Making my short movie | Gyandeep's Take

The injection syringe that I had used IS the most pivotal element in my film. Would you believe that everything starting from the syringe, the red bag.....and the actors were decided on the day of the shoot itself?

It is true.

I woke up at about 6:30 AM on 11th November, 2009 and I had to leave to join a (shitty) job the other day. The last date to submit the film was 16th November. Hence, I was in a dilemma - whether to or not to shoot the movie. I rang up my friends - Durga, Prabhanjan, Palo. They were up from their beds too early and were brimming with enthusiasm. How could I let go of such an opportunity?!

We went to Durga's house where we stuffed the red colored bag with newspapers and stuff. Hmmm. Now, it looked like some heavy luggage. Next we went to a pharmacy and got us self a syringe. We had decided to shoot on a bridge. But, Durga was adamant that the bridge would be crowded and we needed a somewhat desolate place to shoot. Prabhanjan and Palo (who acted as cinematographers; Palo also has a brief role as the guy who refuses to give me a lift the first time) were not ready to leave the bridge. But, what about me? I went in favor of Durga and we took off, not before finding some red colored liquid, towards NH217. After 30 minutes of scouting, we found a spot and we started our shoot. The result was not-so-good. So, we traveled some more distance and found an ideal spot when I located the milestone. Voila!

Now, read carefully.

I sat on the milestone (the first shot) and the camera rolled (it was a 7 Mega pixel SONY digital camera :P) and thus began our shoot. Now, there was another problem - the guy whom I was to ride pillion with was not yet decided. Durga told me that he would do it. We agreed. The hitch was that Durga was fresh at bike-riding. I rang up another one of my friends, Sagar, who was still sleeping. He told me that he would come to see our film shoot. I did not tell him that he had been assigned a role. Despite of fretting over the delay, we canned a few shots such as Palo refusing to give me a lift etcetera. After what seemed like an eternity, Sagar came. When he learned that he had a role to play, he agreed readily to be a part of the film. Another problem was how to show myself drawing blood from my arm. I decided to leave that shot. Instead, Prabhanjan (who sat pillion with Palo on another bike, with both their backs facing each another) took a close-up of me, Sagar and the syringe. I was not sure whether or not it would work. Later, I had to eat my brain as I thought Prabhanjan had taken the menace out of my face and transferred it onto screen. And Sagar's face was impassive; he concentrated fully on his driving, oblivious to any activity going on behind him. I loved that.

We shot about 2 minutes of stuff in 3 hours and we learnt one thing - It is always easy to ridicule any film but we never see the hard work that has gone into the making of the film. But anyway, that's really another story.We went home and after I returned from Bhubaneswar 2 days later, we did the editing and voice-over at Durga's residence. Now, another thing - It is always so so so difficult to cut a single second from your movie. And when, it is a one-minute film, the boulders are sky-high. I had come up with two names - NEEDLEPRICK and BLOOD ELEMENT. Sagar, Prabhanjan, Palo, Durga went for the latter and I, for the former. But, since it was majority versus minority, I went with the flow. You can never make a film alone and my friends stood by my side, steady as rocks. We came up with our company's name - KUBRICKFANS. Sagar and Durga loved it. We submitted the film on 15th of November, 2009. We were on!

The film did not make it to PFCOne 2010's Competitive section. We all were heart-broken. I had shown it to Ali and he had loved it. My friend Inayat, studying at JIPMER, had told me it was good (it is always difficult to elicit a response from that idiot). I was supremely confident. But....

And then, i read an article by Anurag Kashyap. He had written, "Don't care about anything. If you have a story to tell, do whatever - BEG, BORROW, STEAL - but, get out there and shoot your movie". That gave me some air to breathe. There are still 8-9 months for the next competition but I am already raring to go !!

Anyone who has a feasible idea can mail me at gyandeep.gandu@gmail.com. Criticism is always welcome. And finally, here's my film, dedicated to each one of you. Enjoy!

Written By- Gyandeep Pattanayak



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