Learning from Just like Heaven

Releasing soon...
1) Assistants are useful. Team is useful :)
2) Never trust your team blindly. Check everything personally.
2) If your actors have given you dates - make it clear that in no circumstances you will change them in advance so you don't have any moral dillemma if he gets a more lucrative call in the middle of the shoot.
3) What I liked : When I said let there be one director when everyone was shouting with suggestions :).
4) Even if other person seems to be better - take your decisions - ask him to get lost if he is creatively interfering. 99% of times other suggestions are worse than your own.
5) Kill actors if they haven't mugged their lines in advance.

Learning from assisting at shot fiction

1) Do to gym and build He-man kinda stamina if you need to work night shift and day shifts spanning 18 hours every day.
2) Assisting for a short time helps you know how things are on the set but assisting for sustained period of time will not help you incrementally. Make movies - that will teach you more and creatively help you.
3) Don;t have useless good for nothing people on the set - they only eat away your unit people's food and interfere by talking and spoil the sound quality and give there useless comments. Don't have them.
4) Define clear roles for your assistant. Earmark points of continuity for your assistants before hand. Have meetings with your assistant. Get them as charged as you are about the movie. Tell them that it is their movie also.
5) Rehearse with actors in advance.
6) Think twice before shooting rape scenes of small girl - esp with her parents around- and make sure that they are okay with the shots in advance. Be creative and aesthetic about those scenes if possible. Shield the child from the visual detaisl of gory drama - yo uare a human after all.
7) Take reliable actors - who will atleast show up.
8) Take good amount of inserts - they will be useful.
9) Have a good list of shots.

Learning from Foundation film

Video to be posted
1) Light should not be muddy
2) Successive shots should be cut on different angles
3)If the time limit of movie is 3 mins then try to see your script and realize that it will be mins else you mess up the entire movie
4) Don;t work with untrained and super concious girls as your main protagonist (especially at the early stage of your career - especially if yo uhave time limit). They will sap your energy on the set. Practice wel land if during practice you realize that it is not gonna work then throw her out. P.S: However when in film school try to work with untrained actors - nothing teaches yo uacting and handling with actors better.
5) 3 mins movie - don't go for 3-4 scenes - setting up will take time.
6) Pacing during editing is super important to help generate a mood.
7) Don't take even a single shot for granted. Never it is like chal jayega - be very particular about the lens, sound quality etc.
8) Don't have too many shots if time is less - else the whole shooting procedure has a risk of breaking down.
9) Rehearse rehearse rehearse
10) Storyboard before the shoot and not after it for the sake of submission. :)

P.S: Though I think being super ambitious in the foundation film taught me much more about directing a movie than if I had played it safe. Take advantages of being a student - be ambitious.

Ad ideas for live search that were super hit

Learnings:
1) You can make a video alone if you want to. YOu just need passion - everything els follows.
2) Choice of music is very important. Good music worked for one and not for other.
3) Simple stories work great
4) Don't get self-indulgant with the shots you like at hte editing table. If they are not taking the story forward they are of no use.

Important 3) Take interesting stock footages of sunrise, sunset. Think out of the box.