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This is not much of a detailed post.  Just a brainstorm on how some small amount of experimentation is carried out before done on a full blown scale in cinema.

Prototyping : Wikipedia explains it thus:

“Prototyping is the process of quickly putting together a working model (a prototype) in order to test various aspects of a design, illustrate ideas or features and gather early user feedback. Prototyping is often treated as an integral part of the system design process, where it is believed to reduce project risk and cost. Often one or more prototypes are made in a process of iterative and incremental development where each prototype is influenced by the performance of previous designs, in this way problems or deficiencies in design can be corrected. When the prototype is sufficiently refined and meets the functionality, robustness, manufacturability and other design goals, the product is ready for production.”

Before you go thinking that this guys has pasted the text into the wrong window, I would like to clarify that the underlying concept applies to any organized form of thinking that could result in a tangible product for public consumption.

How the heck does this apply to Film making?

I am not a film maker myself, but I am trying to rationalise the thought processes here as a guy who watches films and appreciate little things that I can relate to. I am again trying to relate this through two examples:

Instance 1: Kamal hassan in Punnagai Mannan. He plays dual role in the movie of Sethu, the depressed lover who survives a suicide attempt to carry on with mental scars and “Chaplin” Chellappa, his paternal uncle who mimicks Chaplinesque antics. In a particular scene which is totally unrelated to the main plot (K.Balachander has this trademark habit of having scenes that almost are separate tracks - example Charlie’s cmedy track in Vaaname Ellai), Chaplin chellappa becomes a dwarf to amuse a little girl in a shop. This particular scene becomes an instant hit and Kamal goes on to employ this into a full scale movie to give us the unforgettable “Appu” in Apoorva Sagodharargal. While Appu and Apoorva Sagodharargal are still talk of the town, this particular prelude to ‘Appu’ remains ‘dwarfed’.

Instance 2: Before Maniratnam was the big sensation, he was a director trying ot establish himself with production houses in the south, trying to make movies that ever so slightly were out of the formula, but still stuck to the mainstream dicktats. One such movie he made for Sathyajothi combines (who had earlier made Moondram pirai) was ‘Pagal nilavu’. I remembered this movie, thanks to Baradwaj Rengan(in his blog) mentioning how a confrontation scene between the hero (played by wiry murali) and the police inspector (played by ever so dignified Sarath Babu) and how it was later bettered as the confrontation scenes in Agni Nakshathram. However what stuck me was the main villain role played by Sathyaraj. Guy known to play villainic roles with his comic casual touch, played the role derived from Godfather - the local don. His pauses, body language and poise all so different from usual cinema villains and more closer to the grey shades of a don as shown in Godfather. This treatment meets with a good amount of success and officially Pagal nilavu is the first hit of Maniratnam in manstream tamil movies. He goes on to improvise the character sketch for his ambitious and successful movie ‘Nayagan’. If one notices Velu nayakkar and the character essayed by Sathyaraj in the movie, you can observe how many layers of toppings have been added on by Mani and Kamal to make the impact more deeper and profound.

There is another thing that Kamal’s master KB used to do. Which is reimplementing a failed plot device or character at a later point of time to see if that works. As an example, there was a movie “Velli Vizha” (Silver Jubilee) where Gemini ganesan’s motherless children develop an affection to the character played by Vanishree, who has to go to a different country due to a dischord between her and Gemini ganesan. She keeps abreast of things happening in the family by way of mails and in a sort of way guiding them and providing emotional support remotely (talk about working remotely). The movie was a failure and no one took note of this sub plot. Years later KB would repply this in his movie where Suhasini Maniratnam plays the protagonist, ‘Manadhil urudhi Vendum’, where Suhasini plays the role of an elder sister who is the only responsible breadwinner working as a nurse in Chennai.

Let us recollect if such prototyping has been done in different areas of film making by various masters, if so how and why?…