Do Not Disturb - Making of First Short Film by Ashwamedh Foundation Part 3

  12th Jan 2011, I was waiting for all my team member. There were some scenes which we had to shoot that day. We had only 13th Jan in hand to complete all the editing work as we wanted to submit it to MSFF on 14th Jan till  10 a.m. Everyone was completely exhausted on the previous day. So all came little late that day. We had to start shooting early, but we actually started shooting at 12 in the noon.

                We had to 'cheat' some scenes, as Rakesh the lead actor was not available that day. So all the scenes of visitors like 'Bouquet person, Courier person, salesman' etc were shot till 3'o clock. Rakesh arrived at 4:30 from his job. We shot the remaining scenes 'Watchman, Cable vendor' etc after that. It was totally genius attempt from our side that we managed to cheat audiences during the film. Not a single person recognised that some scenes were not shot on the same location. All credit to editing team. Everytime Bhushan used to wear Rakesh's Shirt and either we used to take his shoulder or his sleeves in the frame. Many scenes were shot in absence of Rakesh.Infact in two of the scenes I have played his dummy. Remember the 'Tie knot, and Blazer-wearing and lifting of bouqet scene'. That it what called 'Show must go on' thing.

            We almost completed all our important scenes. Everyone left for their home. I didn't went to mine in Wadala and stayed in Virar for next day till 2 p.m.The night I spent in copying all film from Camorder to Laptop (almost 4-5hrs) and then Cutting and pasting the videos sequencewise. The editing software was not available on my laptop, so had to rush to Wadala next day.

                Rajendra and Jeetendra came at Wadala sharp at 3:00 p.m. on 13th Jan. We had entire evening and full night in our hand. But I was shocked when I heard that Rajendra had to leave that night at 8 p.m. He was going to his home-town with his family. Luckily he had already taught 'Jeetendra' something about 'AVS' video editor software and Rajendra was responsible enough to stay connected with us thorough mobile whole night. He guided Jeetu whole night, and we all helped him to understand the sequence and length of scene to cut. In the late night Hakim slept. Anant, I and Jeetendra didn't even take a nap. All three of us worked almost for 16 hrs in stretch till the submission of the film. Infact at 3 a.m. in the morning I took second laptop, downloaded the sounds and background music tracks, cut them as per the length in Goldwave software and Jeetu did rest of the mixing. We all were freshers, we grasped things quickly and we mastered in it withing night. The most amazing thing was Jeetu added some transitions whenever we required that effect. e.g. to enter dream, to exit dream., scene in scene at climax etc.

                 Jeetu left in the morning after completely producing the fully edited film in AVS. Now it was my resposibility to add 'Titles & Credit's to film in Windows Movie Maker and submit it within time. But my luck didn't supported me. Earlier night Jeetu had worked on film in two halves and then joined them in the end using Ultra Joiner software. Whenever I used to Import media files to Windows Movie Maker only half of the movie used to get imported. I was very much disappointed on myself. It was now 10 a.m. and still I was not able to do the simple thing of addition of 'Titles & credits'. I spoke to Rajendra and Hakim on phone regarding this.Both gave different advice. Time was running out of my hand. Anant was helplessly looking at me as he didn't had any technical knowledge, and I was just trying my hard to make it happen. Meanwhile I tried one thing I had MS OFFICE 2010 installed in my Laptop. I had already made 'AKDC-10' event strategy presentation on it for submitting it on slideshare. So 'Bulb' lighted in my 'brain'. I decided to add this video in Powerpoint with 'Title and credits' etc. Slide by slide I prepared the movie and burned it on DVD. I sent Anant with DVD to the Organizers of MSFF near Shivaji Park Gymkhana. He went ahead. I kept trying to install newest version of Windows Movie Maker to accomplish my task, that didn't happened till end.

              We thought we lost the battle. We wanted to submit our first short-film to Marathi Short Film Festival, that was the only target we had in our minds from last 9th to 13th Jan and we had missed it by small distance. Saturday ended in big disappointment. I sent all the members message by WAY2SMS , i apologized all for not able to submit the film in time. Everyone was disheartened yet satisfied that atleast we made a short-film. On Saturday night I called up Jeetu and asked him to reach my home on Sunday morning. I went to sleep. It was quite long sleep after 3-4 days of hardwork. I woke-up in the morning only after Jeetu had already reached my place. He straightaway opened my Laptop and started working on the Video. He solved the problem using AVS only. We had completed the Editing work. Final touch-up was given by me. And I decided to take one more chance.

   On Monday in morning I went straight to Ideal Event Management company with our completed film. The receptionist told me not to worry,her boss had already accepted our movie 'DO NOT DISTURB' in Powerpoint format. She even told me that your entry to Film festival is Valid, and if your film get selected it will be screened on 22nd Jan in Ravindra Natya Mandir. I could not believe her words. For some time I stood completely frozen in-front of her. It was feeling of completion. I called up all the friends one by one and gave them the GOOD NEWS. Rahul kept looking at me as he didn't understood what was so great about it. But only all the cast and crew who had worked day and night to complete the first ever short-film could understand those feelings.

                      On 17th Jan we all met in Virar again. We kept little celebration party. We all cheered throughout the film on each and every scene. Pulled legs of every actor in the scene. All the positive energy and happiness was flowing all around the room. But I was very quite. We all shouted 'Ganapati Bappa Morya' in the beginning and in the end of the movie.  For me it was the first little step, journey had just began for the Ashwamedh Kalamach..

It was indeed a happy movement to see our own short film on www.shortz.in after few month.Because, whenever we used to study short-films on that websites we used to dream about screening our own short-film on it and we achieved it.

Note: If you liked the real story of Making of 'Do not Disturb', feel free to leave your comments !!!