Poster & Trailer of Bardsongs

Never got the time to update my blog on Bardsongs. Time has passed by – the official trailer and the poster has been released. Working with the Dutch crew was fun. Nice people.

Poster of Dutch Feature Film Bardsongs

BARDSONGS trailer from Sander Francken on Vimeo.

Rehearsing with the Dzo

How I wish that the stuffed Dzo could walk. How I wish that the stuffed Dzo could carry a cart. How I wish that we could place a few humans inside the stuffed Dzo. How I wish we could use some kind of robotics on the stuffed Dzo.

Today was the first day with the real Dzo and I must say that a few things went well but something that didn’t go well was the injustice done to the poor animal. The animal is not used to carry a cart, specially a cart with 4 people and a few barrels and baskets.

We did extensively practice with the Dzo. First we put the cart on the Dzo. It did manage pulling the cart but the Dzo needed to be pulled by its nose in order to make him move. It went up and down a slope. There were 6 people holding onto the cart to keep it in balance. I wonder how we’ll manage a wide shot of the Dzo with the cart. Anyway, Digamber is going to come up with a solution.

Then the actor got onto the Dzo and rode it for a while, but again it needed to be pulled. The Dzo did try to retaliate at times and that did scare me a bit. I wonder how we’ll achieve the shots. I wonder how much time it would take. 3 days to shoot and I hope it’s enough for the practice.

Fairy Tales: a reality check

If we would have a giraffe with a cart. If we would have a flying girl. If we would have a talking Dzo. If we would have had a swimming elephant. If we would have a stuffed human. If we would have blue bees. If we would have had red grass – we would not be shooting this film but a Science Fiction Fairy Tale.

Most often things are convenience based. Sometime the film lacks reality and sometimes it becomes a fairy tale. Sometimes we need a stuffed dzo and sometimes we need a walking dzo. Sometimes we need a girl and sometimes we need a superwoman. Sometimes we need a 14 year old but we land up with a 22 year old. Sometimes we call it reality and sometimes we call it a fairy tale.

But where we stand is something to consider. We need a Dzo as our main lead. We need a horse for a return journey. We need a cattle market for the climax. But we have 16 days to shoot. One thing is for sure that some of us are aware of the reality, that’s why we changed the horse to a truck without affecting the story. What is to come, no one knows. But one thing is for sure – no horse is one headache less and some valuable time saved.

The art department is doing fine. They have the vodafone board ready and they have a stuffed Dzo. My friends, we are almost there. The fairy tale is about to begin.

Chilled in Chilling

Today we chilled out in Chilling. An ideal Sunday. We shut shop at 2pm and then decided to go for a drive to an isolated scenic spot. I prepared a revised schedule and gave out the Day out of days to the concerned departments. My work for the day was done.

After lunch Karin, Kawal and I left for Sangam point. This is a place where the Indus river and Zanskar river merge into one – into Indus. We hanged around there for a while and decided to have a cup of tea in a village close by. We drove to Chilling, about 30Km from Sangam Point. In stead of tea, we had some beer.

While we were chilling in chilling, Sander was trying to figure out his way to finish his shooting script. He had borrow Kawal’s laptop for his work. There was a screening of the first part of ‘Bardsongs’ at 7:30pm. We missed it as we were under the impression that the film was at 8:00pm.

Turn off the lights

Before even Sander began to start typing his shooting script, the entire crew understood what was in store for them. On the very third day Sander lost his iBook charger to the unpredictable electricity fluctuation. Fortunately for me, he informed me about it, else my Macbook charger would have also met the same fate.

The news spread like fire. Every crew member went out shopping for spike guards. Now each one has a spike guard to himself. But this does not solve Sander’s problem. How does he write his shooting script without a Laptop or a Computer? I thought of helping him. I called the Apple Helpline and then a few dealers in Delhi. No one had an Apple iBook charger – it was out of stock since Apple has stopped manufacturing the iBook.

The next step was taken. We borrowed a laptop for Sander from Tstenzin. Sander spent 5 days preparing his shooting script. The shooting script was almost ready. Everything was fine till this evening, when suddenly the hard disk of the laptop stopped responding. The only noise that came from the laptop was ‘tick… tick… tick’. That was the end of the shooting script. There was no backup taken. Tomorrow we live in hope – hope that we find someone in Ladakh to recover data from a corrupt hard disk.

I can feel Sander’s frustration. I would have gone half mad if this would have happened to me, but Sander remained composed.

Tanglang La

We have decided to have fun on the sets of SF Film’s Production of Bardsongs Part 2. Last night Kawal, Karin and I mutually agreed to shoot a Side Story of the film. We’ll do this in under the banner of Taglangla Pictures ( Tanglang La – the pass at which everone fell sick). We are going to form a script around what the areas we will be shooting. We have selected a few characters around which we will base our story – they may be crew members or actors or just any interesting person on the street.

The toughest part will be to keep this undercover.

To start with, I just met Digamber, our art director and animal cart making expert. For the Jodhpur shoot he had made two camel carts and for this shoot he again going to make two carts. One for the Dzo and one for the horse. What’s going to be interesting for the Side Story is the making of a stuffed Dzo. I just had a word with him and he says he will need to a hunt a Dzo soon for it’s skin. Beware no one needs to know, specially Sander. I think it’s gonna be an adventure.

