REEL

'Every two years I Will make my reel' i thought in college.
I didn't make one in the last two years.

My new reel doesn't include animation works and corporate videos.
Do check

Monsoon Mumbai shoot

What are deadlines ?

When prof. Sudesh Balan spoke to me about making a video for a conference, I never thought that this was going to be one of the toughest projects that I would have to handle. The project brief was “ Themes like incredible India can be there initially. Aspects of Mumbai city, transportation system scenario followed by IIT Bombay can be included. A fitting conclusion needs to be there. “.

The powai skyline which never fails to impress

Inside the airport i had my camera switched on

You could see the settlements behind the airport

When the plane moved like a drunk dragon in the monsoon i take a silent oath never to fly again

As i landed back I knew i would fly again

Onlooker amidst traffic

Smoking in trains prohibited - Ajith

The powerpoint presentation was really helpful.

I spoke initially to prof. Vedagiri  of iit-bombay (a veteran in the area of transportation )who wanted me to have a meeting. I went ahead and booked my ticket or as I would say I asked my friend and partner (Rakhil Akkali) to book a bus ticket for me. I made a script and got a first draft of the voice over written by me and edited by Kiron Rajendran. (friend, writer).  However things didn’t go as expected. Syama (wife –friend- designer) asked me if I wanted to go and spent 10 days in Mumbai on an unconfirmed project . I decided not to do the project. Given there are difficulty of the 14 day dead line and the heavy downpour in Mumbai. My editor Rakesh was also busy with his screening at Ocenama film festival so inevitably he could not find time. Rakesh attended the meeting with professors of IIT  on my behalf. I was present on Skype. Sam Santosh (sound designer –photographer- friend) was key to getting this meeting arranged.

The project was soon commissioned and me and Ajith (writer – photographer – friend) reached Mumbai. Meanwhile I had called Akhil Sasidharan (cinematographer) and asked him if he could supply me with a set of visuals. From here things went flipside

1. The camera rental people at Accord (from where I have rented throughout my life) said they could not give me the equipment since I didn’t have a Mumbai residential proof.
2. The heavy rains would not give us a chance to get out and shoot.
3. We were almost drenched and equipment got heavily soaked in rain.
4. Me and Ajit almost survived a storm in the sea between Mumbai and Uran.
5. There was no power when we were shooting interviews
6. Sound recorder didn’t work at the right moment and Sam handled it nicely.
7. I got sea-sick
8. Rakesh got busy with his work and couldn’t  give a crisp first draft.
9. Prof. Vedagiri  and prof. Rao could not understand our intend and we got strong feedback.
10. Akhil's visuals didn’t come out as expected.
11. IIT transport department couldn’t  get us permission to shoot. Even permission to shoot in campus was not received.
12. My visuals came out of focus most of the time.
13. Ajit was having troubles with his virtual friends and fans and couldn’t contribute creatively as much as I expected.
14. Tripods were heavy. Very Very Heavy
15. Music had to be rushed
16. Client could not understand difference between first draft – line up – etc
17. I was asked to take an aerial video of iit from you-tube video and insert it in the video by prof. Vedagiri. i asked the owner for permission he never responded. IIT said it is their right. We stole it. 
18. Sound had to be rushed.
19. Jishnu’s camera gave strobes in visuals
20. Payment got a little delayed.

The video came out better than expected.  These were pointers to the video quality and how it became good. 

1.   Rakesh did a decent job in cutting out the right  things
2.       I bought stock footage and used them
3.     Ajmal my music director did an exceptional job in giving a high quality music in just 24 hours
4.      Sam had mixed the sound on the go and got a good mix
5.     Akhils visuals looked better when color corrected.
6.    Neelima Haridas and her voice was just one hell of a life saver.
7.    I had fast internet so did Rakesh and we coordinated
8.      We delivered on time even though we were two hours late. (which is kind of Ok)

The file we delivered was taken 5 hours before the professor’s boarded flight to Hong Kong for the WCTR conference.

What I learnt?

