Bengalooru-ed

L-R > Shami (Kavita's hubby), Kavita, Vasu (aka Swarathma Sai Baba), Aloke, Arun, Chinmayi, Aditya (IDD), Geetika and Bharani

Pic: Geetika's Mac

Kavita Arvind
Mon Jan 7, 2008

Last Saturday (once removed) was unusual. It saw a motley bunch of people who shared some things in common share a few moments that were as nostalgic as they were interesting. Frame twofive met in Bangalore.

So it follows that the commonalities were the love of cinema and NID. Forefront among the not so 'commonalities' being Vasu's new hairdo.

I cannot deny that I went to the meet with some aspersions. The only bait that got me going was the opportunity to meet fellow NIDians (the connections with the mothership run deep) and the fact that I was terrified of incurring Arun's wrath and his follow up phone calls!

I reached earlier than the others as usual and waited at Barista's at MG Road. Arun was the next to reach. His enthusiastic grin was infectious. Soon Vasu, Vasu's fellow band mate (Pavan), Chinmayi, Bharani, Aloke, Aditya (IDD) and Geetika made their appearance.

Conversation of any kind at Barista's MG Road is quite difficult, especially when the collective age of the patrons at the cafe doesn't quite add up to your own, so we drifted to my most favorite place in Bangalore - India Coffee House.

Over several cups of bitter-sweet coffee, Arun spoke about frame twofive and what he hoped this meeting would eventually lead to. An informal platform of NID film and video graduates who could share ideas, their love of cinema, films, conversations... gradually expanding to include their friends, anybody who loves cinema and could bring something of value to the group.

The conversation flowed, the idea was exciting. We spoke of ways of bringing in more meaning to what frame twofive could do, in terms of eventually giving an added impetus to the film department at NID and its rapidly expanding fraternity.

I found the meet rejuvenating; it is always interesting to meet people you have seen as students or perhaps even taught as students in their new avataars as working professionals. It is nice to know that in whatever little way, you have been part of their journey.

We moved from India Coffee House to my home. We needed a quieter place to watch some films. Armed with several beers, we hijacked the television and plonked ourselves in front of it, thus disrupting any plans that Shami could have had of watching Manchester United strut their stuff.

Arun showed us a compilation of the project-1 of students who had graduated in 2007 (project-1 is the first independent film that a student makes, it can be either an advertisement or a public service ad). We also looked at Bharani, Chinmayi and Vasu's Project-1; and my batch's first group project.

What followed were debates on juries; discussions on whether a film should be seen in the context of its film maker or not; on the film makers themselves, some of whom were present in the group.

On a more personal note, it was interesting to watch the film my batch had made as long back as 1997. We never finished the film; in fact we were so unhappy with the film that we did not even put in any credits to it. I had written the story and the script for this film and I felt moved to see the potential in this film 10 years later. I could not help but wish that we had dug our heels in and seen this film to completion.

Though the frame twofive meet at Bangalore started with no intentions of purpose, but perhaps more of curiosity and connectedness to the institute... the form that the evening eventually took was quite beautiful, even magical in a way. it seemed as if a bubble enveloped us, a bubble of common stories, journeys shared, ideas acknowledged, films made, films that worked and those that did not; there was this bond, fragile but a bond nevertheless, that wove us together.

To be honest, I am not sure if we will meet again in the same spirit, I hope that we do.

More importantly, I hope that frame twofive is able to look beyond familiarity and the confines of NID. I would love to see this platform expand to include people from other disciplines, without labels of any kind, but very simply with sensitivity and sensibility to a story told well.

Tum Aa Rahe Ho Na ?

hi all,

People coming together is always a nice thing, especially if the reason behind it is cinema. On the windy morning of 15th of December, in an unusually empty BMW, I met arun gupta. Even before the customary greetings he asked me, "tum aa rahe ho na?". I replied in affirmation and heard about the efforts of all the current students in setting up this whole affair.

