DEGREE PROJECT

Mood Indigo 2019 series of short films

Sponsor : Penny Lane Advertising Services LLP

Volume : 1

STUDENT : SAI KRISHNA

PROGRAMME : Masters of Design (M. Des)

GUIDE : SHRINKHALA AREN

2021
COMMUNICATION DESIGN FACULTY (FILM AND VIDEO COMMUNICATION DESIGN)
 The Evaluation Jury recommends SAI KRISHNA for the

Degree of the National Institute of Design

COMMUNICATION DESIGN (FILM AND VIDEO COMMUNICATION DESIGN)
herewith, for the project titled "MOOD INDIGO 2019 SERIES OF SHORT FILMS"
on fulfilling the further requirements by*

Chairman

Members :

Jury Grade :

*Subsequent remarks regarding fulfilling the requirements :

This Project has been completed in ________________ weeks.

Activity Chairperson, Education

 Statement of originality

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and it contains no full
or substantial copy of previously published material, or it does not even con-
tain substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the
award of any other degree or diploma of any other educational institution,
except where due acknowledgement is made in this graduation project.

Moreover, I also declare that none of the concepts are borrowed or copied
without due acknowledgement. further declare that the intellectual content
of this Graduation Project is the product of my own work, except to the ex-
tent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in
style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.

This graduation project (or part of it) was not and will not be submitted as
assessed work in any other academic course.
 Statement of copyright

I hereby grant the National Institute of Design the right to archive and make
available my diploma project/thesis/dissertation in whole or in part in the
institute’s knowledge management center in all forms of media, now or here-
after known, subject to provisions to the copyright act. I have either used
no substantial portions of copyright material in my document or I have ob-
tained permission to use copyright material.
 Acknowledgements

To be honest I will have a universe full of people to thank for having gone through to the finish of this project, because only I understand how
lucky I consider this opportunity. From the assistant DOP who ran across the campus for change of a single battery in the middle of an event,
to my mother who bought me my laptop without which I couldn’t even have started the project, I am ever thankful for each and every person’s
impact on this project.

My parents, Mr. Balakrishna and Mrs. Rama, are the most supportive parents known to not just me, but also to all the people who know me. Be it
my difficult years of college or struggling period in Mumbai, they have been nothing but supportive and have constantly expanded their bracket
of understanding. I will always be thankful to them for investing their trust and belief in me, which is a tough purchase. I am following my dreams
because of their investment in me.

I would like to thank Anupam Sidhant for not just providing me with this wonderful opportunity but also being my close friend for a long time. If
he hadn’t pushed me to collaborate with him in several projects in college, we wouldn’t have developed the relationship that led to this amazing
experience.

I would like to thank Shrinkhala Aren for being the most approachable faculty in the department whom I could always go to resolve any kinds of
issues. She helped me confirm the project and guided me, not just through building the brief but also through the final submissions with utmost
reachability.

Lastly I would like to thank my friends Astik Anand and Chirag Chotai for being a constant support system right from my college years till the end
of the aftermovie edit. Not to mention they have helped me keep contact with Mumbai office throughout the pandemic. I would also like to thank
each and every member of the Aftermovie crew and the Mood Indigo organising team, along with every person that I came into contact with in
the entire festival. All these people hold importance in my life and without them this project wouldn’t have been possible.
8
 CO NTENTS
Statement of originality 04
Statement of copyright 05
Acknowledgements 07
Contents 09

LET ME INTRODUCE 10
CALL ME CONTEXT 14
THE FOUR BEST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE 18
GREEN FLAGS 22
BOMBAY DREAMS 24
BOMBAY LOCALE 26
FIRST THINGS FIRST 30
MOOD INDIGO - A BALLAD OF ECSTASY 36
WRAPPING UP 44
A SEA OF SHOTS 46
A CHANGE OF MIND 50
SECOND THINGS SECOND 54
KAHI TU MILE 58
OFFICIAL AFTERMOVIE RELEASE 60
TEAM AFTERMOVIE 62
LAST THINGS LAST 66

