How AGALU became my first professional short film?

 AGALU

Agalu happened to become my first professional short film in my life. I written the script on 2018 and the movie released in January 1 2019. Agalu is based on extra marital affairs and the story moves through Agosh who is an electrician & married to Amalu many years ago and they both were not happy because of kids they got. And especially Agosh were in depression because of that & same time he meets a girl named Nileena with whom he finds happiness to defeat his depression of not able to reproduce. And when this affair gets to know to his wife Amalu she decides to divorce him, their conversations & their feelings is the story.

I shot Agalu in Nelligudde Lake, Bidadi. I chosen Ashwath Reddy to do the Male Lead role (Ashwath Reddy is one the person who applied for Acting roles through my Quikr Ad ‘Actors Required’ for Sakarathmaka Movie. And he has been touch with me since 2015 & he were a person who doesn’t know anything about Acting but very much interested to do something to become an Actor. It was very tough for him to say dialogues in kannada even though he knew kannada. I don’t know, when I was saying dialogues to let him know how to say, he was saying it, but when I switch on the camera, he was feeling nervous and tension & due to that he was unable to say any dialogues properly. May be he was so concerned about camera, me & especially not to make any errors while pronouncing.

And I was so disappointed when I did finished the shoot, there is no performance video I can choose from the recorded footages, so I just decided to re shoot again with him by explaining more in detail how to pronounce and deliver dialogues naturally. And while re shoot he tried his best and he did something natural which can be taken to make the movie. And then we were looking for heroines, he suggested many, and selected some, but they were unavailable on the day of shoot. And finally we got Kushi Gowda (Aka Pavitra) who belongs to Hesaraghatta, Bengaluru. And she came and we shot in Cubbon park Bengaluru from morning 12pm to evening. She was very excited and interested to do that character & dialogues and all she just delivered well naturally & she was asking weather I wanted to take one more shot for better version. And then the interior scene of Nileena character we shot in a Farmhouse which is located in Hennur Bande, nearby Horamavu where I was staying that time. For the character of Nileena we got Rekha who is a friend of Ashwath & she arrived to my home & we did the shoot well with Rekha & Ashwath Reddy. When I written the script I wanted Harshitha Kallingal (One of the Person who applied to my Quikr ad in 2015 ‘required Actors’ for Sakarathmaka project) to cast as Female lead, and I sent script to her & she read & agreed to do the project. I called her for taking photographs of her with Ashwath as to show Hero & Heroine’s quality times together which is were necessary for the movie to show the background of beginning titles. Harshitha Kallingal arrived cubbon park & I took Harshitha’s & Ashwath’s photos together. And then after few days when I planned to shoot , Harshitha became busy in some other projects and I was not able to wait for her dates and that’s why I just looked forward and then Khushi Gowda replaced her.

The background music for Agalu is purchased from Musicvine.com and the approximate budget of that movie is 25000 (including camera rental charges, food & transport).  Agalu is shot using entry level Dslr Canon1300D & the quality of that camera is not good, but I used the camera in as good as possible without getting any shaky shots or distortions or blur.

CO-LOVE (Malayalam OTT Film)

 CO-LOVE

FAQs with Prem Dev Dileep in regarding his new Project CO-LOVE

WHAT  INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE CO-LOVE?

" The first draft of the script is written on January 2021 & I just wanted to make the movie for OTT and my expected length of this movie were between 40- 50 minutes and I was wanted to make it in Kannada. For that I was selected Aswath Reddy as main male lead & Harshitha Kallingal (Model, belly Dancer, Feature film Actress (Tamil, Malayalam & Kannada). But then suddenly when i got to see a Poster in Instagram which was inviting short filmmakers to compete in a competition of COVID 19 themed short film & the max length of the movie for submission is only 4 minutes. But let me tell about what or who inspired me to write CO-LOVE.

