Films on a shoestring budget

DISCLAIMER. THE following extracts were recovered from a wannabe film-maker's diary. Any resemblance to any character, living or dead, is therefore only intentional. Cut.

Friday.

There was this phone call. Some enthu-cutlet who called up to say there was this demo on the quality of digital video dumped onto film. Had heard of it before. Had even seen in the cinema halls - those ads that we see in cinema halls are all video dumped on film.

The quality is no great shakes. But the caller insisted that it was worth looking at. Surely, you can't make a film on video and dump it on film if the end product is going to look like the ads we see in the cinema halls. Gave the screening a miss.

Late Friday night.

There are these random thoughts. What if the technique really works? What if the quality from DV to film conversion really rocks? That would save a lot of money, wouldn't it? And you won't have to depend on huge lighting paraphernalia nor do you need to be at the mercy of the unions fleecing you of all the money. Imagine the freedom you get if you opt to shoot in digital video? You can even shoot in low light.

The only hitch on going digital was having to answer the question, `Where are you going to screen your film?'

After all, cinema halls in India are not ready for digital films yet. But look at it positively, if the quality of output after dumping your digital film on film is really good, then your film is as good as that of any top hot-shot director.

Maybe it can give even Maniratnam a run for his money. Worth checking out. The man who is bringing the technology to India is Arul Moorthy @ 8220095.

Saturday morning.

Friends landed up on time for the demo. Arul was there too. He seemed to be very confident before the demo screening. He had hired a preview theatre especially for the purpose of demonstrating his technology. So far, so good.

The screening started. And guess what? It wasn't bad at all. I mean, if someone had not told me it was a demo of digital dumped into film, who would have known. Surely, a layman can't tell the difference.

And if your film was really engrossing, who would spend time researching any faint grains on films. The resolution on screen was pretty good. My friends only seemed to agree, quite unanimously.

Saturday afternoon.

Chatted up Arul. Arul did have a point when he said, you can finish making your film in three-four lakhs or a maximum of six lakh even if you are buying the cameras (Mini DV or DV cams). Which meant that, once you make your film, you can obviously get yourself a producer who would invest the rest of the money required to dump the digital production on to film. Because, for a producer, it's a safer alternative to fund a film he has seen than to invest in something he would know only after he has spent his money. Arul gave a quote of Rs. 15 lakh per hour. Which means your 90 minute film would cost you something like Rs. 27-30 lakhs overall. Expensive, but what the heck, you do get to make the film in your own terms.

Sunday evening.

Started preliminary script discussions for a digital film.

By Sudhish Kamath

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