1.     No project is easy as it sounds.
2.     If you need clean visuals of a city in the monsoon it is impossible.
3.    Drones don’t fly in the rain.
4.       Your vision should be your team’s vision and if in any case they don’t match you should talk to them.
5.   Clients  may not be able to imagine as much as you do so do not try hard to make them imagine.
6.     Music makes a lot of difference.
7.    Always –always have back up options

A special thanks to Sam Santosh who help me pull it off. Warm thanks to prof, Vedagiri to give control to us by the end  so that we could freeze on the edit and do the video on time. A great salute to Ajmal for being the superman he is and thanks to Jishnu for the catch up visuals. Rakesh did the job of the title graphics artist-editor-even cinematographer at times.

It was kind of an impossible task to pull such a project in ten days in the monsoon but we did a healthy job.

Would I do such a project in a a short time again?

YES … and I will do better.  We will do better.

The World Conference on Transport Research has been held every three years since 1977. The 14th World Conference will be held 10-15 July 2016 in Shanghai, China at Tongji University, which will host the Conference at its main campus. The WCTRS Young Researchers’ Conference will take place on 10 July 2016.
The aims of the conference are to offer a unique opportunity to bring together experts in all aspects of transport research, from all parts of the world and to stimulate the exchange of ideas in the broad field of transport research.

Prof Vedagiri sir and the HOD did their best to pay money on time. It was a big pleasure working for them especially the trust given to my team for successful completion.


The video is for WCTR 2019 conference to be held in IIT mumbai



Direction
Krishand

Edit
Rakesh Cherumadam/Neelavelicham

DOP
Akhil Sasidharan
Krishand
Rakesh Cherumadam
Jishnu T

Sound Mixing and Sync recording
Sam Santosh

Music Drection
Ajmal hasabaullah

Singer
Sarath Baby

Associate Director
Ajith Kesavan Haridas

Camera Rentals
Accord Equipments

Travel Management
Koteswar Rao

Concept
prof- vedagiri
Prof Rao
Krishand
Rakesh C

Feedback
prof Tom
prof Rao
prof Sudesh

Aeriel Footage Courtsey
iitb Civil
Sidharth Maurya (used under direction of iitb civil department)

Permissions
Veda Sankar
Hari Patekar

Stock footage courtsey
Pond5
Shutterstock

As a part of the video I had to interview the director of IITB. After the interview he asked me what I was doing. I told him that I am an independent filmmaker. He asked me if i am working in a company. I rephrased again that i am a freelancer. "How can someone survive as a freelancer ?. How can you survive " he spoke with a laughter that had surprise and tease. When the director of IIT has such an outlook no wonder most students leave the country to earn money. :-) (just an afterthought)

Souvenirs

I can't call myself much of a painter-sketching person. But yes I can draw. I can draw from memory and sometimes I get it right.

The Cannes film festival had taken me and my art director to Europe. Syama , my wife did the art direction for the short film. The Short film corner was exciting but  Europe as a whole was a visually different 'dictionary'.

Souvenirs

Syama and I had plans to visit Europe and Cannes was a good reason. I guess the real reason must be Paris. I had started scribbling in the notepad I got along with the stationary kit from Cannes.

I will post the photos taken in a future post but these are the scribbles made .  They are not finished products. But they help me remember.

Antibes - in French Riveria - the railway station and Alps

The blue beaches of Monaco and the trains

Milan and Nice

Dinner at Anitbes

arc de triomphe

The jellyfish at the musée oceanographique de monaco

The metro at Milan 

Break fast - Croissants <3 yum

As we left Paris there were floods

Made with gel-pen -  - brush pen - Indian ink - photo transparent colors

Loved the moments.

CONVALASCENCE

How dependent is an independent filmmaker?

No filmmaker is independent. He is dependent on 100 factors external . However a filmmaker not backed by a production house is independent etymologically.

Recovering  from an injury is always a tough especially when you are filmmaker.  I am sitting in front of my laptop after canceling a shoot since I couldn’t possibly travel and shoot. I passed on the shoot to a fellow filmmaker.  However I wanted to shoot something.

From the distant horizon came – the Ziman app film making competition with a 3 Lakh prize money. (2.4 after the tax is cut).  I got excited and  enrolled. However the last date was 20^th March and I had just 6 more days to make it. I gave up the idea. The Ziman- app is not much of a help and its user experience and design is amateur.

