panic sets in

The moment we'd been anticipating is finally here. 6pm monday, 21 December.

Panic has finally set in.

We're understaffed, underfunded, underslept, underpropped, under pressure.

And it's the best time in the world.

staging

The director abusing children


The DOP abusing crew


On location today, doing technical staging at the samrat apartments for our scenes. Breaking things apart, de- and re-constructing the lighting and movements, gauging where the actors are going to take us when the camera starts rolling. There are so many technical details to take care of it's mind-numbing. This may be a short film, but from the beginning we've been approaching it from the perspective not of a 'short film', but of a 15-minute feature film. We can only hope that in the end it serves us well. One of the first discussions between Gaurav and myself amounted to, "All the work we do for this thing, all the paperwork and planning and research, will only take us so far. Nothing guarantees a good film, no amount of budget or stars or anything. But everything we do will increase our chances of making a good film. That's all we can hope for."

Fingers crossed.

shaking off the chill

The day's technical recce was enlightening, to say the least. It always makes so much of a difference between seeing pics of a location and seeing the physical space. At the heart of it we have to create a world here, a world deep enough and real enough for the viewer to fall into without a second thought. It has to be inhabitable, and, certainly on one level, forgotten immediately. This is the whole suspension of disbelief game--even the most fantastic of films, say, 2001: A Space Odyssey--has a world that is instantly, immediately inhabitable. From the caves where Homo neanderthalensis emerge to the stargate sequence, there is enough there for us to say to ourselves, "I could be there. This place exists." In the example of 2001, the African veldt was created with retroreflective matting (front projection) on a studio set, and the stargate sequence is a combination of slit-scan photography and 60's psychedelia liquid projection. Two extremes of location, to be sure, but at the heart of it is the fact that Kubrick created a world that, however impossible to film, was immediately a place you could sit and have your morning coffee, in a way. The parameters change according to the requirement of the story, from a fantasy world like Avatar or Legend or Lord of the Rings, to a shadow world like The Bourne Identity or The Nightmare Before Christmas, but this is the heart of suspension of disbelief.

So today's pics are a tour of the physical spaces that will become our world in Reincarnation. As we progress it will be interesting to note how the space compares to what is seen in-frame, the sort of liberties we take with bending reality to our will. You can see more on our Facebook fan page too.

Mr. G- Director Saheb


An area that will become a psychologist's office. Love the light play here.






Sid's room.
In case you forgot we were in India.

and miles to go before we sleep...

OMFGWTF!

Um...a couple days to go before we snap slate and roll camera--and there are only 10 locked props on my list. Who's been sleeping on the job?

I sure as heck haven't. My poor thin bombay blood is too thin still to function in the delhi cold (a bone-chilling 57 F / 31 C today). Ah well, my northern genes should kick in....eventually.

Off to the technical recce today, checking locations with full principle crew to finalize any ideas / problems / et cetera. Will update later.

Billi in Dilli

Arrived this morning (spot on time, much to my amazement--11 sharp) to Delhi via the Something-Kranthi Rajdhani Express. And Delhi ('dilli', locally) is *cold*. 18 hours of train travel really gets you in gear for jumping into the middle of things...not. But I managed astonishingly well harassing the rickwallas until I got the price I wanted to get to the production office.

Some quick introductions to the crew at Reel India Pictures Pvt Ltd, then off to the hotel for a shower. 2 rooms later and some exhaustion-slash-fortitude-slash-desperation prepared me for the hotel shower...it was a lot like being peed on by a troupe of cold midgets. Parse that one, Noam Chomsky. Anyway, it was cold, and I'm not a big fan of cold--hello, why else would I move to India?

I survived the shower, patted myself on the back for packing my long underwear, kicked myself in the ass for leaving my good l.e.d. flashlight on the train (stupid reading habit), and went back to the office to catch up on what's been happening.

(In case you've been following the blog already, my bombay life was in a bit of turmoil this past fortnight: getting evicted from my apartment thanks to a shiftless coward choot of a former flatmate, a mad search for a new place, actually finding a great flat and signing the leave & license in 3 days in bombay--a minor miracle--then getting hit with the news that all of a sudden India decided to completely screw up their visa regulations, to the tune of possibly not letting me back in the country for two months following my 179-day visa run, and so having to make sure bombay life, and most importantly my 2 cats, was taken care of for the next two months just in case...rather a hectic couple of weeks, in short.)