Estimated Expenditure 70
Actual Expenditure 71
Timeline 72
Bibliography 73

9
LET ME I NTRO D U CE
C
ollege was both a wonderful started to serve as an escape from
place and a curious time. Filled said reality. For me it was dancing.
with numerous opportunities I devoted all my time and energy to
at many different avenues, for a stu- the dance club of the college, with
dent to find their interests, needs, my own choice of course. I got real-
passion, all in all their place in the ly better by the end of college, so it’s
big picture called society. Above ev- not a regret. College being the expe-
erything IIT Bombay had a norm reli- rience it was meant to be, the per-
giously in practice, student-run-bod- son I walked out was a lot different
ies. Every committee, council, panel and experienced than the person I
or team that executed a decision or walked in. With a lot of perseverance
carried out an operation, comprised and hard work I was able to graduate
of students. Needless to say, the in- from college, but I could just never
volvement of students in activities compose myself to be called a civ-
other than those pertaining to the il engineer. But that wasn’t a regret
classroom is a major lifestyle. Cul- either. College provided me with the
tural, sports or technical events are clarity to choose my next endeavour
always happening throughout the wisely, filmmaking.
year without even a single week free
on the calendar with the exception
of end-semester-exam week. All
events conceptualised, planned and
executed by students only. Automat-
ically the opportunity to participate
in different activities for a single
student increases. Even I started off
in the first year with my legs dipped
into too many things, but eventually
simmered down and stuck to only a
couple. As a result, academics took
a hit and these interests or activities
11
 I had already applied to get into tiniest details in order to give mean-
NID at an undergraduate level. I ing and shape to the story.
was unable to secure an admission
at the time. After being exposed to
filmmaking at a college level and Working in different roles in each
taking the decision to pursue it and project helped me understand about
practice it at a professional level, all the necessary decisions that go
I couldn’t think of a better place. into executing a shoot. Class assign-
I knew that I wanted to be a direc- ments gave the ability to use audio
tor, having enjoyed the experience and video equally and meticulously
of directing plays and short films in to my advantage. Combination of all
college, but I wanted to understand these learnings helped me expand
and learn about the work that goes my horizon and be prepared for any
into every department of the film- kind of challenge when it came to
making process. At the time I wasn’t executing a video project. Not only
entirely aware of the filmmaking was I prepared to play multiple kinds
course structure at NID, but I knew I of roles in a production, but I also
could extract basic knowledge about developed an appreciation for var-
everything I wanted to learn from ious forms and formats of films. By
the course, and the rest of learning the time NID came to an end, I was
would depend on my perseverance. a more confident person, not just in
Of all the knowledge passed to me the context of filmmaking, but life in
by the masters course of the film and general.
video communication discipline, the
most valuable one to me was that the
strength of a story lies in the atten-
tion to details. I didn’t even know
that I needed to learn that, but it was
the best thing I gathered from my
faculties and course work. To break
down each element of a film to the
12
The famous Hostel 12 in the IIT campus, known for its Dumbledore’s Hat mess top, one of the attractions for the visitors of Mood Indigo.

13
 C ALL ME CONTE XT

02
A
nupam Sidhant is a name Anupam being smart and confident, Even after I left IIT, if I was visiting
we ought to make ourselves decided to drop out of his courses college and Anupam was working
familiar with to contin- early enough and start his own vid- on any project at the time, I would
ue through this document. I have eo production company. He lived in just jump on board, do some edit in
known Anupam from his freshman the campus as a student and made the least. Just because working with
year at IITB as the “weird poet guy” videos for clients working with very him was fun and felt familiar. By the
who loved films. He loved me too, low budget but yet delivering good time I finished my course at NID,
and he liked to keep busy with work, results, and that is how he built Anupam had already been running
so he got me on board to work with his business. He always made sure his company Bombay Locale along-
him in different roles in almost every to drag friends and people he has side his elder brother for more than a
project he did. Be it a play, short film worked with into the projects he year and was doing great work. They
or even just a trailer for some col- would take up, providing different started as a video making firm and
lege event, if Anupam was working people opportunity and also keep- have developed into a full fledged
on it, I was either editing it, direct- ing the cost low. He actually became advertising agency, capable of car-
ing it, rolling it, or at least hanging popular later for this exact reason, rying out an entire branding project
out with him providing support and finding and launching fresh talent with in-house creators and techni-
jokes. This was until I was in IIT. through his company. cians, very impressive. Throughout
my course at NID, me and Anupam
would talk from time to time over
the phone. I would congratulate him
for a video that he published and he
would always encourage me to move
back to Mumbai and work with Bom-
bay Locale.

15
 Here I was, after a long summer and
the longest wait ever, finally out of
college and meandering through
space and time, out to find the mean-
ing of life and a video project for me
to graduate. This happened for a few
months actually and it wasn’t that
bad to be honest. I was still figuring
out different options that I could ex-
plore to do for my project, and the
phone rings in mid October with
Anupam on the other side. Only this
time he wasn’t calling to have a ca-
sual chat or mildly encourage me to
move back to Mumbai. He called me
with a project. A proposal to work
alongside him on possibly the most
exciting project, not just to Bombay
Locale, but to all of the video nerds
born in the IIT Bombay soil. Bombay
Locale locked down the Official Af-
Anupam Sidhant, tinkering with the GoPro used to capture fish-eye POV shots. termovie for Mood Indigo 2019 - A
Ballad of Ecstasy, and this was the
holy grail. Needless to say, I was al-
ready set on my way to Mumbai by
the end of the phone call, playing the
Mood-i anthem in my head and the
golden ticket in my hand.

