To pee or not to pee !

Three behind us.."Raahein","Dwandwa" and ,the latest, "To pee or not to pee". A little more than 2 years and only 3 to show; considering that the last two were about 10 minutes each. Disappointed we are, not for the number of films though; it's for the time that was wasted. We completed "Dwandwa" around March this year. It's only this Friday that we got "To pee or not to pee" done. The time in between saw us work on a script, check out the locations, plan the shots; but miss one thing. Forgot to check the camera before we left for the shoot. The lens was damaged from one of our trial shots for the same venture and after a whole days filming, we realized that each one of our perfect shots had not been that perfect after all. What we thought was an issue with the display on the cam, had cost us much more than all the effort we had put in. We, for a few reasons, had to complete that shoot over that weekend, which of course didn't happen. There went a couple of months' planning and that film will be on hold for some more time now.

A conversation during this shoot had put us on track of the next one. So it was script time again and the ideas flowed. Once the foundation was done, attention shifted to the actual filming. This would be the first time we would be extensively shooting in the public. "Dwandwa" was mainly shot very late in the night(around 1:00 am to 5:00 am). But this had to be daylight and peak traffic. The shots from the car with the scooter following wouldn't be much of a problem. The difficulty lay in some of the shots at traffic signals and the closing sequence of the movie.
The two subsequent weekends saw us visiting the locations and deciding on the camera angles. This, we made sure were pretty much finalized, so as to avoid wastage of time on the day of the shoot( surely not with people around). With all the planning done, off we set for the first day's shoot.
The shot was to be from across a busy traffic junction at Minnerva, with Ambareesh(Ambu) waiting for the signal to change on the other side of the junction. Ambu somehow managed to take his position at the front and farthest side of the vehicles waiting. The scene required him to ride right across the front of the waiting vehicles and park his scooter on the other side. Sumanth (Sumu) was already shooting; Praveen and myself were trying to act as inconspicuous as possible (what with a traffic constable idling with his back to us not more than 6 or 7 feet away). Right then came this man and went straight for Sumu with these questions:

-How much did the handycam cost?
-What are you doing? (Answer: College project)
-Which college?

..and then he went off!!! Ambu too had left his place by then. Ambu had to go a long way round to come back to the signal again. Some more effort to make sure he led the signal and cut across and we had our first shot for the movie.



What followed was one smelly shoot at the public toilet at Minnerva. As we shot, we had around 4 to 5 people coming by and urinating all over except inside the toilet. One even urinated on the entrance. Our choice of location was vindicated.



The last sequence was shot next, and rain which we had hoped for all along, graced us as we were moving to the location. It was the perfect setting for the end and we didn't want to miss it.
Thanks to having the angles planned out, it didn't take us much time to get through the shots here (with the light fading). The only delay came from this 'uncle' who repetitively walked into the frame(he was close to the camera) of a long shot of Ambu. I had to walk over and tell him that he was not supposed to be in the frame. He didn't get it and he was all ready again (wiping sweat off his face) to come into the frame for the next take. I had to lead him away by the arm, telling him that this particular scene didn't require anyone other than the hero to be in the frame. He wanted to know who the hero was. 'Ambareesh' it was. I couldn't control myself and went on to add that he already had a couple of serials under his belt. Uncle fell for it hook, line and sinker and thought he recognized him.

Sorry uncle. Just got carried away.

Shoot on the next day saw us running all over Bangalore to get the shots. Vijaynagar, Gandhinagar and finally B'lore University. We shot the traffic constable scene in the university( to avoid the risk of being questioned by someone about the policeman's costume). But as luck would have it, the place we decided upon had a police station, not more than 100 metres away. We went ahead and both Ambu and Prasad were brilliant from the word go. We decided against the dialogues in the screenplay and let them come up with their own. And did they come up with some good ones. The shots came out really well and we had done enough for the day. (We also had 2 drunk visitors on a bike wanting to confirm if Prasad was a real cop. They were mighty impressed by the way he looked and rode away congratulating him).



We were done with all the video we needed in the next couple of days. We had the movie ready in a little over a week after that. Using sound from the location in most of the scenes helped a lot. Waiting for feedback now. The few till now have been good. For that matter any sincere feedback is good and welcome.

-Shishir