Making The Documentary
Coming to a Concept
Out of whatever we saw there in Sandur that day something which really interested us was how there music and dance is intertwined with their work. How their recreation is self generated and sets a tone for their work all along the day. So we decided that we would document this entire system of how they come up with songs and how all the women join in to create a beautiful and healthy atmosphere to work in.
Planning
I think our first day experience really helped us to actually chalk out the entire plan for the documentary. We thought of bringing in different elements of their music together so as to give the full picture. So we went back to what we saw during our first visit.
Location
We chose to work in the centre itself because our entire documentarycentred around how their music and work was intertwined and centre was the most appropriate place so many women working on their traditional craft.
Documenting
One of the biggest advantages we had was that most of the women in the centre could understand as well as speak Hindi. So explaining to them , what we were doing wasn't that difficult. Though we did plan how and what we wanted to shoot , still a lot of our documentary was being built on the spot. Our questions to them were of course what we thought of but things like them making up a song on our bangles and them dancing to a song which was about we being there were just spontaneous and probably that marks the beauty of their culture.
It was our first experience in shooting so we did commit certain mistakes but I guess by the end of it we pretty much figured out what we had to keep in mind while shooting.
Editing
We used the Adobe software "Premier Pro" to edit our documentary.Until we started editing none of us had ever opened this software. So it was like a trial and error method which went on for an entire night before we could actually figure out how to edit a movie the way you want. It was quite a complicated process as we didn't realise that we were shooting from different cameras which had different settings. So it was only while we were editing we came to know that half our footagewere to be converted into the same format and the same frame rate. After fiddling with these softwares for such a long time we finally finished our documentary just to start another day of shooting and editing with this time having no idea as to what needs to be done.
Feedback
There were specifically two things that were told to us for our documentary:
Out of whatever we saw there in Sandur that day something which really interested us was how there music and dance is intertwined with their work. How their recreation is self generated and sets a tone for their work all along the day. So we decided that we would document this entire system of how they come up with songs and how all the women join in to create a beautiful and healthy atmosphere to work in.
Planning
I think our first day experience really helped us to actually chalk out the entire plan for the documentary. We thought of bringing in different elements of their music together so as to give the full picture. So we went back to what we saw during our first visit.
- they were singing songs related to different things- weather, what they were making, then some festival, then a song of a lover etc.
- all of them seemed to know all the songs
- most of the songs had similar tunes and rhythms
- they instantly came up with this song of this girl trying on a belt, when one of us was actually trying on a belt
- all of them readily agreed to dance for us
Location
We chose to work in the centre itself because our entire documentarycentred around how their music and work was intertwined and centre was the most appropriate place so many women working on their traditional craft.
Documenting
One of the biggest advantages we had was that most of the women in the centre could understand as well as speak Hindi. So explaining to them , what we were doing wasn't that difficult. Though we did plan how and what we wanted to shoot , still a lot of our documentary was being built on the spot. Our questions to them were of course what we thought of but things like them making up a song on our bangles and them dancing to a song which was about we being there were just spontaneous and probably that marks the beauty of their culture.
It was our first experience in shooting so we did commit certain mistakes but I guess by the end of it we pretty much figured out what we had to keep in mind while shooting.
Editing
We used the Adobe software "Premier Pro" to edit our documentary.Until we started editing none of us had ever opened this software. So it was like a trial and error method which went on for an entire night before we could actually figure out how to edit a movie the way you want. It was quite a complicated process as we didn't realise that we were shooting from different cameras which had different settings. So it was only while we were editing we came to know that half our footagewere to be converted into the same format and the same frame rate. After fiddling with these softwares for such a long time we finally finished our documentary just to start another day of shooting and editing with this time having no idea as to what needs to be done.
Feedback
There were specifically two things that were told to us for our documentary:
- There should have been subtitles especially when they were explaining the meaning of the songs. Since our entire documentary centres around music it was important for us that their meaning reach the viewers.
- another thing that we were told was that we were tyring to show too much in a very short time. like either we should have been in the frame for a longer time or shouldn't have been in it at all. we should have been more focused in terms of what we are capturing .