16
The SAC Wall Painting at Mood Indigo. With a fresh design every year, it is the pride point of the festival.

17
 THE F OU R BES T DAYS O F YOU R LIF E

03
B
eing an institute that is team- as many people as Mood Indigo does.
ing with organisations and It is often referred to as “Asia’s larg-
councils catering to extra cur- est cultural festival” because of this
ricular activities and events, the an- reason. It also came to be known
nual cultural festival hosted by the popularly as “chaar din ka sapna” or
college was bound to be the flagship the four best days of your life, be-
event, the best experience that a col- cause that’s how long the festival is
lege event has to offer. Mood Indigo and the whole experience feels like it
stands tall against all possible ex- was a dream come true, delivers ex-
pectations and does more. Undoubt- actly what the name promises.
edly it was the flagship event of the
calendar for the students on campus, Every student that enrols in the col-
but throughout years it has gained lege falls in love with Mood-i at the
so much popularity and value that first acquaintance, its a common
it became the flagship event for all happening. I have attended five out
the college students across the city of six Mood-is that happened during
and then the country. If a college had my stay in IIT and competed as a
a society pertaining to any art, and part of the dance team for four of
wanted to know if they’re the best those years. It would be safe to as-
in the country, Mood-i is where they sume that Mood-i had my heart early
brought it. As a result of fierce com- on and still does, thats a part of its
petition and an attractive artist line- charm. Not only have I attended but The Revisit Project performing at The NCC grounds on Day 2 of the festival, IIT Bombay.
up every year, Mood Indigo start- have been close personal friends with
ed to attract big crowds and bigger many members from the organising
brands to sponsor. Upon crunching committee as well, which meant that
numbers, IIT Bombay seems to host I am aware about a lot of action that
the college cultural festival with the goes into putting, the behemoth that
biggest footfall not just in India, but Mood Indigo is, together.
the entire of Asia. There is no oth-
er college in the entire of Asia that
hosts a cultural festival that attracts
19
 Having myself acquainted with
different processes and stages of
Mood-i throughout college, includ-
ing venues pre and post events, now
I had the opportunity to experience
it through an entirely different lens,
quite literally. Being part of the Of-
ficial Aftermovie crew meant full
security clearance and an access to
every and all venues at all times.
And it also meant that I get to expe-
rience the ecstasy once again, with
the main purpose of capturing it all
Beat the street, Hip-hop dance competetion at the SAC Parking lot, IIT Bombay.
in a camera, and stitching it together
to convey the magic in the form of a
video. And what’s better was that I
had just finished a masters course in
video making, and was equipped bet-
ter than ever to execute necessary
operations in order to achieve this
magic video. With all that I learned
from NID, with all that I already
knew about IITB and MI, with crew
passes that provide full clearance,
with the excitement of returning to
Mumbai and my alma mater, I just
couldn’t wait anymore for the four
best day of my life to come true.
Vogue, a fashion show competition in the Convocation Hall, IIT Bombay.

20
Informal events like speed portrait are a treat at the Gulmohar lawns, IIT Bombay. Model making competition at the SOM Foyer, IIT Bombay.

Mesmerising campfire experience every night in the SAC Back lawns, IIT Bombay.

21
G REEN FL AGS
U
ntil that point I still haven’t Getting this project was a big deal to
decided what to do for my me and I couldn’t think of any other
graduation project, but I was faculty that I could communicate it
considering making a fiction film. better to. I explained her about the
When I got the call from Bombay project and what my role would be
Locale, I was just excited to find in it, she asked to watch the videos
myself at the receiving end of such of previous Mood Indigos, and not
an opportunity, and on my way. It much later after that she agreed with
was around that time a classmate of me that this project was a good idea,
mine, Prakhar was having a conver- and helped me register it as a grad-
sation with me about the details of uation project. It was all the green
the project and production process. flag I needed to see in regard to the
Upon learning about the project and project, and who else was better to
it’s scale, he gave me the suggestion guide me through the project than
to check if this project would qualify the person holding the flag up. Project guide: Shrinkhala Aren
to be my graduation project. I liked Picture courtesy: www.nid.edu
the sound of his suggestion and im-
mediately rushed to see one of my
faculties, Shrinkhala Aren. I have al-
ways had a rapport with Shrinkhala
whenever it came to discussing any
issues about the course or the class-
room.

23
 BO MBAY D REAM S

05
B
y the end of November I had So Anupam was going to be busy
reached Mumbai and settled evaluating the performance of these
my belongings at Anupam’s camera people and he wanted me to
house. He was working on a shoot oversee the entire production and
in New Delhi at the time. I gained shoot plan for all four days of the
acquaintance of the other members festival. It sounded like music to
of the company as well as the equip- my ears, and I immediately assured
ment of the company in the mean- him that he found the person he was
time. Anupam had mentioned that looking for.
he wants someone to take care of the
production part of the project from
start to end, but I was still unsure of
what exactly my part would be in the
project and what all he has planned
already. He sat down with me after
coming back to Mumbai in good old
fashion, to welcome my return to
Mumbai and have the conversation
about Mood Indigo. This was a huge
project for Bombay Locale in terms
of scale and a great opportunity to
attract new technicians and assis-
tants towards the company, because
for them it is a fancy project. Free-
lancing cameramen love to shoot
festivals, and Bombay Locale hired
all the cameramen that worked with
the company in previous projects for
MI’19.

25
 BO MBAY LO C A LE

06
M
ood Indigo was from 26th to Meanwhile we would also go to the
29th of December. We were IIT campus to meet with the MI’19
still in the start of Decem- team once a week or so. The people
ber, and Bombay Locale had other who came to those meetings from
projects going on at the time. So as the MI team were four people. Two
the new employee of the company it overall co-ordinators and two media
was important for me to weigh in on managers. They had a vision for the
those projects with my inputs, while aftermovie and they wanted some-
researching for my graduation proj- one who could understand the vision
ect at other times. I made changes and execute it properly, provided
to the edit of a video for a company their disappointment regarding the
called To The New and also mixed previous year’s aftermovie. Bombay
the audio track for the video. I also Locale was doing good work by then
scripted and directed the advertise- but haven’t covered a festival of this
ments for a company called Rapido. scale before, but it comprised of IITB
Working on these projects helped me alumnus who understood the festi-
to understand the process of Bombay val inside out. We were their best bet
Locale from ideation to submission. to execute their vision of the Mood
Indigo aftermovie. The official logo of Bombay Locale.

