a wonder to see this variety of art forms lined together. Tracking down from top [crane down] to reveal the costume and the artist [copy update: did already]. The goal is to reveal. I think it is best achieved that way in the case of costume and that kind of an art form.

Kalamandalam Gopi
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Has tried to bring his own story telling methods into his documentary. Like childhood to adult transformation of Gopi in one mise-en-scene. Also introducing his wife and kalamandalam other guy who plays female roles with him often. Gopi is telling his story as scripted by Adoor. For the first time with subtitles, i enjoyed Kathakali. To enjoy it only english subtitles are required, in my opinion.

Awakenings - Short Film

DI and colour correction and what not. Horror feeling attempted. Hollywood model. Achieved to an extent but falls flat in some places. I saw excellent possibilities with the boy child who has sexual feelings for his babysitter. Didn't use that. The line 'children are watching us'.

Waves of Music
Pathetic documentary on Kochi's music culture.

Qissa-e-Parsi
Nice documentary.
The opening sequence was BRILIIANT. Ends with wife tying something to the old husband's neck. Rohinton Mistry. The sweetening of milk shots were great too.
Some portions again went to just information giving mode. But still good. Shot BRILLIANTLY.

Chitradham
About film makers in jail. Mystifying and clorifying the process of film making. I believe it should be like Day for Night. Not like this. Gimmickry.

Magic Print
Loved it Printing of clothes. Nice sound work. Nice photography. So nice to look at. Lacks narative but it's okay.

Penile code

Didn't like the parts where news was simply read on black screen. But otherwise good. A penis comes to a woman lesbian. Why not gay. Denying agency of gay people.

Aandolan - Vaibhav Hiwase
Brilliant. About a problem faced by villagers and how they battle it. All the scenes with the old man and the man who is a martyr and his mother who loses her senses and calls for him at night. The bird. The man's trembling hands feeding the bird. The male lead has performed really well. The way the film ends with him jogging in the room. Really good.

Ore Udal.
Didn't like it. Sajitha Madhathil as a nun. She gets raped and has a child. Bad film.

Sudha
Importantbecause it is voice from that place. Bad film. Woman killing police officer who tries to rape her. Drinks alcohol. Why is it called hunger. Their problems should see light.

Dark Frames
A porn video wife. Husband. She is sending him pictures in bra etc. His colleague tells him. He becomes confused. Tries to do the same with her. She gets suspicious. They reconcile. Man leaves phone in autorickshaw. That portion horrible. What does that mean. Revenge porn doesn't exist is what is implied.

Kapila - Sanju Surendran
Didn't like the home-family portion. Chanting etc.

Scattered Clouds - Debja Ni.
Documentary about lonliness. The director's loneliness. The portion the taxi in which the taxi driver talks about it is against the essence of the film, i felt. But that's again truth.

Deepa Dhanraj was asked why she was addicted to documentary film makers. Four years of working in Kannada she was no interested in fiction. Intimate association with people you are filming. This stays even after filming. In a documentary film where does a film end and reality begin. Have you done justice. Have you done justice to the issue
It's a collaborative practice. You both (the director and the subject) want to bring out the story. That's not the way i film. The human relationship takes over. What does it require you to do. That human relationship.
Thekind of creativity shown in documentaries in india outshines fiction film making.
Eradication of education system in india. So many colleges in Gujarath removed humanities totally. Eduction is to serve industry according to Modi. Then it is very narrow. We have to teach humanities.

Invoking Justice
Women speaking up from muslim community has a huge impact. Speak up in front of men. The final outcome is not winning the case. Small societal changes.

Short Film Trajectory #7: A Marriage and a Poster

In celluloid world the merging of picture and sound is called a marriage. The product is called a married print. It was to grade the film and get the married print that D Jeet left for Mumbai (the only place in the country where it is done) last month.

Ga and i went to the same school in Kozhikode. She was a year or two senior to me in school but we had chess in common. Yes. When i was in school i used to play chess and participate in tournaments. So did Ga. We had no contact after school till i messaged her on facebook asking her if she could act in my short film. She agreed to my surprise. It was a pleasant experience for me to meet someone after so many years and learn that i could actually speak with that person. It is impossible for me to have conversations with most people from my school.

