Not my best, but one of my quickest, and one which made it to multiple colleges. Ironically, I love empty drafts wherein I fill in a story built around mu understanding of the student profile. Enjoy!
Time: Summer Vacation.
Character: Me, 9 years of age.
Ext. London street. Unusually crowded, with cast, crew and cameras.
Of the Hyde Parks and Tate Musuems that I could be in, I landed up there, at that time. Someone had rightly said, “timing is everything.” It would be wrong to say I wanted to be an actor ever since I wanted to become something in life. No. I wanted to be a Superstar. The superstar who would open his arms, and all would be happy and well. The superstar who could redeem one out of their sufferings. There he was, Shah Rukh Khan, shooting for the accident sequence in Jab Tak Hai Jaan. His presence commanded the audience’s and passers-by’s awe.
Time: Present day. Dusk.
Int. Crouched over a laptop, room decked with posters of world cinema.
I too wanted to be like SRK on the big screen – either fighting off the bad guys or romancing the prettiest ladies in typical Bollywoodesque songs, in exquisite locations. I would often try to replicate what I saw in the cinemas by balancing myself on a tall chair, in front of my dad’s old handheld camera. Soon, I auditioned for small roles but I could never be as good as I imagined myself to be. One of the reasons was because I never had the confidence to deliver a dialogue in its essence.
It changed when I got my first iPad on my 12th birthday. I had access to a high definition camera at all times, so I started shooting my own short films on it, just to be a part of the spotlight. I would often convince my cousins to help me shoot, but I was never really satisfied with the final product as I couldn’t replicate those starry childhood images. This made me search the internet extensively in order to learn to make those images come to reality. I started discovering apps that helped me use special effects, and enhancing my in-depth knowledge of basic editing softwares like imovie. Soon, with experience behind the camera I started to not just perform better as an actor but make my films look seamless and fluid. I started spending extensive time on YouTube, watching, and comprehending the narrative of film-making from tutorials and fancy travel videos to brilliant short films and intricate animated ones.
Inspired to make an aesthetically pleasing film myself, I shot my first travel video in 2017, named _________, and there was no stopping me after that. What felt like minutes was actually hours, perfecting every shot with its color correction on a software which I somehow managed to download for free, as my parents weren’t willing to spend almost INR 25000 on it! Once the video was out on YouTube, the appreciation and attention I got from my friends and family was overwhelming. No gift or love had ever made me feel quite that way, not even acting itself.
Film-making enabled me to look at life from a different perspective, create various stories and make my audience live them with me. I was learning about something that I had fallen in love with and I actually recall calling my camera “my soul mate”. My parents even sent me to New York Film Academy for a week long summer course to be sure if this is what I wished to do all my life. I interacted with like-minded people from all over the globe and heard everyone’s stories. I learnt to value money, time and most of all, support. I became more confident and developed my acting skills at the same time. The craft has shaped me into the person I am today. To sum it up, my path did change slightly, but only for the better. In the words of my favorite superstar SRK, “Confusion is the route to all the clarity in the world.”
Time: Summer Vacation.
Character: Me, 9 years of age.
Ext. London street. Unusually crowded, with cast, crew and cameras.
Of the Hyde Parks and Tate Musuems that I could be in, I landed up there, at that time. Someone had rightly said, “timing is everything.” It would be wrong to say I wanted to be an actor ever since I wanted to become something in life. No. I wanted to be a Superstar. The superstar who would open his arms, and all would be happy and well. The superstar who could redeem one out of their sufferings. There he was, Shah Rukh Khan, shooting for the accident sequence in Jab Tak Hai Jaan. His presence commanded the audience’s and passers-by’s awe.
Time: Present day. Dusk.
Int. Crouched over a laptop, room decked with posters of world cinema.
I too wanted to be like SRK on the big screen – either fighting off the bad guys or romancing the prettiest ladies in typical Bollywoodesque songs, in exquisite locations. I would often try to replicate what I saw in the cinemas by balancing myself on a tall chair, in front of my dad’s old handheld camera. Soon, I auditioned for small roles but I could never be as good as I imagined myself to be. One of the reasons was because I never had the confidence to deliver a dialogue in its essence.
It changed when I got my first iPad on my 12th birthday. I had access to a high definition camera at all times, so I started shooting my own short films on it, just to be a part of the spotlight. I would often convince my cousins to help me shoot, but I was never really satisfied with the final product as I couldn’t replicate those starry childhood images. This made me search the internet extensively in order to learn to make those images come to reality. I started discovering apps that helped me use special effects, and enhancing my in-depth knowledge of basic editing softwares like imovie. Soon, with experience behind the camera I started to not just perform better as an actor but make my films look seamless and fluid. I started spending extensive time on YouTube, watching, and comprehending the narrative of film-making from tutorials and fancy travel videos to brilliant short films and intricate animated ones.
Inspired to make an aesthetically pleasing film myself, I shot my first travel video in 2017, named _________, and there was no stopping me after that. What felt like minutes was actually hours, perfecting every shot with its color correction on a software which I somehow managed to download for free, as my parents weren’t willing to spend almost INR 25000 on it! Once the video was out on YouTube, the appreciation and attention I got from my friends and family was overwhelming. No gift or love had ever made me feel quite that way, not even acting itself.
Film-making enabled me to look at life from a different perspective, create various stories and make my audience live them with me. I was learning about something that I had fallen in love with and I actually recall calling my camera “my soul mate”. My parents even sent me to New York Film Academy for a week long summer course to be sure if this is what I wished to do all my life. I interacted with like-minded people from all over the globe and heard everyone’s stories. I learnt to value money, time and most of all, support. I became more confident and developed my acting skills at the same time. The craft has shaped me into the person I am today. To sum it up, my path did change slightly, but only for the better. In the words of my favorite superstar SRK, “Confusion is the route to all the clarity in the world.”
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