AGD - Shooting Pains

We just did the first shoot for my short film AGD (working title: A Great Date) this Saturday. It turned out to be one of those days that start on the wrong note. Having gone to bed about 0200 after a salsa party the previous night it was no surprise that I slept through the alarm and got up at 0710. Since my cab was booked for 0750, it was a cause for panic.

Then, as I should have expected, my printer refused to print the script. And I had no time to fiddle with it. I managed to get my filming kit packed in time for the cab and got to the station. Only to find that I had left my tickets at home! Fortunately, I always get to the station 30 minutes before train time and my house is only 5 minutes drive from the station. By grabbing a cab from in front of the station I was able to get the tickets from home. Just in time to board the train.

On the way to London I whatsapp'ed my team to ask if anyone could print a few copies of the script for me. Then I sat down and tried to create the shooting script which I had been too busy to create in the last few days. And wasn't able to create on the train either. It's not easy to do it on a tablet.



To add to this, one of my crew members had a personal emergency and messaged to say she's not coming. Okay.

I had a meeting in London about another project which went so well that it made me about 15 minutes late getting to the location for AGD. Most of my crew was there including a new MUA Julia Kass that I had just recruited a day before. But my DOP wasn't there and my sound man IM'ed to say he was running late, very late. He had the sound recorder and mic with him, and also his own camera that we use sometimes for shoots. Terrific!

And to make matters worse the very spot I had visualised to place my action, was taken by some men who thought Saturday was for hanging out in the park and drinking beer! But being a public park, I could not ask them to move or leave. But Brian had printed out the script copies and my DoP Cathrine arrived presently.

To get us started I blocked the scene with the actors in a close-by but different spot even though I could see it would work best at my chosen but now occupied spot. Then while the actors went for their make-up, camera department started their set up. I downloaded an app on my smartphone to use for sound recording, just to prepare for the worst case scenario.

But then things started to turn. Just as the cameras were all set up and my DoP was happy, the drinking men left the spot. As we moved the cameras to our favourite spot, my soundman Arun arrived. While we set up the sound gear and the third camera, the actors were ready. Actually they had been ready for a while and had been running lines with each other.

While all of this was good, the actors took the cake in this story. As soon we started shooting, they did the whole shot in one take! And let me tell you this was a difficult scene. It was long and dialogue was not in correct sequence with proper give and take as it would be intercut with another scene for the final cut.



Because of this there were places where the same person had to speak twice with no lines from the other person in between. And they managed all of that perfectly even giving me the right pauses for cutting in the right places. I had, of course, blocked and rehearsed the scene with them before and given them my notes, but even so, I was blown away!


The second part of the shoot was in Camden, in a restaurant that we like, and thanks to my actors we had time to break for lunch. The second scene went the same way. This one didn't have continuous action that could be filmed all in one go and there were some retakes but still it got done easily and quickly. I do have a kick-ass team!




I even had time to have a drink with my team before starting back from London.

Moral of the story for me is to always keep trying to make the best of the situation even when things seem to go to pieces. Oh, and to do my due diligence and pick good actors like I did this time! :)

Meet The Romi

Meet the Romi was such a fun project to shoot. It was literally a script that came out of nothing.

When I was young and lived in India, our locality was such that their was always a quarrel or two in the week on the crossroads near our house. My elder sister who had a great sense of humour used to enjoy watching those fights and if there was no fight in the street for 2-3 days, she would comment that she was missing the "shows".

One day I was thinking about that and the line came to my mind "Where I come from that's called entertainment!" And after that the script just wrote itself!

Casting for it was very funny as well. All my team members were of the opinion that I should do the role of Romi myself since I am, evidently, Indian. But I wanted the character to be a student, in early 20's to fit the story. Plus, I can't "do" an Indian accent to save my life. Yes, I know, I find it hilarious too, but after all these years in England my accent is a very bastardized mix of 50% English and 50% Indian accents.

We held auditions for this film and Ken was the first one to read for the part of Romi. His Indian accent was great and we just cast him there and then. We made the right choice! He was great as Romi.

