Bring to a boil

After many unanswered text messages to the director of photography, I tried one more before going to bed. I woke the next day, and well into the morning there was still no reply. I could not concentrate on the rest of the shot breakdowns. I needed to know that we were going to shoot this film. Finally, I called him again and the phone seemed to ring and ring, until at last he picked up the phone. I was not sure it was him at first. He barely spoke. I talked to him and it turned out that unlike that first day when he wanted to grow the production. I suggested we shoot on a Canon Mark III, he suggested we’d shoot on 2 Black Magic Cinema cameras and create a full pulley system (which I felt was not needed) for the puppetry and shoot on some location he had in mind. Well, today, after all that, and weeks of not getting together any kind of budget or steps towards progress on his end, he dropped out.He had taken on some commercial projects and that was the end of it. So, why I wonder had he suggested I wait for him to be free by November 17th? Seriously, I wonder how much people want to destroy this project if on a subconscious level? I mean what the hell? Why did he string me along all this time? So, another door closed. Perhaps he might allow me to use some of the equipment at his disposal, but I wondered if I had the strength or funds to pull this thing together. After all that I have been through, I got slammed by that same issue that made my work in Lahore back in 2010 so difficult. “Aaap samjo aap ka kaam ho gya (consider your work done).” He didn’t use that sentence, but the results were much the same.Once again, I considered the very real possibility that I needed to pull the plug on this project, instead of continuing to do the work I was trying to finish. I sent a few messages and made a few calls to see if there were options. People encouraged me to stay and finish the project. Help was offered. I like the sound of it, but the help needs to happen, otherwise the project is still dead in the water and if I don’t finish soon, so am I. Being without money seems to be the biggest sin all over the world. To hit that point is where you will feel the disdain of society, piled high upon you. What a pathetic situation I find myself in. I fight against all odds to get this music together in Sindh where people visited my room and tried to evict me, where the people in charge of the recording space down to the gate keeper put constant pressure on me to shut down things during my recording sessions at an institute that was created to promote Sindhi culture as I worked on a project based on the greatest Sindhi poet, paying all costs to do so and support Sindhi musicians. Musicians would not rehearse, even when paid to, puppeteers were unknown to all the folk art and performing arts institutions. Yet I found them, and gathered a rag tag team, even trained with them to do something new, yet here I was. People don’t want to follow through with their word. Sure, the idea of working on something to promote your culture and art sounds nice, but why would you want to actually do that?So, I looked at ticket prices to go home. I wasn’t broke yet, and if the film was not going to happen at this time, I would be better off returning, recuperating, saving up by working at jobs, while I worked on other parts of the film and if I was foolish enough, I could return with a proper crew in place to shoot the rest of it. Sohail sahib put me in touch with another dp friend that is a mutual friend of his and Imran’s. That dp said he would drop by in the evening and there was another dp from Sohail sahib, that could be a possibility barring that. I’ll give it a bit more time, but then I’m gone. I’m hanging on, because these puppeteers are deeply impoverished. I’m trying, because this is a good project and we’ll never see anything like it waiting for some company with commercial interests to bankroll it, but I can only do so much to fight against institutions, indifference, corruption, and all that is this hellish experience of trying to make a puppet film in Pakistan.I contacted the second dp in the evening and the meeting was shifted to tomorrow evening. Well, that’s one less day before I pull the plug. Between all of this, like a badly battered machine, I continued the tedious task of breaking down shots for the film in a spreadsheet. i spoke to a few dps and consulted other production friends who were kind enough to reassure me and give me advice.

