Topi has 100,000 hits on YouTube

I spent a long debating whether to put Topi online, but I'm glad I did. Despite a slow start, this week the film crossed 100,000 views, largely due to a viral response in India during September 2010. I'd never imagined that so many people would watch the film, and it's tremendously gratifying to have access to viewers' reactions, something that's not always possible at film festivals. One of my favorite comments was posted by mrvirenjn:

"This reminds me of what my grandfather once told me, when he had to migrate to India after partition.He actually missed the train he was supposed to be on.And people on that train were slaughtered before it could reach Amritsar.I could never have been born,and this video really made me feel for that boy when he lost his mother.Partition was terrible.This video just reminds us of the innate goodness in human beings.Of how it was and how it should have been."

In the stress of trying to finish the film and get it out there, it's easy to get lost in the intricacies of composition, animation, sound, festivals, etc and forget about the bigger picture. But hearing viewer responses such as the one above reminds me of why I chose to do this project, and why films that are actually about something are so vital.

Shot notes

1. Shot 5 - Bir plays with Train
1. Pooya: Camera pull out looks weird, cut to scene 6 looks weird because of all grey
2. Sheila: Pause on mom's hand, her head looks mechanical, exaggerate head shaking
3. Christine: Moms hand looks float
4. Me: Redo Bir's flop down
   
2. Shot 6 - Ma, eh gaddi
1. Me: Do I need a wider establishing composition?
3. Shot 10 - Bir runs to train and is scolded
1. Instead of having him look up at the mom, have him continue to have his head down and just raise his eyes to look at her - i.e. more sheepish - or maybe he just leans away from her, a little afraid
   
4. Shot 13 and 15 - Bir peeks out from behind Mom
1. Sheila - Mom looks floaty
2. Me - Bir could dodge a crowd person in either of these scenes
   
5. Shot 92 - Bir takes cap off and looks at it
   
1. Me: Fix the part where he grabs the cap and also have the cap deform
   
2. Sheila: Train could accelerate out of station
6. Shot 94 - Bir turns and goes into compartment
   
1. Christine: Bir is floaty at end - have him pause for 6 frames after he turns

The Maharaja's New Clothes

The clothing worn by people in this period and part of India consisted largely of salwar-kameezes and kurtas. This form of clothing is extremely difficult to animate in 3D, so I am working with two options:

1. Use a cloth simulation -- difficult, but nice secondary motion
   
2. Stylize the cloth and rig it -- easier technically, but may look too stiff
   

I got some great advice from Mark de Sousa of Sony Imageworks, who suggested that I use a combination of bones and deformers to rig the clothing if I choose not to do a simulation. But he felt that cloth simulation would still be better overall if I could fit it into my production schedule, and liked this test that I did using Maya's new nCloth system.



I'm still deciding, but am leaning towards rigging the cloth because I already have my hands full with technical issues and cloth is known to be tricky. Still, I'll keep working with the cloth simulations for a bit longer.


In addition, Christine Panushka suggested that I differentiate the clothing between the Hindus and the Muslims more, instead of relying solely on colour. Now, the people from this time would wear similar clothing, so it'll be tricky to do so, but maybe I can give the Hindus shorter kurtas or a waistband or something.

Shonali Bose Script Review

So I had the good fortune to have the newest version of my script reviewed by Shonali Bose, director of the acclaimed film 'Amu'. This review served as an important validation for me, since she is both a filmmaker and Indian, and is therefore much more familiar with the historical and cultural context that I am working in. The good news is that she liked the script and had some interesting suggestions as well.

• She agreed with Mary Sweeney's comments about telegraphing the significance of the cap, so I will continue to try and think of a way to integrate it into the script.
  
• She also liked the text that I introduced in the beginning instead of the old Khushwant Singh quote, and felt that it was a step in the right direction.
  
• In addition, she suggested involving the mother to a greater extent at the end, and mentioned that one way in which I could do this is by having the mother succeed in getting to the door of the compartment, only to witness Maqbool placing Bir on the train through the door at the other end of the compartment. I agree that the mother's role could fleshed out more during the climax, so I'm going to look into ways to resolve it, including the above suggestion.

