A Film in 18 Hours?

Started by Ravi, December 02, 2004, 02:25:50 PM

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Ravi

http://www.rediff.com/movies/2004/nov/30mehul.htm

A film on Shivaji in 18 hours!

Patcy N | November 30, 2004 14:02 IST


Director Mehul Kumar is gunning for the record books.  

He is trying to shoot a historical epic on the life of legendary Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji in just 18 hours, over a two-day period.

"We are aiming for the world record," says the director known for patriotic films such as Tirangaa, Krantiveer, Mrityudaata and Kohram.

"There was a small movie called Swayamvar that was shot in a record 24 hours. But that was a comedy movie, and shot on one set. Ours is a historical film, and the first of its kind. The script, written by four writers, is also historically authentic," Kumar adds.

He says it's not a bits-and-pieces job. "It is a full-length film, on a topic we've been researching for the last two years. It deals from Shivaji's childhood to his raj abhishek [coronation ceremony].

"The movie is produced by Suyash Chitra. TK Desai is the art director and Ismail Darbar is doing the music. It's a big budget film. We are planning a big star cast," he says.

Ask him about names and he says, "We're talking to Nana Patekar, but it is not finalised. We'll officially announce the film next week.

"We will show Shivaji's life in four parts, and we will have four actors. Nana will play Shivaji as an adult. It will be a two and a half hour film."

Kumar has got the logistics of shooting a feature film in such a short span of time worked out. "Seventeen units will work for two months in advance. We'll construct the sets, rehearse for eight days with the entire cast and crew, and then shoot for 18 hours, divided between two days," he says.

And he is confident about the movie, which will be shot entirely in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. "Everything is ready in advance. The sets will be up two months before shooting. Then, all 17 units will be given their scripts broken down into shots. We also have 35 cameras, and the whole team will be prepared.

"We've even prepared a small film to show the media, about how the film will be shot," is his parting shot.

Info about Shivaji

socketlevel

kind of reminds me of these film compititions where they give you two days to make a movie.  a short movie.

you get one day to write the script and another to shoot the film.

i wonder if this'll be shit or not.

-sl-
the one last hit that spent you...

MacGuffin

Indian filmmaker cans movie in record 2 hrs 14 min

An Indian film maker has attempted a world record by canning a 74-minute feature, loosely based on Terri Schiavo's protracted right-to-die battle that gripped the United States in 2005, in 2 hours and 14 minutes.

Engineer-turned-director Jayaraj's "Atbhutam" (Wonder) tries to capture the drama of mercy-killing in the last hour-and-a-half in the life of a US-based Indian-born playwright suffering from pancreatic cancer.

"I felt the power. When we started at 11.46 a.m., the whole crew was in a trance ... a kind of invisible energy, and we were just flying one from one sequence to the other," 45-year-old Jayaraj told Reuters by phone from the city of Hyderabad.

"And just before the last shot, when my associate said 'one shot left', that's when I realized my dream is finally going to come true."

The record-breaking attempt has been forwarded to the Guinness Book of World Records with authentication letters from Ramanaidu, himself listed as the most prolific producer with 110 films, and an official from the Andhra Pradesh state government, who were present for filming.

Jayaraj opted for an Oregon hospital as his setting since the state's 1997 "Death with Dignity Act" made physician-assisted suicide legal.

Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman brain-damaged for 15 years, and her husband fought a protracted legal battle that gripped the United States before her feeding tube was removed in March, 2005.

Jayaraj approached studios in the United States and Britain five years ago with a story on mercy killing inspired by a euthanasia plea on behalf of an Indian chess player and muscular dystrophy patient by his mother who wanted to donate his organs.

"I originally wanted to make the movie in less than 10 hours. They all discouraged me since the producers couldn't imagine a movie getting completed in such a short time," said Jayaraj, who produced the movie, filmed in December, himself.

"Atbhutam" is scheduled for an end-March release.

The Schiavo saga reaffirmed the multiple award winning director's belief his was an idea whose time has come.

"The Schivao story where we had a husband supporting euthanasia and the patient's parents opposing it, inspired me to do the story again," he said.

"Atbhutam" portrays the dilemma of the playwright's attorney wife, who supports his wish to die, and his old parents who were unaware of such a thing until they meet him in the hospital.

Jayaraj, a veteran of 26 films including "Atbhutam," has won critical acclaim for his brand of experimental cinema.

He avoided multi-camera shoots for his world record attempt and instead used three separate cameras which he moved from one setting to the other.

"We'd planned things, including the lighting, in such minute details, that within a couple of minutes of canning one shot, the lighting for the next scene was switched on and the floor was made ready," said S. Kumar, the film's director of photography.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

pete

terry schivo...shot in two hours...can't be good.
prove me wrong please.
no, no, it can't be good.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Ravi

Quote from: MacGuffin on March 03, 2006, 12:44:26 AM
"I felt the power. When we started at 11.46 a.m., the whole crew was in a trance ... a kind of invisible energy, and we were just flying one from one sequence to the other," 45-year-old Jayaraj told Reuters by phone from the city of Hyderabad.

Did Werner Herzog ever make a film with an entire crew on acid?  Huh?  Did he???

Tictacbk

I don't care whether the film is good or not (although i highly doubt it is), this pisses me off.  Its filmmaking as a gimmick and thats just stupid.  Theres a reason it takes more than 2 hours to shoot a film.


But maybe i'm just bitter because i'm going to be spending my next 7 nights on a shoot for something 1/5 of this film's length.

bonanzataz

Quote from: Tictacbk on March 04, 2006, 08:21:38 AM
I don't care whether the film is good or not (although i highly doubt it is), this pisses me off.  Its filmmaking as a gimmick and thats just stupid.  Theres a reason it takes more than 2 hours to shoot a film.


But maybe i'm just bitter because i'm going to be spending my next 7 nights on a shoot for something 1/5 of this film's length.

i think this move was brilliant. i don't give a shit if the movie sucks or if it doesn't have any great artistic qualities. hell, i guarantee i will never even see this movie. but this thread and all these articles prove that gimmicks work. i'm sure twice as many people will see this movie now, at least! and to shoot an hour and a half long film in a little over two hours, aside from being a gimmick, is an amazing feat! ticwhatever, you're going to be shooting a short in a week, imagine how much planning it must have taken to get all this shit worked out to be done in this amount of time.

the point, if there is one, is that unless you watch a shitload of underground movies and are involved in tape trading communities of some sort, everything you enjoy is meant to be bought. it is commercial. the only way to get you, the consumer, to watch it, is to have some sort of gimmick. i'm sure you'd be hard pressed to find one example of truly honest filmmaking that used not one gimmick. without an angle, movies are boring and pretentious (pretentious is a word i rarely use because it is so often misused. the dictionary lists it as claiming or demanding a distinction of merit, mostly when unjustified).

i could go on. i think this makes for interesting discussion.
The corpses all hang headless and limp bodies with no surprises and the blood drains down like devil's rain we'll bathe tonight I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls Demon I am and face I peel to see your skin turned inside out, 'cause gotta have you on my wall gotta have you on my wall, 'cause I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls collect the heads of little girls and put 'em on my wall hack the heads off little girls and put 'em on my wall I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls

The Red Vine

a gimmick to be sure but at least some filmmakers are thinking out of the box and trying new things. but yea, the movie might suck and he probably did it just to be the "first guy to have ever done this".
"No, really. Just do it. You have some kind of weird reasons that are okay.">