Thursday, August 9, 2012

In memory of Swagat Sen

On the evening of 25th February, 2012, when we just started asking people to back our project financially, we came across a woman in front of Screen One. When we approached her she turned around and called a man in a low voice. The man was talking to someone else. He just turned his face and said calmly, "Go on, give them". The woman handed over a Rs. 500 note to us. We were overwhelmed. Till that time we never really expected such an amount of contribution from anyone. We didn't even know them personally and it was only the 5th time we approached someone. As soon as the conversation was over the man turned to us and said "Ya, you guys. Keep it up. Let this festival be over, I'll contact you." This act of generousity had really encouraged us to move on. It was a kind of assurance that we were doing the right thing. "Your email id please sir", we asked. "Yes, email id, write down", he said, "swagatsen@gmail.com"

Sadly, he'll never contact us again. Mr. Swagat Sen has passed away on the night of 5th August, 2012. He was there when we needed it the most. He didn't even know us, but did something that we can never forget. It was a pat on the back, something everyone expects from someone elder. Later we came to know he was a co-founder of the BYOFF and the guy who gave the festival its name. May his soul rest in peace.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Two posts directly from Facebook



1.
As you all know, we need to raise another 150k by the beginning of September. If 941 people chip in even 100 rupees each that'll make it 94.1k
And a contribution of 200 per head means we'll leave behind the minimum requirement by 38.2k
You can do this much for sure. But, do you really wish to stand by?
Rs. 1,50,000
= 750 people X 200 rupees
or 300 people X 500 rupees
or 150 people X 1000 rupees
We can make it happen if you can be generous and stand by for real...
http://bit.ly/wishonerupee

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

The Shortest Blogpost on Earth

We have raised more than 100 grands till date from more than 100 contributors. We still need to raise another 150 grands in less than one month for our film.
Now, do we sleep all day?
Yes, we do
and Thank you

P.S: Every 2nd person you see is a shameless liar. Stay alert!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Positive Attitude: One Morning in the Month of September, 2010

Interactions and exchanges are important. If you are hurt I'd surely apologize to you once I die. But till I'm living this life of mine I'm bound to do things that make you react, and thus join the conversation. Often I tell myself to act and not to react, but it's not possible every time. The worst thing is that you generally open up only after I start shouting. Can't it be the other way round?

I know it's tough for you to understand. You've never been in my shoes. I remember, in 2005, when I joined my grad school in Kolkata, I got a mobile phone from my father. I was about to move to the city. So, it was needed to keep in touch with the family. The next day I woke up and it was 2010. I got an SMS. "Congratulations! Your relationship with Reliance GSM services has crossed 5 years. We are thankful to you for your continued support." Like a dream, I started recalling where I was. Last two days I had two 15 hour shifts. I was involved in a boring commissioned project at that time. Who were my friends in 2005? I found that only 7 are there whom I still can call friends. Where was I? The locked out factory, our home, the estate --- exactly that's when I planned to make Memories... of a Dead Township (2012) --- The film did not cost me even a penny. But there was risk involved. If they could catch me... I don't know... I was afraid for my camera. Hence, that morning in the month of September, 2010 I was at Bhawanipur and I was trying to recall how I came this way. After coming to Kolkata I started living with a batch-mate at his house, Debarghya Mukhopadhyay, probably the only friend who loved me more than himself. But our "commune" did not last for long. I had to move out. The next year, I spent most of my time at Jadavpur University. I was not a student there. In 2006, the campus was the source of progressive 3rd stream politics for me. Yeah, and then in the month of December I was arrested from Nandan and taken to Hastings P.S. My comrades did not want me to do whatever caused this incident, but it made our magazines and literary-political activities get some campaign. The wind carried us for 3-4 months and then friends started to turn their backs. For almost a year, I kept myself locked up in my room and re-invaded Kolkata in February 2008 with Shabdoprokriyakoron. In June or may be July, I got a new registration number and was registered as a student of Film Studies department at the Jadavpur University. Classes, the few I attended, were good. It was the time of our first semester when I received a phone call from someone named Mr. Arupratan Ghosh. He just wanted to check out whether the phone number provided in my book is a real one and whether the names mentioned in the book are of real people. By the end of November we met in a pub, Baraduari at Janbazaar. We both were amazed to find our common feelings about some phenomenons in world cinema. The last film he made was in 2004. It was the fifth year of silence. I was trying to do something on my own. In fact we had already started shooting the infamous incomplete documentary on Subimal Mishra. Sriparna was with me since 2005 and everything was possible just because she got a handycam in 2007. So that's how it all began. On 6th December, 2008, we were in a car. Shooting for a short, obscure, Arupratanistic. Once the film was complete we called our film-enthusiast friends of that period and decided to make it big. Through the year 2009, we just kept on working. I edited five shorts. It was difficult as three of the makers had no idea about what they wanted to shoot or how to handle the smart-ass little-learnt cameraman. Only one of these three turned out to be good (though there was an unintended and inevitable idiotic continuity break). Five No Budget Films (2010) released on the last day of January and 100 copies of the first edition were sold out in just seven days. My film Jean-Luc Godard had No Script turned out to be a bit controversial. The film was made with Rs. 573 /- (The costs of food and transport). Moreover, I could not stand the irritating talk-talk culture of the department and attacked my faculties. By May, 2010, I was kinda banned in my department. They were not really helping our initiative and people who really mattered are still in good terms with me. All these I was thinking in the morning, I don't remember the date, of September, 2010. Suddenly I realized I better move out of the bed and make some phone calls . I borrowed 70,000 cash from my father for some project which I was thrown out of some days ago. My partner was a revolutionary friend (allegedly one of the squad that attacked the lexus motors' showroom in 2006) from old times who has turned into an irritating fraudulent businessman after accepting loan from the prime minister of India . Moreover, my handycam is left at his office. So, I was running on a negative balance of around 1.25 lakhs and since I was an idiot (I still am) I had no papers with me to prove anything.


