Falling in love

There are many ways of creating stories and characters. Sometimes you are lucky enough and someone comes along  with a story and characters that you empathise with and you make it your own. Why empathy? I feel feel that in order to tell a story well or for other people to identify with it - there should be a level of understanding  and connect with the characters.

Keeping this in mind, each time I create something new,  I try to give something unique to each of the characters from my own life and I strongly feel that the closer it is - the more real the character becomes. Not just me but a lot of people do it or should do it if they don't. Therefore each journey of creation becomes a journey within oneself to try and pry out something that is deep and hidden inside. This journey can actually leave you crushed or ecstatic  - depending on what you discover. Deliberately reliving your joys and pains over and over again can be quite an experience and every time you do it - you discover something new about yourself. I read somewhere that the moment you don't have anything to draw from inside your "well", your journey as an artist comes to an end and I think that most artists are insecure of dipping a bucket inside and find it coming up empty.

The solution (if I may call it that) is to embrace all that comes your way. Enjoy all the experiences that life shells out - joy, pain and most of all - falling in love. I really do think that we don't  fall in love often enough.

Arjun falling in love was a very special sequence spread over four mini sequences and I wanted it to be special - as falling in love should be! To show a contrast between the Arjun that we saw in the series, all hardened and ravaged by his past and the Arjun that was - lovestruck and blinded by Roshni was a challenge. We managed to shoot only two of the mini-sequences that have been strung together in a loose edit below.

By now, quite a few of you are trying to draw a possible  connect between my life and Arjun's but I will leave it up to your imagination. After all, I have to see that some bits remain in my "well" for my autobiography!!!

Take a look at Arjun falling in love and let me know whether you think we would have managed to pull this off.  The sequence too - like a lot of love stories - is incomplete!

Arjun - The beginning

This post is meant for people who watch Arjun - so if you don't watch this show, you might as well stop reading now. But before you go let me tell you - you are missing out on a great show! For those of you who have been wondering about my silence on various social media fronts - I have been slightly unwell. I hope the problems will get sorted out in the coming week.

So, the main characters of Arjun had got finalised and I wanted to see how they looked together and so did the channel. I also wanted to see how the new camera that we were planning to use would perform in the dark. So we set up a look test on the set of Humse Hai Liife,which has now been modified to be the ETF office. The corridor was lit up in a dark, contrasty fashion to try and emulate the lighting in a warehouse or something. Contrary to what the plate says, the camera was manned by Tribhuvan Babu. What you see below is a result of that sequence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck0OX48C7E

Now it was time to handle one of the two most tricky scenes of the first episode - Riya's earring (which later became a hair clip) to get caught in Arjun's shirt in the middle of a serious discussion about the kidnapper. I had spent sleepless nights over this scene. It required extremely fine balance in the execution because just being an inch overboard would have made the discussion frivolous and the characters seem petty to be distracted by the earring! The scene also sets the chemistry between the two characters  - the first time Riya would try to stand up to Arjun and he would shoot her down rudely. I do not remember how many times I had played the scene in my head as this was one of the two scenes that I was really, really worried about. The other scene which gave sleepless nights was where Riya and Arjun meet first, get into fist-fight and she ends up tightly locked in his arms - but that is another story! I had deliberately chosen this scene to be apart of the look test because I wanted the chance to rehearse and shoot it properly before we hit the floor and I am glad I did! What I remember  most from shooting this scene is how many questions Shaleen and Sana asked me that day and at this point I can admit that I did not have a lot of answers ready but providing an answer to them also answered a lot of questions that I had myself. Rathore had not been cast - so I decided to use one of the crew to stand-in with his back to camera. At this point, I was more worried about the content rather than blocking.

When I finished shooting the scene, it was huge load off my shoulders. Both the actors had got the essence of the scene right and it had turned out better than I had expected. I knew that shooting this scene during actual production would be a cakewalk for all of us.

It was now time to head outdoors and as the sun was setting, I quickly decided to write an improvised scene which would show the difference between Riya and Arjun's characters. I had an inkling that we would be doing some form of honour killing in the coming episodes and as time was short and the sun was setting fast, I chose to write a few lines that would get over in just one shot. In the actual series, the killing is done by the mother and Riya goes and confronts the killer herself - but this is how I had imagined the end to be.

- Gorky M

Look what I found!