Cracking

I spent the morning working on my shot breakdown spreadsheet, getting all the details on each shot in to prepare to shoot the film. It is a tedious process, but it will make the difference between focusing on the puppetry performances as a director or trying to figure out what we should shoot and whether it will flow with connecting shots.There was a handicrafts fair at Tollinton Market. It had a rs 200 entry fee, so that kept out most of the general public, and I got to see a lot of those wealthy folks from the other side of Lahore. It was quite miserable to be there. There was a lot of beautiful work on display. There were clothes, decoration pieces of wood and metal, paintings, toys, furniture and all kinds of beautiful things to appreciate, but it was so packed that I had to really force myself to walk through all of it. I just wanted to get out and stop dealing with all of this crap during this entire journey to make this film. I was looking for some clay pots that I need as props. I had picked some up in Multan which I would use for some shots, but I felt the need for some different ones for other shots. Unfortunately, the clay artists at the show did not have that, so I will search elsewhere.I pulled myself out of the show and walked over to Anarkali, thinking I would enjoy some food. Somehow, my mood was just sour. I walked up and down the street and though I was hungry, I did not want to deal with, see or eat any of it. I just did not feel a thing for any of my surroundings. The things I appreciate about being in Lahore, all seemed to just turn to ash and none of it mattered one bit to me. If anything, I felt really agitated by the usual insanity of motorcycles and cars trying to murder you in crowded streets like Anarkali and on main roads. There is no quarter given to pedestrians or really anything or anyone.So, I walked through New Anarkali which is even more crowded to find my way to Lohari Gate. I walked through the old city, all the way out to Delhi Gate, not caring where I might get lost on a wrong turn. I walked down all kinds of lanes, and felt none of that joy I usually feel, even in the madness of the old city. I did not stop to eat anything.Walking out Delhi Gate, I picked up some lace, bits of thin dupatta cloth and rope to use for backgrounds. I walked through traffic to Landa bazaar and started digging through the piles of cloth. There were even more people out today than usual, which is really saying something. I felt pretty miserable, but I kept walking and searching for materials. I found some large sheets of cloth that would take care of a few background related needs for “Risalo”.After that, I just walked all the way through the walled city again, grabbed an aloo naan along the way and munched it on the way to Hafiz Juice Corner back at Anarkali. I sat down tired and had a khoya khajoor shake. You don’t get those in Los Angeles as far as I know. It was nice. I walked through the book bazaar to Pak Tea House to meet a couple of friends I had not seen in a while. It was nice to catch up. They were headed back to Datchi and said my ticket should work to get back in, so I joined. I’m glad I did. It was still packed, but I certainly felt better with friends.I walked around once more and this time a few other things occurred to me to pick up. I finally found some clothes I liked for my adorable baby niece. One piece was from a project supporting women’s livelihoods in Sukhur, Sindh, while the other was from women in Peshawar, KPK. They are both beautiful and I can’t wait to be back in Los Angeles away from this mess, and in another, but at least playing with her.I also found some more ajrak. I had one that I picked up to go around the neck of a puppet, because I need a thinner cloth than traditional ajrak. I ended up getting a printed ajrak, as opposed to an actual block printed cloth and it was far too clean looking with crisp lines and none of the beauty and warmth of real ajrak. The thought of using it bothered me each time I looked at it. Besides that I needed some cloth to match or contrast another character’s dress to add a dupatta for a scene. There was an organization that had ajrak done on thinner cloth and one regular one that matched the dress, so I picked up both. It felt good to manage that.We all head back and I shared the animatics with my friends. One they felt worked really well, while they other was less easy to follow in just a visual form. That is good feedback, so I will work on that. I’m so exhausted. This day has been tough, not because anything in particular happened, but I push so hard to get each thing done and surprisingly manage a few things here and there, only to have to chase the next thing. Whether looking for items I need for the film or chasing down people that I am working with, I am so tired. It gets to me at times, and today was one of those times, where I just wanted to torch all of this, not because I don’t love the work that has been done so far, but because I don’t want to deal with the rest of this garbage it will take to try and get it done.That is just how it goes. I get it out of my system and I’m back at it the next morning. I’m too stubborn to just stop. I believe too much in the potential that we can make something beautiful and that it can benefit some people in this corruption riddled mess of a world. Yeah, I think that’s what it will be tomorrow, but today I just want it all to be done, so I can go home.

Goodbye Multan

I enjoyed a nice breakfast, thanks to Azam the next morning, before grabbing my things and heading to the main road to catch a rickshaw to the bus station. The rickshaw driver took us around the completely destroyed by seemingly unnecessary metro bus construction Multan roads. He stopped at one point and mentioned that he struggles as both his feet are disabled, or not in working order as he put it. He has a physical disability with his feet, and yet he struggles through it to drive his rickshaw. He mentioned that he had a few daughters and was trying to save rs. 3,000 for their school books, so if I could help at all he would appreciate it.You never know what situations people are actually in, but I gave him the extra money that I could to help him along his way, once we reached the station. Who knows what is true and what is not, but when you feel like believing, you just do. I got there 5 minutes before the bus was set to leave. I was not too worried, as there were seats and I could get another bus an hour later, but I managed to get my ticket and board the bus. There were less people on than usual, so that helped.After a tiring 6 hour ride, I was back in Lahore. It was dark and I needed to drag my bags to the metro station to get the rest of the way back. I pushed past rickshaw drivers who call out or try to pull you into a rickshaw along the way. These same guys would refuse to take me such a short distance if I asked. I had to get past a lot of them and the usual murderous traffic to get to the metro. One rickshaw driver tried to tell me that luggage would not be allowed on the metro bus so I should take a rickshaw. I wanted to tell him something else at that point, but I just told him he was wrong as I had ridden with the luggage.So, I squeezed in the metro with a backpack and suitcase that had a box on top of it and my tripod dangling on my shoulder. That was fun. It was packed as usual and after a bit I squeezed up to the far inside window. That saved me being knocked about as much every time we came to a station and people pushed out and pushed their way in. It made things more difficult when I had to get out at my station, but I managed. I took a rickshaw the rest of the way.I got back to my friend’s place and Umar was so nice, he made me some tea and an omelette. My brain and body were exhausted. I sat with him and we went over some of the work on huts he had been up to. The task is taking some figuring out and I need to get some more materials tomorrow, but his work is beautiful.

