All Things Considered

[This is a long post. Grab a coffee, answer your urgent IM messages,  do the loo]

 The Event:

For those of you who attended the last BRTFF, I’ve to tell you that this BRTFF was a lot different from the last. A lot more independent films, bigger audience. And a very different flavor.  To those of you who didnt, I’d like to say the same anyway. :)

Thej did a live blogging of BRTFF2, so I wont repeat that here. Instead will recount a few that caught my interest (and survived my volatile memory) from yesterday’s screening and some thought miscellany J

-         A re-run of Mission Zero that was played in last BRTFF. It was a re-edited version based on feedback from last screening, and was WAY better than the last one. Good one Vatsa ! It is also very heartening to see independent filmmakers using the forum to take back value already.

-         Pawan’s de-brief on Osian

o       Oh BTW, both Pawan and Vatsa have a new LF this time around. Pawan’s cap reminded me of Jimmy B Rabbit Smith Jr J Vatsa’s transmogrification available here: old & new. (Update: Hrish points to a cooler picture of Vatsa in the new get up here. Pix courtesy: Nish)

-         Pawan spoke about his talent campus sessions at Osian. Two hour dissection of a scene in Rashomon. ‘Money’  by Bresson. Layers in film. When it comes to scene composition what works for you: Premeditation or Spontaneity. Funding for first feature by Osian. And a lot more.

-         Pawan re-introduced the ‘Cut- the-producer-out’ concept for the benefit of the new BRTFF participants.

-         Another 30 mins film called Lemon Chai –  ‘Different strokes for different folks’ was the theme.

-         Brainstorming with Vatsa on some ideas around funding commercial films by emerging moviemakers.

      -    Harakiri presented by Mandar. (Film directed by his friend in Pune). It reminded me of this

      movie by Aki Kaurismaki. Mandar  gives an instance of the role of the cameraman in the making of Harakiri and makes a very important point about bringing cameramen and people who are involved in the other aspects of film making into BRTFF community.

-         Use of mobile phone to convey emotions and state of mind was a prop very well used. Something that would have taken a series of scenes otherwise and still might not have been effective enough! – Christina remarks.

Overall , a Sunday VERY well spent ! BRTFF continues to rock.

Thanks to Hrish for putting this together, all the people who brought their movies and shared their experiences, Thej for the website (& the tees that are yet to arrive J ), Vinay for holding fort at the laptop and speakers, Hasina from Chungwah for the place, all those who were around for the company ! J

The Community:

So, we have BRTFF – Where do we take it now?  What follows below is my take on BRTFF – What we are and where we could go. It is not what BRTFF essentially is or is’nt, or even needs to be. It is what I wish BRTFF becomes.

What BRTFF is:

BRTFF, to re-iterate to what Hrish has already before BRTFF2, is a forum that brings independent films makers of parallel cinema, film buffs, media to provide a platform to appreciate such cinema; a forum that creates a community and audience for such films; and eventually, as a consequence, serve as a support structure to bring out meaningful cinema.

What BRTFF is not:

It is not a platform for film marketing or a forum for generating means to produce more commercial cinema. India is the mecca of commercial films, why do we want more? Having said that, I’m not trying to pretend here that the only intention behind making a movie is to serve the larger purpose of the art that is Cinema. One of the primary intentions of filmmaking *is* moneymaking, even if it is for more filmmaking. The spirit of BRTFF is to a) create an audience for meaningful cinema and b) be an incubator inside of which the independent filmmakers find the mettle to make the parallel cinema that they want to make and not be forced into the compromises of commercial cinema. So, anything we do within BRTFF needs to be based on this two-point agenda of BRTFF - selection of films to be screened, appreciation of films that were screened.

In the absence of this agreement, BRTFF could very easily turn into a film marketing platform (and with the wrong audience at that!) or a place to screen stuff that doesn’t have audience elsewhere. I’m NOT saying this is happening with BRTFF. I’m saying that it should not. If we don’t put the right focus into this area , I see this as the default & most probable outcome. This is my number#1 take away from this Sunday.

What can be done to improve BRTFF:

-         Independent filmmakers need to bring more than their films to the table. Trust me, the participants at BRTFF are raring to know more about filmmaking , to see the other side of the world. Share your knowledge.

-         You could talk from the insider’s view of film making, talk about historical aspect of film making, talk of basics of film making, painpoints in filmmaking, talk of a particular film makers anthology, talk of tips on making a simple handycam footage, talk of basic editing techniques. Anything. Just anything that you think brings value. The idea here is not to learn filmmaking through these talks (which would be a looooong shot anyway). It simply helps to appreciate cinema better. Before you know it, you would have created an audience for yourself. (We could use the BRTFF wiki to funnel the topics. Participants can pick.)

-         Something I liked about this BRTFF is that we decided to watch ‘Money’ by Robert Bresson and then Pawan sharing his Osian review experience of the movie with us. Would it be a good idea to have an independent filmmakers do a film appreciation session at each screening?

-         Something that we already discussed and concurred: Pre-screening of features/shorts that will be screened at BRTFF. All film makers to write a synopsis of the movie and post it. Once again participants pick what they want to see. We could have a master list for the screening from which we pick depending on how the screening goes.

-         The success of BRTFF depends on one and exactly one person. YOU. Bring your movies, bring your knowledge, bring your thoughts, bring your disagreements. [ Also bring projectors & screens J ]. Make the event vibrant. And if you felt disappointed by a movie, go ahead and say it.

Let us put our focus on first building an audience that can appreciate good films. Indie film making wont be far behind.

Things I noticed on the logistics:

1/ A lot of floating population – Day time distraction ?

2/ The energy around organizing and registration was far higher. First signs of success. Hrish, you got every reason to be proud.

3/ No of turn-outs from last time’s BRTFF was less. One reason might be the limit we put on the number of people.

4/ Could’nt watch BW movies.  Too much light coming in. We will need to be better prepared with curtains the next time around if we do a daytime screening.

Here is hoping I have’nt stirred controversies :) Alternate thoughts welcome.

-Lav

A few pictures from yesterday at MyCameraAndEye (My flickr gallery)