So I missed a solid week or so of pre-production, but feel like I'm pretty well caught up by the end of the day with what's been going on. We breezed through the auditions again and locked down most of the secondary cast, went over some visual stuff with Mohit (production/art direction), checked out the location recce photos, and the ever-popular passel of new Excel spreadsheets. Man, you gotta love those spreadsheets.

Or not.

At any rate, Reel India is already a bit more 'real' than a lot of the gandus I've worked with in bombay--young, chill, not carrying a chip the size of himachal pradesh on their shoulders about me being firang, et cetera. Which I'm very thankful for. I'm encouraging everyone to contribute often and freely to the blog / twitter / facebook propaganda machine, let's see how that goes.

And...holy crap, it's really happening finally! Hurry up and wait finally happened. Ready for our 15 minutes, Mr. Warhol....

Truly Free Film: The Twenty New Rules: What we all MUST TRY to do prior to shooting

Truly Free Film: The Twenty New Rules: What we all MUST TRY to do prior to shooting

looking for the heart of saturday night

ARRRRGGGHHH!

Suffering from writer's block when you need to write promotional copy just sucks.
I'm trying to come up with that perfectly crafted single paragraph that encapsulates the film, and it is just eluding me. Totally. I come up with great descriptive words, hackneyed phrases, and incomplete sentences. This is like trying to take that perfectly-framed photograph when you just can't seem to get it in focus.

I've read and re-read the script, in English and Hindi, dozens of times now. I can practically recite it, if pressed. But I can't find the flowery, evocative prose that I need. For inspiration I look to Henry Miller, one of my favorite authors, who summed up writing as "laying bricks". You can't build a wall if you stand there thinking about it too long; you just need to start laying brick after brick. Lay bricks long enough and you might end up with that novel or screenplay or ad copy you were intending to build--or you might not, but at least you're working.

So I'm stuck, and that's all there is to it. I think I need to recharge myself with some serious reading before I try to commit something to paper again. Check out some of these inspirational links I've trolled if you're in the same boat:

Writers on Writing http://bit.ly/4t37cs

Internet Resources - Writers Resources - Writing Links & Writers Links for Writers - Word Stuff http://bit.ly/7gwHy9

The man who invented the Hollywood schlock machine. - By Paul Collins - Slate Magazine http://bit.ly/5JuctO



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Now playing: Holly Cole - (Looking For) The Heart Of Saturday Night
via FoxyTunes

19 November

Loglines, loglines, loglines. It's all about the byte these days. The sound-byte that is; or the Twitter-byte, the FB byte, mashable, diggable, indexable and cross-referential. And really it all started with movie loglines. Not to be confused with sluglines, or master shot descriptions, e.g.,

INT - SID'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

(Interestingly and incidentally, the term "sluglines" has been co-opted for commuter-topia in Washington, D.C. We support citizens with initiative! It's also originally defined nautically:
log line

–noun Navigation.

the line by which a log or patent log is streamed.

Origin:

1605–15

n. Nautical
The line by which the log is trailed from a ship to determine its speed.)

I'm talking the original Tweet: the movie logline. As in,

Five strippers undergo cosmetic surgery in a small town.

A student and three nerdy CIA agents teach everyone a valuable lesson.

and my favorite:

Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first woman she meets, then teams up with three complete strangers to kill again.

-- Log Line for The Wizard of Oz, attributed to Richard Polito of the Marin Independent Journal, who writes humorously sarcastic briefs for the paper's daily TV listings.

Have fun here and create your own movie loglines.

This practice started during the heyday of Hollywood studios, when they had vaults full of ready-to-go scripts and their own virtual tin-pan alley of screenwriters. The staff of readers would peruse each script and then write a one-liner on the cover and spine that stated what the movie was about. Then producers would sift through the vault looking for a next project, with stacks of scripts piled high like logs--thus the genesis of the term. It was a heartless, cold process, and one which many writers still instinctively recoil from. "How can you sum my epic-- the ultimate good versus evil, swords-and-sorcery journey, a tale of the disparate races in a world much like our own (or New Zealand) joining forces with strange and wonderful creatures, engaging in mammoth battles, gripping love stories, and hearty frolic, punctuated with moments of sheer wonder and telling political commentary, into one line?"

