Why Do You Think People Should Give You Money To Complete Your Film?

Important question!

Critical in other words!

In this short blogpost, we'll try an old method to solve this riddle; negation of the negation. We'll state why people should not give us money and whatever is left shall be the reason for them to give us money. 

Let's start

1. We don't assure any return. So, people should not give us money expecting some sort of financial gain

2. We don't serve to any political party. So, people should not give us money expecting we would promote their propaganda

3. We haven't won any big award. Our films have never been screened at any renowned international film festival. So, people should not give us money thinking we'll make them proud by bringing glory to the nation

4. Our film is not produced/co-produced by some retired Bollywood actor/ working Bollywood director (without or with a revolutionary image). So, people should not give us money thinking they'd be participating in something "BIG"

5. We are not casting Tolly/ Bolly/ Holly - wood stars in our film. So, people should not give us money expecting a dinner date with Karina Kapoor in return

6. We are not making a film on how the Indian revolution can be successful. So, people should not give us money thinking we are a gang of messiahs of the proletariat

7. We are not descendants of Heeralal Sen/ Dadasaheb Phalke/ Devaki Basu/ Ritwik Ghatak / Satyajit Ray/ Mrinal Sen/ Mani Kaul/ Shyam Benegal/ John Abraham or any living or dead person having any relation to any regional or national or International film industry or business. Not Even Jean-Luc Godard or Jon Jost. So, people should not give us money thinking we have it in our blood

8. We don't have a long time PR policy. In fact we have no PR policy or marketing plan at all. So, people should not give us money thinking we are making history in the 21st century

9. We have never done this before i.e making a film gathering funds from the crowd. So, people should not give us money thinking we are experienced enough to come up with an Indian Kickstarter some day

10. We certify that everything stated above is true and correct to the best of our knowledge and belief. So, people should not give us money considering this blogpost a cool marketing stance that comes under the "just kidding" category

Is there anything left, any reason that should make people give us their hard earned money? 

Guess not! Then why the hell are people giving "Us" money to complete "Our" film? 

Confusing, no?

1. S N Nanda

2. Rajiv Sinha

3. Carole

4. Kanungo

5. Swagat Sen

6. D.K Sornam

7. Dev Daruka

8. Surya Shankar Dash

9. Maharatna Banerjee

10. Dhrubaa Ghosh

11. Bagula Bhagat

12. Hemant Kumar Gaba

13. Samarendra Das

14. Gurpal Singh

15. Whose handwritings are not readable (3)

16. People who forgot to drop a mail (12-15)

17. Riddhiman Basu [Associate Producer]

18. Ritam Bhaumik

19. Two Unknown Foreigners

20. Avishek Thakur

21. Ginnetta Correlli

22. Jason Marsh

23. Kanchan Sengupta

24. Sayan Chakraborty

25. Shamayita Banerjee

26. Apratim Ganguly

27. Ajasra Das

28. Manju Chakraborty

29. Kamal Kumar Roy

30. Monomita Roy

31. Shubhankar Mazumdar (24fps.in)

32. Debdut Sadhu

33. Supratim Sanyal (Washington Bangla Radio INC.)

34. Tushar Sarkar

35. Anirban Roychowdhury

36. Gairik Roy

37. Sunando Patra

38. Nishan Chatterjee

39. Kumar Chitrang

40. Tuhin Mallik

41. Soumyaditya Nanda

42. Moumita Chakraborty Goswami

43. Sushanta Kar

44. Sonali Sengupta

45. Suddha Prasad Bagchi

46. Gangotryi Sorcar

47. Achintyarup Ray

48. Caesar Mandal

49. Soumya Maity

50. Atish Baul [Associate Producer]

51. Justin Andrews

52. Joydeep Thakur

53. Avijit Ghosal

54. Debajyoti Guha

55. Mrinal Mazumdar 

56. Anirban Dashgupta

57. Debajyoti Mukherjee

58. Sanjoy Sinharoy

59. Saptarshi Dey

60. Sreemanti Sengupta

61. A. Dasgupta

62. Siddhartha Nath

63. Anindya Bose

64. Mukherjee Twish

65. Amiya Kumar

66. Bipad Bhanjan Behera

67. Antara Kundu

68. Avishek Nag

69. Indranil Ghosh

70. Somak Dutta

71. Saswata Chakraborty

72. Rupa Debnath

73. Soumya Bhattacharya [Associate Producer]

74. Snigdha Sheel

75. Mr. Dasgupta

76. Maifuz Ali

77. Sabyasachi Das 

78. Koustav Bhattacharya

79. Mrinmoy Chatterjee

80. Ugen Bhutia

81. Adheesh Verma

82. Neeti Tandon

83. Aroonav Das

84. Ankush Hore

85. Neha Bhat

86. Koushik Bagchi

87. Tarang Desai

88. Shre Kumar Chatterjee

89. Gautam Kar 

90. Rijabrata Chakraborty

91. Samyamoy Sen Gupta

92. Somnath Roy

93. Sounak Kar

94. Rammohan

95. Manas Tarai

96. Aniket Mukherjee

97. Nabanita Bhattacharya [Associate Producer]

98. Shounak Ghoshal

99. Supriyo Das

100. Soham Pal

101. Nilabhra Banerjee

102. Ankan Paul

103. Bikramjit Chakraborty

104. Atma Prakash Mishra

105. Amik Das

106. Amir Motlagh

107. Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

108. Varsha Chakraborty

109. Argha Sen

110. Tuhin Subhra Sinha

111. Ugenther Kumar

112. K V Krishna Rao

113. Arnab Ganguly

114. Rohosen Bandyopadhyay

115. Riccardo Bella

116. K V Srinivasan

117. Kannaiah C H

118. Sanhita Modak

119. Ushnish

120. Ipsita Palbhowmick [Associate Producer]

121. Maj Gaurav Garg

122. Two old LFEBF members 

123. Salil Biswas

124. Soumen Atta

125. Arpan Chowdhury

126. Tushnik Chaudhuri

127. Nabendu Bhattacharya

128. Ranjan Roy

129. Subrata Mukherjee

130. Ramakrishna Bhattacharya

131. Anirban Bandopadhyay 

132. Debanjan Das

133. Anirban Chattopadhyay

134. Parambrata Chatterjee

135. Abhinandan Ghose

136. Anisha Das

137. Anonymous

138. Indrani Datta

139. Subir Kumar Sengupta

140. Mrs. Sengupta

141. Mr. Sengupta (Junior)

142. Samran Huda

143. Deva Agarwal

144. Dinu Bandopadhyay

145. Abhinesh Warrier

146. Deep Shome

147. Sriparna Chatterjee

148. Pratim Ray

149. Pinaki Sen

150. R P Das

151. Biswajit Das

152. Samik Mukherjee

153. Yashowardhan Kauns

154. Sayonto Kundu

155. Dwaipayan Basu

156. Lohit Grover

157. Sharmila Roy

158. Atin Dutta

159. Suranjan Ghosh

160. Dewan Rameez

161. Debjit Bagchi

162. Suman Manna

163. Anonymous 2 [Associate Producer]

164. Krishanu Majumdar

165. Indranil Ghosh Dastidaar

All these people have actually spent money to make this film a reality. 

Not on this list, there are those 16 patrons too who contributed via Funduzz.com! 

What do you think, why did they do that? 

Now don't call them all insane since there are more than 180 of them!

And there'll be more, even if you don't find an answer...

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"!

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?

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

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)

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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.

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