0:01:08 – Speaker 2
Greetings and salutations. Thank you for joining us. This is Embrace the Storm. As always, we’ve got another exciting episode for you today. So today we’re speaking with Sam on a pan and he has submitted a film to the Tornado Film Festival called the River Circle. So, sam on a pan, thanks for coming on today.
0:01:28 – Speaker 3
Yeah, thank you, Jonathan.
0:01:30 – Speaker 2
It’s my pleasure to have you on. So, before we get into the River Circle, how did you get involved into creating film? How did you choose film as your creative outlet?
0:01:43 – Speaker 3
Okay. So, frankly to say, I’m not a professional in film. I’m an engineering student, I’m an undergraduate level and in an university of Bangladesh.
But, yeah, so making film was always my passion from my childhood. So with the passage of time I’ve heard my idea. I wrote some stories and screenplays and there was no formal education of filmmaking in my career, ever. I am from another stream, I’m an engineering student, but I used to watch a lot of films. I used to films from all over the country, like Europe, america, australia, all over the country, and thus my passion was evolved. So when the Corona pandemic was being run, then I watched a lot of film, like almost five or six films per day. So it was a very devastating time for everyone, but it was kind of a pleasurable moment for me too, because I watched a lot of films, I learned a lot and I actually got many, many pleasure watching those films.
So one day I was exploring Iranian films and there is a very famous filmmaker called Asgar Faradi. You might have heard his name. He has owned Oscar two times. So I was watching his film called About Ali. So it was an absolutely fantastic film.
So in the film there was a scene that a little child got drowned in the sea or river, like kind of thing, and their parents are trying to recover him from the river. So they were so anxious and their expression was so like shocking, and you cannot you can relate yourself with their feelings. So then I suggested this film to my fellow cinematographer, who was also an engineering student, who is my friend, and I suggested this film to watch. And he lives in a. Actually his home is inside a jungle, he has been brought up inside a jungle and the jungle is beside the river. So he has been all over his life in the in that environment. He is familiar with that environment, how the people at the bank of the river lives and how their lives are, what the phenomenon happened day to day life.
So after watching the film he said that look, that scene when the child got drowned in the river. That scene actually affected me a lot. I have seen this thing in my life. One mother was working at the bank of the river and somehow her child got drowned in front of my eyes. So I can relate to that scene. Can you please make a story so that we can transform it into a film? At the time there was corona, so not know any film making thing, like kind of thing, was really luxury for everyone.
Because, everyone was suffering from corona and everyone was just fighting for their life. But at that moment we actually thought that after when the corona will be end, we will make a try to make a film on the film, on the theme that how the people react when their child is in danger, how their conscience work. So we actually make a rough idea about the story and within one year I wrote the final spin play and showed him and he liked it a lot. He’s actually not a professional cinematographer, he’s a still photographer, but he has one camera. I has one camera. Both are DSLR or mirrorless, not any film camera. And we had no budget at the time. We’re just students, so we just gather some of our pocket money, just, and we thought that we’ll make that film with almost zero budget. But the remuneration for the actors were a problem for us. Then we decided that we will go to the village, to his village where he was brought up, near the river, and we’ll take the real people, and real people who are professional catching fish. So I think they, as they are not actor, they will not charge much money from us. So that will be much easier for us and that will look natural too.
So after a year, when we are final and sure about our project, one day in one of our vacation we went to his village and that’s really too distant from the town. I never went there before. It was really so difficult to reach there. It almost took eight or nine hours about from from motorcycle to like walking to boat, like very distant place. So when I reached there he took me almost to three or four people who are professional fishermen. So I went to them and I never told them that I am going to making a film because that will make them feel nervous. So I told them that, look, look, I am going to catch like going to capture your life, what you do, how you catch fish near the river, because it’s not easy process.
