My 2022 Filmmaking Journey

The year of 2022, among many other things, was I think, the best year for me personally in terms of the craft of filmmaking. I've been making films for many years, but when I really started taking them seriously, was around the end of 2019 when I made a Batman Fan Film, where, for the first time I wrote a script, storyboarded the shots and made the movie. Ever since then, I've been making movies for 3 years, and there's no going back.

And 2022 is the year where I've made the most number of films and film related projects, and in this blog I wish to recount those experiences and take away what I learnt from them most. 

Stalling: I'd felt like making a simple film about a student who's often distracted by his phone when he's tasked with the monumental mission to study. This is a film with just one character and filming this was a fun experience. I show the passage of time through cross fades, while also keeping the books somewhere in the frame to show how they're always there to haunt him with their presence. And the best part, I feel, about the movie is the score. I'd used a piece of music from the OST of 'Spiderman Into the Spider-Verse' called 'Visions Brooklyn 1,2,3' which I think perfectly fits this film, and use it in ways that serve the narrative. I match the editing in such a way that the music makes you feel the highs and lows the character faces through precise timing. But I think the primary reason this works is because of how universal it is. The struggle of studying, and how every minute thing can be a distraction when we're trying not to procrastinate.

Movie Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLSDCyyxhOU

Training Montage: This isn't a short film so to speak, but an experiment. I'd grown up watching many films with training/working out montages in them, as made popular by the Rocky franchise. So I was wondering how I'd shoot a training montage, and decided to go out there and do it. I made my friend (who's an average gym goer) the protagonist and asked him to do his thing, while I took out my camera and started shooting. I hadn't particularly edited the montage in my head before shooting, so all I did was take interesting shots of my friend performing different exercises. Went back home and edited the montage to the music of Ram's theme from the RRR promo, whose music reflects the macho and energetic feeling I was looking for. And in the end, I was satisfied with what I'd made where, I feel, the montage had achieved its primary purpose of really making you feel the strength and intensity required to perform the specific workouts. 

Music Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_BkCz3OnlY

Movie Link: https://vimeo.com/839437192?share=copy

The Gotham Bat 2: This is personally my favourite thing I've ever done. 2 years back I'd made my first proper short film with the Batman Fan Film "The Gotham Bat." Sure, it was amateurish and rough around the edges. But everyone starts off somewhere. Few weeks before the release of the sequel, I'd released a redux cut of the original with better music and sound design, just to show a better version of the film, and to prepare audiences for the sequel. I'd written the script of The Gotham Bat 2 when I'd written the script of part 1. But before we could make it, Covid hit and we had to stop it. But as the years passed, I met more people and made more friends. And after watching the trailer for 'The Batman', we felt inspired to finally go ahead and make this movie. I used the basic outline of the script I'd written 2 years ago, but with minor changes, and an idea of the look, feel and tone we wanted for the film, heavily inspired by 'The Batman.'

And it was by far, the most ambitious project I'd done. It almost seemed impossible for it to be made at one point, considering how few people, and little time we had to make it. But we persevered, and we believed in the project. And through sheer determination and passion we made it. And it was the longest shoot we'd ever been on. We even had to do reshoots because I wasn't satisfied with certain scenes, and those reshoots were a blessing in disguise, because with the extra time we took, we were able to make the scenes 10 times better than how it had initially turned out with a rushed production. We'd paid special attention to lighting, and the 'look' of the film. As well as, I'd learned tons about editing and specifically, sound design, and how vital and unnoticeable it is. There's also a little bit of special effects in the film, aided by a magnificent background score that elevated the scenes and their impact. 

When we were done, I'd screened it to my friends on my birthday, and it honestly felt great to see them flabbergasted at what we'd achieved. They felt the emotions I wanted them to feel ranging from awe to laughter, hearing them clap and cheer made everything feel worth it. I'd screened the film many times in many different places to different people, and their reactions enhanced the experience. And the support I garnered online meant the world to me. I learned a lot about promotion as I'd been promoting the film for months ever since its inception with our very own posters and trailers and promos. The marketing played a huge part in why it's our most viewed short film. And seeing everyone praise and support the film for days was one of the best things I'd ever witnessed. The 4 months of working on this film all felt worth it. The reason The Gotham Bat 2 is my favourite thing I've done, isn't just because I'm proud of what my friends and I had accomplished, but also seeing everyone's responses to it made it just the more special.

Movie Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhEAz3-qyYg

Delayed: This was a rather new and interesting experience as I was the writer and director of the film, but was never really there with the actors. The reason this film was made, was because a close friend of mine, who happened to live in a state different from mine, needed help with her mass media project where she was tasked with making a short film. And so I decided to step up to this unique challenge of directing a film from a completely separate state. I storyboarded the entire film, which helped my friend in understand the framing of the shots, and inspired her to add on to the storyboards (which was just the base) and shoot many more shots with interesting angles. The story itself is simple, and similar to my other film 'Stalling' where a student is distracted and begins to procrastinate, avoiding her actual goal of completing a school report. But the story beats are slightly different. I'd already envisioned most of the film in my head, so it felt great seeing it come to life as I'd imagined. And editing the film with many different takes put me in a spot to make tough decisions on what take to use. I also worked with a new composer friend, who had once previously only lent her music for the credits of one of my films 'Pursue.' I discussed my inspirations for the music for this film, and worked with her thoroughly to find the right musical tone for this film. But we couldn't even take our own sweet time. Because it was a project, there was a deadline we had to meet to finish and submit the film, which made things more tense, but also pushed us to work harder and faster, and thankfully, we were able to meet the given deadline, while also having a finished film we were satisfied with.