The casting for the role of Natalie was also quite hilarious. We held the auditions in Central London in a public building with the camera and mic setup around a set of tables. There were 5 of us in the audition panel. There was a public performance going on nearby and there were a lot of people milling around. For the scene where Romi walks in on Natalie in the shower I wanted to see if the actress could scream convincingly. So, in my naivete, I asked the first actress to audition to give us a sample of her scream.

OH..MY..GOD!

She gave us a sample alright! When my ears stopped ringing I realized that all the people around us were still staring at us! Goes without saying that I didn't ask any of the subsequent actresses to scream. I had learnt my lesson!

If you watch the film you will see that the height difference between the actors playing Jack (Dave Frost) and Natalie (Claire Austin) is ludicrous. But they were both such good actors that we wanted to cast them rather than look for someone  more height compatible. I must say they worked out great!

Well, here is the link to the video, I hope you watch it and let us know how you like it. We have improved in our filmmaking since then but those old projects are still quite dear to us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq-TKUZ8kMw

The Show Must Go On

I have been hearing this phrase since I was a little boy - “The Show Must Go On”. As I grew up, I understood its meaning but didn’t really agree to it. Over the years I watched many different “shows” some of which earned my admiration and others my disdain, I wondered why must the show always go on.

What is the need for a show to go on if it’s really bad? What if the team behind the project has run into real difficulties, why should they make a superhuman effort just so the show can go on? These and other such questions came to my mind and for some time I decided the age-old maxim was not correct - the show must go on but only if it deserves it.

And then, I stepped into the filmmaking arena myself. In a very small way, I started doing the same things that all these filmmakers and TV producers and stage directors had been doing for years and years.  And...I started to learn!

In the short time I have been doing this I have learnt many new things. Lots of technical things, of course, but along with them some deep, philosophical things as well without which I doubt if anyone can become successful in the film industry.

One such thing is the real meaning of the expression - The Show Must Go On!

A film project, even a short film with no budget to speak of, involves many people. While the motivation and skill of these people varies greatly they do have one important thing in common - the project. They work together and give it their best to finish the project successfully.

Regardless of the worthiness of the project itself a lot of hard work goes into the project. There are undoubtedly difficulties on the way but they must be surmounted because giving up means letting down so many people. That’s one reason. There are others.

No matter how bad a show might be, if it gives rise to one cameraman, one director, or one writer, who in his/her turn goes on to make great works of art in the future, the show deserves to go on. And this is usually the case. I won’t cite examples because there are way too many, but we all know that good actors, good technicians or good filmmakers have come up from bad failures before.

A film is a work of art, it may be turn out to be a bad film but in the process of making it, it may teach some very valuable lessons to its makers. We all learn by making mistakes and during the course of one bad project one inexperienced director may step on the path to be the next Spielberg.

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For me the expression has very personal and alas tragic meaning.

When my first project “The Third Angle” was underway, I received news from home that my father had suddenly passed away. I have no words that would justify my emotions at the moment! I was very close to my father and this without the shadow of a doubt was the darkest, bleakest day of my life!

To make matters worse, my family lives in India and I was here in the UK. There was no way I could get there in time for anything!

To make matters still worse, I had second auditions scheduled for that night and my team had been working hard on the pre-production. The morning and afternoon hours were spent in a state that I don’t want to describe here but when coherent thinking returned I weighed my choices. I could cancel the project or I could go ahead with it.

I should mention that the project was on a very tight deadline in order to finish it before BFI deadline for short films for the London Film Festival 2011. My absence, since I was the writer and director, would hurt the project.

At that time, I began to realize many things at once.

I realized that I could not let my whole team down for my private grief, not to mention the actors we had already selected and the ones who were coming to audition tonight.

I realized that my father would have seriously disapproved of backing out of my commitment to these people.

I realized that I myself needed this project in order to keep myself distracted and keep my sanity.

I realized that not only I would have to carry on with the project, I could not even tell anyone about my private problems.

The post is getting long, let me conclude in brief. We had auditions that night and selected the remaining actors. I only told my friend Elaine, who was my first AD on the project and a close friend, that I would have to travel to India for a week and why. Elaine took care of rehearsals in my absence and I came back in time to start the filming.

We had many more problems with that project, but ultimately we finished it, I did post-processing on it myself and posted the DVD to BFI London Film Festival on the very last date!