research and process

Readings/inspiration/reference - during the period of writing

Fiction/Non-Fiction
Age of Kali William Dalrymple
Anamdas ka Potha Hazari prasad Dwivedi
A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawkings

Short Stories by 
Anton Chekov
Phanishwar Nath Renu

Poems by
Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh
Surya Kant Tripathi 'Nirala'

Books on Cinema

Film form and film sense S.M.Eisenstein
Sculpting in Time  Andrei Tarkovsky
Notes on Cinematography Bresson

Articles
Films on Childhood David MacDougall
lectures/talk/artcile - time - vedic and scientific - E.C.G.Sudarsan
Against Interpretation by Susan Sontag http://www.coldbacon.com/writing/sontag-againstinterpretation.html

Websites
http://www.pitt.edu/~wbcurry/nietzsche.html

Talks/Interview
Joseph Campbell and the power of Myth

Films
Kasaba ,Once upon a Time in Anatolia Nurie Bilge Ceylan
Uski Roti, Nazar, Dhrupad, Shiddeswari Mani Kaul
Om Dar Badar Kamal Swaroop
Ksha tra Gya Amit Dutta
Stalker, The Mirror Andrei Tarkovsky 
Daisies, Fruits of Paradise Vera Chytilova
Pather Panchali, Apur Sansar, Aparajito Satyajit Ray

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PROCESS

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Self - guidelines

  13^th August, 2012

Notes on form – articulating my current understanding of the form

·         Poetic rendering of eventuality - a poetic representation more than intending naturalistic one. Poetry is informed by personal and philosophical point of view of the filmmaker.

·         The nature of sequence is informed by poetic development - intending reflection of poetry in cinematic form - Progression with poetic impulses - associational progression above eventual.

·         Emotion that is sentiment is more a quality of moments and events than progressive thread. Emotion does not determine rhythm but is present in it.

·         Rhythm of events is manipulative of pace of events to reflect moods like stagnation, chaos, restlessness, loop, eternity (union of pace of all movements) etc.

·         Rhythm of sequence is based on the poetic impulses.

·         Overtones – Overtones are created when inherent rhythm of elements creates tones (emotions) which conflict or associate. Presence of overtone or reaching it gives an aesthetic potency to shots, long takes or montage sequence in experience. This is a point where one moves ahead of subjective emotions to touch a part of a more objective truth. Development of such overtones guides the content into form.  An intention to create an overtone guides me to do so by realizing the worth of my content and the intended form for it.

Notes on treatment

·         Cinematography

The nature of the presence of subject is determined by the presence of perspective. A wide lens presents subject closer to viewer whereas a tele lens presents a subject closer to itself.  The relationship of viewer to subject or vice-versa is a characteristic of lens. This is a technique to be explored under the physical limitations and availability of space guided by conceptual idea of this relationship coming from the script.

It is important to note that one is also cutting from a lens to another lens while going from a shot to another. A certain implication of rhythm comes into visible effect here.

Visual elements like texture are dominant in some non-fictional shots of the city. It holds an emotion as well as a strong depiction of a reality. Visual nature of shots inside the house will determine a mood with balance of color of space with characters – either they stand out or they merge. Use of color temperature will be mostly faithful to the space.

·         Sound

Sounds contribute to rhythm - creating coherence or incoherence in constructing a flow in eventuality.

Sounds inform the out-of-field. A lot in the story at different instances in informed by elements not present in the story at that moment. Sound can be used as a glimpse or some kind of associative motif of such elements.

Using non-digetic sounds or music at required instances to construct a certain experience or inform movement or change of reality.

The Soundscape of the atmosphere develops from naturalistic to surrealistic. This is a very important development in the story.

·         Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene will intend to internalize the mood of the scene. The idea is to manipulate the space to allow path of characters within a scene in an emotive or poetic manner.

Relationships in frame

- Camera and subjects

- Among subjects

- (Camera), subject and space

This relationship has to be looked upon shot by shot and even as a sum total in a scene to transform the personal idea into a cinematic representation (directorial intention).

Informing myself # 1
Indulge and Love -  not blinded - but standing right in front of you - is the art you want to make - not alone your emotion, that is only part of a truth - give your emotions back to where they came from, express  - the whole world within you and you in the whole of this world - that form you seek, that puts your voice above your emotion - into art - into an art form -express - rest your perception in reality and oscillate your mind in imagination - indulge and lovbut don't leave yourself to that - you are here for Art

Tara ka Tara time machine

 Treatment Note 31^st August 2012

1.

Camera movement is rhythm and narrator to some very important events – 2.1, 3.3, etc. At such instances, camera does not follow any human character but is giving character to the visual which will include spaces, objects and human characters.

2.

Colour - The film uses colours of the spaces as it is. Inside the house, colours of the walls are louder than human faces. They will retain that quality but will be neutralized with some gray object at some points. There is a single colour and texture domination of some elements like the river and the sand.

3.

Mise-en-scene – Inside the house, bare walls and congested corners, small spaces and home objects.  Elements like mosquito-net, small hand mirror to manipulate space in terms of visual composition if needed.

4.

Acting is minimal. There is no drama. Expressions are mostly stagnant. The inherent rhythms of non-actors are of great value. The dialogues have been written under observation of their dialect and way of speaking.

5.

Time – The rhythm of the films changes every time with shifts in narration. There is stagnancy in Dadi, restlessness in Ma and ease in Sneha and Babu. The overall rhythm carries rhythm of the character and conflicts only to create some point of reflection. Rhythm is used more for poetic reasons than dramatic.