27
 Idea 1: Idea 2:
Over the years aftermovie videos The idea was to shine a little light The second idea was to bring empha-
have evolved and adopted to fall into upon what goes behind the scenes sis to this person behind the scenes,
a particular format, colourful video when putting together an event same as the first idea, but using the
montage set to upbeat electronic like Mood Indigo, which is not very Mood Indigo logo instead of a face.
music to put it in words. It’s a great known about. How we planned to The Mood Indigo logo that can be
format and works very well in the go about it was to have an actor or seen in the posters, wall arts, organ-
context of a festival, namely music three different actors who play the iser tee shirts as well as manager
festivals, art festivals, cultural festi- roles of the organisers, who convey sweatshirts. This was also alongside
vals etc. Bombay Locale had devel- the emotional rollercoaster one goes the usual elements of an aftermovie.
oped a signature style by the time, through in their position. This was
they had a bright and heartfelt way alongside the usual elements that
of storytelling in their videos. So it exist in an aftermovie.
was only fair to approach Mood-i af-
termovie also in this direction, along
with the need to do something dif-
ferent from the so called format. We
floated multiple story ideas amongst
ourselves and filtered down to two
ideas to pitch to the Mood Indigo
team.

28
 The MI team was leaning towards
the second idea from the beginning
itself, and it was clear to all what
theme the video should follow. So
from that point onwards we start-
ed to plan for the Mood Indigo 2019
logo to be part of the narrative. We
narrowed down possible scenarios
where we can work the logo into the
video montage of the events, and
then plan for rolling these shots.
This process helped us build a clear
image of the extra layer of video ele-
ment that we wanted to bring to the
aftermovie.

The official logo of Mood Indigo 2019 - A Ballad of Ecstasy.

29
 FI RS T THI N GS FIRS T

07
N
ext step was to officially write
up a project brief, now that it
was clearer how to proceed
with the project research and also
what role I have to play in the proj-
ect. Since the nature of my gradua-
tion project was a promotional vid-
eo for Mood Indigo, my initial brief
consisted of five videos. A trailer,
the main aftermovie, and three vid-
eos showcasing each of the Pronites,
which are the main concerts of the
festival. Since the concerts are the
most extravagant, expensive and
looked forward to events of the fes-
tival, I had planned to dedicate a sin-
gle video to each concert. Three out
of four nights have concerts happen
on the main arena. It seemed like a
good enough structure to promote
Mood Indigo in five videos. I calcu-
lated the number of crew members
The first version of the finished Binaural microphone setup.
and came up with a budget estimate
and registered for the project with
the above mentioned brief.

31
 Binaural Audio:
Astik Anand was working as a chief
editor at Bombay Locale and is a
good friend of mine from college. He
approached me with a great idea for
an audio element that might help us
achieve our vision for the aftermov-
ie. He wanted to record the sounds of
Mood Indigo in stereo setup to help
convey the experience of the festival.
He suggested that we build a binau-
ral audio mic setup and record the
ambience of different venues and
events of the festival, the purpose of
it being to incorporate those sounds
in the track for the aftermovie.

The close up of the ear shaped silicone modules used as the mount for the microphones.

32
 There were two obvious challenges Astik was able to secure ear shaped
in the execution, to build the setup silicone moulds to hold the mics
for mics to be at a fixed distance and from an electronic shop. He then
angle, and to set the range for mics constructed rest of the body using
after extensive testing of the envi- plastic and polystyrene foam and at-
ronment. Astik took the responsibil- tached a head for tripod attachment.
ity to construct the rig and recording We bought dedicated lavalier micro-
the sounds, and he wanted my help phones for the setup and fixed them
in testing the mics and adjusting the in place. Testing was going to hap-
levels on them. Stereo mic setups are pen at Mood-i.
built to work in low sound environ-
ments and the festival wasn’t going
to be a habitable environment for
them to work. So testing the mics in
the environment was very crucial for
the element to come through.

The second version of the finished Binaural microphone setup with an added foam padding.

33
 Preparation for shoot:
The biggest out of the challenges of Apart from planning for the man-
shoot that needed to be worked out power, the next thing to plan for
before time, was arranging for nec- before shoot was narrow down the
essary manpower. Mood Indigo is a necessary locations and times for
four day festival spread-out through- shooting particular elements, like
out the campus of IIT Bombay at time-lapses, hyper-lapses etc. Keep-
multiple venues simultaneously. The ing in mind that these elements will
events start at 8am everyday and go occupy a camera and a cameraman
on till 3am in the morning. Assuming along with it, they needed to not in-
that we needed to cover all events in terfere with the events of the festi-
an ideal situation to achieve the best val. After estimating the number of
possible aftermovie, we were very cameras and gimbals we needed to
short for the ideal situation. Which gather from the company side, we
meant we needed to hire a number were ready to move to location.
of cameramen.

34
The Film room in the Student Activity Center was the allotted space for the Aftermovie team to setup their work-station.

