Shooting Day 3: Scene 1 and 3

Scene 1
On our next shooting day, we decided on completing our marketplace scene which was our opening sequence and to complete scene 4 which was the make-shift school one.
Scene 1 required an establishing shot which was to be a very effective one as it was to open the film to the audience. Hence we decided on taking a low angle shot of the skyline and then follow through downwards to establish the sequence. This was a tad bit difficult to handle as we had peopel coming from everywhere as it was to be shot from the very middle of the road and traffic at this time of the afternoon was a haphazard. However after takes and retakes, we finally had one good establishing shot that could open our film effectively. But wait! We had no battery left in the DSLR to support any other shots. Now, this was a major problem as the stalls we were to shot, might only be open till noon and not till late plus load shedding was a mess. no one knew if we'd have any light available at home or not. But fortunately,we did have electricity and withing one hour, we were back on our location so as to complete the shoot. We took shots of the juice seller, the vegetable seller, the bottle seller and the shoe mender. And managed it in due time. Me and Dua's brother assisted in crowd management while Dua underwent shooting. Our main constraint in this scene was crowd management as it was a busy marketplace and many people were attracted towards the limelight as they thought we were shooting a mainstream media product.

Capturing the sky line

Shooting

Managing traffic

The crowd

Scene 3
While shooting scene 3, we were able to complete the shoot smoothly and withing 15 minutes as it didn't consist of any camera angles, shots or movements. However, the first problem we faced was the refusal of the teacher to be shot in camera. For this, we required an immediate teacher who could substitute so we consulted the academy owner for help and he provided us with a teacher of just the same nature. Then was the trouble of directing the students on how they were to take turns, answering the teacher and responding to her with the right body language and confidence. Once this was done, we had everything ready. As it was a daylight shot, the effect of a make-shift institute was easily created. And our shoot went perfectly well.

Shooting Day 2: Scene 4.

Planned to do on the next day. Loadshedding didnt allow it. Did it after two days. The flashback in the shoot needed a third shooting. This third shooting couldn't take place owing to the unavailability of the actor, Hammad.
DAY 1
On the second day of our shoot, we decided to complete scene 3 with Hammad. It was to be shot in the dark so we scheduled for the late hours in the evening. however, our one major mistake was to decide on our location without any prior consultation with the location people. we needed a hay stack to shoot with Hammad as the hay stack was to serve as shelter for Hammad. When we went to the location, it turned out that the rain, the previous day had led to the shift of the hay to a dry place. Hence, we needed a back up and we needed it fast. So we decided on using Dua's backyard as our location. we used wooden planks to serve as poles for the house and two bedspreads to serve as shelter on top and below. The tree trunk at the back was used to signify a make-shift house, one's made by poor people in empty plots of housing schemes. Once the hut was made, we faced yet another obstacle. Of load-shedding. No light with the fact that it was dark, led to the postponement of our shoot to the next day.
The next day, we started on our shoot and successfully finished in due time. Our establishing shot required a focus shift which took alot of time and as it was a low angle shot, it was much troublesome to get it right. As the lighting for this scene was to be very minute, we required a manual handle on lighting which i was working on while Dua shot. Managing the candle and its flicker was another concern as it was a windy day and an almost outdoor shoot made it even more difficult. However, we did manage and got a very good shoot  completed. However, we still had to shoot the flashback scenes which were to be shot in daylight. We decided on doing these two scenes after the exams. However, when we met up the next time, our actors were unavailable so we couldn't do the shoot. So we decided on another meet-up and this time our shoot went smoothly as we had the actors and we had the setting. However, as Hammad's father was an addition to this shoot, he had to be taught as to how he was to work with the belt without actually hitting Hammad and this required proper directions and proper test shots. I directed Hammad and his on-screen father on expressions and body language while Dua shot.

Dua painting blood-like effect

Me directing Dua

Me with the props, expressions, angles

Dua on the camera

Shooting Day 1: Scene 2

The first day of our shoot was a very rainy Saturday and me and Dua were very uncertain about whether to shoot in this weather or not, considering that the location we'd be shooting in was a barely sheltered one-room house. As we were on a shooting schedule and our classes had resumed to give time for shooting, we decided to discuss this with our media teacher who told us that this weather was effective only if our shoot was outdoors. An indoor shoot with minimalistic light wouldn't be effected by this rain. Hence, despite a gloomy weather, we tromped off the back alley opposite Dua's house.

