Need Ideas for Making a Short Film?? Try this.. (PART ONE)

Ever thought of making a short film ?

Well.. yes.. a voice came from inside..

What about writing one?

What happened.. Not possible?

Let’s make it possible then..

It is not even that difficult a task. All you need to know is a few basics of storytelling and a little bit of passion. If you are not going to be passionate, why would others be ? More than the output, it is the process that you should enjoy. Once it gets mechanical, it is not writing.. It has to come from within.

Writers think in a number of ways:

a)        Inductively (from specific to universal)

b)        Deductively (from universal to specific)

c)        Logically (causality- how one thing follows another)

d)        Non-logically (co-incidences)

e)        Creatively (discovering hidden meanings and connecting two or more things beautifully)

Our brain tends to work creating visual relationship. When I was in 6th standard, I didn’t score very well in my internals. I realized when I had to study long paragraphs, my mind never used to work but whenever I divided those paragraphs into points which are at equal distancefrom each other, I could decipher the pattern quite well. May be because it created a form of symmetry that resulted in creating a visual that my mind could understand. 

Similarly, fonts also play an important role. Well this is all very subjective and may differ from person to person but the truth is that we all tend to think visually. 

In inductive thinking, it is like a divergent, opening out-of-the-ideas, the aim is to come up with as diverse ideas as possible. At this stage, you should only be interested in quantity and don’t filter out anything. Just let the ideas flow in and out. 

In deductive thinking, you can filter out your ideas, test them and select the best ones from not so good ones.

Generating ideas

Here, I am sharing a few good sources of idea generation:

1)        Personal Experience- This is something which is close to your heart. Your life. You have lived it certain way. You are the best person who can make a film on it. Real life is boring so it is important to make it interesting cinematically. Your upbringing, your education, your first affair, your first job, your biggest strength, your weakness, your lowest point in life- you know it all. No one can relate better than you. So write a short film based on your experience. 

2)        Others’ Personal Experience- Well, if you have lead a un-happening life or not to dramatic life, you can observe those close to you and write a short film on their experiences. Your father is a doctor, write a film based on medical issues as you can deal with it in a better way. Your brother used to be bullied as a kid in school and you have observed him venting it out behind closed doors. You can handle it in a sensitive manner. As a filmmaker, it is important not to venture into territories which are unfamiliar to you. 

3)        Newspaper- Recently you read an article in newspaper, where two students died in a road accident and the post mortem suggested that they were drunk. What would your conclusion be: They must be driving rashly. Ever tried to find out what could be the exact reason? May be they just got out of a friend’s party, all sober and a speeding truck driver forced them to go off track. What is your conclusion now: It could be truck driver’s fault also. So always try to create a back story of every such news and there you go- you have a story. 

To be continued…………..

Rendezvous with Negligence : Teesri Manzil lost a vital cog !!

It was a bright sunny day at Amity University and I was all excited, not because of the weather but for the reason that I was screening Vijay Anand’s musical thriller ‘Teesri Manzil’, that day, to the BJMC students. The atmosphere inside the class was electric as I had already pre-discussed about the film in class many-a-times. You can say I had slightly over-hyped about the film but as a teacher, I knew it is worth the experience and students are going to like the film for sure.

I entered the class and to my surprise, the projector was all set up and connected. The attendance was almost 90% which was always an exception in a final year class. I took out my pen drive from pocket and inserted it to my system. The screen read ‘UNITED PRODUCERS’ PICTURE followed by a disclaimer and a lightning sky animation introducing to NH FILMS (Nasir Husain Films). A POV shot of a car follows with RD Burman’s thrilling background score. The film marked the beginning of Nasir Husain’s collaboration with R D Burman which was followed by films like Carvaan, Pyar ka Mausam, Hum Kisise Kam Nahin, etc.

 

 After having watched ‘Teesri Manzil’ more than 50 times, nothing was new for me but everytime the signature tune came, goosebumps got activated and an adrenaline rush skyrocketed. After all, the film was a whodunit thriller and the killer is somebody who is not directly linked with the victim so I was pretty sure students would like every moment of it. Well, how many times has this happened to you when you know the ‘who’ in a ‘whodunit’ and still watch it all over again??? Vijay Anand skillfully combines elements of comedy, romance and mystery into a cohesive whole. 

