Transcription Week 2
Link to Project https://vimeo.com/255530510
Continuing with the transcription project this week. I found myself a little stuck with last week's idea about showing how different cultures prepared food. So I decided to look back at my favourite images from last week's exhibitions and revisit just why it was I wanted to focus on food.
When we visited the Illuminating India exhibition my favourite series was a series of photos by Raghubir Singh depicting the cafes and food delivery systems of Mumbai. I have lived in Mumbai and the Iranian cafes and 'Dubba System' is something that is quintessentially unique to Bombay life. The whole time we were at the exhibition I found myself excitedly trying to explain the charm of Iranian cafes in Bombay and their history to anyone who would listen. I was feeling very nostalgic for Bombay and decided to look for other representations of Bombay life.
I decided to revisit the film 'The Lunchbox',where two strangers communicate via letters that are delivered along with their lunch. I thought about combining my homesickness for Bombay and the narration of letters used in the film. I toyed around with the idea of a mother writing to a daughter who has moved away and decides to send her daughter one her old favourite recipes.
Again when talking to people about my idea I found myself having to explain how Iranian cafes work in Bombay. I found myself repeating the same anecdotes about a board of rules that are always found outside the entrance of Iranian cafes and how everyone would think to associate with Iranian cafes. This was when I realised that I could recreate the ambience of a Bombay Cafe by narrating these rules. My next step was to visit the restaurant chain 'Dhishoom' since they are the closest thing I could get to these cafes in London.
When I started filming, I just filmed myself unpacking and setting up a table as I would with any other takeaway. I then went back and filmed scene that would make it look more 'Indian' such a lighting insencse . Since the film was only a minute I ended up cutting a lot of these scenes although they were still useful to film as I believe they made the table look more authentic in the final clips. I decided to write the rules on black card to emulate the look of a chalk board that you find in restaurants.
Link to lunchbox trailer
► 2:06
Continuing with the transcription project this week. I found myself a little stuck with last week's idea about showing how different cultures prepared food. So I decided to look back at my favourite images from last week's exhibitions and revisit just why it was I wanted to focus on food.
When we visited the Illuminating India exhibition my favourite series was a series of photos by Raghubir Singh depicting the cafes and food delivery systems of Mumbai. I have lived in Mumbai and the Iranian cafes and 'Dubba System' is something that is quintessentially unique to Bombay life. The whole time we were at the exhibition I found myself excitedly trying to explain the charm of Iranian cafes in Bombay and their history to anyone who would listen. I was feeling very nostalgic for Bombay and decided to look for other representations of Bombay life.
I decided to revisit the film 'The Lunchbox',where two strangers communicate via letters that are delivered along with their lunch. I thought about combining my homesickness for Bombay and the narration of letters used in the film. I toyed around with the idea of a mother writing to a daughter who has moved away and decides to send her daughter one her old favourite recipes.
Again when talking to people about my idea I found myself having to explain how Iranian cafes work in Bombay. I found myself repeating the same anecdotes about a board of rules that are always found outside the entrance of Iranian cafes and how everyone would think to associate with Iranian cafes. This was when I realised that I could recreate the ambience of a Bombay Cafe by narrating these rules. My next step was to visit the restaurant chain 'Dhishoom' since they are the closest thing I could get to these cafes in London.
When I got there I ordered the signuare Bombay/Irianian dish 'Berry Pilau' and whilst I was waiting I recorded the ambience of the restaurant. From the visit I realised that for my film I would need steel plates (which I lucky had at home), lot's of Berry Pilau and an Indian spiced cola called 'Thumbs up'. Unfortunately I couldn't find any spiced cola anywhere in the Indian shops around London so I decided to cut out the label and stick it on to a glass coke bottle. The next decision I had to make was about the dialogue. All restaurants normally list these rules in English but I decided to read them in Hindi with subtitles as I felt it enhanced the atmosphere of feeling like you were in another country. Most people I asked suggested it that it would be more sensible to just read them in English and use an accent. I decided against this as Hindi instinctually felt more authentic and I rewrote the rules in the form of a poem.
When I started filming, I just filmed myself unpacking and setting up a table as I would with any other takeaway. I then went back and filmed scene that would make it look more 'Indian' such a lighting insencse . Since the film was only a minute I ended up cutting a lot of these scenes although they were still useful to film as I believe they made the table look more authentic in the final clips. I decided to write the rules on black card to emulate the look of a chalk board that you find in restaurants.
When my dad walked in on me filming in the living room he immediately pointed out that I was missing the Bombay seaside since these cafes often overlook the sea and he suggested that I play a clip of a 'Juhu Beach' sunset and project it on the wall behind the table. In the edit I layered the atmosphere track that recorded at the restaurant behind my voiceover; however it still wasn't noisy enough to resemble Mumbai so I went back and recorded spot sounds for all the items I used and then layered those on top.
In the crit I was surprised how positively people responded to the use of Hindi since most people I asked before suggested that I use English. In my crit people agreed that the use of Hindi was more authentic. The adjectives that kept cropping up in my crit were 'Homely' and 'Cosy' to describe my film. This made me feel like I had accomplished what I had set out to do since I had used this project to confront my homesickness for Mumbai. Next time however, Othello suggested that I need to pay better consideration to the time of day I choose to film. Since I decided to film in the evening so that I could use the projector I was dependant on my living room lights for the remaining scenes. Othello pointed out that I don't have to film chronologically and this would've prevented the clips being as difficult to see due to the lack of light.
Link to lunchbox trailer
► 2:06
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