The Making

This project is our very first almost-feature-length film. We did some research on digital filmmaking (especially on the Internet) and discovered this brand new medium that was just perfect for our project. No expensive film stock, no processing costs, easy to handle, less elaborate lighting set-ups, more inconspicuous when shooting in public places, not having to lose your shirt to pay for the rentals, not having to wait two days to see how the shots turned out: these were some of the reasons we chose DV over film. But the main reason was that we could do absolutely everything from cinematography to editing on our own – it would be a truly independent film!

During the production, we improvised a lot whenever something odd or interesting about the actors or surroundings appealed to us. Especially in this scene when Aarti meets a handful of suitors, where each character took on some traits of the actor playing the part. Of course we had to work overtime trying to keep them from getting their hands on the sole samosa.

Everybody involved in the project had their day jobs. So, we had a tough time chalking up the shooting schedule around the cast and, of course, the Detroit weather. There was this one instance when we were shooting a scene with Raghu and Divya, Raghu's 'someone' (whom he refuses to reveal) kept paging him every few minutes. So, we had to let him go and Ajay sat in for him; of course, we were careful to leave his face out of the frame.

We enjoyed making this movie, though it got a little stressful at times with just the two of us doing everything. We were cinematographer, director, actor, lighting-grip, boom-operator, extra, driver and pizza deliveryman as the situation demanded. Of course, we had a few friends dropping in from time to time and helping us out with sound, lighting and luggage after a crash-course.

And now, finally, almost a year after we sat down to put the script on paper, we have something to show for it: shaadi.com