News of a Short Film
I have been gazing at my navel really badly for the past few weeks and even my work life has been a little hectic. I have been hearing great things from production houses but none seem to take it forward. At this semi frustrating state, I decided to do what motivates me the most…A Short film over the Weekend..Yeah Baby..Yeah..
A short film over the weekend. This is one kick-ass adrenalin surge activity for me & I reach a sort of nirvana when I am in the process. The action, the activity, the heat, the unavailability of anything and everything, this keeps me in such a Kwan (refer to Jerry McGuire for this word) for some time to come. Tiger had his club, Jordan has his hoop, Sachin has his bat, Schumi has his car & I have my pleadings to one and all for technicians, equipment, actors, music, lyrics, make-up & what not. As they all are good at their field, I am extremely good at pleading for stuff. So starts a new cycle of activity for me
My first short film was a quasi thriller and relationship move. The second was a warm relationship move and I wanted the third film to be a gangster flick and hence decided to write one on a topic I had been carrying with me for sometime.
Ever Since I got back to full-time work, I have become slovenly and really lazy towards writing (read tapping away on a laptop, my handwriting’s shit). So on May 1st got cracking on this script with no name. It should pan out for about half an hour. The movie is set in contemporary India and I have decided to do this in Kannada. English is so good when read but when spoken it sometimes does not add the local flavor as Kannada or Hindi could do. So this is going to be in Kannada. Vinay Krishnaswamy, My muse :-) has gracefully and quite happily agreed to translate this to Kannada. Knowing Vinay, he will add his own strengths to it also. I love this team I work with. Srinivas (KSri) has agreed to write a song for this. In my earlier movies, we only used a BG and in this we want to sort of get the ball cracking on the lyrics front. KSri is conversant in both Urdu & Kannada. He is ok to write in either of the languages. We intend to go with a mixed bag for this. Music is proving to be a difficult task as usual. I will most probably need to beg with Saikat Roy & the team of Total Mukti this time also. Last time round for Long Drive, Shankar (again from Total Mukti) had given some really amazing music and the end credit bit was fantastic according to me. So I will start to plead with them. Paramesh has agreed to be the Cameraman and since he is one of the most enthusiastic technicians I have ever seen, he has also taken on the responsibility of getting the Equipment and lights for the shoot. He is a great guy to have on your team. His enthusiasm is intoxicating and he tends to work on anything. I remember, he washed and cleaned the house we were shooting in for “What-If” when he did not have to. That boy has hunger and talent. I know that for sure. We plan to use a DSR-400 DV CAM for this shoot. The last time, we used a HD Prouser and the problem was the editing, there are not many HD Recorders in Bangalore and one of the guys who had it charged me a lot of money. In terms of the direction Crew, I shall be directing it & Mala for having married me many years back has to bear the burden of being the Associate (which refers to being on the set all the time, getting food, noting down continuity, bearing my sarcasm, helping in Editing & what not). In Post Production, Harsha might do the beginning credits and DVD cover for this movie also. Knowing him, I will have to plead, cajole, beg, shout to get it as it would have gone into his In Tray at the bottom. I plan to do the editing in OM Production where Avinash & Ravi will do a great job on this in terms of editing.
In terms of casting Vinay, who was the lead in both my earlier movies will be acting in this also. As he is on the heavier side (He just cannot diet) & looks way mature (read older than his age) this role fits him like a glove. He is cast against Rakshith Shetty, another buddy of mine and an upcoming hero in the Kannada Movie Industry. The other main character is done by Ksri (he is an old theater guy and can act very well. He is more prone to lectures and threatens in rehearsals but still has his heart in the right place) and much to everybody’s negativity against my acting, I shall also be doing a role in this movie :-) I call it the Hitchcock school of learning.
For location, I thought this up even before I wrote the script. My Doddappa (Father’s elder brother) has a stately house (70’s look) which fits the location in the script very well. There is a tenant staying there but I have somehow persuaded to get the house for 2 days to shoot this film. It’s closer to my house and will be perfect. There is a requirement to shoot in a Barber’s shop also and my Barber has kindly agreed to give it on a Sunday Afternoon after the entire crowd is gone. We will shoot there also.
So this is in a nutshell the initial plan for my short film which still does not have a name. Vinay & I are fighting to fix one for this. Of course all of this can go wrong and a completely different set of people will help out and get this project done. This is the beauty of guerrilla art of filmmaking and one that I love best.
More on this endeavor in succeeding posts and will post this movie here also once it’s done.
Cheers,
Deepak
Tags: filmmaking, Opinion, Short Film
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All the best Deepa. Sounds exciting.
awesome.. reading this pumped me up even more to finish my script (good news is that i’ve started after IFFLA really got the adrenaline going). looking forward to the product.
All the best Deepak … plss keep us posted .. esp the name !!! eager to know !!!