I am no Coppola! I am simply a learner in my mid-forties trying to fulfill a long cherished dream of film making. If you have one, come live the dream with me. Let's not get into why it took me so much time to simply pick up the camera and make films; instead let's get into the process straight away. The only option I had; to learn film making, was to actually make a film.
And I suppose it is the best way, today! I did just that!! So every film I made was a master class in itself. Since I shoot, I direct , I edit all by myself , the master class played in front of me each day when I saw the footage or the dailies. I learnt with every mistake that I could see playing on my edit table.
Since I had not learnt any rules, I was unknowingly breaking some and in doing so, at times, I was creating some. I hate the tripod! Call it laziness or call it ignorance... I shot many of my short films with hand held camera, my Buddy Panasonic Lumix FZ-300. Don't be amazed if you find hundreds of recommendation of a certain brand to be best suited for digital film making. Early in the process of learning I had learnt a simple rule
Make do with what you have. Just focus on starting the process not on creating a master piece straight away. That's the reason I adore this generation. They pick up a cell phone and make a film. The very first short film I shot on the Lumix FZ 300 was Dabba. Dabba was shot over two days with both in house actors, literally. My two sons were playing the lead roles. The location was the garden of the society we reside in and the road adjacent to it.
The shot taking was instinctive and nothing was planned. No storyboard, no shot break up, nothing at all. I simply didn't do it because I never knew it. From then to now the learning process has been so beautiful. The Film ISTOO that is currently in edit, had each and every shot designed in advance. But still at times I just skip the sheet and go back to instinct. Sound was recorded on a microphone, I had made from earphones connected to the cell phone recorder. Lot of these hacks you can easily find on Aunt YouTube. Probably you could make some of your own hacks on the path of learning. The excitement of shooting my first short film on a new camera that too with my adorable sons was so high, I hardly was thinking of the outcome.
The Master Class. The dailies were glaring at me with all their flaws but the viewer in me took over and I was caught in the emotions of the shots. I could read through the emotion of one shot to the other. So in a way I wasn't cutting the shots I was simply joining the emotions. You can salvage a film with emotions in it but you cannot do the same for the one completely lacking it. And Dabba was high on emotions. And yes... the Coppola bit in the start was just to get the eyeballs. Never ever do that with your film! Never ever add anything in your film for eyeballs especially when you are just beginning. Learning continues ...
If you liked Dabba. If you have a question related to the film or anything that touched a chord do write to me in the comments or nozzer.p@gmail.com