In 2011, Season Two: No Budget Film released and got wider circulation than Five No Budget Films.

In 2012, 3rd Compilation was out on DVDs in time

Would you still say my attitude towards life is negative? It's just that I know what I had to do, what I'm still doing and how, as I said, you were never in my shoes.

Throughout the production and post-production of Jean-Luc Godard Had No Script we had to face apocalyptic occurrences. A friend of mine suggested me to start a blog and share the experiences. I never really had enough time to do that. During the shoot of Secret Footage (2011) [Part of Season Two], I myself thought of staring a blog named 'Secret Diaries' but my schedule never encouraged my positive thinking. Then during the shoot of Memories... of a Dead Township I really felt the urge to share my experiences with those 239 people on the FB page. How we were proceeding with the shooting --- it would  have been an enjoyable and thrilling story. This time I also opened up a blog, but that was all. The only thing I posted there was the welcome note. But this time, I'm happy that I'm doing what I wanted to do. See, time is changing. Finally plans are being converted into actions. You'll have this feel too, in a better way, once we enter the month of June.

Come, Play the Time...




Monday, May 14, 2012

The Love-Hate Relationship

May 11 : Pageviews 84
May 12: Pageviews 70
May 13: Pageviews 112
May 14: Pageviews 99

Today is the 15th May. We have only 351 days left. I was just scrolling through the stats. We got 365 pageviews in the last 4 days. Who are these people visiting this blog? The blog has only 17 followers and no one really comments here. these must be some random traffic coming in after the popular tags I've used in the previous posts. This traffic has no impacts on the fundraising process at all. By now, I am sure that no one takes this blog seriously. Actually they are right and they should not give a damn. If the film does not release in time it's not going to affect anyone except us. So you better go, by yourself a beer and never come back to this blog. If you ever feel like coming back ask yourself , have you done anything for this film yet! Don't say that you don't know what to do, we have posted often about it. Here is the umpteenth post, the complete thing

                                                   

                             "No Traditional Producers!
                                   No Traditional Distributors!
                                  This is your film!
                                 Step Forward, Get Involved!
                                Share, Donate, Make It Happen!"




well, but who the hell am I talking to? No one has read the post this far. They must have closed the tab and went back to google or yahoo or facebook or whatever! Who cares! All I can see is that I'm getting to sleep 3 hours a day for quite a time. Why am I doing all these fucking talk-talk? I think I should have joined a production house and chopped bloody soap operas! I wanted to serve someone, a group of people maybe. That way I could have served the mega watchers and made some money. But this pain in my stupid ass, I really don't know the source of it, has made me do idiotic things since I was 17. No one is a fucking producer here. Who's going to do what if I don't write this post today? Even one person with "proper intellectual nutrition" is not going to send us a rupee for this post. No one is reading this blog I know. And if you are reading you are certainly a ghost as this act of yours does not make an impact on any goddamn thing on earth. If not a ghost, you are not an alive thing at least. Things move, things do things to make a difference when they are alive. For instance, fucking me! Writing a long long bloody post for god knows what! Am I using the f-words too much? Oh God, look at the post's title! I was supposed to write something else here! Something like how much I love you and how it makes me get mad at you. You know, I used to be a writer and all that I write now are blogposts to convince people to contribute their hard-earned money. It feels like being an insurance agent! Why do I need to make this film? Can't I just kick my ass, accept that I have wasted seven invaluable years of my life for just nothing and try to find me a better job? The problem, as I see it, is that I can cheat on you (if you really exist) but I can't cheat on myself. But why can' I while everyone is doing it? Am I trying to be a messiah? Am I a megalomaniac who thinks that the sole purpose of his life is to save the world and the poor souls that dwell here?






I'm fucking tired (if not a fucking retard) and I need to sleep.


I should have titled this post "On Contradiction"!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Silence for the Day



That's it

Mama Tumi Buro Hole Keno - Part 2

Jean-Luc Godard is working in 3D. Great news indeed. In 2010, he said that he likes invention of new technologies because there are no set of rules for any new medium. But did he really ever cared about the "rules"? Well, maybe he did and always tried to break them consciously. It's not actually the time for us to say "Goodbye to Language" as we still need to communicate in order to raise funds. Godard fought for his own cause. Rocha fought for his own cause. Mekas fought for his own cause. And we, are just trying to do the same.  If our cause matches with yours, take the step.

A Bengali Feature Length Film made on Financial Contributions from the People, when was it done for the last time?

Taking the step means doing whatever you can do. It doesn't mean just hitting the like button on Facebook. Of course you are welcome to encourage us by doing that, but that's not involvement really. We belong to the forum, Little Fish Eat Big Fish and we believe in those sentences written on our blog header. Mind me repeating that? "We don't believe film-making is a costly affair. For us, Film is not an Industry, rather an activism. It is not all about gloss." You can become a volunteer and be a part of this project. You can help the campaign to reach more people. You can contribute financially. Just let us know if you are willing to do anything at all. Someone said yesterday that she did not contribute because we keep on repeating the same thing. We always talk about the project and funds and almost never talk about the film. Dear friend, if talking was enough we would not have bothered to make a film. But just to clear it up, the film is a self reflexive one. The film is about how it is being made. It's a docu-fiction on the Indian independent film scenario. There are fake Indies in India like Indies promoted by Bollywood, Indies who never tried to do anything other than what industry does with their products. Novices who don't even know who Cassavetes was calls themselves Indies now-a-days. Who cares about what creative independence is? Who cares about whether an independent film be made of a Bollywoodish film language or not? Well, some people did. They were a gang of film activists. The clash between their stand-point and the society pushed them into a big crisis. There was only one way to get out of the situation. Someone needed to come up with a feature length film. Resources were tight and one of these young makers decided to break the wall. He made a film and how he made it is where the film reflects its own story.

