Film-maker T.V. Chandran believes cost has a major role to play in the ongoing shift from the conventional film to the digital mode of shooting movies.
Replying to a query during the ‘Meet the Directors’ programme at the 17th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) here on Monday, Mr. Chandran, however, presented the director’s dilemma in a lighter vein.
“You can make Mammootty or Mohanlal act, but not a tortoise. That will be a costly affair and one reason why we have to depend on digital film-making,” was how he explained why his ‘Bhoomiyude Avakashikal’ had to be shot in digital mode. The movie speaks of lost spaces and has several animals and insects as characters along with the main protagonists. Mr. Chandran described how difficult it was to get a tortoise look right or left as the script required. It took more than a day for that particular shot and if the movie was made on reel film, it would have cost a bomb.
Cost aside, he would have preferred the conventional mode, Mr. Chandran said. The digital mode had its pitfalls, he pointed out. An evident one was what happened during the screening of his film on Sunday, when the movie and the sound system went completely out of sync. If it was the old reel format, a little pulling back of the reel would have solved the problem, but I digital mode, nothing of that sort was possible, he said.
For Manoj Kana, director of ‘Chayilyam,’ the IFFK was turning out to be a great inspiration to carry forward what his friends and he had started. ‘Chayilyam’ was made with donations, starting from Rs.5, from the public and so has nearly 2,000 producers to give credit to, somewhat on the lines of what the legendary John Abraham did for his ‘Amma Ariyan’ in 1986.
“We are aiming at more such cultural interventions and more such cinema,” he said.
Chilean director Francisca Silva was visibly excited, this being her visit to India. Her first feature film, ‘Ivan’s Woman’, inspired by the kidnapping of a 10-year-old girl in Vienna and tells the story of the intimate bond between the kidnapped and the kidnapper, is part of the competition section of the festival.
Ms. Silva said Chile was passing through a transition in its cinema culture and film-makers enjoyed more freedom. The future appeared bright, she said.
Writer K. Gopinathan, whose first directorial venture ‘Ithra Mathram’ is one of the nine Malayalam movies in the festival, was present.
