Children of lighthttp://in.youtube.com/watch?v=zTUw8AmMQ94
I started writing the story in the month of June 2008. But this time even before writing the story I made my mind to make it more complex. The first task was with the main character, the kid. The search was on but for the first few days we got nothing. The pressure of time was building up. The situation got so tough that when ever I use to pass by a playground, full of kids playing around, I stand for few minutes looking for a perfect face for the character. My search took me to Birati, but no hope came along. Then Vivek, one of my friend, who was also a part of the COL project later on, came up with a name. The very next day we went to meet him at his place. Everything except the height about the boy was perfect, I personally felt that he was a little taller than the character of the story. But that was not a big problem.
The whole film revolves around this kid, but in actual when the story and the script was written, there were three characters in total - the kid, his mother and a friend of the kid. Even the shooting was done with all the three characters, but at the time of editing somewhere I felt like I was stretching the story. I think the most vital part in a film is the film itself. If needed we have to compromise anything for bringing up a good film. The end product must be the finest. That's the most vital thing.
The Shooting -
Many interesting things happened when we were shooting for the film. The first took place when we were taking test shots. Suddenly rain came down one day. It was pouring down heavily. But that's the opportunity we got & we make full use of it. We took many shots from different angles. As a result we got some of the finest shots for the film. All the rain shown in the film has been shot on that particular day. The second interesting thing took place when we were shooting for the scene where the kid vanishes from underneath the piece of cloth. We didn't use any special effects, in fact we don't have so much fund to invest on such type of scenes. So all we had is our hand, a camera and few intelligent brains. We took nearly 25 shots for that scene. And it was all done by just two men, one was me another was my friend and cinematographer of COL, Avisek. I think this particular scene is the toughest one from the point of shooting. It made us sweat & crack our backs. But we were happy later on as we saw the final scene in the film.
The second most tough scene was the black & white scene that comes right after the above scene where the kid looks at the spoon and the spoon slides towards him. Frankly speaking even before writing the script I had started thinking about this particular scene. How to execute it was the biggest challenge. We carried out many test shots for that scene. Finally when the end product came up we were very pleased to see the results. This particular scene was divided into three different shots. One is the launch of the spoon, then showing the spoon travelling towards the kid and finally the kid catches it & gives a good look at it. But after editing the whole sequence was screened within a fraction of a second.
The Music -
Lot of thinking was put into the music. Since the film is a science fiction, so I personally wanted the music to be different yet unique.The regular man for this job was not available, I didn't want to force him to come. So I look for other options. In between the reunion of our school arrived.In fact it was the first reunion in the history of our school. And being the secretary of the alumni committee I was carrying huge responsibilities. As a result the whole film project was in delay. Then as soon as the reunion got over I started all over again. But I found it harder to relate with the same film. It happened because I left the film in its half way. But I was determined that I will finish it any how.
At last after the second session of editing where most of the parts of the film were excluded, I came up with a song from an international band. The song that was used in the film is called 'don't cry' by Effervescence. Its a wonderful song, sung very delicately & most importantly it got a nice synchronisation with the theme of the film. And that's what we wanted.
When the film got ready, it became a silent one. But in actual there are dialogues. It was just because of my last moment change of mind, that in the second session of editing the scenes with the dialogues were all excluded. We were even done with one of the voice-overs of a kid, the friend of the main character. But unfortunately all went unnoticed.
The acting -
A tough job to execute. Being a very small budget film we were unable to hire professional actors. So we took amateur actors like the kid, and we train him as much as we can. The job of teaching the kid how act for this particular film is all done by a young lady called Nibedita. She herself works as an actor in theatres.
The Conclusion -
I am getting mixed reactions from my friends about the film. But I think I have done far more better job in this film then the last one 'The delusion'. The most important thing for me is the learning. My whole team is just a group of amateurs. But everyday when we go for a shoot or anything regarding the film we learn something. Its a great experience to work with such a team. I am thankful to every one for the time & labour they put for me. I hope we will work together in future too.
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