Going to the first day of the shoot
Uma Rani, Kirstne, Sumangali (back row), Swetha, January, Vignesh, Chandru (front row)
We picked up the students at noon and brought them to the office. The Koovathur kids had also arrived. I asked Swetha and Chandru to come and help me get lunch from a nearby hotel. Upon leaving the office I realized that Swetha didn’t have chappals. Apparently her chappals broke at the bus stand when she reached Chennai and so she was barefoot. So after putting in our order for lunch we went to a small chappal stall and bought her new chappals for 40Rs. For lunch we ate parrota and meals together in the office with all the staff. For most of the students it is their first time being around computers and in an office. They wanted to see everything and explore, but we had to keep an eye on them so they didn’t disturb the office too much. We finally left for the hall in two cars at about 2pm. The kids and their teacher all piled into the ambassador with Parvathy. Sumangali, Priya, Kalai and I all went in Suman’s car and followed the ambassador to the Goethe Institute, Max Mueller Bhavan. Walking into the studio for the first time was a little exciting for everyone. They had never been in a big studio space before. It is like big concrete hall, that had a a vinyl floor rolled out in the middle. The production crew had put up a backdrop for the set and blacked out the windows. For the first day on the set, the students mostly sat with the music technician and the actors and practiced the jingle and other tunes that will be used in the episode. They recorded their voices for the music--wearing big headphones and talking into a mic. Even though it was their first time performing, they didn't seem to have any stage fright. They all warmed up to it very quickly. Although it did take them some time to get all the tunes down...and the music technician will need to have to edit a lot to make some of their recordings useable, but they were very cute!
On the set waiting for the directors to say "Rolling, Action!"
Day 2, Shoot 7am to 7pmI was up and at Brinda school by 6:30am to meet the two boys. Vignesh was there right on time and came alone, at least a 15 minute walk requiring crossing a very busy street. Chandru was 30 minutes late but came by his father’s auto. We went to the office and picked up the Koovathur girls, got in the taxi and went to Max Mueller Bhavan.
Today the students got to put on their costumes, make-up and stand on the set in front of the lights for the first time. Very exciting, but they soon realized it was also very exhausting and hot. We were able to run the air conditioning unit for the room when we weren't shooting, but it was too loud to use all the time, so the room got very warm after awhile. We were constantly rushing up on set with water bottles and biscuits to keep the kids energized. Nobody knew what to expect the first day of the shooting, but we all figured out very quickly that this was going to be a slow long process that involved a lot of waiting around. The production crew had to shift and adjust lights. The camera men had to find the right angles and the directors had to set the stage. And then we had to manage the kids and make sure they weren't going to tear down the sets.
A long day on the set in front of the lights. They did an amazing job staying energetic and enthusiastic all the way through.
Day 3, Shoot 7am-10pmI had another sleepless night singing “A kite cap, a cone cap” and “Tommy is a tall tiger” in my fitfull sleep. These songs and the jingle are going to drive me crazy. I guess its good that they are catchy, but if I can't get them out of my head soon, I might go mad.
Vignesh met me at Brinda at 6:25. The car picked us all up at the office at 6:50. We arrived at MMB by 7am and had tea and biscuits. As soon as Sumangali and Parvathy arrived we started getting the kids ready—makeup and ironing costumes. The kids were on the set by 8am doing some filler shots of them playing near the caravan while the other actors got ready. Chandru had the best part—playing the drum attached to the caravan. Yesterday we only got about 25 minutes on film and needed much more, so today was going to be a LONG day...lots of scenes to cover in a very short time. We had had high hopes of finishing early, but ended up barely dragging the kids out of the studio at 10pm. Lots of lessons learned about time management! We will need to adjust our planning and schedules a lot for the rest of the episodes.
A week after the initial shoot, we went to the Koovathur school and shot some scenes outside.
Some hilarious moments on set:
- One student can NOT pronounce tub and it comes out as ‘dub’
- When the kids met the creature they were totally freaked out. But even before he put on his costume, they picked out who he was in the room without having any clues. He has long hair and hadn’t shaved. He kinda already looked like a creature.
- Watching kids record for the first time—big head phones on listening to the music without being able to hear their own voice. They were mumbling and off tune.
- One student kept adding “ing” to every phrase in the song. It took many many tries to get it right. She was saying things like: “Read booking” “Play gamesing”
- Street/folk dancing during cap song...the boys love it. This may be a hit song. They went wild when they heard it and couldn't stop dancing to it.
- Cultural bathroom issues. The kids had perhaps never been in a bathroom with toilets and no squat toilet before. The girls were squatting on a marble floor bathroom with a toilet. Luckily there was a drain in the floor and they were washing it with water, but still--inappropriate. We found an outside toilet behind the studio that was squat style so that we could avoid the issue.
- Chandru saying “cut” “take” and “action” before the directors. We had to remind him many times that it was not his job.
- Chandru using friendly verb forms with adults which is actually viewed as being very impolite. We had to have a talk with him about how and when to use polite forms of Tamil.
- Chandru needs a minder to sit with him, remind him every 2 minutes to be quiet. We may need to hire an assistant just to monitor him in the future.
- “Vignesh is a always a good boy” said by Vignesh after Gilli Gilli Valli said he was a good boy. He only talks in the third person.
The kids have become very serious actors very quickly. They remember their lines, know when and where to be and can change their personalities as soon as they hear the word "Rolling, Action!" But they have also started demaning A/c cars and will need to start wearing sunglasses to hide from the papparazzi. What have we created?
The production team, a dynamic group of ten volunteers, interns and Aid India staff, met today to confirm roles and responsibilities and discuss the (slightly grueling) schedule. R.S. Prasanna, a Chennai filmmaker, was our chief guest and motivational speaker. He led a very helpful discussion on how to make a movie with little or no budget. That's us! We focused on trouble shooting especially in the areas of lighting, sound, direction and keeping the momentum going for 3 weeks, especially with the kids. So glad to have a resourceful and experienced filmmaker on call for this initiative.
Two of the child actors prepare a bingo game card using opposites vocabulary. The main focus of the 2 week rehearsal preparation has been to build up their confidence of English vocabulary, grammar, writing and reading that they have already learned through games, activities and one on one interaction with multiple teachers.
The phonetic sound letter props are almost finished. These will be used throughout all the segments to help reinforce the sounds being taught in each segment. Do you know what sound 'ie' and 'oo' make? Think 'tie, die, fried and ' and 'moon, spoon, stool, boot'
Today we took the letters outside and filmed the kids dancing around with each sound in various locations. Still lots more to do, but we got about 1/3 through the letters before the sun got too high in the sky and we were attracting too much attention to be productive.
Adam, our camera in charge, is spending his summer holiday volunteering for this production. Lucky us! He arrived less than a week ago and has already bonded with the kids--playing games, introducing kiwi to them for the first time and teaching them how to hackey sack. And has already spent several long hours in the sun filming on the streets of Chennai.
Our Chennai-based interns are hard at work on their laptops checking scripts, sourcing last minute items, location scouting and working on story-boarding. These guys will be assistant directors as well as our main post-production editing crew. This production would not be possible without such a talented technical team!