35
M OOD IND I GO: A BALL AD OF E CS TA SY

08
P
ast the planning phase for the
biggest festival in the country
and hence the busiest shoot
for an aftermovie, moving day had
finally arrived, day minus two. Since
mood-i being a four day round-the-
clock event, the whole crew was pro-
vided accommodation and space for
a work-station by the MI team. The
biggest venue of Mood Indigo was
the Student Activity Centre (SAC)
where a huge number of events
happened, and it was where the Af- Dump-out station in the Film room.
termovie crew was provided space
for the work-station. Hostel 1 was
the closest accommodation to SAC,
which is where the Aftermovie crew
were given rooms. The first thing
to do upon reaching campus is un-
pack and setup the company desktop
computer and rest of the work-sta-
tion for smooth functioning. These
tasks included setting up a charging
station, equipment station, dump-
out station, eating corner and a rest-
ing corner.
Equipment station in the Film room. Charging station in the Film room.

37
 Preparation for shoot: Shoot plan:
IIT Bombay being my alma mater Dressing up similar to the managers The Aftermovie team had four pri- All the events happening at Mood-i
and Mood Indigo being a famil- with an identical handheld trans- mary DOP, four additional DOP and are consolidated with venue and
iar concept to me, planning for all ceiver and a badge around the neck a separate drone operator. Primary time information into a schedule
DOPs to cover all events based on fetched us full security clearance and DOP were assigned to cover all the booklet. In other words it was Bible
the importance of events and dis- access to all places, smoothening the events, while the additional DOP for this shoot.
tance between the venues, had to be shoot process further. We referred to covered ambience, crowd and what
done at in the most effective man- this level of clearance as “BL Swag”, we called “moments”. Mood Indigo
ner possible. Knowledge about the and it felt like a superpower. draws its attractive image from the
festival and campus wasn’t the only events and concerts, but most im-
advantage we had up our sleeves. All portantly from the crowd attending
the aftermovie crew members wore mood-i. There is a possibility to cap-
a black sweatshirt throughout the ture wide range of human interac-
festival, which happens to be a uni- tions at different levels at this festi-
form for the managing team of any val, and all the DOPs were instructed
event at IIT Bombay. Every unit that to be on the lookout for such hu-
went to shoot comprised of a DOP man interactions that seem warm or
and an assistant to manage with bright. The shots rolled upon spot-
the equipment, both in black sweat- ting such an interaction between the
shirts. Different units would receive attendees of the festival were cate-
a schedule consisting time and ven- gorised as “moments”.
ues of events they need to cover at
the start of every day. Furthermore
we had two teams of two each on
two-wheelers to carry equipment in
between different venues and SAC.
We had dedicated crew members for
different tasks such as dumping out,
charging equipment, managing the
transceivers, line producer and also
food distribution.
38
Example image 1 of the festival schedule. Example image 2 of the festival schedule.

39
 Example image 3 of the festival schedule. Example image 4 of the festival schedule.

40
The venue spread of events at Mood Indigo in a day:
8am - 8pm, regular events - all venues except Pronite arena
8pm - 10pm, Pronites - Pronite arena
10pm - 12am, Afternites - Convocation Hall
12am - 2.30am, street activities - SAC and hostels

The venues for the events were as follows:

SAC
Convocation Hall
PC Saxena Auditorium
Pronite arena
Other venues

Example image of a shoot schedule screenshot, informing about the event time and venue against the names of the DOP team.

41
 8pm to 10pm during the Pronites
is the only time when rest of the
events come to a halt at all venues
for all four days. After the Pronites,
the crowd confines to the Convoca-
tion Hall for the Afternite or SAC.
8am to 8pm for all four days, DOPs
needed to be present at all venues
except for the Pronite arena. Not
just the event venues but wherever
there was going to be crowd, which is
spread across the entire campus. Not
considering the mishaps and errors
that happen during a shoot that can-
not be planned for, even planning
for effective shoot given all the prior
information was a series of complex
tasks. These tasks included sending
primary DOPs to cover the import-
ant events, secondary DOPs to cover
DOP Kishlay Tiwari in action during the Day 3 Pronite, featuring Magic! Me and DOP Samarth Patidar on the Day 1 Pronite.
other events and “moments”, plan
for special elements like time-lapses
or hyper-lapses, pre-planned shots
and drone coverage in between. Ma-
jority of the shots rolled while cov-
erage were all creative decisions of
the respective DOP at that particu-
lar moment, except for pre-planned
shots.

