First day of shoot

It was the first day of shoot yesterday. The prior two days were crazy. Calling up the caterer guy for the stage, getting the set in place, getting the wheel chair in place of a trolley.. and other innumerable things.

Finally when the time dawned, nervousness crept in. At the location, graciouslly offered by Mr. Kiran Parulekar who had given us the two shops to shoot in we realised the power was not enough to light up all the lights we had called for. Immediately on calling up the generator guys they were charging a whooping 1500 bucks per hour for using it. The total would have been larger than the entire days shoot cost, so we decided to make do with whatever lights could be used.

As the shoot began, things started falling in place. The one lesso I learnt was that no matter what the scenario, you can always shoot with whatever we have if he have the basics right. The part of the jail was shot very well but the shoot went way into the evening and the schedule of the hanging was getting delayed. We went for the first shot of the hanging at around 6.30 but the hall fell way below the required space. The white walls and the marble floor reflected the light bouncing it off the shutter behind. Then like magic, somebody opened the shutter and we realised the opened shutter worked better when seen from the camera. We took one shot, but for all the other shots the light kept bouncing. I realised with 8 more shots left, there was no way we could do justice to the shoot what we acheived earlier in the day. So with a heavy heart, we packed up for the day. It meant more money to be drained for shooting this part. And as luck would have it, a cousin from London called and pledged for the film. So, in short, there is a monetary way out, but now we are waiting for the time when our actress would come down to mumbai and we can finish the shoot in one go.

Till then we await for the next Sunday!

pictures of location hunt - India mills, Parel and Elphinstone school of technical education

Searching for a location and a little bit of music

Right now, the search is on for a location, where we could shoot the hanging sequence. Hwever, the cost to rent is too high. We went to India Mills in Parel, but they charge 80,000 per day. With our requirement they would get it down to 10,000 per day which is a huge jump, but it still throws our budget off track. Allocated budget for the location by Mohan Bari is Rs. 5000. So now we will have to see where we can do it. An alternative would be to do it at Chandru's (another producer Chandrasen Kotai)house terrace. It is now upto the layout of the terrace that will decide the first schedule.

Meanwhile, Vinay and I met up with Venky for the music. Vinay has to get used to the fluid movement of his fingers on the neck of the guitar. Venky shared an awesome piece and as it played, visuals appeared in my mind. The rawness of the sound of the guitar was amazing. The film being like an onion with many layers, we decided to use minimal instruments, either one or two or maybe at the most three. Keep the music just smple and what is required. Tomorrow is another day. Need to work out on the cost with Reggie on the construction of the set. (Reggie, the art director is also one of the producer) Apparently this is one film that has more producers than actors!!!

Teaser poster

Finally came up with the teaser poster.
The design was inspired by the necessity to keep it simple.
The hanging being the very crucial element replaced the 'O' in the 'HOPE'
The reason was that no one would actually connect Hope with a hanging noose. The line 'I Dream of Hope' is positive while the hanging noose has a negative connotation.

But the film connects it in a way for the protagonist. For him, it is the only way to escape from reality or dream into the new world. It is designed in such a way that people connect to it once they see the film. The intention is to create an intrigue about what the film is about. I hope their questions are answered when they see the film and the equation n their mind completes it.

The foundation of the project - the email sent for pledge

Dear Friends,

For a long long time, I have been trying to piece together a film that is very close to my heart. The film is a short film and is called 'A Dream of Hope'.

Synopsis

Prithvi is a young man convicted of murder of his own wife. The film captures the final moments n his life before he is executed. The last few seconds extend to the longest second of his life where his entire life unfolds in his mind, allowing us to peep into his life that he lived till a second ago… and before he is executed he wakes up and realizes he has been watching a bad dream… or was he not???


Details

Outlined are the details of the Project. The cost of the film would be around Rupees One Lakh only.

The investment into the making of the film would be taken at a minimum cost of Rs. 5000 (Rupees Five Thousand Only) per person and a maximum of Rs. 10000/- (Rupees Ten Thousand Only) per person. The name and contact details shall be furnished in a Google excel sheet that shall be shared to all the people who pledge their contribution
to the project. The other part of the contribution shall be in terms of the efforts to create the film (for eg. Technicians, production personnel, actors, editors, director etc) In case of technicians who choose to work for free, their fee that shall usually be charged by them professionally shall be added to the costs as their investment
into the project.

After the project is completely shot, edited and finalized, the final bill of accounts shall be made available for all the investors to maintain transparency and discipline in the working of this film.

This final cost shall be the basis on which each individual’s share (in percentage) on the project shall be calculated. This shall form the basis on which the returns on the project shall be distributed.

For eg., if the cost of the project is Rs. 1 Lakh and Mr. X’s contribution is Rs. 5000, his share would be pegged at 5%. So if the film is sold for Rs. 5 Lakhs, Mr. X’s share would be Rs. 25,000.

Please note that there are chances that there might be no returns on the project or there might be high returns on it. This is a high risk high returns proposition. However we have tried to minimize the risk by hedging against multiple investors and reducing the amount to a
very reasonable Rs. 5000 – 10000 Range.

Also please note that there might be additional costs post completion of the film (for eg. Costs of sending the film to different Film Festivals etc) This cost has not been added to the proposal and shall be updated in the Google Spreadsheet as and when required.

Do let us know if you are interested in investing into the project. If you do pledge your investment into the project, we would share the google doc with you and share finer details about the project.

Also do note that the money shall be collected a fortnight before the
film goes on floor!!! We shall keep you updated for the same.

Warm Regards,
Prakash Nambiar
Kathaa Animations Pvt. Ltd.

The beginning

The seeds to make this short film was sown in Sept 2005. However, i was never convinced of how the film would end. The film is based on the last story written by O. Henry called Dream. And Henry wanted the story have a double climax in the end. Working the double climax and the character motivation took a toll on me. The story hung in limbo for 3 years. Till one night, it all came back together and I got up from my slumber and completed the script.

I called up my partner and told him the story. He was blank faced and wanted to know when to start the shoot. So we started on the budget and casting. We put up a call for casting the film. Finalised a guy for the role of the guy from IIT. He had a stubble, long hair, looked lost. Fitted the character to the T. The challenge was to find the right girl. Most of the girls whp came for the auditions were girls who wanted to be actresses and struggling hard. One of them mentioned that she would do 'anything' for the role... one girls pallu kept falling... some of them were nice but would have been miscast, and the film went into the back burner when a financial crisis hit us. And somehow the cracker of an idea went into the back of the priority list.

Now after so many years, this small little project is revived, with the help of family and friends who have pitched in monetarily to fund and complete the project.

So after 5 years, this project will take wings...