Nothing could come between them!
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Paloma is Sara!
And Sara, is actually the Saraswati at heart! The girl of today who walks two worlds. And almost leads a double life!
Saturday, April 09, 2005
The TFLW Shoot: A collection of short stories - 1
We wrapped up the first schedule of the movie today.
We finished 85 per cent of the shoot in 11 days of shoot!
That's like a record of sorts cuz I didn't think we would be able to shoot at that pace and stick to the schedule. But we did.
Only cuz we didn't have a choice but to wrap up shoot by 8th.
Usha leaves to America on the 18th of this month. And we need to give our editor at least five days to edit her scenes so that she can dub on the 13th and 14th before she leaves for Bangalore on 15th. The last two weeks have been a rollercoaster.
It all started with a rather well-thoughtout decision and a very hard one at that. Getting back my place at the top.
"You fired a star. You've arrived as a director finally," said a friend.
Please... more than firing, for me, it was about losing someone who put in a lot of effort and time in the film. I still feel bad that it happened and ended that way but like they say, it all happens for the good.
So after that fateful night on March 23, we had a huge task on hand. Replacing a star meant losing another who he had brought in and the cinematographer too. And the food sponsorships.
We called a meeting next morning to check who's in and who's out. The other star and the cinematographer turned up for the meeting to tell me they had to opt out cuz "I can't give up on 14 years of friendship for a movie" and "I'm doing this cuz he's the Executive Producer and would like to be paid at the end of the project. Now that he's not there, there is no guarantee that this movie will be made."
This meant that we had to get three out of the four guys who play lead roles in the film because Ranvir said that he had absolutely no dates till May.
Vijay, my friend who made the no-budget film called 'I just don't get it,' said that I could try Aashil from Bangalore for the lead character Sunil. Aashil, had done a small role in the movie 'Brides Wanted' and was an excellent actor who would fit the part, said Vijay. So we asked him to send his pics.
Aashil also sent me a Sprite ad he had done. The minute I saw the ad, I knew I had Sunil. He had energy, he looked like the boy next door and he was the same age as the character he had to play!
Problem: He was now working with IBM and his boss was outta town till April 6. He had already given up a job with STAR for doing 'Brides Wanted.' He didn't want to lose another job now. We sent him the script.
Then we made Vijay tell him nice things about the movie. We bullied him into travelling by bus though he was willing to pay the rest of the fare and fly down.
We put him up with a mentally ill girl with a literally psycho (it was given behaviour correction therapy) dog called Frodo. We made him wear all his clothes and didn't give him a chance to wash them at all, so he ended up carrying and wear dirty clothes, all for the sake of costume continuity. We make him travel by bike, pillion on an Activa with the Assistant director Swathi.
Talking of Swathi, my AD, I couldn't have asked for a more super efficient soul. A bundle of energy, despite the price she's had to pay for agreeing to do the film. At last count, the amount of damage the movie has caused her, can be valued at Rs. 51,500 plus fuel.
She had an accident one morning when she was picking up people for the early morning shoot and ran over a median. She lost (I hope not) the mike she borrowed for us.
She also ran production errands half the time and was part-time production manager too since Arch, our production manager, had a more complex production to run at the same time: her in-laws and household chores. Yes, Archana would wake up by five, make breakfast and lunch and land up at the set by seven or eight, all the way from Ambattur and then go back early evening to make dinner since her folks didn't know she was shooting for a movie. She would also cajole her hubby Vivek into doubling up as driver to chauffer the whole unit around, apart from chipping in as stuntman for the climax scene.
Oh, back to: March 24, the day after we part ways with our star actor who was also Executive Producer.
So we saw Aashil's ad on 24th evening and convinced him on 25th evening to leave Bangalore the same night by bus. We auditioned this London trained actor called Tejas Sreedhar to play the part of Prashant. He seemed perfect and he agreed to do the role.
So we had the third Prashant for the film after my buddy Pradyumna who did the role three years ago and Kunal, the star's friend.
We auditioned half a dozen people for Zebra (Ranvir had played Zebra) and finally zeroed in on 'Evam' Sunil for the role.
March 25
We had a cast. A friend put us on to Manoj, the assistant cameraman to Saravanan, the guy who had worked on masala action movies 'Madurae' and 'Tirupaachi.' I was so excited at the prospect and yes, Manoj did have this natural flair for creating energy and pace!
Then I meet 'Evam' Sunil who gets all his doubts clarified about Zebra. I get a call from home.
My mom just wanted me to get some money from the ATM and rush home cuz she and Dad were leaving town same evening. Grand-dad was critical in Kochi.
March 26
I haven't slept and it's 1 a.m. on what is supposed to be the first day of my shoot, my third attempt in making the film after the second one ended two days ago. I set the alarm to go to bed, had to pick up Aashil at 5 a.m.
I get a call at 3 a.m. It was news from Kochi, my Grand-dad was no more. I pick up Aashil from the Koyambedu bus-stand, bring him home by 5.30 and then call all my relatives in the city to inform them about the death of grand-dad and then leave for shoot, after dropping off Aashil at a friend's place.
We shoot Scene 55 for the third time with our third Prashant. The scene involves Vishal (Cary) race against another car as Prashant (now played by London-trained dumbfuck actor Tejas Sreedhar) tries to drill some seriousness into the carefree Vishal.