42
An example of such an event where Tushar Mahajan was one of the DOPs
we needed to plan shots before-hand in the team, who was a magician be-
would be entry of a celebrity on stage hind the lens. He flew in from New
or interviewing an artist before the Delhi at early morning of day one
performance. The respective person- and started rolling shots right the
ality needed to briefed about their moment he reached campus, because
entry point onto the stage, the direc- he felt that he was late as the festi-
tion in which they should walk and val had started already. He was one
occupy which chair. In such an event of the primary DOPs which meant
it was my responsibility to brief the that he had back-to-back events to
celebrity with utmost professional- shoot on day one. Not surprisingly,
ism and direct the pre-planned shot. Actress Deepika Padukone in an informal ses- at around 3pm he stepped off a stage
Meeting and being able to give in- sion at the festival. after covering a music event, handed
structions to Deepika Padukone and off his camera to the assistant and
Piyush Mishra was particularly fun. fainted to the ground. He tried to eat
I would also assign myself as an as- and rest after that but it took him
sistant to one of the DOPs each day almost six hours to recover to full
after the first meeting. Event allo- health. From that incident on crew
cation, calling shots, assisting DOP members were provided with food
and making sure that every DOP efficiently, and other than that inci-
gets rest and food was my job at the dent there were no major hiccups in
event. Making sure the team receives the shoot process. Watching extrav-
food properly was a lesson learnt the A play written by Piyush Mishra was show- agant concerts from the stage itself
hard way. cased at the festival. and getting to meet celebrities up
close, capturing all the “ecstasy” in
cameras was nothing short of mak-
ing memories for life.

43
 WRAP PI N G U P

09
C
eltica - Pipes Rock! is a Bag-
pipes rock band from Sweden
that was visiting Mood Indi-
go as part of the International Mu-
sic Festival. They reached out to a
crew member of Bombay Locale and
requested us to shoot footage for
their music video. This was taken
care of, right after the shoot of the
aftermovie completed. We were able
to shoot them performing in dif-
ferent locations across the campus
including their stage performance,
and also performing on the streets of
Mumbai. The band leader of Celtica,
Gajus Stappen was more than hap-
py with the shots and told us that
their first visit to India was a suc-
cess. We checked if all the footage
was dumped out properly, assem-
bled all the equipment and verified
if anything was missing or damaged,
thankfully nothing was. After pack-
ing up the company desktop com-
puter safely, it was time to say re-
spective goodbyes to the crew and
go home. Time to get back to work.
Celtica - Piper Rock! performing at the International Music Festival as a part of the festival.

45
 A SEA O F SHOTS

10
T
he nomenclature followed Something that often kept hap-
while dumping out during the pening all the while I was screen-
festival was Day N>Name of ing footage of the festival, anybody
the DOP>Name of event/Name of who would walk past my screen and
venue>Folder number. Gathering all lay eyes on the shots would just sit
the dumped out footage into a single there and start to reminisce. Looking
folder revealed the big number we at a beautifully executed shot and
were all excited to know, 3.88 Ter- remembering that you were a part
ra-bytes of footage. After executing of it and the events that happened
the most effective shoot and man- around that memory, is all kinds of
aging to cover most of the festival, rewarding as a video-maker. Mood-i
I woke up in the middle of a sea of footage was filled with such rewards.
shots. The guidelines biding to which It was both unbelievable how amaz-
shots needed to be filtered kept get- ing few shots turned out and a point
ting updated whenever a new folder of pride to show others what we were
got updated. After a lot of bouncing capable of achieving. I started the
around, the guidelines ultimately process of sorting the footage right
fell into the usual convention, Good away as it was estimated a long pro-
and Not good. Even deciding if a shot cess beforehand, and therefore was
was G or N/G was a very difficult task the first person who got to relive all
when there was 4TB of data to be the amazing work we got to do for
screened. Naturally the process of this project.
separating the bunch of shots that
might be used in the aftermovie took
months, but it was rewarding.

47
 The following are eight examples of stills acquired from the footage shot by the aftermovie team.

48
49
 A C HAN GE O F M IN D

11
T
he initial brief was to make a After shooting a video and closely in-
trailer, aftermovie and three teracting with the members of Celt-
videos showcasing the three ica, I realised what the experience
Pronites. After getting through the meant to the people coming from
mountain that was sorting out the overseas. International music festi-
footage, I had different opinions val was another element of Mood-i
about the brief. I realised that there that invited different kind of musi-
are a lot of different important ele- cians from across the globe to show-
ments of the festival that needed to case their culture and musical intel-
be thrown light upon. Competitions lect. Travelling to India and getting
is a part of mood-i that makes it what to perform in front of a huge crowd is
it is. It is what drives the motivation an experience that means a lot more
for a huge number of students in the to those artists than the crowd.
country to pursue a performance art. All these realisations that I had, led
Mood-i was the place to showcase to the reconstruction of my field. I
yourself if you wanted to be an actor decided to dedicate a video to com-
or a dancer or a rapper etc. petitions, a video to the Internation-
al Music festival, and a third video to
all the artists that showcase at Mood
Indigo which included the Pronites,
in addition to the trailer and after-
movie. The collection of these five
videos became the new brief for my
graduation project.

51
 Initially the theme discussed before
shoot to anchor the edit was, treat-
ing the festival as a far-off village
away from the world. We wanted to
showcase Mood Indigo as the es-
cape from life that feels like a home
away from home. Post reviewing the
footage it felt like trying to describe
the festival as an escape might have
negative tones to it. We were over-
whelmed by how many shots we had
for “moments” of people enjoying
the festival. It made us reflect about
our own experiences of the festival,
which felt like a long party, a cele-
bration. This served as an inspiration
for the revised theme to anchor the
edit around, which was celebration.
It also drove the music writing pro-
cess for the track of the aftermovie.
Celebration was the theme that ev-
erybody in the team immediately
Posters for the Aftermovie trailer and the Official Aftermovie respectively.
concurred for the aftermovie, be-
cause it represented what every one
of us took away from the whole ex-
perience.

