The Red Cake

She gave the child a piece of her cake with a cherry on the top. He said he doesn't like cake. He threw it away somewhere. She kept searching the piece of cake.  She thought she lost the piece of cake and she didn't try harder.

Anyway she found it one day. It was covered with dust. It was smelling bad. She knew, it was her cake. The cherry is half eaten but it's still red. She likes red. She picked it up from the dust. She put it back in her pocket. She bakes a new cake. She puts more cherries on top. It's more red now. She likes it more.

She met the child again and offers him the new cake. The child is excited to see the 'Red cake'. This time he wants to have it. She takes out the old, dusty, smelly,piece of cake and puts it on his hand. He looks at it in awe and then he sniffs the cake. It smells really bad. He then looks at the fresh baked Red cake. This time she puts a larger chunk of the Red cake in his hand and she smiles at him. The boy sniffs the Red cake and with a great smile on his face he leans forward to say thank you but she is gone.  He Looks back. She is already walking down the alley. She doesn't look back. 

Digging Deep ' Some more Lighting'

Day 15

Kirti was dircting today and Soumee was the cameraman. Jubraj was doing the sound. We all were functioning in an organised mannerism. the first shot was taken at 11:30am after setting up the lights. today Hindol was handling the lighting mostly. Me and Ashok were acting. We were playing a married couple. the scene which Kirti set up was the couple having breakfast on the dinner table as the wife discusses about their son. For making it look like morning time.

I saw Hindol putting up the 1K in front of the window through which the light enters the room. So the 1k was behaving as the morning sun. Later as Hindol explained to me on asking about the lighting, that as we couldn't use the schemer due to some reason so he tried to bounce the light from the walls of the living room and also used the thermocol reflectors.

Jubraj was doing the sound today. Himel was the camera assistant for Soumee. For the track shot he was pulling and pushing the trolley. Everything was running in a professional mode. I could see Kirti keeping in mind the actor handling part. She treated me and Ashok just as any other professional actors, asking about water, coffee cigarettes :) after delivering every shot she would appreciate and give a feedback too. These things are very crucial to be put as a practicing habit in us while handling actors. Most of the times we never take these things into consideration but tomorrow when we have to work with professional actors it would be difficult for us to handle them. So I was happy that we all were trying to execute ourselves in a professional way. 

By 5:15pm we recorded few wild takes. I also had to take few for my exercise. In the end the last unofficial day of the shoot ended with a 'Pack up':D

Digging Deep- 'the Growth'

Day 14

It was Jubraj's shoot today.  We started at around 11:30 am. everybody by that time had arranged the props. Tanmay sir himself and Kirti was the actor today. We set up  and when the shot was ready  he was called. Today most of the shots were taken on studio lihghts that is baby, Dinki,2K, 1K. Only in the last shot we used one practical light that is the lamp light.

In one shot Kirti and Tanmay sir was supposed to be intimate as they are husband and wife. The director wanted to show the Parting love. but somehow Kirti was not able to give what Jubraj was looking for. So she was advised by sir to go back to her memories and recollect what was the best moment in her life. She took a some time. But when she delivered the shot it was far better than what she was doing. Last shot was taken by sir where we used a cutter.

Jubraj was much more calm and focused today. I have never seen him like this before. He was not at all panicking. Sir was also dealing with Actor handling in which Jubraj required to learn. Not just actors even the crew members. How a director should communicate with his crew members creates a huge impact on the output. If the crew members are happy, they will give their hundred percent and so your output product will be what you wanted to achieve. I think theses aspects we all need to learn but for Jubraj this was especially required. otherwise the shoot went smoothly. As the workshop days are coming to an end we are growing on both technical ground and most importantly personal ground.

Digging Deep- 'Big Lights'

Day  13

We started at 10:30 am. We started with finishing few shots that were left from Soumee’s shoot.  While I was taking the second shot, Sir asked me to find the sweet spot for taking that shot. I chose a place where my camera is little lower than the character. The character drinks the water from the bottle and keeps it on the table while sitting on the sofa behind the table. But the spot that I chose was going  out of the energy point between the character sitting on the table and the character to whom she is conversing. So it’s better to place your camera in a zone where  the the energy flows between the characters. 

The placement of camera plays an important role in conveying the point of view of the director. If you place the camera at a distant from the character it shows you are more into observing the character and if it is place near or very near to the character then it shows that you are more into whats going inside the mind or what feelings your character is going through. The camera becomes the best buddy of the character.

I enjoyed the job of a cinematographer thoroughly. It’s a huge task to be able to visualize someone else projection through script or dialogues. After you succeed in visualizing, it’s again a responsibility to be able to present it to the director while taking the shots.

POST LUNCH

We went through various types of light that were present on the floor. Also we learnt the techniques of mounting them on the stands, knowing the functions of the knob etc. The lights that we saw were 5K, 2K, Baby, and also the use of the cutters.

By the time we came back and set the shots for Jubraj, it was already 5p.m. So we decided to come back and take the shot tomorrow.