Ga and i spoke of cinema, politics, gender, sexuality and our pathetic lives. She lived in Bhubaneswar then and i made extensive plans for a trip there which as usual never worked out. Among all those talks was a joke that she cracked on us students and our films. That it all sounded like a big relationship issue. Sometimes she heard aalayam ask me if a certain wall (on the set) was committed. If a wall wasn't committed we could add more props to it or remove some etc. A non committed wall basically meant that never before had we exposed that area in the film. Later she heard us talk of married print. It was the epitome of our illicit affair with cinema. I am, however of the opinion that it is a rather poor nomenclature. It brings the institution of marriage into cinema. Makes it sound as if two things/people getting together is always in marriage.

Ga, after going back whatsapped me a picture she had made in memory of the experience of shoot. Recently while scanning through the images in my phone i saw that again and thought it would make for a good design for our poster. It was diegetic too, in a way. There was a scene in which Ga's character/the protagonist did that on a canvas. Also, it was the actress herself who made it making it a representation of what the film or its experience meant to her. This was the picture Ga made.

Ga's picture.

Yesterday i went to Rana, our professor of Art Direction and asked if he could help me make a poster for the short film. He agreed. Since the picture Ga sent was a low resolution one we decided to do it once again on a paper and click a good quality photograph of it. We couldn't scan it because the paint was wet. I went to the still photography department and asked Manna to click a picture for me. He clicked this

Copy of a copy of a copy: Manna's click.

Five times removed from reality, the picture again went back to Rana and he made the poster we wanted. I put the crew in alphabetical order and the cast in reverse order of sex. Reverse order of sex is what i call things in which the 'second sex' or women come first. ;-)

So here is the poster. Now the screening in Main Theatre and then i can be content about the grave i dug myself for me.

Short Film Trajectory #6 Sound

After edit which seemed to take forever because we just couldn't muster enough courage to let it go, to make a final cut, Aalayalam, my editor half heartedly decided to let it be. We moved on to post production work in sound, popularly known as post or sound. NN, my sound designer and i sat with the final cut deciding on the tracks we were going to use, the design we would try and work out etc.

NN during the sound mix

It was important that we got the ambience of North Kolkata right. So she recorded actual ambience. We needed azan from a mosque in Kolkata. We went to Tipu Sultan Mosque, found a building next to it and entered it without permission and stationed ourselves there from 2 p.m because we wanted to record the one at 2.38. Nothing happened at 2.38. We were on a scooty that a junior kindly lent us so we roamed around the place till 3 pm when someone told us that there was going to be one at around that time. It was really confusing because the timing given online was quite different from what was being practised there. Finally we got what we wanted at 5.15 pm. Here it is. I like this sound a lot in itself because it is very evocative. Anything which evokes anything ends up being on a filmmaker's hitlist of sounds or visuals. Well, i am not a filmmaker yet, but technically i make films too. So evocative is good.
Here is the recording.

During sound, we also shot our titles. One of the earliest lessons i learnt after joining a film school is that a movie is from title to title. I wanted the titles to be in malayalam and bangla script. The bangla part didn't happen. So i settled for malayalam alone. We had already exceeded the time limit of ten minutes set by the institute. So we hardly managed to have the main titles. I used my favourite font Meera, to make the title cards in Gimp. We shot the cards in a classroom in the department of MPP (Motion Picture Photography).

Aalayam, editor, takes a look at Meera (font) before D Jeet shoots the titles

Godard famously said 'Every edit is a lie'. I totally agree. Every cut is a lie. Every shot is stolen. All stories are told. I am a nasty thief. From every movie i watch and like i make a list of things i would later like to rob. My favourite among that list is a director's POV turning to character's POV and vice versa. Another is cutting on the look and beginning an OTS. A sentence that one of my professors said, 'Don't let things fall' is one i marked for later use. It sounds stupid but the idea is that once you show the beginning of a fall of a thing or a person unless there is someone catching it, it is understood that it hit the ground. So a shot of it hitting the ground is redundant. I implemented that in the cut at 00:43 in the 'Waiting without showing the clock' exercise that we had to do in our second semester. Here



But that was not enough for me. During edit i asked Aalayam to implement that again in the montage. Later i learnt that Suresh Pai remarked it was good. I felt on top of the world for a day. Even now, for some reason it remains to be the only place in the film that i am genuinely happy about. Stealing is good. :)
The ghungroo falling here




Sound work got over over a span of ten and many more secret mixing days. The next step is to make a married print. The only place which does the process in the country is Mumbai. We are planning to visit the lab to watch the process. It is something which is facing extinction.