52
Posters for the Artists video, Competitions video and the International music festival respectively.

53
S E CO ND THI N GS SE CON D
T
he easiest parts of the edit The edit for the trailer was a tricky The edit for rest of the videos, name-
were putting together the hy- task considering that it had to keep ly Artists, Competitions and Inter-
per-lapses and the time-laps- the grandeur and glamour of the national Music Festival, was a famil-
es. Adobe Premiere Pro provides a festival concealed. I decided to nar- iar process of separating the related
powerful weapon, where you input row down the things that could be footage and finding the perfect track
a source folder and the software revealed in the trailer, and also the that could convey the charm. I was
stitches together the time-lapse or order of them. The first half of the able to secure a tracks for the Artists
hyper-lapse for you, according to trailer shows the people of Mood In- video and the IMF video, sufficient
your customisation. This step helped digo and the activities they get to in- to convey my vision for these videos.
to jumpstart the overwhelming pro- dulge in. Concerts, competitions and I decided to make a track from the
cess that was editing. Watching the a whole lot of informal celebrations, scratch for the competitions video
hyper-lapses come to life served as cut to a verse presented by a free- as I was very specific with my idea
the motivation to drop the other style rapper visiting MI. The second and couldn’t find any free track that
clips on the timeline and see what part of the trailer carefully shows lit- served the purpose. Once the audio
magic they do as well. Another im- tle glimpses of the glamour offered tracks were in place, it was time to
portant spect of the editing process at the festival. All in all, it teases arrange the footage in place and let
was to divide the clips and allot the theme of the aftermovie going it work its magic.
them to all the five videos equally, to be and the quality of footage we
and not reserve all the good shots secured.
for the aftermovie itself. Although
the necessary portions of each shot
were cut and placed on the timeline
after sorting the footage, but if it was
working or not couldn’t be found out
until the track for the aftermovie
was finalised.

55
 The final timeline for the Artists video. The final timeline for the International Music Festival video.

The final timeline for the Competitions video. The final timeline for the Aftermovie trailer.

56
The final timeline for the Official Aftermovie.

57
KAHI TU MI LE
B
ombay Locale was working adjusting and tweaking the already
with a client called Trell on a cut sequences and watch the footage
branding project. Part of that come to life. Little colour grading
project was to make a video about the and a little titling later the after-
Trell family, for which a Trell theme movie was ready. Only there was one
was composed. Anupam Sidhant has problem.
had experience with writing lyrics in
Hindi, back from college itself. An-
upam wrote the lyrics for this song
while Abhinav Kaushik composed
the music and arranged the instru- After the mixing of the track and
ments. The Trell theme, “Keh jo keh- the edit of the aftermovie was done
na hai” was performed by the pop- and the film was at the brink of re-
ular Bollywood singer Sukhwinder lease, we ran into legal trouble with
Singh. Anupam and Abhinav had Sukhwinder and had to withhold
developed a rapport with Sukhwind- from releasing the aftermovie. An-
er and proposed the idea for work- upam and Abhinav had to get a new
ing on another song. The theme for vocalist to perform for the theme.
the Mood Indigo 2019 Aftermovie. Luckily they were able to secure an-
Sukhwinder liked the idea and it other popular Bollywood singer for
was all the inspiration needed for the job, Javed Ali. Javed Ali’s voice is
Anupam Sidhant to write the lyrics in the final version of the Aftermov-
for this song. Abhinav Kaushik came ie, providing the film with yet anoth-
through with a beautiful melody for er shade in the theme of celebration.
the lyrics, which were an accurate
description of the ecstatic escape
that MI is. Brought to life in the ma-
jestic voice of Sukhwinder Singh and
the Mood-i theme becomes an an-
them of celebration. Once the track
was ready, edit was only a matter of
59
 OFFICI AL AFTERMOVI E RE LE A S E

14
A
fter almost a year’s wait, the
official trailer for the Mood
Indigo 2019 - A ballad of Ec-
stasy was released from the Official
Mood Indigo Youtube page on 22nd
December of 2020. A few days later
on January 4th of 2021, the official
aftermovie saw the light of the day.
The MI team was very happy with
the final result and said that Bombay
Locale had delivered their vision of
the aftermovie. They also said they
would pass the word down to their
junior MI team, to remember Bom-
bay Locale for the next aftermovie.
As far as the association with a client
could go while working on a project,
all the interactions that happened
with the MI team were of the best
kind. They were excited about their
festival and got us excited to work
with them too. Be it logistic aid or
creative input, the relationship of
the Mood Indigo team with Bombay
Locale was a reflection of the cele-
bration that the festival was. Which
is why “Cheers to the spirit of cele-
bration” reads the last slide of the
aftermovie.

61
 TEAM AFTERMOV IE

15
T
he Aftermovie crew comprised
of not just the employees of
Bombay Locale, but also many
of our close friends and former asso-
ciates, brought together by the spirit
of Mood Indigo. The project couldn’t
have been possible without this crew,
and the importance of role extends
to each and every one of them.

The ceremonial stage selfie right after pack up.