The Lost Glory of a Dying Lake - A Documentary: All this while, I'd been making short films, but getting to make a documentary was a unique experience. I was tasked with making a documentary with my friend for an inter-school competition and we decided to take up the challenge. The thing about documentaries is that we can't really plan it. We've to go on location with prior research, and shoot things on the spot with little to no preparation. My friend and I chose our topic to be the pollution of Varthur Lake in Bangalore. And shooting next to it was dangerous as this was considered to be the most polluted lake in the city, but we managed to pull through and get some beautiful looking shots that we were happy with. But editing this, was I would say the best and most fascinating part. I'd earlier studied many documentaries and watched carefully how they were crafted and edited to get an understanding of how they feel before we went to shoot. And trying to replicate that style was something very new to me. It's like a blend of editing a movie and a YouTube video, where it contains footage we shot with a loose narrative, but also narration about facts surrounding the lake. It was new territory for me in the filmmaking space, and I learned so much from it. In the end, after showing it to many others, they felt it really felt like a documentary, so I was glad I'd achieved my primary objective. And the fact that we won 2nd place in the competition was the icing on the cake. And winning 2nd place in my first ever filmmaking competition that I'd taken part in was something to celebrate. 

Gotham Bat 3 Demo Footage: Yes, you heard that right. We're making a part 3 to conclude Gotham Bat trilogy. I'd love to talk about my plans for the film, but that'd be giving away too much. I have the basic story and many plot points of the film mapped out, along with half of the casting and the locations. I'm yet to finish writing a first draft, but I plan to start production after 3 months. There's a chase scene in the film that I wanted to shoot a demo version of, and so we did it in 2 consecutive days, and although it's a little rough around the edges, mainly because its a demo. We're really satisfied with how it has turned out, and gives us more confidence that we're ready to make this movie few months from now. A lot of the work is still left. A finished script, storyboarding, costumes, casting and so on. But this is, by far, the most ambitious project I will have worked on. Even more ambitious than Part 2, and that's saying something. We're going to go above and beyond, and make, possibly the best thing we'd have ever made so far.

RRR and 83: For our school annual day, we had to shoot 2 scenes from different movies post 2019. Because our event was "The evolution of Indian cinema" and we're enacting scenes from iconic Indian movies over the decades, and the dances are in between. And since 2020 onwards, most movies became streaming, the 2 movies we're doing after the 2010s decade is RRR and 83. For RRR, we decided to shoot the prison break piggyback sequence where Ram's on Bheem's shoulders as both of them kill British officers and make their way out of prison. My friend who made the documentary with me was Ram, and I was Bheem with him on my shoulders for approximately the 2-3 hours of shooting. We gathered a few classmates, and shot this scene in our football ground with our classmates playing the Britishers who were eventually fated to get shot by my friend and I. I was directing this scene with my friend on my shoulders, so I did suffer immense neck and back pain while shooting the scene, but everyone's constant support helped us finish the scene on time.

And then, few days later we shot the 83 scene  and it was a scene in the bus funnily enough, and not a cricket match scene. It's the scene where Kapil Dev awkwardly tries to motivate his team. and I'd planned everything. I asked everyone to get their school blazers. And I needed 15 ppl for it, and surprisingly, many ppl came to me and agreed to do this. We all were having fun and messing around when shooting, but all of us knew we had to get the work done fast because we barely had any time. I'd printed a script of the scene, and printed out all the shots. so I knew exactly what to do, and was instructing everyone at every step. We also had to do some inventive problem solving to do on the spot. For example, after the 'half-day students' left, there were a few leftover shots with them supposed to be in it, due to some slight miscalculation on my part. How we fixed this is we got another girl tie her hair similarly, and face against the camera. And another girl wear a blazer to replace one girl that had left, and be covered by the dude sitting in front of her.

Honestly, the way my classmates helped out and appreciated my effort made the process much more easier. And I'd learned the struggles of how to precisely execute blocking and staging, for which I can improve through further projects like these and become a master at it. Both of these scenes were screened in a large screen on the day of the event, and was met with loud cheering and clapping from the audience, that replicated the look and feel of an eruptive audience in an actual movie theatre. It was an experience I will never forget and will always continue to cherish.

RRR Reference Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT9FoPoS3tg

83 Reference Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmgPYFCSWq0

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So yeah, this was all the work I'd done in 2022 where I got to learn a lot, and cooperate and work with talented people that helped me bring my vision to life. I will always give my very best for every filmmaking related project I find myself in. And it's not at all easy. Many times it's frustrating and tiring, and you're forced to think why you put yourself in such a place. But the love for the medium keeps you going. And when it's done; when you put it out there in the world, and see everyone's reactions to it, it makes you realise that, in the end, it's worth it. 2023 is a year that I'm extremely excited for. Especially to see how my filmmaking journey pans out, as I will have gathered all my experiences, and will use my learnings to hopefully go on to create something better. 

Thank You for Reading