Films by the Blind See Light

3/6/08

March 2nd was a momentous day at The Sri Rakum School for the Blind. They were celebrating their 10th anniversary. For FilmCamp.TV, it was a landmark in achievement. We screened 7 films written, shot, directed and edited entirely by our blind brothers and sisters.

Our journey together began one evening, 7th January, 2008. It began with a conversation we had with Acharya Rakum, the director of the school, about the possibility of conducting our filmmaking workshop for his students. We didn't know what to expect. Our initial motivation towards doing the workshop was purely academic. We had a point to prove. And that was - anybody can be taught to make a film - even the blind.

Rakum introduced us to his 'children' who could barely contain their excitement mixed with apprehension. There were doubts in their minds. "Could we really do it?" they thought. "And why only a 1 minute film? Why not 10 minutes?" Over the next few weeks, we introduced them to short film making. We also invited them to a screening at the Bengalooru Int. Film Festival (BIFFES). Sitting through 20 short films had a profound effect on them. One could tell a story in 10 minutes.

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They began to develop their little stories, writing their scripts in braille, some even typing on the brailler. We worked with them to help them shape their stories into a script, explaining the medium of cinema and illustrating how the vision-endowed world saw them and interpreted them. They knew something about theater and creating drama. But they soon realized that cinema was different. Precision in the script was key to its execution in making a film.

When we sat down to storyboard, they realized that cinema allowed audiences to get up-close and personal with the story. There were close-ups and extreme close-ups. There were medium-shots and long shots. As filmmakers, they got to pick what to show the audience and what to hide. What a revelation? What a thrill for our blind brethren?

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Together, we shot 7 films in 3 days. FilmCamp.TV's role was merely supervisory. We helped place the camera, framing what was planned in the storyboard. Each frame was felt with the use of a wooden frames placed between the camera and the subjects. The filmmakers would 'feel' the wooden frame and the subjects behind it to know what the lens of the camera was 'seeing'. When the shot was ready, each blind student actually operated the camera calling out 'action' and 'cut'.

The performers in front of the camera were blind too. But they played characters endowed with vision. They had rehearsed their lines and their roles. They knew how many steps to take to hit their mark in the frame. They knew what line to deliver, where and when. They directed acting performances by listening to voice. They had the script close at hand and consulted it constantly. They never tired of doing retakes to refine a shot. It was team-work at its best. A true marvel. Bollwood... something here for you to learn from!

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A week later, after a trip to Chennai to conduct a workshop, we returned for the edit. The blind edit with their ears opened wide. They heard sounds and nuances we visioned folk don't pay attention to (or take for granted). For them, it was a revelation that their films could be remade during the edit.

Darkness To Light

Kahi Satya

First, some concepts needed to be elucidated. What is a timeline? What is an in point and out point in an edit? We used a foot ruler to explain that if, as the filmmaker, you liked the shot from the 3rd inch to the 7th inch, you set your 'in' point or start point at the 3rd inch and the out the 7th. The choice of shot and its length was the filmmaker's. Over four sessions, each lasting three hours each, the blind edited their masterpieces on three macs. One in each team, endowed with partial vision operated the computer.

Originally, we had planned to include our students during the mixing of music and sound. After all, they have an acute sense of it. But, for scheduling reasons we were unable to get them to our studious to perform that with them close at hand. So we did that for them. On 1st March, the films were complete.

At the screening, the excitement over their accomplishment were writ on the faces of the blind. They were proud. But I think we were prouder still of them. When Sri Rakum thanked us with tears in his eyes for bring happiness into the lives of his children through this exercise, we knew that we had done much more than what we had set out to accomplish. Bring light to some dark recesses of the world of 30 blind students.

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