sesh chapter - a short film

click here to see the short film

"There is something you can not learn  from the books, unless you have it in yourself.."

the journey of sesh chapter

- as told by the film itself.

my journey has always been short, full of excitement, running around and puzzling. in this case also it's the same. sesh chapter is not my real name. it is a borrowed name.

 actually I was initially nameless. the director, while shooting suddenly decided that he will name me after one of his another undone short film. though both the stories are written by him

, I mean my director, still I will always had this in my mind that

 my name is actually not my name.  anyways, lets come to the interesting part. the story. my creator, sourav dutta, has always

 taken special care regarding the quality of the production. I am also his first product of experiment with indoor lightings. he was very nervous while I was under

 production, always running here

 and there, doing multi tasking, forgetting important things, so on. While I was under pre production, which means while my creator was doing all the pen & paper stuffs I often heard him saying 'better the pre production, better the production, better the post production...'

and another line 'simpe is always good, not the best though...'

my friend says that those who uses their brain to think & imagine they talk to themselves. its not a disease though, rather I would say its an imaginary companion who always stays beside them to encourage

 them, help them in their work. 

anyways, lets come back, my story

 is very simple. just made of 3 scenes, running reverse, from present to past, revealing the dark side of an author whose popularity has encouraged a young journalist to write an article about him. things

 changes when the journalist comes across the darkest part of the author, the source of all his stories, so called very original stories. things get more dramatic when the jounalist starts blackmailing the

 author. 

rest I cant say, strict orders from my creator, you need to see the

 film to know more...

pre production

this time is was fast. the script was written within 2

 to 3 days. keepin

g in mind the parameters of restrictions for this type of films, my creator took no chance in making too many scenes & characters. reharsals were to be done for 3 consicutive days, but

 you all know that in this type of projects very few things happen according to time and plan.

 everything has to to happen suddenly. 

if my creator feels fresh & energetic, he call his friends, they reharse. in between they also carry out many discussion on topics such

 as films, politics, dev & his increasing popularity, rituparno ghosh, whether to put 'da' or 'di'

 after his name, so on & so forth.

production

day 1

then comes the part of production, the most adventurous & excitement part of film making.

 during this period everybody enjoyes that takes place around the camera & its projected angle. this time my creator took some extra lighting equipments with him, as it was his idea to carry out a little experiment with artificial lightings. unfortunately the experiment failed. too much of grain was found in the darkest portions of the recorded footage. so the only way

 out of this was to shoot with over exposed parameters. in this way the problem of noise was reduced to almost zero. but this also gave rise to another problem of very high saturated raw footage. instant decisions were made that during editing lots of colour & saturation adjustments were to be done, all agreed, the work started again. the

 entire indoor (scene 2) was shoot over exposed. 

Reharsing at the last moment is sometimes very important. though many directors do no prefer to do the same, yet my creator finds it extremely effective. he often says that it is like a revision before the submission.  

day 2

out door

the plan was that the entire shooting will be done in 3 days time. but then it was reduced to 2days, later a major portion was left undone due to shortage of time. thats all is what a short film is all about at the production level. 

the second day kick off lately, due to some some problem regardinf the availability of the car that was to be used in the film

to be continued...

Clocks - The Plans

(Click on the above picture to enlarge it, then right click on it to save it)

Clocks, a short film entirely made of still photography.

Around the world the use of photography in film making is something that has been done extensively and very artistically. The inspiration or idea of making this little experimental film came into my mind when I heard a song, by Coldplay. But I also had this in my mind, that this time I have to do something totally different from that of conventional film making. It has to be unique, artistic & abstract. The song by Coldplay, played its part right at this moment. It gave me the idea of an abstract story. The idea of time that flows forward but it isn't what we do, our flow of life is not directional, its a movement like two and fro (though the song by Coldplay doesn't say anything like that). In other words we live a life which is repetitive by nature. The film will show exactly that, by slowing down the time, making it faster again and then again slowing down. It will show the state of mind, how we react in different situations. What we see, how we see. The repetitive mass movement of people across their life, and many more things.

