Performed as Play

 

The script was initially conceived as a play, and performed at EZCC. All the action happens within the square on the floor.

Ways to Intervene

Before we started shooting the film we wanted to define the role Transit\ion would have in the process. The Patua had written the script and were the main stars of the story (with cameos from us). To make a film collaboratively, acting as more than just a film crew, we wanted to have some creative input.  The image shows the noticeboard we used to keep track of ideas. Below is a list of interventions we considered, some of which were implemented, others may be still used in future edits of the film. 

 

Video- looped -different version of same scenes repeated

Composition/ structure of filming

Breaking up the play into scenes

Repetition of scenes

Change order of scenes

Prompter

Add a narrator 

Add a character

Add things between scenes

Add another scene

Add sounds or sound effects- music?

Find locations

Props/ scenery

Film on location- ie. river

Costume

Pot/ paintings, how do we involve them?

Swap roles

Lighting

Film Location Recconnaisance

Photographs taken by Patachitra artists.

On one of the days we suggested to go outside of EZCC (Eastern Zonal Cultural Center) where we had our project space, and think of possible locations where we could shoot the film. A group of Patuas took cabs and asked Niels and Arunas to come with them. These photographs were among those taken during that trip and they show locations that later became sets for most of the scenes. It was surprising for us to see so little of the cityscape on them. Was it because Patua were searching for something familiar to them? Kolkata was a place of visits to them, but it was very different to where they lived. In conversations with them they would often highlight the symbolic meaning of certain things they photographed. Like a tree or water. They would also be very precise about the particular elements within shot, for example, a field with a very specific set of trees, a path that resembled one they knew from home and that could not be found in Kolkata. After some time I realized that we were too. I also wanted the camera to be placed in a certain way. For instance while filming the scene in the village Dukhushyam was concerned about his and the other artists position within the frame. For him frame was a theatre stage. I was more interested in the background, thinking of how to capture fragments of the everyday life happening behind the actors.

by Magda

Transformation/ Rupantor

Chinese Whispers/ Telephone in Kolkata

Before we begin...

Film Screening in Naya and Dashpur

 

At Pingla and Dashpur we organised screenings of a film we made, compiled from footage taken during last years project. The screenings were an opportunity for the people in the village to see what the participating artists made last year, and a reminder for the artists.