Our first shoot of the year was for an agency in London. We were thrilled to work with UK based director, Marcie Maclellan, a BAFTA Nominee and Best Producer Nominee, BIFA. The way we connected was magical right from the start. Marcie googled Female Filmmaker Bangalore and our Founder and Director’s name Sarah Thomas popped up. A research revealed all the feminist films she’s done and her experience in production . Marcie was keen on bringing a female led team on board and soon STOM Productions was roped into the project.
The teams came together to work on 5 films shot over 7 days. Working with actors and non actors. Shooting in film locations and real ones - on the road, hospitals, parks and homes. The shoot was a cultural and political eye opener among many other things. While we could talk of the many challenges we faced and oh! we reallly did but who doesn’t, we’ll skip to how we turned things around as we always do. We’re so used to have things in order on a set and suddenly we’re in a real hospital and despite all the scheduling and breifing, we weren’t in control. Schedules changed, locations changed, cast changed but our spirits didn’t.
We’ve been looking at them as learnings really. Working with multiple teams locally, working out timings in India and the UK, our team staying up until 1am during pre prod in the office to get things running smoothly and making sure the crowd in the multiple locations we shot was taken care of. Marcie and her team in London at MAF made all of this so easy. From colleagues to friends, this shoot was truly a journey that we’ll go back to months or may be years later as one that brought cheer amid so many stresses and challenges. Thanks to this film, we’re already working on our next big project and we can’t wait to bring it to you!
