FilmCamp.TV’s blog

Junior FilmCamp Day 5 - 11 Kids Make 7 Films

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:05:01 +0530

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.
Siddarth’s film 'Nightmare', happily enought, isn’t one . It turns out to be, by far, FilmCamp.TV’s quickest film shoot. The boys from the frisbee team act and shoot it. Six shots taken in 50 minutes flat! By 5.50 p.m. Junior FilmCamp's day-long film shoot ends. Result - 11 children have acted, directed and shot 7 films in one day!

Thank you kids. You proved us right. You are NOT idiots. You can make movies.

Read other articles here:
Junior FilmCamp Day 1 - Movie-making, children and FilmCamp.TV
Junior FilmCamp Day 2 - The art of the treatment.
Junior FilmCamp Day 3 - Shaping the script.
Junior FilmCamp Day 4 - The Hitchcock Storyboard

Junior FilmCamp Day 4 - The Hitchcock Storyboard

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:18:56 +0530

Hitchcock was known to storyboard meticulously. This seems in line with his persona that included his keen eye for detail. My choice of North By Northwest (1959), as the film to introduce storyboarding to my young audience, only seems natural. For a film made almost 50 years ago, the sequence of Cary Grant's character, Thornhill, being mowed down by an airplane still does not fail to grip audiences from this century.

Based on a script written by the legendary Ernest Lehman, this sequence is also a study in minimalist dialogue. Nothing is uttered for the first two minutes, just a desert landscape with a highway separating two characters standing on either side of it. And yet, every audience, including my 10-somethings sit through the scene with one overpowering thought gripping their minds, "What's going to happen next?" Hitchcock sets this up with a camera that captures sweeping landscapes alternating with Point of View (POV) shots of the characters observing one another.

We begin with the Extreme Long Shot, Thornhill getting off the bus, camera a good 100 feet up in the sky, a wide lens, the bus and the alighting figure little ants set against a vast landscape. We work our way through, the Long Shots of Thornhill and the farmer standing on either side of the camera, this time the camera low down on the asphalt. The POV shots as Thornhill and farmer size one another and the tracking POV as Thornhill approaches the farmer - sheer genius. I check with my students, "Do you get the Point of View (POV)?" They nod. Its when the camera becomes a person in the film looking on at happenings as a participant witness. Among all the performing arts, the POV shot is cinema’s unique gift to the audience that screams - “Come! Be in this movie.”

Medium shots as the characters converse. Long Shots capture the sweeping movements of the airplane against clear blue sky, very peaceful. Until, the airplane dives down on Thornhill. Now we're scared. Camera tracks backward with Thornhill running towards it. The 'peaceful' airplane now looms menacingly over a bewildered and petrified Thornhill.

The zooming Close-up comes in when Thornhill is staring at the oncoming truck. He must absolutely stop the truck if he is to save himself! Its counter shot is the Close-up of the radiator grill of the truck headed straight at Thornhill's face. Another astoundingly gripping POV achieved by slowing down the camera’s frame rate. The dramatic end, oil tanker and plane collide and go up in flames.

Our kids sit through this, their jaws dropped, as we watch the sequence over and over, peeling off the layers. Questions come flying at me. How was the first shot achieved, high up in the sky? Was it a helicopter? How are the tracking shots done? How did they do the collision of the airplane and oil tanker. The answer to the last required a review. It's a special effect using miniatures. They can see when we pause on the shot and look at it closely. Salona says, “It (the truck) looks too clean.” Siddarth points out, “And the man under the truck is a dummy. He doesn’t move.” I’m happy. They get it.

Meera asks the final question, "So what happens next?" Well, that's exactly what Hitchcock wants us to ask. The only way to find out is to stay and watch his movie. All made possible, thanks to the storyboard.

We break up to do the storyboard for 5-6 films we will be shooting on April 17th, 2008. Exciting!

Children in the Junior FIlmCamp watching Hitchcocks’ film
North By Northwest understanding storyboard.

Read other articles here:
Junior FilmCamp Day 1 - Movie-making, children and FilmCamp.TV
Junior FilmCamp Day 2 - The art of the treatment.
Junior FilmCamp Day 3 - Shaping the script.
Junior FilmCamp Day 5 - 11 kids make 7 films.

Junior Filmcamp Day 3 - Shaping the script

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 08:19:15 +0530

The treatments are ready. We have 11 of them. I get the older girls Kajol, Meera, Alakananda, Deepti and Salona to polish their treatments. They have the language skills and the patience to engage in the exercise. The boys, on the other hand, have shorter attention-spans. "Do we need to write this stuff again and again before making a film?"

