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!!!