I am a huge fan, no a frantic a fanatic or whatever u call, of tamil cinema from my childhood. I love to watch movies and during my early teens I used to think myself as the hero of the movie, how will it be to bash the goons, have a big opening, be more charismatic and so on. Max extent I went in that dream is I acted in a major role in two skits during my college and of course I directed it, who else will give the lead role to me.
I used to wonder when heroes get all the attention and fan following, why these directors slog behind the cameras. One reason could be they are not good looking, but neither are some of the current heroes. But yes, there is also some pleasure in creating a product. Handling or Supervising story, screenplay, music, editing, camera and so on is real fun. I loved to do them when I happen to be part of video making recently.
Today morning I thought isn’t submitting entries for a competition more like releasing a film. I have been recently participating and submitting entries for few competitions and I feel (though in retrospect) that it is like being a director. I couldn’t be a film director, but if I can compare that to what I do daily, then at least it would be like I am doing what I like or admired more. So here are my opinions on how competitions are just another woods industry
2. Success or failure depends on X factors: Sometimes I have wondered why some great movies were not successful. Yes there are lot of different factors like tough competitions and other mysterious factors which are not under your control. So don’t worry much about the result, after all there is no producer here and no one would go bankrupt if you lose. Having said that, it is not easy to practice.
3. Be a critic of yourself: Again many celebs have said that after watching the film they thought few scenes could have been better. Even after a competition you feel in the same way. Being fully satisfied before releasing the product doesn’t mean fully satisfied even after releasing the product. There will be lot of feedbacks and analyze where u went wrong.
4. Competitions are Masala films: Competitions are not art film. You have great content, but just write it in paragraphs and make presentation. There is a high chance that you will not be selected. We need item dancers in the form of smart arts, 3 dimensional charts, mind boggling numbers and glittering fonts.
5. Release date is fixed: In cinemas no one would come and force you to release a film on a fixed date. Unfortunately in competitions, submissions deadlines are there and your bad luck after sending your submissions, deadline will be extended.
6. Creative and innovative: Last but not the least (this is to say that I am running out of ideas and I am ending this blog with this para), you have to come up with new story lines, new scenes. If you make film with same scene which has come before (though it happens in most commercial movies) people may not like it. Here also they want creative, innovative, out of the box every time and please someone tell me how to get such ideas. After thinking for two full days for a B-plan, I just emptied few chips packet and biscuits and I couldn’t even get started. I have to recently take a presentation on ‘creativity is a skill that can be developed and not a talent that is innate’. Throughout making the presentation, I was telling to myself, why are you lying so much Vadivel.
Analyzing the problem and thinking of logical solutions comes to me I guess rather than these jargon solutions. On the whole, I love to be a part of these competitions, winning or losing doesn’t really matter.