The importance of treatment writing should never be underestimated in cinema. If a filmmaker cannot answer the question "Is there really a story here?", there is no point in even writing a script. Are you, as a filmmaker, able to keep a readers attention on the story even when its on a page. Is it engaging enough to draw them in? Will an audience sit through two hours of it on a screen?

The boys are still goofing off. We pick Abhay's story about three boys who fight over a frisbee. Its simple and has a conflict that is eventually resolved. We've got the characters, just need frisbees and we are a go. We've got to write the script though. The boys take turns writing this one. Nishant is keen on his story too. He asks me several times, "Have you read mine? When are we writing that?" I reply that we will, eventually. There is some grumbling that we are making Abhay's story because he's my son. I don't reply.

Kajol and Meera have written a nice piece about two friends, a shopkeeper and a beggar. But they need to iron out if this will work in Lal Bagh. The get the shopkeeper to allow the use of his shop entrance. A guide at Lal Bagh agrees to act. The girl's driver will play the beggar. This can be made. The girls launch on the script.

Deepti has one that explore the relationship between a hungry homeless boy and an old man in the park. Very touching. I want to do this. But can Deepti find the actors? We ask around and Disha's grandfather agrees to do it. We still need the boy. We glance at the goofballs in our class, but they are too engaged in their story. Still got a problem to solve.

Salona and Disha have written a cute little piece. Its funny involving a 'perly white pastry" and splattered bird shit. Salona is keen on acting in it. Disha isn't. She knows she wants to be behind the camera. And we're fine with that. We still need to find another actor for this one. The girls finish the script and Raghu starts them on the storyboard.

Alakananda has a nice Chekovian piece. I adore Chekov and this one has all those elements - a character who knows how to rise above her circumstances but submits out of the burden of tradition. There are 5 characters in this film. Can she find the actors? She's confident and I think she can. She must now write her script.

We wrap up with a practical. Setting up the tripod, mounting the camera and exploring frames - the close-up, the medium shot, the long shot and the American long shot. These kids are all set to make some interesting movies. And FilmCamp is going to be there to see them through. I'm proud of them.

Read other articles here:

Junior FilmCamp Day 1 - Movie-making, children and FilmCamp.TV
Junior FilmCamp Day 2 - Shaping the script.
Junior FilmCamp Day 4 - The Hitchcock Storyboard.
Junior FilmCamp Day 5 - 11 kids make 7 films.

Junior Filmcamp Day 2 - The art of the treatment

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:27:18 +0530

We have two new faces, Rahul and Avirath. They couldn’t make it to the first session because they were in other camps. I did a make-up session at my house and they’re up to speed now.

We begin with an excerpt from a Hollywood film School of Rock. I love this film for its use of rock music by a school teacher to foster the spirit of independent thinking and creativity among children. While rock is associated with drugs and the rebellious spirit of youth from the 60s and 70s, this film gives it a new and untainted incarnation.

The scene we are studying is one in which the character Mr. Schneble, played by Jack Black, introduces his 10-year-old students to classic rock. Again, we explored it by first asking the fundamental question, "How is it written?" Film is an extension of literature. If its not written, it doesn't become a great film - an axiom we forget in Indian cinema.

Every action, movement, location and prop in the classroom scene with Jack Black and his students is meticulously written in a script. The choice of music has been meditated on and explicitly called out. Each character that plays a different instrument has very specific traits that make him (or her) who they are. The kids observe, imbibe, comment and laugh at Jack’s antics.

Jack Black is a wonderful actor to watch - totally involved, very passionate, very animated when he needs to be and soft as pillow when its called for. Through him, the rock stars and their music from The Doors, Deep Purple and AC/DC spring alive. Its a window into the past through sheer acting.

A Hollywood filmmaking is all dynamic camera. Every movement of actors versus the camera is orchestrated to render a precise effect and illicit an emotion from an audience. Kids get an idea of how a Hollywood film is made with complex machinery and an experienced crew. The classroom is a set. Every prop, costume and hairstyle has been designed.

We sit down to review treatments. Every kid in the class of 11 has written one. Deepti has written three as has Siddarth. Every story has a beginning, middle and end. Every story is a little gem. Some are very funny. Others are subtle and have poignant endings. Their language is simple and narrative. Question is, “Can they be made into a short film?”

We continue writing through the next hour. Our attitude - “We’re going to make a film out of each treatment.” That keeps all the kids involved. Some rewrite their treatments, other explore new stories. We will narrow five of these to make films.

