Production
This is the stage at which all the filming is
carried out. All scenes planned out in pre-production are filmed at the
relevant locations. Each scene is filmed as many times as the director deems
fit, to ensure the best quality scenes will be used to construct the film. This
is where the strength of the pre-production work is put to the test. Great care
must be taken to make sure that all the filming is done correctly and all
necessary shots are taken, as it is sometimes difficult or impossible to go
back and repeat certain events if the filming is incomplete when it comes to
the post-production stage.
This is the part where I am going to write about how
we shot the film, what all pains were taken. How the suicide scene was made
possible, about various shots used and how the shoot was successfully wrapped
up.
So, back to the first day, due to much work and less time, we had to wrap up the
shoot fast. We thought it would be easy but then another problem caught our
attention- Madhusudan and Ankit knew no acting at all.
We taught them
whatever all we knew in around four hours and then begun shooting. As a result
of that, the shoot which had to start at about 8 in the evening, started at 11
PM. As I have written before, we stuck with the policy of at least 4 takes per
shot. We started off with filming the introduction scene of the bullies first.
A fact about this film is, the scenes were all shot in the same sequence as
they are placed in the movie, simply said, there are little or no jump cuts. We
had to maintain continuity and that was our prime goal. The first phase of
shooting took around 5 hours in which we taught our friends how to act, we
finalized preparing the location, improvised and reexamined everything and shot
as we desired. The second scene was shot in a different room of Ankit’s house.
This scene was completed in a remarkably less time than the previous one
because now we all had gotten the hang of whatever was going on. The number of
unnecessary retakes was reduced too.
Overall, the shoot
for the first day went fairly well and without much trouble. The only problem
we had was that none of us slept that night and because of that the shoot for
the next day could become lethargic. Little did we know that the next day would
be filled with much more excitement and fun than we could ever imagine.
Next day turned out
to be a great day; not just in terms of work and learning but also fun-wise. We
reached St. Teresa’s Academy, the second location at 8 in the morning.
Thankfully, it was a Saturday, a holiday for all classes except 10th
and 12th which had their pre-board exams going on. The first scene
was the washroom scene and within a few takes, it was completed. After that,
the homework scene, Tiffin scene and all the others were done too with ease.
Except the suicide scene, all the others were complete in the duration of 6
hours, inclusive of the retakes, costume changing and set designing.
The suicide scene
was a bit tricky though. Firstly because ill the time we reached filming the
scene, the weather had changed and nearly everyone was tired. Some people that
we picked up to fill in as extras, mostly other students had already gone home.
Neither me, nor ashish had lost our zeal to film the scene. We were tired, but
we wanted to wrap the shoot as fast as possible; after all, no matter how great
your film is, the college issues a camera for 3 days only.
The best and
probably strangest thing about the method of our shooting is that we improvise
on-field. Any scene can change anytime if we feel that it can be better if shot
differently. If I say in the language of physics, our scripts are DYNAMIC in
nature, i.e. they are not constant. They can change anytime we want them to.
Anyways, coming
back to the shooting, at the time of the suicide scene, almost everyone had
left, except me, Ashish, his brother whom we had called to help and a few kids
who had come to play in the school ground. The tricky part of shooting this
scene was that we had not pre decided the requisite shots and angles. All was
to be done impromptu. Right from the scene where the protagonist is sitting and
crying till the scene where he dies, it took about 1.5 hours to film and that
too in continuity, not in bits and pieces.
The blood used was
actually a mix of lipstick, water, vermillion, water color and oil paint (red
of course!).
After the shoot was
over, we were utterly exhausted, but still went over to Madhusudan’s house to
shoot one last scene.
We found him
sleeping and to his dismay and reluctance notwithstanding, forced him to
prepare for a scene which required him to cry. We did not have glycerin with us
and so, we used honey, and then, we smeared honey into his sleeping eyes.
Luckily, we got a perfect shot.
The shot is the
last one in our movie and according to many-a-people; it gives them Goosebumps
whenever they watch the movie.
And thus, the
production of VIKALP was over. We then moved towards post-production.