The river is not very calm and tranquil, so it’s not a easy process. So I just told them that you have to do what you do every day and I will capture it with my camera. Can you please do it for me? And they are more than happy to do it. So I also offered them very, very little money comparing to the charges for the professional professional actress. So they are very happy to work with us.
So the next morning we went for a place where we can shoot the film and as I was not familiar with the area because I never went there, so what I thought in the screenplay it was much difficult for me to find a perfect place for shooting because what I thought earlier was not matching with my real experience there. So somehow I got a place that was really workable. So I selected that place and the next day in the very early morning I went there for shooting. But somehow just really surprised me, I was not ever of that, and that was the current of the river. You know, the river actually evolves with the speed of moon, like with the cycle in a cyclic order.
So the bank of the river was not always dry. Sometimes it was dry and sometimes it was full of water. And in the last evening the place we slept at that morning was totally full of water and I was like totally short. So what is this? What I saw last evening is not the place I wanted. So I then again cancel it and reschedule it the next day. So when I went the next day it was perfect and I did calculation so when I will get it very dry and like what I wanted. So I went there, but it was too muddy. I never worked in such muddy place.
So, it is a funny thing happened there when I was totally I was the director of the film, so I had my attitude and I went there fast with my camera and he skipped on and when I just put my first step I just sleep in the mud. So it was a funny. It was a funny moment for everyone. But anyway, the actors are really helpful. They helped me in the shooting so that I can work properly and there are no group members of mine, no familiar crew members of mine, because I don’t know the places and I don’t have the money to hire people, the professional people. So I told my cinema to grab a look, this is your place, this is your village, so you can please gather some like little children who can hold my camera or who can bring these of that. So he said, yes, it is easy for me, but you will not get that help that you are expecting, but it will be workable. So he gathered almost 10 to 12 children who are some of them are teenagers or some of they are around 10 to 12 years old. So they helped me to do the shoot. So it was totally fun shooting.
But then again, another thing surprised me, because the dry place was very quickly being filled with water because the water of the river was coming closer to us. So when I said a place and the actors there and did set my camera and when I about to say action, then I said that the place has been filled with water and then I again replaced them to another dry place. So it was totally surprised for me. It wasn’t a comfortable place to do shooting. So I had to make a lot of improvisation in my screenplay so the shooting can be fitting the screenplay in the story.
So somehow within two days I could complete my, I can complete my short film. And there are also some problems because I have already told that my cinematographer is not professional. He’s a still photographer so he knows how to take still photos very well. He’s very expert in that, like that, but he’s not too good at taking a moving shot. So when it was work it was a shot when he had to walk through the mud. He had we didn’t had many or how to say very pregnancy materials or like things, or camera or gimbals.
So, we had to make every moving shot handled. It would make it look natural. But sometimes you need to make some steady shots so that the people cannot get details from the story. If it’s mass shaky then it harms the story actually.
So that’s the problem I faced, and I actually got it when I was at my post-production table, because at that time there was not much time so that I can take a shot and then again work a lot of way to my cinematographer and look at his camera how the shot was taken, because the time was very short, the water was coming very fast, I didn’t get much time to shoot there.
So actually I told action and I didn’t know how my cinematographer was taking. I just believed him, I just kept faith upon him. So he took just what he took and after, when I returned to my city and was at my laptop screen at the shots, I really became surprised that most of the shots are out of focus or some are really so shaky and that’s not too good. So I had to eliminate a lot of shots, a lot of good shots actually. So it was a hard job for me to do the post-production because I didn’t have much footage and I thought the film would be around 10 minutes, but after eliminating those good shots, I could only make the film of seven minutes eight seconds. So that’s how my shooting experience was really worked.
0:14:04 – Speaker 2
That’s really cool. So you were saying you’re an electrical engineer, like you’re going to school, for no, I’m a mechanical engineer. Oh, mechanical, sorry, sorry. So you’re going to school for mechanical engineering but despite going to school for that, you are still like I need to make a film. That’s cool that you still had an urge to make a film and, even though you’re not in film school, you decided to spend your time and use some of your time to do that. That’s really cool.
