Construction:Shoot#2

We decided to shoot scene 1 and 2 next.Again both these scenes had the same location, my maids house.

Aiza wasn't in Lahore when I went for the site inspection or else we both would have gone. I went there with my mum and my maid. I took picture of the site. Since we needed to use a kid around the ages of 4 or 5 we decided to use a kid from my maids neighborhood.The kids there are always roaming around on the street out side of their house so the issues of the mums being overprotective wouldn't really be a bother. Also because we needed to use a school which was very near to my maids house so it was sensible for us to use a kid living in that immediate area. I talked to my maid about the type of kid that we wanted to use in our film and she told me of this one kid who according to her description fitted well into our characters image. While on the site inspection i talked to the mother of the kid as well who informed me that Ali(the original name of the kid) is a confident naughty boy and that he would be willing to act out our scene. Unfortunately the kid wasn't in the house then so i didn't get to meet him. Later when i showed Aiza the pictures of the location and the kid she said that they were fine. Thus we decided on going there again for our shooting.

On the day of the shooting we went early in the morning. We wanted that before the shoot we get a few trail shots so that chances of mistakes could be reduced.

Now here comes the first problem-Ali isn't home!
Ali wasn't at home when we arrived at their place. We told his parents that it was not possible for us to came later so they consoled us saying that he was at his grandmothers place and his dad could go and pick him up but it would take some time. Whilst after receiving some consolation we adjusted ourselves to the situations and decide that instead of shooting scene 2 we start of with scene 3.

Scene 2 required for us to use the rickshaw that the rickshaw driver is washing.Moeez playing the role of Ali Hamza Mahmood in his youth.

Moeez as Ali Hamza Mahmood

Me and Aiza working

Now here comes the second problem-Too much harsh light!
Since it was morning time the sun was blazing. Even though where we were shooting was a slightly shadowed area I had to adjust the exposure compensation, the shutter speed and the aperture before shooting the scene. I adjusted the camera on the tripod and just shot the sequence. This scene was shot twice, once as an indoor shoot and once as an out door shoot. Although we missed out the last few seconds of this shot as it was to be acted out by the adult Ali played by Hamza Khan who wasn't with us then but it also required a different location.One of Moeez's scene involved me taking a slightly high angle shot of him working so i had to stand on a huge brick peice. Moeez's scene finished without any hassle.

Me directing Moeez

But wait for it, the story doesn't end here..
Now here comes the third problem and the final bomb!!
When Ali, our main protagonist who had to play the part of the younger Ali arrived, he refused to act!
He wouldn't even look at our faces!! Ali refused to act as he felt very shy with us and would not try to understand as we explained to him the sequence.That's when I looked at Aiza and she looked at me.
Both of us had blank faces.We just lost our protagonist and coming back another day to shoot this scene again was just not an option we had. A few minutes we were like that but then again, God gave a brain to both of us, and after a momentarily and involuntarily shut down it decide to get in the 4th gear and work its magic.We immediately called for all the kids on the street at that time for auditions, those kids who were ranging from the ages of 4 to 6 came and gave us slight acting performances. Out of these kids we selected Aftab to act for us in place of Ali.

Aftab is on the left

Aftab was brilliant. With a kid who has had no acting experience, he understood and picked up things quickly as I directed him.He did a very good job and though i feel given a little bit more time we would have done a Beretta job it was still a nicely acted out scene. This scene however was slightly technical.It involved a panning shot of Aftab- playing the part of Ali who is the protagonist in this scene-running in the street. Whilst the camera was on the tripod it was difficult to juxtapose the characters feet at the same position in the frame during panning. Aiza was shooting this scene but when she told me that it wasn't shooting properly,  I gave it a try .Not a very futile try. The tripod slowed the speed of our panning so Aiza took it of the tripod and tried it then. This was still slightly better.I tried to do it without the tripod as well and got the same result as Aiza's but I gave Aiza the charge for this scene since I had to direct the kid in how to act and run. Meanwhile I was busy clearing the street, controlling the flow of the people coming from both sides and explaining to Aftab on how to run, where to stop etc. Aiza shot a scene where Aftab runs towards the camera.

Aiza shooting the feet scene

The rest of the shoot went like this. Although at the time when I had to direct so may kids to play around outside the school, I myself was in fits of laughter as they got so super excited to be on camera.

Aiza shooting the over the shoulder school scene

me directing and Aiza shooting

We wrapped up the shoot with the photo shoot of Aftab as Ali Hamza Mahmood. The composition and framing of the picture was set in our minds so we didn't try too many poses with Aftab. We just got the ones we needed according to the image in our heads.I had taken my insspiration from the cover page of the book,'Kite Runner' so I did the still photography for our poster page.

All of the school kids

 We still have a few 2-3 second shot left to be shot of Hamza later, but we will most probably do it on the day when we shoot scene 6 and 7.