Day 341: It's Magic!

26 October, 2010

Today was a day I had been waiting for, with a reasonable amount of apprehension. Because today was the day that one of my short films was supposed to be screened on the big screen, with more than a 100 people watching it. It's the first such experience for me and I was not totally looking forward to it.

Here's some background. More than a year ago I made a 6-minute film called It's Magic which I then put up on the internet for my friends and family to watch. When I got some decent feedback to it (which could have been highly biased of course), in a very ambitious moment, I jumped straight to make a feature film, Mausams. And needless to say, after that I completely forgot about It's Magic.

Until a couple a of months ago, when the curator of Sinema, which is the Singapore Independent cinema organization, contacted me and said that she would like 'it's Magic' to be part of this short film showcase called Sinema Showoff. Sinema Showoff is a monthly showcase of independent films from Singapore as well as overseas and it usually follows a theme every month. For the month of October the theme was to be "Masala mix" by which they meant a film that had something Indian about it. Six such films were chosen for the showcase and somehow 'It's Magic' became a part of it.

So the deal was that these 6 films would be screened and that would be followed by a Q&A session with the directors. I was totally convinced that I would make a thorough fool out of myself at the event. Firstly, all the other directors seemed to know what they were doing based on their bios and secondly, I wasn't really sure what it would be like to have more than a 100 people watch your movie in front of you and then ask you questions. Jeez! That was a bit scary.

But there was nothing to be scared of really. Not only did the event go smoothly for me, I actually had fun! I had some great company in the form of my 12 supporters (comprising primarily of the hubby and the Mausams team) who made it all very relaxed and fun! Oh and the audience was pretty good as well. In fact a few of them even came over and said that they liked the film... so that was pretty encouraging!

And it was really a very interesting experience watching the crowd watch my film. How their attention gets distracted when the film drags a bit, how they focus during the critical parts, how the music brings about a change in the mood, how they react to certain lines, etc. etc. was all very new and exciting to observe!

Also the Q&A session was not as hard as I thought it would be. I gave out the best of answers I could come up with at that point in time and the general opinion is that I didn't come off as a complete idiot. For the few moments when I was seated at the panel with the other directors, sharing my film making wisdom, I think I actually felt like a real director! Ahhh!

So yes, it was a new experience. A great one at that. Awesome!

659 more to go.