Karin and I went in the evening to order 3 T-shirts with for a newly formed Tanglang La Films. We will get them on Monday. We are busy with the prep work for both Bardsongs and the Side Story. We expect to begin start shooting the Side Story on the 6th of August ’09. We have also started an official blog for Tanglang La Films. Once we have a few posts we shall publish it for the public.

Measuring Up

Things have picked up. Everyone is getting busier by the day. Digamber our art director is having a time of his life – he has some difficult tasks to meet. He has to create a cart, a stuffed Dzo and a hand made Vodafone billboard – like I told you, there are no printing facilities available here. There is also no Vodafone connection here but since it is a network that’s available in both in Netherlands and India, Sander feels that there is some possibility of getting some sponsorship from them.

Moreover, on the face of it, our film is about a man who wishes to procure a mobile phone by selling his Dzo. On a deeper level it is about the importance of having one owns mind.

Costume Department at Work

Measuring up

We had a small production meeting today. Communication is a barrier with the local production. They also seem a bit slow and a bit inexperienced. The positive is that they are hard working and willing. Hope they are able to pull it off – a lot depends on them. We are really on a tight schedule. Permissions, transport and accommodation is the backbone of this production. We will be shooting in and around Leh for the first few days, then moving to Liker for 5 days and then to Lamayuru for the rest of the schedule.

Bardsongs Part 3: The Beginning

Note: This is the Third Part of a Dutch Feature Film – Bardsongs. This part is called the ‘Father, Daughter & Dzo’. The First Part was shot in Africa and the Second Part was shot in Jodhpur – Bardsongs, ‘The Plastic Collector.’ We were the part of the Indian Crew for the Second Part as well.

It’s almost been 2 weeks in Leh. We have the first version of the schedule, a location report and the cast in place. We start shoot on the 10th of August. We were scheduled o shoot on the 9th of August but had to push it by a day as the Dalai Lama is visiting the city then.

It has been the most visually exciting 2 weeks of my life. Within a few miles you get to see a vast variety of landscape. One moment you have yellow desert like landscape and in the other you have the green-yellow farm lands with maroon mountains set as the backdrop. You have purple rocks capped with white snow. Mountains decorated as if a giant zebra is lying on its belly. Rocks projecting as if lost township is hidden under it. Crystal clear blue water bodies as if only Gods were allowed to touch it. The feeling is overwhelming and there aren’t words to describe it.

My grandmother once did tell me – “You must travel India first and then the world.” – now I understand her.

Kawal and I decided to travel to Leh by car, thinking that it would help to acclimatize. We took it easy and took 4 days to reach Leh. Aditya, the musician for the film also accompanied us. The first night we stayed in Manali. All went well – everything normal.

The second night we stayed in Jispa. Some of us did start feeling the lack of oxygen but stayed calm without complaining. We were suppose to travel 320 Km the next day for Leh, crossing Taglangla, the second highest pass in the world (17582 feet above sea level), but we got a call from Karin (Line Producer) who warned us about the drive and suggested to break our journey and spend a night in a camp. Thanks to Karin’s warning we reached Leh acclimatized. [ Karin, herself had to pay a price for her 2 day roadtrip. She is still recovering, though she is much better now ]. The 3rd night wasn’t easy. We spent the night in a camp in Tsokar, 16000 feet above sea level. All of us including our driver felt dizzy. Some threw up and some needed oxygen. Luckily, we did carry 3 cans of oxygen with us. The next day we left for Leh, passing Taglangla on our way. Sander Francken (Director), Joost (PA to Director), Karin S.de Boer (Line Producer), Dechean & Stanzin (Local Fixers) awaited our arrival. We were in Leh for lunch.

It is a bit difficult to work here and things take time to get processed. I haven’t read a newspaper in days. The newspaper comes after 3 days. You can’t find a printer cartridge. Printing a 4×6 inches picture costs Rs.20 when it costs Rs.4 in Delhi – there are no digital printing machines. Everything here is double the MRP, but that’s what happens when you live for 6 months in a year. You have to pay the price for the scenic beauty and the hospitality of the people which lives in isolation from the rest of the world.

A week and a half has been spent on finding actors and locations. This is the first time that I enjoyed location recce. We went West of Leh, East of Leh as well as North of Leh and voila we have all the locations for the film. Now its time for Dechean and Stanzin to get permissions for the locations. Hope its not as complicated and confusing as it was in Jodhpur for Bardsongs – ‘The Plastic Collector’.

Today we had a meeting on the schedule. The director is still working on the shooting script and has agreed to adapt the prepared schedule. We have a few issues with the script though:

1. we need to change the script in order to get an approval from the Hemis Monastery. We cannot suggest that a girl stays in a monastery. We’ll change the script for them.
2. we need to work out a way, how we can attach a cart to a Dzo. Never in the history of Leh, has a cart been attached to a Dzo.
3. we also changed the title of this part of the film from ‘Father, Daughter & Yak’ to ‘Father, Daughter & Dzo’ as we realised that Dzos are more timid and humble than Yaks. A Dzo is a cross between a Yak and a Cow.

There have been some heated arguments between the Line Producer & the Director / Producer regarding the payment schedule and the budget, but everything seems calm today. Hope they have sorted out their issues and the production goes on fine.