Overall, this is good - I'm going to keep moving forward and do some more modeling.

Mary Sweeney script review

I had another script review today, this time with Mary Sweeney of the Writing division. Overall, she liked the script, which was really encouraging.

• She really liked the use of color palette to separate Hindus and Muslims into two 'tribes'
• She liked the transitions, especially the animated transition from the map into the train
• She thought I did a good job showing, instead of telling, and that the images and dialogue are both used efficiently
  

I asked her about the use of dialogue, and she thought I should keep it in because although the story works without the historical context, it's the context that makes it even more interesting. And the dialogue between Bir and Santosh is the way in which I provide this context.

Also, she did have one interesting story suggestion - to telegraph/foreshadow the significance of the cap beforehand. For example, Bir could find a prayer cap and playfully put it on his own head, when his mother quickly removes it. This way, the audience realizes that the cap is specific to one religion and its transfer is not common. So this moment amplifies the significance of Maqbool's gesture later on in the film.

I like the idea a lot (in fact, I had a variation of this idea in an earlier draft), but it may cause problems because I already have Bir picking up the cap and giving it to Maqbool. So, two cap incidents might be too many. Therefore, I need to either combine both the incidents or use only one of them. Food for thought, I suppose.

Paul Demeyer Storyboard review

While working on the script, I've also been storyboarding the film. It's been a real challenge because the film is set in a crowd, so I created some references from scenes that I like - one's from 'Empire of the Sun' and the other's from 'Water'. This helped a lot.

Anyway, this week I workshopped the film in Paul Demeyer's storyboarding class. This critique was really helpful because Paul didn't know anything about the project to start with, plus he is very candid and a great director.

Unfortunately, he was very confused when he first saw it. He then asked me to step him through the boards and he felt like the idea works, but there were certain aspects that confused him.

Here's what he thought:
The quote in the beginning from Khushwant Singh is confusing because it talks about Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, whereas the film is really about Hindus and Muslims. Solution: I'll try to fix the quote or get a different one.

The title's not onscreen long enough. Easy fix.

When the mother starts explaining the situation to Bir, there's a long delay before her response. Solution: Cut over the dialogue. (I'm missing the hand with the stick in the above scene too.)

He wasn't clear that Maqbool and Bir were at the same station. I think that this will be clear in the final film.

The cap exchange is not clear because I don't show it, I just show Bir's reaction. Solution: Put back the shot of Maqbool taking the cap off his head.

Joanna also had a couple of good comments:

Perhaps Bir should see his mom being pushed onto the train. That way it gives him a target.

Towards the climax, we lose the fact that Bir is being chased. I need to work more on the tension in that section.


*****

Paul asked me to bring the film in again next week, so that should help some more. Overall, I think these notes are all really helpful.

Paul Wolff Script Feedback

I met with Paul Wolff, who is on the writing faculty in the film school, and these are the notes that I got:

The idea works. He felt the content was unusual for an animated film but he liked it overall.

He was confused about whether Bir was Hindu or Muslim because the dialogue misled him to think that Santosh and Bir are Muslims going to Pakistan, instead of the other way around. Solution: Fix the dialogue in the beginning to make it more clear.

He didn't like the fact that I don't show the mother reuniting with Bir at the end. He feels that the film is too short to have an ambiguous ending, and suggested that I have Maqbool hand Bir to his mother so that she's involved in the end. I'm not sure whether I agree.

He felt that the mother would do everything in her power to get to the child, so I should be more explicit about the fact that she can't get to him. Solution: Cutaway to her in the train compartment, unable to get out.

I asked him whether showing Bir chased by Muslim ruffians before being rescued would work against the premise. He felt that I can fix that by showing Hindus with weapons fighting back.

Overall, he was positive about the piece and understood most of my references to Muslims/caps, which was great. He recommended I check out the crowd scene in 'Empire of the Sun', a scene that I already have been looking at in great detail, so that makes me feel that I am on the right track.