Rehearsing puppeteers

I spent the morning with some cute company. My friend Azam had to drop his wife Zareen at the University where she teaches. They are both talented artists and arts educators. The home is brimming with beautiful art created by the couple and by other artists. I love it. They are like family to me and have made my first and second trip to Multan so warm.So as I was doing some tedious shot breakdown tasks related to “Risalo” on my laptop, the most beautiful little smile kept me company. Little Sherebano hung out with me, doing her daily workout of pushups and smiling. She seems very eager to start crawling, standing and running around. She smiles and my heart just melts. It was great to have her there, helping me with my spreadsheets. After a bit, her brother Shazain came sleepily into the room. He seemed a bit concerned about where his parents were. I reassured him, gave him some water then we all went to the living room, away from the laptop and other things that must be broken.Azam came back, we had some breakfast, watched some cartoons and head to the design college. The puppeteers were in the area and so I went and got them and we sat down in the yard to do some work. I skipped through the two animatics to give them a feel for what we were doing. They got to see what some of the other puppets were like. I took out the four I had and let them inspect them and start trying them out. Talking will only get us so far. These artists need time with the puppets to figure them out in the context of what we’ll be doing with them.So we spent a good four hours figuring things out. Part of it was an audition to see how their skills were and equally to see if we could work together and figure out new things which is what this entire project is going to entail. We had conversation and they got along with each other. I know that sounds like a pretty basic thing, but trust me, it is crucial. They listened, and shared solutions for how we could get a particular movement out of a puppet. It was an exhausting 4 hours of explaining, and all of us collectively thinking and working together, but it was worth it. These puppeteers are fully capable of putting on their traditional performances. The movement is broad and big so that people way in the back can see it just as well as people sitting up in the front of the audience. For my film, we need finesse and subtle movements. That is not what they normally do, but we also have the advantage of being able to do multiple takes, set initial poses on puppets by hand and adjust their setup for a given shot. This is quite a bit like the animation work that I do. That helps in being able to guide the process. Their own experience as puppeteers is vital in figuring out if the strings need to be wrapped around the other side of the hand to get the palms facing in or out and things like how long they need the strings to be.I was very glad to see them take that initiative and with my blessings to adjust the strings and figure out new ideas, they ran with it. We figured out that certain movements will require multiple people to manipulate a single puppet. We also need space, so we will likely raise the puppeteers up on chairs or some kind of sturdy benches, with longer strings so that they can perform together. It will be an interesting challenge to put it all together, but they are certainly more able to handle the puppets than I am, and willing to take direction and work together to create solutions. That is what we need. This just might work.In the end we discussed payment and a timeline and I have to say that I am truly grateful that they were professional about it all. It seems we have created a good space to work together, with everyone’s needs met. We don’t have a master puppeteer who can bring out the most subtle of movements, but we have some puppeteers and it will be my job to help them do their best and take their art to someplace new. Khursheid works as the storyteller and as such does not perform the actual puppets, but he has been crucial in finding the puppeteers and giving me space to work. I’m not going to leave him behind. So he too will join us. Of course I have paid him for all of his help up until now, but part of building these relationships, besides payment is mutual respect and understanding as best as I can, the financial challenges that they face. I’m also under a lot of pressure to somehow pull this thing off before I run out of this shoe string budget.That is why I spend a lot of time and care in making sure that each person I work with feels respected and appreciated, while also knowing what my expectations are and making sure they are down for it. So we realized there will be a need for extra hands in spots. Khurshid will be needed, not only to wrangle the team, but I think he’ll be able to help with background characters as well. I feel like this is great. He won’t be cut out from any of the earnings or the excitement of working on a larger project like this, and he will be a valuable addition to our team. The last puppeteer we will add to the team is currently in Lahore, I was told, so I can see him there. I met several other puppeteers when I last arrived, but the more skilled ones were either too beaten down by life, or manipulative and deceitful. In either case, they would be perfect for performances, but much more challenging to work with on something more experimental.I said goodbye to the puppeteers. They thanked me and I felt a little nervous knowing that so much is on my shoulders, but better that we have the beginnings of a team and workflow after just a few hours of working together. Azam and Zareen took me to the craft market where Shafiq sahib among other artists sell their work. I had been there back in March and knew that I would be back to pick up props for “Risalo” at some point. I needed a number of small clay pots for “Risalo” as well as a few other items I had made a list of. Picking the items was easy. Shafiq sahib helped me out. The only challenge was payment. He would not let me pay for anything. People are so sweet and humble, and these are the very people you want to pay whatever you can to. Azam and Zareen are good friends and supporters. I had come with them and was thus like family. I will figure out a way to pay. I say this because many artists are so loving and generous, but they usually are struggling and have put their hearts and souls and a lifetime into their work. The least society can do is pay them some fair monetary compensation, as people do for all other goods and services in their lives.

