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It can get pretty lonely out there, on a set - particularly the first time. On my first film which involved taking a bunch of very dedicated, professional yet raw foreigners to the wilderness of ladakh on a hopeless budget and a very guerrilla experience, in which I their ‘leader’ had really no filmmaking experience to rub together, it was baptism by fire - in this shoot, what could go wrong went wrong (more about those experiences if anyone’s interested later) and the feeling at the end was that of escaping by the seat of ones pants. The biggest threat in my mind during that seminal experience, apart from the natural and unnatural calamaties that struck our set, was the danger of the original vision and intention of the piece becoming diluted, of me not getting the movie I wanted.

I thought, as one of the first few posts I put up here, I may perhaps share some of these thoughts with you all, should any of you find them useful when you make your movies. So here goes:

Things I tell myself in times of trouble…

Come into a scene late, leave early - screenwriting, equally so for editing.

Every page written is $$$ on set.

Less is more.

Silence, instead of words.

Reveal, don’t explain.

Exposition is easy. Its a cop-out. And cinematically dull.

We rarely say what we want to say. We often say what we don’t mean. Why should it be any different with fictional characters. Write em like that.

There is interest and intrigue in deciphering a character’s intention. Don’t kill it with expositional dialogue. Heighten it. Leave some meanings open. It all adds to the mystique.

Dialogue should move things on.

Dialogue is not prose. Don’t explain. Show.

Brilliant dialogue ceases to be dialogue, it becomes a texture. Only if dialogue is brilliant but not moving things on, may you keep it for its own sake.

Most often, brilliant dialogue comes from an impulse of moving things on.

We ‘get-it’ pretty quick in real life - apply that to the writing. And when directing actors, how fast will ‘they’ get it?

Make each frame struggle hard for a place in the final film. Kill your darlings.

Use costumes / production design to tell the story of that scene. A green wall should be green for a reason. Not because its ‘nice’. That is a waste of potential.

Instinct and the right feeling is as good a reason (perhaps better) as any.

Camera / lights should be used proactively - the tools should never be passive in storytelling.

A good story, well acted with indifferent camera / production design is a waste of potential.

Tools can be used to enhance, to reveal, to counterpoint.

Understand not the tools but their effect for an audience.

A director needs to direct. Every thing on the screen is his/her responsibility.

Where to put the camera? Its a big decision and a small decision. If no flash of creative genius strikes, I put the camera in the most obvious position. Where would I like to see the scene from? And why? It helps to eliminate options if nothing else.

But if a flash of creative genius does strike then have it fulfilled no matter how hard, or how anyone argues to the contrary.

A director should be flexible, but very stubborn.

Fighting about creative choices is healthy. It shows struggle, more than that - people care.

A film made without strife is bland. Or an exercise at gaining popularity.

A film is judged by what’s on screen. Not what is seen and heard off it. That is the fodder of gossip columnists. A different kind of entertainment.

What is style? It is a series of decisions. Style is not imposed it becomes apparent through a body of work.

Best not to worry about having ones own style. A ’style’ shall emerge if it must. Meanwhile, lets make a movie.

For me, there is no such thing as good cinematography, bad story. Or good first half, boring second half. A movie works entirely or not at all.

Cohesion - not fragmentation.

Great movies are made up of great scenes. Get the scenes well written, dressed, lit and performed - edited. They should add up-to a good film.

What is a good scene - on a basic level, one that moves the story on, most economically.

Bad acting with some redeeming moments can be turned into a passable performance by good editing.

Brilliant acting will always shine through.

The job of the director? Giving an editor few choices.

The job of an actor? Giving an editor all the choices.

The job of an editor? Giving the director a new film.

The job of a writer? Accepting that there will be a different film on screen.

A film is made three times, at least (I think someone else also said something simmilar). On paper, on set, on the editing table.

Listening to suggestions, specially in the editing room is a sly art.

Read between the lines - feedback after a test screening is seldom a menu of changes on the editing table. A good editor can take ‘feeling’ and translate it into cuts / additions. Feeling (or Emotion - Walter Murch) should dominate all editing decisions.

The totality of the film must always be kept in mind. Scenes are there to be cut. If they are not they must really be doing a good job.

Always trying to separate the personal / emotional involvement from the movie, trying to watch the film objectively. Every-time I want to hold a shot longer than necessary or keep a scene that I think is good but not necessary - I walk across to my DVD library and look at the hundreds of films there. How much time did I give each of them? Did my attention wander? Will I ever watch them again? Soon my film will be among those. Among hundreds of thousands of other equally painstakingly, lovingly created cinematic works. Its a humbling statistic that could become overwhelming. But used in the editing room it is a powerful ally. It provides objective distance. Its the murder weapon used to kill my darlings. And kill them I must.

Eventually it will not matter in some senses what I left out. What will matter is what was left in. Not even that. All that will matter is if I am able to transmit the feelings I had when writing the film to the audience that is trooping out of the theatre.

Great shots and good scenes are only great and good if they make something of the entire film, contribute to the meta-goal. Anything outside that is superfluous. And should be struck.

That is where great writing comes in. A great screenwriter is clairvoyant. He/she can ensure that all his great scenes are used in the final picture. That is experience, to go through the process, analyze then write something sharper.

If a scene does not add anything on paper (but is a great scene with great promise of performances and camerawork) it should be struck from the script. It costs $$$ to film each page, every word that the screenwriter puts down. Money can be limiting, we hear a lot about the scarsity of funding for good cinema.

How about using that limitation to ones advantage. Lets use money (or the lack thereof) to produce a better, sharper, more economical screenplay. A better film? I think its a great idea.

Creativity flourishes within limitations. Look at Iran. Censorship defines their parameters very narrowly. But what genius!

We need limitations. Money is one.

Is that the problem with a lot of Hollywood tripe thats seen these days? Do they have too many rolls of film and too many cameras. Do they cover every scene from every possible angle. Does the director have to think hard about what part of which scene he/she is going to shoot. Or do they just film the whole damn thing. Then let studio execs decide in the cutting room which scenes should stay, how they should be cut together. The era of the interchangeable director. Where there is no limitation, there are few decisions.

I want to be making good decisions based on the circumstances. Its never easy. But it can be very rewarding.

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