Fluidity

The great thing about the initial stages of putting a film together is the fluidity.  The possibilities are endless and everything is up in the air and uncertain.  Commitments are still at the word level, nothing on paper really except I guess the screenplay.

Later when things get more concrete the possibilities start to diminish and choices start getting made for you instead.

Pierre Assouline come by today to Hyderabad.  He is Arati Misro’s contact from Cannes and he liked the screenplay of ‘Anushree’ and sees the potential.  He comes from International Sales and has a perspective to filmmaking that is complete.  he currently stays in Mumbai for half the year and Paris the other half.

Had dinner with Muktesh Rao Meka, Kevin Kevi and Pierre at ‘The Water Front’ restaurant overlooking the tank bund necklace road.  The view was grand and the food was nice.  I was a bit edgy, I wanted everything to fall into place right away and want to know everything.  I need to have more patience.  I saw how the various elements of my film would have to be set in order to give it the best chance to succeed, not just at the creative and artistic level, but also at the commercial level.  Pierre aslo talked about having marketing built in from the beginning of the film instead of waiting after it’s done.

Muktesh had some great ideas on how to use casting and to create traction for the film locally.  I am really getting to see the beginnings of setting a movie for a win.  To take a particular film as a unique project and treat it as such.  I learning so much and know that I have a lot more to go.  This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Tomorrow, Pierre and I will roam around Hyderabad and see the sights.  He suggested I take my film into more outdoor locations to let it breathe and as soon as I got home I texted Beena Gera my new writer on board.  I am flying to Mumbai on Friday to stay with her and really work on the screenplay and incorporate the suggestions Pierre had.  Also I want to introduce Pierre to a potential investor in Mumbai.  I look forward to Mumbai because I have a very focused goal and I love time enclosed focused goals.  They force me to get results and I come out flushed with creativity.  Everything recedes to the background.

Building my film brick by brick.  That is how it always happens.  By the time I get to production I have travelled the Sahara and the stakes are so high.  Everything becomes so significant.  I need to watch out for that.

I can smell what’s coming like a wild animal.  It’s wild.

xoxo,

Aparna

How to work like a Woman

I met a young man today who wanted to work with me an assistant director for ‘The Anushree Experiments’ and I asked him a very clichéd question – ‘Are you ok working for a woman director?’ and he asked me what the difference was.  That got me thinking.

How does one work like a woman and how does it differ from how a man works?

I think, a man works by occupying space.  By making his presence felt.  In fact, in my early film making days, I worked on many a shoot that were helmed by women and they worked just like their male counterparts.  They made their presence felt, they got their power by occupying space.  I learnt to do the same from them.

When I made my own films, I pretty much had the same modus operandi.  I realized that it felt alien and was very effort full.  In short, it was not feminine.  I feared that being feminine would mean a loss of power on set and then all hell would break loose and that would end my stint as a filmmaker.

Slowly however, I realized that being feminine was not about being a delicate flower or being a bitch, but about holding space.  A woman holds space in which magical things can happen.  Like babies, marriage and even films. A woman’s presence is invisible.  All she needs to do is hold her vision and let the film happen.  It requires a lot of trust and letting go knowing fully well that it will come out great the other end.

This brought the whole issue of communication to the forefront.  I learnt to communicate my vision and to acknowledge.  That is how I would regulate the quality of what occurs in the space I hold.  That is how I would regulate the quality of my film and enjoy the creativity that enters my film set.

The whole process allowed me to be feminine and effortless.  Someone once told me that when I drop the sword, all the men around me will pick it up to protect me.  That my vulnerability is my power and that it will be guarded by everyone around me.  It took a long time to put it into practice.

Why don’t they tell you that when you are in school so you can start early on.  All this reinventing the wheel business is so tedious!

Happy,

Aparna