 The main inspiration i got to write this script is based on 1) The Malayalam movie 'See you soon' which really impressed me how they told a story of 2 strangers meeting via online dating app & starts to roll their relationship by online communication, without not really meeting in person. And in that movie the live chatting and browsing, & all kind of digital interaction between characters is very natural & realistic. And they really Re-created those messaging apps and end to end digital conversation artificially without capturing an actor while he is chatting online, because if we try to capture the electronic monitors digital distortions will be seen in footages and blurry view also will accompany. So in the first draft of the script the main characters Pranav & Siya are lovers since many years & during lockdown they interact with each other through Video chat. So I just wanted to experiment as shooting the Actor's performance & the monitor  

HOW YOU CREATED THE CHARACTERS? HOW IT HAPPENED?

" When I just joined in an International school in Electronic City, Bengaluru as a Graphic Designer cum Video Editor, there were a lady (My superior) who was working as a Marketing Executive for the same organization, and she was always concerned about her own health & also her beloved ones health & even people's surrounding her. She was always used to disinfect spray on her work desk before she sits there. She were that much concerned about hygiene around her to not to get caught by any disease, especially COVID. She was taking care of me very well as a collogue, especially when I coughed one day while we were walking together, she was so attentive, bit scary & she told me seriously" Hey see your coughing, you are not taking care of your health Dileep", and I replied in a fun way" Don't worry, you will never get corona from me". So her concern about her own health & others really made me to look at her through my cinematic eyes. And I got an idea that, 'What if a person gets Corona Positive who even always taking precautions regularly well'. So from there I created the character named 'Siya Karan' who is an extremely health conscious & always maintains hygiene & taking precautions in advance to not to get caught by Corona Virus. 

WHY DID YOU COMPRESSED THE SCRIPT?

" I compressed the first draft of CO-LOVE for competing in a short film competition named OPEN SHUTTER short film competition by thanithirai productions & sponsored by Nescafe. When I seen their post in Instagram I am impressed by their cash prizes which the winner gets. 1st prize was 75000, 2nd- 50,000 & 3r was 25,000, and also we have to make the project in the theme COVID LOCKDOWN & THE NEW WORLD', fortunately my project were already in that theme, but their guideline strictly for 4 minutes of movie length for submission, which made me little disappointed, because even after I changed the story a bit & compressed the screenplay page were still in 7 pages.

I thought It is very difficult to say an emotional in depth story in 4 Minutes, but however let's shoot & try to reduce the length of the movie up to 4 minutes and we can send it for submission & the submission deadline was February 25th 2021. And it didn't went as I planned, there was problem in availability of selected Actors on the dates when I planned to shoot. When I wrote the first draft, my plan was to cast Ashwath Reddy in lead role but later when I changed the story a bit & compressed the script for competition I became more serious about casting and in the modified script there were requirement of in depth performances to be given by the Actor to whomever I assign to do. But still I wanted Ashwath Reddy to take that opportunity to perform well (Emotional Scene), but he was not enough confident about giving me the performance i wanted In this movie, I told him that I will be supporting you to perform, you just have to try', but he said he can't cry in any scenes, because he is not trained himself for that. So i got to reject Ashwath Reddy from CO-LOVE Project & then i was thinking about a good Actor who can perform well, i had Yeshwanth (The Actor whom i casted in un finished project named MERGE) in my mind, and i spoken with him about the project, he really impressed by the story of CO-LOVE and he agreed to do the project, but he was in his native and he were working from home, so he was not sure about coming on the day when i decided to shoot. 

And due to his no guarantee of availability for the shoot, i started looking forward for Male Actor's profiles, i searched the data bases of Actors who are applied for Acting roles through my Talentrack.in Advertisement, but i didn't got anybody from local Bangalore. And same time i was searching profiles for Female lead role.

HOW KRISHNA NAMBIAR & HULUGA BECAME CO-LOVE'S LEAD ACTORS?

When i was searching forward for good-looking Actors & Actresses i got few profiles of Actresses & some of the profiles are Malayali.  And i was thinking that, if i get Actors who know Malayalam i will do this project in Malayalam also. And Krishna Nambiar is a Medical Student studies in Siddhartha Medical College, Tumkur & she were applied on 2015 itself when i was looking for Female Artists for my first & cancelled project named 'Sakarathmaka' (English-Kannada Movie) , that time she around 18 years and i couldn't select her because of her young age that time. 