 

 Well, the film slowly builds up and the mystery gets intensified after each sequence. The film has its share of quite intelligently placed ‘red herrings’ starting from the waiter, to Helen, to estate manager, to Prem Chopra, to Iftekhar and even Rocky himself. The film’s background score (designed by R D Burman himself) brings one to the edge-of-the-seats. The film went smoothly until at 1:16:44, the film switches to a rural fair with Rocky (Shammi Kapoor) and Sunita (Asha Parekh) romancing around a giant wheel (The song is ‘dekhiye saahibon wo koi aur thi..). For a second I thought I am hallucinating or somebody fast forwarded it accidently. I stood up, went to my system and played back the sequence but it again switched to the same song. I tried a couple of times more but nothing happened. My students asked me ‘Sir, what happenend?’ But I had no answer to it. My shoulders dropped. I realized that I had downloaded a trimmed version of the film from YouTube. 

I came back and started searching for an uncut version over the internet. Luckily, I found 8 different websites having Teesri Manzil film but unfortunately all the 8 of them had that 25-30 minutes of footage missing. I almost felt numb and speechless. As a kid, having watched the full VHS version more than 50 times, I felt as if somebody has robbed my most prized possession.

 The fact is that no full version of this film was made on to a DVD or VCD. While transferring the contents, some idiotic guy chopped off the 25 minutes of this classic. It is like spoiling the Mona Lisa painting or ruining the beauty of Taj. It is more than a crime. 

Between Ruby’s (Helen) envious stances and the song at the rural fair is about 25-30 minutes of footage which marks the entry of Kunwar’s (Premnath) character. Now those who have seen the full version can only relate to the importance of these 25-30 minutes to the plot, which not only makes the narrative smoother but more logical.

  

 

To all those, who have not seen these missed scenes, here is a quick description:

Sunita informs Rocky that her friends have planned an outing for everyone, but Sunita and Rocky want to spend the day alone together. Both of them pretend as if they are not well and the girls leave without them. They meet at their usual place on a hilltop and are interrupted by her friends, carrying hockey sticks. Since, the girls are hungry and thirsty, Sunita suggests that they stop by Rocky’s chachaji’s place (in an earlier scene Rocky had pointed out a big mansion on the same hill while trying to impress Sunita). Rocky tries to stop them to avoid any further embarrassment as he made out a story. He runs ahead and observes the mansion’s owner Kunwar Sahab (Premnath) driving away while giving instructions to his servant regarding arrival of some guests.

Rocky tries to play smart here and confidently enters the mansion along with girls. However Kunwar Sahab returns unexpectedly and upon hearing the chaos inside, goes in to confirm. He looks angrily towards Rocky, who is dumbstruck and after a few stares supports Rocky’s story that they are uncle and nephew. As they leave, Rocky stops to thank him. A man in black (Another Red Herring) dressed exactly like the mysterious figure drives into Kunwar’s compound. Kunwar Sahab tells Rocky that the man is his estate manager, who is a bit of a drunkard.

After this scene, another scene takes place where Rocky accidentally flirts some other woman in place of Sunita and is chased by a mob leading to the same song (Dekhiye.. Saahibon.. wo koi aur thi…).

It is an irony that a country, which produces as many as 1,600 films in various languages every year, is not able to properly preserve the classics that it once produced. I think the way DVD manufacturers edit films is way too lackadaisical; all they’re trying to do is ruthlessly trim it into their 750 MB or whatever, without giving much attention to what affects the plot. This is just felonious.

Now, for those who have seen ‘Teesri Manzil’ exactly know WHAT all has been MISSED. What appears to be just a sequence where 2-3 characters are introduced, turns out to be one of the important cog of the wheel called ‘Teesri Manzil’.

Seven Important Steps to Low-Budget Filmmaking

1)   Collaboration- You have to be extremely resourceful. Collaborate with people who are ambitious about filmmaking, just like you. Give, in order to get. If you need an editor for your film, collaborate with someone who is new and trying to make a mark. He would be someone who would give his best in editing your film. Similarly, if you need a sound artist, search for somebody who is young, fresh and wants to get noticed. If he wants to get noticed, he will probably work for free as well so you are sorted when it comes to budgeting. Try to get everyone on board but be very honest to tell if you don’t have money. People, who still join you, would be the most passionate guys around.

During the shoot of 'Abhi Babua Zinda Hai'

2)   Shoot with what you have- One of the primary concerns for students is that they don’t have the latest Canon 5D Mark III or that awesome stabilizer so they won’t be able to shoot. Well don’t wait for that next big thing to arrive, rather shoot with what you have. For eg, forget a regular DSLR, if you just have an Android phone, write a script that revolves around a guy who loves making videos on mobile phone or is a selfie lover and what if his phone captures a murder during one such recording.

You can shoot the entire film from the POV of a mobile camera much like the found footage in ‘The Blair Witch Project’ or ‘Paranormal Activity’. Don’t be upset if you do not have a dolly track, make a film that centers around the CCTV camera footages much like ‘Love Sex Aur Dhokha’.

