Architecture to Films

Architecture has always been a part of me and my family, my dad being a draftsman was a huge influence. I've always thought that architecture was the ideal platform for me to demonstrate my creativity and thought process. During my degree at Taylor's University, I was having a ball of a time experimenting with various concepts hugely inspired by Frank Gehry and his unorthodox approach towards his projects. I loved deconstructing a particular concept that starts with the model making and I worked my way backwards in the function follows form approach. 

Every semester in our Architectural Studio, we were given a briefs on various scales of fictional projects. We will be given a site, the proposed users and the scale of buildability that we're assigned to. An architectural concept is a metaphorical story that acts as a membrane that envelopes the users, history and site context. The more interesting the story is, the more unique the outcome and forms of the proposed projects became. 

Believe it or not, I grew up watching just Indian films and I had not much exposure towards American and English films until I was in the beginning of my Architecture degree. I started going out to watch non Indian films, and I started watching two to three English films a day in order to catch up with my friends. Somehow during all that my mind subconsciously began to see film making as an alternative platform to explore my creativity. 

I've never been on the same page as my design tutors due to my risk taking approach towards my projects as they were mainly experimental rather than the commercialised approach that is haunted by the ghosts of cubism. I realised the constraints that shadows Architecture for starters the budget, the buildability of a design and sustainability. I needed a bigger platform to explore my creativity and  I saw films as "Architecture on steroids", I knew I have a lot to offer to this field and the past three years has been a good experience in doing lots of trial and error.

My film making journey in my university started off rough due to my lack of knowledge and skills. At the end of my first year, early summer I bought a beginners DSLR and started learning photography on my own as a stepping stone to learn cinematography in order to shoot my own films. Throughout my second year, Photography thought me not just about compositions but also directing, editing and most importantly colour grading. 

During summer 2017, I was fortunate enough to buy my dream camera, a Sony A7s2. I started experimenting with a much higher dynamic range of materials and the cameras exceptional ability in low light. I've been looking up to Emmanuel Lubezki's Instagram @chivexp for inspiration in terms of grading. I began experimenting with natural light with some flagging and reflecting of light in order to sculpt a striking yet simplistic composition. It's a journey that led me to explore colour grading as I've been constantly playing around with footage from different bit and colour depths and I've been having such a fun time experimenting and learning.