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.

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.