We wrap up the session with an introduction to the camera and the tripod. At FilmCamp, the handheld camera is frowned on. We also don’t allow pans or tilts. Our mantra is, “Know your frame, and know it intimately before you begin to move it.”

Kids practice how to setup a tripod and mount the camera. The guys do what they do best - goof off. The girls, as always, are their diligent and meticulous selves.

We finish with what needs to be done for the next day. Treatments need to be ready and completed. We begin on the scripts tomorrow.

Read more about this workshop here:

Junior FilmCamp Day 1 - Moviemaking, children and FilmCamp
Junior FilmCamp Day 3 - Shaping the script
Junior FilmCamp Day 4 - The Hitchcock Storyboard
Junior FilmCamp Day 5 - 11 kids make 7 films.

Movie-making, children and FilmCamp.TV

Tue, 8 Apr 2008 14:08:19 +0530

Children break things. They are stupid, capricious, immature and butter-fingered. Tradition has always preached these 'qualities' of children. So, would you put a camera in a child’s hands? NO! They’ll just break it...

At FilmCamp.TV we think differently. After all, we Indians have in the past, left the ‘serious’ business of nation-building and leadership to politicians who are stupid, capricious scoundrels and downright criminals, to say the least. So why not throw caution to the wind, break with tradition and bring filmmaking to children. The result - Junior FilmCamp.

We have 11 children in our first session of Junior FilmCamp. One of them is my son, Abhay (9). He keeps saying, "I'm in the camp and guess what? I don't need to pay?" Well, at FilmCamp, we could use the money. But the thrill of making a film is payment beyond measure.

We started late on April 8th. I made a wrong turn heading to Lal Bagh and suddenly wished the FilmCamp Cruizer could fly out of traffic. On arrival, I see 7 shiny and eager faces - Nishant, Siddarth, Salona, Alakananda, Kajol, Meera and Disha. We pick a shady tree by the glass house and sit down on the grass. Opening my laptop, I prop it on a foldable chair and jump to the burning question, "How do you think movies are made?" Answers start pouring in and Junior FilmCamp blast off.

Our children belong to a new generation, one exposed to media and technology in ways unfathomable when we were growing up. They have watched shows on TV and video games and have already figured out, to some extent, how this stuff is put together. We look at some clips from Sesame Street, a show with Julia Roberts talking to Elmo the cute and cuddly monster. The older teens are not too keen on watching kids stuff from Sesame Street. “This stuff is for kiddies. Why are we watching this,” they think. But that can't stop them from laughing at the piece. Hell, I can't stop laughing it myself. And I have watched it over a 100 times. Something about classics. You see them anew every time.

We watch the piece several times over, bouncing our observations back on forth. How was it written? What's in the acting that makes the characters so endearing? The framing and camera positions that facilitate a seamless edit. Why use a close-up versus a medium shot? The children get it. Aside the craft of filmmaking, its all about feeling and connecting between characters and the audience. We continue to laugh as we peel layer after layer of the movie, enjoying a different perspective every time.

When we bring out the show with Elmo and Whoopi Goldberg, it launches an animated discussion. This is a subtler piece. Whoopi's finer nuances in acting don't go unnoticed, even by 10-year-olds - the flick of an eyebrow, a fleeting frown or the enunciation of a word in a script. It’s sheer pleasure to teach children. They don’t come with the burden and baggage of Bollywood. Clean slates, fresh minds.

Armed with the tools we've just acquired, the kids watch some FilmCamp shorts made at workshops for adults. We screen Cover-Up, a suspense thriller. The kids are blow away. One can really tell a story in a minute and a half. That fact begins to really sink in. We follow Cover-Up with See You There, a youthful expression playing on the viewers’ preconceived notions about relationships. The older kids laugh.

We close with an assignment. Write a treatment for a 1-2 minute film. I call out some rules for the treatment. But I know they are going to break them. And that’s alright. At FilmCamp.TV we celebrate the breaking of rules.

Continued:
Junior FilmCamp Day 2 - The Art of the Treatment

CoreCampers do it all

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:34:08 +0530

Recently, I had occasion to get some petty work done at a government office. Well, petty to me, but not to the army of middlemen at this office - menial office boys to sagacious paper-pushing bureaucrats in air conditioned rooms. They say I’m the idiot because, “I don’t know how things work around here”. So I started asking questions.

That was a bad move - asking questions. That’s when the run-around begins. Why? Nobody has the right answer to any query. So your perhaps thinking that this a malady of government institutions. Surely, private companies manage their affairs and customers better. Think again. I had to deal with a major MNC on the very same problems. Again, can’t get a straight answer. Nobody with sign on his/her desk that says, “The buck stops here.”