Meeting more puppeteers

rickshaw art

I love the art in my friends’ home

hi there new friend

After a delicious breakfast with my friends Azam and Zareen and their little ones, we head to the Fine Arts Department at Bahauddin Zakaria University. It was interesting to walk around and see the class rooms and students. I saw students working in clay. These campuses are a huge blessing. Progress is hampered largely by a culture of deeply rooted corruption that keeps institutions from reaching their potential. As always, while walking down the corridors of institutions, I don’t see the damaged buildings or lack of electricity and polish so much. I mean, it is there, but what I really see is that there are large buildings, with a lot of space and institutions with the ability to pay bills, teacher salaries, connected to a network of institutions around the country. So much could be done, if people were not so corrupt and intent on not allowing others to get ahead.That system keeps the people who are struggling to make things better from being able to make the progress needed.From there we head to the Multan Design College across the street, and I grabbed a rickshaw to head to the Siyal Hotel, a little dhaba by the Eid Gah, where Khursheid lives. We had agreed to meet there to figure out how to proceed with getting puppeteers. He had visited different areas in Multan where the puppeteers, who are all related live and called some people in other areas to help me find puppeteers prior to my arrival. Over the phone, I had requested that he get people that are the best puppet performers, as well as good people that we could actually work with. These puppeteers are living in very difficult conditions. They collect recycling, sell eggs, or keep a goat or two all year round to sell during Eid season. They get called for shows now and then, but it is not often. I can’t even imagine the cut throat existence that exists in their world after seeing what salaried, educated people are willing to do to get ahead.Therefore, I have a heavy set of challenges to deal with. These puppeteers are not going to be at the skill level of the ones in India who are performing on a regular basis and have exposure to international puppeteers who visit. Yet I have seen that they are capable performers, and if they can take direction and we can work together, then we can make this puppet film; “Risalo”, happen.So I went to see Khursheid, and as it turned out, he had three of the puppeteers in tow with him. That was great. I got to see Jamil Hussein again, and met Muhammed Ishaaq and Abdul Hakim. I had tried to find Abdul Kakim before. Khurshid took me to the tent slum that his family lives in when I was here back in March. He was away, in a rough part of Karachi called Lalukhait, collecting recycling. I saw some of his photo albums and some wood puppet heads he had carved as well as a couple of beautiful puppets he had made, many years ago. Later, while in Karachi, I had tried to search for him again, thanks to the help of some truck artist friends. I was not able to meet him then either and just met his son there.He, as far as I have been able to find out, is the last puppet maker in Pakistan in this Rajasthani tradition. No one has learned from him, because what good is a skill that can’t put food in your belly? At that time, I knew that I could not expect that he would be able to create the main characters for the film. I ended up getting those made by Puran Bhatt in Delhi and then selected premade puppets from Rajesh Gurjargour in Udaipur, Rajasthan. I could not go to India, but my wife was able to bring them for me.So here he was, sitting at this table, a quiet older man along with some more worn, emaciated puppeteers. I was nervous coming in, because it is hard to wrangle people and an entire production.We talked about what I was trying to do, what they had done prior and what we could do together. I appreciated that Khursheid had discussed the project and myself with them already. They stuck to providing reassurance as to why they were qualified to do this work. To me, that is a very good sign. Without my even asking, they shared examples of how they had created puppet performances for the Health Department, with changes to their routine to reflect the script they had provided. They talked about these projects and displayed an understanding and strong desire to do the work. They didn’t play any kind of angle, sizing me up or trying to talk themselves up while talking someone else down. Those are strong warning signs that I have had to deal with a great deal with others.So we shared some tea in a little dhaba. They would not let me pay for it. We decided that holding auditions in the slum would be very challenging as we would be in a sense mobbed by people pulling out their old puppets, trying to fight their way in, without actually being trained performers. This happened when I came to scout puppeteers back in March, so I know it was true. We agreed to meet the next day at the design college. They would bring some of their puppets and I would bring the four I packed in my suitcase, and we could try this out.I head back to the design college, feeling good that at least in conversation, they were good. I want to benefit them, and when we create something beautiful together, we can all rise together.