Short Film Trajectory #5 Of Hope

 Joel Coen said 'I can almost set my watch by how I’m going to feel at different stages of the process. It’s always identical, whether the movie ends up working or not. I think when you watch the dailies, the film that you shoot every day, you’re very excited by it and very optimistic about how it’s going to work. And when you see it the first time you put the film together, the roughest cut, is when you want to go home and open up your veins and get in a warm tub and just go away. And then it gradually, maybe, works its way back, somewhere toward that spot you were at before'.

I felt exactly the same. When i watched the first cut in my editor Aalayam's room, i felt like giving up the course and going back home. I felt all that i had learnt were all that i hadn't learnt. After seeking the opinion of professors i was suicidal. I really was. Things weren't rosy in the personal front either. Aalayam and i somehow emerged out of that together. We sought the opinion of a lot of people. I showed some of the cuts to some on line friends and asked what they thought. We kept on making changes and that just kept us going. In the end you could end up with a good film or a bad one but never the one you wanted to make.

During the edit

In fact this is a common mishap. That after principal photography (shoot) everything else that is done becomes an exercise only to save the original idea not to actually make it happen. That way more than being creative you are being a trouble shooter, salvaging the most passengers out of a sinking ship.
The same had happened during the making of my other short films. I thought things would be different now that i had become more serious and methodical in my approach to cinema. This was the project i had worked the most for. In the end it seemed as if it only made the disappointment greater. However it is out of thisdisappointment that a fresh urge for perfection sprouts in mind. You want to know how you can make cinema 'behave'.  How to get it right the next time and the very thought of a 'next time' is exhilerating.

It feels different now to look at the cuts and make decisions. For me it is now a passing phase. Make it the best in all ways possible and move on to the next disappointment spree. It will be better the next time because you will be making new mistakes.

Like Coen brothers added 'just keep repeating, it gets better'.


Short Film Trajectory #1 
Short Film Trajectory #2
Short Film Trajectory #3
Short Film Trajectory #4

Short Film Trajectory #4

Publishing the script. This was the 12th draft. Minor changes were made in the final two weeks before shoot and even during it. The first draft had 33 scenes. This one has 20. It was P Mahmood, my professor who mentored the script mostly. She took me through at least 4 drafts. I spoke to two more professors about it. The lack of a story was a big problem for some. The dialogues in hindi were just for reference and were actually in bangla. The major problems which happened during shoot were that two of my actors let me down even after rigorous rehearsal sessions which were held before shoot and that i had to hurry up a couple of shots due to lack of footage and time. Currently indifferent about it all. Let's see what happens during edit.

What i liked best about writing the script was simply watching how a lot of experiences i had made a note of thinking it would be of use sometime actually form parts of it. I finally realized why it is important to keep a journal. For example, Anupama finding a photograph in the room was based on an experience i had when i moved in to my room here. I had found an envelope in which there were some photos taken in Kerala. The post boxes wall was an experience i had already had and which i even had written about here. The old woman's character was based on a woman i had actually seen at a post office. I had written a script for one of our exercises in the previous semester based on it and decided to take a portion of it and paste it here. So on and so forth. In short even though it might be a little tiresome to actually jot down everything which interests you it has to be done, painstakingly. You will always have to have a notebook/sketchpad or even a phone with some similar option ready at hand. They are sure to feature in your thought process therafter.

Scene 1

INT/DAY/CORRIDOR ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF A NORTH KOLKATA BUILDING

Anupama (28) is carrying a lot many things such as bags, scrolls of paper, canvas, art material, shoes etc and hazardously climbing the stairs lined by post boxes. She goes past a door, reaches another one, takes a key and opens the door, enters the house and shuts it with her leg. There is a carton outside the house. Papers strewn beside it. A worn out shoe.

TITLE

MOVING IN

ഗൃഹപ്രവേശം

Scene 2

INT/DAY/ DRAWING ROOM-CORRIDOR

She now comes out with some more old things, has an old carpet which she is holding at a distance from her body, and some more papers with her now. She dumps all of them above the carton outside. Her eyes fix on something on the floor. She picks it up.