We bring back Swathi's friends Rishab and Abhinav to play the menacing rivals in the race for the second time in a week, for the same scene we had shot earlier with actor K as Prashant.
We also shoot a scene where Prashant is supposed to teach Sara (Paloma) to drive. And Paloma really didn't know to drive. Talk about reality filmmaking. Ha ha! A
nyway, with great fear, we let Paloma take the driver's seat as Tejas sat in the front seat to guide her through her driving. Manoj and me are in the backseat filming the scene. And the way Paloma drove, it was quite an adventure in itself.
March 27
We decide to do the garage scenes at Archana's factory garage. The art directors Anu and Preethi did a super job in four hours flat to convert the garage into Sunil's movie production office within the film.
Aashil (who plays Sunil) gives his first shot of typing a script as we wait nervously for T to land up. T had been inaccessible all morning. We had the garage only for a day and there was no way we can erect the same set again cuz the garage was to be occupied soon. Also, we still had not got a bike for Aashil in the film. With no option left, I hand over my Last Samurai to the art directors and ask them to give it a little character. I can't speak about what they did to my bike.
I will post a picture tomorrow when I'm in a better mood. Well, right now it looks dirty orange with paint scraped off, it looks like a contraption someone stole from a mechanic shop. And I've taken a vow not to paint it back till I finish the film.
We got another bike for Aashil, Abhinav's BULLET! T did not turn up, nor does he pick up 500 of our missed calls. So we shoot the scene without him.
March 28
Cinematographer Manoj had to leave cuz his boss called him. So he put us on to Jai, who had an entirely different style. If Manoj was the Vijay masala action movie cinematographer, Jai was more like PC Sreeram working for Kathir.
But when we shot outside Stella Maris College, it was more like Bowfinger style. We make our actors walk up to the gate and do their acting and shoot from a camera hidden in a car on the opposite side of the road. Meanwhile Tejas is still inaccessible. So we also make a pretty common friend call him and Tejas returns her call promptly.
She gives me the phone and he has a story ready. That his Dad was in the ICU and he doesn't have dates anymore. We hope his Dad really was in the ICU or he's gonna take a truckload of curses straight to hell. Losing Tejas at this stage meant looking for one more Prashant and reshooting one whole day's shoot all over again. For the fourth time.
We had permission to shoot at Sathyam theatre that night and it was the climax scene. We cannot do without a Prashant. So we need to find a Prashant in a few hours. We audition half a dozen theatre actors. All of them are too dramatic. It's about half past ten in the night and the shoot at Sathyam is scheduled for 1 a.m. and we don't have a Prashant.
10.30. p.m.
We finally touch base with Praveen, who played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, after tryin in vain to reach him throughout the day. We ask him to come to Besant Nagar Cozee for an audition. We reach there at 10.45 and there's a Tsunami warning, they ask us to clear the coast. We go to Swathi's house with Praveen and make him do a reading. At the end of the first attempt, I shake hands with Cary. He had suggested Praveen after all. We had a Prashant. We found him two hours before our shoot! I hate to think what we would have done if Praveen was as dramatic as the others who auditioned!
March 29
Early morning. 1.00 a.m. Chandrachoodan, who volunteered to help reading blogs, lands up with his colleagues. We have about 30 extras for the climax scene. Enough to fill the frame and cheat it to make you believe its a full house on camera. Finally, good news. We have a cast. And we also have extras!!
It's a long night as we try and get a sleep deprived Aashil to remember his lines.
March 30
Aashil really gets under the skin of the character. He's a blast as we shoot a scene outside Coffee? and then one on Broken bridge, where he has a conversation with God. It's a blast of a scene. This scene will surely work. Watch out for this. We had him standing on the edge of the bridge and he almost fell off. Twice. Shooting hasn't been more fun.
March 31
We get permission to shoot in Spencer Plaza. We shoot with Aashil and scores of unsuspecting visitors in the mall. We make some of them say 'Hi Sunil' on camera to establish that Sunil (Aashil) is a popular guy always found with his handycam. Thanks to Landmark for letting us get some really colourful footage.
April 1
We came back to Sathyam theatre to shoot the rest of the climax early in the morning. This is when Swathi had an accident and ran over the median. Now, we were one car less and after this, we had to use autorickshaws, call taxis and bikes for moving around! VinodJi landed up for shooting another scene at Sathyam theatre and hey, you guys must read about his tryst with stardom.
For the evening, we needed 30 cars for the traffic jam.
Being April 1, a lot of people thought we were joking. So we had only seven cars for the finale. And we had to manage with that! Damn! Add that to the pangs of being a low budget film!
We took permission from the Deputy Commissioner and still had to bribe the beat cops in Anna Nagar to shoot at Anna Nagar Roundtana. This was the most stressful day of shoot and almost all of us lost our cool.
Imagine, the Commissioner was on rounds and he along with his convoy stopped right behind us wondering what the hell was happening, just as I had called Cary to say Action (He was 200 metres away at the signal before the Roundtana one).
What that meant was that Cary would now come driving at 100 km per hour and come crashing into the Commissioner's convoy if I missed calling him right back to say Cut! I couldn't reach him but thankfully, he called back to check if it was really 'Action'.