Upon reaching our location, we realised that the entire room had to be shifted so as to make sufficient space for around 8 people. That chaarpaai's therein had to be moved out. the lights had to switched off. The youngest of the family was sleeping; she had to be waked up. Bedspreads were then spread out over the floor so tour cast could sit on it. Our own lighting had to be put up in specific places so as to ensure sufficient lighting for our shooting. I assisted  in the setting of the room while Dua adjusted the lighting to her own specifics. Meanwhile I directed the rest of the cast as to how we were to proceed with the shoot. When all was set, it was already quite late as we had little time left with the load-shedding and late hours of the night. We began on with our shoot. Dua was on the camera while I took the lighting and the rest of the cast in control so that all went right. We faced trouble with space and the lighting as  both were very limited as per our scene's requirement.At first we tried using the tripod, yes, a very helpful tool it sure is but as we had less space, our handling of the equipment was largely perturbed, hence Dua decided to go without it and handheld the camera for the rest of the shoot.Space was quite an issue as roaming round for the confirmation of shots was very difficult however we did manage and got some really nice, effective shots with the right expressions and body language. Our establishing shot required a lot of nearness to our actor, Jamal. However lack of space hindered our mobility and we were restricted by many degrees. Our first shot, owing to no prior experience, took a lot of time and infinite takes and retakes. Yet, as we went home and rechecked all our sots, we realised that we had made a major blunder in of our major two-second shots, without which our shot wouldn't look good. Now, this was a major trouble as a two second shot would actually require so much work on set and location that we'd be wasting one entire hour. Doing it there and then was not a choice as it was a little too dark and I had an academy to go to. Hence, we decided upon doing all our major retakes, at the very end. One major problem we faced pre-production of our scene, was the working of an old lantern that Dua had dug up from somewhere. It required a wick and oil, however the lantern had rusted so much over the years that getting through inside the lantern was quite difficult. However, Dua's brother took it to the market and got it fixed in due time of the shoot and our issue was resolved.

Managing minimal lighting in a small area.

With the cast

Arranging the literally broken old table

Me on the lights

Dua trying to fix the tripod

My Cast

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

My Props

Scene 2

(Jamal and Surraya)

Scene 3

(Hammad)

Scene 4

(Makeshift School)

Scene 5

(Charity)

Shot Listing

 Shot List

Story Board

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Budget

Estimated Budget

Actual Budget

Equipment List

Estimated Equipment

-Collar Mic/ Boom Mic

-DSLR Camera D3100 Nikon

-Laptop

-Tripod

-Microphone

-Headphones

-Lights: 

 -Lamp

 -White Light
 -Candles

Actual Equipment Used

Scene 1:
 Tripod
 Laptop
 DSLR Camera D3100 Nikon
 Handycam

Scene 2:
 DSLR Camera D3100 Nikon
 Lamp
 Candles
 Handycam


Scene 3
 Candles
 White Light
 DSLR Camera D3100 Nikon
 Handycam


Scene 4:
DSLR Camera D3100 Nikon
Handycam


Scene 5:
 DSLR Camera D3100 Nikon
 Handycam
         

Sound Research

Our short film initially required only two sound tracks. One for the production logo roll-in and another one for the background score throughout the film. Firstly, we began with the research on sound scores and which would most complement our short films genre. We started we the research of classical, folk and all sorts of cultural music, most heard of in Pakistan. This idea of using cultural music in our short film was generated keeping in mind two aspects; firstly because it was inspired by a similar short film opening sequence that we had seen on YouTube-its genre was not in any way similar to ours, however it was shot in the very middle of Lahore and had a very traditional look and feel about it and secondly because it went well with our short film's content which featured the societal reality of Pakistan, hence it reflected our country's culture and traditional very effectively. 

                                        

    

We used YouTube as our main channel as this search engine featuring all sorts of media content contained numerous contributions by individuals and hence gave us the unique and very versatile content to choose from. We decided upon the independent work of two instrumental artists. They were basically tabla players 

and the text they has floated online had a sensuous feel to it which could easily be edited into whichever form we wanted it to be in. We could raise its pitch to conjure up suspense, we could speed it up to show a series of events in a continuous flow, etc. Once our rough cut was made, we started adding the audio to it , however we had to choose which instrumental would help us the most and also, we had to convert the avi file into an mp3 track. For this purpose, we googled the various converters available online and found one which is used the most i.e. the Format Factory which converted files very promptly, hence, saving up on quality time.

                                         

Once we had the mp3, we listened to both the tunes again and tried to fit it in our rough cut and imagined its impact on the film that'll effect the audience and decided upon using Shaurya Rawal's instrumental. As our rough cut was ready, we started up on putting in the background score and many a times fiddles with it as premiere was new to us and we were still novices. Layering and sequencing was a major constraint that we faced which led to a lot of wastage of time as we still hadn't understood understood the concept of adding the audio on different layers every time a new video sequence began. After many makes and remakes, we finally got our background score properly synced into the video with the right pitches, gains, cross fades and speed duration.

Having done this, we now researched out logo roll-in score. For this, we were looking for something very interesting catchy to go with our logo designation which had a very bright and jolly look and feel to it. When we started googling this requirement, we came across the most used search engine for this purpose, which was sounddogs.com. This was one webpage that had a little too much of content in it and filtering through it for what we exactly required was one tedious task. Hence, to save on time, we used mp3skull.com which automatically filtered through sounddogs' content and gave us the exact content that we required.

Once we had this score too, we fitted it in with our roll-in effect by editing it through the right places and got what we wanted. Hence, our sound research was widely assisted by the usage of Web 2.0 as it provided us with useful search engines like YouTube, Google, Mp3 Skull, Sounddogs and format factory.  

Recce Sheet

Location Shot for Scene 1:

Location Shot for Scene 2:

Location Shot for Scene 3:

Location Shot for Scene 4: