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My 1st Short Film.
It must be the the most exciting “1st experience” after “losing your virginity”. Like sex there are all these anxieties & hopes. Am I any good? Lot of times people can’t get past this question. Ashish’s 1st fiction effort Is really amazing. And that is what made me write this post.
In my evening Cinema Class we are supposed to make a chase film. Which I think is a norm in a lot of film schools here in LA. It was almost 3 years back. I was still trying to figure out LA, USA. I was still walking towards the wrong door when trying to get into my friends cars. Anyways fortunately that class also happened to have 2 more Indians. A 1st in that college’s history. 1 was Amit Sadanah from Delhi & Saurabh Kothari from Hong Kong/Jaipur/Bangkok/NY. Saurabh had a car which became our official transport. School had the cheapest DV cameras available from Canon. Those 250$ single CCD cameras. You’ll know what i mean when you see the film. So we had to make a short film in the 2nd month of our course. None of us had any clue about what to shoot. I started shooting the streets of LA whenever i’m in someone’s car, hoping I would use it somehow in my short. Meanwhile Saurabh got his idea and we shot his short over a weekend. Man all i did was run for 2 days. But I had yet to shoot my short anbd I knew I was gonna make Saurabh run for his life in my film. I wanted revenge.
All those LA street footage that I got also pushed me to have a story where i can use them. So I figured I’m gonna have a few weeks/days later in the middle of the film & i’ll speed up the street footage & put some cool music to it. Apart from that I had no clue. And since I knew I was gonna have Saurabh run I would shoot him running behind our school. Then I saw my friend Marvin run in someone else’s film & I liked it. So I shot a few hrs with him too. All this while I had no story. It was really funny, as Saurabh & Marvin had no idea why they were running & what the story was. Then the story came to me when least expected. I was working in a Indian Restaurant in Beverly Hills those days. BOMBAY PALACE. It was probably the best Indian restaurant here in LA. It was Chatwal owned group of restaurants. Shekhar Kapur was a regular there. Not a customer. He used to walk in through the kitchen. He was a good friend of the owner Deep. Anyways I got my story idea on a slow weeknight at the restaurant. And I storyboarded my whole short on those small pieces of paper that waiters use to take orders. I think I still have that. I don’t know where.
Next weekend we got out to shoot the film. It was so much fun. No one was trying to make oscar winning films. We were just a bunch of kids from India trying to have fun. What we didn’t realize was how long the editing process will take. We were given iMOVIE. Trust me iMovie in 2004/2005 was worse than Windows Movie Maker. But editing was so much fun for me. Thats my fav part of filmmaking. What drove me crazy was to cut the soundtrack for the short. Being very new to LA I didnt have enuff contacts to get original music composed for my short. So i started picking music from my own library. Then to sync it with the visuals took the longest part of the whole process. Infact by the end of it I decided for the next project I’m gonna make a music video. Atleast I won’t have to bother about the audio part at all.
cheers!
45 Responses to “My 1st Short Film.”
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Bhai… cool short.
all the best!
Hey Mainak, nice effort. felt the chase seq could have been shorter.otherwise not bad for a 1st film
nice one mainak..
i liked it. i don’t know much but.. ain’t shooting and editing a chasing scene dee-fee-cult?
Thanks Anurag. It means a lot coming from you. And you know that!
Rony. Thats something almost everyone tells me. Its too long. The problem was since I was the director who shot something for the 1st time & was also the editor. It was heartbreaking to drop shots that i loved. I’ve become better now. Its still heart breaking,but less painfull now.
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Last Film - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (5/10)
good effort…liked the background score…
Nice try that, but remember one important thing u have to be ruthless when editing your work (i know its heartbreaking) that’s the most crucial part as u all know. Anyways, keep it coming…..
good start as a filmmaker. keep going!
Abe saale!!! this shit is too old for me now. :) Where are your other films??? Woh kabhi dikhayega?
very nice… great use of music… love the chase sequence… didn’t find it too long… keep it up mainak…:)
How can the chase sequence be too long ? :-?
“That” is most of the movie.
Saurabh… thand rakh… Lets go in the sequence of how they were made. I’m waiting for KK & Somen’s shorts to be here & then i will proceed with my next one.
Pratim, Raj, Prashant,maruramu… Thanks.
The music is a mix of 3 songs. The main chase song is by ORBITAL. I forgot the song name, its been such a long time. Then there is a Talvin Singh track & finally a song from Matrix(2). The climax was shot using 3 cameras. We shot 2 takes. One for the realtime & one for the flashback. In the Flashback notice the Yellow Beetle.
Turtle… Yeah I know. We had to shoot a chase movie. So i indulged as much as i can.
Mainak, sahi hai baap! One thing I like about shorts is they bring in so many diverse stories, and memories. The film becomes a smaller entity in comparison. But this film definitely needs no backing, its nicely done, may be thanks to the music and the way its synced with the visuals.
Would like to see more of your work. I like such stuff which doesn’t fall back on the story or a conventional framework.
“Anyways I got my story idea on a slow weeknight at the restaurant. And I storyboarded my whole short on those small pieces of paper that waiters use to take orders. I think I still have that. I don
sahi hai mainak…Nice effort dude….