Most interesting part, is that the entire film will be made only through still photography. Probably this film is going to be the most powerful representation of still photography; what it can do and how beautifully it can do. Right at this moment you may fell, that why still photography, the same can be done through a video camera also?
The reasons are many, as people like us & production like ours is very weak and limited. I always think on, how can I produce a good quality film with all these limited resources. In this case particularly, we had to shoot many things in many ways, under different conditions. Secondly, the style of screen that this film is going to have is very different. Right now I can't really explain in words what exactly is going to be shown, as because the film is under pre production right now. But just take it in this way that, this is just an experiment. If it works well then it will be really good, but if it doesn't then I will be sure that this way of film making is not going to work. Which means I have to look for something else, may be another experiment or so.

Techniques that has been planned to be used in this film production are the basics and some very creative, artistic & abstract way of still photography. Such as...
1. Stop Motion Photography
2. Time Lapse Photography
3. Slow shutter/long exposure (idle/panning/motion,etc) Photography
4. Series Photography
5. Night Photography
6. Off focus photography

All the above types are as pre planned, more types may include.



More details coming soon...

Independence day in modern time

In the early month July 2010, Dipankkar Saha, a student of History(BA), from Scottish Church College decided to show case the day which is considered as the most important day in the history of our country. The Independence day, in modern times. This documentary will show very briefly, how the people of India got freedom from the British rule, and the second half will show case the present situation, how people, today react on this very day. At the end, the question that will remain is that 'do we still hold the same sentiments as it was in the past?'
The rest will be left to the audience/viewers to decided, what went wrong in all these years, or is it just what should be...

~ Overview ~

Director: Dipankkar Saha
Idea & Script: Dipankkar Saha
Produced by: -

Editing: Sourav Dutta

Still Photography & Art Direction:
Dipankkar Saha, Souvik Ghosal,
Sourav Dutta, Govind Madhav Jha

Sound Mixing: Sourav Dutta

Genre: Documentary
Film Type: Short Documentary
Run Time: -
Country: India/Kolkata
Language:Bengali (ES)
Colour: Colour

~ Voice Over ~

Dipankkar Saha


~ Special Thanks ~


Principal, staffs & students of St. Margaret School
Manu Square Authority
Arjun (flute)

The Narration...
On the day of narration, there was only 3 people, but slowly it became large, as large as the strength of an entire college. Today, when the editing is half way done, the entire college of Scottish Church is waiting to see the documentary. It was a shaky start, but soon we realized that help is always waiting, we just need to step forward.
On the very first day, we were sure of one thing that this project is going to be a real challenge, its not a fiction, its a documentary. Whenever it came to our mind, we got lost. We had no idea about making documentaries. We had no idea where to start from. Documentary films do not have any pre-planned script, its a research work that provide the initial inertia for the production to kick of.

The Production...
On 8th Aug 2010, we decided to chalk out the entire production pattern. We decided to start the shooting from 13th Aug onwards. As planned we took the best possible shoots, interviews, still images, activities. Unfortunately, on 15th Aug we got the least number of footage for the film. The day was like a 'national strike'. There were flags on the road side, but there was no people on road. The roads were empty, there were very less vehicles. We never thought that the independence day would look like this. There were political flags, more & larger in number than the national flag. At some places we saw the political flags were much much bigger in size than the national flag. Long lines in front of ration shops, people eating, sleeping and even taking bathe on the road sides. Though this is a very common sight, but the question is 'won't this change?'



























Modern India has grown up, its getting better every day. But just for once we need to think that 'is it really what it looks like?' Is this change, is for the good ? All this questions suddenly popped up in our mind. Exhausted, we returned home.

Morichika - the mirage (undone)

Current Status of the film : Under Pre Production

Intro:
Inspired from the novel, 'The Binding Vine' by Shashi Deshpande, I wrote a very small script, taking some parts directly from the novel and mixing it with my own imagination, I came up with a story, named as 'Morichika', meaning 'the mirage'. The story depicts the life of women. With several themes like human relationships, women's bonding, death, fear and agony, Morichika is a story of many but mainly women related human feelings. Morichika, reveals the life of women, their hardship, it speaks about their fundamental rights. In one word it is a feminist story.