At FilmCamp.TV, we do things differently. Since every FilmCamper is trained to do everything by doing it themselves, there is no pushing the buck around.

Whether it’s cleaning our Cruizer, designing our website, talking to a client or mixing sound for our films - every FilmCamper does it himself (or herself). At FilmCamp.TV, your mommy doesn’t help you do your laundry. You do your laundry yourself!

Want a straight answer on filmmaking? You’ll get one from us. Or we’ll tell you where to find one so you can help yourself. Yeah that’s right. Need a helping hand? You’ll find one at the end of your own arm! No more middle-men, paper-pushers and half-truths.

Make a film... or die trying!

I Was Blind... I see better now

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:48:00 +0530

Till then it was an opportunity, media empowerment, and non profit and still is, but more than that how blind we sighted are :-(

As a visual artist myself, I never realized how a visually challenged person could connect to me and my work. How selfish can I be, making content for the sighted who have been adulterated? The sighted are given precious content, which they don’t value. But here is another audience, with huge scope for acceptance to such content and we never realized the potential. The visually challenged people who can, not only accept but also create such content, which will sure be different from any of our content. As a core FilmCamper, it has been an eye opening experience helping the Visually challenged students of Rakum to make their own film.
When the kids were invited for our screening at Bengaluru International Film Festival, I Introduced Sadique Pasha [ one of the talented kids, from Rakum school for blind, having a bollywood dream] to the press, and he surprises me by saying, “Sir first nimge namaskara!”. That completely melted me down.

Rangappa talking to the press

These words meant a lot, as it has been a challenging task for me the past few days convincing them to make a minute length film to start off, and now my task looks simpler. Just can’t wait to see the finished films.

Chennai Rocked! FilmCamp at Besant Nagar

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:41:30 +0530

5 in the evening and I was ready for my filmcamp buddies at Silkboard flyover. No problem of traffic as all the geeks were traveling in the opposite direction getting back home from e-city. As Laloo would have said, the roads were like Hema Malini’s cheeks and we just cruised down on them - the road not her cheeks! Learned the art of bladder control as we just did one stop in Vellore, midway between Bangalore and Chennai. Hunger pangs had struck by then and we dug into yummy fried rice which Sanjay got. Tired and exhausted and battling unseasonal rain, we reached Sanjay’s place only by around 11 in the night!

Next two days was going around hotspots in Chennai and spreading word around about our workshop. The most fun and interesting part was the kiosk that we set up outside our cruiser on the Besant Nagar beach. Lot of interested crowd and people walked up to us to find out more about our workshop.

The D-Day was finally upon us and we were totally geared up for it. Ran into the Chennai Ultimate Frisbee guys at the Besant Nagar beach who were closing their play for the day when we were starting our workshop. It was great to see a wonderful turnout of 24 people (our limit is 25) for the workshop. The sun was beaming harsh on the filmcampers but they were not deterred by it as they concentrated on developing the story and treatment for their 1 minute film. It was great to see how people who were strangers to each other just few hours back met and brainstormed to get a very creative story going. Later they wrote a script according to the guidelines given by us and thought they were done when we made them realize that story-boarding is an important part of filmmaking too. They had to complete their storyboard even before they thought of having lunch!

If they thought they had completed the toughest part of filmmaking, they were in for a rude shock! The shooting of the film and that too on a public beach is the most visible part of filmmaking and the most high-pressure one too. As we were shooting in sync sound, we had to ensure that people around the scene should be quiet and also not walk into the frame. This required that two members of the team had to stand at opposite directions and stop the people walking in. And the light was fading out quick by around 5.30 as it is winter and so teams had to hurry up to take the shots which wouldn’t come properly in bad light.

On the right is a pic of me helping a team shoot on the beach. I was literally ready with my trousers folded up and rearing to go! My shoes took a beating and I had to throw them in the garbage after that. The real fun part of editing came on then and all the teams were having fun importing the footage they shot and editing it for the first cut.

By the time we finished with all the 5 teams, it was almost 10 in the night and we were doing the entire thing without even a single break! Exhausted, we went to Vishranthi hotel and had a well deserved dinner. But alas no Thair-Sadam (curd rice)! :-( We just went back and crashed only to get up the next day! :-)

Our drive back to Bangalore was pretty uneventful apart from getting stuck on the Hosur Road traffic in the evening peak hour and listening to some great music along the way. Chennai rocked and welcomed us with open arms and hoping to have much more fun workshops and shoots there in the future! :-)