And then in 2020 October, when i posted an AD in Talen track (Required Male & Female Actor) for Marali Bandaga Kannada Movie, she has applied & she were looking more matured & suitable, but for that Project, i wanted an Artist who knows Kannada well, so i couldn't select her. And then when i was not getting new profiles from Talent rack i was looking the profiles of Actors who were applied earlier, and i got a spark to cast Krishna Nambiar as Female lead (Especially because she is medical student & she will be able to do a character who is more hygienic & health conscious) , but in the row there were 3 other female artists & in that 2 Malayali's including Krishna Nambiar. But based on telephonic conversation with Krishna Nambiar i really understood her passion for Acting & how much enthusiastic she is, and i rejected other profiles because lack of their seriousness & one person said 'right now she can't do the role'. So it came to Krishna Nambiar who absolutely fits for the character. And i finalized her cast & then i was struggling to search Male Lead Actor for CO-LOVE, i didn't got anyone better & i just got a spark to cast Mr. Huluga Gundi (Actor who worked in Kannada independent feature film 15-50 & some web series and all) who was applied for Acting roles through Talent track ad for MERGE movie in 2019. I called Huluga and told the story, and he is also impressed by the story & he said 'he is ready for any small role also in my movie' but i gave him the Male Lead role only, but i just wanted a little more confidence from his side that he give the performance required for this movie and so i just sent an Audition script & then he sent me a clip of his performance. I watched it, but i was expecting little more & i forwarded his performance to Krishna Nambiar also, and she said' Yes, i think he can do this role' and so i finalized the cast of HULUGA as Pranav in CO-LOVE Project.

PARISARA ( Kannada Award Winning Independent Movie)

HOW I DID PARISARA KANNADA MOVIE?

I never thought Parisara project will become a reality. When i was working and staying in a Farm House of Mr. Binu Sameul Thomas ( Proprietor cum Partner, Best2Display Ventures ) i inspired by the surrounded greenery and nature. I was enjoying my stay there except the work, because work was boring because i was only the one employee there working as a Graphic Designer by designing Photobooks. On May Month of 2019 i thought to make a short film about Nature. ' I wanted to show the how much nature is important for us to heal our busy stress life mess or irritation or any kind of disturbances.' So i written the story

 

of Parisara in a brief and then i written the screenplay as short as possible, because i wanted to make it very short. After completing the screenplay i called Harshitha Kallingal (https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Art/Harshitha-kallingal-1891660894385486/) ( Model & Actress) and told about my concept and story. She felt good and agreed to do the project. And then i started looking for locations in google, i found Thattekere ( Almost border side of Karnataka and tamilnadu) as a best place to shoot Parisara. But when i searched more about that location i found that due to a recent accident to a Travel by Crocodile attach the Thattekere Lake and premises are closed for Tourists. I felt disappointed by that news and there were no other optional place to shoot Parisara that time in my mind especially the place where we can travel easier. So informed about this to Harshitha Kallingal and Ashwath Reddy also to whom i have assigned a small role of a Stranger who inspires the Heroine to go to nature and comeback. Due to non availability of the location to shoot i dropped Parisara project that time, even Harshitha were busy working in modelling.

And then later i joined to a new company in Kannamanagala ( Bangalore ) and i stayed in a flat at Budigere Cross, Bengaluru. On November 2019 i switch on a new project named MERGE with Software Engineer Yeshwanth (https://www.facebook.com/devineni.yeshwanth) to whom i assigned Hero Role in that Project and we shot one interior scene there inside my Flat. And the Cast of Merge were filled by HR & Actress PAVITRA, Chitra Paremeshwaran ( Filmmaker ) & Ashwath Reddy ( Actor), but due to lack of finance i had to put the project on hold. Then i realized that MERGE Project i can't continue with less budget. So i felt bad about holding that Project till upto getting enough financial resource. 

