Garbage - The Album

NB: ALL PICTURES ABOVE ARE DRAWN BY HAND. 

ART DIRECTOR : SHUVAM DEY SARKAR

My 4th short Film - The Album

The story behind my 4th short film

Are we dreaming or is it the real world that we are living today?


At any moment the dream may break and we may find our self in a great danger...

or may be not...!!

-

~ Overview ~

Director: Sourav Dutta
Story & Idea: Sourav Dutta
Produced by: Avisek Raha, Sourav Dutta & S. R . Chowdhury
Editing: S.R. Chowdhury & Sourav Dutta
Still Photography & Art Direction: Avijit Laskar
Production Managed by:Vivek A Kapoor & Jit Basu

Genre: Murder/Thriller/Fiction
Film Type: Short Film
Run Time: - 6 mins 02 secs
Country: India/Kolkata
Language:Bengali (ES)
Colour: Colour

~ Cast ~
(In order of appearance)


Soumyabrata
Vivek Kapoor
Sayantan Paul

~ Special Thanks ~


To the family of
Mr. & Mrs. Raha

Gaurav Dey

Anupam Sen

&

Indranil Haldar

---------------------------------------------------------------

Well, so many new things to handle this time. Outdoor shootings for the first time. Tackling with more characters & even more is the concerned budget. Started just after finishing my 3rd short film, this particular film will provide me with a much more scope of experimentation. This time its going to be in Bengali. I have always been more comfortable in English Language, may be that is why, being a Bengali myself, I made two short films in English before I came up with this one.

Lets come back to this film now, started well with pre-production work the visualization was quite clear in my head, I was just waiting eagerly to start the production. Though it became a huge trouble in the early stage of shooting to fix a particular date for outdoor but we managed the problem later on. We completed the indoor first, and then went for the outdoor.

A wonderful shooting experience...

Indoor

All my last 3 short films were shot indoor, so indoor shooting was quite familiar to me. But two new things were there in this film. Firstly there will be a nigh scene, which means the lighting will be a big factor of concern. Secondly, there will be a particular scene where a single character will appear twice simultaneously in a single shot. And in this case, I had 'Arjun', who helped me in executing this two things very smoothly.

(take 1 : used a blue screen as background)

(take 2 : acting without character, totally imaginative)

(after masking)

Lighting is a very essential part of a film if you are shooting indoor under artificial lights, there are so many things, but the most important thing is that of the shadow. Always be very careful on shadow formation. Try to minimize it as much as possible.

Outdoor

(me & laskar are waiting for the rain to stop)

I will remember this particular day for a long time. The reason, are many. Firstly it was my first outdoor, secondly it was raining all day long. We were only able to shot between the rain when it was stopping for half an hour or so. It was not just a rain, infact it was raining quite heavily. But at the end of the day we finished our work completely, and all were very happy, me the most. Our shooting was scheduled to start around 12noon. We reached there on time. We were just looking for the right spot for different shots, but soon we felt 'water', rain water. Within seconds the rain came down heavily. There was no place to take shelter, so we just opened our umbrellas and stood still, waiting for the rain to stop. We were lucky to have Avijit Laskar (we call him Laskar) a very dedicated photographer & a great entertainer. He has visited many places, so his stories kept us busy, and in between his jokes were really something we all wait for. And that day he made us laugh for a long time. The rain went on for nearly an hour. As soon as the rain stopped, we started our work. It was already late, now it was muddy, slippery and water all over. There were many 'running' scenes to be captured, but the rain made it look very dangerous to do so. But there was no time to reschedule the outdoor shooting once again. So we decided to carry on with the process. By then the car, which was to be in the film, came in. So we started shooting with the car.

(me, shooting with the car)

Shooting outdoor is not an easy task at all, there are many things which is not under your control. The very fast is the climate, then the light, the surrounding, timing of shooting, the overall arrangements, like 'who should come when', who should wait, and so on. The most important thing while shooting outdoor is the attitude of the team or crew with whom you will be working, secondly I think the smaller the crew the better it is.


The Crew

Initially there was some date problems, I was totally unable to gather all the crew & cast together for one day. So the frustration made me freak out, and as a result I decided to called off the film. After few days, I again got a chance to bring all cast & crew together, I didn't fail this time. Around 10 in the night I started informing others regarding the shooting on the very next day. Surprisingly, I found everyone ready & free. So I told them to pack their bags for tomorrow. Working on time is very important for any outdoor shooting. So here is how i scheduled the outdoor.

at 9am - remind every one regarding the shooting
at 10am - give everyone a final 'ready to go' call
at 10:30am to 11:15 am - we all must meet at a certain place
at 11:45am - must reach the location
at 12noon - the shooting starts
at 1pm - the car that is to be used in the film, must arrive at the location

Now all this timings are very very important. The producer or the production manager must maintain a constant contact between the director & the cast/crew so as to avoid any delay in the shooting. Time is a very important factor.

In our case everything was going perfect. We reached the spot by 12 sharp. Unless the rain came down. And as the rain stopped, we saw it was already too late. So we started quickly, soon the car also came in to the location, so we decided to shot with the car at first, cause we were allowed to have the car only for one hour or may be 30 minutes more.

The Music

This is something very special we did in this film. We used some Australian tribal musics in this film. I hope it will work. But as far as I am concerned I think there will be no loss. Its always good & exciting for me to see the same thing in a different way. The choice of using this type of music was not pre-decided. During the editing Indranil, one of my friend suggested me to use such music. And to be precise the arrangement really came out well.