Can we hope now you could get a clear idea of it? There are more fragments you'll never come to know until we come up with the film on 1st May, 2013.

So
Share. Donate. Make it Happen.

In 2007, at the age of 85, Jonas Mekas made 365 short films in 365 days. Can't you do this much for a film?
Do you love films?

Friday, May 11, 2012

Mama Tumi Buro Hole Keno - Part 1

" I scream/ You scream/ We all scream/ For ice cream"

So, isn't it better to scream together? Maybe you like the Vanilla, she likes chocolate and I prefer strawberry, but screaming together, you know, well you actually know what screaming together really means. Since we all go to the college named Ogiwawa, I believe one day we'll know to make the awful noise together. Confused? Use Google.
See, life's so easy and we still don't have a payment gateway!

If you don't know what the title means it's actually a dialogue from the last sequence of Subarnarekha aka The Golden Thread (1965) by Ritwik Ghatak. I find this line to be the most suitable title for this post and the previous post could have been titled "Dada, Ami Bnachte Chai" [Ref: Needed? Really? Google]. Sourav Ganguly probably just said good-bye to cricket yesterday. Now, what can we do? We can curse these franchises and sigh recalling that 183 or that debut at the Lord's. Basically that's all that we Bengalees always do and our list goes long from Subhashchandra Bose to Sourav Ganguly. But, how did we contribute really to our society? I believe, it's nothing but the hard work that was required to build up such a long list.
Bravo Tigers, that's why you are the national animal of India!

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine". So, I was not cursing you really. I was just adding some popular tags to this post so that this blog gets noticed. The word must get spread, you know, however possible. This new strategy is certainly better than supplying girls to film producers. You know about this project and you have not donated even as minimum as one rupee till date, how can you expect that people who never heard about it would donate. This is the basic reason I used words like Anurag Kashyap, SRK, Bollywood and DLF IPL in the previous post.
Did you guess it earlier?
Good!
Congratulations! Since you had guessed it before I said, you can now go forward and donate more than 10,000 to our film. Yes, finally someone listed his name in the slab, INR 10,000, the highest amount of donation from an individual till date. We just received it 24 hours ago. Still, this remains the One Rupee Film Project. Don't hesitate, come forward and contribute whatever you can. The first thing you need is to think. "Vabo, Vaba Practice Karo" (Well, Ghatak Again). Once you have read your thought-process, consolidate. Organize. No, I'm not asking you to become a Maoist, it's just how we all can scream together for that ice cream in that opening quotation. Crowdfunding, as we look at it, follows the basic from-the-mass-to-the-mass structure. You don't even need a promotional budget if you work hard and penetrate enough. Now, why should you help us? --- Well, there is no reason, No one should help anyone. Let all the starving people die, we know, they are going to heaven. Forget youthfulness, forget activism and find you voice in your passivity. Someday, your true friend death will be there to hug you because she knows, you've been dead long enough. What a great life! "I Die"--- this will be your final statement, just perfect, like a rhyme! People would say "He/She died" and no one would say "He/She Lived". Does it make a difference to you? Absolutely no.

Jai Shri Ramachandra Muhammad Rasulallah May God Bless You Jo Bole So Nihal and Jay Hind to Conclude!!

The 2nd part of this post will be up shortly

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Nothing Happens in Bengal Now-a-days

I don't know whether I should write or not. I don't know whether I should opt for corporate funds or use political influences to raise funds for the film. If you are really a follower of this blog you must have noticed the silence, how it reigned over this blog for a month almost.
Now it just feels like here I'm again to talk the same shit i.e the shit that you are witnessing quietly since the last week of February, 2012 and the one that might have bored you quite a lot with its "athanni de do bhai, bhagabaan tumhara bhala karega" attitude. You want rock, take this; if you are really a film-buff you must have followed the PassionForCinema website when it was there. I remember a post from Anurag Kashyap (though I don't think he is really "independent") and would like to cite that. It was a time when low budget films like 13B (Madhavan starrerand Straight (Binay Pathak Starrer) were getting released frequently. But people who used to think Bollywood is hopeless and should change never went to the theaters to watch these films. Rather they went for Rab ne Bana di Jodi (SRK- Anushka) just to write about how 'bad' the film was. This is when Anurag made a post and said that what happens on PFC is just "Baakchodi" and all that people do there is nothing but "Baakchodi"!

I liked it. But I had no idea that I'd have to face the same thing within a couple of years. Why do you say 'yes' when you mean 'no'? and if it's yes for real don't try to give excuses 'cause you just said it and never meant it.

See, there are a lots of ways to get money for making a film. But, we love to make it straight and simple. Have you ever heard about DIY (Do-It-Yourself)? Why are we begging? Believe me no one in our bloodlines was a beggar. It's just that if you send us money we'll be sure of your support and would ask for your contact details. Thus, we'd include your details in a database which shall be useful to further independent endeavors. No distributor or no production house can save the real "independent-minded" filmmakers. All the agencies, what they want is business and of course you know the differences between Industry and Art (Shilpo, the Bengali word for both). We are not being hysteric and trying to avoid bankruptcy as every filmmaker should do and we know very well that the proper level of potency can not be reached if you are not self-consuming (Ref: Aesthetics of Hunger, Rocha). What could be a better model than this one? As a forum, Little Fish Eat Big Fish has successfully recovered the production costs of the three DVDs they came up with in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and all we can hope is that ghosts did not buy those copies or ghosts did not download our films using torrent. More than 12k views on our youtube channel were not generated by ghosts, I assume. You make me believe that they were nothing but ghosts since we have only 46 names and 20-25 unnamed contributors on our list. Is it you who talks about how good our Grandfathers used to fuck in the good old days?? Counting from today, The One Rupee Film Project has only 355 days left before it is completed. After the precious DLF IPL is over on May 27th, would you mind to go to the bank and send in some money?? Would you mind telling your friends to do the same??? And if you drink worth INR 10,000 a month please don't send 100 Rs. You better recommend 100 students to contribute 1 Re each. We hope you do have precise idea about the costs of filmmaking. No, we are not making a Titanic or a Robot but we do need INR 300k at least.