Scene 2A

INT/DAY/CORRIDOR

She pulls out the photograph inside the envelope, looks at it and goes in.

SCENE 3

INT/DAY/KITCHEN

She is breaking open a packet of Maggi noodles with her teeth. We can see a patch of light in the kitchen.

She eats Maggi with some pickle with malayalam name. While she starts gobbling the food down which is rather hot, she sees something on the loft. She climbs up the platform and pulls it out. It falls and it is a christmas tree. Plastic. Old and dusty.

Scene 4

INT/DAY/HALL-DRAWING ROOM

The christmas tree is dragged and erected in the drawing room. Just as she heaves a sigh of exasperation there is a knock on the door. She walks on her knees to the door to get it. A woman of about 50 comes in before she even says anything. As Anupama watches in bewilderment she says

Woman: Mein unse keh hi rahi thi ki yahaan koi aayaa hein. Aapka koi furniture nahin hein?

Anupama: Aap-

Woman: Mein bagal wale ghar mein rahti hoon. Aapke woh kaam par gaye honge?

Anupama gives her a stolid look

Woman: Akeli?!

The woman is all the more curious now and sits down beside Anupama and says

Woman: Meri baat ka bura mat maanna par akeli? Aapke ghar waale rishta nahin dhoond rahe hein?

Anupama: [taken aback and ignoring] Joh pahle yahaan rahte the kya aap unhe jaanti ho?

Woman: Woh to ek lambi kahani hein. Do jawaan ladke the yahaan. Woh to bolte the ki woh college mein saath padhte hein. Par sabko pata tha ki...donom...saath...aap samaj gayi na?

unme se ek madrasi tha. Jagah ka naam...kya farakh padta hein. Goa ke neeche to sab madras hi hein na? [laughs]

Anupama laughs along and says

Woman: Oh aap kahaan se ho?

Anupama: Goa ke neeche kahin.

SCENE 5

INT?DAY/DRAWING ROOM

The drawing room is now set with a computer table. Her modest collection of books is on the floor though neatly stacked on sheets of newspaper. On the table is a laptop, speakers, some CDs. DVDs, and the envelope that she found earlier. An old photo juts out from it. We see the face of a young girl. On the floor is a mattress with a pillow. You can see scrolls of paper, canvas boards and some half unpacked bags around. She reads some news and checks her facebook. In the news are a lot of upsetting current affairs. Her facebook shows some baby photos, wedding photos etc of friends and she is turned off. Shuts her eyes and rubs them. The phone rings and she looks at the caller and doesn't answer. There is a patch of light on the wall now. She takes a board and places it on her lap. There is a mug with water in it, paint, brushes in a cup/a holder and paper. She takes the palette and is about to mix some paint when she hears voices from outside. A lot of girls. She sighs and leans back on to the wall.

Her phone rings

reluctantly she picks it up. She is silent for some time. Then

Anupama: ആദി നിന്നെ ആശ്വസിപ്പിക്കാന്‍ അവിടെ വേണമെന്നൊക്കെ എനിക്കും ആഗ്രഹണ്ട്. പക്ഷെ എനിക്ക് പറ്റില്ല. ഇത് കോളെജില് അവളുമായിട്ട് അടി കൂടി എന്നെ വിളിച്ച് കരയണ പോലെയല്ല. ചേച്ചി പോയി. ഇനി ഇല്ല. I will try to finish her assignments. But that is not going to bring her back. Yeah right, we have the same genes, so we will paint the same?! For god's sake, Aadi, she is dead. Yeah now I think I know why it's called a dead-line. Okay FINE! Tell me when it is.

She rummages through one of the bags, digs out a calender from its depth, flips the pages to reach June and circles 26^th. Drops the brush onto the calender.

She turns against the wall, presses her face on it and observes the light.

The clanking of wood starts and the dance practice starts. She gives up painting and gets up.

SCENE 6

IN/DAY/CORRIDOR

Pallabi collides against Anupama who is standing in front of the letter boxes and checking mail.

Pallabi: [Bangla] late again

Anupama smiles. The girl rushes to the door.