Later I got a call from the Ziman people who had my number when I registered for the contest and asked me if  I am willing to participate. Somehow I felt positive and spoke to my friend Rakesh (who was also  editor in the last short film I did) if he can do the edit within two days.

All we had was 5 days.

My wife who is always energetic was ready for the game but we didn’t have time to audition an actress and an actor. We decided to play both characters ourselves and shoot each other ( This was funny and we loved it) .

I rented a Rokinon 16 mm F 2 for the wide shots and two fluid drag head tripods. The video was shot on a Canon 6d with a Nikon 50mm Vintage lens, Carl Zeiss 35mm Barel on Standard Profile.

We shot in two nights and I  ignored my back injury. Syama (wife,artist ,costume- designer  and makeup) did her own costume and make up. We bought lights from a nearby store and arranged the lighting. However when we came back to shoot there was no power since it rained Cats and Dogs in Bengaluru. 

Somehow we cleaned the mess and shot all night  till 5 am in the morning. By morning Rakesh sat on the edit and by the same evening we had a rough draft. We got voice over done from voice over artist Neelima and music was done by Ajmal Hasbullah in a single night. Sam Santosh did the sound design and mixing. We were ready with video by 19^th when Ziman changed the date of submission to 31^st of March. The entire team was heartbroken since we had stretched ourselves too far to achieve everything on time.

Rakesh started reworking on the edit and made it sharper and on 25th March we uploaded the video.

But Ziman  contest rules kept on changing. The first rule was the video shouldn’t be more than two minutes. A lot of videos which made to last round however were more than two minutes. Second rule was to explain the applications features. This was also not satisfied by most of the videos.

Suddenly Ziman call-representative called  up and said that the initial  screening was based on peoples vote through social media. There were around 58 videos and 30 videos with maximum number of votes would go to the jury round. This was an unscientific approach just to get as many contacts and email addresses and not a genuine filtering method.  Rakesh and Sam  got us votes from their circle. Saira (friend, designer and painter) got her friends to vote for it. Dheerej spread it within his circle and got as many votes as he could and my students in SHC voted for us from all their accounts (Most of them had multiple accounts). Syama  got a lot of votes for the video from her colleagues and friends.

The Jury for the next round was an eminent director Duo who selected ten films for a final round. We made it to the final round. However it is to be noted that final round was again left for voting. This was unscientific and manipulative. By then Syama  had lost her faith in the competition. However I was still hopeful.

The final nail on the coffin came when one of my acquaintance from an older shoot called me up and said that he can make me win and get all the votes but he needs a percentage cut from the win. I called up my producer (Rakhil  - friend –photographer – partner ) to tell about the deal but I had lost faith in the competition by now. Rakhil asked me if we should jeopardize all the hard   work we put into the video by resorting to such means and if the win is worth the means. Syama had already asked me this question. I decided to withdraw and not work on getting votes. We didn’t need the money anymore.

All together the video got 250 plus votes whereas the winning video got 3000 plus ( I still wonder why I have 2000+ friends on my social media network ). There were a lot of hues and cries from other participants who were leading in vote count initially, when they were suddenly overtaken by videos which had a few votes. Participants suspected manipulation by Ziman. Somebody even posted it on the fb page which disappeared miraculously

.  Anyway I was out of it. Rakesh who had dedicated a week of his time also gave up.

Lessons learnt –

Never participate in web  voting based completion.

The happiness of an art work is far greater than money.

Me and Syama worked together once again after ‘Sinners at the goddess abode” and me and Rakesh could get a common ground in terms of pacing the edit.