Digging Deep- "taking the Shots"

Day 12

It was Soumee’s shoot yesterday. I was doing the camera.  Ashok was doing the sound. Kirti and Jubraj were acting. Hindol and Himel were  helping with the setting up and producton. We started rolling around 11am.  Soumee was very clear about not using tube light in the interior shots. She put up Table lamps, and bulbs in the room instead. It  gave a warm feel to the whole room. It was nice that we changed the lights today or to say we took an effort to use practical lights in the room as sir advised before. As a camerawoman, I was very exited to shoot with different kind of practical lights. Till now none of us used that many kind of practical lights.

We strated rolling by 11:15 am.  As a camerawoman I felt I had the liberty to take shots the way I felt was right. Soumee also expressed what what is looking for in the shot. To me that sense of trust between the cameraman and the director was there.

Later sir arrived and introduced us to two Lights. Dinki and Baby which are tungsten lights and Keno which can be day balanced and night balanced also. Since we started with these lights so we decided to continue with them today also in the same set up and will take the shots for which the lights had been set up.

Digging Deep- Ashok's Shoot

Day 11

Ashok was directing yesterday.His crew members were :Himel as cameraman, Soumnee producton, Kirti and Jubraj were the actors and I was doing the sound. Ashok from the beginning was very calm and composed. As I have been with him a day before his shoot, he looked pretty confident about his shoot. He was shooting on Sunday. The Art, makeup, costumes, props everything was closed. So Ashok with the help of others had already arranged for the props a day before that is on the day of my shoot. Everybody assembled at the floor at 10am for setting up. At 11am we started rolling. His firt shot was an interior one. By the time Tanmay sir arrived on the set he already had finished four to five shots. That is five shots in one and half hour is a good number.
By the time Sir arrived we were taking a shot where Jubraj is sitting on the floor, pouring the drink in his glass angrily shouting at Kirti at the same time. It was a close up of his hands and the glass and some part of him was visible too as he was sitting on the couch. Sir advised to go extreme close up of the hands and the pouring of drink in the glass. The action of how he was pouring the drink can signify itself that the character is pretty angry about something or on someone.
In the kitchen he had a shot where Both the characters Kirti and Jubraj are shouting at each other, basically a fight among the husband and the wife. where Jubraj enters the kitchen scolding her, Kirti after a point looses her temper and throws the Plate of green peas on the floor, shouting at him l;eaves the Kitchen. in this shot character placement was a problem. they both were so engrossed in the action, it was difficult for them to maintain the positions in front of the camera. the major problem was while doing the action either one of them was blocking each other. When we tried positioning them with the actions, they started forgetting the dialogues as it became rehearsed again and again. Their actions lost the spontaneity. So from fixing the positioning to acting to dialogues everything went for a toss. then sir intervened and Made Kirti and Jubraj practice the dialogues properly like a child practices his nursery poems and then made them rehearse with actions. One thing I learned that over rehearsing can make the actors loose the actual feelings of your characters. It looks staged and when one goes through this kind of situation where the actors are struggling to give you the performance you demand, it's better to drop the shot at that moment and take it later with a fresh mind.
We finally took the shot and it came out to be much better.the actors also improvised the dialogues, and their actions according to their suitability at the same time delivered something which made the director happy.
we wraped up around 5pm that is much before the given time limit. the reason behind this could be Ashok took maximum number of his shots as wide shots. Also i feel as a director he did a pretty good job.

Digging Deep- "My Shoot'

Day 10

I was directing today and Hindol was my 'Best Buddy' for today :) Which is he was my Camera man.
As Tanmay Sir always refers to the camera man as your best buddy. Among the other crew members Himel was doing the sound, Soumee was doing the Production, Kirti and Jubraj were the actors. At 10am everybody was collecting the props for the shoot including furnitures, costumes. since I had some exterior shots where there was a requirement of street lights  Hindol tried to arrange lights for that. I wanted some warm lights inside the the room shots so the Keno was put up there.

The Shoot started at 11am. After taking our first shot inside the room with Keno. We moved to the exterior shots where the light boys have arranged a 2K for the street shots. By this time it was already 12p.m and Sir also had arrived on the set. he observed the proceeding for some time. then he asked me to just stand at one corener and observe the shoot as a director. The same thing which he had been saying from the first day that a director is not supposed to go behind the crew. But I as well as others are so habituated with the this that it's difficult to control yourself from going near the camera and checking the frame yourself. Though I tried to follow which was instructed but I think to do that also one need to first learn how you see the frame without the camera in your hand. that is as a director one should have a clear idea of Lenses. I was confused about how to see your frame without the camera and lenses in front of your eyes!. Then he make me understand the idea of seeing the frame with your fist's thumb distance to little finger distance in front of your eyes, one can use both their hands also or one can take a stick and accordingly check the frame. 

while I was away learning this, I asked Hindol to take the two exterior shots.

After that we had a short discussion with Tanmay Sir about the lights and actinng on the set itself. He mentioned about instructing the actions to your actors. how one should go about it. 

• Active actions- where you give concrete actions to your actors which are doable, visible and simple.
• Passive actions- where you will tell your actors about the emotions you want to convey through his actions. here you don't really give exact actions to the actors. the actor himself has to interpret and do the actions.

To me it's upto the director and the actor. If any of these works with the Actor then he should be instructed in such way. There should not be any hard and fast rule about this. in the end you need the shot to be good so whichever works for your actor.