Anshul Sinha decided to make a short film inspired by his quarantine period. With limited resources, the short filmmaker used his Samsung S30 to a shoot Humans vs Covid 19 , a film of less than two minutes, featuring only spoons and forks! While the spoons represent human beings, forks play the Coronavirus character. The narrative moves on to show the two entities fight each other in different rounds, with the spoons citing their financial status, religion, country or good health as defences. As the forks, undeterred, advance menacingly, the spoons realise that only staying at home will protect them. The film ends with the message ‘Stay home, Save lives’. This short film, made as a stop motion animation film had Anshul clicking and weaving together 185 images, over thee days.
Anshul Sinha
Anshul did not want the lockdown affect his work.He wanted to challenge himself and shoot with a mobile phone. He says, “Many people feel restricted and feel there is no creativity with a mobile phone. Some even questioned my ways. Necessity is the mother of invention and if you have an idea, you can weave a story.” He adds, “I wanted to create awareness about staying safe, but due to the lockdown I cannot have any actors. So I experimented and explored the relationship between non-living things, create a conflict to portray the drama.” He uploaded the film on Youtube, Facebook and also submitted to the Cornwall Film Festival which has a competition on films made during the lockdown period. He mentions that currently, around 18 international competitions are dedicated to works made on the lockdown and isolation. He shares, “A film festival in Italy has initiated this to motivate people and spread the message of hope through the visual medium.” Enthused by the response to his film, Anshul made two other short films.
Lockdown zooms in on a person’s hand trying to open a grill door to step out of a house. We realise there is pandemonium as we hear several voices shout in fear and panic in the background. The person steps back inside and shuts the door; immediately the noise reduces. This film ends with the message ‘Stay home, Stay safe’.
In the third film Stepout , as a person unlatches the door to go out, we see a series of visuals of people collapsing inside their houses and outside. “I directed my 11 friends on a video call for this film. They shot the visuals through their mobile phone and sent them to me.” This film ends with the message ‘Stay home, Save lives’.
Most of Anshul’s films have been short films with big messages. Recently he got a national award for his two-minute film on lake revival. He explains the reasons for choosing to make a short film: “A lot of content is available online and people do not have much patience. Your short message will reach faster than big lectures.” His films have no dialogues as he tries to focus more on visuals.
The challenges of working from home may have generated the idea, but Anshul is glad he has been able to innovate and explore different mediums. Currently he is working on a film based on the lives of migrant workers affected by Coronavirus.