Thanks to all who voted…

Sinners at an abode

In 35 days I was getting married. I was busy searching for a house in Bengaluru. The house which we liked was somehow not convincing enough and arranging money was also difficult. The rains in Bangalore were getting worse. One of the days I got stuck in a traffic jam for 4 hours. I was in a bus crowded with software engineers, lucky enough to put the left cheek of my ass on a cushion. There were already three people in that seat. Inside the bus a thought kept hovering around me. “What if this is it ? What if the rest of my life is going to be in a crowded bus stuck in traffic with the nausea of morning perfumes collating with evening sweat.”  My feature films current producer pretended to be interested but he was misleading. Two big actors had already said no. (By ‘BIG’  I meant they are relatively popular in the malyalam film industry and not known anywhere else in the world )

As the bus became suffocating and the rain worse I thought about my schooldays and my visits to the temple. I had become an atheist in between and then a pagan. I get so confused with religion that I pray to god to help me out. (J). I haven’t shot anything in the last month. The random thoughts that appeared were sublime, momentary and gone. I grabbed the  sketchpad which Unni (friend- designer- artist- human) had gifted me earlier that month and started writing things down. By the end of the journey I had structure.

The next day I got stuck in the same traffic for 3 hours but this time I was equipped. I had installed Celtx in my phone and started writing the script for my next short film. The name “Bhagavathykaavile paapikal”  was jotted down a day before I went to sleep. If I come up with an idea I talk to people (close friends and filmmakers). There are various viewpoints on every subject. Once I understand people’s viewpoints I go ahead and put my ideas on paper. Some of this may conflict with others view points and some resonate. There is research involved in the topic both field work and library work. Bhagavathykaavile Papikal was a product of some research I had done while on a recce trip to Ajanta. I also came across people who sell and buy religious goods. (camphor, agarbathi, cloth) in Banaras which inspired me on how religion is a source of living for a lot of people. The first draft was made in a crowded bus. The subsequent drafts where designed and made taking a lot of rehearsals with myself.

Syama deciding whether to use the crown or not

The entire team 

Rahul Rajagopal, Vishnu haridas, Arjun Sreekumar, Vishnu Renjith

Vishnu Haridas, Krishand (Me) and Syama (art director -wife)

Rahul Rajagopal and Krishand (me) 

I don’t believe that every film should have a purpose. As someone who takes film-making seriously’ films not having purpose’ may seem a pedestrian thought. Bhgavathykaavu is something that was in my head. As a person whose philosophy keeps changing rapidly and contradicting itself I would say at the time of envisaging the film my idea was something to say about religion. In this social-political-religious climate I felt it important to state what I think about religion. I believe that there is a force in nature and that’s why we Malayalis worship trees, suns, snake and rain. (This force might be something we created to give us hope.) I am disturbed by the fact that these forces are used for monetary political benefits and have become an albatross around our neck. In the film a trapped goddess tries to escape from her temple. She is helped by two sinners. Sins are relative and hence god is not worried about the sins of these sinners. She selfishly wants to escape her followers. In the last 6 months my philosophy has changed so looking at the film I could see a more clearer me. It was a personal narrative exploration with my own religious philosophies and that might be the purpose.

The best part were the discussions i had with Rahul Rajagopal and Vishnu Haridas which helped me question my choice of content.

Cast

Raman Nair- (character name)

The character is played by G. Radhakrishnan Nair a retired inspector at Kerala road transport cooperation. He is also popular for his characters in amateur theatre circle of 1980’s. Being a poet and a performer it was quite for him to assume the character. My father.

George Mathew –(character name)

The character of corrupt police officer is played by Rahul Rajagopal an assistant manager at HDFC Ernakulam. He has previously been a part of several short films and performance art.

Bhagavathy –(character name)

Played by Kavitha S Nair who has done three short films previously in the leading role. She is a classical dancer and a model currently working in Infopark  Nila.

Radhakrishnan Nair, Rahul Rajagopal and Kavitha S Nair

Editor -------Rakesh Cherumadam is an editor from Ernakulam currently settled in Mumbai. He has edited numerous short films and a few documentaries. He is also the founder of Neelavelicham studio an enclave for independent filmmakers.

Music Director  ---------Ajmal Hasbulla

Ajmal Hasbulla

Sound Designers ------ Rameez Ibrahim , Kiran Sasi.

Art Direction and Costumes Design   ----------Syama is a costume designer with a clean sense of colors and design. She is into understanding color and texture and using them to achieve subtle details in costumes. (My wife.)

