I just registered for a film making course with Ramani and
he has already brought a difference to
my life. I have shot my first ‘Video’, thanks
to the first Exercise in Ramani’s film making course. At first I thought it strange of Ramani to
dispatch an exercise even before the course had started.
But Ramani’s description of a Shot and the things that he
looks for in it got me hooked. The fact that he said shots reflected attitude,
ruled out any casual attempts. I had to put some effort to make a good
submission. I was jogging my brain for different concepts/ ideas I could work
on. Even though we were in a lock down, I did not like the idea of domestic scenes.
The conversation/ encounter I had the previous day with a
woman who was selling palm fruits, inside a farm, appeared to be a good premise
to capture on video. But this would require going back to her, convincing her
and repeating a conversation- at the loss of natural behaviour. But it was
still worth trying, I thought. I was thinking in terms of possible angles,
dialogues and scenes to include in the video. Viola!! This felt so different to
me. I was venturing new territory. I was learning a new language, a craft.
But then I did not want to wait till going out to the
farm and wanted to have a couple of back up videos, as time was short and the
deadline was drawing closer. So in a moment of intrepidity, I took my phone and
stepped out of the house. It felt very different. I was trying to script a
video out of thin air. And there were so many stories happening around me.
A bunch of goats grazing around offered themselves for a
shot, I tried my camera on them, but then it felt stupid not to capture the
flight that was passing by making all that noise that registered itself in the
goat video. A second shot that I tried centering on the kolam in front of our
house and capturing the legs of the goats as they walked on it, was good , but fell
sadly short of capturing one mischievous goat that was eyeing the open gate and
trying to enter the house. The video didn’t feel complete without capturing this
mischief.
Then I thought of a concept around ‘flying’- capturing
bees, butterflies, crows, and finally a flag. I had also conceived a poem a to
go with this video.
Flying
The flight
of the bees feels like music
The flight
of the crow feels like an escapade
The flight
of the myna feels like fresh rain drops
The flying
of a flag…?
The video did not work because the actors failed to turn
up just in time.. Finally, a video of two goats answering each other’s calls
and in the end, walking together felt good. It had everything I was looking for
- an idea, concept, actors, sound and all- falling in place. It was worth
submitting for the course.
I am glad that this simple exercise has done profound
things to me. I have had an opportunity to experience what it feels like to
conceive and create something. I have now had a swipe at being an artist. I had
conceived a poem after such a long time. I was now looking at the movies on my
TV in terms of the shots that they had been conceived and found a lot more to
appreciate in a movie. That’s a whole new world opening up before me. Thanks to
Ramani’s first exercise..