0:14:34 – Speaker 3
Yeah, sometimes your passion and your profession will not match or intersect. But you have to compete it, you have to go with it.
0:14:43 – Speaker 2
Yeah, no definitely.
0:14:45 – Speaker 3
And there is a famous filmmaker, Ken Burns. He’s a documentary filmmaker.
Yeah, you might have heard his name and he said that your first project will always be terrible, and I believe that, like not everyone is Joluk Godara or Satoshi Trey that his first film will be just a boom. So I believe that my first project will be a terrible project. So I just started to make something, making films. I just thought that if I start now, then after five, six or 10 or even 15 films, I will be able to make something that will be really acceptable to everyone.
0:15:25 – Speaker 2
So this was your first film, the River Circle. Right that you made. So, after making this first one, does it make you, did it give you the itch like you want to make more films now, after doing this one?
0:15:36 – Speaker 3
Yeah, absolutely, and I just completed another movie shooting like last Thursday, so oh, that’s great. And the last week. That’s great, that’s awesome it was a great motivation for me to complete my first film.
0:15:51 – Speaker 2
So what do you? What do you like about the filmmaking process the most? Do you like the writing? Do you like the shooting of the film? Like what do you? What do you think you do the best at?
0:16:02 – Speaker 3
I think I am best at making my creative independence clear to the audience. Like what I believe or what I don’t, I like to express it through my film. Someone says that I want to tell a story through a film, but I don’t believe that you can’t tell a story through your film. You can tell a story through a book or through a novel. You can show a story through your film. So I like to show what I believe.
What kind of story, I believe, or kind of story I have seen in my life and that has attracted my attention. So I just want to show them in my own way, with my artistic freedom and creative independence.
0:16:44 – Speaker 2
That’s cool. I love that, so would you. What advice would you give to younger people or not even necessarily younger people, but people that are starting to get into creating a film, or someone that’s maybe sitting on the fence wondering if they should try it what kind of advice would you give them to get involved into creating a film?
0:17:03 – Speaker 3
Although I am not so experienced to give advice to the younger people, but I can only say that just do it, just start, because if you don’t put your first step, how can you cover the hallway?
0:17:15 – Speaker 2
That’s right.
0:17:16 – Speaker 3
So you have to go for it. Just what I said earlier your first project will be terrible. It doesn’t matter at all.
0:17:25 – Speaker 2
I hear you.
0:17:27 – Speaker 3
Yeah, but you will love it because it’s like your first child. Yeah, no, exactly Exactly your first production is always a different passion. That’s really cool, I can see it in the core of my heart.
0:17:42 – Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, no, that’s awesome. So, again, we’re going to be wrapping up the interview here, but I appreciate and thank you so much for your submission to the festival, and is there any other kind of final words that you want to say to the audience? Anything else you want to say, maybe about the film that we didn’t get a chance to go over, or anything else you wanted to cover?
0:18:02 – Speaker 3
Yeah, I just want to say that many good films are being made with a lot of difficulties, with a lot of boundaries, and people should not go for only the few Swiss are being massed publicly, who are being advertised in a certain way so that, like the Hollywood films who are being very mass advertised with a lot of money, big budget films. So I know that another kind of passion is worth for this kind of film. But if you don’t support the persons, the people who want to make film instead of their, in spite of their great difficulties, then at one time, after two or three films, if they don’t get that kind of motivation, they will stop. So I think at least give some motivation. If you don’t want to watch the film, just tell them, just go for it, just do it. At least you can praise him. Even it’s a false price, it can motivate him, it can help him to go further.
0:19:16 – Speaker 2
Yeah, no, absolutely. Well again, thank you so much for the submission for the River Circle and actually you know what we, we, we. I actually I overlooked this. Actually we didn’t go too much into what that like the River Circle was really about. Like we talked about your production of it and everything. Tell the audience, actually, what is this story even about, because I liked what you were saying about it. So Okay.