SCENE 7

INT/DAY/CORRIDOR

In the corridor a bag carrying newspaper and milk is being drawn up by the dance teacher. The cat sits smugly on the parapet. To her left we see an old woman laboriously watering the plants in her balcony, bougenvillas. We can hear Anupama talking in malayalam to someone in the background.

Anupama: അമ്മ ഇതെത്ര പ്രാവശ്യാ പറയണ്ടേ. അമ്മ ഇവടെ വന്ന് നിന്നാല് എന്റെ പ്രശ്നം മുഴുവന്‍ തീരോ? ഇല്ലല്ലോ. അമ്മേടെ പ്രശ്നം തീരോ? ചേച്ചി പോയീന്ന് വെച്ച്...മരിച്ചവരല്ല പ്രശ്നം. മരിച്ചവരെ മറക്കണതാണ്. (ശബ്ദമിടറുന്നു) ഇല്ല. എനിക്ക് വരാന്‍ പറ്റില്ല. അവള്‍ടെ കല്യാണത്തിനുംകൂടി വരാത്ത കൊറെ കുടുംബക്കാരന്ന്യല്ലേ ചടങ്ങിനും വരാന്‍ പോണെ.

While saying this she looks up and sees the old woman who is watering the plants. The old woman is looking at her now gestures her to get off the parapet.

Anupama gets off it saying to her mother: ആ ഇല്ലമ്മാ സേഫ്റ്റിക്കൊരു കൊറവൂല്യ. ഞാന്‍ ചെറിയ കുട്ട്യൊന്നല്ലല്ലോ .പൈസൊക്കേണ്ട് കൈയ്യില്. അമ്മാ ആദി വിളിക്കിണിണ്ടേ. ഇല്ല, ആ എക്സിബിഷന്റെ കാര്യത്തിനാണ്. ശരി. റ്റാ റ്റ.

She picks up the new call and says Hello and goes in.

SCENE 8

INT/DAY/CORRIDOR

It's raining heavily. Thunder, lightning. The dance girls come out and promptly take out umbrellas from their bags. Anupama comes up soaked. She sees the girl who was late earlier and says with an exasperated smile

Anupama: poocho mat.

SCENE 9

INT/NIGHT/DRAWING ROOM

Now there are patterns on the wall from the light in the corridor coming in through the ventilator.

The calender is up on the wall with 26^th July circled. The usual source of light in the room is not used for some reason and the christmas tree is lit.

She is masturbating, is unable to, pulls her right arm from beneath her pants and just lies there.

The dance girls approach Anupama. They all have umbrellas. She opens her eyes and the girl who was late takes an umbrella out, smiles and asks:

Pallabi: Forgot your umbrella?

SCENE 10

INT/DAY/DRAWING ROOM

Anupama wakes up with a start and the knock on the door which was faint in the dream is now quite audible. She gets up and sees the patch of light on the wall and is dismayed that she overslept. She opens the door and finds a young man of about 27 at the door. She squints at him.

Senthil: Hello, I am Senthil. Err... I used to live here earlier.

He is thinking of what next to say when she quickly understands and says

Anupama: Oh!

She makes way for him to come inside.

Senthil: I...wanted to click some photos. We never did when we were living here.

His eyes land on the calender. He is surprised and asks:

Senthil: ഓ മലയാളിയാണല്ലേ?

Anupama nods.

Senthil: എനിക്ക് മലയാളം കുറച്ച് കുറച്ച് അറിയും. അമ്മ പാലക്കാട്ട്ന്നാണ്.

Anupama: എനിക്കും തമിഴ് കൊഞ്ചം കൊഞ്ചം തെരിയും.

They laugh.

Scene 11

INT/NIGHT/KITCHEN

They are sharing maggi. Senthil is on the floor, next to the christmas tree. Anupama is on the platform in her usual place. Senthil's camera is beside her. Senthil is probing the pickle bottle with his index finger. It is almost over. He looks at the christmas tree.

Anupama is looking at the photos on the LCD of the camera.

Anupama: ഞാനിങ്ങനെ എടയ്ക്ക് വിചാരിക്കും ഇതൊക്കെ വിട്ടട്ട് നാട്ടീപ്പോയി നിന്നാലോന്ന്. അമ്മേം നിര്‍ബന്ധിക്കിണ്ട്. എല്ലാ ദിവസോം വിളിയാണ്. പക്ഷെ പിന്നവടപ്പോയിട്ടും എന്താ കാര്യംന്നാലോചിക്കും.

