The Man Who Wrote the Lone Gun Manifesto Features Us on his Blog

Clive Davies-Frayne was interviewed by Anamitra for his thesis paper. After that Clive put the whole thing on his blog with our 'complete trailer'. Yes, we'll be modifying the LGM as it suits to our conditions soon in the month of June.

Read The Post:

or you can copy and paste this link into your browser's address bar:
http://filmutopia.typepad.com/lone_gun_manifesto/2010/04/a-conversation-with-little-fish-eats-big-fish.html

Lone Gun Manifesto by Clive Davies-Frayne

Lone Gun Manifesto (vs 1 - beta)



The Lone Gun Manifesto is an open source document. You can reproduce it, share it, give it way and alter it anyway you wish, without my permission. For me it is a toolkit. My toolkit. A tool kit based a mixture of punk rock and graffiti culture, a toolkit that will enable me to shoot a cinema quality feature film, in under eight days, on a production budget of about $600. If you don't agree with any of the principles, feel free to write better ones. That is the reason this is labelled (vs1 beta).

LONE GUN MANIFESTO

For the last twelve years I've been banging my head against the wall, trying to figure out how to deal with the insanity of the movie industry, whilst at the same time exploring the equally insane world of micro-budget movie making. The problem is that neither system works. The industry becomes more and more obsessed with playing it safe and the independents largely try to imitate the work patterns of the industry, only with less money. For people like me it's a nightmare, because what I want to do is make movies and have people watch them... and, to do that without investing three years of my life and all of my money into a project which then flounders around the ridiculous distribution system.

Anyway, after many years of pondering the problems of funding, shooting and distributing movies, I believe I have an answer. However, it means completely changing the way we think about movies. It is a production philosophy designed to let creative people make brilliant movies quickly, cheaply and without exploiting the people who contribute to its making.

Here are the headlines:

1) One DSLR camera, One person, One microphone (The lone gun shoots alone)

2) Strip movie making down to the basics - a camera, a great story and some actors

3) A lone gun never asks for permission to shoot at a location

4) Put something original and honest in front of the camera

5) Think like a photographer, not like a film-maker

6) Money is for food, transport and a dedicated hard-drive for each project and nothing else

7) Natural light only

8) Everyone who works on a movie, has the right to distribute that movie for free or for profit

9) No credits before the title ever, regardless of how famous someone is.

10) The end product must be cinema quality (capable of projection to cinema sizes without falling apart)

11) A creative common license for the movie (how open you go is up to you, but people must be able to share and alter it for free)

12) If you’re going to be a gorilla… you may as well wear the full monkey suit.

OK. In practical terms this means that you are shooting in public places,but never in such a way that anyone is aware you are shooting. That's why it is done best with a standard DSLR camera. (I really want to see someone figure out how to do this with the RED by the way!)

In terms of the sound recording there are two alternatives: radio mics for all cast - or the way I am doing it, a $30 pair of binaural mics, (which look like iphone headphones) jacked into a portable digital recorder. (I've tested this method and the sound quality is phenomenal, once you've got the hang of it) To use the binaural system, the actors have to set away the sound, which is placed in shot between them... and one of them is given a Zippo cigarette-lighter to clack at the start of a scene, which gives you the cue for syncing the audio.
In reality this means you are only filming mastershots. You can't control the environment to get coverage. However, this really, really speeds up the production process. Basically, you and the actors pick your location. You decide where you are going to place the camera. When you're set up, they walk into the set up, set away the audio and play out the scene. Because there is no crew and no lines to edit, the acting can be completely natural (think Woody Allen circa Manhattan).

Here's the list of kit I use (feel free to improvise better solutions):
1) A good DSLR camera

2) A portable digital audio recorder

3) A microphone (not the kind you’re thinking about.. The one I use cost $40)

4) A Zippo cigarette lighter

5) A small beanbag

6) A computer with some professional editing software on it

7) Some actors

8) A pocket sized notebook
9) A brilliant idea for a movie

10) A script

11) A dedicated hard drive

12) An idea about how you’re going to build an audience

One of the things that I think makes this philosophy work is that the writer/director decides in advance, to give everyone who contributes to the movie the rights to distribute the movie for free or for profit. My project has been running for four weeks so far - we’re in writing and pre-production. The first actor I attached has already told me he has friends at a European TV station, to whom he would like to give the finished movie... along with a raft of international arts festivals. Neither of those two distribution options would ever have occurred to me. I'm working on free distribution via iTunes and also on getting a US theatrical release via some of my US contacts. Once you take the rights shackles off a project, it's amazing what happens. Seriously amazing.