The next part of the novella will be posted after we reach INR 50,000 (I mean if we ever reach there). Just today I was telling me not to react, but now I feel sometimes it's better to react. It gives you some comfort and makes you feel alive again
.
Thank you or whatever
Best regards and all that Shit.
Goodbye

Friday, April 20, 2012

The 0ne Rupee Novella - Part II

[Published on MAM Previously]


A man opens the door with a smiling face; must be a servant who already knew that another young filmmaker is coming in search of luck. No one would have guessed that such a rich man can live here in this soon-to-be-abandoned kind of building. How did he become so rich, the filmmaker tries to think while moving towards the drawing room. Suddenly, the thoughts gets obstructed as he sees a young man playing cricket. Not exactly playing, rather practicing, but where's the ball again! What is this man trying to do? He's got a bat, he is posing as if he is playing different shots and, nevertheless he is also narrating the whole action in English. A shadow practice with commentary, nice! The filmmaker stood motionless, watching, until the servant calls him inside. Unexpected association of images and sounds! The fat film producer enters the room

-- 'Welcome, my dear friend, what'll you have, cold drink or beer?

-- 'Beer of course!'

As if tea or coffee is meant for a mediocre only! He knows very well where this conversation is going to end. Sometimes he thinks he must learn to lie. Does it really matter if you cheat some fatsos to make your dream a reality? You just need to say that you know some buyers and they live in some UK or USA and the only thing needed is three or four copies with Spanish, French, Itallian and Russian subtitles other than English. You need to convince them that you know every bit of the international market but, fuck man, you are a maker and not a merchant. You can't humiliate yourself at least! So, again he says the same things like even Uttam Kumar had to cope with flops. Absolutely no one can be certain whether a film is going to work in terms of revenue or not. And the producer would say

-- "See, it doesn't matter to me if your film is a flop. It's my money and I just want to know how I can get it back, I mean at least what I invested. Can you show me a structure?"

-- "That depends on a lot of things."

-- "Then my financial support too depends on a lot of things."

Then they will talk about the market trends and how much investment can assure some return etc. The producer will talk about his previous experiences with other directors whom he thinks to be eminent names now-a-days in the industry. How they came to him when no one had heard their names and how he changed their lives etc. All the same, all the same! Then after a couple of bottles, the filmmaker would get depressed and open up again

-- "The taste has changed a lot, you see. No one likes a good film now-a-days. If you use some slow moves, prolonged zoom-ins and zoom-outs, they will call you outdated. No one wants a Hrishikesh Mukherjee in the 21st century. The longest shot should last less than 6 seconds, that's what they like. Even these kinds of conversation sequences, like we are having a discussion now, sitting face-to-face on two sides of a table, shot-reverse shot-over the shoulder-POV; they will call it cliched. I know, I've used these devices previously. I've heard that film insurance is an option in Mumbai provided that the project profile looks fine. The the kind of casting required to avail that...well, I don't think you are that much strong financially.

-- "Who told you to think about my financial background?"

-- "No, on a second thought, the kind of stars that we have here won't be fit for my film. Most of them are incapable I think. Moreover, viewers can empathize more with a new man, a new face. This is a psychological factor that always works. In case of stars, the process of self-identification gets hindered.

-- "Whatever! If you comne up with something interesting let me know. Just give me a call and we'll see"

Another door is closed.
New face?
What's new again?
It's just a common face
But a face that's uncommon for the screen
For the spectator
In a sea of thousand faces how'd you know who finds empathy in what shape or which complexion
Everyday
I stand in front of a wall
All covered up with posters
Everyday
I shuffle between a thousand images
All I look for is a face
Similar to mine
Yet dissimilar

...And the rain starts to fall  

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Nothing to lose but your head...

It seems so easy when I utter these words. But the head, as is put in the sentence; is it really that much insignificant? The head has not become what it is now in a day. The head is the observer as well as the standpoint. The head is the position of the eye and also the eye itself. It's not that easy to lose your head just for nothing, especially, when you know that it's a doggy dog world. People, who feel inferior, would keep pulling you down and people, who are evidently in a better position, would use every trick so that the distance between you two remains the same. Now the head is your only pal to be banged against every wall. Can you Break? Can You break?

This post has nothing to do with Osho and it has nothing  to do with anything in the world. So you can go and watch DLF IPL in spite of reading this damn blog! The 2nd part of the novella should be up on Madaboutmoviez on the 14th, the day the camera starts rolling. Thanks!

Friday, April 6, 2012

Speaking: Just Like That

The list of scheduled tasks becomes longer everyday. It seems to be never-ending now. This project, that project, his project - damn! It hurts the most when no one pays you what you actually deserve and it burns most when everyone behaves like his one is the most important one because once the goal is accomplished we'll be flooded with fat-ass producers. Do they still think we are innocent children with eyes full of dreams and illusions?

Anyway, this morning we received some good news. The 0ne Rupee film project is now registered with imdb under "titles in production" (visit the page, click here). This is good because they really don't accept much titles unless the filming process has begun. Till date the total collection is INR 22,153. We need more coming. Recently the number of contributions coming in per week has decreased. A lot of people have promised but have not contributed till date. For them, there is just one thing we need to say , "we know, you have been busy, but if you really want this thing to happen please do it now and later just keep spreading the word because what you don't know is there are a lot of people who'd never want this project to materialize successfully. They are out there, watching us and wishing every bad thing possible." So, again, wee need your support. Don't just read this post or like us on facebook. Spread the word, share it wherever you think it's possible. By the way, there was a preview, just a scratch, uploaded to soundcloud a couple of days ago. Our friend Mr. Urban Saint is working on this track for the film. You can listen to the incomplete version here (http://soundcloud.com/indie-fm-bangla/track-1-one-rupee-film-urban).

