Making A Documentary

Last weekend for me was totally different! I was taking part in an Organization level contest for making a documentary on how eco-friendly my company is. It was supposed to be a team event, but there wasn’t much of a team, save me and my wife; but I am glad we make a great pair 🙂

It was great fun and a wonderful experience. Though I am no stranger on the other side of the lens, it was my first attempt in making a movie of some “professional standard”! Neither was I too keen on following set norms – so I simply let my thoughts come alive while making the video;. the cast being just my wife – it was pretty obvious no one would risk ruining a potential career option by appearing in my film, except for this girl 😀

I am not sure whether it can be called a cast considering that there were only four or five dialogues (monologues would be more apt) for her! I decided to take the role of the ‘asariri‘ (read voice from heavens) 🙂

My voice wasn’t recorded while making the movie but instead we decided to do that and all the editing back home. She was good with editing and stuff and I was able to pen a few simple dialogues – so there, we had a movie in the making with a cast of two. The only thing I did indulge in was giving the voice over for the guide like character; and this too was on the insistence of my wife! I still believe it wasn’t the greatest voice and this, I am sure, doesn’t require expert opinion.

Though I’d really love to share the video here I guess there are some copyright laws resting with the company on publishing of this video. Yup! We got to sign on some NOCs too! So I got to check the legalities before I post it here (hopefully there wouldn’t be too much restrictions). So watch this space 😉

I am not sure how one approaches the film, but my view of it was clear. Since this felt more like an awareness campaign, I decided there’ll be this character who doesn’t know much about the eco-friendly policies of the company and there’ll be someone to help him or her. My wife fitted the bill perfectly for the former 😀 I guess the idea of having an invisible guide struck me on a more philosophical note and we decided to name him the “soul of our company“! Hope this clicks with the judges.

Oh and did I happen to mention I was amateurish at even handling the video camera? This didn’t make much of a difference initially since we decided to frame the documentary in our semi-SLR. I don’t know if it was fear (that competitors will have a slight advantage with a better cam) or the spirit to learn that led me to choose the professional one! Anyway, day 1 was more of a learning that movie making as I would like to call it.

I think this is how a decent film (any category) would work out. Roll out the rough draft then go for the fair one. And while finalizing, have umpteen number of clips for the same scene. It doesn’t make a logical sense (capturing the same scene over and over again), but it certainly helped during the editing phase! In fact even the rough draft helped in editing.