Friday, February 18, 2005
On a Learning Curve
I had my earliest formal training in film from the legendary Balu Mahendra. This meant that I wished to emulate his style of functioning. He not only wrote and directed his own films, but also did the cinematography and editing. I trained in all these areas with him.
As time passed, I have slowly started moving away from this one-man-team approach to filmmaking. The first thing I dropped from my list of ambitions was cinematography, even though photography was my subject of specialisation in Loyola.
During my days in Anna University, I desperately sought to train myself in picture and sound editing. I hated working with other editors and edit technicians whose sense of rhythm never matched mine. This was the case until recently, when I had the chance to work with a really good editor on a project I directed. Suddenly I realised the advantages that collaborative editing can bring. Soon, both editor and I were communicating with mere twitches of a few facial muscles, and odd nasal and grunting sounds. A little glance through the corner of an eye meant, "The cut has to move exactly 4 frames back". I do know that it is hard to come across this kind of a collaborator, but when one does, then it definitely adds value.
The next stage in this process of jettisoning crafts would be to give up solo writing. I trust my own writing, but I have found that I can work better with a co-writer.
What next? Now, I know that it would be practically impossible to do location sound while directing. Producing? Hmm... Well that's a big job in itself. So those are quite a few things knocked off the list. But all this, in case I wish to finally become a director.
Coming from a film industry that prides itself with filmmakers with at-least five credits on a single film, I know it is rather creepy. This is losing out on 'auteurship'!
But having learnt and exercised these essential skills has been rather useful. The complete filmmaker is not someone who does everything, but someone who knows how to! Now all I have to do is abandon my bloated ego and start learning to collaborate. But that I can only if I find the right people. Until then, T Rajendar, here I come!
Monday, February 07, 2005
Some News
Despite me being not too pleased about my days in Anna University, they have finally decided to give me a Gold Medal. Yeah! I topped my batch!
Here, we have finished our first video dry run of our MA projects. Useful: one gets to know both the script and your teammates in so much more detail.
