It all started when mysef(Sudip) and Geetika decided to do a film on the climate change in India. The IET films were ready to help us out. I was always attracted by the Indian USP- Unity in Diversity. So we thought about doing the documentary in three different states. Thats when we realized that India has a cold desert, a desert and a heavy rainfall area which are geographically very different. Ladakh, Rajasthan and Kerala.We thought of capturing th emost beautiful visuals of each of these terrains.
Amal Neerad , ace Indian cinematographer, a friend and a mentor , is an expert in Ladakh. Talking with him gave us some great insights. He also got interested in the project and we decided to shoot in film. The scenic quality can be best captured through film, eventhough the cost may shoot up. But we wanted to do something that can really tell us that if we don’t care, this is not gonna last. And to say that we need powerful visuals. Many films have been made about climate change or water crisis, but they lacked great visuals.
Then we spoke with Pavitra, a friend and an activist. It was an eye opener. She pointed out that water is the real issue. And we realized ,water existed as ice, steam and rain in these terrains. She gave a lot of statistical info.
In January i went to Jammu, to do a preliminary study. Met Sansar Chand, stayed at his house.Decided to make him the protagonist. Drove all around. Shot with my handy cam. Came back and edited. We understood that the snow in Ladakh will be there only until february. But the road to ladakh is closed until march. And air traffic is also closed. We blocked the first flights in the next season which starts on March 1st. But the army had to reach there before us. We waited until mid march. The roads were closed until April. Suddenly we got some air tickets. Geetika arranged all the travel.Kerala Travels supported us. The crew were ready to fly in a short notice.Film crew are usually fuzzy. But we had a small crew of 10 people. We stayed in small hotel and they were very co operative. Shot for 3 to 4 days. It snowed during the days to shoot,which helped us to get good shots. We visited cloudburst areas and understood the water scarcity problem After coming back we started to edit.
During this time , we saw the project green entry calls and applied. Now we started to apply sustainable practises for remaining shoot. Even the previous shoot in Ladakh also had many such initiatives(it is normal for small projects in developing countries) . We travelled in public transport. We cleared the shooting locations after shoot. Used minimal equipments, shared couple rooms ,avoiding paper and much much more.
Check out our making http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPFWV4pc1s0&feature=related
Now we have started the Kerala shoot. We were waiting for the monsoon. Its heavily raining. We are shooting in the rain. Geetika is the protagonist in the story. We are also using 5d and 7d cameras for additional footage. Neil D’cunha is the additional cinematographer.
The Documentary was finished in 2011 and was in the competition section of Project Green Stockholm. It also competed in 2012 IDSFFK, Kerala.
Watch the documentary here:
A media production house based in India- Fountain Blue Films aims at quality sustainable film making.
FIFTH SPARROW 