THE LOCATION
I apologise in advance, but this post contains far too much information and far too many words for you to read. While you feel bad for having to read so many words, please also feel bad for me because I had to write them. I put off writing this post as long as I could, and now I’m a day and a half before my finals, struggling to finish it, and I’m regretting not finishing it sooner. Anyways Happy reading while I try to finish my syllabus in one night (you might want to pray for me ).
So, for this post, I’d divide our film’s opening into two parts (why? because i can): the current time period with the journalist and the past (the clips where we show the band).One of the most difficult tasks was locating an ideal location to film our opening (might also be more difficult than the actual filming).It took us longer than we expected, but we eventually found our ideal locations for both parts of the film’s opening. Just a random note/suggestion: visiting these locations in temperatures of 40 degrees or higher felt like torture, and I would not recommend it to my worst enemies.
Location One
An average art student’s desk?
So for the establishing shots, we wanted to have a place with a desk for the journalists’ laptops, etc., and we wanted the place to have a brown-dominated colour scheme. We wanted a location that didn’t have a “perfectly clean” desk or a very expensive chair because we were showing a struggling journalist.
A different angle of the desk
We focused on our house’s bedrooms for this location because everyone has a room in their house that is dark and not in the best condition. Myiesha suggested that we film this particular part of the opening in her bedroom after we discussed it for the first time. I asked her for reference photos, and they were exactly what we were looking for. Her desk was brown, with paint marks in several places and things written on it that could potentially reveal the journalist’s state of mind. Furthermore, the desk area is quite congested and very small, which may reflect how he feels while doing his job (journalism as that might not be his passion). The area is also very dark with brown tones, which could indicate that the journalist’s life is dark and he isn’t very happy.
Might give you a better idea of what I meant when I said it might show the journalist’s headspace?
Location Two
So, once our first location was determined, we began looking for the second location of our film opening, which would depict the past (the band). For this segment, my vision was to shoot something in Lahore’s Old City, which has many potential locations that look regal and colourful.
Our colour palette for this section was bright to represent the band members’ prosperity and life after they became famous for their music.
1) Lal Haveli (لال حویلی)
The first location we did not use was the Lal Haveli, which is located in Lohari Gate near Awami Bazaar. This haveli was built nearly 150 years ago, according to oral history. This structure dates from the British era. When this structure was built, it covered a large area. However, the building was later divided into four sharers, each of whom separated its portion of the building. The Lal Haveli is a residential structure with exquisite wooden Jharokas on the three main floors and one of Lahore’s best preserved cut and chased brick work and plaster mouldings on a fair faced brick ground.
The Rooftop
We did not choose this location because it, too, had a lot of warm tones, similar to our first setting, making it nearly impossible to show a contrast between the two eras. Another reason was that this is now a residential area with families living there, making it extremely difficult for us to obtain the permission letter to film. The interior of the haveli is simply white and red, which was also too plain for what we were looking for. Finally, it did not appear as historic as we desired.
I wanted a location with more Mughal/Sikh empire architecture because it represented Pakistani culture better. This brings us to our second possible location (the one that we ended up using).
The current state of Lal Haveli
2) Haveli Nau Nihal Singh (نو نہال سنگھ حویلی)
The view from the Haveli’s rooftop
The Nau Nihal Singh Haveli is a haveli mansion in Lahore, Pakistan. The haveli, which dates from the Sikh era of the mid-nineteenth century, is regarded as one of the finest examples of Sikh architecture in Lahore, and it is the only Sikh-era haveli that retains its original ornamentation and architecture. The haveli was built in the late 1830s for Kanwar Nau Nihal Singh[3] by his grandfather, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh Empire. [2] Eventually, the British took over. A girl’s school was established here in 1860 which is still in operation.
The haveli is a complete structure with over forty rooms and the majority of its original ornamentation preserved on the two main elevations and the interior courtyard facades. The structure has a basement and four stories above ground level. two-story structures encircle the entire area; the third has partially collapsed, while the fourth is known as “Rang Mahal” – “The Palace of Colors.” The richly decorated wooden roof is divided into several geometrical compartments. Each one has a small mirror in the centre. There are blind arches with miniature paintings of mythological scenes. The colours of these paintings are still vibrant. We can also see cut brickwork, wooden carvings and stucco work.
We chose this location because it was easier to obtain permission to film there because previous interviews and other events had occurred there, and I had conducted an interview there myself, making it extremely easy for us to get permission to film there. Another reason is that this haveli is so rich in architecture that it will add depth to our film’s opening while also showing our audiences Lahore’s actual architecture. The Rang Mahal has many bright colours, as well as mirrorwork and paintings, which would help us make a contrast between the current year and the past while also adding a bit of historic touch to the film opening (exactly what we wanted) as those paintings, tell a historic story of Ramayan, which although is Hindu History, would have a diversity of representation in our film opening.
This video was shot by me (and a few of my friends) in 2019.