Make up and Art consultant    ---Nagaroor Mohandas –The experimental stage show Panchajanyam from the troop Kalapeedham was designed and created by Nagaroor Mohandas. As an expert in ‘Achara Anushtana Kala’ he contributed to the overall feel of characters and its makeup.

Nagaroor Mohandas

Sound Foley and Effects ----------- Ambu R

Ambu R

Associate DOP

Vishnu Haridas

Vishnu Haridas

Assistant Direction

Rahul Rajagopal

Vishnu Ranjith

Produced by

Akhil Vinayak

Co-produced by

Rakhil Akkali

Rinu Krishna

Vijay Bosco

SoundStudio

Ministry of movies trivandrum (dubb)

Puja sounds kochi (dub and mix)

Additional editing lab

Sacred Hearts Tavera

Script Consultant

Ajith Kesavan Haridas

executive producer

Ajith Kesavan Haridas

Kiran Sasi

Snake abode violin

Biju

Radhakrishnan Nair(dad) waiting for the train shot beside a temple in varkala

Rahul taking position for the train shot 

kavita in a casual conversation just before the take

Unhappy about

I am not happy with the sound. My favorite sound designer was busy on another project and hence sound lacked its brilliance. There are places where the dubbing feels hollow and in the studio. Especially in the shouting scenes. The ambiance mixing of waterfall was not done though Rameez did his best. Kiran Sasi oversaw the sound and helped it gain atleast the shape it has. Still not happy

i am also not  a big fan of the performance of the convict character played by my Dad. The whole thing was supposed to be funny ended up looking serious. Also Kavitha hadn't rehearsed her lines and could only perform as if she was reading it out. BY the end of the film it changes however to a comfortable performancebut in the beginning there is this big flaw. However a lot of foreigners loved her performance and mentioned about it in their feedback. The whole thing was also rushed because of the rain hence actor comfort level was lacking too.

The edit could have been sharper but we had a race with time. I am so happy with Rakesh eye.

The movie was not color corrected. Just recovered from 'neutral' profile to vivid.

Afterword

The key to this film is the space.  The space being an abode. (kaavu). There is a temple near to a waterfall and its add to the pagan outlook of the film. The film is about how these spaces in nature where taken up by man and worshiped. Later came places of worship because humans need a face/personality for beliefs. These places of worship soon lost its purpose of originally worshiping that nature and evolved into autocratic religious institutions where nature is trapped. This trapped nature-goddess had to be shown in effectively isolated environmental panache which the location provided.

The movie was shot at Irunutty waterfalls (aka MEENMUTTY falls) in KALLARA, MULLAKARa, Trivandrum , Kerala. The content being environmental and spatial had to be shot in its natural pristine niche.

Has it made me a better man. Time will tell. :-D

Stage 2 - SCREENPLAY 7& STORYBOARDING WORKSHOP-SHSC

The stage 2 screenplay ended with mixed feelings. It became more of a science class than a screenplay writing workshop with students. at Sacred Hearts school of communication Tavera.

Most of these naive students are in their bachelors. A handful of them were really interested in the class and rest came to the classes for attendance. Some didn't turn up at all.

There was an exam at the end which was purely judged on the basis of story they created and worked they had done. The submission list was is laws mailed and a few students who were intermittent during classes scored high marks. The other students also performed quite nice and surprisingly a few of them failed.

An exam oriented screenplay writing class to minor students  is always a disaster. However it was fun since the students were fun,

Slides are updated here. mind my design sense. (graphic handicap)

                              

Its always fun interacting with students from this age group. Thier ideas are fresh. Most of them are inspired from content they have seen on TV or Film. More or less like how i was when i was of the same age. It took me a while to understand who I am and what my content actually looks like. 

I am happy with their honesty in story telling. Honesty is something that filmmakers loose as they become better and better.

Students work samples

Geevarghese Jimmy's character design

Govind kammath's character design

Vishnu Sreekumars intersting storylines character design

christ toms character

Saruns Character imagery

Aditi's initial story scribbles\

Aravind's character study 

Aswathy Shivdas character study

Gautam's simple character design

Anamays character Joe

Aagyas rocket character

I had fun with the students and that is something that really helps me work. Everything else is secondary.