So I must congratulate arun gupta and all the students involved for making this happen. Staying in Mumbai and working in the highly commercialized industry for the past two years I have realized how difficult it is to meet people with similar sensibilities. Hence this meet was highly refreshing and rejuvenating. Though I think it would have been better if the films package had gone beyond the graduating students, as somehow films make a different kind of sense when taken out of the context in which they were made. Also some work of the seniors and of the current students would have projected a better picture about the way things are moving ahead at NID Film and video department.

The chai and the bhajiya were really enjoyable as I feel most of the fruitful conversations (I should say bhajiyaful) happen over a cup of tea. It's great to see the NID film community increasing every year, which also suggests a pressing need for the community to stay in touch and I think that the kind of an informal setting frame twofive provides can go a long way to fill that void.

regards,
hitesh kewalya

P.S. : the t-shirt fits me!

The Full Circle

A few days before the Convocation, Milann and I were cozily sitting inside the yellow telephone booth behind 'Amul', exercising our fingers and vocal chords. We shared a page full of many mobile phone numbers scribbled against thirteen names…

Both of us were almost clueless about the people we were about to have brief conversations with; most of them being celebrities - for varied reasons!

I was more interested in listening to the conversations than actually making one. Milann agreed to do the talking and eventually learnt the introduction by rote.

"Hello?"

"Hello…"

"Hi I'm Milann here, Milann John…I don't know if you know me…"

"Actually, we are compiling a DVD of spots or SEGs made by the graduating students…. for Frame TwoFive…?"

"Do you want us to screen any spot or SEG that you've made?"

* * *

It was around five o'clock in the evening and the winter sun had begun to drown. Each student we spoke to was doing interesting work in distant corners of the country. Adityan was busy with a shoot in Madhya Pradesh, Nayantara was researching in Pune, Aloke had started his production house, and Swati had just got married.

In retrospect, it was a strangely beautiful hour that we spent on the telephone.

A group of individuals would soon meet again to celebrate Cinema with a larger group… a means that had once got them together and also propelled them to disperse. I was apprehensive about the interaction, but also very eager to be apart of it.

The DVD compilation was not a tedious task. Saurinbhai was of great help. We chose the spots as per the students' requests.. Some of them were pleasantly surprising. I had not seen Geetika's work before, her 'anti-spot' forAdbusters.com was very well crafted. Adityan and Swati's PSAs for Udhyaan and Helmet Protection were witty.

Curiously, quite a few students had not been very keen on screening their spots or SEG when we had asked them for their choices. They were more eager to show their later projects…

The screening on 15th (Dec) morning was a pleasant one. The idea of watching the first project clicked. The films became pieces of recollections and hence more enjoyable to watch than the masterpieces themselves. After each spot, we had a funny Behind the Scenes piece as additional non-digital entertainment. This was queerly the most nostalgic part of this meet. Each film, which I had simply seen as just that, while compiling the DVD, had in many ways, travelled a full circle back to its author.

These authors/filmmakers were amidst us, and the rest of the Frame TwoFive gathering, subliminally, felt proud of being one of them.

- Prachi Mokashi

I Blog, Therefore I Am

The title is 'lifted' from the latest post (Blogito Ergo Sum?) in Mandakini Menon's blog THINKALOUD (http://www.mandakini-m.blogspot.com/)

Other Frame TwoFive bloggers that I know of -

1. Frame TwoFive (easy to read version of this e-group)
http://frametwentyfive.blogspot.com/

2. Nothing in particular (Parul Gahlot's blog, named after one of her NID films)
http://parulgahlot.blogspot.com/

3. FLOTSAMNWEEDS (Kavita Arvind's blog)
http://flotsamnweeds.blogspot.com/

4. TWO INSOMNIAS (Junuka Deshpande's blog. The last entry says -This Blog is under conflict, kindly visit later)
http://twoinsomnias.blogspot.com/

5. STILL WATER (Akhila Krishnan's blog)
http://www.akhila-krishnan.blogspot.com/

6. P.S (Roopal Kewalya's blog)
http://roopalkewalya.blogspot.com/

7. SiD's Cafe (Siddharth Gautam Singh's blog)
http://www.cafesid.blogspot.com/

8. Shadows and Stone (my, i.e., Arun Gupta's reveal-all blog)
http://shadowsandstone.blogspot.com/

Do you know of any other Frame TwoFive bloggers ? Do write in with details.

