Dua's Media Blog: Shoot 1. Day 1. Scene 2. Jamal and Surraya

The first day of our shoot was a very rainy Saturday and Abira and I were very uncertain about whether to shoot in this weather or not, considering that the location we'd be shooting in was a barely sheltered one-room house. As we were on a shooting schedule and our classes had resumed to give time for shooting, we decided to discuss this with our media teacher who told us that this weather was effective only if our shoot was outdoors. An indoor shoot with minimalistic light wouldn't be effected by this rain. Hence, despite a gloomy weather, we tromped off the back alley opposite my house.

Upon reaching our location, we realized that the entire room had to be shifted so as to make sufficient space for around 8 people. That chaarpaai's therein had to be moved out. the lights had to switched off. The youngest of the family was sleeping; she had to be waked up. Bedspreads were then spread out over the floor so tour cast could sit on it. Our own lighting had to be put up in specific places so as to ensure sufficient lighting for our shooting. Abira assisted in the setting of the room while I adjusted the lighting to her own specifics. Meanwhile Abira directed the rest of the cast as to how we were to proceed with the shoot. When all was set, it was already quite late as we had little time left with the load-shedding and late hours of the night. We began on with our shoot.I was on the camera while Abira took the lighting and the rest of the cast in control so that all went right. We faced trouble with space and the lighting as both were very limited as per our scene's requirement.At first we tried using the tripod, yes, a very helpful tool it sure is but as we had less space, our handling of the equipment was largely perturbed, hence I decided to go without it and handheld the camera for the rest of the shoot.Space was quite an issue as roaming round for the confirmation of shots was very difficult however we did manage and got some really nice, effective shots with the right expressions and body language. Our establishing shot required a lot of nearness to our actor, Jamal. However lack of space hindered our mobility and we were restricted by many degrees. Our first shot, owing to no prior experience, took a lot of time and infinite takes and retakes. Yet, as we went home and rechecked all our sots, we realised that we had made a major blunder in of our major two-second shots, without which our shot wouldn't look good. Now, this was a major trouble as a two second shot would actually require so much work on set and location that we'd be wasting one entire hour. Doing it there and then was not a choice as it was a little too dark and I had an academy to go to. Hence, we decided upon doing all our major retakes, at the very end. One major problem we faced pre-production of our scene, was the working of an old lantern that i had dug up from somewhere. It required a wick and oil, however the lantern had rusted so much over the years that getting through inside the lantern was quite difficult. However, my brother took it to the market and got it fixed in due time of the shoot and our issue was resolved.