Multan once again

I head out early in the morning and hopped on a Daewoo bus to Multan. The ride there was nice enough. The weather is much cooler now than my previous rides, which makes it a much better experience. Once in Multan, I hopped on a rickshaw and made my way to the Multan Design College, to meet my friend Azam Jamal, who is the principal there.I came to Multan to decide on puppeteers to work with for my film; “Risalo”. It will likely be a challenging process. I asked Khursheid, who is a storyteller during puppet performances, to track some suitable puppeteers according to my criteria before I arrived. That should help get things going.

Prepping for Multan

Best place to nest?

I spent the day getting ready to go to Multan and working on a spreadsheet breakdown of shots for “Risalo”. It is good to be at this point at last, but there is a lot to do. I need to keep tabs on all the people involved as well as to do way more tasks myself than I really should be doing, but that is the nature of my resources.There is a pigeon that has made its home in Imran’s kitchen. I have tried to shoo it away many times, but it always comes back. Days ago, I noticed that it had now laid some eggs. Now when I go to use the kitchen, it freaks out and flies around like crazy. The electricity was gone and it was rather dark in the kitchen. I went to heat up some food and it started flying and hitting the window, rather than going out the open hole in the top part of the wall.Umar is working on huts for the background in the film. It should be interesting to see how these come together.

Phool Patti in Lahore and Evernew Studios

I went out to meet my friends Haider Ali and Ali Salman Anchan of Phool Patti for a halwa puri breakfast in Anarkali. It was fun catching up a bit. They are on their way to India to share their amazing art.After breakfast, we walked through new Anarkali to Lohari Gate in the walled city and had some tea. From there we walked through the old city and came out the other side by the Lahore Fort. I walked them to the entrance of the fort then head out to Evernew Studios to meet Nomi to discuss shooting “Risalo”. He had just come off a busy production schedule, but we sat down and watched the entire animatic I had put together. He seemed happy to see that things were properly planned and quickly approaching being ready to shoot. He had since decided to switch which camera we would use, which I think is fine as it will save a lot on budget and still give us excellent quality for our needs.He had not put together any of the budget materials, so we still need to work that out and it looks like we will try for shooting a portion in November and then the rest in December, between his commercial responsibilities. That sounds fine. I think we are on schedule, with plenty of smaller tasks to do in the next few weeks so that we can shoot this film.Afterwards, I head to Delhi Gate and the Landa Bazaar. I picked up some interesting cloth for a river scene and lots of shiny gold buttons for treasure. I need to pick up a bunch of props in Multan during the time I’ll be auditioning some puppeteers and working to prepare them for the unique challenges with the way we are approaching puppetry for “Risalo”. There are so many bits and pieces to put together for each aspect of the film. There is very little momentum on any tasks when I am not directly involved at the moment. That is a huge challenge, but by providing a solid plan for all details of the project, I hope to create a strong production that each artist can add to during the process. It is just a lot of work to get to that point. The latest animatic has been a huge step in that direction.I spent the rest of the evening with Haider Ali and his friends. We grabbed some ice cream at Chaman and walked around Mall rd. There was a lot of talk regarding all the challenges and obstacles to being able to flourish with your art. I listened mostly. I certainly agree, but I was more interested in ice cream after the last few weeks of pushing to get this latest animatic together. I can’t just dwell on the obstacles if I am going to bring all these elements together and make this film happen.

Anything can and does happen

People love their political parties. Loud procession in the street.