The next part of the novella shall be up on MAM by the 14th of this month. Later on it'd be posted to this blog. If you have a blog or a website you can join in and help us just by sharing the posts.

We need you with us
Thank you again

Monday, April 2, 2012

The 0ne Rupee Novella - Part 1




Perfect Cinema, where are you?
Where are you the cinema of Pure Images,
Pure Sounds…
Is there anything new at all?
A refreshing frame like a sunny morning during our winters
Or a tune that makes you see a moonlit valley of our autumns…
May be he was thinking. He thinks a lot, at least a lot more than he decides to imply. Taking a decision has always been so tough may be because he knows, the execution is going to be tougher. In an old town by the river, where no one can say whether it’s 2012 or 1932, standing on the stairs of a ghat at least 100 years old, finally he could make up his mind.

- I’ve decided
- What?
- I’ll make a film
- So, what were you doing all these days?
- No, not like that. A feature length film I mean.
- So, finally you father-in-law has decided to become a film producer I guess (giggles).
- You are not taking things seriously enough. Don’t you know me?
- (Laughter) OK. OK. Then?
- I don’t know, I just made up my mind and I’m not going to think about money right now. There must be a way.
- Fine, but what’ll be there in your film?
- You mean content? Story?
- Not that. I mean Sex.
- Fuck yourself!
- You don’t get it dude. Independently produced films do require naked women. It’s what the market demands.

They start moving towards home. They have a scooter kind of non-macho thing that no one would like to ride ever. It looks disgusting

- No, I know, but we’ll need a lot of money to hire such a woman. She’s going to cost me a three and a half feature length films of mine
- But, you’ll be rich, man. Just imagine – New york, Sundance, Seattle, Paris, Berlin, Budapest
- Ya, righto ! London, Athens, Chicago, Oakland --- Step into reality sometimes sucker. We won’t even be left with the money to submit at BYOFF
- Why? Ask your girlfriend to pose nude. Surely she can do this much for a piece of art.
- Sit on my lap, asshole! I’m going to ask your mom --- Auntiji, we are producing some art piece. Please untie your brassiere and pose nude in front of the camera.
- No, seriously
- Yes, seriously. Here’s your home. Get inside and stay there.

The other guy gets down and pokes with a vulgar expression on his face while the filmmaker seems to be deadly serious and sickened with the sick jokes of his friend.

- Did you mind? (The friend says with a giant smile. Evidently he is making faces now)
- No. Do I mind ever? I know that you’ve been a roaring psycho since your very birth.
- Come on man, It was just a joke
- Whatever! Just get lost! We’ll have a serious talk tomorrow morning

Without awaiting a reply, the filmmaker starts his scooter and starts to think again.
Time… why does it always seem to be like a road?
Why do the incidents occur, one after another, in such awful linear way?
Space…why do you tend to get filled so easily with vague objects?
Uncontrolled… Who is going to explain these patterns?
They seem so obvious!



(Please share this post or re-share it on your blog to help us with the fundraising. Visit the LFEBF Blog for the proper format. Thanks)

Sunday, March 25, 2012

The 'One Month' Post

It has been one month since we started raising funds for the 0ne Rupee Film. As you've read before, the campaign was started on the 25th of February at BYOFF, Puri. So, it's one month now, but not 30 days yet. In these 29 days, we've been through a lot. We got 8 articles on different newspapers, websites and blogs. We could successfully collect a sum of  INR 20,352.83 /- from more than 50 people. Although this is actually less than 10% of the minimum requirement but not a bad month really.




We are planning to start shoot in April, expectantly on the 14th and we'd start posting the novella on this blog from the 2nd. Again, if you feel like please share the posts with some basic information about this project on your blog. It'd help us in fund-raising. The more people is reached, the more fund is raised --- that is how it has been with crowd-funded projects always.
We have already come to know that some people are waiting for our promotional mails, press kits and the novella to start working in favour of this project. Sorry for the delay. We don't have a big team to get everything done in a super-organized way. Neither do we have any previous experience with these kinds of campaigns. We are learning, and what we've learnt till date is your support means a lot to us. That's the magic wand capable of doing wonders.

Thank you
We need you
Hope you'll stand by us

Thursday, March 22, 2012

The Story Behind It

The truth is, I'm an idler. Although I was suffering from fever since we were back from Jadavpur and then something happened to my broadband connection (I was able to access internet using my dongle) they just don't stand up as good alibis for not posting on the blog since the 13th. It's been 9 days without writing. The feverish feel didn't even let me feel how fast time flies by when one is not working.

On the 19th evening (or may be night), in the month of February, at around 22:30 hrs. when I told Mr. Gurpal Singh "Gurpal ji, bahat ho gaya, abhi feature banani hai. Logon se ek ek rupiyaa leke suru karne ka socha hai [It has been enough, now I want to make a feature. I thought of starting it by putting a demand of one rupee to everyone]" Sriparna and Surya were there in front of Chakrateertha House, Puri, Orissa and I was quite astonished that I've actually said it. Before that, the idea was shared only once with Sriparna. Gurpal replied smilingly, like he does on every occasion, 'well, it's a great idea but is there anyone here who believes that you won't spend those one rupees on fags and boozes. See, there have been many people in the last years, coming up with ideas like these, collecting money for making film and afterwards none of them were traceable neither their films." --- This reply is what made me feel the necessity of starting this blog.