Normal bed sheets were used as Skimmers during the shoot of 'Abhi Babua Zinda Hai'

3)   Don’t be too ‘shot-centric’- You might want to be the next Nolan or Tarkovsky and there is nothing wrong in being one but it is very important to convey a story or an idea first. While directing a film, if you have the most basic shots but you are able to convey your story, no one is going to get offended, trust me!! In ‘Superman of Malegaon’ the director didn’t have a budget for a crane or dolly, so he used a bullock cart and used it as a crane. Instead of a dolly, he took the tracking shots through a bicycle. So what really matters is your output, not the way you got that output.

Bullock Cart was used as a crane in 'Superman of Malegaon'

4)   Utilise the ‘un-used’- Getting difficult to get permission for your next location? Well don’t worry. Use the location which has been abandoned by everyone. If you want a dhaba for your next shoot, go to the outskirts of your city, find a dilapidated property, contact the owner. For him, any amount would be a significant profit for that good-for-nothing land and for you, you get the maximum from minimum. Similarly, do not  throw away that old worn out jeans or that unused polythene bag. May be you can use them in your next film centered around a psychotic guy.

During the shoot of 'Abhi Babua Zinda Hai'

5)   Keep it ‘hush-hush’- When shooting outdoors without permissions and without any crowd management, it is essential to have a substantial amount of pre-production work. If you go out to shoot on a road and shouting instructions to your AD, it is unlikely that you end up shooting peacefully and trust me if the crowd comes to know that you are shooting a film (be it a short film or a feature film having the least desirable star cast), it can go worse than a stampede. A detailed pre-production always results in a better product. A little research on your location would help you save a lot of time and money especially if you are shooting a low-budget film. For example if you want to shoot a crowd scene, do it ‘guerilla’* style (hiding the camera) i.e. without letting your crowd know about it. Infact, in order to get the real emotions from real people, just don’t tell them that you are shooting. Make them get into a situation and then shoot them silently.

6)   Use your actors/extras cautiously- Don’t just fill your script with actors. Always cast your actors who look like your characters. This way you can save the money on make-up. Also, cast actors who can bring in their own clothes. Save money on costumes. Finding good actors among amateurs is an art. Unless and until you have the resources and enough budget, choose your cast wisely. Essentially, in a short film of 8-10 min duration, there shouldn’t be more than 2-3 actors so write your scripts according to the availability of good actors. A bad actor can spoil a very good script so just do not compromise when it comes to acting.

Also there might be scenes where you need to show a lot of EXTRAS. Now this could be tricky. It depends on your vision, your pre-production and your foreshadowing of the situation. Either you can go ‘Guerilla’* style or try to be a little street-smart. In the latter scenario, role of storyboards becomes pivotal. In one of my short film ‘Abhi Babua Zinda Hai’, I had to shoot a protest but I didn’t have the budget nor any man-power. It was a genuine problem but I had a creative solution. I just had a group of 7-8 people. I made a frame where camera was low angle (high angle or eye level would have revealed the actual number), played actual footage of the protest in split screen and multiplied sound to create chaos by protestors and my job was done.

7)   Avoid unnecessary verbal diarrhoea- Having problems in getting sound recorders or mics?? AVOID WRITING DIALOGUES in your script. As I always teach to my students- SHOW, DON’T TELL, make your script as visual as you can rather than dialogues. At the end of the day, we tend to forget that film is an audio-visual medium i.e. we have visuals to support our concepts. Use metaphors and allegorical references to convey the most difficult feelings. What I do is first I find my limitations both in terms of budget as well as space and time and after that I write my script. That helps me to think logically and feasibly.

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(*) guerilla- Guerrilla filmmaking refers to a form of independent filmmaking characterized by low budgets, skeleton crews, and simple props using whatever is available. Often scenes are shot quickly in real locations without any warning, and without obtaining filming permits.

A Phenomenon called ‘Sridevi’

News Article by:
Manas Mishra
Assistant Professor,
AAFT School of Cinema

A still from Chandni (1989) Directed  by Yash Chopra

As a kid, I still remember when my mother used to run after me holding a glass of milk and how, like a wrestler carefully plans his next move and an artist uses his brush to carefully stroke the finest details in his painting, I used to plan new ways of avoiding milk. But after all, being a mother, she knew all the tricks of the trade. When I'd thought that I succeeded once again in averting the entire milk-drinking process, the sound of "zu, zu, zu.. Na jaane kahan se aayi hai" caught hold of me and just like a serpent submits itself to the charmer, I stood spellbound in front of the television holding my glass of milk and watching Sridevi's antics and frolics. The film was 'Chaalbaaz' and for me it was Manju's (name of her character) film or you can say she was the hero for me. That was the power of Sridevi.