I was supposed to meet a puppeteer yesterday. That was shifted to today, and that also did not happen. Apparently his brother got into a fight as soon as they got to Lahore on friday and now the brother and brother’s wife are in jail and the puppeteer is trying to get them out. This does not bode well for working with him. This of course is one of the many challenges in working with people.Certainly, anything can happen to anyone, but once we lock shoot dates, it is not an option to not show up, and can I get these puppeteers to show up for all the days of the shoot? Besides that, a production meeting was shifted at the last minute to tomorrow, so it was another day of waiting.I could not get my animatic for Sohni to render out, between the electricity going constantly and the computer freezing or software errors. I did figure out a way around this for my current purposes. I can play it back just fine in the computer, so I just used quicktime to record that portion of the screen. I could not get it to record sound, so I had to put that in afterwards. Well, it is something we can work from.I also made a list of props that need to be made or purchased. It is not a lot of things, but the there are a few that I need to make, so it needs to start happening now.

Perhaps tomorrow

The puppeteer I was supposed to meet got into some kind of issue and said we would have to meet the next day. So, I worked on my animatic for “Sohni”. I combined shots, removed some and lengthened others to create a smoother flow to the story. That’s about it. All day waiting, working, waiting for the electricity, waiting for people, and inching forward.Once again, it is a rather isolating experience to sit here and try and piece it all together. It’s not much of a life, but the work looks very good. Each day I think, well tomorrow some of these meetings will actually happen and I we can move forward, and I can have some ice cream.

In search of X-Ray Paper

Umar and I went out to look for some material that could be used inside of some cloth huts we are making, to keep their shape. We started at some art supply stores in Anarkali, looking for xray paper. It turned out to be a very thin kind of film. That would not do, so we walked through packed lanes and made our way to Urdu Bazaar. There are shops with all kinds of cardboard and paper. We even found a thicker sort of xray paper, but in sheets too small for our needs. Asking around, we were lead to Lohari Gate. Down the street from it there are all kinds of shops with printed cardboard and film from packaging. There was lots of beer case cardboard, flat and unused as well as candy bar wrapper paper and all kinds of other product labels, unused and stacked. We walked down a lane that had all kinds of xray paper and found a shop that had rolls of it that we could purchase by the kilogram. So we figured out how many yards we needed and estimated based on that.I’m really glad that Umar was there. He had suggested that I go to Mayo hospital and just ask for it, but I insisted that he come and somehow Mayo hospital ended up being the one place we did not go. It is tough to track things down, I have no idea what the local terminology for a lot of things might be as people don’t go on descriptions. They need things worded exactly as they understand it, otherwise forget it. I’ve seen that elsewhere too. Besides that, we needed to make sure that whatever we picked up satisfied both of us, in terms of what we thought was needed.With a couple of kgs of xray paper, we returned.

Wandering Gulberg

Once again, I worked at home most of the day, editing the animatic for “Sohni”. In the evening, I took the metro to Hafeez Center and picked up a USB hard drive. I’m going to need more space to store all of the data for this film as well as backups. I ended up walking around afterwards just to clear my head and be out for a while. There was no one to really hang out with, so I just looked around, checked out a bookstore, walked to Liberty and ate some soft serve ice cream as I used to when I was a kid with my family.I looked around at all these products and just stuff. My mind is set on this film and the work I am doing for it, so nothing else is of much interest. I don’t care about eating at restaurants or doing much of anything else. I just want to last long enough to get this film shot with all the beauty that it deserves, then take it all back to LA, setup life again and work on post.

So much cloth

Back in work mode, I went through the animatic (storyboards set to sound) of “Sohni”. I could keep making changes forever, but I do need to take it further before the shoot. Umar and I went to the cloth market and picked up a whole bunch of cloth for the rest of the backgrounds, some dust and burning effects as well as 15 yards of black cloth to use as borders and backing on these beautiful backdrops. We want to preserve them and I hope to display all the artwork that went into this project in an exhibition at some point down the road.

Lahore traffic from Adnan Hussain on Vimeo.

Things were crazy and busy in the market. Just as I was purchasing some cloth, I got a call from Khurshid “Sadar” who is a storyteller during puppet shows. He introduced me to several puppeteers when I went to Multan. I have tasked him with finding the most skilled ones that I can audition for this project. He has gathered a few names for me and gave me their numbers as well. There are some complex puppets that I want to make sure they can handle. In addition, I need people that are good to work with, can take direction and are willing and interested in doing something a bit different. It can be challenging to get people to do something a bit out of their comfort zones in terms of the skill and experience they have, but that is the key to keep this art form going.