God saved us that night for sure. We shot two angles of the scene after that and got outta there. We went to my street and shot the rest of the close-ups, recreating the scene right outside my house.
Okay, it's already been too long a blog. So let me call it a night and continue the rest of it tomorrow! Intermission! :)
We finished 85 per cent of the shoot in 11 days of shoot!
That's like a record of sorts cuz I didn't think we would be able to shoot at that pace and stick to the schedule. But we did.
Only cuz we didn't have a choice but to wrap up shoot by 8th.
Usha leaves to America on the 18th of this month. And we need to give our editor at least five days to edit her scenes so that she can dub on the 13th and 14th before she leaves for Bangalore on 15th. The last two weeks have been a rollercoaster.
It all started with a rather well-thoughtout decision and a very hard one at that. Getting back my place at the top.
"You fired a star. You've arrived as a director finally," said a friend.
Please... more than firing, for me, it was about losing someone who put in a lot of effort and time in the film. I still feel bad that it happened and ended that way but like they say, it all happens for the good.
So after that fateful night on March 23, we had a huge task on hand. Replacing a star meant losing another who he had brought in and the cinematographer too. And the food sponsorships.
We called a meeting next morning to check who's in and who's out. The other star and the cinematographer turned up for the meeting to tell me they had to opt out cuz "I can't give up on 14 years of friendship for a movie" and "I'm doing this cuz he's the Executive Producer and would like to be paid at the end of the project. Now that he's not there, there is no guarantee that this movie will be made."
This meant that we had to get three out of the four guys who play lead roles in the film because Ranvir said that he had absolutely no dates till May.
Vijay, my friend who made the no-budget film called 'I just don't get it,' said that I could try Aashil from Bangalore for the lead character Sunil. Aashil, had done a small role in the movie 'Brides Wanted' and was an excellent actor who would fit the part, said Vijay. So we asked him to send his pics.
Aashil also sent me a Sprite ad he had done. The minute I saw the ad, I knew I had Sunil. He had energy, he looked like the boy next door and he was the same age as the character he had to play!
Problem: He was now working with IBM and his boss was outta town till April 6. He had already given up a job with STAR for doing 'Brides Wanted.' He didn't want to lose another job now. We sent him the script.
Then we made Vijay tell him nice things about the movie. We bullied him into travelling by bus though he was willing to pay the rest of the fare and fly down.
We put him up with a mentally ill girl with a literally psycho (it was given behaviour correction therapy) dog called Frodo. We made him wear all his clothes and didn't give him a chance to wash them at all, so he ended up carrying and wear dirty clothes, all for the sake of costume continuity. We make him travel by bike, pillion on an Activa with the Assistant director Swathi.
Talking of Swathi, my AD, I couldn't have asked for a more super efficient soul. A bundle of energy, despite the price she's had to pay for agreeing to do the film. At last count, the amount of damage the movie has caused her, can be valued at Rs. 51,500 plus fuel.
She had an accident one morning when she was picking up people for the early morning shoot and ran over a median. She lost (I hope not) the mike she borrowed for us.
She also ran production errands half the time and was part-time production manager too since Arch, our production manager, had a more complex production to run at the same time: her in-laws and household chores. Yes, Archana would wake up by five, make breakfast and lunch and land up at the set by seven or eight, all the way from Ambattur and then go back early evening to make dinner since her folks didn't know she was shooting for a movie. She would also cajole her hubby Vivek into doubling up as driver to chauffer the whole unit around, apart from chipping in as stuntman for the climax scene.
Oh, back to: March 24, the day after we part ways with our star actor who was also Executive Producer.
So we saw Aashil's ad on 24th evening and convinced him on 25th evening to leave Bangalore the same night by bus. We auditioned this London trained actor called Tejas Sreedhar to play the part of Prashant. He seemed perfect and he agreed to do the role.
So we had the third Prashant for the film after my buddy Pradyumna who did the role three years ago and Kunal, the star's friend.
We auditioned half a dozen people for Zebra (Ranvir had played Zebra) and finally zeroed in on 'Evam' Sunil for the role.
March 25
We had a cast. A friend put us on to Manoj, the assistant cameraman to Saravanan, the guy who had worked on masala action movies 'Madurae' and 'Tirupaachi.' I was so excited at the prospect and yes, Manoj did have this natural flair for creating energy and pace!
Then I meet 'Evam' Sunil who gets all his doubts clarified about Zebra. I get a call from home.
My mom just wanted me to get some money from the ATM and rush home cuz she and Dad were leaving town same evening. Grand-dad was critical in Kochi.
March 26
I haven't slept and it's 1 a.m. on what is supposed to be the first day of my shoot, my third attempt in making the film after the second one ended two days ago. I set the alarm to go to bed, had to pick up Aashil at 5 a.m.
I get a call at 3 a.m. It was news from Kochi, my Grand-dad was no more. I pick up Aashil from the Koyambedu bus-stand, bring him home by 5.30 and then call all my relatives in the city to inform them about the death of grand-dad and then leave for shoot, after dropping off Aashil at a friend's place.
We shoot Scene 55 for the third time with our third Prashant. The scene involves Vishal (Cary) race against another car as Prashant (now played by London-trained dumbfuck actor Tejas Sreedhar) tries to drill some seriousness into the carefree Vishal.
