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.