When watching a movie, your reaction will be either of these two — Will it ever end? or Whoa! It got over so soon? These days, moviegoers are picky with the kind of movies they watch. And to tell a story in 30-sec onds is not easy.
Sandalwood director — KM Chaitanya’s new 30-second movie — Sleep on the FireworkTv App is the first of a series of films. Sleep tells the story of a mother/son duo. Thirty-seconds may not seem like a long time to tell a story but in first seconds, you will release all that the director is trying to portray. With minimum words, the mystery is built in those first few seconds. A sleepy son, an ailing mother and the unspoken words between them. The story starts as soon as it ends. And you will be left thinking about what happened. In a chat with him, we find out the inspiration behind this film.
Talking about the inception of the idea for making a 30-second film, “The app got in touch with me and asked if I could convey a story in 30 seconds. Initially, I was apprehensive, but then, I took it up as a challenge.” Chaitanya begins adding that it took him a week and a half trying to crack it. He then went on to write two more films — Genes and Stuck.
Chaitanya who has a background in journalism talks about the motivation behind taking up this project. He says, “It was a huge challenge as you have to get the audience to identify, sympathise, get to know the character, etc.”
Sleep which is inspired by an event that happened in his own life, “can represent any emotion.” He says, “It can be horror, emotional or even a
memory. The beauty of this format is that in a few words you can describe an image. And, each person can take it differently.”
Talking about the response that he has gotten for this series, he adds, “It has been very nice and interesting. Every interpretation is different. Every work of art should be like this,’ he shares adding that many fans mentioned that they perceived this movie like a full-fledged feature film.
Explaining how both these formats are different, Chaitanya says, “In a feature film, we compress and pace things up. But in 30 sec it’s the opposite. Each these films needs to be watched multiple times to understand it.” For this director, it has been a great learning experience and it has taught him to economise when he makes feature films too. On his future plans, “I would love to work on more such films as it will hone my filmmaking skills,” he concludes.
