PACE AND RHYTHM; THE SREEKAR PRASAD PERSPECTIVE

Editing is the process where the story takes it’s real shape – but that’s what we already know, don’t we? What we probably do not know is the role that the film-editor plays during the entire creative process of a film.

Yes, he is there, all along, and not just as a spectator – as an active storyteller.

That’s how Sreekar Prasad perceives his role as a film-editor.

That’s the impression I gathered when I asked him how he approaches a new film when it comes to him. In his recollections, he had mentioned that he has an inclination for offbeat stories – doesn’t matter if they have a low budget. I feel this incline has helped him select films that are different in approach – and helped him leave his indelible stamp in each and every work he has done in a career spanning three decades. And in these films, he has involved himself, right from the scripting stage,

Anyways, I am not here to write his biopic. I am here to learn from him, and, if possible, adapt and implement those work-lessons to the best of my ability.

So let me come straight to the point here.

I HAVE TO FEEL EXCITED ABOUT THE SCRIPT

“I think the whole process for me starts when I read a script. Once I read it and I feel excited about it – that excitement level translates into a mixed process, which is – sit with the director, check out the flow. We work as much as possible in tandem in the pre-production, on the script, because as an editor I think I need to make sure that the flow of the story and the emotion in the story comes out. So that’s the first process of the whole thing.

And that’s a very interesting process, because you are trying to visualize a film and trying to see how it would be – so while it would be also because of experience and working in different kinds of films; so you tend to see that maybe at x-point the story is dropping, and you need to push the story ahead because you already started telling what the story is about – this sort of things start playing on your mind when you read it.”

“You want the story to be very crisply and effectively told. Sometimes, the writer, after a few points of redrafting and redrafting again, tends to think that it is understood. So when you are reading it for the first time objectively, you might not understand certain things, or you tend to underline some things, you might think of a payback at the end of the story; those sorts of things happen during the process of scripting.”

That makes absolute sense.

In our documentary industry, however, editors often come in at a later stage, unless it’s an ambitious ‘profile’ documentary or a ‘historical’ – something that requires a certain amount of visual designing and story-boarding even before the film is shot.

But that’s rare. What happens mostly is that the editor ends up with a few kilometers of raw footage – and a script that’s pointing at somewhat the opposite direction.

Anyways, let’s not whine.

I would rather say our documentary editors also need to be part of the pre-production scripting process. Whenever they are involved right at the top, we get better scripts leading to better films; since then, in those cases, we can shoot-to-edit.

THINGS MIGHT NOT ALWAYS MATCH YOUR ORIGINAL IMAGINATION!!

“Then it goes to the next level, where it gets much more complicated and interesting too, because what happens is – whatever you have started to do, may not be the exact way you had imagined it. This is because of various factors that are happening – because of shoot, because of actors, situations, production – anything could happen.

So now, when you sit for the edit of the film, you have a pretty clear idea of what is the vision of the film, and what is the goal of the film. So now you try to get the best material out of it. Everything may not be very rosy, but you know that this is what is required for this, to make it work as a story.

For Sreekar Prasad, it’s the story that matters the most.

His entire endeavor, at all phases of his involvement with the film, is to bring out the finer nuances of this story. One key (and perhaps the most crucial) element in this storytelling is identifying the right takes, that best represents the ethos of the character within the context of the script.

Every ‘take’ the editor selects has a role to play in the progression of the story-line.

So simply speaking, he has to select it right, to depict the right flow of emotions that makes the viewers ‘belong’ to and ‘engage’ with the story being told.

MAKE THE PERFORMANCES ‘BEHAVE’ !!!

“I try to see performances. So are the performances matching with the character that I had been imagining all this time? I try and make the performances ‘behave’; I see that the takes I use are in sync with the character that has been written – that the ‘characteristic’ is coming through.

Then of course there is exploration of space; and then the exploration of pauses. I think pauses play a big part in the way I look at a film. Everything need not be said. The silence spells much more. Also you don’t want to say the obvious.

So you always look at it in a way so that you understand the story; you won’t feel spoon-fed; you don’t have random lines to which you come just for effect – but still drive the story forward and make it very seamless.”

Ok, so that’s the whole idea.

Much like a symphony, you play with bits and pieces of performances, and stitch them together in a way that matches with the ‘imagination’ you had about the story at the scripting stage.

Selection of the right takes helps you do that.

MAKE THE POINT, THEN MOVE ON

“The editor should be able to spend enough time with the rushes; I think he needs to have patience to go through all the rushes. I mean sometimes, for a new actor, the initial takes would be better than the later takes, because they get stressed out. An older actor might be improvising and giving so many variations as the takes proceed, and so on.

All this is at the initial stage of the editing – you know, while editing each sequence. Then I go to the next level – that’s when I put all the scenes together and see the flow of the film. And then you realize a lot of things. What you felt on the script may not be exactly what you feel when you see it as a visual medium. You know that more than enough time is being spent on a particular element which you want to downsize – and you want to end sequences on a high, and you don’t want the sequences to drag after the point is made.

Lots of time it happens that some sequences are brilliant as standalone sequences, but you see that the point would have been driven in the middle of the sequence and then you realize that if you continue it a little more for the magnificence or whatever – it loses its spunk.”

There’s always a better way to tell a story.

But that ‘way’ should not tide over the content and the intent. The story always comes first – how you tell it depends on what needs to be told. That’s a ground rule.

Well, that’s all for the day. Like all good things in life, this too had to end.

If luck favors me I might get to meet him again sometime in the future – there’s much that I still have to learn from Sreekar Prasad.

For all of you that have come to this post first, allow me to tell you that this is the second installment of a two part interview series. You can also consider reading the first part, which is majorly on documentaries.