We bring back Swathi's friends Rishab and Abhinav to play the menacing rivals in the race for the second time in a week, for the same scene we had shot earlier with actor K as Prashant.
We also shoot a scene where Prashant is supposed to teach Sara (Paloma) to drive. And Paloma really didn't know to drive. Talk about reality filmmaking. Ha ha! A
nyway, with great fear, we let Paloma take the driver's seat as Tejas sat in the front seat to guide her through her driving. Manoj and me are in the backseat filming the scene. And the way Paloma drove, it was quite an adventure in itself.
March 27
We decide to do the garage scenes at Archana's factory garage. The art directors Anu and Preethi did a super job in four hours flat to convert the garage into Sunil's movie production office within the film.
Aashil (who plays Sunil) gives his first shot of typing a script as we wait nervously for T to land up. T had been inaccessible all morning. We had the garage only for a day and there was no way we can erect the same set again cuz the garage was to be occupied soon. Also, we still had not got a bike for Aashil in the film. With no option left, I hand over my Last Samurai to the art directors and ask them to give it a little character. I can't speak about what they did to my bike.
I will post a picture tomorrow when I'm in a better mood. Well, right now it looks dirty orange with paint scraped off, it looks like a contraption someone stole from a mechanic shop. And I've taken a vow not to paint it back till I finish the film.
We got another bike for Aashil, Abhinav's BULLET! T did not turn up, nor does he pick up 500 of our missed calls. So we shoot the scene without him.
March 28
Cinematographer Manoj had to leave cuz his boss called him. So he put us on to Jai, who had an entirely different style. If Manoj was the Vijay masala action movie cinematographer, Jai was more like PC Sreeram working for Kathir.
But when we shot outside Stella Maris College, it was more like Bowfinger style. We make our actors walk up to the gate and do their acting and shoot from a camera hidden in a car on the opposite side of the road. Meanwhile Tejas is still inaccessible. So we also make a pretty common friend call him and Tejas returns her call promptly.
She gives me the phone and he has a story ready. That his Dad was in the ICU and he doesn't have dates anymore. We hope his Dad really was in the ICU or he's gonna take a truckload of curses straight to hell. Losing Tejas at this stage meant looking for one more Prashant and reshooting one whole day's shoot all over again. For the fourth time.
We had permission to shoot at Sathyam theatre that night and it was the climax scene. We cannot do without a Prashant. So we need to find a Prashant in a few hours. We audition half a dozen theatre actors. All of them are too dramatic. It's about half past ten in the night and the shoot at Sathyam is scheduled for 1 a.m. and we don't have a Prashant.
10.30. p.m.
We finally touch base with Praveen, who played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, after tryin in vain to reach him throughout the day. We ask him to come to Besant Nagar Cozee for an audition. We reach there at 10.45 and there's a Tsunami warning, they ask us to clear the coast. We go to Swathi's house with Praveen and make him do a reading. At the end of the first attempt, I shake hands with Cary. He had suggested Praveen after all. We had a Prashant. We found him two hours before our shoot! I hate to think what we would have done if Praveen was as dramatic as the others who auditioned!
March 29
Early morning. 1.00 a.m. Chandrachoodan, who volunteered to help reading blogs, lands up with his colleagues. We have about 30 extras for the climax scene. Enough to fill the frame and cheat it to make you believe its a full house on camera. Finally, good news. We have a cast. And we also have extras!!
It's a long night as we try and get a sleep deprived Aashil to remember his lines.
March 30
Aashil really gets under the skin of the character. He's a blast as we shoot a scene outside Coffee? and then one on Broken bridge, where he has a conversation with God. It's a blast of a scene. This scene will surely work. Watch out for this. We had him standing on the edge of the bridge and he almost fell off. Twice. Shooting hasn't been more fun.
March 31
We get permission to shoot in Spencer Plaza. We shoot with Aashil and scores of unsuspecting visitors in the mall. We make some of them say 'Hi Sunil' on camera to establish that Sunil (Aashil) is a popular guy always found with his handycam. Thanks to Landmark for letting us get some really colourful footage.
April 1
We came back to Sathyam theatre to shoot the rest of the climax early in the morning. This is when Swathi had an accident and ran over the median. Now, we were one car less and after this, we had to use autorickshaws, call taxis and bikes for moving around! VinodJi landed up for shooting another scene at Sathyam theatre and hey, you guys must read about his tryst with stardom.
For the evening, we needed 30 cars for the traffic jam.
Being April 1, a lot of people thought we were joking. So we had only seven cars for the finale. And we had to manage with that! Damn! Add that to the pangs of being a low budget film!
We took permission from the Deputy Commissioner and still had to bribe the beat cops in Anna Nagar to shoot at Anna Nagar Roundtana. This was the most stressful day of shoot and almost all of us lost our cool.
Imagine, the Commissioner was on rounds and he along with his convoy stopped right behind us wondering what the hell was happening, just as I had called Cary to say Action (He was 200 metres away at the signal before the Roundtana one).
What that meant was that Cary would now come driving at 100 km per hour and come crashing into the Commissioner's convoy if I missed calling him right back to say Cut! I couldn't reach him but thankfully, he called back to check if it was really 'Action'.
God saved us that night for sure. We shot two angles of the scene after that and got outta there. We went to my street and shot the rest of the close-ups, recreating the scene right outside my house.
