learning with a humane artist..

it has been a month since my last post about my first exercise and i have in the mean time had my first brush with the various aspects of film making over fiver weekends, thanks to Ramani's course. This was such a cool course in its structure and execution, every wwekend we had 8 sessions, 4 with Ramani reviewing our exercises and 4 with experts who shared their knowledge. there was no compulsion to attend all the sessions and these were so good that you felt bad if u missed one. i am really glad i signed up for it.

as a part of the course i have had the oppurtunity to listen to some very fine film makers talk about their art and craft. i picked a few nuances on film appreciation and the great amount of thinking that goes into the making of every shot. i also enjoyed watching the works and development of peers from the course and listening to their perspectives.

The level of openness in the course was liberating and the gentle goading to complete exercises was motivating. It was rewarding to listen to Ramani and fellow course takers view and discuss one's exercises. These review sessions though they seemed to be a lot of drudgery, were quite enjoyable in that they were samples of work in progress. We had the option to skip these sessions, it was more exciting when your work or someone familiar's work was being discussed. But Ramani had to sit through all our exercises and discussions. it was quite a revelation to see Ramani watch every exercise with the same intent, sense of excitement and interest, and invariably pat with a , 'hmmm.. nice.. ', at the end of any work, before going into discussing different aspects of the work and inviting others to pitch in with their views.

In the first session of the course we got to listen to Biswajit Das, an animation film maker. Biswajit had recently converted to film making from abstract painting and during the lockdown he had kept himself motivated and charged to produce 100 animations videos over 100 days. he introduced editing tools and made editing and video making look very simple. 

In an another interesting session, listening to Narayanan talk, opened up so much to read into Ghatak's film Subarnareka. One particular haunting scene of a demon like character frieghtening child Sita, just as she is shown walking across a crack running across the dry landscape, suddenly made so much sense when he mentioned an allusion to Ramayana, and hintng upon  Ghatak's involvement in street theatre and art before coming to films. All these put together suddenly made the film so much more beautiful and meaningful. 

In another memorable session of the course,we had a chance to listen to Prateek Vats talk about his films Eeb Allay Ooo and A very old man with enormous wings. After watching a short video on the FTII Row, i expected to see a firebrand youth activist in Prateek, but we got to hear a very cool and composed professional speaking eloquently about his craft and attitude to film making.

A couple of disturbing scenes in 'very old man' and the way Prateek talked about filming it and framing it and putting them in a perspective spoke a lot about the depth of his philosophy, passion and honesty. The way he explained nuances that went into the making of select scenes from eeb allay ooo revealed his solid technical clarity and the openness to share it with us was humbling. 

Ramani's closing session for the course was an immersive session on his journey in film making and a peek into his filmography. The session brought to fore the ever experimenting artist in Ramani and the amorphous character of his films. the session glided on for 5 hours and no one was in a mood to leave and finally Ramani had to take the call to close the session filled with emotions.

the course was also a great oppurtunity to relish and learn from films made by course mates and drawing inspiration from their works and experiences. this was the fifth batch for Ramani since the lock down and he is as excited as ever.

First swipe at Film making

 

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..