Colt: Mock Shoot 1

We have finished the final shoot of 'Colt'. It was a heck of an experience. However getting it all done required a lot of planning. So right after the screenplay was done the quest to shoot this film began, sometime around April this year. So this is a note on how it started

'Colt' is a conversation piece. One of the reasons we picked this idea was because it sounded easy to do. As in seriously, what could be easier than to shoot a conversation in a quiet room eh? And yes, as we have discovered after finishing the final shoot, when it comes to the basic challenges of shooting it is straight forward compared to a lot of other things like outdoor shooting. However getting the basics right to begin with was challenging, and even getting those right does not guarantee that your film would be visually appealing or that the narrative will engage the viewer, it just means that you didn’t screw up that badly :)

We estimated the film length to be about 10 minutes runtime. Since there were so many assumptions made during the writing phase that going directly into the final shoot would be a huge leap of faith. Also we were convinced that we should shoot this with a 24p HD camera, which we would have to rent. Since renting those is expensive we had to have our act together on the shoot and finish the whole thing in no more than 3-4 days. This seemed almost impossible unless 1 we are sure that the screenplay holds, and seems as effective in the act as the reading and 2 we were clear on the logistics of the shoot, the lighting, the sound recording, the props, how to log the takes, camera angles etc. Without doing this it would be just be a waste of money to rent the camera because we wouldn’t do justice to it. To solve 1 it was clear that the cast had to rehearse, a lot. The cast mainly consisted of me and Nayeem, almost no prior experience of facing the camera and Nayeem had the added challenge of not being comfortable with the Hindi language. So we did rehearse, and to be honest Nayeem worked a lot harder than I. By the time I started practicing the lines, I was already bored of the script, mainly because I had read it so many times. Neways, to solve 2 we came up with an idea to do a "mock" shoot. A mock shoot would have everything like the final shoot except the camera. This was mainly to put all our theories to test, lighting, camera angles, sound, logging all the data, continuity, and off course the actors would get to see how they look on screen.

Now, other than the camera, there were other things to be acquired for the shoot, the lighting equipment, the mic, the boom pole, the props and also a possible location for the shoot. A lot of this stuff could be rented, so we were considering what to buy and what to rent. All this was taking its time, while we were all ready to shoot. So then we decided to do a shoot without any equipment, assuming that we would do another one when we get all of it. This was mostly to realize big mistakes/holes if any in the process early, so that we can fix them before the real-mock shoot. And hence the first mock shoot was planned, all the equipment and the location was make-shift and our inspired crew was ready to roll...

The Crew:- Nayeem(Actor), Onkar(Actor), Tushar(Direction, Cinematography), Marut (Cinematography, Assist director), Sailesh(Continuity, Lights, Sound, Set Design), Sravanti(Continuity, Lights, Set Design, costume, make-up), Ashwin(Set Design, Lights)

The Logistics:-

Location: My Apartment, the hall
Camera: Canon MiniDV handy Cam
Lights: Basic home lamps, 100W bulbs
Sound: Mic on the handy cam, no external sound recorder
Props: Everything from the Apt

April 19th 2009, A Sunday Afternoon, the crew gathered, moved things around the apartment, put the table in the center, covered all the windows with bed sheets, and set was ready!

The shoot
And so we began shooting, the first time, after all that talking it was time for action, the director uttered the magic word, "Action!". Nayeem and I gave the first take, then the second and then the third. Very soon it was clear that during rehearsals we only noticed the good parts and thought we were doing well, while during the shoot, we started noticing the smaller things that weren’t working in the acting and dialogues. But we still kept going, since we had the mental satisfaction that this is just a mock. We worked for about 5 hours nonstop; shot about half the film from about 2-3 camera angles and then called it a day.

One of the most important things that came out of this was how suddenly we all assumed our roles. Before this we were all friends and each one of us having different work didn’t really mean anything. But then I realized that each person needs to be in that role and cannot be doing everything. For example, I was always too pre-occupied by little things and gestures in the performance to even care about the lighting or how the props look on the table. I assume everyone went through similar transitions. Sailesh and Sravanti probably had the most technical of challenges of getting the lighting right, making sure the positions are documented, log all the prop positions, it just seemed like a lot of work to me, I wasn’t really following everything they did. Then let’s come to the 2 people with the most responsibility, Tushar and Marut. They had to set up shots, make it look aesthetically appealing, capture gestures, expressions, just right, and also judge the emotional content of the take. Tushar and I initially had the idea that we might co-direct this one somehow, but it was clear to me from this shoot that he’s on his own. I could discuss with him all day before and after the shoot, but during it I had my hands full with acting. Also as director he had a lot more to do than just the technical work, the most important one being, being able to communicate with everyone on the set. Now this does not just mean telling people what to do. He had to quickly come up with different ways to talk to each one of us. Also the fact that we are all friends may have helped or may have made it more complicated, I am not sure. Every person that needs to be given instructions has 2 characteristics, 1 the work he does on set and 2 his personal equation with you. Also suddenly everyone had to understand the director is the boss, everyone has to follow his lead, since he’s the owner of the vision. If they don’t follow his instructions, we won’t achieve the original vision, simple. And frankly who likes to be the guy ordering friends around eh? Neways, I thought the idea of this shoot was to discover these challenges so it was a success in that sense.

Right after the shoot, we watched the shots and it didn’t look that bad, but then it didn’t look good either. I had assumed that we would be able to look at it and point out what’s wrong and fix it. But it’s not so easy to put your finger on what’s wrong, and most times it’s a little bit of everything. The acting was strictly ok. I was extremely bland; Nayeem was scratchy with his lines and a little awkward with his gestures. He looked rehearsed and I looked very disinterested. The lighting as expected was off. We worked with a couple of home lamps that Ashwin held thru the shoot, since that was the only way we could direct a lamp like that. The walls were too white, the light bounced off them too much. We needed it to look like a dark place. Camera couldn’t be hand held, if it’s not a controlled motion, it’s almost unwatchable on screen. But still the camera angles were cool. All-in-All it was pretty awesome because finally all the speculation and imagination met reality. It’s like the first time you drive a car or the first time you give a GRE or a GMAT test. You have a perception in your mind which finally meets reality. Some of it worked, some of it didn’t, but one thing was clear, there are just too many variables involved and each one could mess it up. A lot of work ahead...