 

Most critics generally write off the 1980's saying that it touched the new "low point" in Indian cinema. The rise of the VCR coincided with the decline of cinema halls. Movie theatres became run down places where only unemployed youth went, not 'respectable' families. As a result, most of the content started becoming cheap and sleazy, mainly to allure the front benchers in cinema halls. But it was mainly power packed performances from Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Jackie Shroff, Sunny Deol and Anil Kapoor that provided some entertainment between not-so-entertaining stuff. Amongst females, it was either Madhuri Dixit who had just started or Sridevi, which was already a big name especially after ‘Sadma’, ‘Himmatwala’, ‘Mawali’, ‘Tohfa’, ‘Sone Pe Suhaaga’ and of course ‘Mr. India’ (I fondly used to call her Miss Hawa Hawai as I found it difficult to pronounce her name as a 4 year old).

Born and brought up in a cinema-crazy city of Kanpur, where cinema page in newspaper was bigger and colorful than the front page, I was fascinated looking at micro film posters of films around movie halls in Kanpur. Out of approx. 60 single screen halls back then, 4-5 were such where Sridevi films were screened. She was the dominant figure on that page as every second film had Sridevi in it and perhaps the only actress name I knew back then. Her face covered the 3/4^th of the posters, be it ‘Nagina’ or ‘Nigahein’, ‘Sherni’, ‘Waqt ki Awaaz’ (It came the same year as QSQT, Shahenshah, etc) ‘Ram-Avatar’, ‘Sone Pe Suhaga’ (This film had three superstars Dharmendra, Jeetendra and Anil Kapoor including Sridevi but my sole reason to watch the film was Sridevi). One more film ‘Main Tera Dushman’, had a catchy song ‘Jugni disco disco’ featuring Sridevi and as I heard that song, I wanted to see the film.

One of the major influences on me as a kid were some scenes which according to me are just outstanding and I even feel that none of today’s actresses can pull it off or even come close to it. One such scene is the Charlie Chaplin sequence from ‘Mr. India’. Today, even after three decades, this scene is as hilarious and iconic in the annals of Bollywood history, as it was meant to be. This is certainly a testament to the fact as to why Sridevi is one of the best actresses of Indian Cinema.

Another scene that comes to my mind instantly is the ‘Amba make-over scene’ from the film ‘Chaalbaaz’. Whenever the film came on television, this scene had my not-to-be-missed tag instantly. What really made this scene hilarious was the anticipation that one would associate with Spielberg films where you get to see the ‘reaction’ first and ‘action’ later. For the entire duration, we get to see Sridevi’s expressions doing make up like a pro and trust me you wouldn’t blink your eye even for a second. That was the power of her expressions, her emotive eyes, her immaculate comic timing and that mischievous smile that was highly visible in most of her works including Mr. India, Chandni, Gurudev and Lamhe. 

Yash Chopra’s ‘Chandni’ and ‘Lamhe’ gave her iconic status and crowned her standing as the biggest female actor of the 80’s and 90’s. Apart from the songs, the romantic saga was mostly about Sridevi in her ethereally-white, salwar kurtas. ‘Lamhe’, a film too ahead of its time, made her a star in overseas market. When ‘Lamhe’ got released, I was just 6 year old and remember my family taking me to watch the film in ‘Roxy’ (now Sapna Palace) theatre at Kanpur. I had no idea what the film was about as I was too young to apply my mind whenever the film had bulk of emotional scenes. But, I was fascinated by this 15 feet cut-out of Anil Kapoor and Sridevi doing grape-stomping (I think it was the first time that such grape stomping became a part of the Indian cinematic oeuvre). Another moment where Sridevi’s graceful expressions steal the limelight is the Medley song in ‘Lamhe’ which again reminds us of her versatility.

Sridevi was also one of the very few actresses or I should say the only one who shared screen space with the famous superstar trio of Rajnikanth (Chaalbaaz), Kamal Haasan (Sadma) and Amitabh Bachchan (Aakhree Raasta, Khuda Gawah, etc)- a rare combination which not many actresses have achieved in the past. 

After her death, my entire childhood appeared in a montage of sorts in front of my eyes. All her songs resonate in my mind making me want to watch her films once again, her eyes full of expressions, her mischievous smile, her dance moves and then I realize what I have actually lost- as a fan. Today, I have a 2 year old son who, just like me, hates drinking milk but unfortunately we don’t have Sridevi around to catch his attention, we just have her memories.