And suddenly one day in November i called Ashwath Reddy and spoken as " We want to do a small Project at least, since after our first Project 'AGALU' we havn't did anything yet, so do you have any stories with you which we can make as a very short film in very less budget?" He repiled " No sir, i don't have anything like that, i have few subjects and scripts which i kept to make as feature film in future". And then i said him " Ok then let me see if anything i have written and kept in my script folder". And that time i got to mind about few scripts which already i written and kept and in that one is PARISARA, but unfortunately i didn't had that  script in my new laptop. It was in my old display damaged laptop. I didn't had a non working monitor in my room, i tried again by connecting that to old laptop, but it didn't work. And then i asked my company to allow me to connect my old laptop to one of the company's system and copy that PARISARA Script to pen drive. I have not sure about weather the script will be there in old lap or i might had deleted it!. But god saved me, i got PARISARA script when i connected my old Lap to office system by the consent of Mr. Afsal ( 3D Designer) who is a Malayali.

Then i copied Parisara to my new laptop and modified the script by elaborating Ashwath's character as KIRAN when after i spoken with him about getting investment for PARISARA Project. And he agreed to invest a bit for the Project. And then i completed the elaborated version of the script and then Started shooting the project in Khaji Sonnenahalli Rural area. On the first day we shot Ashwath & Preethi's conversation scene, but we couldn't finish the planned scenes on that day due to drainage of battery in Nikon DSLR 500, and we tried to rcharge the battery by giving to nearby houses, but unfortunately we couldn't get the house where square plug is available to recharge. I felt disappointed about not able to finish the planned shoot, as Preethi was saying that she can't again for the re shoot, she said , she was expected to finish the entire shoot in oneday. But i was not satisfied with the dialogue scenes captured, because of technical faults and  un convincing acting of both Ashwath and Preethi. Then i said however we have to shoot the rest of the scenes in the next day, and i request Preethi to comeback next day, but she refused, and ashwath also requested but , she again refused by saying that ' I have office tomorrow '. And finally she agreed to come early in the morning to finish the rest of the scenes. And i felt little happy at the moment. But the next day i and Ashwath were waiting for her arrival, but she reached late to the location, around 12.30. and then we shot the Entire dialogue scene again by convincing her to do because there was technical problems while capturing and also acting is not came well. And we shot continuously without break, and then we went to little more away to shoot other small small scenes. We shot beside Kannamangala Lake, and Rose garden which are situated close to each other.  

How to Make a Professional Short Film in Lowest Budget (Prem Dev Dileep)

Hi, Today I wish to share you about 'how to make a Professional Short film in Lowest budget' & which theme is best for that.


So first i recommend you to write down a Short script (below 20 pages) for romance genre/comedy/humor. Your film must include Drama as Prime Genre, because you have to tell the story through dialogues (which is generally called 'Drama'). Means either 2 person's interaction story in a same place live, or 2 personal interaction story through over the phone ( Actually this will be very easy to do for un professional beginner Actors (because no need of making chemistry physically between the actors(Most of the Beginner female Actors  shy or hesitate to do combination or chemistry with co-actors(hero),If you have a hero & heroine who are intimate friends or lovers then it will be great for you to use that opportunity to use them for intimating scenes with good chemistry. Hope you will not confused about chemistry in film making.

So, 2 character speaking from different interior locations each other over the phone theme is best for making a professional short film in lowest budget. If you choose outdoor scenes,you will be needed much fund for to shoot outdoors (travel expense, food,equipment,frame cleaning etc). The advantage of shooting short film in indoor is you will get more privacy for the production of the project,outsiders will never become an obstacle anyway for your short film production.And you will get opportunity to implement good cinematography by effective lighting with existing natural light source & LED rechargeable Soft Bulb & thermacol as Reflector for light bounce inside the room or whole floor where you planned to shoot your film. And another advantage of shooting indoor is you can create shots with smooth camera movement to the subject by Tripod dolly or using a computer wheel chair also.Another advantage of shooting indoor is,you can record live dialogue of Actors while they are acting using shotgun mic with boom pole or using hidden lavaline microphone & voice recorder.

