Interview of Award Winning Short Film Maker Rihaan Patel

Picture taken when he was in award ceremony when his film 'My best Friend' won Best Digital Film award among all international and national entries.

Rihaan Patel is an aspiring film maker, who has made several short films and has won several awards. He is based at Ahmedabad, India. A specialist of VFX – aka Visual Effects – he is dedicated to bring more of his talent in form of short films and documentaries. SpeakBindas does interview him, where he discusses some of the interesting elements related to filed he is creatively dedicated to. Read on.

Interview

Q.: Rihaan, What inspired you towards the field cinema?

Ans.: My ideas come with images and sounds. For me, cinema is the most appropriate medium to communicate. I find pleasure in creativity so cinema became a way of my life.

Q.: On your Youtube channel, I have seen some of the amazing clips where you have demonstrated the use of VFX, for instance one where you show a person walking on a foreign road which infact is shot in India. My question to you is that, according to you what is the future prospective for a VFX specialist in India and abroad? Should youth be interested in this arena, can they have a good career too in addition to satisfying the creativity? What are the options that you see for an enthusiast person interested in a career in VFX. Please elaborate details on this.

Ans.: Visual Effect became need of film industry. Many things are physically impossible to shoot on film set. So in that scenario, VFX people are hired to fake it in such a way that it looks real. VFX work should never be visible on screen. VFX known as an invisible art. VFX people are in demand whether they are in India or abroad. Now days filmmakers are becoming more quality conscious. In Indian film industry, VFX is employed in films like Ra.One, Robot, Singham, Paheli, 3 Idiot. So day-by-day, we need more VFX professionals to fulfill the need. Ex.. 10 second long shot can take up to 15 days to complete. So just think how slowly the process is? What would happen to 2-hours of feature film? Avatar took 10 year to complete. If somebody is creative and want to become VFX artist then he/she should go for vfx composting, layout artist, color correction etc. But for start, knowledge of cinema is very important. They should know that how final shot should look like..

Q.: There is one interesting thing that those friends would like to know who are good with story-telling, concept making but fail at putting it in form of a visual format, i.e. a short film. Based on your experiences so far, can you give some practical guideline which can help them bridge the gap between ‘thinking it’ and ‘doing it’?

Ans.: Thinking it and Doing it.. There is one gap between them called Communication Gap. Story-writer write down the story in linier format. Screenplay writer writes for Screen. Director has a vision of that screenplay and he discusses it with actors, cinematographer, art director, and costumer. But here, form of discussion is very important. It should not verbal but visual. Film is by design not by chance. Every decision should have artistic and technical justification, for that, exposure of cinema is important. Filmmaker should watch all genre of film whether he/she like it or dislike it, for their own knowledge.

Director should share his idea with storyboarding and concept art. This is called pre-visualization. It helps other to understand his vision easily. Filmmaking is just not shooting. Filmmaking is divided into three major parts – Pre Production, production and Post-production. Each of them is part of FILMMAKING, which should not be underestimated. If any part is weak then make it stronger.

Q.: These days, film making is just another business. I am talking about full length films, where we know that films are made in such a way that it should be liked by the majority of people – popular star cast, songs, beautiful locations, story etc.. And, we also see that some of the most talented films do not even reach to people due to lack of finance needed for publicity. So money is important, even to distribute the creativity. In such a time, can you discuss the potential of earning money through a short film?

Ans.: If somebody know complete workflow of short film making then they can earn money by doing marketing videos, Television commercials, internet videos, live events. Doing freelance writing, directing, editing, cinematography, production manager are add-ons in part of earning.

Q.: Cinema is an art. And for every artist, his creation is the return. How has been your experience of making short films, from starting to so far?

Ans.: Process of short film making taught me everything. How to work in limited resources. I had to work in limited fund provided by parents. So I could not afford expensive camera, trolley, crane, lights. Everything that I accomplished was being in limited resource and fund. It was difficult. So I made my own trolley and crane. I used that trolley in Dust of Orphan. After getting award for ‘Dust of Orphan’ my father gave me extra fund to hire professional Crane and set designing unit. With help from him, I made The Burial of Daughters. I won awards and recognition for that film. I spent lot of time behind short filmmaking and watching movies. I hardly gave time for social life. Film became my world.

In ‘Shreemad Bhagvat Geeta’ Lord Krishna has said “Keep doing ‘Karma’, don’t expect result’. This is what I did; I kept sharpening my skills for filmmaking.

Q.: So far, I have watched your three short films, viz Dust of Orphan, The Burial of Daughters, and Champal. I must say that, you can represent the human values very well in form of visual treatment. Like in Dust of Orphan, a story of an orphan girl is delivered, in The Burial of Daughters, depiction of India’s one of the shameful mindsets is presented while in Champal – it’s about poverty. Is there any reason behind, particularly choosing the subjects with social message & sadness?

Ans.: Social reformation is the reason behind selecting such a concept. I didn’t feel good about what happened with orphan girl in ‘Dust of Orphan’, girl child in ‘The Burial of Daughters’ and consequences of greediness in ‘Champal’. All those things dazzled me and made me to think. My preference is to work on genre like Epic, Fantasy, Adventure, War, and Romantic Drama.

Q.: Are you inspired by any personalities from the Cinema filed?

I’m influenced by film personalities like Christopher Nolan, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Ashutosh Gowariker, Ridley Scott, Peter Jackson & Michale Bay.

Q.: Which are your favorite films?

Godfather Trilogy, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Inception, Schindler’s List, Lagaan, Forrest Gump, Transformers, Kingdom of Heaven.

Q.: What are your future projects?

Ans.: Currently I’m doing research for screenplay of adventure film. Along with it, I’m supervising VFX for one feature film. And I’m involved with various projects of motion graphics and visual effects with my company New Age Cinema.

Q.: How can someone contact you?

Ans.: You can get in touch with me through my website: www.rihaanpatel.com.

Join me on facebook: www.facebook.com/rihaanpatel

We share lot content about world cinema on www.facebook.com/newagecinemaofficial

You can watch his creations at below links:

1. Dust of Orphan: http://www.thirteen.org/sites/reel13/shorts/short-dust-of-orphan/1280/
2. The Buria of Daughters: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=2881631287354
3. Life Colors Purity: http://vimeo.com/24462294
4. Champal: http://www.freewaymotionworks.com/afp/watch/editing.html
5. Fading Yellow: http://vimeo.com/31465015
6. Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/rp176