Finally, I know there are issues about working this way. It forces moviemakers to give up a lot. However, the freedoms it gives in return, to just work with a team of people quickly and creatively to make a movie, more than pays off for any restrictions.
And… finally, if you know of anyone who would make an outstanding movie, if only they had this one piece of paper, then give it to them. Pass this on to the people you believe it will inspire.

Thanks for reading this - up the revolution!



Read this on Clive's blog

WWW Release on Filmmaker

We are glad to announce that Five No Budget Films, 2010 from the house of Little Fish Eat Big Fish is now available on Filmmaker.Pro
Anyone can get our films from any part of the world.

Rent the DVD:

Thank You

Five No Budget Films, 2010 Worldwide release on Zinemaya Server

We are glad to announce that now the "Five No Budget Films" are available worldwide from Zinemaya. Anyone can buy or rent the movies from
zinemaya.com

or read about the films on 8mm

Thanks for your support....

Resolutions : Taken on 18th March

The annual meeting that was announced earlier on this blog has taken place on the scheduled date and time. Members present at the meeting are Arupratan, Anamitra, Sriparna, Sumit, Snigdhendu and Pratik. Others who couldn't come due to certainly arouse conditions but kept in touch with us are Souva, Abhishek, Mainak and Dhriti. On the basis of all its members' consent, the LBEBF has taken the following resolutions in the meeting.

Resolutions:
1. The members have decided to submit a minimum subscription of Rs.50/- per month to keep the LFEBF running. The fund raised by this monthly subscription is to be spent on keeping all the promotional activities alive throughout the year.

2. The yet unsold 30 copies are the last copies of the '5 No Budget Films, 2010'- packaged edition. After these, the packaged edition will no longer be available. Only the pouch edition will be there to buy.

3. Our next project is to release 8-10 no-budget short films (duration 10 minutes each) in one DVD on the 1st day (Which shall be the 11th January) of Kolkata Little Magazine Fair, 2011. All the members are hereby informed that the last date for submission of rush is 15th December, 2010. Some of the directors have alredy announced their date of completion -------

Arupratan Ghosh - Spring Tale - 31st May
Sriparna Dey - Two or Three Things .... About Visuals - 30th June
Anamitra Roy - Secret Footage - 31st August
Snigdhendu Bhattacharya - (Not Announced Yet) - 30th September
Souva Chattopadhyay - (Not Announced Yet) - 15th December
Pratik Mondal - (Not Announced Yet) - 15th December

But before all these a long awaited film is going to release in the month of July. The film that brought Anamitra, Sriparna, Snigdhendu, Pratik together with Sumit and Abhishek.

Subimal Misra is Dead

(aka) Subimal Misra: Shot @ Underground

(aka) Asole Eti Subimal Misrer Biggyapon Hoe Uthte Parto

A short film on the maverick and audacious experimentalist anti-establishment Bengali author Subimal Misra. An LFEBF presentation in association with Byas (Bengali Little Magazine), Abosardanga (Bengali Little Magazine), www.kalojournal.com and of course Open Secret.

We guess a little surprise is waiting for the readers in the next post of this blog. Keep visiting. Good bye. Best regards from the house of LFEBF

The Annual Meeting on 18th March

The annual meeting of LFEBF is being held on March 18, 2010 in front of the statue of Lenin at Esplanade. Individuals willing to participate please post comments here or contact Sriparna (9903998708), Anamitra (9883103809), Arupratan (9432860086) or Mainak (9836833606).

Be there within 5:30 in the evening.

We repeat, no one is going to be informed personally. Just follow the blog to stay in touch.

Stay for the cause....

A Refreshing Start: Our Next Project

Arupratan Ghosh has started shooting his forthcoming film today. This is going to be his fourth film. It's a ten minutes short being shot in a digital camera. LFEBF is planning to announce the next venture, an anthology of ten minutes short no-budget films. The project will be finalized in the next LFEBF meeting. Anamitra, Sriparna, Snigdhendu, Abhishek and Pratik have already started developing and putting their concepts into shape.

Yes,

the child has cried and it is healthier than we ever expected.

