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Siloan Hero Username: Siloan Post Number: 10364 Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 24.210.143.95 Rating: N/A |
Assistant to an Assistant Posted by Ram Gopal Varma on Mar 8, 2010 ⢠(127) I was so confidently clear about the opening shot of my first film âSHIVAâ that the camera set on the crane should be showing the college in the suggestion of a college name-board, come down slowly and pan to the close-up of a car wheel coming into the foreground and stopping in front of the camera. Tired of my repeated narration of this shot of mine during the pre-production of SHIVA, my assistant Siva Nageshwar Rao advised me not to get fixed up about shots as it might not be always practically possible to do things on location the way one imagines while writing the script. He pointed out that itâs possible that the height of the crane might not match up to the height of the name-board of the college. Or if the board is too high we have to tilt the camera up and we will only see the sky in suggestion and not the college, and if itâs too low and you have to tilt down, either you will see the ground instead of the college or the travel downwards to the wheel in the foreground might not be enough. That however simplistically it might sound, was technically the first lesson I learnt in terms of the complex practicalities of the shooting of a film on location. The difference between how much would you be compromising versus how stuck you are about what you imagined has a very thin line. In the case of the college name-board after Nageshwar Raoâs input I spoke to the art director Tarani to adjust the board height to the exact desired height. Siva Nageshwar Rao was technically my assistant but I started off my career as being his assistant in the making of âRao Gari Illuâ, the director of which was Tarani. Nageshwar Rao never trusted me enough to give me a responsible job because I was the producerâs recommendation candidate. But in the course of filming he kind of warmed up to me as he might have felt that I am a little more than just the producerâs recommended candidate. So when I got the break for âSHIVAâ I requested Nageshwar Rao to assist me. So my assistants were Siva Nageshwar Rao, Krishna Vamsi, Teja and Uttej. Teja, I met him as a camera assistant of Maheedhar the cameraman of âRao Gari Illuâ. Both Krishna Vamsi and Uttej were kind of recommended by Nageshwar Rao. From the time I was trying to get a break till I reached âRao Gari Illuâ I was able to impress the producers Venkat and Surendra so much that they were giving me, an assistant, more importance than the director himself which obviously was not taken too kindly by the rest of the assistants of that film let alone the director. They used to think that I am just conning the producers with my English and high funda talk which was partly true but what was also true is that my high funda talk had enough material in it to convince the producers to give me a break. It was very rare during those days that you could be an assistant who can talk English and that used to intimidate them. What also used to intimidate them was my knowledge of English films and also filmmaking techniques which I picked up by voraciously reading âAmerican Cinematographerâ magazines which used to lie around in Annapurna Studioâs store room and read by nobody but me. Coming back to Siva Nageshwar Rao, after all the confidence and my supposed knowledge with which I convinced the producers and Nagarjuna by the time we reached the production stage, on the first day of the shoot I didnât know how to call for the shot. I just became blank with so many people on the set and so many things happening and Siva Nageshwar Rao from behind was whispering in my ear to call for âstart, cameraâ and to say âsoundâ and then âactionâ. So my first day shoot went on by mostly being prompted by Siva Nageshwar Rao. The cameraman Gopal Reddy after finishing lighting shouted âOrder, Sirâ, which I took as he wants order on the set and I also repeated after him by shouting âOrder, Sirâ. Across the set Siva Nageshwar Rao gave a dirty look at me, took me aside and said, âHe is asking you to order him to take that shot and thatâs why he is saying âOrder, Sirâ and since you are the âSirâ here, how can you yourself again shout âOrder, Sirââ. Sheepishly nodding I followed Siva Nageshwar Raoâs instructions. And this is what I call as being an assistant to an assistant to an assistant. P.S: Later on I produced âMoneyâ with Siva Nageshwar Rao as director. http://rgvzoomin.com/assistant-to-an-assistant/ direction lo pasa taggina..blogging lo maatram rgv rocks...siddhardha GEM friendship(JAGAN-NAG) ni koodaa dabbu tho kontaaremo telugu tammullu ...pulp annai (10584) |