Imagine assembling a team of 10 filmmakers from different parts of the country, for a project that would involve their creative collaboration while adhering to lockdown restrictions. Imagine setting up frames over the Internet, where actors double up as cinematographers. Imagine waiting hours relying on natural light to get that one perfect shot. Imagine having your little arguments with the editor and sound designer over phone.
Given how this has become the ‘new normal’ in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is how The Lockdown Shorts, an anthology of 10 short films under five minutes, was shot virtually. “We wanted to document this unique period in our lives and how different people from different age groups are being witness to a time like this, and how they are reacting to it,” says Priyanjoli Basu, creative producer of Hoga Films.
Even before the lockdown, Priyanjoli was bouncing ideas off filmmaker Satish Raj Kasireddi. What started as a casual conversation between two friends gave birth to a rather interesting idea of looping in a bunch of people to just write their feelings about the crippling effect lockdown has had on them. Once the stories were approved, they had seven days of problem solving, addressing real-time technical issues. “Transferring high-end files took more time than the actual shoot,” she says, adding, “Initially, there were a lot of ‘nos’ but we had 10 directors who came on board.”
They had a bank of editors, writers, sound engineers and costume designers that was shared with the direction team. There was no specific theme for individual shorts, although the larger theme was: lockdown, “For instance, we have a short directed by Amberee Pitamber who is a travel enthusiast. But she is currently stuck in Himachal Pradesh and has documented her feelings through her film.”
‘Patience is the key’
For Kolkata-based filmmaker Sourya Deb, the biggest learning lesson from this exercise was patience. His short, Hello Honey, is about a woman who lives alone and has to find her missing dog. “The movie shows the positive side of social media,” says Sourya over phone from Kolkata. His short has two characters, played by Bengali actress Sonali Gupta and musician Samantak Sinha. The only brief that was given to him was to shoot the video on an iPhone with a 4K resolution.
Filmmaker Sourya Deb | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
For the actress’ portion, Sourya says he would seek her husband’s help and would give instructions to him over phone, politely prodding him to (re)adjust the frame. “Aunty [Sonali Gupta] would click photos and send it to me and I would (re)set the camera angles — could you move a little to your right/left? It sure was fascinating for me.”
The filming was as challenging as post-production, for some of the technicians were in Mumbai. They shared a common drive where footages — good, bad and worse — were uploaded for the editor and VFX artist to fine-tune them. “I was worried about colour grading. But they sent me three options for me to choose from,” says Sourya, adding, “I’m confident that all of us could pull off something like this again, even post lockdown.”
A still from ‘Hello Honey’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Sounds of Silence, Coma, Firaaq, Greeny-Tales, See You On The Other Side, Bichaari Chidiyaan, Doori, Desafio – A Challenge and Full Stop are the other films in Vol. 1 of The Lockdown Shorts.
The Lockdown Shorts went into production on March 15 earlier this year and was wrapped up in 20 days, in April. Priyanjoli says there is a Vol. 2 currently in the works. “We have been in talks with some of the OTT platforms to release The Lockdown Shorts Vol. 1,” she adds.