Four hours before that, I was sitting in a train, Howrah-Puri Duronto Express, at seat no.2. Beside me there was a guy on no.1, named Mr. Abhayanand Pathak. Sriparna, her mom and my mom were on Seat no. 3, 4 and 5. Between us there was the passage, so, I really had no option but to chat with this aged friend of mine when he started talking. Normally I don’t like explicitly religious people, but this time it was different. I felt a touch of wisdom in his words. He speaks a lot (I mean when he starts). Soon I discovered that he is one of the uncles of actor Vinay Pathak. So we talked a bit about Vinay’s performances in different films. Mr. Pathak said that he is a poet and he has two books to his creddit. So, we moved on to poetry and he said he is not a regular poet. He does not understand poetry; rather he tries to understand his religion and the world through his poems. I said, one doesn’t need to understand poetry really, that must be left to the academicians and critics. One must understand oneself to write or compose. Thus, philosophy and religion occupied the central thread of this conversation. Mr. A.N Pathak is one of those guys who say Hey Ram even while yawning. But I, somehow, did not really have any problem to carry on chatting with the Bihari Pandit Brahmin. I myself came to know that I ‘m a Kankubji Brahmin and not a Gaudiya one. Later on, he told me a story of a writer he met at Kurla station. He saw this guy in a bit untidy white shirt and black trousers, asking for one rupee from everyone on the platform. He came in to the waiting room, approached a man sitting next to Mr. Pathak. That man replied negative in a rudely manner and then turned to Mr. Pathak and said “Look at this poor guy. He has learnt this much English only to become an unconventional beggar. What’s becoming of this country”. Mr. Pathak did not reply. He silently started to follow this unconventional beggar and wanted to know the reason of his begging. The man told him that he is a writer. He has written a novel and now he is raising funds as he does not have enough money to publish it.





Yes, it’s an idea copied from somewhere else. I don’t know the name of this writer (I wish I had) but his way can prove to be fruitful for us. Till date, as a forum, LFEBF has produced 14 short films and two feature length films since 2008 out of which 12 shorts and two features were released in three compilations in three consecutive years. Do you know another forum in this country which has been this much consistent? Do you know a filmmaker in India who did take up no-budget as a serious method of film production before or by the year 2008? And when you visit the websites on so-called “Indian Independent Films and Filmmakers” how many times do you find mentions of these works there? Except producing a feature there’s another aim behind starting this fund-raising that is the process itself works as a campaign. This is a good form of no-budget promotion. But some of these so-called ‘devotees’ of “Indian Independent Film” are not even spending a single word on this project. Moreover, some of them are not even responding or replying while communicated with proper information. Where is the problem, can you tell me? Is it with Bengal? Is it with the forum? Or is it with the No-Budget method? I mean if everyone knows us or keeps on following us on facebook why do they become misers when it comes to sharing or writing something about some honest and off-the-track initiative?

Recently my latest film Memories… of a Dead Township (2012) was reviewed by Dr. Ian McCormick. Dr. McCormick also interviewed me via email and posted it to his blog. It’s something adequate to make us happy but we’d have been happier if the review was written or the interview was taken by some Bengali friend of ours, or at least by someone from India.



Thanks to Dr. Ian McCormick and everyone who’s reading, sharing, talking about this blog/project/initiative or the forum. Thanks to all the contributors who helped us reach the threshold of 19k within one month.



The truth is not only that I’m an idler but I belong to a community full of slackers and idlers I believe.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Trends

Depression is like cloud, you know what I mean if you are a sensitive man.
I came across another talented friend of mine today who seemed to be in a mood of a quarrel. These kinds of friends, see, I used to have a lot of them before. They will never do what they should have been doing. They would opt for a job at some office and curse the society for being so cruel. They'd curse their social and economic whereabouts for everything i.e the obstructions of becoming a popular artiste. But it's actually them who decided to sign the papers because they felt insecure at a point of time.
If you know what you are doing and who you are inside, is there a reason to get distracted like that, my friend? Lack of confidence and recognition can make feel a mediocre artiste that he is somebody like Rimbaud or Artaud, only if people could get it! Gosh!
What's there in recognition? If you are all for work why should you care at all? No matter what, just keep on working, use your brain and muscles and don't become jealous of anyone around.
Analyze, won't you?

Whatever, let's come to the point, if you are subscribed to the Facebook page you must have already come to know that the figure now stands at INR 12,908.15 /-  but what you don't know yet is that the highest individual contribution is Rs. 2500. Let's see who's going to break it and donate 5k for the first time.

Our first identified donor from another country is Ginnetta Correlli, a filmmaker friend. Her generosity was soon found in another filmmaker friend named Jason Marsh. We are thankful to them, we think their contributions would motivate others in other parts of the world too.

Be it Re.1 or Rs.1006 people are contributing for real. It's not one month yet since we started at BYOFF on the 25th of February and we're almost at 13k already. May we call it overwhelming, the response? Now we have a reason to be confident and announce, Yes, We'll Start Shooting this April. Now, whichever comes first, 20k or the first shoot, We'll start posting the story-line in the form of a novella, post by post, serially. Friends, asking again, do you have a blog where you can share the novella with some basic information on this project to help raise funds more effectively? --- We think we'll have MAM (Mad About Moviez) beside us. Are you too MAD, about MOVIEZ? Join hands, let's make it happen for the sake of the pure madness

Monday, March 12, 2012

Just Another Post



We were at Jadavpur University on the 10th and 11th at the stall of Guruchandali Magazine in the Sanskriti, 2012 (a festival organized by the students of engineering dept). The collection is now INR 7,807.15 /- But I'm not really feeling like writing anything else tonight. I'm tired. Moreover, I expected some comments or responses on the last post. OK, so it's clear now, no one is going to come forward and say, "here, I can help". It's more like, "you are fighting for your own cause. So, you shall face all that on your own". But what did I really ask? -- I just wanted some friends who can copy from this blog and paste on his own with some basic information on this initiative when I start posting the the story-line in the form of a novella.




Anyway, depression is natural, and it's only temporary. I believe I'll be able to keep on posting like before because I've gone through worse phases and those days have only encouraged me more.




