For one of my last short films "Ghoda 22" i did not storyboard. Every scene was shot according to performance and with respect to space. However this time it was a complicated story. (Not as complicated as Ghoda 22) but in its own space it was hard to communicate this content. So i boarded every shot. Storyboard is just the beginning of the visual. However in this short film because of time and location restriction i had to stick to it. This will make the film less organic since the film is not derived at the set but on a drawing board. A drawing board and shooting location are entirely different mediums. However this time I had to stick to this process. It was money versus time
The film is taking shape and is 70 percent of what is expected. .
Will update more on pre-production in the blog
Let me admit this on, I am people shooter. That means I shoot people. I shoot people and their relation with a landscape. I do not shoot landscape. (well sometime i do) but for me the story of a place is incomplete without someone in it.
students with artwork in craft class
So this is the part where i am shooting a school, it's infrastructure-architecture and people. The school owner-manager-friend Arjun Sivakumar is a man with a vision on education. The vision he has envisaged is a by product of the thought process of Dr. Nirmala (principal) coupled with his outlook as a traveler entrepreneur and artist. ShantiniketanCBSE school peyad is one of its kind in the state of Kerala.
When I was asked to take some pictures of the school for its website I was more than happy.
We rented Kino Flo 400 Lighting Kit which were never used except for one or two instances.
The biggest energy was meeting the students and shooting with them. The hallways corridors took me back to my school days in Arya Cenral school.
We shot an entire day.
This is the third school I have shot.
nb: pics are color corrected and is a property of Shantiniketan school
the shantiniketan school
when phenopthalene show its true color
arjun sivakumar
this one was not clicked by me
fish eye.Love the clouds
focal lengths
clouds
school days for ever
Shot on Canon 6D with Nikon 50mm 1.4 (CP) and a russian fish eye lens (name I cant rememenber since I shot it last august)
Unni Mohan (friend designer visionary) call me up and wonder
what I am doing. I am relaxed on a balcony in Pondicherry skeptical about the
feature film I am making. He wonders if I am free to shoot a promo teaser for a
scale model of the ‘Varanasi naav’.
A scale model floating with the floating lamps of varanasi
will be a good visual I suggest him. This can be shot in Kochin. A few days of
talks and discussions and I go to meet Unni and his Boss Jeevan .
Samudra is a pioneer in boat making industry in the south.
Unni took me into the hull of a fishing boat as big as a bus or twice. I have
fever. I take a train from trivandrum and get down at Cherthala and go to
Samudra office in Kochi. Jeevan explains his requirement and I have my
storyboard ready which is approved. I made it in the train on my way to Kochi.
The last time they ever made a video was some 15 years back
or so with Rajiv Ravi as the filmmaker.
Now I need to be careful.
Boarding the Varanasi train from Mumbai I had a lot of
expectations. An assistant was supposed to join me in Varanasi. He didn’t.
The best part of the project was waiting for the morning and
evening light. I would wake up at 5.30amand wait for the light and made a light
intensity chart. This is usually prepared by me since I use daylight in most
videos. The chart is accompanied by
photographs and two days observation. Rains usually change this plan. I have a
back up led light and a big mirrors to reflect sun. The sun was faithful and didn’t trash my
footages.
Technically, The video was shot on Canon Full frame Dslr
with an old cineprime Nikon 50mm lens and also a wide angle 35mm Helios lens. Both lenses are older than
me. This would give a painting like look and also a clumsy careless retro look.
(the color fade out look with low contrast I wanted for the place).
Design Objective--The final visualized video should give
feel of Varanasi and should introduce the souvenir boat. It should also introduce samudra.
Packaging- he most important contribution to the whole
package was done by Ajmal Hasbulla the music director who took the visuals to a
whole new level.
Sound design was done by Sam Santosh.
Met Rishab Dwivedi in Varanasi ( friend painter artist human )
The advertisment paid some of my bills and there is bliss too.
Samudra Shipyard cochin famous in the ship building sector in south india is working with the Sankat Mochan Foundation at Varanasi. As a tribute to the Hon`ble Prime Minister's Clean Ganga Drive, Samudra Shipyard have decided to contribute a portion of sales proceeds to the Swatch Ganga Abhiyaan.
direction camera edit
Krishand
Music Direction
Ajmal Hasbulla
Sound Design and Mixing
Sam Santosh
Vocals
Sarath Baby
Associate Editor
Girish Atuvalaipil
Production Controller
Rakhil Akkali
Colorist
Hari Prime Associate Cinematographer Shyamin Gireesh Associate Editor Rakesh Cherumadam
When I started working on Ghoda all the characters were
clear in my head. These are characters from my feature film (in the making - Mullu Murudu Moorkhan pambu). I wanted to
experiment and play with the characters. But more important than that I wanted
to hold conversations that will all lead to something. Some directors put conversations
which don’t lead anywhere but they become so interesting that they stand out
and fascinate audiences everywhere. However in ghoda everything had to lead
somewhere. Two people in car will not talk about their favorite movie or how
they scored the best stash in town. They will talk about things that will
decide their fate.
The second and most important aspect of the film was that it
should be silly. Not ridiculously silly but silly however. People buying a gun
like they buy a sari or dupata. Bargaining firearms like it is fish. How the
perpetual violent underworld is not as violent as the family life. How every
man is an island but how every island makes a pattern. How silly to watch
something which should still make sense but won’t linger once the film is over.
How it should cinema and not cinema.
The third experiment was controlling pace of the film
through performance rather than relying on an editor. This is the net result of
reading “In the blink of an Eye” where performance alone is the key to
storytelling and every visual and every audible detail only adds to these
performances. It is not a dance where people keep thinking about how the
filmmaker achieved this piece but rather they should be grooved in the essence
of the scene. Another aspect that I wanted to push was that the scene will not
end when the audience expects it to end. There will always be a 2 minute more
of conversation and that too relevant conversation.
Ranjan Raj as chotu the driver
Ranjan Raj as chotu the driver
Rahul Rajagopal swimming accross Tsunami island malvan
Ram Menon improvising on the mood and emotion of his character
Script reading
MOnika as Sandhya
Amol Pathare as Mudali
Ram Menon
Sushant Shetty
Monika Sharma and Ranjan Ran out of character
The wide shot suggestion by Rahul Rajagopal works kickass
The early morning crew Guru Charan, Girish and actor jamshed
There is a religious side to the film too which I would like
to say a ‘balanced violence’. The gun is being fetched by muslim gun seller. (How
sterotype of me). The gun seller sells it to his boss who is a tamilian hindu sri ram sena man. His assistant is a
myopic moral policing hindu hoodloom. The lady who buys the gun is na a whereas the person who helps her buy it is a hindu who is referred
to as a non-believer in one of the scenes. The other thought put in the movie
is that no one should notice these religions and if they do I have failed.
My basic chaos in not believing in any philosophy but curios
to everything happening around will reflect in all my work which eventually
makes it lacking in a singularity of philosophy. I am yet to overcome this.
