Movie Murmur

(My foray into the short fiction format) Shooting of a Short fiction film Coming to think of it, even a shot thirty second advertisement film is a short fiction film. A not so handsome guy wears a cream and the girl falls for him - this could be the one liner of the story of an advertisement film on a fairness cream. Not that yours truly did not dip his hands into such versions of the short fiction film. An advertisement film on a bindi, a hair shampoo and a greeting card were some attempts that I had done in the initial days of my career in this format. The only 'non-neoliberal' solace that I have right now is that the companies that manufactured these products were not large multinational corporations - they were run by small entrepreneurs. In 2008, Sameer Mahajan the cameraman of my first fiction feature movie ' Suddha ' (The Cleansing Rites) gave me a call saying that he was facilitating the making of a short promotional film that will act as an eye op...

(My foray into the short fiction format) A still from 'Mani Bhai Pass Hogaya? (Did Bother Mani Succeed?) A short film can be a fiction or a documentary work; or it might simply be a non-fiction work. The three forms could well have a thin line of difference, one might argue. Agreed. Simplistically speaking, a fiction film is one which has an enacted story; and by and large the documentary uses real locations and characters. What then is a non-fiction short film? One that does not have a enacted story or that which does not use real location and characters? Some of the works of the Canadian film maker Norman McLaren could be termed as such, like his short film ' Horizontal Lines '. This film has an animation sequence of one line multiplying itself and then in the end the multiple lines merge themselves to be one again. Although it could be seen and interpreted as a film that has a story about a line, the film does not feature people in front of the camera - ena...

(My foray into the short fiction format) The short fiction movie format, like the short story its counterpart in literature, is a very powerful mode of expression; and a tricky one too. The maker will have to be precise, the luxury of meandering or dwelling on multiple aspects of the subject matter does not arise, the extra detailing might have to be cut off; and many a times like in a typical O. Henry style, a twist in the end is what is longed for. Mention the word short film and the 1962 black and white film from The Netherlands 'Big City Blues' directed by Charles Huguenot Vander Linden, the 1964 French movie 'An Incident at Owl Creek' directed by Robert Enrico or Julian Bigg's Canadian film '23 Skidoo', immediately pops up in one's mind. So, do the films of the Dutch film maker Bert Haanstra or the one and only Norman McLaren, the prolific Canadian short film maker.  23 Skidoo from National Film Board of Canada on Vimeo . But the ...