Good News to Share with PFC
Lately I’ve had 2 dominant emotions: elation and pride. I’m excited to share some good news with PFC, because I consider this place to be my film community.
In Oct. 2005 I wrote & my good friend Manny Parmar produced and directed a short comedy film called “Cash On Delivery”. The film was first screened in Vancouver in May 2006.
Since then we’ve been working on other scripts and projects and Cash On Delivery was sort of put to the back of our minds until about a month ago when just sitting around Manny’s we put it on. You know, we really enjoyed it :P
Well, that short comedy film has now been selected to participate in competition at the Edmonton International Film Festival! It’s a Canadian film festival which hosts films from all over the world. If you’d like you can check out details on the festival below. It runs from Sept. 28th to Oct. 6th in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Our film is scheduled to be screened the last day, Sat. Oct. 6th.
http://www.edmontonfilmfest.com/
The selection notification process is ongoing until August 15th, so they haven’t posted any information on what other films are playing or anything regarding the schedule just yet.
Now while this may not be a Cannes or Toronto International Film Festival, its still an honor for us. Its shows that our film, which we’re quite proud of, is being appreciated once again. Cine-fans who didn’t get to see it earlier a can now watch it, and we can relive the excitement of sitting in a cinema hall analyzing audience reactions. It also gives us a chance to mingle with other filmmakers, some of which may be experienced and well-known, others young and itching for the chance to show their stuff just like we get to.
The other day Manny and I sat together and fondly recalled memories of how we managed to put this film together. It was his final year student film, and we had a few months to come up with a concept, write it, and have all the pre-production work done. Even for a low budget short that can be a lot of work, planning out the shoot with limited dates, conduct auditions and finalize the cast, scout locations and obtain permits, find the right equipment which fits into our low budget and of course improvise on all of the above.
The original concept we came up with (a father-son drama with religious overtones) wasn’t quite shaping up to our satisfaction despite many rewrites. Maybe we could have made that film, but I’m not sure if we’d have been happy with the end result.
So with just a couple of weeks left before the alloted shooting dates, we changed gears completely. We discussed an idea, “What if these two teenagers accidentally put an envelope full of cash into a mailbox, and then have to find a way to get it back?” It was based on an incident that almost happened to me… yes I know, not the smartest move I ever made, but at least I didn’t actually end up mailing $6500 to who knows where…
Anyways so we wrote, revised and reworked the script all in 6 days, finalizing a draft we truly enjoyed reading and were looking forward to filming.
We had on a few days to get our casting done, which was a huge gamble. The film totally revolved around the dynamics of our 2 main characters, so those performances were big keys to making it all work. Man did we ever get lucky, finding two fantastic young Canadian actors like James Pizzinato and Nathan Dashwood. They’re chemistry as buddies, they comic and dramatic timing, everything totally clicked. Thank God for that, they’re a big reason why the film turned out so well.
After that we scrambled to finalize the locations and all the set up required before we dove into the shoot. 6 shooting days. That’s it. Every sequence had to filmed in those 6 days else we’d have to be cut it out and somehow improvise. And we didn’t exactly have a huge crew. But it was a great crew, especially our innovative and creative cinematographer Thomas Billingsley. Can’t wait to work with that guy again! I myself went from Screenplay Writer to Production Manager/PA/Boom Op/anything I needed to be while Manny went from Producer to Director.
Then… the unexpected happened, as it always seems to in these frantic shoots… It rained non-stop for 5 of our 6 days! 80% of the shots were outdoors, and with such a small crew, it was totally hectic, frustrating, tiring, agonizing, and overall the most satisfying shoot I’ve ever gone through. In fact, the rain actually added richness and character to the final look of the film. Nice!
On May 4th, 2006 “Cash On Delivery” had its first screening at the Granville 7 theatres in downtown Vancouver. We had seen the film a few times and were pretty confident audiences would love it, yet we were still a bit nervous. That didn’t last long though as we got a great response, even better than what we expected. I vividly remember sitting proudly with friends, marveling at how the audience was so into our 15 minute short. You could hear them whispering, trying to guess what might happen next, laughing at all the right spots, and totally absorbed in our climax. By the end of the night several people, including Manny’s Film professor and his colleagues, congratulated him on such an entertaining film.
It was an incredible feeling. I can’t wait to experience that rush once again!
Since we’re still in the running for other festivals, I can’t post the film on PFC just yet, though I’d love to. One day when we’re all clear, I’ll post the film and share it with all of you. Love to hear your thoughts. Maybe I’ll add in a few more anecdotes about certain scenes, actors and characters which I’m sure you’ll all enjoy.
Until then, wish us luck!
Tags: English - Other
Anurag Kashyap
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Dibakar Banerjee
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Sujoy Ghosh
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Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
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Partho Sen-Gupta
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Awesome Tony bhai…..good luck!!!
Thanks a lot Om bhai!
Tony,your and Manny’s labour of love and passion will definitely bear rich fruits..all d bst.
tony, time to pop open that bottle of champagne! wait.. maybe not yet.. after it wins at the festival though :D congrats and good luck to you and your entire team!
congratulations tony, perseverance pays off in the end..
Way to go, Tony. I am looking forward to seeing the film.
Reading your post made me remember the words of Margaret Mead. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
It is this thought that keeps many of us going.
All the best.
Way to go Tony. I look forward to seeing the film.
Reading your post made me remember the words of Margaret Mead. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
It is this thought that keeps most of us going.
Best wishes to you, your team, and “Cash On Delivery.”
all the best and waiting for your fim on PFC.
Krysh, Striker, Anurag, Manish, Shailesh: Thanks a lot you guys for the encouragement and well-wishes. Means a lot
Manish – I’ve read that quote and agree that its quite inspiring. And a hearty congratulations on such a great response to your film “Loins of Punjab Presents”. I’ve read & heard many great things about it, not the least of which was glowing praises from Shabana Azmi about how talented a filmmaker you are. Be honest, that must’ve been quite the high! Can’t wait to see your film man.
Anurag – “perseverance pays off in the end”. You know, I can’t think of a filmmaker who would know more about perseverance than your. Somehow I think those words are gonna stick in my mind…
Luck!!!!
Thanks Suchita B!
Hi
Tony best of luck. BTW are you the same Tony Khera you used to post on usenet group rec.arts.movies.local.indian with the ID “Hitman”.
If so nice to get in touch with you
Hi Shantanu…Wow, yeah man I’m the same Tony from RAMLI… how are you doing? Yeah its really good to hear from someone from RAMLI. Those were the days I was on radio, and I used to use the info from RAMLI and call it “my correspondence”… “And that news on the cinema strike was courtesy of my correspondent Shantanu”…lol… never told anyone where I got some of that inside info from… lol…
Its been so many years since I’ve been there or any other newsgroup.. I wonder if RAMLI still exsists in any form or if its gone now, replaced by blogs like PFC and all…hmmm…
pfc people if you have not seen this film cash on delivery you must watch it and encourage our friends tony and manny. its a small film only 15 mins long and made on a low budget but they work very hard to make it good and entertaining. tony you should put this movie on the internet on pfc and show people what you have made its worth showing and people its worth seeing! good work we want more and better from you!