0:19:45 – Speaker 3
So People actually reacts to different phenomenons differently. People want to give empathy to other person when, whenever they can like. If you are hard, then your friend consults you, right, your family consults you. But if both of your heart, how will? How each of you are will react? That’s, that’s a big question. Like Imagine that you and your you and your friend was going to a tour In a car and suddenly you got an accident. Both of you are injured. So although you, you, you have, if you have severely injured then your friend, he cannot console you because he will also go through his own pain. So he at the time, he cannot remember who is his friend. How is he feeling? So at that, I just wanted to capture the that, that moment, when two people are very close to each other but they are feeling different pain, respective to them, related to them, so how they react to each other in that moment. So I Thematically tried to explore that feelings throughout my film.
0:21:05 – Speaker 2
So you’re saying, like in this film it was, two fishermen are, they’re fishing on the river and they end up catching something in their net that they pull in right, and they have to. They both have to kind of deal with that situation, each of them and it. It affects them, and they both are affected by the situation in different ways, right? Yep, that’s cool, that’s really cool. Yeah, I that that I can’t believe. I almost forgot to to go over the, the plot of I. I just I got so excited listening to you talk about the actual filming of it, I forgot to talk about that.
0:21:40 – Speaker 3
You know the actual plot of the film, but, yeah, no, that’s that’s a really cool because the there is not much place to reveal about this story because it’s too short, so if I Say something like really the whole spoiler.
0:21:55 – Speaker 2
I hear you, I hear you, so so, I can’t tell the story.
0:21:59 – Speaker 3
The full review, the hot yeah, no, no, but it’s.
0:22:03 – Speaker 2
Yeah, that’s just enough, though, for people to make them want to watch it and figure out. Yeah, oh, what is that? What is this? But it ties into something that I’ve told people before too, that you know I, I believe everyone, or most people, go through some type of trauma in their life. Like everyone has some difficulties in their life that they have to go through. And what? What makes it different for everyone is how you respond to those difficulties.
You know it’s like what, what are you going to do? You know each person has, you know they can decide I’m going to overcome this thing or I’m going to, you know, let it affect me. And, and you know, let it affect me in a negative way. And you know I don’t want to say like curl up in a ball and cry about it or whatever, but you know there’s, there’s some people in life that overcome things and there’s some people in life that Sadly, don’t. And so I guess you know. So, hearing about, you know, this kind of plot in the movie. It’s like you know what, what is each person? How do they, how do they deal with this thing that they find in the net? So that that’s very interesting.
0:23:05 – Speaker 3
Yeah, and I have named it the reverse circle because it comes to at the starting place, at the last, like a circle it. So it’s thematically a circle which is happened near the river, so the name is the river circle.
0:23:22 – Speaker 2
You know what, and that’s that’s a better place to end. This podcast is there. So again, I thank you so much for your time, I thank you for the submission to the festival and I wish you well on the rest of your filmmaking endeavors.
0:23:35 – Speaker 3
Yeah, thank you for your absolutely fantastic podcast. I was very happy to join you and talk to you in this Interview here. It was my pleasure, it was it was wonderful having you on.
0:23:46 – Speaker 2
Thank you so much. Thank you so much, jonathan.
0:23:49 – Speaker 3
No, my pleasure and everyone. Thank you for listening.
0:23:50 – Speaker 2
Thank you for downloading and don’t forget to embrace your storm Tornado with Jonathan Nado.
0:23:59 – Speaker 1
If you haven’t yet, please subscribe now See your first to hear new episodes with more stories of inspiration about the highs and lows of life and how embracing the storm Is so much more fulfilling of a life than being crushed by the weight of the world. And until then, we hope you’re inspired to do something, whether it’s creating, participating or learning, whatever leads you to your personal passion.
Transcribed by https://podium.page