Also you can use 180 Degree rule & rule of thirds of Cinematography in the framing of shots after blocking the scene for shoot.In Cinema, in order to display a good story dramatically, you need to pay for a manual focus Camcorder honestly.Then only you can focus the subject of the story exactly & clearly without distracting any other background objects in the frame. If you are don't have sufficient fund for buying a manual focus DSLR Camera/Camcorder,you can rent out for one day or two day or according to how many days you wants the camera to finish the production of the project.It is best if you are renting professional cameras for professional Short film making.And one camera is enough for you. And the best advantage of this telephonic conversation theme is the fresh actors can freely behave or perform well in as characters,because actors don'y have to act each other directly. First you can shoot the entire conversation dialogues with performance as character in one interior location,then you can shoot the opposite actor's performance as character speaking over the phone scene from another different interior location.

So make your first Professional short film with applied cinematography in the above mentioned theme after preparing well in all sections (Preproduction,Production Plan, & Post production Plan).you have to think about the post production plan of your short film in advance before your going to shoot the film, otherwise your film will be loosing the overall film look & mood.(Don't forget to apply cinematic color grading to the movie  while editing.Without cinematic color grading your film will never look like a professional movie, it will look like a flat tele video or documentary.And finding a suitable background score according to the subject & genre of your movie also very important in bringing your movie to professional level.

Do as best as possible. Put 100 % percent efficiency to your project. Definitely your hard work will pay off for you one day. 

How to become a Professional ACTOR without going to Acting institute?

Dear Fresher Acting enthusiasts,

Let me share a truth with you. Do you know in this world almost all people love to become a Superstar or heroine in film industry, only thinking about money & celebrity fame value. But the people those who are reaching to film industry are real hard workers, no body can enter film industry without a little effective hard work.

Most of the poor people dreams about becoming a super hero in film industry & make money to live lavishly. Poor people dreams becoming a celebrity only to escape from the poor life only, they don't even think about what acting is! what is the objective of an Actor? They thinks that 'if a producer gives only one chance,they can show something & become a superstar from the next day itself after the release of their movie.

Why they don't think about the Audiences. Every Actor/Acting enthusiasts must first think about the audience.Who are your audience until your first movie is releasing or until you get an opportunity to act in audition of a film.The people around you are your audience, if you are an actor.

Whatever you are performing/ telling a story with behaving must get into the heart of your audience straight away. That is the ultimate goal of every Actors in this world.

A person who never seen a drama in his life, may not become a good Actor. From Drama or any kind of Stage play art fresh actors can learn many things & also they can understand that Acting is an 'ART' not a technology or something.It is true that there is a science behind Acting, but you don't have to be learn the science of acting to become a professional actor anyway.

In real life sometime we do acting to hide something or we tries to hide our real natural emotions sometime for escaping from someone or not to hurt someone,or not to let someone find what's happening inside our mind.

Like that only in a Story a character will be doing or feeling. So that time being you are an actor you need to duplicate the same situational emotion which happened in your past life.

Observe your life & your surroundings,especially how people are interacting each other,how some people speaks or communicates in a different way of style,& how their body language differs from others.Observe how an un educated Tea shop keeper behaves & highly educated business man behaves. Find the differences in behavior,speaking tone, dress sense,costume,attitude,intelligence & body language.

First observe different characters around you,then try to imitate their characters or expressions,way of speaking & body language. If you practice this imitation method, definitely you will get into known as an ARTIST (Acting Artist), nothing you can achieve without much more practice.

A person who uses his most of the time to play or practice cricket well,then end of the day,definitely he will become a good cricketer, but that doesn't mean that ,it will take him to international cricket team.That will happen only when preparation meets opportunity.

So do watch movies, not only feature films but also both professional & un professional short films too, from un professional short films also you can learn Acting by finding the silly mistakes making by the un professional actors of un professional short films.