A Writer's Collective - First Meeting

So Sagar and I decided to go ahead and the idea of having a writer's informal meting to throw some ideas out. We invited AP, Pallavi and Sheetal Kiran. Sagar has worked on several films and directed 'Nootokka Jillala Andagadu' recently, AP produced and directed 'Premaku Raincheck, Pallavi is a DoP who studied at the UCLA and Sheetal is a script consultant, a writer and director who also teaches about film.

We met at my place over coffee. AP provided snacks - samosas and sweets - and Shobha provided coffee. AP and Sagar got fully into discussion on direction and the issues they faced - how to retain their vision, where they compromised, how much they had to learn on the job and some of the mistakes they made. AP said he could not figure out what was wrong with the script he wrote until he met Satish Kasetty and read Robert McKee's 'Story'. He spoke of how he went about it and followed structure diligently. Sagar felt he would rather follow the emotion and the character. Pallavi said she would be happier following the character and knowing them inside out. Sagar talked of how Al Pacino and De Niro asked their director about what music the character listens to or what his sun sign was for for the movie 'Heat'. Sheetal added that people do whatever works for them and there's no hard and fast rule that only one structure has to work. Films, characters and stories were discussed.

Sheetal said that someone had said that 70% of the film is about music. I never know that music had such a huge impact on the movie. Sagar said he understood music a bit,  while AP said he did not have too much of an idea. AP spoke about how when he met Ram for the first time about making a movie he asked him to tell him the pitch in a 'What happens when....' format. 

Color pallette, how Hollywood works, how local industry works, DI, treatment, characters were discussed. The conversation went on for well into two hours and was very energetic and more importantly fun to share ideas with people on the journey.

We decided to meet again in a fortnight or so to discuss Sagar's script and have more discussions around our craft and how we go about it. I think we made a brilliant start. Thanks everyone and special thanks to Shobha for providing coffee twice.