For decades, film projects had to conform to conventional rules which were driven by star power and exhibition strategies. But the arrival of digital medium in last decade is bringing filmmakers back to the drawing board and come up with unconventional way of thinking. One of them is to tell stories through short films.
The idea is not exactly new, though. Be it finding the cinematic in everyday life by Lumière Brothers or inviting the audience for spectacle by Georges Melies’ trick films (known for A Trip to the Moon), shorts have always been used for experimentation in cinema. At that time it was spurred by limitation of technology, today it is the paucity of viewer’s time that is driving the trend.
Though the present short film aesthetics are a crossover of traditional modes of cinematic storytelling and the new school of television production, the makers are convinced that gradually it will develop its own form. Anusha Bose, director of short film Shame, has worked in television for more than a decade. On the sidelines of a panel discussion hosted by Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films in Gurugram, she opined that medium does not matter though most of the shorts are consumed on smart-phones and laptops. “It derives from television as there are more close-ups and it is a bit more intimate. But cinematic element just does not mean that it has to have a large or extra large canvas with more headroom to register as grand. There are many ways to do that. To get the feel of cinema, it has to be true to the moment it creates. The feelings with the actor should be epic and you know as a director that which thing in a frame has to be epic,” said Bose
In her film, there are known film actors such as Swara Bhaskar and Ranveer Shorey in leading roles. “I am aware of what it means to have stars in your film. It was hard to get actors like Cyrus Sahukar, Seema Pahwa for very small screen time. It was a running joke that I won’t be able to get everybody under one roof. Though it is a short film, I was clear in my mind that every actor should be perfect for the parts I had written,” she averred.
Cross-pollination
The sudden cross-pollination of film stars in short films have brought a wave in short films which incorporate feature aesthetics in a smaller time. On the increasing interest of film actors in short films, Tisca Chopra, who acted in Mansi Jain’s Chhuri alongside Surveen Chawla and Anurag Kashyap, countered, “Big stars in the industry such as Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan or even Aamir Khan have not done any short film. Certain actors are doing it because they are getting an opportunity to express something which feature films do not allow as they have to recover big money. Anurag is such a successful and brilliant director but he did not give any inputs as a director but acted as an enthusiastic actor. There is no big strategy or big plan to allocate time for a short film. Sometimes you just listen to your heart.”
It rings true for Shefali Shah was flawless in Juice and no one can forget Radhika Apte’s performance in Ahalya or Tisca’s compelling performance in Chutney.
“It is the moments in the story which make a short as cinematic as a feature film. We do not have time to disambiguate. First 30 seconds should reveal the subject and the tone should be set in five seconds then only the viewer can give you a chance to watch it fully,” said Tisca who wrote Chutney. There are regional reflections as well as seen in Rannaburi directed by Suman Adhikary which features Bengali actress Sankalita Roy and is inspired by real events.
Testing waters
Shorts were considered film festival offerings until digital revolution made the form popular, moving beyond the practice space of student filmmakers or to those who used to make it to show that they are eligible for a full feature.
Though there are still no separate theatrical or digital on-demand streaming services such as Netflix for short films, but that does not stop Bollywood directors including Sujoy Ghosh (Ahalya), Anurag Kashyap (That Day After Everyday), Imtiaz Ali (India Tomorrow) to make some unconventional short films, perhaps as a contribution to the form. Recently, when Neeraj Ghaywan of Masaan fame won the Filmfare Award for Juice he got almost as many eyeballs as winners in other categories.
For some, it is about testing the digital waters before taking a swim. In a conversation with The Hindu, Sujoy Ghosh said he wanted to learn the digital media because “that is where the future is.” “It has its own lensing and sound design because even if the mobile phone of the audience has a weak speaker I have to generate the feeling of fear and adventure for him. There is no film without emotion. And to create emotion, one has to work on shot taking and background music.”
New storytellers
And, in a way, senior directors are helping the new directors to realise their dream. “I narrated the script to Imtiaz sir outside his porch area and he immediately agreed to produce it. He was totally involved with it and even gave me a suggestion. It is great that people like Imtiaz sir understand the need of new storytellers in India,” remembered Abhishek Roy Sanyal director of short Durga.
Different genres and subjects are being tried but those with an element of mystery or thrill in storytelling work really well. Another response to this recent surge is to make films that are socially relevant. Divya Unny is creating an anthology series of 10 short films themed around the lives of women in urban spaces, first being Her First Time which shows the relationship between a working mother and her 11-year-old daughter getting her first period. “Women normally share their personal stories with each other and that is how the idea came to mind while sitting with my friend. She was in Germany for a shoot and she had an inkling that her young girl is going to attain puberty. Honestly, there is no way you can predict that exact time and that is how the idea of telling a story around it was necessary for me as a woman,” said the director.
With attention span decreasing rapidly, clearly, it is a time for a short take!