Despair For Dummies

After a lot of physical and mental exhaustion we finally started the promotion of the film. A lot of students reached out due to curiosity and of course asked ‘Soooo…. Is media easy?’ my answer was simply ‘Guess.’

In our recent classes (which people assume we watch movies in) we learnt about ‘high concept’ which is a summarised one liner giving a ‘what if’ situation which is sent to the big five production houses which choose whichever fits the criteria promising attention from potential audiences. A logline on the other hand, is a simple one liner describing the film also used post production to attract audiences. Ideas are pitched to production houses (high concept) and description of film in one liner (logline). Reason for stating both being my own confusion 🙂

An example of a logline:

Legally Blonde: When a ditzy Beverly Hills teen is dumped, she decides to follow her ex to an Ivy League law school.

Now, we wanted to choose a logline for our own project and after viewing a few I came down to one of the few drafts:

‘Two villagers separated after political conflicts reunited years later only to find themselves having chosen completely different paths in life’

Now, pitching the idea involved me going to production houses but since that wasn’t possible. I pitched the idea for screenings and collaboration with different projects. People seemed to have said this idea was new and fresh which was ideal.

A strong pitch answers the ‘why me’ question and involves a hook line plus contextual relevance. Sooo here’s mine:

Childhood romance turned into separation and discovering a new realm of the soul.

Currently, while we’re in deep waters of the global crisis addressing the entirety of the issue and discovering something beyond the picture portrayed is necessary. You know, they say, ‘A pessimist will see the glass half empty, an optimist will see it half full…’ it’s all about perception. A person who’s thirsty will see the water as an answer to all pain, someone who drowned will see it with dreadful eyes. Putting our audience in the same place we ask them to perceive. This film has no villain, the point being to enable the audience to highlight the issue. Is it us? Who do we blame?

The ideas was inspired by imtiaz alis film ‘laila majnu’. Books on the Kashmir conflict including, curfewed night. Another novel by Khalid housseini, and the mountains echoed. And lastly, the Afghanistan issue of having brought Kalashnikov culture in Pakistan. All these as well as different reports and articles on similar issues were researched upon. We as a nation need our people to wonder what freedom is and is it worth its consequences?

This is a response to the global crisis and how it affects life of people merely you and me. In this case, Hassan and laila.