Mira's poem:
Desire, says the Buddha, is the cause of grief
but how escape this cord
this binding vine of love ? (p. 137, The Binding Vine)

The central theme of the story is human bonding. Human relationships are explored with all possible pros and cons, husband-wife, mother-daughter, male-female, mother-child, woman-woman, etc.

Relationships according to Shashi Deshpande should not be a trap. They must give sufficient freedom to the other to grow as an individual.

The story also raises some important issues concerning women, their suffering, their subordinate status and their inability to speak out. The story never claims that the men are to be blamed for this, nor does it claim that women are good and men are bad. It just shows the reality of women's life.

Male characters are almost absent in the story, as it is in the novel. where ever they are present they have a negligible role to play. But the men are not ineffective. They influence the thematic structure through the patriarchal system.

The main interest or focus, whatever it is, has been put into the story and script. Then it is the characters that comes under great concern, as because they will be the ones who will carry the effective flow and the theme of the story. The acting is the priority, that comes in the third position. There will be lots of emotions and also hard hitting dialogues. Hence the acting should be perfect and fluent.

Lots of people will join the journey this time, as in making the film, till it is competed. So the credit list may last a little longer as compared to last few.

Happiness of Creation

“I am happiest when I create something, may it be a film or just a joke”

Happiness is rare in today’s world. Aye kotha ta koto ta sotti ami jani na. Kintu ami eta jani j ekta notun kichu sristi korar j anondo seta atuloniyo. Saye jonno e hoye to ekti sontan er jonmo tar mar kache tar jiboner sob theke khusir somay. Tar jonno e hoye to ekti krisoker kache tar nejer haate bopon kora dhaan kat te ato anondo. Ke darun bapar, tai na? Ha, sotti e darun.

Kichu notun kore bananor gun amader sobar modhey ache. Jeta dorkar seta holo saye gun ta ke ‘kaje laganor’. Talei dekbe asol anondo pabe.

Aye bapare, amar ek priyo bondhu, Rick Saha’r kobita mone pore gelo .

“antahin sukher khoj, barai kathin

mapte gia sukher sima,dekhi antahin

sukh-shantir hiseb hayto melena aksathe

kothao thik apurnata janay esharate

arthakari,bishay ashay sukher aloy noy

bhranta sukher khoje britha samay apachay

natun kichu shristi sukhe jerup tripti ase

shristi sukher ullase mon bhaste bhalobase

natun kono jiban giti ,natun kare swapna lipi--

-

natun kare jibon jeno geye othe kono bhore

shristi buker talpatate basir sur tole

shristi jno batash jure tufan tola dheu

shristi jno akla mane akche base keu

shristi pare gaite kbol akatar jaya-gan

shriti majhe sunte paya natun alor ajan”

Etai ke bastav ?

Kichu din ager kotha. Hotath ke mone holo bereye porlam chobi tulte. Ami, amar camera r amar cycle. Besh kichu khun cycle chalanor por pouchalam ekta chotto gram a. Chare dike sudhu kacha bari. Cycle ta dar koreye aste kore namlam. Bag theke camera ta bar kore ek kadhe jhuleye lens cap ta khule ba dekeer pocket a dhukeye raklam. Street photography korte gele ami sob somay lens cap ta amar ba dekher pocketi rakhe. Kichu khun edik odike ghorar por serokom kichue pelam na.

'Ami hoye to ektu bhul somay chole eseche.
Erokom somay nischoye sobai ghumache. Bari fere jaoya tai better.'

Sesh obdi hotash hoye kadh theke camera ta nameye lens cap ta jaye bar korte jabo, ekta bachar golar sobdo sunte paye. Lens cap ta abar saye ba deker pocket a dhukeye egote thaki sobdo tar deke. Kichu dur egonor por dekhe ekta chotto matir barir uthane bose ache ekta bacha. Tar pase tar baba r tar ma. Guti guti pa egote egote jokhon bacha tir baba amake deklen, ami ektu hese bollam...

'Or ekta chobi tulche.'

