How I Directed My First State Award Winning Short Film:My tips

BEFORE LEAP READ THIS BRIEF :

Wrote by Aju and compiled by jithumpablog.com
Any doubts or help regrading short films?. Any one have interesting screenplay or story ? please buzz me –ask@jithumpablog.com.

“I have a theory that movies operate on the level of dreams, where you dream yourself,so dream dream.” ― Meryl Streep

Bio : I am Aju,Ajuraj Aspired film student. I have directed few short films,Documentaries ,i Wish to be part of feature film industry one day.

Hails from : Kerala,India.
Notable works : “Teenage”.
Education: SRM University, Kattankulathur, Chennai,Visual Communication.
Email ID: ask@jithumpablog.com
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I love films since school days ,and its my my passion and profession now . Its all started with a state award winning short film called “TEENAGE” which i directed in my plus to school time .I haven’t had lot of experience and practical knowledge about the short film(but i had passion in the vein on that time ). I read lot of books related about film making and watched lot of tutorials in internet ,and my first Guru is BOOKS and INTERNET,

Much to my excitement ,i successfully completed my first short film at the end of my plus two education.

The process of film making can be divided in to three phases:

Pre production:
Production:
Post production:

When I planned to make a short film ,i was adamant about sticking to this official format. So i strictly followed all the aforementioned steps completely in my film making.I suggest every one to use this processes for a short film or documentary .Be professional.

I am gluing here steps of a short film “Teen age ” which i made at the age of 17.

Pre-Production :

What is pre-Pre- Production :In film making , pre-production formally begins once a project has been greenlit. At this stage, finalizing preparations for production go into effect. By the end of pre-production, the screenplay is hopefully finalized and satisfactory to all the financiers .

Story /Script: (Imagine and create)

Script is the back bone of a any film. But in my case ,lack of experience and guidance really made me suffer at the starting .But my never ending passion towards this art given me boosting and confidence.

First i prepared a one line of the story,and on basis of that i wrote a rough script. Then i discussed with my friends and technicians with that rough script and improvised ,through that discussion additional scenes are added,unwanted scenes are deleted. Then sat down and prepared the main script.

Casting :

After completing the main script,i castes the actors according to the characters. My short film was featuring the life of a four teen age plus two boys,so i decided to cast my friends in that roles (Vismay,Shuhaib,Sreejith) itself ,they were suitable for the roles,me also done a role with them.

Locations :

According to the scripts demands, we researched about places in our locality ,school,beach,house,bridge,garden…etc .Among that ,school was the most important location. We taken the school scenes from our our school CBHSS vallikunnu .For the permission we requested a lot and at last school authorities given green signal.

Technicians :

We failed to find a producer (since we pare new ,more over in my village many were not even aware about the possibilities and i totally failed to convenience them) . At last i decided to put my cash on it.I became produced for my first film. But my budge was limited. First I decided to hire a experienced cinematographer. And with the grace of god i found one from our locality. He was very cordial and more over i knows him personally as well. At the stage of scripting and all i keep visiting his home and discussing about the project in louder mouth and he agreed to do our short film at last

Camera :

Our cinematographer is a famous wild life photographer and his name is “VIJESH VALIKUNNU”. He has a Canon 7D at that time (3 years before ,it was one of the advanced camera available in market and we were so lucky to get that for our project).

Planning and Rehearsal :

We sat together and discussed about the script,and rehearsed some important scenes thoroughly ,because it was debut for all and all were facing camera for the first time . Through rehearsal we could familiarize with with camera, and also i could understand more about the camera. We planed to shoot on weekends.,without missing school classes. We divided the script, given dialogues to all characters, arranged script scene base and location base.

Production: (Shooting days)

In production phase ,we taken our scenes according to the script and there were many improvisations happened in the set. First day of our shooting was indoor and for better light set up , we borrowed equipments from our friend’s studio. We finished all our indoor sequences in one stretch ,we designed and arranged script like that . So it was very easy to shoot, after that we planned outdoor scenes, like school scenes ,bridge scenes, beach scenes..etc and. I really appreciate my crew members for cooperating with me. To be frank those were sleep less days in my life .we literally begged in front of many for location,lights,money,spend lot of class time, parents & teachers. etc. But we were confident and determined.Despite all the hurdles we ended up finishing it some how. From that i realized and studies many things.We completed shooting and stored the video files in a hard disk safely .

Post Production :

What is Post Production :Post-production is part of film making. It is a term for all stages of production occurring after the actual end of shooting and/or recording the completed work.

Editing :

What is Editing ?:Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. The term film editing is derived from the traditional process of working with film, but now it increasingly involves the use of digital technology

I Edited my short film with the hello of an editor,his name is “Eldho” , he has done the editing perfectly.I take this oppurinty to thank him from deep of my heart. Final Cut Pro software,is been used and Eldho arranged all the scenes as per script and he given me a rough cut for dubbing, EFXand BGM.

Dubbing :

What is Dubbing : Dubbing, or re-recording, is a post-production process used in filmmaking and video production, in which additional or supplementary recording occurs after the original recording stage

Dubbing is the process which gives sound to the characters in the film ,we done the dubbing from Calicut GREEN WAVE studio. Dubbing was a great experience to all of us, at first it was quite strange and things changed later we all enjoyed and studied lot things. And i realized its one of the most difficult job in total film making.

Background Score :

Music which plays in the background of the scene which gives emotins and effects to the scenes and audiance is background music. “SUMODHU SREEDHAR” score the BGM for our short film,and he did it very nicely .After completing dubbing ,bgm and effects mixed together in final editing,and take out the complete film.

AND THE RESULTS FOR OUR EFFORT came last .

Awards:

At last for all our efforts and handworks we got noticed in the form of Kerala state awards .It was one of the proudest moment in my life . Award for my first venture.We got three awards in Kerala state students film festival for best film,best actor and best cinematographer and also got special jury award in YAAKA film festival. Short film was dream come true for us.