Shadow play in a short film

Of the manifold images a movie conjures up include shooting sets jam-packed with arc lights and other equipment and actors emoting in front of the camera and directors screaming commands. Before watching the short film Shades, you are advised to erase those clichéd memories first and make up your mind to enjoy a nine-minute ‘shadow play’, literally.

For six months, the Kerala-based B.Sc Visual Communication students of Nehru Arts and Science College, Coimbatore, have been making this film in which the characters, movements and milieu are just silhouettes in shades of grey.  

A cine hall advert propelled director Mohammed Wasim to think differently and come up with such a film. “That piece of film was so pithy, influential and up to the point. The research part followed next after watching it and I did enough Googling first. I understood that shooting a film in shadows is so popular in foreign countries. Some century old Disney animations were still available in that format,” says Wasim. Was there any heartbreak for the cast getting ‘overcast’? “No chance. The actors are either my batchmates, classmates or college mates. My friends agreed immediately when I suggested it. In fact, the film was a first for many of us,” he smiles.

The theme is about the angst of a young boy, his solitude and longing for true love. It’s subtitled though sparsely dialogued in its nine minute and 10 seconds. Visual effects are at play with drawings and sketches. The crew was too careful with lighting up the sets. Their choice of lighting was fluorescent tubes instead of the professional paraphernalia. The film has amply explored the possibilities of chroma key. Shooting was done with a green matte in the background.

“The film was shot inside the warehouse of a textile shop and we used lining cloth instead of original green matte screen. In a week, shooting got over. We devoted three months for pre-production and another three for post-production work,” says Wasim who also handled the screenwriting and VFX parts. Working on a shoestring budget, the students handled all technicalities by themselves while a hired hand did the background score. Ajay Prabhakar and Gokul Nandhan have cranked the camera. The cast includes Nizaam, Athira, Lakshmi, Adithya and Kashyap.