Okay, it's already been too long a blog. So let me call it a night and continue the rest of it tomorrow! Intermission! :)
Friday, March 25, 2005
Advance Booking
150 Free tickets available for One O clock show at Sathyam theatre on 29th!
Hang on... 28th night that is. After the 10 O clock night show on Monday night, at 1 a.m., I need a 150 people to fill up Studio 5.
This is just to book you all in advance for the show. What are they showing? Er... nothing, but I can get them to play a movie for you guys.
I'm gonna be shooting, so I want you guys to fill up the frame and give it some EXTRA punch! And yeah, you can watch the shoot too! Aint that exciting?
Well, I know I make a bad Tom Sawyer!
Click on the title of this post to see original post with comments.
But yeah, I will be very grateful if you can land up! This is one favour I need badly!
Thanks a ton!
Hang on... 28th night that is. After the 10 O clock night show on Monday night, at 1 a.m., I need a 150 people to fill up Studio 5.
This is just to book you all in advance for the show. What are they showing? Er... nothing, but I can get them to play a movie for you guys.
I'm gonna be shooting, so I want you guys to fill up the frame and give it some EXTRA punch! And yeah, you can watch the shoot too! Aint that exciting?
Well, I know I make a bad Tom Sawyer!
Click on the title of this post to see original post with comments.
But yeah, I will be very grateful if you can land up! This is one favour I need badly!
Thanks a ton!
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Directors-cut
I did something yesterday.
I made an important decision. It was a tough one. Cuz it involved losing someone who had put in a lot of effort into my film. But I was left with no option but to do it. Told my lead star not to do my film if he didn't trust me enough to do my job as a director.
I do realise he has a decade's experience in the Tamil film industry, respect the name he has created for himself and the effort he has put in my film. But what I could not deal with, was (and IS) interference.
I strongly believe that a movie is a director's baby.
And it is that director who has to take the credit or the blame for a good movie or the bad movie he creates. So that people at least know whose baby it is. A movie becomes a bastard when too many people try to play director.
I have always said it is "our movie." I still think it is "our movie" but there can only be one director.
I know I'm the "beginner director" and he's the star.
But I refuse to believe that he's "doing me a favour."
So I told him not to do my film if he thinks he's doing me a favour. And with him went half my crew (who he brought in) and the other lead actor. So that's how it all ended. I lost my cinematographer, my music director, half the locations and food he had arranged for the shoot. I lost three days of what I shot.
The show, however, has just started.
I am going to re-start my film for the third time.
I auditioned people today, recast my actors and am all set to start shoot again.
Starting day after tomorrow!
Like I said in last post, nothing can stop this film from being made. No matter what, I will complete shoot for this movie before April 10. I gave my word to a lesser star in the film. And I will keep my word. The show ... will go on!
Click on the title of this post to view the original post and your comments.
I made an important decision. It was a tough one. Cuz it involved losing someone who had put in a lot of effort into my film. But I was left with no option but to do it. Told my lead star not to do my film if he didn't trust me enough to do my job as a director.
I do realise he has a decade's experience in the Tamil film industry, respect the name he has created for himself and the effort he has put in my film. But what I could not deal with, was (and IS) interference.
I strongly believe that a movie is a director's baby.
And it is that director who has to take the credit or the blame for a good movie or the bad movie he creates. So that people at least know whose baby it is. A movie becomes a bastard when too many people try to play director.
I have always said it is "our movie." I still think it is "our movie" but there can only be one director.
I know I'm the "beginner director" and he's the star.
But I refuse to believe that he's "doing me a favour."
So I told him not to do my film if he thinks he's doing me a favour. And with him went half my crew (who he brought in) and the other lead actor. So that's how it all ended. I lost my cinematographer, my music director, half the locations and food he had arranged for the shoot. I lost three days of what I shot.
The show, however, has just started.
I am going to re-start my film for the third time.
I auditioned people today, recast my actors and am all set to start shoot again.
Starting day after tomorrow!
Like I said in last post, nothing can stop this film from being made. No matter what, I will complete shoot for this movie before April 10. I gave my word to a lesser star in the film. And I will keep my word. The show ... will go on!
Click on the title of this post to view the original post and your comments.
Saturday, March 19, 2005
The bitter-sweet pangs of low budget filmmaking
Ranvir almost dropped out of the film today.
Rahul Bose rejected a special appearance.
We don't have permissions to shoot our climax scene.
And we don't have money.
Oh, but first the good news: I'm right at the beginning of my second attempt at making That Four Letter Word, and it was a great evening's work of shoot at The British Council.
It's nice and colourful and I'm happy. More than satisfied, in fact. I got the shoot started again, after over two years and eight months!
The first day's shoot cost me all of Rs.585 bucks: 450 for buying three tapes, another 50 for thermocol, 65 for juice for my technical crew and another 20 for black tape used to mark the margins of the LCD, so that we know what the frame looks like for cinemascope!
Yes, like I said we still don't have the money to cover even the incidental expenses, so I'm spending out of my pocket. Abbas today asked me what should we do if do not get the money to cover incidental expenses, which could shoot upto 1.5 lakhs!
No sponsor, no producer (well, as good as no producer considering that this is the last thing on his mind right now), nothing, no one! Yet, there's some sort of energy that's keeping us going. We've made half a dozen presentations, trying to incorporate everything from fruit bars to vodka into the script. And honestly, now I'm tired of chasing sponsors or bugging disinterested producers. I just want to make my film.
