The truth is, blogging can be tedious. I confess. It seems sacrilege for a writer not to keep a blog. I prefer micro-blogging (Twitter) for the community feeling, engagement and immediacy. It feels like plugging into the zeitgeist of the day. But there is a blog on this website waiting for nourishment, so here I am with musings for 2020.
In 2019, I wrote a feature and a couple of shorts. None of them produced (yet) but the process was humbling and confidence building in equal measure. I'm not sure if I will produce them. That is, after all, why I enrolled in film school to explore the nuts and bolts of filmmaking through actual production.
Which brings me to my main takeaway from 2019, that writing is but a small component of filmmaking. The alchemy between script, performance, cinematography, sound and editing is at the heart of the craft. Each element informs the other and a great film happens when all these elements work together to create something that transcends the script.
Having watched a shitload of films in 2019, I am particularly drawn to social realism. Social realism holds a mirror to society and allows us to see the world in a new light. It is a genre that is rooted in the reality of everyday life and the struggles of ordinary people. It is a genre that is unafraid to tackle difficult subjects and challenge the status quo. It is a genre that is committed to telling stories that matter.
The search for truth continues.
> "The role of the artist is to ask questions, not to answer them." — Andrei Tarkovsky
> "Cinema is truth at 24 frames per second." — Jean-Luc Godard
Apurba "Apu" Roy, Pather Panchali (1955)
