BRTFF

I am Pawan Kumar. I was there at the event last night. An independent film maker… my short films were screened too. And I was one of the few people who sat up for the entire night!!! BTW I was also supposed to give a "talk", but it couldn't happen because of the loud snores generated by the few film enthusiasts :P

Anyway here it is in form of an email!

First of all… It was amazing to see so many of you who loved cinema. I usually watch films alone and it was quite a different experience for me to see it with a group of like-minded people. I would love to do this often.

What is more commendable about the evening is that everybody was so open to watch works of independent film makers. As a filmmaker I couldn't ask for much. We had DVD's of great film makers lying there on the floor and yet the films that were playing were of first time film makers. And yet not one complained or demanded to watch some big budget, master director's work.

With this kind of an audience, I have a feeling that my talk will be welcomed with an open mind.

We yesterday saw the first films of few Indian directors… we had comments, criticism, appreciation and at the end we said "We look forward for more films from you"

Can we all do a lil bit more than just uttering that optimistic line???

None of the film makers are trained. A film school is of no help either. I believe that a film maker can polish his skills only by making more films. But film making is such an expensive thing to do. All the good-bad, interesting-shabby work that we saw yesterday has a lot of blood and sweat gone into it. Because the industry called 'filmmaking' is so unorganized.

We all know the reality so I wouldn't want to talk much about that. However few things to remember are,

* INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS ARE OUTCASTS OF THE INDUSTRY.
* NO PRODUCER WANTS TO FUND THEIR FILM
* THERE IS A WRONG BELIEF THAT THERE IS NO MARKET FOR A GOOD FILM.

As we all know a "Producer" plays the big role in a making a film. Understood. Its his money and why would anybody want to go through a loss. So he pokes his nose into everything. And then film making becomes a business and not an art form. And thus we have movies like Jhoom Barabar Jhoom forced into our lives.

The idea I am trying to play with is – "Fire the producer"

A filmmaker needs money to make a film. A film viewer pays money to see a film. The solution is to bridge this gap without the producer.

This plan might not work on a big scale. It might but I don't know about it. On a smaller scale… like the movies we saw yesterday, it is definitely going to work.

We all pay PVR or INOX or any other theatre about Rs. 200 to watch a film. Most of the times bad commercial films.

Can we give the same 200 bucks to an independent film maker?

Can we give that money to him even before he has made the movie?

Instead of talking concepts and ideas… I will put it forward as a proposal.

I have just finished writing a film. It's called "Death of a software engineer". I have no funding. I can't sell it to a producer… he believes nobody will see it. So I am telling all you film lovers who have seen my works, who believed that there was potential in me to make something good…. Order a DVD copy of the film by paying Rs. 200. Give me two months to finish the film. And you will get your copy.

Does this make sense? Is it possible?

Of course this plan will only work with a filmmaker you can trust, whose work you have seen. And you believe that you'd be interested in seeing his work.

So this was the talk. BRTFF is now kind of become a group of people… we know each other. Guess there are a 100 of us in here now… it will only increase. So if every month we can pool in 200 bucks and fund an independent filmmaker's film, we are going to see a film made from the heart (and not with commercial interests) and we will also be helping the filmmaker to polish his skills and make more films.

How would this work??? We need a network of film lovers. AT BRTFF I guess we already have a 100. If each of this 100 knows at least 10 film loving friends who go to movies who buy pirated DVDs, so we have a network of 1000 people. So lets manage to get a 1000 orders placed for the film. The filmmaker gets Rs. 200000, which includes DVD reproduction charges. Wait for the filmmaker to finish he film and the DVDs will be shipped. And Rs 2 lakh is a lot of money for an independent filmmaker to do magic!

Might sound impossible. Might sound like Amway. But think about it. It really is like buying any other DVD. If the idea is convincing and taken up, we can then work out the dynamics and methods to put the money inflow etc etc in place. That's really easy.

One noble thing in doing this, is that, you are stopping a film maker with potential to fall into the regular business. Stopping him from making movies for the masses. Restoring belief in his expression.

Please please please send your feed back.

Thanks
—
Regards
Pawan Kumar
[http://www.pawantheactor.com]