So I told Abbas: If we don't get anyone to give us money, then we don't owe anything to anyone. We don't need to give a fuck about answering questions from anyone! We own the film. So we create it and we sell it once it's done and make some money! And then, repay every single person who has been instrumental in the making of this film -- the first time as well as the second!
The good thing about low budget filmmaking is that there's not too much to lose here.
The very process of creating something we believe in, gives satisfaction that words can only try to describe. There's a whole lot of feel good, the high of being in an underdog team that almost won the World cup, the spirit and camaraderie of working together to see a common dream come true.
As obstacles, one after another, show us their ugly face, the more resolved we get to deal with things which we have become too familiar with -- rejections from sponsors, actors we badly want in our film and other production hassles we can write a thesis on. So now there's like the known sense of comfort in dealing with them. Obstacles have become like these unreliable people we know. "Okay, it's him... we know how to deal with him." Let's go on without letting him win over. All right, we don't have this, we don't have that ... but let's make sure that we don't have to say again that we don't have a film!
However much it sounds like a cliche, the show must go on. With or without money. And, nothing ... NOTHING... can stop us now!
If we lose one, the others do it! That's how a team works. And that's how a battle is fought!
Click on the title of this post to view original entry and your comments.
Rahul Bose rejected a special appearance.
We don't have permissions to shoot our climax scene.
And we don't have money.
Oh, but first the good news: I'm right at the beginning of my second attempt at making That Four Letter Word, and it was a great evening's work of shoot at The British Council.
It's nice and colourful and I'm happy. More than satisfied, in fact. I got the shoot started again, after over two years and eight months!
The first day's shoot cost me all of Rs.585 bucks: 450 for buying three tapes, another 50 for thermocol, 65 for juice for my technical crew and another 20 for black tape used to mark the margins of the LCD, so that we know what the frame looks like for cinemascope!
Yes, like I said we still don't have the money to cover even the incidental expenses, so I'm spending out of my pocket. Abbas today asked me what should we do if do not get the money to cover incidental expenses, which could shoot upto 1.5 lakhs!
No sponsor, no producer (well, as good as no producer considering that this is the last thing on his mind right now), nothing, no one! Yet, there's some sort of energy that's keeping us going. We've made half a dozen presentations, trying to incorporate everything from fruit bars to vodka into the script. And honestly, now I'm tired of chasing sponsors or bugging disinterested producers. I just want to make my film.
So I told Abbas: If we don't get anyone to give us money, then we don't owe anything to anyone. We don't need to give a fuck about answering questions from anyone! We own the film. So we create it and we sell it once it's done and make some money! And then, repay every single person who has been instrumental in the making of this film -- the first time as well as the second!
The good thing about low budget filmmaking is that there's not too much to lose here.
The very process of creating something we believe in, gives satisfaction that words can only try to describe. There's a whole lot of feel good, the high of being in an underdog team that almost won the World cup, the spirit and camaraderie of working together to see a common dream come true.
As obstacles, one after another, show us their ugly face, the more resolved we get to deal with things which we have become too familiar with -- rejections from sponsors, actors we badly want in our film and other production hassles we can write a thesis on. So now there's like the known sense of comfort in dealing with them. Obstacles have become like these unreliable people we know. "Okay, it's him... we know how to deal with him." Let's go on without letting him win over. All right, we don't have this, we don't have that ... but let's make sure that we don't have to say again that we don't have a film!
However much it sounds like a cliche, the show must go on. With or without money. And, nothing ... NOTHING... can stop us now!
If we lose one, the others do it! That's how a team works. And that's how a battle is fought!
Click on the title of this post to view original entry and your comments.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Shoot starts today!
People,
I'm extremely pleased to inform you all that the shooting for That Four Letter Word re-starts this evening at the British Council.
If you can make it at this short notice, please make it to British Council for the Buzz party, to mark the start of the movie. Time 7.30 p.m. Date: March 16 (today).
Spread the word.
And wish us luck.
Cheers!
I'm extremely pleased to inform you all that the shooting for That Four Letter Word re-starts this evening at the British Council.
If you can make it at this short notice, please make it to British Council for the Buzz party, to mark the start of the movie. Time 7.30 p.m. Date: March 16 (today).
Spread the word.
And wish us luck.
Cheers!
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Resetting the biological clock!
I'm used to staying online till 4 or 5 a.m. and wake up by noon.
But with shoot only a few days away, I decided to try and reset my clock.
I woke up today at 8.30 a.m, in spite of going to bed only by three last night.
The whole day I've been feeling so damn drowsy. But the good news is that I got quite a bit of work done. Fixed up at least four locations which cover about 40 per cent of the movie. Another 10-15 per cent needs to be fixed up. The rest? We are not taking permission.
It's a technique we picked up from Bowfinger! :)
Today, we caught up with a friend from the film industry, to show him our first version of That Four Letter Word. What we shot three years ago. Though it was embarassing enought to make me cringe in my seat, I think it was good to feel that way because it just meant that I know what was wrong with it. Hopefully, it should be better the second time around.
With increasing workload, I have sworn to go to bed by midnight. But for the fact that I got home and finished dinner only by then. Had a couple of emails to send and a quick daily update on the film to type and it's already 1.20 a.m.