Four midgets set out with eight others to destroy some jewelry, overcoming all odds to save the day for their fairy kingdom. (Lord of the Rings)

Or something like that. Please forgive me, J.R.R. But it can and has to be done. Here's a great post about why screenplay writers need to learn to love the logline.

This also speaks directly to the dichotomy created by the business: the term "high-concept" refers to a concise, readily marketable logline; often this means it's in reality a low-concept feature that will pander to the masses. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, to be perfectly honest--toil away in obscurity, you auteurs of letters too profound for the common man; we'll bring you back some popcorn from the cineplex.

So that's what I've been working on today--the logline, the one-paragraph synopsis, and general promotional copy. Luckily I have the distance of not being the writer on this project, but it's still a difficult and thankless task. Stay tuned for updates to see what I come up with...



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Now playing: Paul Simon - Slip Sliding Away
via FoxyTunes

18 November

Spent the day sorting through the Excel salt mines. Kept banging my head against a wall with cell formatting: when I'd enter an email address in a cell, it then became a link that would automatically open my mail program. Now, don't get me wrong, I appreciate an over-eager piece of software that tries to anticipate my needs; however in this instance it became a more-than irksome attempt to appease me, because every time I went *near* the cell my mail program would pop open, waiting with bated breath for me to send an urgent missive to the concerned party.

And I couldn't make it stop.

I cleared formatting. I added spaces. I deleted and re-wrote the sheet. I asked advice on forums and with fellow graphic designers. I mailed home. I sent a letter to Bill Gates direct (I hope it doesn't go in his spam box). All for naught. This program will anticipate my needs before I have them whether I like it or not, and that's just the way it is.

This is why artificial intelligence will undoubtedly take us down the same dark path as that depicted in Blade Runner. Will they dream, indeed.

------------------------------

a month later...

15 November 2009

Easy how a month will pass on you in Bombay. Remember though, the mantra is: "Hurry Up And Wait".

We interviewed a couple more lead actors, all of whom were very...actorly...and get very cagey about being asked to work for free. Don't get me wrong, I'm the #1 proponent of being paid to work, but this is the situation of a typically underbudgeted short film, working for prestige alone. So our first-choice actor at some point sorted out his schedule, agreed to an early December shoot, and plans were adjusted. And of course, after a couple weeks, something came up and he couldn't do it again. So, back to square one.

Add to that the excitement of hiring the remainder of our principles--director of photography, sound designer, music producer, et cetera, again asking them to work for free or minimum. The caveat here though is that no matter the budget, no matter the film, you have to face this onslaught and navigate it well enough to keep the vision of the film intact. That's the real lesson to be learned with the constant meetings, narrations, negotiations, phone calls, face time, and pestering contacts.

For example: the sound designer. Being very cognizant of the importance of good sound; no, great sound, in a film, especially after seeing the recent Austrian flick Revanche, we want to really excel in this area, and so speak to a friend eminently qualified. Now as a director / assistant combo this is where we learn that you can't really let your jaw drop when you're told that to get the sound design you're looking for--not the music score, just the sound of the film--you need to spend a full quarter of your entire budget. Mind you, this is not a feature with a big studio behind it where you have the luxury of separate departments for above-the-line / below-the-line delineations--what we got is pretty much what we're looking at. Best thing to do at this juncture: serious face, consideration, then Plan B.

There always has to be a Plan B.

Now repeat the same basic scenario as above, with countless re-tellings of the script narration, coffees and cigarettes, wringing hands, and off-color jokes, ad nauseum. This is the movie business, baby. Have a cigar, you're gonna go far.

So, in summation: the schedule has been pushed back a month, we should be starting up in Delhi in a few days' time, shooting second week December, and (gods willing) will have a product by year end.