We Used,

Ankala - Rhythms From The Outer Core

Label:

Network Medien

Format:

CD, Album

Country:

Germany

Released:

1997

Genre:

Folk, World, & Country, Rock

Style:

Acoustic

Tracks:

#1 City Circle

#2 Cafe Izmir

Some special moments....

The scene where we find 'Rahul' lying dead, took more then 30minutes to design. The credit goes to Avijit Laskar. I don't know how much the scene looks realistic, but whatever it is, the credit must go to Laskar.
Dont forget that it was a very dense bamboo forest, add to that, it was raining, so lying there in the mud is not so easy. But Vivek, as Rahul made it looks so real, that we were very happy as we took the shot. It took around 35minutes (30minutes to design & just 5minutes to shoot) to finish the entire scene, but the credit this time goes to Vivek.


The other person was Sayantan as 'Deep'. He played a very small role, but he also acted well. Once again Laskar designed the whole scene. His presence of mind,quick reaction to any situation has helped us through out the shooting.


Well, last but not the least, the hunk, who helped us to use his car in the film. At a certain point of time when it was raining very hard, we thought that we have to go back to our home as soon as the rain stops cause there was no way Gaurav will be able reach the location on time with his car. And without the car, no shooting. But as soon as the rain slowed down, we got a call from him, 'he is coming', we got charged up.
So his effort also comes under a special section, where we all must thank him too, for his cooperation.

Last Few words...

Everyone who was directly or indirectly associated with this film plays a very important role. Their participation was of great importance. I thank them all. Lastly I must say that even in this film, though it is a very short one I learnt a lot. All my friends who helped me in doing this film also worked very hard. I am always thankful to them. I am looking forward for my next short film.

Click here for more...

Garbage

garbage

(Click on the above name to view the film)

 ~ Overview ~

Written & Directed By : Vivek Kapoor
Produced By : Vivek Kapoor, Shuvam Dey Sarkar, Sourav Dutta
Edited By : Sourav Dutta
Art Direction : Shuvam Dey Sarkar
Music : - N/A
Story-Boarding :- Sourav Dutta


Genre: - Documentary/Drama
Film Type: Slide Show
Run Time: - 4:17 Minutes
Country: India/Kolkata
Language: - Silent
Colour: Colour

Plot: - 'a self realization'

Garbage is a hand painted slide show, that documents the life of a garbage cleaner. Working together with my old chap, the project is really challenging, and I am ready for it..!!

This is going to be an extraordinary experience. Pictures painted first by hand, then given effects in PS and then at last placing them side by side with a perfect background music and SFX, can really make you feel like a film..but its not, its just a slide show.

To some extent you can say that it is an experiment. A single picture can speak thousand words. So let it be a story through pictures. Lets try and make them as realistic as possible. This was what our idea was when we started the work. Working with a very small team of four or five we are trying our level best to put a very realistic visualization of our society.

Garbage is a sort of a documentary (or you can say a slide show) film that we are trying to make, the facts that we are using to make up the story are all real. Its very closely related to the common outlined standard of living of the garbage cleaners, or in simple word Sweepers.

While doing our research work for this project we found how difficult it is to stay alive as a garbage cleaner. They clean our society so that we can stay healthy, but unfortunately no one takes care of their health, not even the government.

The following is a part of our research work...

227 Class IV Pune Municipal Corporation(PMC) employees, with an average age of 45 years, have died in the last 30 months.

They were all working as “conservancy staff” — collecting and disposing garbage, sweeping roads, cleaning underground sewage lines and unclogging manholes.

Records obtained by The Indian Express reveal that according to the PMC’s Employment Welfare Register, 40 such employees have died in the first six months of 2007-08 itself; 107 in 2006-07 and 80 in 2005-06. Incidentally, 2005-06 is the first year for which the PMC tabulated such data.

Of the 107 who died in 2006-07, 81 were men and 26 women.

The age of the victims is a stark reminder of the fact that their deaths were early: 32 were in the 30-40 year category, 38 in the 40-50 year bracket, 37 above 50 years.

Of course, 227 is a small slice of the current 6826 employees in the PMC’s conservancy staff but officials admit that the problem could be much more serious. In fact, the figures came to light only when relatives of the dead filed to claim the Rs 15,000-dole under the employment welfare scheme and a job for a family member.

The Pre-Production

Lots of thinking were done at the initial stage of story-boarding. The story is very simple and straignt forward, but to put that through a slide show was really challenging. Not only that, the story clearly conveys a very strong message, about the society & the life of a garbage cleaner. Time was a very big factor for this project. The main thing is that we can not hurry, the entire slides that has been used in this project, has to be drawn entirely by hand. Though the slides has been dipped later in the added flavor of Photoshop, still the initial work was done entire by hand. And that credit goes to our art director, Shuvam.

The most important part for this project is the story boarding. The entire concept or story was first written down (scene wise), then the scenes were divided into sub-scenes. Then it was the time for story boarding, the first step towards the visualization of the story or the concept. It has to be good, to make this entire project the 'best'. The story boarding for this project was done in the early month of June 2009. Then it was handed over to the art director, for drawings.

Production

Nothing much to say about the production. Its only hard work. Drawing the slides with such an acuracy is a time taking work. So just have a look at the pictures(click here), and you will understand that how much hard word has been put behind this project.

Background Music & Special Effect Sounds

Needless to say that in a silent film the music is one of the most important part and medium of expression. Since there is no dialogues, the music replaces the mood and atmosphere of a particular scene. As a result we spent quite a lot of time in music.

Selecting, editing & applying the right background music at the right place is very important. The additinal sound effects are just like some added flavors, that makes it look little realistic. Keeping in mind that this is a zero budget film, the only source of music is 'internet' & some OSTs of different films. Compiling this all we came across some amazing background scores.

to be continues...