But that's because my favourite people from around the world get online at this hour!!
Sigh! I want everything!!
But first, let me finish and crash. That's the only way I won't crash into another vehicle tomorrow, riding around like a zombie, like I nearly did today!
Good night!
But with shoot only a few days away, I decided to try and reset my clock.
I woke up today at 8.30 a.m, in spite of going to bed only by three last night.
The whole day I've been feeling so damn drowsy. But the good news is that I got quite a bit of work done. Fixed up at least four locations which cover about 40 per cent of the movie. Another 10-15 per cent needs to be fixed up. The rest? We are not taking permission.
It's a technique we picked up from Bowfinger! :)
Today, we caught up with a friend from the film industry, to show him our first version of That Four Letter Word. What we shot three years ago. Though it was embarassing enought to make me cringe in my seat, I think it was good to feel that way because it just meant that I know what was wrong with it. Hopefully, it should be better the second time around.
With increasing workload, I have sworn to go to bed by midnight. But for the fact that I got home and finished dinner only by then. Had a couple of emails to send and a quick daily update on the film to type and it's already 1.20 a.m.
But that's because my favourite people from around the world get online at this hour!!
Sigh! I want everything!!
But first, let me finish and crash. That's the only way I won't crash into another vehicle tomorrow, riding around like a zombie, like I nearly did today!
Good night!
Monday, March 07, 2005
Two weeks notice!
Just another two weeks before we shoot.
Maybe even earlier, depending on how the permissions for locations needed turn out.
And we have enough reason to panic, but we won't. At least not yet. But here's why it's crazy.
1. Ranvir hasn't confirmed dates yet. He reaches Mumbai only on March 20 and will take three days to read the new script. He said he will call us on 25th. Which will be three or four days into the shoot.
2. We still haven't been able to get a replacement for Suchitra though we've auditioned a few. We've sent the word out. If you guys know any girl interested in playing one of the lead roles in the film, please email sudhish.kamath@gmail.com.
3. Though we have had smaller meetings with almost everybody involved in the film, we haven't had an entire cast-crew meeting yet because the final list of the cast and crew is yet to be prepared.
4. Scheduling the shoot requires permissions for the locations needed but we can't get permissions till we get a fix on the cast. Hope this will resolve in the next few days.
5. I've applied for leave between March 15 and April 30. I still haven't heard from the management about that!
On the upside however:
1. We are ready with the location report and grouped Ranvir's scenes together to be shot towards the end.
2. We have adequate people for the crew. Just a matter of time before we are all able to meet together and have daily sittings. That should start happening in a week.
3. We have some wonderful people who have volunteered to help in kind by giving us locations and props that we need.
4. Last time we didn't have Ranvir even after 15 days into our shoot. He's destined to be part of this project. We know he will make it. And we have a backup ready. Half the scenes we shot with him last time can be used as they are.
5. Last time around, my letter never reached the management till I came back from the shoot and I got into trouble. This time, at least that has been taken care of!
:)
Maybe even earlier, depending on how the permissions for locations needed turn out.
And we have enough reason to panic, but we won't. At least not yet. But here's why it's crazy.
1. Ranvir hasn't confirmed dates yet. He reaches Mumbai only on March 20 and will take three days to read the new script. He said he will call us on 25th. Which will be three or four days into the shoot.
2. We still haven't been able to get a replacement for Suchitra though we've auditioned a few. We've sent the word out. If you guys know any girl interested in playing one of the lead roles in the film, please email sudhish.kamath@gmail.com.
3. Though we have had smaller meetings with almost everybody involved in the film, we haven't had an entire cast-crew meeting yet because the final list of the cast and crew is yet to be prepared.
4. Scheduling the shoot requires permissions for the locations needed but we can't get permissions till we get a fix on the cast. Hope this will resolve in the next few days.
5. I've applied for leave between March 15 and April 30. I still haven't heard from the management about that!
On the upside however:
1. We are ready with the location report and grouped Ranvir's scenes together to be shot towards the end.
2. We have adequate people for the crew. Just a matter of time before we are all able to meet together and have daily sittings. That should start happening in a week.
3. We have some wonderful people who have volunteered to help in kind by giving us locations and props that we need.
4. Last time we didn't have Ranvir even after 15 days into our shoot. He's destined to be part of this project. We know he will make it. And we have a backup ready. Half the scenes we shot with him last time can be used as they are.
5. Last time around, my letter never reached the management till I came back from the shoot and I got into trouble. This time, at least that has been taken care of!
:)
Kiruba's interview!
Kiruba's interview has most of the information that I wanted to put on this blog on the Making of the movie: The journey of the film from then to now.
So, you guys can catch up with the action here.
Thank you Kiruba.
Starting tomorrow. I will be blogging here about the daily developments and work in progress on the film, along with information on help that we need.
But before that, I would like to summarise the help I seek.
1. Money. If you do know of potential sponsors looking at attracting a young audience, please help yourself to this.
2. Production Assistants. People willing to spare a month and work full time between mid March to mid April, and for free.
3. Extras. People who can chip in with guest appearances at your convenience and as much as possible in the free time you have.
4. Traffic jammers. Required for two days of shoot with cars and bikes to stage a traffic jam in the middle of the night. Might require you to stay awake all night. Please bring your friends along.
