There’s a catch when Prasanth Varma says that his shortie ‘Dialogue in the Dark’ was done using virtual audio. The scene takes us to a restaurant (that the film was named after) in Hyderabad that shot to fame after the hilarious sequence in Srinivas Avasarala’s Jyo Achyutananda . But, Prasanth informs us that the film was conceptualised years before the former’s release.
‘How can you call it a short film when it has only audio?’ was the question he was asked every time he pitched the story idea to someone. “Through the sound, the viewer is made to realise that the two characters are sitting on either side of a table in the restaurant (even in darkness).
The sound basically revolves and has a 360 degree quality to it when you plug in your earphones,” he shares.
Prasanth, also the founder of an ad agency Adsville, had to work with two composers, his childhood friend Shravan and Mark K Robin to get the sound detailing right. Theyfine-tuned the sound for almost six months after several re-recording sessions.
That the entire film is set in darkness also has a metaphoric reason, it’s to convey the message that the girl is yet to accept the boy in the story. When the film ends with the girl understanding the boy’s concern, there’s finally some activity on the frame. What you see are a series of montage shots with paintings by Moshe Dayan (who also worked on the art works in Pelli Choopulu ) to signify a happy ending.
The voices in the short film are of actors Chandini Chowdary (seen in Kundanapu Bomma and Ketugadu ) and Teja Sajja (the child actor who played young Chiranjeevi in Indra ).
Chandini who took the short film route to enter features wasn't keen on getting back to her roots, but with ‘Dialogue in the Dark’, the idea was enough to bring her on-board.
Prasanth was particular to have unexplored voices for the film, worrying that established dubbing artists would snatch attention from the characters.
All these efforts seem to be paying off as many from the industry tweet their appreciation for the content.
Prasanth, who’s directed over 50 ad and short films to date (including a web-series with Brian Lara), had won several laurels for his popular short film ‘Silent Melody’ produced by actor Sundeep Kishan. In fact, the man entered the short-film arena in the times of orkut, well before other social media trends took over.
“This helped me set a path for myself and not get into the slapstick mode,” he mentions.
An engineer by qualification, he would bunk classes and work on short films with his friends, fiddling with the latest cameras (he even used 5D for a film) and technologies until his short film Deenamma Jeevitam made him an overnight star in online circles.
The man hasn’t studied filmmaking yet, but he claims he had gone through most of the material that any film school student would have.
Feature films are destined to happen for Prasanth who is sentimental about revealing more details before the shoot commences.
With multiple scripts under his belt, “Short films are something that I’ll continue making,” he says. (The film can be watched on Youtube)
Published - October 13, 2016 03:59 pm IST
