A short film that ‘worked’ from home

KOCHI: Ever since the lockdown was imposed, ‘work from home’ is the buzzword that’s been ringing across the nation. While employees have been increasingly resorting to this seemingly comfortable mode of work, the more creative ones, especially techies, have used the opportunity to bring out the fun and troubles of it by filming their take on the concept. One such company, Ruby Seven Studios, Infopark, has come up with their version through a short film titled ‘Work At Home’.

Tony Jose, a senior artist with the company, wrote and directed the short film. “Inspired by the making of ‘Family’, a short film which featured bigwigs like Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Mohanal and Mammootty, where it feels like the entire film’s been shot under one roof, I pitched a similar idea to my friend. Convinced, he asked me to write a script and things just took off from there. I cast my colleagues in it. Since it was a simple project, I was surprised to see the film receive great reception on YouTube,” says Tony. 

‘Though small, the making required a lot of effort’
The short film starts with a colleague calling everyone for an online meeting that was moved ahead of its schedule. Bringing an element of catching them off-guard, the viewer gets to see the characters engaged in various activities at home, like cooking, workout, cleaning and even trying to brew liquor. “Though the content is small, the making required a lot of effort. The film was completely shot on mobile phones and the cinematographers are the wives or children of the actors. I send them reference videos of the frames and angles I wanted. All they had to do was perform,” adds Tony. 

There were many hilarious moments while shooting. “We could only shoot after 5pm due to work and had to wrap up by 6pm. Whenever I asked them to go for a retake, I could hear the wives of my colleagues getting into small fights with them,” he quips. My seniors have already asked us to bring out a sequel, says Tony. Tony was one of the winners of the third season of ‘Short Film Production Contest’ conducted by Budget Labs Production. “I was working on my short film ‘Artist’, produced by Budget Labs, when the lockdown was declared. After the restrictions were relaxed, we resumed post-production works and it is set to release this month,” says Tony.