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It took two days to erect larger than life sets on a beach in front of a bungalow in secluded Madh Island. The call time was 7:00pm and went on till the sunrise. It was an elite party set. It required tons of light to illuminate it. Even the coconut trees in the background were lit separately. 30-40 junior artists were called to represent socialites. As the night grew it became chilly. Pavan, Hiroo and other people had come prepared with fleece and jackets. Check out the pics. The actresses were given Shawls.

Some new thing I learned on the setsJ How would the lights show up, when the negatives are developed? How can you judge it during night scenes? Any guesses? I knew that at 24 frames per sec, the exposure time is 1/60th of a sec. May be I could write a separate article explaining itJ Anyways… The other factors, which would define your final image, would be your film speed and aperture. Pavan and Hiroo asked the still photographer, who also takes the continuity photographer to simulate the effect in his digital SLR still camera. The film stock used was 500T, with an aperture of 4. The camera was set with similar conditions and the photo was taken. It looked good and the lighting was Okayed. Hiroo informed me that, while assisting the DP in Salaam Bombay he saw the DP using a still SLR with a Polaroid mount to guess the lighting during night shots. It reminded me of my first attempt ever on film shoot. It was a scene, where a shady character walks past a woman standing besides a lamp post. I had concentrated most of my lights near the lamp post region to get a natural effect. When the film stock was developed, I found out that the region where the character walks past the women was very dark. But luckily enough one could see the eyes of the character. So the information was there in the expression of eyes for the audience to figure out what was going on. In the editing room the eyes were visible but when it was projected on big screen it came very dark. I was disappointed. Later when the mini-dv was played in classroom the eyes were visible! Everybody loved it. It looked like it was purposely doneJ Adding required contrast, making it more intense, dramaticJ The projectors also need adjustments. Hiroo told me an instant, where Styajit Ray’s ace cinematographer Subrata Mitra had gone to Delhi for a festival, where his film was screened. The quality of screening was so bad that he almost cried. Now you guys know how to judge the lighting on sets and its importance With the advent of digital intermediate (DI), the cinematographer are getting much wider range to commit errors. Even if they screw up in production, you can get away in postJ

While having Dinner with Pavan, Deep Shika dropped by. She is a TV actress mainly. A long time friend of Pavan. You can find her in Daler Mehendi’s earlier music video ‘Gadde te na chadh di…’ Check the pics to figure out. We started discussing an interesting investment idea. I hate marketing gimmicks, where you catch hold of your friends and make them sell products. Deep Shi (As she is popularly known) was able to sell the idea to me. The idea sounds like another marketing gimmick but its different. Can’t discuss the details, as this site is meant for cinema Later Dino n Deep Shi discussed the same. Dino must have been convinced as wellJ

Then came the gorgeous Simone Singh. She lately played the lead role in ‘Being Cyrus’ opposite Saif Ali khan. If you folks watched a soap called ‘A mouthful of Sky’, you would have remembered Simone in Madhulika’s role. Where she plays a Bengali women, who is engaged to Rahul Bose. She looked very pretty in traditional Bengali saree! She also played the lead role in TV Show ‘Henna’. In Brahm, she is Milind Soman’s wife. Did not get a chance of talking to her.

Milind Soman arrived later in the night. He could only be part of a small shot. Also could not interact with Milind either. Earlier this year I was reading an article in Times of India about the national swimming record been broken after a long time. To my surprise the record holder was none other than Milind Soman himself. Pavan knew the fact that he was a good swimmer but was not aware of his record. Milind is a good athlete too. He lives in Shivaji Park area in Dadar. Sometimes he runs from Film city to his home, after the shoot. Sometimes to Marine drive and back home just for fun. Like Pavan he is also pretty laid back. Very casual about the things he does. He looked like Jim Morrison with beard and long hair. Check out the pics.

There was an instance, when Pavan wanted the actresses to move, while having conversation with other actors in the scene. It was not possible to orchestrate. The director and the DP suggested that a new technique should be evolve, where the actor would be placed on a turn table and someone from the camera or direction department would turn the table as requiredJ

Hiroo gave me a ride while returning. Later he told me that he felt almost asleep while driving. If you are shooting a night scene, your sleep cycle changes for next two days. It takes time for your body to adjust. One should see the amount of hardwork that goes into shooting small screen time.

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