Senthil: മ്. സ്ഥലല്ലേ മാറാന്‍ പറ്റുള്ളൂ. ആള്‍ക്കാരെ വെച്ച് മാറാന്‍ പറ്റില്ലല്ലോ. ഈ ഫോട്ടോലൊക്കെ മനുഷ്യരെ കേറ്റാന്‍ പറ്റണ വല്ല വിദ്യേം വേണായിരുന്നു.

Anupama smiles.

Anupama: ആ അതിനെയാണ് മനുഷ്യര് സിനിമാന്ന് വിളിക്കണേന്ന് തോന്നുണു. laughs. Do you want it back? ഞാനിതിങ്ങനെ ബള്‍ബ് ഫ്യൂസാവണേനനുസരിച്ച് സ്ഥലം മാറ്റലാണ്. (pointing at the tree)

He smiles and says.

Senthil: ഹഹ. ഞങ്ങളും അതിനന്ന്യാണ് കാര്യായിട്ട് ഉപയോഗിച്ചിരുന്നത്. ഇത് അരുണ്‍ വാങ്ങിയതാണ്. ഞങ്ങളിപ്പൊ...സംസാരിക്കാറില്ല. നിങ്ങളന്നെ വെച്ചോളൂ. ബള്‍ബുകളിനീം ഫ്യൂസാവും. എനിക്ക് വേണ്ടതൊക്കെ ഇതിലുണ്ട്.

SCENE 12

INT/DAY/CORRIDOR

She is on the phone as she is climbing the stairs.

God there are two more days left, Aadi! I said I will. You think I will forget with you calling me 24*7?

നീ ശരിക്കും എന്തിനാ എന്നെ വിളിക്കണത്? പെയിന്റിങ്ങിന് വേണ്ടിയല്ലല്ലോ. Actually, I can't find my key. That is the bloody problem. (Almost yelling, but looking around and muffling the sound) YES! I KNOW THE DATE, MONTH AND YEAR!

She reaches the door irritated and sees a cat outside it. She is curious and sees that she has left the key on the latch. She opens the door.

SCENE 13

INT/DAY/DRAWING ROOM

The cat first enters and then she does. Pallabi and a boy are making out on her bed. She is startled and fumbles and says

Anupama: Sorry.

She quickly moves out.

Scene 13A

INT/DAY/CORRIDOR

Anupama shuts the door behind her and says

Anupama: Fuck Fuck Fuck!

The dance girls from the other flat are all coming out now.

The neighbour comes out and asks if someone forgot their umbrella holding one up. She looks at both the sides and sees Anupama and asks

Neighbour: [bangla] What happened?

Anupama now pretends to be looking for the key and says

Anupama: kuch nahin. Chaabi dhoond rahi thi.

The door is about to open and she holds it back firmly now so that they don't come out.

The lady goes back in, intrigued.

Anupama goes in.

Scene 14

INT/DAY/DRAWING ROOM

The boy is now holding the cat and the girl is thoroughly upset.

The Boy: I am sorry. We are sorry. Extremely sorry. Isne kaha ki aap saade teen ke baad hi aaogi aur darwaaza khula tha. I mean she had seen that you hadn't locked it and we didn't think it would take so long. Mera matlab isne dekha ki chaabi taale par hi thi aur hame laga ki zyaada der bhi nahin lagegi. Sorry. Mein oopar rahta hoon. Aur hamaare paas aur koi jagah nahin hein. You know, to do it. Please kisi aur ko mat bataana. Please.

Anupama is smiling.

Anupama: naam kya hein?

The boy: Debdatta.

Anupama: (laughing) Tumhara nahin. Billi ka naam kya hein?

Debdatta: (sheepishly) nahi pata.

Scene 15

INT/NIGHT/DRAWING ROOM

She is trying to draw something. There is news playing. From the computer. More disturbing current affairs. She is working the colours and just draws circles and makes a mess of the paper.