[To All The Members of LFEBF:

Please follow the blog regularly. The date of the next meeting is going to be posted here in the next two or three days. No one is going to be informed personally. Remember, may be we are friends or enemies or comrades or whatever, may be we have a drink or a fight when we meet but right now the warfare has begun and everyone shall stick together. As your participations were voluntary in the last project i.e '5 No-Budget Films, 2010' we expect you again to be there this time. But frankly, we don't know anything about your personal state of mind. How much is left within you after all these. If you are here for the cause, stay for the cause.... and if you are here because your friends are making films and you think you should be making one too, just leave. We don't want anymore problems to be caused due to misconceptions ( if you have one, you know what is being said). Everyone is very much important but no individual is really important that much.... you know it.

Follow the blog...post your responses as comments. That's all. You will be informed timely before any and every event.]

Anyone interested to participate and help is cordially invited to the Meeting.

Tell Iran to Free Jafar Panahi Immediately : Sign the Petition

S.O.S

IT'S AN EMERGENCY...

On March 2nd it was reported that the director of THE WHITE BALLOON had been imprisoned by the Government of Iran. He is still being detained. We've just been informed by the 'Hope For Film' network through an e-mail that a petition, to be sent to the authorities in Iran, is calling for signatures. The petition states ---

"To: The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran

We call on the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the immediate release of internationally respected Iranian Filmmaker Jafar Pahani, (winner of the Camera d' Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival ) and his family and dependents.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned"

On the 1st of March, Panahi was arrested from his home along with his wife Tahere Saidi, daughter Solmaz Panahi and 14 of his friends by plainclothes officers and taken to theEvin Prison.^[8] Most were released 48 hours later, but Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof remain in ward 209, and Mehdi Pourmoussa in another ward inside Evin Prison.^[9] Worst of all is that Panahi's arrest has been confirmed by the government, but charges have not been specified yet. Probably, they have arrested him again for his "anti-islamic" activities.

Abbas Kiarostami published an open letter in a Tehran newspaper to protest the incident. --------

"I don’t quite know to whom I am addressing this letter, but I do know why I’m writing it and I believe that under the circumstances it is both critical and inevitable because two Iranian filmmakers, both of whom are vital to the Iranian wave of independent cinema, have been incarcerated.

As a filmmaker of the same independent cinema, it has been years since I lost hope of ever screening my films in my country. By making my own low-budget and personal films, it has also been years since I lost all hope of receiving any kind of aid or assistance from the Ministry of Guidance and Islamic culture, the custodian of Iranian cinema.

In order to make a living, I have turned to photography and use that income to make short and low-budget films. I don’t even object to their illegal reproduction and distribution because that is my only means of communicating with my own people. For years now I have not even objected to this lack of attention from the ministry and cinema tic authorities .

Even if we choose to disregard the fact that for years now, the cinematic administrators of the country, who constitute the main cultural body of the government, have differentiated between their own filmmakers (insiders) and independent filmmakers (outsiders), I am still of the opinion that they are oblivious of Iranian independent cinema. Filmmaking is not a crime. It is our sole means of making a living and thus not a choice, but a vital necessity.

I have found my own solutions to the problem. Independent of the conventional and customary support granted to the cinematic community at large, I make my own short and independent films with hopes of gaining some credit for the people I love and a name for the country I come from. Sometimes the necessity to work calls for the making of films beyond the borders of my country, which is ultimately not out of personal choice or taste.

However, others, like Jafar Panahi, have for years tried to summon official government support, exploring the same frustrating path, only to be confronted with the same closed doors. He too has for years held hopes of obtaining public screenings for his films and receiving official aid and assistance from the relevant governmental bodies. He still believes that based on the merits of his films and the acclaim they have brought the country, he can seek legal solutions to the problem. The Ministry of Guidance and Islamic culture is directly responsible for what is happening to Jafar Panahi and his like. Any wrongdoing on his part, if there is any at all, is a direct result of the mismanagement of officials at the cinematic department of the Ministry of Guidance and it’s inadequate policies which in no way leave any choice for the filmmaker other than to resort to means that jeopardize his situation as a filmmaker. He too makes a living through cinema.

