Guest Blogger Elvis D’Silva is a filmmaker at Thrillpill Films – a boutique production house in Mumbai. You can follow him on Twitter at @thrillpill where he tweets about filmmaking experiences, screenwriting and life.
Psst! If you’d like to share Your Life on My Blog please write to info@missmalini.com.
I first met Microphon3 when Thrillpill Films was producing short documentaries about the Live From The Console series. This was when he performed with Bay Beat Collective (in possibly the best gig of that concert series so far). We became Facebook friends afterwards and lost touch with each other. You know how it is, you accept a friend request, you look at their photo uploads if they turn up in your timeline and you move on. But I had enjoyed his previous performance so we went back to check out his new band when they performed at LFTC. While he was preparing to perform I shot a photograph that he used as his profile picture. And that’s how we reconnected.
I suggested that we do another photo/video shoot outside the live performance environment and he was immediately enthusiastic. A flurry of Facebook messages later he sent me an early MP3 of You Drop, we met once, chatted a little more, and worked out some of the ways that we could make this thing happen.
The original plan was to shoot in the flat where he lives. And then, a couple of days before the shoot he let me know that a friend named Rajat had graciously agreed to let us run riot in his home.
I’ve been on a couple of film sets and I can tell you that our set/location for You Drop was something else. Not just because it was an awesome flat (which it is) but because the environment was super relaxed and totally conducive to getting what was required without stressing people out.
Most of the people featured in the video are not camera regulars—a fact that may not be evident as you watch this video. Also this was a total community project with people donating their time, clothes and technical expertise. And it worked!
I was super impressed with our leading man who gave us five single-take performances at different points starting from sometime in the early afternoon to pretty late at night. Every time he stayed in character for the duration of the song, gave us variations on several moves enacted at the exact same time across takes and I think there is a possible cut for this video that features just him that would be just as watchable as the one currently online.
What does it take to make a music video? A killer track (you really have to pay attention to the words, because this Microphon3 spits some seriously hurtful truths), willing partners and a can-do spirit.
The indie scene is alive and well.