She dials someone on the phone and says

Anupama: You know what? I am actually glad that she died. Because it makes YOU suffer. No. you listen to me. എനിക്ക് പറ്റില്ല. നിന്റെ വെഷമം നീ തന്നെ തിന്ന് തീര്‍ക്കണം ആദി. റിസ്പെക്റ്റ് ചെയ്യാന്‍ പഠിക്ക്. എനിക്ക് ഈ വേദന വേണം. ഒറ്റയ്ക്ക്. അമ്മേനേം കൂടെ ഒറ്റയ്ക്കാക്കീട്ടാണ് ഞാന്‍- The living cannot replace the dead, Aadi. And I am very much alive. Pauses. മൈരേ നീ പോയ് ചാവ്.

Scene 16

INT/NIGHT/DRAWING ROOM-CORRIDOR

Anupama frantically drags all her canvases out of the room, dumps it on the corridor and kicks and stamps on them.

Scene 16A

INT/NIGHT/CORRIDOR

The dance teacher peeps out of her house and watches anupama kick and stamp in the corridor. She retreats after some time.

Scene 17

INT/NIGHT/Corridor-stairs.

Anupama storms out into the corridor. On the stairs she stumbles and falls. She makes a whining sound [അമ്മേ] and gets up. She takes two steps upstairs, then breaks down and startes crying, weeping. The old woman comes in and sits by her side. In an instant she hugs the old woman and weeps more. The woman puts a reassuring arm around her shoulder.

Sc 21A

The cat in a basket, trying to get out

Sc 21B

Debdatta: We don't have a place to do it, you know.

Sc 21C

Anupama is standing near the post boxes with a huge brush in her hand

Sc 21D

Dance teacher: where is your furniture?

Sc 21E The old woman next door breaks a pot in the parapet. A bougenvilla.

Scene 18

INT/DAY/DRAWING ROOM

Anupama opens an umbrella and checks for leaks.

She turns the page of the calender to July from June. Leaves the room with a determined look and hastily.

Scene 19

INT/DAY/CORRIDOR

She leaves the room, Locks the door. The dance girls are coming out. They are all crowding around the post boxes and murmering to each other. She waits for some time and calls the girl who was late. She comes with an embarrassed smile.

Anupama gives her the key to her room.

Anupama: Mein kaafi der tak waapas nahin aaoongi.

The girl is astonished at first. Then she says:

The Girl: Thankyou!

Anupama leaves without acknowledging it.

Scene 19A

INT/DAY/CORRIDOR

Pallabi hurries up the stairs. Anupama leaves. We see that all the post boxes have been painted black and a huge drawing has been made on it in white paint.

Scene 20

INT/DAY/DRAWING ROOM

The girl and the boy make out in the room. The christmas tree is in the room. On the wall is an enlarged photo. Two young girls, seemingly sisters. The patch of light is occasionally on their arms which are ever entwining and relaxing.

The cat lay sleepily on Anupama's chair.

The naked lovers are on the bed, but it is night now and amidst the shadows cast by the light outside.

The END

Short Film Trajectory #1 
Short Film Trajectory #2
Short Film Trajectory #3
Short Film Trajectory #5

Short Film Trajectory #3

After we made the floor plan it was time to proceed to actual set construction. Even before that in consultation with the producers our budget was prepared. D Jeet and I proceeded towards finalizing the look of the film. This included props, costumes etc. There were a lot of problems that we faced during construction. The first one was that of opening the pit. We had to use the pit in the floor for the stairs portion of the set. Owing to the use of the rain machine in the shoot before ours it was filled with mucky water. We had to pump all of it out. Work=time=money on set. Students including D Jeet, me and some others from the dept of cinematography also helped in the construction. The first day after the previous shoot would be to dismantle the lights. The second to dismantle their set. The third for our construction, fourth for painting and fifth for weathering. Sixth day is for lighting. On seventh day contrary to popular fairy tales tradition, we don't rest but just lose sleep over the shoot which would start the coming day. I remember the two of us sitting on the stairs and taking a look at the space that was made. It felt as if we had made a house and were taking a final look at it.

Even during those days of prep. I was proceeding with casting and rehearsals. I even got chance to rehearse on set on the day of lighting. Getting the actors acquainted with the set is also a good practice.