For him too, filmmaking is a vital necessity. He needs to make himself heard and has the right to expect cinematic officials to facilitate the process, rather than become the major obstacles themselves. Perhaps the officials at the ministry can not at present be of help in solving Jafar Panahi’s dilemma, but they need to know that they are and have been responsible all these years, for the dreadful consequences and unpleasant and anti-cultural reflections of such policies in the world media.

I may not be an advocate of Jafar Panahi’s radical and sensational methods but I do know that the cause for his plight is not a result of choice but an inevitable [compulsion].

He is paying for the conduct of officials who have for years closed all doors on him, leaving open small passages and dead end paths.

Jafar Panahi’s problem will eventually be solved but there are numerous young people who have chosen the art of cinema as their means of expression and careers.

This is where the duty of the government and the Ministry of Guidance and Islamic Culture, as the government’s main cultural body, becomes even more critical, for they face a large group of Iranian youth who aim to work independently and away from complicated official procedures and existing prejudices.

Jafar Panahi and Mahmoud Rasoulof are two filmmakers of the Iranian independent cinema, a cinema that for the past quarter of a century has served as an essential cultural element in expanding the name of this country across the globe. They belong to an expanded world culture, and are a part of international cinematic culture. I wish for their immediate release from prison knowing that the impossible is possible. My heartfelt wish is that artists no longer be imprisoned in this country because of their art and that the independent and young Iranian cinema no longer faces obstacles, lack of support, attention and prejudice.

This is your responsibility and the ultimate definition of your existence."

Abbas Kiarostami / 1388.12.18 [March 9, 2010] / Tehran

According to The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, a source close to Panahi said: “Over the past years, Ministry of Intelligence authorities have summoned Jafar Panahi to different investigation offices of the Ministry in different locations and have questioned him. In one of these meetings he was told, ‘Just because you are a famous filmmaker, you mustn’t think that we are unable to arrest you. We can arrest you whenever we decide."

We protest this nasty politics of the Iranian government. If you are with Panahi please sign this petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/FJP2310/petition.html

Make your voice heard. It can make a difference.

Five No Budget Films: 2nd Edition: DVD Release on 13th March,2010

We are glad to announce that 2nd edition of the DVD containing all the five no budget films will be released on 13th March,2010, at Kolkata Maidan.

The price of the DVD package is Rs. 100/-

On this occasion a Pouch Edition of the DVD is also being released. The price of the this edition of the DVD is Rs. 50/-

Copies will not be available anywhere except the screening venues (informations will be posted shortly on this blog). You can get your copy from LFEBF members too.

Call for your copy:

[For Kolkata, Howrah, 24 PGS, Hooghly & Nadia]

Arup (9432860086), Anamitra (9883103809), Sriparna (9903998708), Pratik (9804202863), Snigdhendu (9330948167), Ananda (9831396945), Sumit (9051226823), Abhishek (9874294708)

[For Delhi]

Souva (+91-9811839083)

Or Write Us:

littlefisheatbigfish@gmail.com

Raise your hands in support of the non-industrial mode of film-making ....

A Reply to Mr. Cyrus Surendranath

Someone called Cyrus Surendranath has posted some comments on this blog. We are quoting him at first :

On Antoraal (aka A Hiding)

Cyrus said...
This post has been removed by the author.
January 27, 2010 1:52 AM
Cyrus said...

The more I look at the glimpses from your films, the more appalled and disgusted I am. The voiceover in the film sounds like bad, Bengali little magazine gibberish with a garnishing of half-understood Mani Kaul and Chris Marker. The two morons you've cast here, look like side-benchers from an ETV telefilm. So much for "avant-garde"!

As for the Amiyabhushan passage, it has become so horribly predictable for a certain class of Bengali-intellectual-aspirants to dig out lesser known authors and cite them hoping they sound/look counter-culturish enough! Sorry, but reading the passage on camera is the most facile and unimaginative thing you could have done. Of course, it would take any of you a hundred years or more to approach an Amiyabhushan text as a film. I can bet some of you, if not all, do write in the so-called little magazines. The problem is precisely that technology has made it possible for people like you to appropriate a medium like DV, and thereby turn what could have been a revolution into a shitty farce.

Most of your cinematic inspirations seem to stem from France or Latin America. Do try and find out more about what is happening NOW in Asian cinema, and what Asian auteurs are doing with DV, before you make fools of yourselves jumping around with a digital camera, making 5 films in 6 months.

Sorry for being so nasty, but felt compelled to call a spade a spade! Hope you guys won't take it personally.

