SearchingSirocco

Here are 12 important rules no low or no-budget Film Making that I have learned while making my own films AMPHIGORI and LASAFOT.  They are based on my personal experiences and have worked for me. Pick anyone who wants to act for free, observe him and then write a character in your film according to how he actually behaves in real life.  Shoot in your hometown. There you won't have pay for anything and its more comfortable. You will save yourself from Police, BMC( municipality), Film Unions and Locations charges. If you have lights, shoot color; if you don't have lights shoot black and white. Black and white looks more classy with contrast and gives you an edge in Film festivals. Also in B/W cost of art direction and location can be easily saved. Pick any camera to shoot your film, even mobile camera. Technology has really advanced, check out the new Samsung Galaxy which offers 4k resolution, so don't wait. I had made my first film promo on sony cybers...

"Two Men looked out of prison Bar, one saw mud and other saw Star" One of my Actor Friends once told me a story about Mohammad Gauri (I hope I am remembering the name correctly) that when he came to India, he came with boats through sea and when all his soldiers landed in India, he ordered to burn all the boats. He was asked the reason by one of his ministers and he told him that if the boats will be there, the soldiers will  have a dubious state of mind as they will be having an option of safe return in mind because of which they won't give their complete efforts in war. But now since the boats are burned, they are left with only one direction to proceed with one single aim, win the war or die. There is no option of retreat for them.  On that note; Here are Fifteen things that may help you in your struggle. 1.      First and foremost rule, start calling yourself an Actor. If you are embarrassed about your profession or your passion, you can never be an a...

1.     You are not a director till your film is released, so pretend that you are a director but never believe in it. That thought might destroy you. 2.     Directing an independent film with no budget has nothing to do with Direction. It’s all about human management. Making a film is equivalent to marrying a daughter. 3.     Everyone will have an opinion about your job. Listen to what they say, smile sarcastically at them no matter how good their advice is and move ahead like they don’t exist.  4.     Never appreciate anyone or praise anyone. Keep that for the wrap up party. 5.     Never show irritation, anger or panic. These are bad qualities of leader. If you do that, soon people will stop listening to you. 6.     Shout at first person on the first day of shoot. No one will disobey you after that. 7.     Make changes to st...

1.     Don’t think about publishing your book before finishing it. 2.     Write daily. No matter what. Make it a discipline to write something daily. Delete it the next day but write daily. 3.     First draft is not what you publish. So write whatever you want. It will get edited eventually. So never be afraid to write your thoughts. 4.     Don’t write every chapter on the same word document. Fresh start every chapter in a new word page document. Connect them later. 5.     Don’t give your manuscript to anyone to read before you finish it and until you have revised it thoroughly. 6.     Read biographies of writers. It really motivates. 7.     Read Read Read and read more. It helps. You can never be a good writer unless you are a good reader. 8.     Keep a notepad. You will have your best thoughts when you will...

I found this letter while I was cleaning my hard disk. I wrote it years back when I was an idiot kid. Now it reads so funny. Sharing it with you as now it holds no value as such to me. But its a good read I guess. I am not proofreading it, so do not mind the bad grammar.  My Dear woman, I was reading a book lately and it was the autobiography of Isaac Asimov and so delightful its reading was that I decided to choose writing as a part of my career, discussion of which I will do later. However an instance in the book did attract my attention and has refused to disappear from my memory, quoting which I will start my letter to you. “During the early days of struggle of Isaac Asimov, he was a very difficult writer to deal with and he believed that a good writing always comprises of difficult vocabulary and complex plots. However, his thoughts were changed by an incident which took place very early in his life in an editor’s office where he went to submit a work of his. After reading...

I was always a man of moment even then I never tried anything like this before. For rich people like me,  I felt that leaving their wives was no big thing. I had googled lives of famous people. That calmed me down. At least, I was not alone. A lot of people have gone through what I have gotten into. But I have done  something now that no one had ever done apart from me. Probably, Shiny Ahuja will be an exception but then his life was all over after that. I would never imagine to have fate like that. I believe that if I am going down with something then I am going for something worse. Not this. I never liked her anyways. She was dirty and there was always this pungent smell that came from her which I never liked. It felt like she was unhygienic, never took a bath, lived in dirt and she was in fact unhygienic and dirty. My wife has told me once that she used to work at eight households to make her ends meet. You can smell poor from a dist...

Optimism. Charlie Harper is one of the most optimist guy you will ever meet. He never talks negative and negative things never happen to him. Even when Negative things happen to him, he never clings to them, unlike Alan who makes mountain out of molehills of everything happening to him. In one of the episodes, Charlie gets bankrupt and Alan kept asking him to do something about it while Charlie keeps on repeating that “Something will turn up” and something does turn up soon. Life is always good. Charlie doesn’t’ care to see the other side of life. He enjoys his life and that is his basic goal of life. He brings girls to his place, enjoys his scotch, watch TV whole day, work for a while in the evening, go out again for girl hunting and come back with either a girl or a prostitute. He only sees good things in life and ignores things that irritates him. He never looks at poverty or depressing news channels. He enjoys small things in life. He even watches Teleshopping channel. H...