We were all pretty confused as to what needed to be done for this film. I mean in the fiction where would the element of that place come in and how fictitious it could be. Then finally we were told that the place can just be an inspiration and we could spin a story around that.
Coming to a Concept
All five days of our stay, we kind of focused on these women working in the center and it was quite obvious that these women are very happy with their work and many of them had gone out to exhibitions and classes because of the work they do. so we came up with this entire discussion of how we think that education today is the basis of any survival or livelihood, but how these women without being educated and just sticking to their craft have also found a tool to move foward and grow.
Location
The railway track- the tracks made a sought of physical as well as mental boundaries for the women in the village. The train that often passes through is the only way of seeing the outside world. So it was the most appropriate place to show how women who have always longed to go out of their boundary finally does that using her craft. At the same time the entire track was covered in red sand which went quite well with this entire village , Sandur.
Storyline
there is a girl who spends a lot of time on the railway track playing around thinking, watching trains pass by. She never crosses the railway track and always stays on her side of the world. She often comes across these alphabets written on the red sand but she doesn't know what do they mean. So every time she erases those alphabets and makes her own embroidery designs there , and sits and thinks for hours together. Until one day when she finally decides not to erase the alphabets and connect them to make designs and while doing this unknowingly she crosses the tracks.
Shooting
shooting this was a little difficult because it was a very busy railway crossing. We used our normal digital cameras and a lot of times we had to restart the entire short because something or the other kept coming in between. So we took each scene from two angles so that we could see which one would work better as this was a place where shooting for a long time wasn't possible.
Editing
this time we were more familiar with the software but It was much more difficult because we had to decide what to cut out without disturbing the flow of the narrative. It was a different experience editting this time because this time the trasitions were different. We had to be careful of what to play for what time. so there was a ot learnt while editing. A lot more than cutting and putting transitions. I actually realize how important editting is.
Feedback
In the movie we need to work on a lot of things. They couldn't really make any sense out of it whereas movie should always be self explanatory.
we could work a little more on the drawings that the girl made on the ground.
Coming to a Concept
All five days of our stay, we kind of focused on these women working in the center and it was quite obvious that these women are very happy with their work and many of them had gone out to exhibitions and classes because of the work they do. so we came up with this entire discussion of how we think that education today is the basis of any survival or livelihood, but how these women without being educated and just sticking to their craft have also found a tool to move foward and grow.
Location
The railway track- the tracks made a sought of physical as well as mental boundaries for the women in the village. The train that often passes through is the only way of seeing the outside world. So it was the most appropriate place to show how women who have always longed to go out of their boundary finally does that using her craft. At the same time the entire track was covered in red sand which went quite well with this entire village , Sandur.
Storyline
there is a girl who spends a lot of time on the railway track playing around thinking, watching trains pass by. She never crosses the railway track and always stays on her side of the world. She often comes across these alphabets written on the red sand but she doesn't know what do they mean. So every time she erases those alphabets and makes her own embroidery designs there , and sits and thinks for hours together. Until one day when she finally decides not to erase the alphabets and connect them to make designs and while doing this unknowingly she crosses the tracks.
Shooting
shooting this was a little difficult because it was a very busy railway crossing. We used our normal digital cameras and a lot of times we had to restart the entire short because something or the other kept coming in between. So we took each scene from two angles so that we could see which one would work better as this was a place where shooting for a long time wasn't possible.
Editing
this time we were more familiar with the software but It was much more difficult because we had to decide what to cut out without disturbing the flow of the narrative. It was a different experience editting this time because this time the trasitions were different. We had to be careful of what to play for what time. so there was a ot learnt while editing. A lot more than cutting and putting transitions. I actually realize how important editting is.
Feedback
In the movie we need to work on a lot of things. They couldn't really make any sense out of it whereas movie should always be self explanatory.
- we need to be more focused, as in we had a lot of element telling their own story at the same time.
- also the concept was really far fetched and it neede to be more direct and clear.
- it did not communicate anything.
- it cannot be used as a source of information about that place.(infact this is something we didn't even think of while making the film that even this fiction would finally be used as a resource )
- the perspective was very wrong. if left and right of the track played such an important role in the movie then they should have been defined very clearly.
we could work a little more on the drawings that the girl made on the ground.
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