Cyrus Surendranath
January 27, 2010 1:55 AM

On JLG Had No Script

Cyrus said...

Frankly, my dear, you look like a clown trying to impersonate Godard. In case that is the avowed aesthetic intention, I guess its fine. Am rolling on the floor looking at the sordid make-up, and the fact of the "post-colonial" Godard speaking in Bengali! Poor Jean-Luc is past 80 and making a film called Socialism. Please give him a break!

It isn't the least bit funny to see poor upstarts like you pretending to be in Godard's shoes by making a film in shabby B&W, and with a new-found, digital movie-making toy. God bless new media!

Cyrus Surendranath

January 27, 2010 1:32 AM

On In Search of Dead Golds

Cyrus said...

Why are you guys trying so hard to publicise your "avant-garde" filmmaking through a blog in English when it is obvious that you are rather constipated in that language? Sorry to point out, but "Golds" sounds like grammar-translation from Bengali. Besides, you quote and cite mouthfuls of hallowed sources from Borges to Brueghel without knowing how to spell their names correctly. First grow up and then try to be avant-garde!

But, it doesn't look like you'll heed this advice (monkeys on heat never do). So, good luck!

Cyrus Surendranath
January 27, 2010 1:24 AM

Our reply :

To Mr. Cyrus Surendranath,

1. We are not trying to publicise our "avant-garde" effort through this blog. Sorry to inform you that the avant-garde has died long ago and its ghost has been smuggled to Kolkata, the 3rd world metro. Now, can you situate the meaning of the word "Ghost" historically? If you can, you will get what we are trying to say. Thanks for your advice anyways.

2. It is obvious that we are constipated in English. It's not our mother tongue, but we don't know any other language (e.g Spanish, French) to communicate to a larger readership.

3. Do you think that JLG Had No Script had any relations with Godard at all ? It's the ghost of Godard that we carry on our shoulders whenever we speak of a film movement. At least, Anamitra thinks so. A vulgar comic atmosphere is intended in the film. But you are such a c-factor that you roll on the floor, laughing out loudly and doing all that just seeing a trailer of a film which has been made at a cost of 1000 rupees. Are you a Hijibijbij or what? In case you are not a bengalee see the page on Sukumar Roy at Wikipedia to know the meaning of Hijibijbij. Don't think that we are pretending to be in Godard's shoes or something like that. We know the situation very well. Godard was a popular filmmaker in his early years. Though he tried to change the scenario, nothing to be fascinated about him. He was an off-the-track exclusive prostitute working for pimps, he knew that. He is unsuccessful in throwing the unwanted capitalist intervention out of the terrain of film the art and he knows that very well. Now, poor Jean-Luc is past 80 and making a film called Socialisme. He never wanted a break for lunch or coffee in his "career". Who the hell are you to ask one from us for him ?

4. If we say that we are making films and Cinema is only an industry, so let's destroy cinema, let's rape it together by making thousands of no budget films, can you make an effort to understand it?? Cinematic inspirations are only so to speak.... our real inspirations are some of the little known poets and writers of Bengal and of course IPTA movement.

Now, let us say, we are not even making films. We are mocking films, the toy in hand of the capitalist, the needle in hand of the imperialist and expansionist and we are doing this only to restore the proper amount of activism among the youth of Bengal. The process has just started, keep an eye....history proceeds from failure via failure to failure, but that doesn't imply everyone must be sitting in the field of confusion sucking their thumbs and watching in the big sky the blue birds to fly by.

5. It's not technology but the capitalists' marketing strategy that has made it possible for people like us to appropriate a medium like DV. Please send us some of your good actors and actresses to work for free with us and we won't be using those side-benchers anymore.

6. We've turned it all into shiity farce what could've been a revolution and Mr. Cyrus what have you done?? Until the 27th we were getting visits from 30 different IPs in average per day. Your comments have brought it down to 12 in last two days. Sorry to quote Rocha again, but we need to be self-consuming at first in order to survive, the so-called impotency can be overcome only later. Now quoting Satyajit Ray for your pleasure, we need more intelligent interpretations of our limitations...and that's what we are doing . We have finished five films and going to release a DVD tomorrow through the "non-existing" non-commercial distribution chain , all within a cost of 15000 INR. We guess NONE of your ASIAN "AUTEURS" have done this much in their countries. And please specify who are you speaking of, there are lots of them, from Miike to Ji-woon Kim, via Hsiao-hsien Hou and Ming-liang Tsai. So, please specify so that we can answer you more precisely. There is a recent trend among intellectuals to cite examples from the Asian New Wave Directors' works without knowing nothing much about them and we are aware of that, are you ?? One more thing, (another little known writer of Bengal, Udayan Ghosh is being quoted here), please get it by heart, revolution is not an embroidary. So, you dug it by now we guess, what we mean by that.