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Now playing: M.I.A. - Sunshowers (Acapella)
via FoxyTunes


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Now playing: Mitwa
via FoxyTunes

Days 4-11

Days 4-11 -- 9 thru 17 Oct

Well, there's a saying in the movie business (and construction, for that matter): "Hurry up and wait." This is one of those limbo periods.
Gaurav has returned to Delhi to start the work there, liaising with the producers, Reel India. This will be their first venture on a short film for the festival circuit, their bread-and-butter business being ad films. Sometime during the last week we met with an actor for the lead role of 'Siddharth'. He was actually an alternate choice, as the first choice actor who'd agreed to do the film already has a date conflict now. I felt he was great for the part, with only some minor things to work on look-wise, but it's always difficult to try to convince people to work for free on a small project. Fingers crossed that he decides it's worth his time.
I've been busy doing not much at all, looking over potential festivals and reading through the script again and again and again. On a construction project the blueprints are your bible, on a film it's the script. Gaurav and I had a good laugh about how few people in the business see it that way, comparing stories of the films we've worked on being the only ones who've read the script. Bollywood, as an entity, perhaps functions a lot differently that way, not being as story-driven as western cinema. My hope has always been that they're catching up to that concept here, but that's not to deprecate the financial bottom line--a lot of money goes into this beast, and all our work can only hope to increase the chances that we make a good film and thereby realise some return on the investments made.
And I finally got to work on this blog, obviously, and will be updating more regularly with as many interesting tidbits as I can. It's Diwali here now, so life is on hold in India for a few days. I'm heading to Delhi to join Gaurav in the next few days, and work will start in earnest.
Oh, and Happy Diwali!


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Now playing: Jason Mraz - I'm Yours - Album Version
via FoxyTunes

Days 2 & 3

Day 2 - 7 Oct

A shorter meet today, reviewing paperwork and clarifications on the schedule. I'm beginning to realize just how detrimental extended periods of stasis are on the brain; I feel slightly autistic while making these spreadsheets. Again more talk about the film in general, and I'm getting loads of knowledge-bombs dropped on me. Gaurav's perception of the role of director and the overall scope of what it takes to make a film are spot on.

Back to the Excel salt mines for me.

------------------------------------------------

Day 3 - 8 Oct

More paperwork! Reviewing the shooting schedule, trying to trim it from 7 days to 5 or 5+1 (as it's called here). My previous experience had been solely in the art production, which was basically a construction job with a different name--it was old-hat, fairly intuitive for me. This is a lot different, I'm finding out. After some clarifications for myself, I get a better grasp on what we need to do and get to it. Ultimately, the aim is to think of everything for every department involved, so that no-one has to think too hard or go off on their own tangents--keep everyone on the same page, basically. We go over timing the scenes for the film, measuring how many cans of film we'll need and what our final product will be. This I find to be a really fascinating part--I'm timing Gaurav while he reads through the scenes to himself, and you can tangibly feel us playing the film in our heads, seconds ticking by. Not surprisingly, owing to the strength and clarity of the script, our internal timings are quite close. At the end we come up with about eleven minutes and change, and decide to beef everything up by about 20-25% to bring us closer to a solid 15 minutes. Cannes is quite picky for their short film requirements, after all.



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Now playing: Amitabh Bachhan, Sonu Nigam, Vishal, Adesh Shrivastava & Ranjit Barot - Come On Come On
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: Dus Kahaniyaan - Bhula Diya
via FoxyTunes

Day 1

Day 1 - 6 Oct

We are considering 6th October as the "official" start date of the film, as that's when action began for me. We'd discussed the film, read through the script, tossed around ideas and done some very basic groundwork for the last month, and Gaurav has been working on it far longer, of course, but 6th is when for all intents and purposes we pressed the green light on the project.

I met Gaurav at his flat, we looked over some of the basic work I'd done regarding festivals to submit to and general ideas about the film, and then spent about 8 hours just talking--how we were seeing the film, the production, the working environment he wanted to create, what my part to play in that would be, et cetera, et cetera. It was good groundwork to go over, then we met a couple of his friends, struggling writers in the scene. It's interesting how many people I've met who have similar stories to mine and Gaurav's--that of deciding one day to cash in our chips with whatever game we were playing and trade it all for Bollywood. For some reason, that's slightly reassuring.

My work now is to go over scene and location breakdowns and start coming up with a master schedule for all facets of the production: scenes, locations, actions, props, costumes, cast, mood, everything. Gaurav is still working on fixing the lead role and some other title roles, as well as pinning down the financing.



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Now playing: Shreya Ghoshal - So Jaoon Main
via FoxyTunes