Sohni break

I worked on some more storyboards for “Sohni”. The pieces are coming together. I feel tired though. I took some time off this weekend. There is still a lot to do before I can go home. I worked in the morning then spent the rest of the day with some visiting friends, eating and laughing around town.

Qing Qi to Landa

I spent the morning blogging since the internet speed was useable. I started uploading blog postings and photos I had already prepared. It is always bitter sweet reading through them. I surprise myself with all that I have dealt with thus far. I suppose it is best to not know how difficult the road ahead might be. Instead, I keep putting most of my energy into that next step rather than focusing just on the big picture. That is the only way to get through is to celebrate each small victory. Really, that is how animation is too. Being that it is such a laborious process, you need to plan the whole piece out, but then push each step of the way to get it done.Umar and I were able to finalize the rest of the background designs, so being sunday, we head over to the Landa Bazaar to pick up cloth. It had been raining the night before and sprinkled a bit during our time out. It was nice to get out after being cooped up storyboarding for quite a while, with only small trips to the local neighborhood for groceries. This place is a mess, but I felt good today, just looking around and being here. I really want to go home, but like every time I come here, there are things about this home that I miss, that fill me with a lot of joy.So, Umar and I walked through the crowded market and picked up seven dollars worth of cloth, that should help us create a river bank, decorate a king’s court and provide huts for villager puppets. As usual, we’ll pick up the few colors we could not find tomorrow at the khadar market. We got a lot of interesting types of cloth, with different textures which work really well for the background. That’s why Landa Bazaar is the best for these backgrounds.We got back to Imran’s place and there was some nice cooking going on.

No phone..no internet

The phones were down and so was the internet. Surprisingly, the electricity wasn’t going out every other hour or more, so I set one of the stories to render so that I can share a version with the dp. I did not know how long it would take. 14 hours later, it is still rendering. I took a break today from storyboarding and decided to read Hans Bachar’s excellent book on production design once again, called “Dream Worlds”. It is my favorite book on shot design. The studies of scenes from different film and the entire look at production design is fantastic. I reread it every time I am working on storyboards, hoping that I can apply a bit more of this knowledge.Other than that, I am starting to organize lighting references. I don’t know that I have time to paint lighting references for each shot, so I am digging up photo references for lighting. These will provide inspiration for the lighting setups of each shot. There is so much planning that goes into a shoot.

Don't linger too long

I spent the day cutting down the story of Sohni by about 12 minutes. It takes a lot of painstaking listening, watching, trying out different images over the music, to figure out what should stay and what can go. There is a lot of powerful poetry that I chose for Sohni, but leaving it all in will only slow down the action which will dilute the effect on the viewer. If I make the viewer watch pointless shots of the puppets standing, waiting for poetry to be sung, it only weakens the film.It is important to not feel too precious about any of the material. This way, I was able to cut out entire sections of the music. That sometimes meant sliding the visuals around and pairing them with different poetry than originally intended, which often gives additional meaning. I think that is what is fun about doing a film that is driven by poetry, but the visuals do not try to mimic the words. Both words and visuals come together to tell the whole story, but rather than repeat each other, they hopefully add different pieces of the story together. So you could just watch the visuals, or listen to the music and get a story out of each separately, but by combining the two, I hope to give a richer experience.I find that once I start adding this new set of storyboards over the music, I start to see where I can cut the music down. Once I start removing bits, I try to be ruthless about it, then come back and reduce the number of shots that go over it and lengthen them where needed. This gets things to flow together more smoothly, while carrying the pace of the story forward. My intention is to avoid lingering on puppets doing nothing for too long, as that is when I want to see more subtle facial expressions and movements, which they can’t provide. This way, I can play to the beauty and strengths of these handmade puppets in nice closeups, then move the story forward with bits of nuanced movement and a steady progression of shots and story. This is basically what is different in how I am trying to approach creating a film with puppets of this kind.Good compositions and nice broad movements can communicate the right emotions for the story, so long as we don’t linger over long on them, as we might in an animated or live action film where that lingering allows us to showcase more subtle emotions. Coupled with poetry, the scenes have the potential to convey the emotions of the stories in a fresh way.

