Making of my first film: Chapter One: What is the ‘idea’?

In my last post, I wanted to get in to the feel of film-making. I have lost touch. I remember I made my first film in the summer of 2007. It was a, well, very amateur output. I can recollect my friends making fun of every scene, rarely did they appreciate. It was okay. I learned few things from that movie. Thereafter, in same year in the month of November, I made another short film with my friend – Sammir. I assisted him in direction, we wrote the script together (the script was inspired from a popular short story) and we worked on it. People didn’t hate it, but they didn’t like it much either.

It is very embarrassing for me, as a film-lover and an aspiring film-maker that I didn’t ‘lead’ in any of my film projects. I never took the position of a director or of that an independent film-maker. I was always an ‘assistant’. That’s why it has been my involvement wherein I could experiment only with selected field. What I mean to say here is that I could only experiment on video editing at one point of time, or writing, or assisting the director. I want to make one thing clear, that I don’t have a professional experience. The projects I am talking about are small time, college assignments.

Now, after long duration of three years, here I am preparing myself to make my own independent short film.

So, I was preparing my mind last night. I was scanning through my experiences, the stories that I have heard, and trying to find out which among them can be source of my inspiration. I did end up with a blank piece of paper. Then I tried to imagine about the things I like, hate, and some random thoughts that had crossed my mind once, caught my attention and dissolved thereafter. I could come up with some ideas. I asked myself the following questions:

1. Why am I making a film?

2. What is the moral of the story?

3. Do I want to make a change in people’s perceptions? Really?

4. Is it experimental?

5. What sources I have got?

6. Am I preaching? Will it get boring?

7. Should I include my ideology/principles/opinions; and will they be accepted/rejected?

8. What kind of audience do I have?

9. Is it a thought-provoking film, or just an entertainment?

I had such questions in my mind, and many others. What I want to point out here is that I faced a problem here. I couldn’t shortlist my subject/topic of the film. I was sceptical about my idea(s) and none could actually dazzle me.

I will think over my film again today, and when I get an idea that I feel convinced with, I will post it here.

Unlike one of those failed comebacks

It has been close to one year I haven’t updated my blog. What surprises me is how the time passes by. Then I was promising myself that I will write a blog entry every week, I had thought that I will be constantly be posting my thoughts and opinions here; but no, it didn’t happen. I got stuck into my own problems, making them feel bigger than they already were, letting them take control over me and leave me helpless. I don’t know how many times I need to promise myself that things will be all right and I will be performing as decided by me.

2009 and 2010 (by now) has been a roller-coaster. I see it as one of the turning points of my life. The last two years were 2001 and 2003 that changed my life, and now it is 2009 and 2010. The best part is that only after passing through these phases could I realise that they were defining phases of my life, until then I just criticised them and wanted to take them away from my life; and sometimes even now I criticise them.

So, yes! Let me start all over again, and promise myself again! Let me keep writing now.