One lens, a borrowed veranda, and a festival cut finished in nine days

A Chennai crew made a competition short without a lighting truck. The constraint is visible in the film, and that is the point.

Ananya Krishnan · Chennai ·

One lens, a borrowed veranda, and a festival cut finished in nine days

Cinematographer Arun Dev shot the entire film on a single 35mm-equivalent prime. The location was a family veranda that had to be returned, furniture included, before Sunday lunch.

They scheduled for the sun, not for a generator. Faces fall into shade on purpose. The director refused pickup shots that would have asked for a second day they could not afford.

The cut is now in two festival submissions. The lesson is not that budgets do not matter. It is that a short can be designed for the tools already in the room.

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