notes on the first review

hi koshy
i went to bangalore and met with aisha, vasanthi and mike. i got some good feedback, very helpful. i was advised by aisha and mike to start shooting. aisha gave me some nice ideas for the shooting. she said instead of fictionalizing the marriage part for the daughter i could work with a videographer who shoots weddings. i could make some arrangement and shoot the whole setting whatever way i want to shoot it. mike questioned my intentions for making this film and together we figured out why i want to make this film the way i'm making it. vasanthi asked me to do some readings and watch some films and think about the form.. i.e. the way i want to shoot the film.
also i wanted to tell you that i've started shooting since i managed to get a college camera to delhi. i was a bit apprehensive at first because i had to shoot at home itself, which seemed like a strange idea. to shoot my mom and my family. strangely i felt a little empowered after the first session. i've already done three rounds of shoot and it wasn't that difficult to pick up the camera after the first one. my family has accepted my camera and dont seem that uncomfortable with it. i am not reacting to much, i'm just patiently and peacefully trying to capture the images, not particularly thinking about what i'm doing to a particular situation, how people are reacting to the camera, my rights and ethics as a film maker etc. etc. not thinking about all these things that much. i'm enjoying shooting at home, it's quite fun. though i do want to concentrate a bit more on my shot taking, i want to roll long shots for this film. for this i want to concentrate on the rhythm and the duration of the shots a little more.
let's see how the shoot turns out to be, this film seems more and more of an experiment which is good i guess. i mean i dont always know what i will be shooting or more like what i'll be getting to shoot. but i'm just shooting it. also there is some show coming on tv, which might be interesting in this context. i might shoot a bit of that. i'm still struggling to get a proper camera and mics. hopefully it'll be done within the next 2 days.

i wanted to tell you what i've shot uptil now, here it goes. the first session was just introducing the camera at home. everyone reacted to it in their own way. i do think i captured that. after that since raksha bandhan is coming, my mother wanted to buy some rakhis. so we went to a rakhi mela nearby. it was crowded with women of all kinds. for some time before starting the shoot i was really apprehensive and felt like i was making up everything in my head and was feeling really lost. but that mela was a firm affirmation of the fact that there are thousands of women like the ones i had thought about and i need to have some faith in myself and my project. it was a kind of a self realization moment. but it was important for me. after that an old friend of my dad's, who talks a lot had come over. He's a strange character. he was talking about how he's been the matchmaker for over 51 couples and how he's started looking for grooms for me as well now. and my dad and him were talking about how this whole system of wedding works etc etc. i didnt ask them too many questions, i was just shooting their conversations. i was thinking that maybe later i'll do an interview with him.
for the next shoot i'm going to goa with my mom and dad and with a lot of their friends, i'm sure i'll get some nice stuff to shoot. some conversations, some time with my parents hopefully. let's see what i get.