A ‘post’ to survive
Disclaimer: Purely un-intentional.
So its that time of the month, when we all come out of our cocoons and have to write that one article which keeps us alive on PFC. Of late, I was trying to figure out, what am I going to write about? Maybe I could just get away by writing a review of a film – give my “expert opinion” on how the film was or try and dig my closet and get out an ‘almost forgotten’ classic and talk about how great the film was in its times and how it is so relevant now (whereas in reality you don’t even get a VHS of the film anywhere; forget vcds or dvds). Or maybe, I could vent out my frustration on the current crop of film-makers and just blindly go on talking about what they OUGHT to be doing, without taking a look at myself in the mirror. No, wait, I could maybe cook up a false ‘film script’ that I’ve got finance for, and talk endlessly about how the ‘superstars’ in my film loved the story and decided to work for free. I’ll come up with a working title and put it up on IMDB, so that the readers could go and check it out. This would save me from the clutches of Dr. Evil for a month, but what after that? What should I write about, without feeling any kind of guilt or fakeness?
“Times have changed”, my mind writes. “You should talk about something that your fellow colleagues shed light on – ‘Frustration’ because you were ignored by Director X or ‘Excitement’ because a certain new film revived your tastes in cinema or ‘Anger’ towards the existing cinema fraternity for not living up to your expectations or …”. Blank. I realized my mind stopped writing. Maybe it got ‘tired’ of coming up with an idea for an article. It happens when you try too hard. “Those are key words that you require when you write a blog”, the voice of my mind echoes in my head.
“So are you alive? I thought you were…”
“Depressed? Is that the only state I love to be in?”
“Well, no I was just…”
“Well, if you think of it that is one keyword that I missed in my speech there. Just edit it in, will you!”
Or maybe, I can rant about how I am trying to get a short film on the floor and how it isn’t easy to get finances for a short in our country. People go at great lengths to spend crores on a 60 sec film that promotes footwear (without actually showing the footwear; except the name flashes in the end) or a film that makes your teeth glow. Lots of money, lots of technicians, lots of film, lots of everything – not to mention, lots of awards. I just want a little of the ‘lots’ and I would be happy with life. Speaking of short films, the other day (a month ago) I read about a production house signing in different directors to make a series of short films on Mumbai. These directors were no strangers to the film world – each esteemed, respected and highly reputable in their works. I’m sure many look up to them in some way or the other. I was happy to read that short films are being seen in a ‘novel’ way (So what if “Paris Je’taime” set the trend) And then the other day, I was sitting in a café with a friend, when we heard someone talking about the aforementioned ‘film deal’. We strained our ears to catch what they were saying – “Only one director (won’t disclose name) managed to complete the entire short well within the budget and well within the time limit stipulated. The others have overshot the budget by a mile and are still lagging behind”. Both me and my friend, retreated back to our chair, saddened by the ‘over flow of finances’. It reminded me of a good friend, who had expressed his desire to shoot a short film. Slightly ‘run of the mill’ concept, but written with 100% genuine love. He managed to work around his work schedule, stayed up all night storyboarding (after insistence by his friends and cameraman) and juggling conflicting ‘star’ date schedules. The only hitch in this whole thing was he didn’t have any finances. The body of the car was developed, only the engine was missing. “We need the finance, not the established talents”, my friend told me. I just nodded in affirmation.
“A perfect article, my comrade!” my mind suddenly whispered in my ear. I read the paragraph again. “You have to sell your soul to tell the truth”, the mind assured me. I sighed.
Fin.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Sri- i do not have any idea how to react …
:(( :(( :(( :(( :(( :(( :(( :(( :((
should be appropriate
Srinivas: your post raises some questions.
An actor: to be in market/ discussions, does movies whatever comes his ways, Topic of film may be of his liking or not but as he has to be in news he is doing several films
A director: just for sake of above mentioned reasons, is busy in making all kind s of films, trying all formulas, it does not matter whether he believes in those films or not. but he has to be in news and market so he is going on making films.
A writer: he has certain name and now he is writing any kind of stories for films because his being active is necessary to give glimpse that he is in demand.
many people who are associated with films can fall in this category where they are desperate to be in news.
+ + + +
and then there are always passionatic people, for whom there is no dearth of creativity. they can always be active as they like it. Its like Ford who said that he did not wait for opportunities to come. he kept jumping high and whenever platform of opportunities came his way he climbed over it.
+ + + +
but if search any analogy from your article and films, can a film maker may try intentionally to make a film, which diverts attention of people towards his kind of film industry?
any film maker or any creative person in the world can claim that his creative peace will change people’s attention?
+ + + +
May be i read it wroing but most of people on PFC are not great professional film writers that they should write that one great piece.
Some body mentions something and some body mentions other thing. First idea is always to start a discussion where various kind of information about a film, films of a category or something about that field come in to light (again or first time, does not matter).
those who like same fields whenever they meet or talk, their discussion turns towards that common field.
+ + + +
and then even passionatic writers face writer’s block!!!!
Disclaimer: purely and entirely intentional
Srini,itna nahi sochne ka. bus likhte jaane ka. kya pata kya bura hai ya kya bhala. baat kehne ki baat hai. aaj nahi to kal baat ban hi jayegi. (dont need to think so much. just write what u feel like. who knwos…what is good n what is bad. things will change for sure. )
The points made in this post, sway; in being (a) generic to the frustration of a film/film maker in the making, or (b) purely the glimpses into the personal ranting of the writers mind.
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What strikes me as odd, is that the initial section seems to genuinely point to-wards a perennially relevant issue(s), that anyone associated with the media would relate to, and then, towards the end, it dwindles down to a semi-rant, meets ‘attempt’ at making an article, for the sake of making it.
Is the writer’s motive unclear? Is he confused? Confronted with issues that are fighting for type space on his Posts?
What is this article all about?
Srinivas, a word of advice; saying nothing in up to 1000 words, doesn’t go un-noticed.
Regards.
i’m sure you got some attention from this post. 121 hits so far. so congrats!
sometimes when you don’t have anything to say it’s wiser to sit back, be open and read what others are saying. occasionally when you have something to say you can comment. no body is forcing you to keep your PFC blogging rights alive.
I have not been on PFC for a long time.
I just got a mail from the admin
If i dont comment on PFC, my reader rights will be canceled
I want to comment ofn something.
This is a good article for it
What a shitty article.
Waste of space
Keep away from doing this
@ RK, chef and CY: You guys have taken it to another level
Its just my thoughts. You dont have to ‘analyze’ each and every sentence and try to derive a meaning out of it.
@Pee-ni-was : Hahahahaha! Good one