What could be the ingredients for a low budget short film- an aspiring director and associate director, a video editor, a director of photography, and a music director (both preferably with the latest equipment). Add to this mix a bunch of willing friends and family who pitch in as actors, script and dialogue writers, choreographers, designers, and dubbing artistes. This is the recipe behind the “7th Heaven Productions” that gave the city its first production house. A recent launch and after the screening of their first short film, “Ippadiyum Lock Aagalam”, the crew talks about their coming together and future plans.
Sparing a few members, each person in the unit graduated between 2002 and 2011 from St. James School, says the script writer P. Karthik. “An event that the alumni of our school organised was where it all began and even beyond that event many of us started hanging out together often. But it was not all fun, for we discussed our aspirations too and that's how 7th Heaven was born.”
A round up of what resources each of them could bring to the table finished with the decision to make short films in an organised manner. “Many of us have already worked on short films and taken part in college competitions and our friends could write, design costumes, print flex banners, market our work, and do professional photography themselves. So this time we wanted to mirror production houses that are already there in the big cities,” says Nimalan Prakash, the director.
Having done the basic groundwork required to launch a production house, the unit also tied up with behindwoods.com, an online Tamil movies portal. While their first venture was screened during the launch of their production house a few days ago, the short film is slated for an online release on New Year's Day, according to the crew.
“In Ippadiyum Laock Aagalam, we have used the 5D camera, which is the latest equipment available in the market. Though it is difficult to capture video on this camera, the output is tremendously satisfying,” says C. Senthil, the Director of Photography.
Talking about the music and background score for their 16-minute film, Navin Narasimhan, the video editor feels it was their strongest offering. “Ace Mahesh has already worked in the troupes of music directors like Deva and S.A. Rajkumar, and the main song, ‘Thattithane' was completed by him four years ago.” After seeing the edited version of the film, Ace Mahesh suggested the addition of another song, making Ippadiyum one of the few short films that packs in two songs.
Cashing in on the potential of social media and viral marketing, the group has set up a Facebook page for their production house and has put up a trailer of their short film on YouTube. “In the short film industry the benchmark these days is the number of online hits your video can gather, and our trailer has already received close to 3000 hits” says Karthik. Drawing inspiration from production houses in Chennai the team is hoping to see the complete version of their short film receive at least 10, 000 hits online.
While finding a sponsor and registering their company within a month top their immediate priorities, the team has also appealed to independent short film makers to approach them for assistance and guidance on their Facebook page. Steering clear of social message subjects, the group says they would instead have public service announcements precede their future works.
