Course Conductor: Vinay Subramanian
Shruti Nikam
I have been interested in filmmaking for quite a while now. I like watching videos on movie analysis and behind-the-scenes filmmaking, in my spare time. This one-week elective gave me a glimpse of how a film is made. Due to the short duration, we were able to discuss only the conception of an idea for the script and how to write genuine characters through daily life observations. We couldn't discuss the technicalities of shooting an independent film to that extent.
On the first day, we were told to observe a daily activity near the college premises and write a short paragraph within 15 minutes, on-site. This exercise brought out different ways of approaching storytelling structure. Some of us tried to observe the relationship of a main character with their surroundings through their expressions, while some were also observing themselves while observing others. While writing, I personally was concerned about the sequence of unfolding the gestures or activities. We discussed how the choice of narration style can bring specificity to the emotions being conveyed. The next exercise was to think of the backstories and aspirations of the chosen characters. In many of our narrations, there was a certain amount of assumption about the characters' backstories, which leads to a character in our heads than something the audience finds relatable. Thus, while writing this type of narration, we all discussed how genuine characters are written.
The next exercise was about observation and action problems through improve. For this one Vinay gave some situation prompts where randomly anyone could enter the stage assuming a character. We had to create a scene with the assumed characters by further assuming the relation between the chosen characters. We did some scenarios of public spaces like a Bus stand, a park, and a hospital. By acting out, I could better understand how one's gestures should be clear enough and how long an action needs to be played out to convey the specific emotions and stories. The way everyone enacted their characters also had to convey a sense of space through proportionate dimensions and spatial co-relation. The technique of establishing a space through acting was a key outcome of this exercise, which helped me later while directing the film.
Prompt: Men’s Public Toilet
Prompt: Hospital
The final exercise was to create a 2-3 min short film. The basic prompt for the storyline was that the main character has to go through some sort of transformation, it can be a revelation, behavioural shift, etc. We discussed some direction styles. Some directors give clear and restricted directions about the specific gestures, but Vinay suggested that directors should only be the facilitators of environments for the actors to freely act and improvise accordingly. My group and I decided to create a short horror film. We wanted to experiment with the narrating style of a horror film in the short given time. We came up with the following storyline.
Synopsis:
Mumbai, the city of dreams, brought two friends close to complete their higher education. A 2 bhk flat was rented for their stay. A girl had been living there for a while. She walks them around and warns them from entering the second bedroom. Continuing that the door was strictly locked, due to the personal belongings of the owner. But one of the friends was keenly interested in knowing what's behind it. The other, being timid, focused on not letting the former enter that space.
One fine night, when everyone was asleep, the keen one slips out of the bedroom and walks to the locked door. She tries to open the door and after opening…….
What happens after she opens the door? Does her friend and roommate know about it? Let's find out…
Film title-the Door
Location- a 2bhk flat in Yogi Nagar, Borivali
Director- Shruti Nikam
Cameraman- Yashita Ugavekar
Editor- Kewal, Shruti Nikam
Screenplay- Sayali Zantye
Actors- Sayli Zantye, Nidhi Bhoir, Lavanya Navale
Characters
Sayli Zantye - Saee
Nidhi Bhoir - Mira
Lavanya Navale — Avni
We chose a friend’s flat who has come to Mumbai for her higher education. We had visited that place several times, but to shoot it and present it to an audience we had to look at the flat through a new angle. Furthermore, we got a glimpse of the blocking process while deciding angle for shooting. The hall of her house was way too long, which contradicted our storyline of the girls having insufficient space. Also, placing the characters in different corners of the hall would mean more shots, extending the duration of the film. Thus, we thought of fixing an angle so that the whole conversation becomes a long uncut scene. We tried to repeat this angle so that the audience gets a sense of the hall in relation to the room with the mystery door. There wasn't much time to establish the personality of each character and their co-relation. So we decide their dialogues and dressing style accordingly. We thought of giving Saee (the main character) a funky dressing style through bright clothes, and a lot of rings. To establish the dynamics between Mira and Avni, we made sure Mira would be the pushy one while Avni always silenced her as she is a girl who lives by the rules.
While shooting, we understood the technicalities involved in planning the shooting, like we shot a main discussion scene first so that the actors get the hang of the relationship dynamic between the characters. Once this base was established, we decided to shoot the main night scene, as we had only one night to shoot. The most tricky part of the shoot were the night shots. We relied a lot upon narration style in a conventional horror film, but how to execute it was the most important learning. By night, we understood that the phone we had chosen to film, did not have that much clearer night vision. Luckily, the blurriness of the shots complemented the confusion and insecure feeling required for the film, so we decided to go ahead with the same phone.
Once the shooting was done, we had assumed that editing would be the much easier part, but it turned out to be another task. We uploaded all the shots in sequence on the software, and while playing them together we realized that there were some continuity errors, and it wasn't as thrilling as we had expected. So we added sound effects to enhance the sense of horror, some of which worked and some did not. One learning in terms of editing was that some buffer time should be kept even after editing, to re-shoot and resolve continuity errors.
On the final day of submission, all the groups came up with interesting stories and unique narrative styles. In the film ‘Diurinal Anecdotes’, the main scene was shot in a type of birds-eye view, which was then continued as the shooting style for all the scenes. In the film ‘Kya Mangta hai’, I liked the depiction of every day, which was done by showing each character ordering the same food item and them in different clothes. In the film ‘The Shirt’, the flat chosen had a long corridor connecting the hall and the bedroom. There were two or three other rooms along the corridor. Thus, while shooting the main character’s transition from the hall to the last bedroom, they shot it from the room along the corridor rather than the starting or ending point. This way of shooting rightly captured the sense of travelling and the longevity of the corridor.
This elective helped me get a better sense of issues faced while making a film to some extent. One week was quite a short period to also understand the technicalities of shooting, but it was a productive experience. The discussions on writing a genuine character and how to bring it to life is one of the key takeaways for me.
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