7. I guess, you are not some Cyrus Surendranath, if you are really, where are you from? Do you belong to a south Indian Christian family? Then how do you know so much about Amiyabhushan and the tendencies among the "Bengali(ee)-intellectual-aspirants" ?? Have you been to Kolkata ever? Then you might know that there are two kinds of films being made right now in Kolkata. a) Commercial and b) Festival films. We are trying to do something apart from these. We agree that it would take any of us a hundred years or more to approach an Amiyabhushan text as a film because we won't work with producers or the industrial set-up and without those it would be impossible for us to shoot a whole feature film somewhere in Koochbihar or Dinajpore. But, how could you know that? Please inform us about the translator and publisher because we are suspecting that we know you very well. Reveal your identity, no one is going to hurt you my dear.

8. A monkey can copy many actions of human beings, but as far as we know, they haven't been successful in copying the process of film making yet. If the Bengalee monkeys used to get heated up with these kind of activities we haven't even thought of making films at all. But there lies the problem. They write in little magazines to publish a book from ABP or Protibhaas someday. They join govt. funded theatrical groups to get into the mega serial business. They usually get heated up with songs like "toonir maa", new models of mobile phones and bikes, stylish sunglasses and sexy sister-in-laws. That's where we want to hit, but, leave it. It's not for you to think on. If you can, kindly post your reply as a comment ( and don't forget to mention your email id this time) as we want to get into conversation even with you ---- The Question is : What made you so heated up when you saw these Bengalee monkeys making films and going to make fools of themselves very soon as they are on heat ? ?

Please Do Reply......

Thank you, if you didn't show your inherited sarcasm in your comments we couldn't get issue for our newer posts on this blog so soon. So, thank you again.... a big THANKS from the house of Little Fish Eat Big Fish. Reply...

Five No Budget Films: DVD Release on 30th January

We are happy to announce that a DVD containing all the five no budget films will be released on 30th January, in Kolkata Book Fair 2010.

The price of the DVD is Rs. 100/-.

The DVD will be available at the stalls of Kaurab (Stall No. 405) and Natun Kabita (Stall No. 406).

Otherwise, in case you are unable to come to the book fair, you can contact in any of the following numbers to get your copy:

Arup (9432860086), Sriparna (9903998708), Sankha (9477413550), Souva (+91-9811839083), Snigdhendu (9330948167), Sumit (9051226823), Abhishek (9874294708)

DVD Cover:

Inlay Card

Five No Budget Films 5: Proti Biplob Deerghojibi Hok (aka Long Live (all) the Revolution)

Proti Biplob Deerghojibi Hok (aka Long Live (all) the Revolution) is about a young writer’s struggle in the power-craving world of ideology and disbelief. In this short fiction you will find a fake-magician, and you will be haunted by a prolonged and bizarre nightmare. This film is basically a fantasy of telling the (un)truth.

Proti Biplob Deerghojibi Hok (aka Long Live (all) the Revolutions)

Bangla, 2010, 22 min

Cast: Yovik, Mainak Pal, Anamitra Roy, Sankha Subhra Ganguly, Shriparna, Subhendu Manni

Production Control: Mainak Pal

Camera: Debashish Adak

Sound & Editing: Anamitra Roy

Make up: Puja Ghosh

Art: Subhendu Manni

Set: Mainak-Avik

Story and Direction: Sankha Subhra Ganguly

Proti Biplob Deerghojibi Hok-- The Trailer

Production Stills

Five No Budget Films 4: Antoraal (aka A Hiding)

A Bengali film of 15 Mnts Duration. The film describes the Primary and the Darker things, that the year 2009 inherits. Hope, you will enjoy!!