Thanks

Friday, March 9, 2012

Promised Post: Explanation, Expectation, Resolution

I hope I don't need to explain the delay. If you are a reader of this blog you must have already guessed that I'm really not doing some office-work, neither do I have a secretary to do this job for me and just like you, I too have my own problems like depression etc. Today, I updated my old website today for the first time as well as an old blog after 2010. And now, I really don't have  much time. I'll have to leave soon for the city, I must be there by night. Anyway, let's come to the point.

Why is the minimum amount of contribution still Re.1 while I'm clearly stating that even more than Rs. 25 k is welcome from a single person?

My answer is: See, Firstly, Little Fish Eat Big Fish was initiated and founded in 2008 by me, Sriparna and Arupa da (Arupratan Ghosh). It's been quite a long time since then. In this period we've learnt a lot of things about films and also about other things. We have released three DVDs on our own. For various reasons we were compelled to set the minimum participatory contribution at Rs.100 (150-200 for other states). In kolkata till date spending 100Rs. for 5 short films is not an easy thing for all the students. Yes, there are students who can spend Rs.1000 everyday just for anything but they were not our target audience. People who found interest in our works mostly belong to middle and lower-middle class. What we used to do is, we first focused on recovering the production cost and once it is recovered we used to distribute digital copies for free to the people who could not afford spending 100.

Secondly, till date common people in Kolkata are not really that much interested about the independent efforts in film-medium (Well, basic reason behind this is the trash produced by rich kids and the idiotic school-goers who god knows why ever tried to make a film). Even those who are interested are not habituated to contribute to Independent films or filmmakers. This project looks forward to raise this habit. One rupee is nothing, it doesn't hurt. Most of the people use this very amount only to satisfy pushy beggars. The basic difference between us and the beggar is that we are providing them with a little piece of paper containing information regarding this project so that they can check back and verify or contribute more if they feel like. With the exchanged value of one rupee, the unique approach will surely help them remember the fact, we feel. It's not building houses in the air in the name of Independent filmmaking. Our fathers are not our producers and we still believe in the from-the-mass-to-the-mass structure.

I hope that's enough to clarify why the minimum amount is one rupee only. Now, why am I asking for more?

See, just like the ovum needs sperm to produce a new life, a film needs money to come to life. We believe that there are some friends of ours who like the way we are continuing against all odds. Some of them do receive a handsome paycheck at the end of every month. Among these friends there are some we know personally. They are film enthusiasts, fan of good literature, loves music too. It's a clear call to them, "Dear, it's the time for you to act. Maybe once you dreamt of making 'That Film' but then this job and all, and then you had to get married and now you raise a family... alright! No one is calling you to get out of your closet, but we are on the streets. Can you lend us your umbrella? We'd love to smell it and believe that you are still here with us."

For the next two days, me and Sriparna, we'll be available at JU (Jadavpur University) campus. You can come, meet, discuss with us about the film, contribute. For any assistance call me on 919883103809. When I get back from the city I'll start uploading the storyline little by little in the form of a novella. Can I expect you to just copy and paste that on your blog / web with some basic information about this project. That'll be of much help. Let us know.
Thanks

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

The Day after the National Award

Yesterday I followed some Kolkata based news channels. I was waiting to hear something which was not there. This morning I woke up and went through the whole news paper (which is quite unlikely of me as I have been trying to avoid this regular literature on murder, rape, politics, scams etc). I thought I found it when I saw this headline, "Six Bengalees are Honoured with National Award" but alas it was not even there. Everyone is covering almost everything of National Award, 2012 in Kolkata except mentioning Amlan Datta and his BOM. I found the film quite an extra-ordinary one. So, Happy Holi nevertheless, happy independent films!

I was too much tired last night. So I could not post in time again. I went off to bed with the 'Deer-nest' of dear Subhankar Das. But now I feel that I should have posted here instead of reading poetry. Some hot-headed hot-blooded truck drivers and their companions are celebrating Holi just underneath my balcony and I'm feeling like an America. I really want to Vietnamize or Afghanistanize them by bombing from above! I really don't know how to get to the point which I have promised to explain in this post. In fact by now I got this gut feeling that I'm not going to do it now and here. Pardon me, but it is not possible without piece of mind. I'll do it later tonight. By the way, the Facebook page for this project has not reached 250 yet. It's stuck again on 239 I believe. So, help us out if you can and check back later tonight to read the promised explanation of the slabs.

Thank you

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

An Update on Irregularity

My blog posts are becoming irregular. I thought of posting at least once everyday but that's quite an office-job really. I don't even know who reads this blog, yes, of course I find that view-counter to cross 40 everyday, but who are the readers? Are you one of them? I was preparing the list of contributors today, guess it'd be ready to upload by tomorrow. The morning started well when a new friend compared this project with Abraham's 'Amma Aryan'. I was like 'pardon me, but I'm not that great, are you mad etc'. Then in the afternoon the awesome-st incident till date happened when my bank notified me about two transactions. One is of 1.17 INR and the other one is of 1.12 INR. What I found to my astonishment is that there are no names attached. It was written "Global Remittance" where the names should have been. I still don't know who they are., but I guess these are the first two contributions from non-Indians via online transfer. People of other nationalities have already contributed to this project during BYOFF but this occurrences proved that even foreigners and NRIs can contribute just 1 Re via internet though it's not recommended for them. It is also not recommended for people who work at MNCs or own Credit cards etc. Why not? --- well, I'll write about that in my next post, probably tomorrow --- Why I'm recommending some people to contribute more than the specified minimum contribution of  Rupee 1 and in spite of that why still there is the option to donate as minimum as One Rupee