Mainak bhai, maja aa gaya,..
waiting for the next stuff:)
hi mainak,
loved it especially the chase part, synced nicely :)
One from the home team bro Mainak!
Killer stuff!
good stuff dude!
good one ..
but i thot the victim ran faster than the choor ..
victim had good long term memory .. recognized the face of the person who hit him ..
most amazing is .. he remembered the face of the thief.. though he was always behind chasing :D
Nice one. the story unfolds in an unexpected way. though the chase is long, not for a single moment did i feel like switching it off.
Thanks Mir, SG, Lax,Varun, Tushar.
Shekhar Simpi… I saw your artwork. Its awesome. You & Atul make a great team.
Amlan… very interesting observations… I like your lingo…Victim & choor.:d
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Last Film - Fresh Bait(7/10) French Film.
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Hey Mainak, the most diffcult thing is to pick up the camer n start rolling. most even dont do that. n yes,it works. nice one. thought the chase was percfclt fine…not long n not short. so, now show us the other ones…m waiting.
Yeah Phoenixnu… Thanks
I think OZ should have a non competitive short film section for all PFC authors & regular. In a week we had 4 films from authors.
Kya bolta?
OZ mujhe gaali de raha hoga apne bedroom se!
Mainak, what are the best software tools for video editing? I’m new to this, so what would you suggest?
very well shot Mainak!..all d best!
Well made film dude…very interesting… Keep it up!
Pratik
What kind of computer/laptop do you have? Mac or PC?
Right now Final Cut Pro seems to be the best when you take everything into consideration.
Thanks Ashish & Shubhendra!
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Last Film - The Italian Job(6/10)
@ Mainak
I have a PC
Pratik
I would suggest you get AVID ExpressPro(Student version). Its 300$. I bought it at http://www.academicsuperstore.com .
Its an awesome site for softwares.
The second choice would be Adobe Premiere. Its quite similar to Final cut Pro. I think the guy who created FCP has moved to Adobe and is working for Premiere.
Vegas is something a lot of PC people swear by. Though I have never used it. I don’t even know how it looks like.
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Last Film - SUPERBAD(9/10) THE BEST FILM of 2007 so far!
Hi Minak, Good attempt with the camera. My colleague was impressed. For a lay man like me the film was good. Please note I do not mean to intimidate you but I felt, the chase was too long.
nice film!!
pretty nostalgic … reminds me of old early days in LA
If it’s really your 1st short film…It’s pretty pretty good! Now forget about shorts and aim for the big one!!
Wow….
Machchar se tarif…. thats a rare thing here in PFC. I’m in heaven right now!
Seriously Machcharji after posting this on PFC & the encouragement i got from some people is making me inspired to finish my script & shot my feature asap!
Infact tonight I narrated my story to my GF & she liked it. Which is a big fuckin relief for me. Now i just have to write it!
Dhanyabad!
Dude…good trip.. i loved the music….sourab did a good role..i like the part whr the cam is on the other side of the road… i can see a little influence of pulp fiction in it…but its a good idea….hang in there bro…u got good scope..and all the best
Mainak, I seriously meant it. After watching the other shorts here on PFC and yours, one thing I see is the finish. Your short film has sophistication in cuttings and angles that others lack so much. So work on your script right away!
And btw, don’t narrate stories to your girl friend in the night… :D
Thank You Machchar!
Those are the best compliments i have recieved so far. I’m gonna post my other short soon. Though I think the Chase Film was the peak of my filmmaking so far. :)
Hey,
Finally got a chance to open the link today. I kinda like the twist :-ss (bit my nail clean):-j
On a serious note, few shots in the run were pretty cool… just wished there was a mini-stunt though. something like … running across an ongoing traffic [cars screeching], skidding or simply rolled over stuff(if its not too much). but damn good effort! what else have u got?
oh Yeah! I loved the track too! good pick.
Thanks Zarina….
I think you are asking for too much. Cars Screeching? running over ongoing traffic? It was guerrilla shooting. I don’t wanna get arrested. And I certainly don’t wanna cause an accident & pay for a brand new BMW.
Sorry Mainak for a delayed response. As I said to Pratim too, please do not consider it as negative comment.
Considering its your first short, I would say it is palateable. I liked the jump cuts (or whatever you say) when the guy was going back after he crashes on to the other guy. Though the length seem to be little long because of the un-inspiring run/chase scene. I would like you to remake it with more inspired/innovative and short chase scene. :d I want you to let loose your imagination something like wild. But I am intrigued that the shots are pretty darn good given the fact it is your first. The camera work was not amateurish as suggested by the title of the post “My first”.
Hey it’s a real good one. I simply loved the sound track. It’s really well in synced. Good luck to u :)>-
Thats a very proffesional looking 1st film. The choice of shots & the editing is as good as any cutting edge Hollywood/MTV movie. Where are your other shorts?
good one!!!
Cool one… As Zarina told a little would’v been good. Not cars screeching etc, but a liitle falling and rolling… :)
And the road-crossing definitely reminded me of Pulp Fiction. Please release your other shorts… ASAP.. :D