- Arun Gupta

A gathering in 7 parts

*Chapter 1*: Before it began

INT. PREVIEW ROOM- MORNING

Two women, about twenty years of age sit at the far end of the room. One levels the projector while the other one plays back some video files on her laptop. A third girl sits even further towards the corner of the room reading a newspaper, in English, not aloud though.

A:
(Closing her newspaper)
Should I shift the tables out?

MO:
No! I am sure they will be space or even better it will seem like there is no space.

MI:
Ya man! They will turn up no? I mean, I was thinking about it last night MO and seriously...

MO:
They will they will...They will??? Lets see.

'MI' is done fiddling with the projector, 'MO' has gone to drink some water. 'A' proceeds to make a playlist on 'MO's' laptop. The playlist is called Frame25.

*Chapter 2*: How it Began

On 15th December 2007, the Frame TwoFive group gathered at NID, Ahmedabad. Amongst those present were Arun Gupta, SB Saxena, the convocating and the current students of Film and Video at NID.

It began over a span of half an hour as missed calls were made, SMSes (I mean the plural of a SMS) were exchanged and people ran to catch breakfast at BMW while others floated in. In this process, the projection's wallpaper was changed about five times. The songs in the playlist were going on, at a lower volume though. The celebrities, or rather the celebrated, the convocating students had all soon arrived.

The meeting never began, it was a gathering which did. There were no formal introductions, briefing on Frame TwoFive or a statement of an agenda. We came together and as a group seemingly dictated by the space, time and company started of on something.

*Chapter 3*: The screening

Sometimes you laugh at a film. You laugh because of the memory you have of the film- the memory of you having made it, of having shared the experience of making it and having watched it. You may also laugh as a third person, not the film maker itself, experiencing all this. Sometimes it doesn't matter whether you know the film maker or not, but it does seem to matter whether he/she is present while watching the film. Despite all this, sometimes, you also laugh because of the film itself. At NID, even though we recollect the making of the film while watching the film rather than actually watching the film, we do after a point, watch the film itself, as a film. Somehow, these notions go haywire while watching films in a group, when in this group are present all those afore mentioned. I guess film viewing, in a group, is quite an interesting thing.

*Chapter 4*: Chai and Bhajiya

'A' likes pouring out chai though she does miss having chai itself. Drinking chai is a ritual, not an action. Chai creates conversations. The act of drinking Chai is more significant than the chai itself. 'A' enjoys missing this experience. She knows she will enjoy recollecting this feeling of loss as others will the feeling of not having lost it.

*Chapter 5*: Waiting for the End

The Frame TwoFive T-shirts shall be released today. We hope everybody likes them. Aastha, Ujjwal, Sushmeit and Uday did manage to pull it off. Quick! They are done with their chai and are coming back. Let us sort it out into piles. We should give one to Arun too.

*Chapter 6*: The End

Refer to 'Say Cheese!' post below

*Chapter 7*: Epilogue

The non convocating bunch, having not got their T- shirts as yet run to the preview room to pounce on them. 'AA' of the higher order calms down the frenzy. She stands alight, list in one hand and T- Shirt in the other. We were forced backwards into civilisation worth a ten thousand years in ten minutes. We 'collect' our T- Shirts and drift off. We land up on either of the two isles- Chai gate or BMW. We bump into others, the same ones we had been with all through this reading and sit with them. We spend some time together, share a few conversations over chai and we leave.

*Note*:
The tables were not neccessary to fill up the room and we introduced ourselves to each other only right at the End.

- Aishwarya Arumbakkam

Say Cheese!

Photo: Anjali Nayar (Siddharth's DigiCam)

Graduation Bhajiya Chai

Roopal


Akash, SB and Aloke


Priyanka, Amit and Siddharth


Ujjwal, Prahlad, Ahsam, Uday and Malhar


Geetika and Roopal

Prahlad, Amitesh and Yaatra

Arun

Adityan and Ruchi

DigiCam: Siddharth Gautam Singh