When you know that a film was shot on studio what is to be understood is that every single thing you saw on screen was made or put there on purpose. Nothing was a coincidence. From the set design we made and the references we had taken the set we made looked like this. These are stills taken during shoot so nothing might make sense owing to the fact that my script doesn't make much sense. :D

The shoot went as usual. With a LOT of running around, sleeplessness, restlessness, hardwork, toil, rehearsals, good acting, bad acting, exigencies, recoveries, heartbreaks, bonding, fighting, drama etc. To quote Bresson “Shooting. No part of the unexpected which is not secretly expected by you”. Even with all these usual events it was different from any shoot I was part of till date. There were a lot of reasons for this. I had not worked this hard for any other work. It was the first major project after the training we received under specialization. This meant that this was the first time I was going to put to use some lessons and notes I had made for myself and wanted to try out. It was the first time the ability of the four of us to work as a crew was going to be put to test. Everything put together it gave me a high that even the best joint I have had so far wasn't able to give me. I loved working with D Jeet especially. I could feel my ideas feel at home in his images.

The wait for the telecine is on. In two weeks' time I will see the rough cut. Just thinking of it makes me aware of the numerous blunders I made and the disaster that the actual film is going to be. Even then, when I think of the beautiful process that I was part of I feel content. That will do, for now. 

Short Film Trajectory #1 
Short Film Trajectory #2
Short Film Trajectory #4 
Short Film Trajectory #5
 

Short Film Trajectory #2

So D Jeet, my cameraperson, NN, the sound designer and I went to the original location. We collected as many reference materials as possible. It is important to take a note of all the things which make the place that and this includes anything from a broken chair kept in the balcony to the switchboards. These are some of the photos we collected.

Based on this D and I went to Rana, our professor who was going to help us with the set design. He used a software called Sketchup Make. In the first semester of our specialization we had been taught to work with it and create set designs. It's good to learn it, yes. I gave it up because it didn't work on my OS. So with the reference photographs D and I gave Rana our floor plan with measurements. We completed the plan in a day. It looks like this now.

The basic things to be kept in mind are that according to the camera movements you have on mind, some walls will have to be made removable. Some walls will have to have two sides. These are important and these are also some of the advantages of shooting on set.

The next step is to decide on what props to use and the texture to each and every wall, paint etc. A working model will have to be constructed. I am currently working on the 6th draft of my script under the mentorship of P Mahmood, my professor. We have to shoot in the first week of September. Yes, i am shit scared. 

Short Film Trajectory #1 
Short Film Trajectory #3
Short Film Trajectory #4 
Short Film Trajectory #5

Short Film Trajectory #1

The Short film project is one of the important ones to be completed in the IV semester of the course. It has to be shot on film, in studio and should be under ten minutes in duration. Like most of our faculty I too believe that working under such restrictions helps a lot in the long run. Their reasons might be a bit different from mine, I think. When restrictions are imposed, a deadline for example or a duration or word count that has to be maintained, it brings a certain order and discipline to one's work. Method of working, I would say. It is rigorous and considering the amount of things every film maker envisages for their films in the beginning self restraint has to be practised a lot. The final product, however bad it may be will be one which has been stripped bare of adjectives if you equate it with writing. Don't adjectives have a beauty of their own? Well, yes, but when you are asked to describe something without using them you explore more on the form and craft which as far as a film maker is concerned are of prime importance.

The first draft of my script was completed some time in June. [The final draft -the myth called final draft, rather- will be published after the production]. Even before I sent it to the rest of the crew I had a person in mind for the lead role. She confirmed her aviability after reading the script. After the crew read the script the cinematographer, D Jeet and I held some discussions on line [I was at home, Kerala, all that time] about the general approach, treatment of space etc. He sent me the following stills for inspiration and refernce of the space he had on mind. We discussed these further.

The place I had on mind as reference was Sud Basu's home in North Kolkata where we had shot parts of our II demo film. You can read about it here. For the short film project the entire place where we shoot will have to be manually constructed in the studio. Quite frankly I find the process tedious, that of preparing a floor plan, constructing a working model etc. It has to be done, nevertheless. How does it help? It is important for a film maker to have an idea about the space and measurement. This information will help in planning the shots and not planning shots which are physically impossible in the given space.

D had not seen the place so he made a visit there yesterday. All of us in the crew will visit the place once more to take reference stills and proceed with the floor plan, casting etc. We had much earlier decided that we will be shooting black and white. The idea that i had on mind then was quite different but i think the new script will also be just fine in the medium. Don't think it matters much anyway. 

Short Film Trajectory #2