I We made our first second movie!
To Did – A short film.
Written, Produced and Directed by: Akhil Sasidharan & Hari Shanker R
To Did is a short film that celebrates the potency and power of Time. From ancient sundials to the modern atomic clocks, mankind has tried to hold and watch time. Time is immense and immeasurable. We wanted to capture the power of time and manifest it in our movie. We wanted to make time stand still, and we realized that there’s just one way to do that – by capturing its essence in a photograph! The entire movie is a series of still images stitched together at various frame rates. 1568 images were used to make this movie, which reminds you of a picture book from your school days. 🙂
The movie has a story in itself, Akhil Chettan (a pro-blogger, quizzer, photographer, movie-buff, senior at college and a great buddy) has been obsessed with movies for long. He’s even written a couple of professional scripts which he’s submitted to various competitions, but always in vain. Frustrated, and with talent bustling within, he badly wanted to portray his passion and carve a niche for himself. That was when we became buddies and I realized that he’s more or less a carbon copy of myself.
We started working on a script for an ambitious short film. But it had a lot of constraints associated with it. Both of us were broke! We couldn’t afford costly video cameras, actors, props and elaborate sets. Still, we decided to make do with the constraints and started working on a rudimentary script. That was when Kerala Short Film Awards was announced. The deadline was hardly a week away, and both of us were badly screwed up by the intricacies of the engineering curriculum, namely Projects, assignments, series exams and the lot. Flustered by the lack of time, we decided to choose another story and zeroed in on Time. I came up with the idea of stitching still images together for the movie. We began writing like hell!
Armed with his Nikon D40 SLR, Akhil Chettan & I were clicking away in no time. Despite an array of project presentations and other crap, we completed our 9 minute movie, in style. It’s not perfect, but given the time constraints and deadlines, it is our best foot forward. The was my first experience in doing a narration. Although the voice lacks clarity (blame the audio comperssion, my broken up Windows XP, and a nagging cold), I think I did okay. Compared to my first movie. I feel ‘To Did’ is a better effort by all means.
Please watch the movie and shout out your candid comments in here. 🙂
P.S. Do read this detailed post about our movie by Akhil Chettan. 🙂
it was great..all the best
“That was when we became buddies and I realized that he’s more or less a carbon copy of myself.”
I’m touched. 😉
d concept s awesome!u Did it.bt,i tink,pic shd tl d story.narration must not compete vth picture bt shd b qued 2 pictures..nd net reslt’ll b d film..nywyz great effort!al d bst..
@ Soorya Narayan:
Thanks a heap, buddy. 🙂
@ Akhil Sasidharan:
🙂 Anytime, bro! 😀
hello there actor-writer-director, jus posted some on the other guy’s page. feel lazy to post again. so check it too when u get time..okiess 🙂
http://im.sliced.in/filmmaking/to-did-from-start-to-finish.htm
@ Aparna VR
You’ve a point there. Unfortunately, we were short of pics, and we had to make do with archived ones from our kitty. 🙂
Thanks for the kind words! 😀
@ girl:
Read, sis. 🙂 Thanks a bunch! Love ya! 😀
absolutely loved ur guy’s work..a concept well executed though at first some part of the narration and the images just flew over my head. On second viewing, it all fit in…I cudn’t believe that those wre images stitched together because some part of those did actually look like a video..and loved ur narrative style, although I doubt whether some of the weighty words you used will connect with a layman. Still a grand attempt and I’ve to say I was blown away
@ Praveen:
Thanks a bunch, chetta! Some scenes were actually made to look movie-like, even though others were random. The weighty words, well, you’ve a point there. Will make sure I’ll take care of it the next time. 😀
Thanks a bunch, once again, bro, for all the support and the nice words. 🙂
Hey buddy…!
Tell you,that ‘s a BIG tym ‘F’ movie man….’F’ fr Fantastic ;)(Obviously) :)!
Great Effort,n you knw…many ppl have ides,but seldom make it a reality…n YOU hav done it !
‘N ur narration…professional-Truly !
Oh,n hey,i had no idea you cld take away abt 9 mins of my Fucking tym…this way. (yea-2 b frank-the rest abt 43sec..i did skip in b\w..lol ) jk ;
@ Viswanath:
Lol, thanks for the ‘F’ comment man! Appreciate it and honoure! 🙂
Thanks for the comment on the ‘professional’ narration too. 😀
And yeah, I can understand the skipping part… it’s a tad too long. Next time, you’ll watch through the entire movie, I guarantee…
it was a nice ‘time’pass :).. nice work.. and great narration.. all the best with the awards 🙂
Thankyou, I never knew that, thanks.
nice blog and nice movie btw…
we had also made a short film..
will send u the link soon…