Back in the News!

If you want to view the video first, before reading the post, so that you can nod along & agree with me all the way, well, here’s the link!

http://www.filmcamp.tv/FilmCamp.TV/Workshops_Films/Entries/2008/7/18_Suckered.html

The video is B-A-D! And here are the reasons why.
1. They spelled my name wrong in the credits!
2. They chose a pathetic name for the movie. What kind of a word is ‘Suckered’?
3. Even if one accepts ‘Suckered’ as a word and figures out what it means who gives a ‘suspense-movie’ a reveal-all name?
4. They skipped some shots which could have turned the video around. Essentially the editing is screwed up!

‘They’, of course, refers to the guys in Film Camp (www.filmcamp.tv). But let me start at the beginning.

It was summertime one year back. My wife was then in the UK. Vibhor wasn’t married yet. We had a lot of free time in the weekend & decided to spend one day trying out the Film Camp which we had been getting email invitations about. Dale was also free & game to join in.

We reached Lalbagh right on time, early Sunday morning, and duly paid the Rs.1000 as fees. (Money down the drain… but I am jumping the gun here. Back to the story then.) The group was quickly split into small teams of 4, one of the Film-campers (the instructors) were to accompany each team, and help them develop a short story, teach them how to shoot, essentially guide the team through the whole process.

Our guide (forgot his name) explained to us what a ‘Treatment’ for a movie was. We came up with a storyline, and went into developing the Storyboard. (I think we skipped ‘Screenplay’ completely, not sure.) The list of shots were decided & we started the shooting. At this point our instructor reeled off a few technical terms like ‘180 degree line’ & ‘Rule of thirds’. He then proceeded to explain each term, wrongly as we later found out. Once in a while, Sanjay Nambiar, probably the only person in the outfit who really knows about filmmaking, walked by taking pictures to publicise the camp. Of course he didn’t have much time to spare instructing us!

Shooting got over by twilight. We were promised that we could do the editing also on Final Cut (Macbook Pro!) In reality, we just had enough time to pick the shots & transfer the footage before we were shoo-ed off, with a promise that our instructor will complete the editing and post the movie on their website a week later.

The movie was indeed posted – in a completely garbled state, with key shots missing – three months and one abusive mail from Sanjay Nambiar later!

The fellow, Sanjay Nambiar, has a big attitude problem. To a simple query over email in the lines “We had participated in the Film Camp in Bangalore on 20th of April. We were told that the completed movies would be put up on the website in 2 weeks time. (Snaps from that day's camp were put on the Film Camp homepage also for a short while!) Any updates on these? It has been almost 7 weeks since!” Sanjay’s reply read: “Wait! All good things come to those who wait. And watch that tone when you write to me. I just taught you how to make a film, not idli-vada! Know anybody else who can do that for Rs.1000? The photos on the homepage are a courtesy. You can thank me for them. If you complain, you won't get shit!” [All quotes verbatim!]

It seems he has continued to extend further ‘courtesy’ to us! Shankara mentioned that he had seen an ad for some ‘Film something’ on Bangalore Times over the 4-5 July weekend with my picture in it! Given that I have not been to any other ‘Film something’, I am pretty sure it is the same picture that appeared on Film Camp website homepage. I couldn’t locate the newspapers, if you can, you may crosscheck if you care to!

I don’t remember the terms & conditions that I signed at the beginning of the camp, so I don’t know if they have a right to put my picture on the newspaper. But do take it from me, I am not advocating to anyone to join the camp! In fact, the only reason you should join the camp is if you have an extra Rs.1500 (they increased the price!) and want to spend a quite Sunday in Lalbagh, handling low end Panasonic Camcorders & switching ON a Macbook Pro. But if you want to learn anything on making movies, just look up the terms ‘Treatment’, ‘Storyboard’, ‘180 Degree Rule’ & ‘Rule of Thirds’ on Google, and you already know more than what you can possibly learn at that camp!

Tomar Shawhore

Once upon a time, I was quite an 'Active' kid, as my mother used to complain ever so often! Climbing up tress, across walls, and down from roof tops used to be like having bread and milk to me! (Ya, my staple breakfast diet used to consist of 3 slices of bread and a glass of milk.) That was then, though. The last time I did any adventurous climbing was when I climbed out of the First Floor Balconey of a house in Manipal, when I thought (mistakenly, as it turned out) that I had been locked in. Almost seven years back.

The fly-over under construction was about 50 feet above ground. I wanted to get on top of it to get a clear, nested-bird's-eye view of the sprawling campus next to it. I first thought of walking up the ramp under construction right there... but soon discovered that it stopped in mid air - perfect for shooting a high speed sequence where Sandra Bullock drives a bus flying straight across a 40 feet chasm - and didn't join the main flyover. And it was not high enough to get the view I wanted.

Looking around, I could see one of those workers ladders going up to the top - one of those affairs with flat metal rungs & no handrails, with a framework which looks as if it will fall apart if a rose petal was to land on one of the rungs. Well, I am not a rose petal, by any stretch of imagination, irrespective of who is imagining, whether it be Jules Verne or Michael Crichtn or Isaac Asimov or even Escher himself! But then, I reasoned, nor would be at least some of the workers who use this ladder daily on the way to office. So I decided to climb it.

It was then I realised how brave the folks in our country really are, to be using this method to access one's workplace nonchalantly every day, and without thinking of what would happen if they were to miss a footing after going up half the way. I wasn't nonchalant at all. In fact I was really scared. Imagine walking up the above-described path (not to heaven as I was hoping all the way up and down) with a Camera on a Tripod in one hand, and hardly daring to hold the framework with the other, of the fear that something will come lose! I would have kept my eyes closed all the way up as Dusty Miller did all the way up the cliffs of Navarone - but then something told me that was not really the right thing to do in the situation!

It took me about 15 everlasting minutes to reach the top. It was worth it, I got what I wanted and more. The view was not really breathtaking or anything, that is hard to get in the city. But the flyover under construction was itself really interesting, snaking its way all the way up to horizon. I got a couple of more shots than I expected, you can find them in some of the 'lyrics-less' sections of the song. I am embedding the official version of the video below. You are also welcome to visit the Youtube Link and leave your comments to Anupam - the composer, singer & protagonist. Here's the video.