Its almost 2 am in the morning,or night..We have completed around 20 shots from my last scene..With a few shots left from the same scene,and my camera battery ran down,I thought that this is the best time to scribble my mind and let the world know that we are having fun!!And when I say "we",Let me introduce to my micro-film-crew..Handling photography,is my friend and room-mate Sameer whose passion and dedication towards his work has been challenging mine for the last few hours,to an extent that I am feeling insecure-slash-possesive about my work.. I feel like telling him, "Ey!Stop being so uncompromising and creative..This is my show! Lets make some mistakes"..Ok,I was kidding there,but thats the kind of work he is putting up..And there is ofcourse the actor,Imtiaz who impressed me while working with another friend on a short film..And then there is ME!!To be honest,I feel very lucky to be here with these guys,because what I am seeing here is sheer dedication..
The day,as expected started with pressure.. Lot of it.. I really wanted to get rid of it and get into that creative space.. I knew that I was slogging with the schedule, but I took my time.. From 10 am, I was just walking and talking to myself.. I was working out a lot of math in my head.. After a heavy lunch, we sat down to watch the India-Australia world cup match.. Still I took my time.. By around 5pm, I felt free.. I was like "Lets eat this thing alive".. Called up my mentor,Mr.Rajeev sir for wishes.. And we rolled..
Going on the technical side,We are equipped with a Canon 5d Mark 2, with a set of lenses, A manfrotto monopod, and some household lighting setups.. Its the first time we are dealing with a full frame sensor camera like a 5D. And we were quite ignorant about the compatibilty of the lenses from my APS-C sensor equipped Canon 450D with the 5D..C'mon,they both are from the canon family.. And Here comes technical glitch no 1.. Crop factor.. When we were using the 10-20mm Sigma lens on the 5D, The crop factor was a huge issue that,at 10mm,the frame was circular like in a fish eyed lens,and when pulled to the max,ie 20mm, we had to face some heavy vignetting.. Which means, my film is going to look different from my storyboard in which most of the shots were reaaaally "wide".. And the white dotted 18-55mm lens didnt even fit the Big Daddy 5D. To save the day, comes the 50mm 1.8 L lens,which I purchased yesterday.. I have to admit,that the kind of quality is enormous compared to its price,which is just 5000 INR and maybe the cheapest lens available in the market.. Almost 95% of today's shoot was done with this little baby.. The monopod was not used much today, but Sameer kind of used it as a steadicam on some shots which came out lovely.. Imtiaz wasnt hard to manage,eventhough a newbie to acting,but his experience in singing and dancing proved helpful as he was totally comfortable with the camera.. And I had fun directing him :)
Location of the shoot is my home in calicut,Kerala. Heard of the term "Feels like home"?! That is exactly what is happening here! Total support from my whole family right from my granny to my 2 month old nephew,everyone is inspiring and supporting..
Day 1 in few words?? Passion,technology,Family,Friends,Fun.. :) Signing off..A very BUSIER day ahead..
"No one is born on the cover page. Everyone has to go through pages"- Self.