Holy moly... Look what I found! I remember shooting this when Barun came home for the interview with Gul but with all the controversy at that point of time I did not post it and then - forgot about it.

I found it today while trying to free up some disk space and was in two minds about posting it but then I thought "bashers will be bashers"... at least there will be some who will appreciate it.

Behind the scenes

When people ask me what is it that I love about my work, my usual reply is that no two days are ever the same. It is such a blessing to be a part of a film or TV crew. It is a greater blessing to be a part of a crew with a camera and an "all-access" pass! Having a camera with you is a great way of documenting your journey and I always have one (or two or three) with me. Not only does it allow me to remember where all I have been but it also helps me to connect with people and places that I otherwise would not. It also allows me to see what I otherwise would not.

Of course, it all starts with going to different locations as a part of location scouting. Whether you end up shooting there or not is another thing altogether. For those of you who are interested,  I usually mount an all purpose lens on my camera, mostly the  Nikon 28-300 lens and my  Nikon 50mm stays in my bag too, just in case I need to take some low light shots of locations at night. During this time my mind is working more like a director rather than a photographer and the pictures taken here have a very definite purpose - that of being able to recall what is seen from each angle so that I can share it with my team. These photographs are so important that quite a few times I have been hired by foreign productions to scout locations for them and take pictures but if during the process a beautiful photograph crops up  - I don't let it go!

 One thing that I do quite often is to actually "block" a shot and take a photograph to see if it works the way I see it in my head. This way I have something to show my cameraman as a reference and there is nothing worse than having an army of people walk into a location, setup a shot and realise that it does not work.

When I am not directing is usually when the photographer in me awakens but I have to be careful not to get in the way of actual shooting. I also have to judge if people around me are uncomfortable having a camera in close proximity and going "click-click" when they are trying to concentrate. To shoot the candids, there is usually a time window of a few seconds between the time the director shouts "roll camera" and says "action". After the shot starts, you really don't want to be shooting because it breaks everyone's concentration and there is also the technical issue of the shutter sound being captured by the microphones and ruining the shot. That having been said, I like to go in really close to the people who are comfortable with it. I mostly use a Nikon 17-35mm for this purpose.

In between the shots is the time when it is free for all. Lights being moved, props being shifted, refreshments being served and everyone just concentrating on setting up the next shot. Nobody notices the photographer and depending upon how well you camouflage yourself, you can get pretty close to the hotbed of action. I have a set of clothes made of cardboard for this purpose and just pretend to be a cardboard box at times like these! Sometimes I also disguise myself as a table.

If you look away from the actors and director, there are plenty of other images that can be shot which complete the overall experience of being a part of a shooting crew. It really is amazing to see so many different people contributing to create the environment and the shot and this is where the true magic (for me) lies. So many people from different walks of life, with different skills contribute to that one vision that someone has - and that is what we see on screen.

When there is too much activity on the set and you are apprehensive that you might land yourself in trouble is when the big zooms come out. Sit quietly in a corner and just observe and wait!!! All pictures below shot with the Nikon 70-200.

 And of course, if you are very lucky, once in a while, you will spot a photograph that will remind you that in spite of all the madness, the joy and the celebration - we are all human. We dance, we laugh, we cry  for the sake of entertainment and somewhere our troubles are forgotten - if only fleetingly.

That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed these photographs. Until next time...

CinemaScope

Where does a photograph belong? Apart from what you can see in a photograph, I believe, there are numerous other factors - both seen and unseen which give you an impression as to where the photo belongs and what it is trying to convey. Of course, there is what you can actually see in the background or part of the environment where the picture was taken and then there is colour and tone which conveys the mood. Lately, I have been trying to create photos which seem that they have been grabbed from films.

I realised that apart from using focal lengths which are primarily used in film making and toning the photograph (the equivalent of DI or Digital Intermediate in films) there is one very important factor that has an effect on how we perceive a photograph and that is aspect ratio. Most of the films that we see are shot on an aspect ratio of 1:1.85 or 1:2.35 or 1:2.40  and over the  years we come to associate these aspect ratios with being "cinematic".

Each of these photographs have been inspired from a film, at least in my head - whether or not it comes across, I leave it you to tell me. Do these remind you of any particular film that you have seen or do you think that they could have easily belonged to a particular film? Please let me know.

More on aspect ratios when we meet next. Until then, take care.

--- By Gorky M