When you are with your friends just about talking, while the conversation skipping from one dissociated topic to the next, have you ever observed that it's the most boring, daily life incident narrated by that one friend that gets the group hooked and NOT the most flamboyant piece of information that another friend had to say?
What do you think? Good oratory skills you may say, but that's just a tiny part of the whole incident. Well, then, you may say it's the incident itself that made the narration so interesting, you may counter, but then it's a boring incident, no?
Perhaps It's the culmination of both the ideas- the tool used for narration (oratory skills/screenplay) and making the banal idea into the most interesting part of the story (tell what is necessary to your friends/editing)
The idea of this short film sounds too flat when read on paper. So to make it sound vibrant, we thought, after several discussions on the location that we were going to the making film, to make the film in Guerilla style.
Which meant we had to be on our toes with the shot since it involved private buses that only came once in 30 mins, and mind you it's a busy street where we had no control over the traffic.
One person would stand 400 meters to the left of where the camera was placed- to signal the arrival of the bus and onto the right, 300 meters, stood another person to stop the traffic if any while the bus passes by.
D Day. The clock is ticking. There are villagers wondering what the hell is happening. I am ready with the camera. The sound's rolling. And the person shouts bus Bantu, bus Bantu. Shamanth would shout "ready, camera? Kiran? Ganesh, cycle? Darshan, Bike? Sound? Bus bartide..." And after several mishaps, we captured it, in a true guerilla way. And the feeling was nothing short of magical. I was elated. The sound was good. The villagers cooperated and Kiran was on his feet, literally. Crazy enough, we stopped the traffic for about a minute that too during the peak hours. Sorry, but thank you.
So, if you ask what's your solution to make your boring line exciting? (in context to this story only) shooting guerilla, capturing the moment in its truest form was the answer. A pretty solid one. Had this been shot elsewhere with a different approach it would have bombed and would have looked even more boring.
The indoor shoot was exciting too, nonetheless. But the outdoor shoot was something else. An experience that I devour for a long time.
So next time when you are with friends sees how fascinating a simple, boring incident when told in a succinct, but also in an exciting way, can chuckle the group.
That Antha Eli for you!
Watch the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyd9KADtRcE&t=35s
Meet you again when my feature film is being played in theatres/OTT/Wherever.
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