5. Pretty women. Who will act as one of Cary's many girlfriends in the film. Scene involves dirty dancing with Cary! Women willing to kiss will be an added plus! :)
Please register with us by emailing me at madeinmadras@gmail.com or sudhish.kamath@gmail.com at the earliest. Our production manager will then call you to confirm details.
Can't thank you guys enough for the support. So I will save that up for later.
Cheers!
So, you guys can catch up with the action here.
Thank you Kiruba.
Starting tomorrow. I will be blogging here about the daily developments and work in progress on the film, along with information on help that we need.
But before that, I would like to summarise the help I seek.
1. Money. If you do know of potential sponsors looking at attracting a young audience, please help yourself to this.
2. Production Assistants. People willing to spare a month and work full time between mid March to mid April, and for free.
3. Extras. People who can chip in with guest appearances at your convenience and as much as possible in the free time you have.
4. Traffic jammers. Required for two days of shoot with cars and bikes to stage a traffic jam in the middle of the night. Might require you to stay awake all night. Please bring your friends along.
5. Pretty women. Who will act as one of Cary's many girlfriends in the film. Scene involves dirty dancing with Cary! Women willing to kiss will be an added plus! :)
Please register with us by emailing me at madeinmadras@gmail.com or sudhish.kamath@gmail.com at the earliest. Our production manager will then call you to confirm details.
Can't thank you guys enough for the support. So I will save that up for later.
Cheers!
Monday, February 28, 2005
Need volunteers for Item dance!
I know this is a little bizarre for a request.
But I want some of you to volunteer as dancers for an item number I'm gonna be shooting. It's like a spoof of an item number.
The lead female dancer is wearing a dress just made out of hankies. And the song is called "Hanky panky."
All guys dancing in the background will be wearing clothing made up of one or more hankies. So we need people to be total sports. Cuz it is gonna look incredibly funny. And your relatives might disown you after watching you with your pants down.
All you will be left with are hankies to wipe your tears. Storyline for item: Hawt babe dances with all you guys and kisses one guy who turns into a frog! (Story Credit: My own genious genie Fid Jaan, from Leeds)
Also need choreographer for the song.
Standard TFLW rules apply. Nobody gets paid/laid in exchange for this favour. Yes, you read that right, it means that you don't get to sleep with the director!
Post Script: Whoever thinks I'm joking, does not know me yet!
But I want some of you to volunteer as dancers for an item number I'm gonna be shooting. It's like a spoof of an item number.
The lead female dancer is wearing a dress just made out of hankies. And the song is called "Hanky panky."
All guys dancing in the background will be wearing clothing made up of one or more hankies. So we need people to be total sports. Cuz it is gonna look incredibly funny. And your relatives might disown you after watching you with your pants down.
All you will be left with are hankies to wipe your tears. Storyline for item: Hawt babe dances with all you guys and kisses one guy who turns into a frog! (Story Credit: My own genious genie Fid Jaan, from Leeds)
Also need choreographer for the song.
Standard TFLW rules apply. Nobody gets paid/laid in exchange for this favour. Yes, you read that right, it means that you don't get to sleep with the director!
Post Script: Whoever thinks I'm joking, does not know me yet!
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Here comes That Four Letter Word
People,
Finally, we decided to go ahead and make our movie no matter what.
We don't have any money whatsoever. But we gonna do it. All by borrowing and taking favours.
We need locations to shoot, so if any of you reading this have some awesome place you could let us shoot in Madras, please let me know. We need houses, rooms, eat outs, streets, beach stretches, shops, stalls, malls ... any where you can expect to find young people.
By shoot, we are just talking about a bunch of ten people hanging around the location with a small tiny camera and a tripod. Not with the extravagant film shooting paraphernalia. Ours is just a digital production.
We need volunteers to work as production assistants. But on a full time basis for 22 days. between mid March to early April. For free. We won't even be giving you food.
We need extras to add to the ambience of the film every single day...
And for the climax scene, we need 20 -30 people with cars and bikes to hold up traffic on top of a flyover. We are gonna be shooting it early morning at the break of dawn and pass it off as night. Please let me know if you can join the chaos.
The action is about to begin. All we are waiting for is YOU!
Click on the title of this post to view original entry and your comments.
Finally, we decided to go ahead and make our movie no matter what.
We don't have any money whatsoever. But we gonna do it. All by borrowing and taking favours.
We need locations to shoot, so if any of you reading this have some awesome place you could let us shoot in Madras, please let me know. We need houses, rooms, eat outs, streets, beach stretches, shops, stalls, malls ... any where you can expect to find young people.
By shoot, we are just talking about a bunch of ten people hanging around the location with a small tiny camera and a tripod. Not with the extravagant film shooting paraphernalia. Ours is just a digital production.
We need volunteers to work as production assistants. But on a full time basis for 22 days. between mid March to early April. For free. We won't even be giving you food.
We need extras to add to the ambience of the film every single day...
And for the climax scene, we need 20 -30 people with cars and bikes to hold up traffic on top of a flyover. We are gonna be shooting it early morning at the break of dawn and pass it off as night. Please let me know if you can join the chaos.
The action is about to begin. All we are waiting for is YOU!
Click on the title of this post to view original entry and your comments.
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