Making Movies: Ram Gopal Varma (RGV) notes to all the aspiring film makers

I spent the weekend watching these videos of maverick #filmmaker Mr. Ram Gopal Varma (RGV), published way back in 2014. Amongst the many crop of #Telugu #Filmakers (leaving aside his twitter work and recent spate of films), I consider him to be a true genius: wildly imaginative, passionately curious and superbly creative across multiple departments of #Filmmaking including #Filmbusiness #Producing and allied areas. Over the decades in Telugu Film Industry (TFI), he has broken free from all typical conventions that most of his contemporaries abide by and it is this freedom that allows him to make a film like Katha Screenplay Darsakatvam Appalaraju with the same gusto that convinces him to make Ice Cream.

But as an academician in a #Filmschool, I should be wary of that word. Slapping the genius label minimizes him by making it seem as if he were touched by lightning.His genius was a human one, wrought by his own will and ambition as explained lucidly in this video.It was of the type we can understand, even take lessons from. As mentioned in the Youtube description, he believes that the production cost (budget) must be minimized and the making technique must be improved. According to him, there is a myth in the #Filmindustry that with the usage of the latest and the most sophisticated technologies, the production cost increases. Watch these videos to know few simple tricks to check "yes" to both of them.

The link to the videos are given below and do watch it till the end, where he gave umpteen examples from his filmography like #Rakthacharitra #Company #Icecream and many others including the importance of directorial vision, authorial uniqueness and low cost (zero cost) hacks for #Filmmaking. Happy watching and happier learning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgvRzUR7jMA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuoMh2YS2vs

My personal favorite was the pic/frame pasted above, wherein he explained how he spent a mere 25k on a camera only to achieve superior cinematic outcome in one of his #films. Some other nuggets were as follows:

• If one were to apply the principles of #Cooperativefilmmaking, no film will be a flop!!!
• Why would be requiring 200 people on a set just to capture moving photographs? Extra personnel on set is sheer waste of money.
• Filmmaking is always passion and not about moneymaking. Not being corrupted by money is a great thing for all filmmakers and #artists.
• Costs associated with Sound and Back Ground Music (BGM) can wholly be reduced by using stock music from various free sources and at the same, need not compromise on technical finesse.
• In #filmmarketing, the trailer game is an ever-changing pursuit that tries to stay ahead of the intelligent public but must also find new ways to tease, cajole, intrigue and most importantly get them into the seats in a theatre!
• Laser focused #filmdistribution strategies and geographically segmented #filmdistribution tactics can really make film making profitable at small scale. A case in point is 'Hyderabad Nawabs' picture that collected close to one crore from a single theatre in Hyderabad itself. In this way, film making can also become more decentralised and go beyond the traditional film making clusters like #Mumbai and #Hyderabad.
• The subject matter of the film and title of the film really makes a great difference in the film #publicity and the #posters must clearly position/communicate this