Antoraal (aka A Hiding)

Bengali, 2010, 15 min

Cast: Manab Sharma, Jiniya Chatterjee, Soumitra Chowdhury, Joydeep Dam

Dialogue: Mukesh Gupta

Production Control: Tata Mukhopadhyay and Sukanya Ghosh

Graphics: Sriparna

Camera: Joydeep Bose

Sound and Editing: Anamitra Roy

Story and Direction: Arupratan Ghosh

Antoraal-- The Trailer

Production Stills

Five No Budget Films 3: ... Athoba Bhoy-er Golpo (aka ... Or, A Horror Film)

...Athoba Bhoy-er Golpo (aka ...Or, A Horror Film) is inspired from a short story by Daniil Kharms, a little known Russian poet and short story writer. The film is about the paranoia inherent in the urban mindscape that prohibits oneself from fulfilling his/her desire.

One day, the nameless protagonist of the story comes across a stranger, and that triggers off a series of bizarre incidents in his otherwise event-less existence. He finds a dead body in his flat, he meets a girl who tries to seduce him, he desperately tries to get rid of the dead body... but, at the end, he becomes more confused than ever!

The film examines how power intervenes in our lives, almost imperceptibly, and then starts re-engineering our activities and desires.

...Athoba Bhoy-er Golpo (aka ...Or, A Horror Film)

Bengali, 2010, 19 min

Cast: Sankha Subhra Ganguly, Doelpakhi Dashgupta, Kanchan Sengupta

Cinematography: Arupratan Ghosh, Rajshekhar Das

Sound and Editing: Anamitra Roy

Costume: Pritha Chattopadhyay

Make Up: Sriparna Dey

Producion Control: Avishek Dashgupta, Pritha Chattopadhyay

Screenplay and Direction: Souva Chattopadhyay

...Athoba Bhoy-er Golpo--- Trailer

Production Stills

(Click on the images to view full size)

Five No Budget Films 2 : Jean-Luc Godard Had No Script

A Mimetic Approach Towards Cinema

The film is not a film at all, but merely a theatrical dress rehearsal captured on a miniDV. The title of the film is exploitative. This is not a spoof on Godard, even characters from Glauber Rocha invades the scene.

The basic concept of the film is to stage the way the colonized mind mimics the aesthetical value of European Art Cinema. The concept of 'Cinema' is being killed in the film where the director himself plays the character of Godard ( with lots of quotations from JLG's interviews) wearing a heavy make-up on his face while his hands reveal the original colour of his native skin.

He speaks to a critic on the very film being shot and introduces his five characters one by one. The dubbed soundtrack specifies the hierarchical altitude of the two of them.

The film unfolds by picking up threads and glimpses from various planes of reality and arranging them around a table.

Let the rest remain untold for the viewing. . . .

Jean-Luc Godard Had No Script

Bangla, 2010, 23 min

Cast : Anamitra Roy, Sumit Dey, Kamal Kumar Roy, Abhishek Bhattacharya, Sangbit Samaddar, Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, Arupratan Ghosh, Yovik

Concept Development, Camera, Godard's make-up : Sriparna

Assistant Director : Sumit Dey

Make-up : Kamal Kumar Roy

Production Control and Management : Kamal Kumar Roy, Pratik Mondal, Mithun Chakraborty, Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

Written, Directed & Edited by : Anamitra Roy

Jean-Luc Godard Had No Script - Trailer

Production Stills

(Click on the images to view full size)

Five No Budget Films 1: The Sand Book

The Sandbook (AKA Boita: Jibito o Hotyakari) is improvised from a short story by Jorge Luis Borges. The story moves with the landing of an amazing book in the hand of a scholer, who tries to understand "the internal ties in events occuring" in and around the book in order to go through it.

From Borges' story, however, only the concept of the book was borrowed. Then the film takes its own course, as ideas from Franz Kafka, Stiphen Hawking, the Upanishads and Mao also enter the scene. Reference from another Borges story also comes in.

What is the Sandbook after all? What are its charectaristics? Watch out to get get the answers.

The Sandbook (AKA Boi-Ta: Jeebito O Hatyakaree)

Bangla, 2010, 20 min

Cast: Kamal Kumar Roy, Abhishek Bhattacharyya, Arupratan Ghosh, Sumit De.

Director of Arts: Sripanra

Sound, Camera and Editing: Anamitra Roy

Production managers: Pratik Mondal and Ananda Dass

Screenplay and direction: Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

Trailer of The Sand Book

Production Stills


(Click on the images to view full size)