(This is part 2 of the Indie filmmaking Series 'Learning from Ayynoorum Ayynthum (500 & 5). Part 1 Intro can be found here)
So you know, there’s this one time, in our lives, no
actually, make that many times, where we realize there’s gotta be a line
between ‘talking’ and ‘just doing it’. Many a times, we know we’ve been having
this feeling of wanting to do something but never get around to it. But at some
point, that ‘wanting’ to do it, turns into actually ‘doing it’ and for that to
happen, especially when you’re trying to make an independent film, you need to
have some basic things in place that’ll help you ‘decide’ to make that
transition. Of course, like anything, there are so many other things that can
tell you when you make that transition. Now coming to think of it, before we
started production of Ayynoorum Ayynthum (500 & 5), we apparently had undergone these basics,
without which we wouldn’t have been prepared for the next stages.
1. The 'Need' to tell the story
The word ‘Need’ is loaded. Maybe I should word it ‘desperate
need’ to tell the story. I think you don’t get to that desperate stage before
undergoing a lot of painful growing-up stuff. The need also stems out of a deep
frustration that’s been lying within for a long time. Before getting to the
need-to-tell-the-story-of-500&5 phase, I wrote other scripts spending
months and even years to write apparently masterpieces that big studios would
just swoop down and pick up. One of them even made it among the top 10
finalists of the IFFLA film fund development grant, but they were just sitting
there, lifeless words unable to get someone to give them a soul, a form and
make them into a living film. We tried getting those scripts through the
gatekeepers, met up with reasonably well-known actors and did the whole nine
yards thing. But something felt wrong, very very wrong. I/we spent 2-3 years
getting ‘others’ to see our vision that we started losing our vision ourselves.
The goal of making our film, was getting farther and farther. Then the
frustration started to build up. Fuck, can’t we just keep it simple? Just
freakin’ do it ourselves instead of waiting around for things to happen? Then
we started talking, talking and talking…the want was becoming a need, to tell
some story, any fucking story from within our sensibilities, the way we want
it. Forget making masterpieces, forget star actors, forget the big monies, just
tell it, damn it, let’s give the script a life! So there, we decided to tell
the story about ‘money’ from a sort-of existential POV, which we’ve often
talked about. The concept of money was a recurring theme in our discussions and
so we made it the center of our film. Now, behind all the frustration, the
seemingly wasted energies/time/efforts, came the ‘Need’, because if the
desperate need is present, it will necessitate everything else, because it
fulfils the question ‘why’? At that moment, we knew the need had to be
addressed, no matter what. But of course, needing it and getting it have a long
bridge in between them. So comes the next thing, the story.
2. The Story/Script
Do I need to state the obvious? Let’s face it. If there’s
even a modicum of an evocative response to a film, it can only be attributed to
its script. As any Joe Shmoe can tell you, a film is only as great as its story
or more specifically the script. Everything else is secondary. The direction,
cast, execution…everything. Of course, this is a highly subjective thing we’re
dealing with here. But irrespective of how ‘good’ it is, it is one of the most
personal stages of filmmaking considering how collaborative the entire process
is. The writing process is by far the most intense experience that you can
delve into without having to include anyone. The stage with total control in
the otherwise chaotic filmmaking process. Considering my other feature
screenplays that have taken months to write and re-write, 500 & 5 just took
15 intense days. Days and months of thought had already gone into it while the
frustration was building up and when it was time to write, it all just
exploded. A beautiful cathartic release. So if you have to get anywhere towards
starting your film, you gotta have this part figured out. I could probably
refer to millions of resources where you can find out more about the
screenwriting process but personally, you really have to look within to get
those words out. If you don’t connect with the story on an internal, personal
level, then no amount of formulaic writing is going to help you achieve those
needs.
3. The Team
One thing we realized, no matter what, the people that you
are most comfortable with, are the ones you’re gonna be working with, if you’re
gonna make a film(which usually takes months or years of your life). It’s not
about experience or hiring union or whatever. Someone I knew used to say, “Work
with people who are smarter than you” because with an ambitious vision at
stake, you can’t possibly get into it thinking you’re the best brain at doing
it the best way. The four of us, in our core team, knew how to do stuff,
understood the process and all, but we weren’t the best at everything. Before
we started production, we thought we had to hire only experienced film industry
technicians and crew to get this made, because obviously this has to turn out
damn good, right? And we did, but slowly things were falling apart for various
reasons, mainly the comfort factor, for a project as unconventional as 500
& 5 and also, experienced doesn’t necessarily mean smarter especially with
our use of more contemporary technology. For example, with a conventional film
camera, you have lenses that are compatible with standard follow-focus rings
that let you to easily manipulate the focus while in motion but with our use of
DSLRs we didn’t have that luxury, so we had to use lenses without the
follow-focus rings, which was quite a challenge. A traditionally experienced
cameraman initially came on board with spiel after spiel of how he was the right
man for the job but the day before shooting started, he bailed out, apparently
not being to able to handle the challenges of Indie production. So within us,
we had to learn stuff and ‘upgrade’ and get smarter and more adaptable people
on board who understood what we were trying to do. Also, we had to resort to
DIY(Do-it-yourself) filmmaking most of the time figuring out how to create
things from scratch(more on that later). So basically, the point is to create a
team of adaptable, understanding people(even if you’re a crew of just one or
two) if you want your production to go smooth.
4. The Technology - The DSLR Revolution
Ahh, the icing on the cake. The word is DSLR or HDLSR. If
you’ve heard this term before then you’ve heard of the revolution. The digital
filmmaking revolution. Obviously, this is not something we invented because
it’s been around the block, and quite a bit at that. I guess we’ve just been
making it more popular and not without reason. It’s an abbreviation for Digital
Single-Lens Reflex. Case in point, the Canon 7D, 5D Mark II and the more recent
Mark III all unleashed by Canon. Indie filmmakers including us, have lapped up
these cameras like there’s no tomorrow.
Even when you have the above three, the one thing that can
keep you from starting production is the technology you are going to use.
Obviously, we can’t all afford 35mm film cameras or the expensive Red or the
Arri Alexa cameras. Thing is, if…if…you know (or learn to figure out) how to
wield these cameras, they can be a boon especially when you consider their
low-cost. A camera is only as good as the person wielding it. I’d written an
earlier article on the use of DSLRs from the trenches here. But the main
reason to put this out is how many people don’t realize the high price-performance
ratio of the DSLRs. Before we started production, we compared the Canon
7D(costs around $1800) footage to the Sony EX1(around $6000) on the big screen,
and there was no contest. The 7D’s image quality was far superior to the EX1’s.
That’s how we decided to go with the 7D and its cousin the 5D. But as with any
new technology, we had to understand its limitations and then work it to our
advantage. At such a low-cost, a filmmaker has no reason to worry about the
budget of making a feature-length film. In fact, as many feature filmmakers are
resorting to digital cameras, the advent of the DSLRs can only help Indie
filmmakers achieve their goals.
So when you have these 4 basic things figured out, there is
an ample chance that you can jump from talking about making your film to
actually doing it. Of course, there’s a ton of other chaotic factors involved,
but this should give you the basic understanding, or sort of foundational signs
that you may be in the right track.