Bacha tir baba matha nere uttor delen. Ami bujte parlam j tar kono appoti nei. Kichu khun chobi tolar por ami kheyal korlam tara dupurer khaowar khachelo. Ami ektu daralam, camera deye focus korte geye dekhe j bacha tar baba tar thalate besh kichu 'aallu seddho' makchelen. Pase ekta chotto nuner kouto r kichu kacha piyaj rakha chelo. Hotath jano amar bhetor ta kamon kore uthlo.

'Oh, my God, ami eta ke deklam. Ora ke etai dupure khabe?
aallu seddho r kacha piyaj ?'

Er por ami r ektao chobi tulte parlam na. Jani na kano. Camera ta bag a dhokate dekhe bacha tir baba bollen.

''R chobi tulben na dada ?''

Ami r ke uttor debo, ektu hese bollam,

"na asole light ta khub kome geche, tai bhalo chobi uthbe na. "

Ferar age ami bacha tir baba ke ekta prosno korlam.

"samnei to vote, ke mone hoche ?"

Lok te ektu hese bollen,

"jar ja hoyar thik hobe dada, kintu amader r kichu hobe na, amra jamon ache thik serokm e thakbo."

Ami bollam,

"ema erokom bolchen kano..??"

Uni abar ektu hese bollen,

"ke r bolbo, sob e to janen. Aye duniyar r kichu hobe na dada, sob sesh hoye geche aye vote'r jonno."

Cycle kore bari firte firte amar mathay sudhu ektai prosno aslo,

"etai ke bastav ?"

The making of a documentary

Intro:

‘The making of a documentary – an unfinished documentary film’ is just a work of fiction. It has no connection with reality; rather it is loosely based on some cleaver story making and using realistic camera actions. Although the dialogues used in the film are real in the sense that there was no such scripts used in this film. On the basis of the situation a general outline of the plot is given based on which the actors improvised on their dialogues. The inspiration of such method of direction came from the directors like Spike Lee, Jim Wong, Jean- Luc Godard, Gus Van Sant, Judd Apatow and many more. Another method of scripting was also used in this film, where the actors were allowed to write their own part of script. Directors like Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, James Cameron, Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa and many other used this type of scripting in their film making. So adapting such a style is purely because of inspiration and for learning purposes.

“I believe that every film in itself is like a chapter of a learning process that shall never end, and must not end”

Chapter 1: The Eye

The cinematography or the camera work in every film is like an eye of that film. Through it the world will see, observe and criticize. It provides a vision that helps the audience to understand that what the director or the story wants to convey. Hence it is the most important part of any film making. In this case the camera acts as a person or as a follower, who follows every incident that takes place in the film. The audience must take it slowly as a part of the film or story telling. As decided, most of the shots were hand held, so as to provide a feel of realism. There were night shots without light as to utilize the ‘night vision’ option which in recent time has brought a new wave in digital film making. Film making has always been under different experimentations. In case of my work, it’s the same. The making of a documentary (TMD, in short) purely exists because of the idea of experimentation. The entire film in itself is an experiment. Secondly the process of filming it which includes both pre & post production involve many experimentations. For example, as told earlier, the scripting styles, the cinematography, the lighting and even the over all feel and look of the entire film. One of the main targets of the film will be to fool the viewers & make them believe that the videos they are watching, is in its truest form and they are real video footages. Until the film ends with the note of ‘fiction’. Hence the camera work must be in such way, that it fames the scenes in more realistic manner. Scenes of interviews close up discussions and some real type graphic scenes will make it look more realistic. Lesser use of decorated sets, costumes, makeup, foregrounds & backgrounds.

Most important, the view through the ‘eye’ must look like as if it’s showing a daily part of life instead of a fabricated one.

Chapter 2: The Concept & The Story

2.1 The Concept

The film shows the making of a documentary film, headed by four young lads. Among them one is the director with an assistant, and the other two are the camera persons. Staring their first journey as documentary film makers, they follow a very strange newspaper article regarding two boys, who went missing for many days without any trace. Later, while into the making of the documentary they come across some dramatic evidences which leads them to some dangerous circumstances under which the director and a camera person loses their life, and the other two commits suicide. The documentary remains unfinished.

To be continued....