Ashok's Shoot

Ashok was shooting his dialogue exercise with Himel on the camera, and Sumana recording the sound. We all knewHimel needed help; I stepped in as the camera assistant. Ashok was running around in the set, placing props, picking up equipment. One reason I am reluctant of physically tiring myself when I am directing is because I cease to be calm. Ashok, on the other hand,was still able to be distant.

Mr. Tanmay walked in to the floor at a little past noon. Like the last two days, he started talking of things that he felt was going wrong. Ashok was conducting himself better than Sumana. We were shooting a close up of glass being filled up with liquor. He put his iPad under the glass top of the table, right under the bottle of rum and the empty glass.Mr. Tanmay’s emphasis was on making it clear what the shot was all about. One should minimize, and get rid of the unnecessary elements. We break for lunch.

Post lunch, it was a lazy start. Most of us were sleep deprived, and the afternoon meal was drawing us to a nap. Ashok stepped up. He never showed any sign of impatience. He kept at it, and soon we were back to work. I was surprised at Himel’s perseverance. He learnt quiet fast. And rolled the camera shot after shot without almost any help from me.

We moved to the last scene. It had a long dialogue, all in one single shot. Thank God for Himel it was a tripod mounted static shot. Kirti & Jubaraj pulled it off without forgetting lines in the very first take. It was all good except for the fact that the boom was in for a couple of seconds.

When we started rolling for the retakes, invariably one thing or another was going wrong. Mr. Tanmay walked in as I was changing the battery on the camera. He gauged what was happening. He calmed down the actors, made them sit, and asked them to rehearse their lines right in front of him. He slowed them down whenever Jubaraj, or Kirti hurried through their lines.

The shot is done with. Meanwhile, Mr. Tanmay, who had a camera hanging with him all day, showed us how he had kept himself busy. He had shot the construction workers at work in our campus. An actuality of the situation in a single shot, but the shot taking was such that the attention is drawn from one motif to another. Ashok and Himel wrap up the next few shots quiet soon and call it a day. We wrapped up at 5.09.