Miles to go...

Lensing and Lighting workshop with Tanmay Agarwal

Day 10

Yesterday night I felt sick, so couldn't write the previous blog, couldn't wake up early too. I was just not feeling well. Anyways, it was Sumana's shoot and one member less in a small crew as ours would be disastrous, thus I picked myself and reached the floor.

Production meetings have not yet happened for any of the shoot yet and that is a problem. I had already spoken to Sumana and the requisition list for propping up was huge. She had decided to shoot in 3 spaces. One was the living room, a tea stall and another space too which would be a bedroom. I was not sure why was she asking me to prop up so extensively but JJ and I anyways started running about propping up the spaces. JJ went to get things from Bimal da's shop for our tea shop while I rumpled around to get all the props and costume. But with the help of Mithoo da, Bikash da and Dilip da we got all the spaces dressed in remarkably short span of time.

JJ and Kirti were the actors. Sumana's story was of two strangers meeting and getting closer. Hindol was doing camera today. He wanted to use proper lights. So we replaced the tube light by kino and placed a tungsten to get the feel of a street light. The first thing that caught my eyes was the fact that Sumana had not written her dialogues and thus a lot of improvisation was happening on the go which was taking a lot of time. More over Sumana was constantly standing with Hindol checking the frame. She had chosen normal lens which was 12mm in P2. The first shot was done before Sir came in. Sumana was resorting to coverage style shot taking overlapping the same action in 2 shots. Just before taking the 2nd shot, she felt that Kirti needed a bindi. Inspite of me telling her that it would be difficult to find she wanted me to check in the costume department. I returned without a bindi and opted for a sindoor bindi. This was a long wait. Sir intervened. 

Everyday Sir was re iterating certain basic rules to which we always nodded but almost never followed. 

• The first and foremost being that the director has to distance himself from the whole activity on floor, so that he/she can concentrate on directing and delegating the jobs. 

• How to understand the normal focal length of a camera?
• If we put one eye to the view finder and open one eye we will see two images getting formed. If we keep adjusting the focal length, at some point we will get one image. The focal length at which we get this is normal lens of that particular camera. When the image in the view finder is a bit wider and the objects look a bit smaller, it is wide. When the objects look bigger and the frame becomes tighter, it is tele.

• Once you have set your lens, if you stand where the camera is placed and stretch out your hand fully in front of you and measure the two extreme edges of the frame, this is your angle of view. Now with this measurement if you can stand anywhere and see the angle of view from that spot(ie, the position of the camera would be the place where you are standing).

• Once you have found the angle of view, we need to choose the sweet spot, before taking the shot.

• Do not go for coverage. It does not allow you to find the sweet spot.

• KISS (Keep it simple silly!) Don't waste time over extra things. If the script line is coming through it's always enough.

• Best friend of the director on the floor is the cinematographer and there should be complete trust between them.  The director should be able to explain what the shot is. Once it is done the cinematographer should be allowed to take the shot. Once this is done still if the emotion or magic is not coming through then the director should intervene. 

• Melodrama makes no sense. Give your actors proper actions to portray the emotion.

• An hierarchy should always be maintained. Director is the commander. S/He should trust people on his/her crew, but the ultimate decision would be his/hers.

• People should be engaged during the shoot. Delegating work to everyone is also a process of engaging them.

• Not everyone needs to know everything, thus the director should talk to personnel personally regarding their duties. If someone has a suggestion they should go up to the director and have a talk.

Sir looked at our light arrangement and asked why we needed it. He explained that earlier we needed heavy lights as the sensors were not good enough so to expose we needed them. But now the sensors are strong enough. So we switched off the kino and the tungsten. Instead of the tungsten we put 2 tungsten bulbs. Again KISS! Lights are for seeing. If we can see it should be enough.

We went into the next shot. This was of Kirti opening a lock and then deciding to lock it again and leaving. The light source was a over head bulb, thus when she looked down her whole face became dark. Hindol tried taking a mid shot of this. First the cam was on the lock- she opens the lock, pause she puts the lock back- Hindol tilts up to get her face. Sir intervened. Sumana had given a complicated direction to Kirti, to show hesitation, thinking, confusion- and Kirti being Kirti, just like me had gone into melodrama zone. Sir spoke about the Bressonian Process of shot taking. He said that the action was important.

• He asked us to move the camera close. 
• The camera was placed 2 inch lower than her eyes as she was looking down.
• The lock was important as that was the action. Kirti's face was important as that was the reaction. Thus, take the 2 shots separately.
• When close up of the lock, Kirti was given direction while the shot was on. Sir said this could be done in a way so that the actor's concentration doesn't break and you get what you want.
• "Surgical lighting"- As Kirti's face was in shadows, Sir took 2 pieces of the reflector and reflected some light on her temple and on her chin. The point is to see, where light is needed we can feel it in using reflectors.

After the lunch we got back and shooting resumed. The bonding between Sumana and Hindol had improved. Sumana was trying her level best to keep away from the camera but the amount of shots left bogged her down. She was loosing her calm and all the things that Sir keeps mentioning about the "conduct of the director " kind of went for a toss. But the brighter side was we were able to take a lot of shots- finish the whole sequence that was planned.

It was a good day! Though we didn't do everything the way it should be done but we somehow managed through. We are all trying....and I am sure we will get it.

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, 

But I have promises to keep, 

And miles to go before I sleep, 

And miles to go before I sleep."