63
 DIRECTOR Sai Krishna

EDIT AND POST PRODUCTION Astik Anand . Tanmay Pathak

DIRECTION TEAM Amey Sharma . Anahita Vohra

CINEMATOGRAPHERS Samarth Patidar . Tushar Mahajan . Kishlay Tiwari . MD. Danish . Jay Data

CINEMATOGRAPHY TEAM Amey Sharma . Anupam Sidhant . Astik Anand . Sai Krishna . Chirag Chotai

PRODUCTION BOMBAY LOCALE

PRODUCER Osho Sidhant

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER & MANAGER Latif Syed

SPECIAL THANKS Rohit Chotai . Vyankatesh Nagre . Karan Chauhan . Sakshi Rajawat
Prashant Jorwal . Alnawaz Alam . Pradyum Soni

64
The Official Aftermovie crew photograph on the mighty Pronite stage.

65
 L AS T THI N GS L A S T

16
G
oing into the director chair for self as an unnecessary exercise. After
a cultural festival aftermovie, that calling shots was withheld and
I must admit felt like driving the extra person with the DOP would
blind. I had not even been a part of assist with the equipment, mainly
an aftermovie shoot or an event of camera switches, lens changes, gim-
such scale before, let alone direct bal handling and card/battery swap-
it. Even given my familiarity with ping. This practice quickly revealed
the festival and campus, the task of itself to be smoothening the process
executing this shoot was a cycle of of the shoot and helped in covering
trial, error and analysis. I had nev- events quicker.
er formally been trained to cover a
cultural festival, but it was clear to
me that my approach had to be dif-
ferent from that of a fiction film in
a traditional sense. The practice that
comes closest to covering a festival
was shooting for a documentary film.
I tried to incorporate all my learning
from the documentary semester in
the shoot. I would subsequently ad-
vise all the DOPs to “hold the frame”,
which refers to being patient while
observing a subject and rolling their
shots. It didn’t take me long to real-
ise that providing an assisting hand
during action was more important
to a DOP than providing specific
description for shots. Directing and
calling for shots through the wireless
transceiver was practiced on the first
day’s Pronite, but it soon revealed it-
67
 The one big learning from this proj-
ect has to be the impact created
when a team comes together, moti-
vated by the same cause. Usually this
motivation for a project needs to be
built from the ground up, but Mood
Indigo by definition was a guarantee
of a great time. So I was at an advan-
tage in that regard. I didn’t have to
motivate the team to do their best
before the shoot with a great speech,
the job description had that covered,
official aftermovie crew. All I had to
do was make a fool proof shoot plan
and make sure the chaos of the event
and the stress of managing such a
huge team didn’t get in the way of an
already powered motivation. Which
is exactly what I did and as a result
not only managed to execute a large
scale festival coverage but also man-
aged to make memories for life.

The wireless transciever piece Number 49.

My partner throughout the shoot.

68
Me unable to believe where I am and what I am doing, as my friend Astik clicks this picture.

69
 E S TI MATED EX PEND IT U RE
Category Cost/Day No. of days Amount
Pre-production
Secondary Research 2000 15 30000
Reccee 5000 2 10000
Shoot
Equipment Rentals 30000 4 120000
Accomodation 16000 4 64000
Food 5000 4 20000
Total travel cost 5000 4 20000
Miscellaneous 7500 4 30000
Post-production
Studio Cost 35000 - 35000
Colour and DI 15000 - 15000

Grand Total: 344000

70
 ACTUAL EX P END IT U RE
Category Cost/Day No. of days Amount
Pre-production
Secondary Research 1000 15 15000
Reccee 2000 4 8000
Shoot
Equipment Rentals 25000 6 150000
Equipment Purchased 16300 - 16300
Food 9450 7 66150
Total travel cost 44800 - 44800
Miscellaneous 12500 - 12500
Post-production
Studio Cost 35000 - 35000
Colour and DI 15000 - 15000

Grand Total: 362750

71
 TI MELI NE
Pre production
5th Dec - 23rd Dec (3 weeks)
•Secondary Research
•Conceptualisation and plan for the shoot
•Location scouting and shoot planning
Shoot
Dec 24 - Moved to location
Dec 25 - Shoot preparation
Dec 26 - Day 1
Dec 27 - Day 2
Dec 28 - Day 3
Dec 29 - Day 4
Dec 30 - Pack up

Post production
Feb 07 - Second guide visit
Jun 08 - IMF and Trailer first cut
Jul 03 - Artists and competitions first cut
Sep 25 - IMF, Artists, competitions and Trailer final cut
Mar 16 - Aftermovie final cut
Mar 23 - Final films submission
Apr 12 - Other deliverables submission

72
 BI BLI OG RAP HY

Youtube
Watchtower of Turkey (2014) - Leonardo Dalessandri
Watchtower of Morocco (2013) - Leonardo Dalessandri
KOLD - My year 2016 (2017) - Sam Kolder
KOLD x Gymshark | 24.7 (2018) - Sam Kolder
Tomorrowland 2014 official aftermovie (2014) - Tomorrowland
Tomorrowland Belgium 2016 | official aftermovie (2016) - Tomorrowland
INZO - Overthinker (2018) - Lowly.
INZO - Angst (2019) - Lowly.
Alan Watts - Nothingness (Nightzim Remix) (2014) - Crown music

73
 Sai Krishna
[email protected] | 9967458681