On this documentary, I had written a detailed script, as I usually try to do. My plan is always to have strong base of a structure in place before shooting, so that at the time of shooting I can afford to be open to what is new.
Sometimes larger forces do play a role. One day before the shooting, I learned that Rahul Rastogi and his wife Shilpi were in town, but were due to leave before I shot the segment on Rahul's mother-Prabha Rastogi. So we quickly changed the schedule to incorporate Rahul into the shooting. It was to be the first day of the shooting, so there was a fair bit of chaos, getting into the 'groove' of working together for the whole unit. I had originally scheduled an easier segment to film, to allow for this adjustment process, but on a shooting, if you're getting something that makes one story richer- you have to re-schedule and go for it.
We got another example of this in the Arora story, where we missed filming an interview with the family's grandson on our scheduled day of filming. It was a blow, but as the boy was not around, there was nothing I could do. I had filmed alternatives to this story, but really wanted to use this story in the final structure. As it happened, two days later we were filming a shot in that area and learnt that the boy was around. So all else re-scheduled and we did his interview, which features prominently in the final segment.
Sometimes you have to comply with the timings of other people and institutions for getting a few shots, even though you can 'stage' the same shots easily at another time. This happened when we were called early morning to film a group that was meditating, we had returned late the evening before and were all tired, but I knew that with this group we couldn't 'stage'/'re-create' anything. All that we needed had to be filmed 'as it happened'. Well, we did get a few moments then that we could not have replicated no matter what we tried.
Ever done an interview where a dog came and sat in frame without making a noise? It happened to us when we were doing GS Bhatia's interview in his garden. I couldn't use that bit in the final edit, but its there in the original material.
I wanted a visual of a new born, the unit and I couldn't line it up till the last day of filming. I had left the interviews with the doctors for the end, and after his interview Dr Sirohi asked if he could help in any way. It turned out that he and his wife are partners in a hospital, which had a ward for new borns. So we actually filmed the opening visual of the documentary as the last shot of the shooting.
That's the way it works in documentary filmmaking.
Sometimes larger forces do play a role. One day before the shooting, I learned that Rahul Rastogi and his wife Shilpi were in town, but were due to leave before I shot the segment on Rahul's mother-Prabha Rastogi. So we quickly changed the schedule to incorporate Rahul into the shooting. It was to be the first day of the shooting, so there was a fair bit of chaos, getting into the 'groove' of working together for the whole unit. I had originally scheduled an easier segment to film, to allow for this adjustment process, but on a shooting, if you're getting something that makes one story richer- you have to re-schedule and go for it.
We got another example of this in the Arora story, where we missed filming an interview with the family's grandson on our scheduled day of filming. It was a blow, but as the boy was not around, there was nothing I could do. I had filmed alternatives to this story, but really wanted to use this story in the final structure. As it happened, two days later we were filming a shot in that area and learnt that the boy was around. So all else re-scheduled and we did his interview, which features prominently in the final segment.
Sometimes you have to comply with the timings of other people and institutions for getting a few shots, even though you can 'stage' the same shots easily at another time. This happened when we were called early morning to film a group that was meditating, we had returned late the evening before and were all tired, but I knew that with this group we couldn't 'stage'/'re-create' anything. All that we needed had to be filmed 'as it happened'. Well, we did get a few moments then that we could not have replicated no matter what we tried.
Ever done an interview where a dog came and sat in frame without making a noise? It happened to us when we were doing GS Bhatia's interview in his garden. I couldn't use that bit in the final edit, but its there in the original material.
I wanted a visual of a new born, the unit and I couldn't line it up till the last day of filming. I had left the interviews with the doctors for the end, and after his interview Dr Sirohi asked if he could help in any way. It turned out that he and his wife are partners in a hospital, which had a ward for new borns. So we actually filmed the opening visual of the documentary as the last shot of the shooting.
That's the way it works in documentary filmmaking.
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