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Depression



Cooking is a good way to handle depression. And when it comes to experiments Einstein comes second to me. I did not post anything last night. This post is actually delayed by almost 9 hours. It's just I was not feeling like writing anything. I wanted the page to reach 200 by 01:00 hours today. But every time everything can not be in favour of you. This simple truth made me depressed. As the Sun said hi, I posted an angry status on Facebook. I was angry with the useless 722 in my friendlist out of which I consider only 50 to be effective enough and 22 to be real friends. I went to the kitchen, started my day with experiments, came back, criticized Bengali poetry of the last decade and then all of a sudden I realized that I haven't invited all my friends to the page yet! :-D

These kinds of things keep on happening to me often. Like I have already promised four Bengali magazines and one publisher friend of mine to submit some works as soon as possible. Now I don't know whom to betray. Any way, almost without any effort we got 20 more likes today. It's not that depressing really. Moreover, we got another mention in the BYOFF coverage of Hindustan Times (Kolkata Edition). As soon as the HT server is ok I'll post it on the 'Media and Articles' page

We need a lot of support. I hope you to be there, standing by this project. Please help us reach 200 in another 15 hours. The day has started in a positive way, with 5 likes in the early hours. We are on 183 now. Another 17 is not a big deal really, isn't it?


Saturday, March 3, 2012

4th Day Begins

At the end of 72 hours after the campaign was launched on Facebook, we were at 158. Not bad really. But I've seen more during my last film. When we stopped promoting the FB page of Memories... of a Dead Township, we were at 239. We didn't need more. But this time we do need. We need to cross even the 443 at LFEBF Official FB Page in order to make this project a success. Show your support, spread the word as far as possible friends. Can you make us reach 200 by the end of 96 hours? Today my article was published on MAM (Mad About Moviez, a Mumbai based forum of film enthusiasts). You can read it here or you can find it on the "Media & Articles" page of  this blog.

The 2nd thing is Paypal, god knows what they are doing with my PAN number. The verification process is not over yet even after such a long time. Once they are satisfied, there should be no problem anymore for you to donate via Paypal. Till then bear with us, and also with Paypal.

More updates are likely to be posted soon. Keep in touch

Friday, March 2, 2012

Things look positive

Yes, quite positive indeed. Today we got another 80 likes and by the end of 48 hours we are on 130. Moreover we got another media coverage. Washington Bangla Radio (USA) aka WBRI posted an article on the 0ne Rupee Film Project. You can read it here (any coverage of this project can be found on the tab called Media and Articles). Hopefully tomorrow I'll create another page named "Partners" in which I'll post contact details of our friends in different cities and states whom you can connect to for making a contribution.

More updates would be posted shortly. Keep an eye.
We need your support. Keep'em coming
Thanks

Thursday, March 1, 2012

I launched the campaign on Facebook last night


I thought of doing it a bit later, but as soon as Hemant Kumar Gaba asked last evening I realized again, the importance of having a page on facebook. Add 10 of your friends to this page and I'll accept that as your one rupee, your contribution to this project. Of course, you can do both, I mean, send some bucks and share the word amongst your friends. Some people are asking "why isn't there a donate button on the page"! See friends I'm only an independent artiste and not a merchant. I don't have any idea about how to do that. If you know, please share your knowledge here by posting a comment. I'd be obliged

The response is quite good so far as I've reached 50 in less than 24 hours. Sriparna is helping me a lot like she always does. I was thinking to add her up as a co-director of the film. She has lived through the story just like me. The protagonist is a male character of course, but with her I think it'd be much easier to get rid of the headache that comes with art and décor. I'm expecting another 50 likes in the next 24 hours. Let's see. Help me as much as you can dear, I really need you beside me and don't forget to like the page if you haven't clicked the button yet. Thanks in advance.


Tuesday, February 28, 2012

BYOFF, 2012 - The fest where I started it

Moi, Un Mendiant (With Sriparna Dey)...                       
                                                 


I launched the campaign on the closing day of this years' BYOFF. Thanks to Mr. Gurpal Singh who kept on encouraging me to go for it throughout the festival. If he was not that pushy I don't know whether I'd have started the campaign there (as I thought earlier) or not. Actually I was quite depressed due to a lot of things. During the presentation of my film, in his introductory speech, Mr. Singh all of a sudden started speaking about the campaign. Surprisingly, an old man of around 60 years (pure guess!) took out a 100 rupee note from his wallet and said, "Here is your one rupee. Come take it." That is precisely how it all started on the 23rd of February, 2012.

On 24th, I was feeling enthusiastic enough to run and get some print outs etc for the campaign but again, I lost all the energy by the evening. Mr. Singh probably could guess it. He came again to inspire me while I was just drinking beer out of nothing, sitting inside a cottage or something like that. He asked me whether I've started collecting the money or not. I thought damn man, what am I doing! Am I going to do it or not!

The feeling kept on being felt till I rushed to the open stage to make an official announcement on the evening of the 25th. Not that everyone accepted it with open mind but all's well that ends well. I gathered Rs. 2,444 by the end of the festival. This initiative also got mentions on the BYOFF coverages of Midday, Long Live Cinema and Dear Cinema.

The fundraising did begin finally!
Hoof!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Beginning Post

Hello,
I just booked the domain to start the campaign. Will keep posting here whenever I have something interesting to share. I'm Anamitra Roy, one of the founder members and the curator of Little Fish Eat Big Fish (The No-Budget Filmmakers' Forum). I just needed to start this blog ASAP so that when I approach you tomorrow I have at least a blog on this project to share with you. The concept is like this: You give me a coin and I give you a paper with my contact and all so that you don't think I will smoke your money away like anything. I know what money is. I made my first short "Jean-Luc Godard Had No Script" back in 2009-10 for Rs 1k. The next that followed was Secret Footage_The Voyage, a 40 minute segment for Rs. 5k and in 2012 I've completed another short named 'Memories...of a Dead Township' for just no money, literally. It's not a style, it's a reality. If I had money, I guess I won't have become a no-budget filmmaker.

I expect your support through the campaign and the production.
And I hope you can trust me.


Thanks