Tumbling puppets

I spent the day, between waiting for the electricity to come back and go again, by cooking, and photographing shots for the latest draft of storyboards for “Sohni”. I photographed scenes as I storyboarded them in drawing initially, then walk around the stage, looking for other interesting ways of telling the story. This gives me material to play with in the edit. I can see how well the shots connect and what more I can gain from each option.Using the actual puppets allows me to work with them with their actual scale, and details. This is close to how it will be shot, so as a sort of test run, it is hugely helpful. Once I get a photographed draft of both stories down, I can scrutinize things further and try adding or removing other shot ideas.It takes a lot of back and forth of putting too much material in, then cutting it down, adjusting it over and over until it feels right. Shots where there is more to see and understand need to slow down a bit, while others need to move faster. On “Sorath” I am also trying to play with ideas that you could not do in a live puppet performance, but with editing and quick cuts, can accomplish in a film. I have a scene where a character falls down. You would not be able to control the poses of the fall well enough to not make it look like a rag doll if it were performed live as far as I can figure. By taking that movement and cutting it into 4 or 5 shots that interconnect, each shot provides a starting pose and moves towards the next pose, before actually cutting to a shot with that pose. It can work at speed. As a series of stills it works well, it will be interesting to see it in motion. These are the kinds of things that are fun to experiment with in telling the story and playing with the medium.

Lack of electricity

This one keeps trying to make a nest in the kitchen.

The electricity is a huge problem. I try to cook or run errands in between, but when the battery on my laptop gets low and the electricity goes so often it is really tough to get into a flow of working. I try my best to use battery powered lights to take photos for the next batch of shots, even if the lighting is completely inaccurate. That way I can get the staging, as in the position of all elements in the shot down. I will add images that represent the kind of lighting for each shot, as I can’t gain enough control over the lights I have to direct them enough for that. Besides, the electricity goes every other hour, so it is just fortunate when the battery powered lights are running so I can take photos and see the puppets.I tried to get some work done. I did add some more photos and edit the ones I had taken the day before in the story I am working on. I ended up cooking some karela (bitter gourd), which turned out well.I have to do something productive when the electricity goes every hour otherwise you completely lose that momentum to work. In the evening, the electricity went out before 6pm and I was in darkness until well past midnight. What kind of crap is that? Apparently, since there are regional elections going on, political parties do this nonsense to keep people from congregating too much. Seriously? If that is the case, the entire neighborhood should be at the ruling party’s doorstep instead of the kind of idiotic concerns the general public often expresses. Such as religious policing of each other and worrying about nonsense that does not in any way reflect the duties of elected officials.Well, since the electricity was gone for so long, I drank some tea with Umar when he got back and I will work the night shift along with him tonight. He is working on the throne room background for Raja Rai Diyach in Sur Sorath. It is the largest backdrop in the film, and features some challenging elements, but it is coming together beautifully. I finalized another design the other day, as well as some more designs for huts today. We are getting there with all the tasks needed for production. I used the time without electricity to make a bunch of phone calls. I checked in on my friend Ustad Amb Jogi (music director and composer on “Risalo”). After his multiple heart attack, he had his angioplasty yesterday and is recovering at his home.I checked in with puppeteers to organize my trip to audition the four to work with me on this project. Khursheid or Sadar sahib as he is called helped take me to different puppeteer families in the three locations they live in Multan months ago. This time, we will put a call out to puppeteers in all three cities that they live in, Multan, Bahawalpur and Khaniwal. I know what I need from them, now let’s see who can handle something new and bring the subtle performances I need. I will certainly help, but I need people with skill and the ability to listen and try something new, while, I hope, bringing something of their own to it. These communities have had it rough. I learned that many of the puppeteers were in Lahore, selling livestock in a market.These are performers, but at the moment, they have not changed with the times and no one has really helped them to do so either. I hope to go settle which puppeteers I’ll hire for “Risalo” next week.

Beginning Sohni

The boost from getting a good edit on the Sorath storyboards helped me get started on the next story; Sohni. For Sohni, I like a lot of what I did in the drawn storyboards last year. Certainly the first portion of the story can be translated directly into photos with the puppets. It is actually a lot of fun to see some of the drawings transformed into photos with the actual puppets. What was imagined, begins to come to life. There are still backgrounds and proper lighting and of course the puppet performance to be added, but you can start to see a glimmer of what could be.Taking photos is nice, because I can start to see the actual elements that will be photographed and stage them accordingly. The richness of these handmade puppets starts to encourage me to bring the camera in closer where it fits with the story. Part of the beauty will be in those details that you would not get to see during a live performance.I also take a lot of extra photos of other angles that I can play with in the edit. It is a quick way of experimenting and seeing what choices beyond what I have previously storyboarded could come out of this process. Each revision of script, storyboard or music is another go at telling this story. Each progression leads to that final telling of the story, in the form of the film which is what people get to see at the end.