The latest family movie soon to hit a restricted number of screens is “Shankar-the bold”. It captures the life and times of the youngest one in our family, right from his birth till the time he celebrates his second birthday. 
Preparing for the Movie
As always, the process remains the same. Going through family pictures and videos. Selecting the ones which are worth preserving. Conceptualizing the overall script. Deciding on various sections. Putting them in a tentative sequence. Screening the photos once again. Rearranging some of these into newer sections. Putting these through an Adobe Photoshop wringer.
Selecting the music to be used in the background. Consulting friends and family members for the choice of music. Seeking the help of others to download relevant songs. For some favourite songs, creating a special sequence of the visuals, in sync with the lyrics. Rearranging the script, if necessary.
Getting Connected
For the period to be covered, ensuring that all important events and people are getting covered. Retrieving poems, notes and letters specifically composed for some of these events. Planning to use these at appropriate places in the narrative. Using instrumental music as a backdrop so it does not distract from the verbal content on the screen.
The younger generation needs to understand the background of the family. It also needs to know who all comprise the extended family. Members are spread over all the continents. To collect their photos, getting their names and relationships right and inserting them in the narrative is no mean task.
Elders in the family are immensely useful in providing the finer details of the lives and times of our ancestors. A whiff of nostalgia, laced with family history, ensures that the movie does not remain an exercise in narcissism. Instead, it ends up being a valuable addition to the family archives.
Composing the Movie
There are several movie-making softwares available. The one that we have liked is Womble Multimedia. Arranging the photos section-wise and inserting relevant audio tracks is a skill which one learns over a period of time.
Once the movie has been composed, the question of its disc reproduction comes up. Each set has to be individually checked for its correctness. Defects in sound track or composition have to be ironed out. Eventually, a Master Disc takes shape. This is again played out on a dvd player, just to check that the aspect ratio and other details are well taken care of.
Scope for Innovation
Making each family movie unique is one of the serious challenges. For the latest offering, we came up with the idea of linking family events to important events. So, if the boy was born at a time when an important merger and acquisition had taken place in the business world, the event found a mention in the narrative.
Since ours is a family of movie buffs, we decided to link important family events to movies released around that time. Let us say a marriage in the family took place in a year in which a blockbuster had hit the silver screen. So, a short clip from the movie found a place in the narrative.
A Labor of Love
An exhausting but uplifting process. The unalloyed joy of creativity. The satisfaction of having made something which entertains, educates and celebrates a milestone for the family. Something which the younger ones would cherish when they grow up. A fragment of the subtle connection between the past and the future.
(If you like this post, there is a good chance you may like an earlier one as well: https://ashokbhatia.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/some-baby-steps-in-movie-making)
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