Bad Hair Day
iView Author:
GAYATRI GAURI
(Mumbai, India)
EMAIL:
Withheld
Tina, a 30 year old woman, obsessed with her bad hair day woes, discusses her recent hair cut nightmare with her therapist.
That’s the one line concept of my four minute short film.
I would rather not fine comb through the details of every waking minute to make this film happen. I think labour pains are best borne alone and happily forgotten the minute the baby is born. So it’s not the making that I want to share here but some intangible insights which might give all the filmmakers something to relate with and all the budding filmmakers more reason to simply go out there and shoot. So here is the list of learnings :
That, even if you don’t know a thing about lights and camera, as long as you are clear about the action, you can tell your story..well..at least in a short film.
That, one should not limit oneself to one mode of expression. There was a time when I told stories through journalism; later through acting, moved on to scriptwriting but never gave a thought to telling them through the lenses. While I know I will always primarily script my stories, simply indulging myself with a new medium, has made me explore a new dimension to self expression. Just like you sing a besura tune and do an impulsive jig, once in a while and that once in a while is a hell of a joyous moment for you, no matter how ridiculous it is to the onlooker. Who cares?
That, they say, love happens. I say, love happens ….with yourself when you simply shoot what your heart tells you..as you discover a whole new side to yourself, your senses of sight and sound heightened to another level.
That, there is no satisfaction more than the silent sharing of the same thought and vision as several pairs of eyes watch the actor perform, right from the lightman to the DOP to the editor to the sound recordist…all breaths held and transfixed by just one emotion that the shot is trying to convey and each one putting in his/her energy towards transferring that emotion onto celluloid. A communion so powerful leaves a sense of wonder that how is it possible that a team, complete strangers before the film, suddenly and briefly bond better than lifetime partners.
That, filmmaking is the best form of addiction; chocolates and cigarettes don’t even come a close second. The highs and lows are ones to die for or rather live for.
That, patience is your virtue, perseverance is your vice and only passion can help you sustain both.
That, when it’s all over, you realize it’s just a film, not your life- an illusion is broken once again.
That, if this is what I feel during the making of a mere four minute film, I shudder to think what can possibly be the experience of a full fledged filmmaker whose labour of love is tossed around by all and sundry, right from the auto rickshaw driver to the armchair critic, and simply declared a flop or a hit. I would rather give this thought a miss. You need a heart of steel, nerves of steel and guts of steel to even go into that space.
So dear PFC readers, while I obsess over the grey strands this film has given me (sigh), you go, take a look at a woman having a bad hair day. Of course, I will understand when you say how lousy she looks with her current haircut.
I will understand some more if you also tell me how to fix it.
[youtube]9U7LDYubtIc[/youtube]
Tags: Video
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
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Kundan Shah
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Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
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Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
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Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
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Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
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gayatri, i had to watch this twice.. the first time i found myself losing attention bc it felt like she was just rambling on about her hair.. and watching the dubbed lines was also a distracting factor.. so i guess as a first reaction, the dubbing needs to be crisper.. and for a 3-4min film, majority of it is voiceover, which for me, was a sore point..
the second time though, i paid closer attention to what she was saying and i got what the film was trying to say.. but the end felt like a cop-out.. almost as if the psychiatrist just gives up, and the best advice he has to give is to tell her to “let go”.. didn’t gel with me, sorry.
i actually really liked your post though, and what you learnt from making this film. here’s wishing you the best, and hope you make a second one and post it on PFC. looking fwd to it.. good luck
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p.s. wish you’d made this in hindi, not english (another distracting factor for me)
What the psych dude is striving for is to achieve a “breakthrough” to get to the bottom of her problem, which is what transpires through the film. Her nightmares and subsequent memories eventually explains her human relationships.
Once the breakthrough is achieved the only thing left for him to do is tell her “its not your fault” and “let go” ..i guess.
Anyway i liked the film..its pretty good.
Well done Gayatri.
Two things I’m reminded of here, neither may have anything to do with the film.
1. Shrink says – ‘it’s not your fault’… reminded me of the climax of Good Will Hunting… ‘it’s not your fault’… when is it? We hardly find our redemption enough to let go… time does its bit to us of course, and the best part about life is, it MAKES you move on… no choice there.
2. Tina says, ‘I had a dream, as if I had gone bald, lost all my hair’… reminded me of the first episode (if I’m not mistaken) of the Sopranos. Gandolfini’s character has a dream that there are no ducks left in his pond / pool. Next day, he’s in confession… and what happens there is the psychological trip of that character through the series… it sets the ball rolling, it puts things in context… much like all the characters in Scorsese’s films… all trying to achieve that grandeur, that religious / spiritual elevation…
Travis Bickle – am sure you know what I’m talking about here..
Dear Gayatri,
Enjoyed the post more than the film. I didn’t get all of it, maybe that’s how things are supp to be… there’s no absolutes, only relatives… we see what we like, take what we want.
Thank you for sharing it with all of us. Best wishes for the times to come.
Goodnight. And, Good luck.
Yes Kartick, but Travis Bickle cannot hope for redemption or spiritual freedom..he is forever doomed to confront the absurdity of his existence.
nice movie gayatri..
well done..
i really liked the film..
i made an attempt to make a film about what goes
on in the mind which is about to commit suicide.. but am not happy with the film at all… but i guess yours has come out pretty well…
what goes on in her mind has come out really well
but
i just think the end could have been better!!!!
more inputs from the psychologist..i guess!!!
Thank you so much guys for taking the time to watch my film and provide solid feedback. Am very sorry I am getting back this late, got caught up with something, but then no excuses.
Striker, hats off for taking the trouble to watch it twice. Am really glad you tried to understand it the second time round. Yes, the dubbing is a distraction. If I make a short film again, I will still make it in English as it is only in short films that I don