A film shoot is the most taxing, challenging and chaotic part of filmmaking. Every effort leads up to this day. I liken it to war. Nobody truly controls anything during battle. Nobody can truly predict an outcome. Its like the advice that Krishna gives to Arjuna at Kurukshetra, "Do your best. Leave the rest to the Lord." A film makes itself. You, as its maker are just there, as prepared and as ready as you can get, to move it along.
At FilmCamp workshops, participants usually work together to come up with a script. At Junior FilmCamp, we did things a little differently by allowing individual kids to write stories. The result - we had 6 scripts to make on Day 5 of the workshops. That wasn't all. Siddarth, brings in a script on the day of the shoot. I don't know what to say. Siddarth is persistent - an essential pre-requisite trait for a filmmaker. There is something there and I don't want to disappoint him. I read through his script and think, "May be we can swing this one too." We can't promise to make it, I warn him. We already have 6 films to make today.
After a review of storyboards, we spread out in Lal Bagh to shoot the first three films. FilmCamper Raghu works with Disha and Salona who are making a film on a girl protecting her 'pearly white' pastry from her friend. FilmCamper Hari is overseeing Alakananda's film about a poor sweeper girl's aspirations to be part of a world beyond her means. They are setting up for their first shot and I walk over to Deepti as she coaxes Rohil (her cousin and actor) with FilmCamper Bijunu to frame her first shot. Deepti's film is about a homeless boy who finds a friend and mentor in a retired old man in the park. Very nice stories.
Its past 10 AM and beginning to get really hot. The teams follow the storyboard. They read out the first shot, identifying the first and last actions in the shot. They rehearse their actors through theirs lines, movements and action and then launch on their first takes. The action in front of the camera is always rehearsed concurrently with that behind it. The kids go through the motions with each rehearsal leading up to the take. With each iteration they begin to get a hang of the painfully slow mechanics of the film shoot. Its not all glamor and red carpets in filmmaking. The sun continues to vaporize us. But the kids hang in there, their parents watching from the shade.
Deepti has a sweet cousin, Rohil (8). Nice kid, but clearly the director's nightmare. The heat and the constant repetitions get to him. He complains, "You said this was a two-minute movie something. But this is going on forever." Perfectly understandable. What's all the fuss about? Its only a film. We cajole, coax and threaten him, trying every trick in the book to give us the performance the script requires. After a grueling 4 hours, we have the film wrapped. Disha's grandfather, Mr. Shastri, acting as the retired old man, gives us a the climax we need.
Its now 2 in the afternooon. I return to our meeting point. Hari's and Raghu's teams have finished their films. I'm told I look tired and weather beaten. But I don't feel it. The day is still young and we have 3 more films to make... and then maybe one more. We set out with fresh teams. Raghu splits with Nishant and his team. Hari leads with Meera and Kajol. I go with the 10-year-olds - Rahul, Siddarth, Avirath and Abhay.
The 10-somethings are fun to hang out with. Their infinitesimal attention spans go well with the goof-off attitude. But we are here to make movies! The film's about two boys playing with frisbee that get into a fight with a third kid. I rally their attention to the storyboard and get them to stick to the arduously planned frames. We knock out the first few shots. The frisbee behaves exactly like we want it to. I'm heartened, "Oh, this is gonna be a piece of cake."
Until, we get to the shot of the frisbee drifting through the trees with the boys chasing it. That's when the pink frisbee decides to misbehave, going every way but where we want it to - the absolute gall of it! Avirath keeps count of the takes, "7...8...9". We take turns with flinging the frisbee. On the 11th take, we get what we want. That's when we run out of battery power. What with all the pointless takes and chasing frisbees through trees leaving the camera switched on. Of course you'd run out of juice!
Abhay and Avirath have to be in Nishant's film in the concluding scene. I decide its a good time to take break as I get a fresh battery. Nishant's is a film about a kid who gets into an argument with a public toilet attendant. Its funny with a poignant ending. We go down to join them as they get their last shots, the boys constantly goofing. But they always get it together come time to call out the paramount word: "Action." We wrap up Nishant's film with an identical shot from Lagaan, you know, 11 villagers walking in slow motion preparing to face the British team at cricket. Only here, its three kids walking in to clean the toilet. Way cool!
We return to finish the frisbee film. We pull off the fight sequence complete with tripping and pushing, enough to make Jackie Chan blush. We wrap up by 5 p.m. and are returning back when to base when I think, "Well, we've got an hour... may be Siddarth's film?" Hari and Raghu have completed their films. I suggest to Hari about Siddarth's film and he's game. So we set out to make our 7th film.
Thank you kids. You proved us right. You are NOT idiots. You can make movies.
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