When the pandemic first hit, people of all ages found themselves stranded at home unable to participate in any activities. Kids found themselves logging onto Fortnite dozens of times a day while adults found themselves streaming Netflix much more often than they should be. However, the pandemic shined light to an opportunity that I never would have thought off. The time for me to make my breakthrough film had come. But wait, I was just a 15-year-old kid. I didn’t have a big budget, or even a small one. I couldn’t have a huge cast. Working with friends at the time would have been a treacherous endeavour due to the gathering restrictions. What on Earth was I going to do!
The key to success in filmmaking lies in a person’s ability to separate all the different components of the project and work on each one individually, making sure to plan before anything live takes place. To best explain my points, I am going to list the 4 important ideas that I took into consideration when starting my Short Film Anxiety. Anxiety is based on the ideas of social isolation and of course, anxiety. It was filmed in the summer of 2020 and ended up winning accolades in the Chicago International Short Film Festival for students and the Ann Arbor Film Festival for students. Here’s a review about the film from an established producer and director from Detroit Michigan.
“I saw a video called ANXIETY which was directed and produced by a film student. It was done so artistically that I would match it favourably with many professional, higher-budgeted productions that I have seen…and in some cases, produced. I was impressed by the detail given to every scene. The editing appeared to have gotten a lot of frame-by-frame attention. I don’t think it will be long before I will be asking Tridib for his help. His skills are extraordinary, and I can’t wait to see what he has in store for his next production.”
- Ronald Lindroth
Executive Director and Producer
1. Pandemic Filmmaking: Equipment and Budget –
This is the biggest topic I will talk about. Every up-and-coming filmmaker’s dream is to one day work with an ARRI Alexa or a RED camera. But, just like anybody else, we all must start small and work our way up to the big rigs. For some of us, that may as well just be using the native camera app on our mobile device. For others, it could be using your parents DSLR camera. It all depends on what materials you have available. During the pandemic, most people did not have access to rental communities and other places to borrow equipment such as lighting and microphones. Before I go on, I would like to say that I was blessed with a decent camera to work with. A canon C300 to be exact. But that’s where my blessings ran out. For a lens, I used my dad’s old SLR lens. That’s right, my lens was more than 2 decades old!
For audio, I had to make do with an ultra-cheap chintzy looking pencil mic and a music stand as a boom pole. And for lighting, I had nothing.
You might be thinking, “Tridib, how on earth did you make a film that won awards when you didn’t even have lighting!”. I’ll answer that in the next paragraph.
2. Pandemic Filmmaking: Scripting –
Once you figured out what equipment you have at your disposal, the next big challenge is, what’s your film about? Many of us when looking at story ideas start thinking of grand fantasies with special effects and hundreds of cast members. But when you’re filming in a time that reminds you of a zombie apocalypse, you might want to think twice about creating a 500-page thriller script based in another galaxy.
In my experience, when I did my film last summer during the pandemic, I had very limited audio equipment and no lighting equipment at all. To solve that problem, 95% of my short film was shot outdoors. That eliminated the need for artificial lighting, which saved me a tremendous amount of grief. Whatever film idea you have, make sure you can execute it with the equipment that you have available at that time.
3. Pandemic Filmmaking: Casting –
This is a relatively small topic compared to the other two we discussed but still equally as important. In big Hollywood films, we see quite a few main actors and hundreds of background extras. But when constructing a film with a small budget and during a pandemic, try creating a film focused on one person’s story, or even something in nature. You might think that not having extras and lots of main characters might degrade your film, but it is quite the contrary. Making use of nature and a small amount of human interaction can often show a filmmaker’s imagination and ingenuity. For my film Anxiety, I had only one main character. And to my benefit, my brother Tuhin was a great match for this role. This made it much easier for me to schedule dates for shooting and planning as well as easing the whole filming process during the Pandemic.
4. Pandemic Filmmaking: Finishing touches and Marketing –
You finished filming all your scenes and are ready to put it together into a spectacular looking film. But wait, before you get started piecing together your masterpiece, you must first figure out your editing and marketing strategy. Even if your film is a small-town budget film, still make the effort to make your film look and feel like a blockbuster. It will benefit you in the long run and your future self will thank you.
From the beginning, plan out the software you will use to edit your film as well as what software to make cover posters. For me, I used the demo version of Final Cut Pro X on my iMac. It’s free for 90 days and you can renew it continuously. For my photo software, I used the 14-day free trial of Adobe Photoshop. And it was worth it. My poster turned out very well. In this article, you will see a photo of my short film poster for my up-and-coming film Out Of Time.
Conclusion –
To sum everything up, I would like to say that no matter where you are in the world and what your economic status is, there are always ways of showing your inner self through film. Borrow your neighbour’s camera if you must. Do anything to show the world that you are not sitting around waiting for the sun to finally rise. Be creative and as your kindergarten teacher would say, Always have FUN!!
Tridib Chakraborty is a fifteen year old Sophomore at Troy High School. He is an excellent student but wanted to venture outside of his normal area of expertise. Over the course of a few years, Tridib has turned his liking for film into a full blown area of expertise. He has scripted and directed numerous short films. One of which has been recognised internationally. Tridib hopes that by the time he graduates, he will have taught other kids that there is never any obstacle that they can’t tackle no matter what they want to pursue.
