Out of the Box Production

The first challenge I faced was the wig my actress had to wear. The wig was constructed by me from the head of a clean, white mop that had been left to soak in orange paint. When she put the wig on it kept slipping off to reveal her hairnet and/or her normal hair. Many a time I got the footage or shot I wanted but upon reviewing it the wig was out of place. 

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The second challenge I faced was the makeup. My actress had a hard time sticking the false eyelashes to her lid as one looked perfect but the other would not match up. Also since it was heavy makeup she was able to wear it for two days but by the third day she needed a break. Again wig problems, at times, limited the angles we could use. 

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The third challenge was health issues. I was originally supposed to start filming in October but the actress had an unexpected occurrence of a stye in her eye which delayed the filming till the end of November. On top of this the Air Quality in Lahore was abysmal due to the smog. I am acutely affected by it and suffer severe nausea, headaches and occasionally wake up grey in colour.  More delays occurred due to my upcoming Mid Terms. To make things worse a few days before my Mid Term Exams I came down with acute Chicken Pox despite being vaccinated when I was a toddler. My parents were assured that I would only contract a 'mild' version of Chicken Pox but this proved to be a lie. I had it all over my body, even inside my mouth, and was overcome with weakness and high fever.

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Another difficulty faced was the weather. As I ended up filming in winter, it meant that the house and the tiled floors were icy cold (no concept of central heating or insulation in most houses). Also due to the lack of sunlight and a thick blanket of fog, the filming of some scenes became weather dependent. The outfit worn by the actress was not warm and we were forced to take constant breaks for her to warm up. 

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Gas and electricity shortages also affected the filming. When the weather/natural light was poor I turned to artificial lighting but this was dependent on the power supply being available.  Also if the gas supply was short it was too cold to film and I lost time waiting around for these basic necessities. 

  

On top of all this, the actress had her own, sometimes, harebrained ideas for the shoot which wasted much time. She was at times quite vocal and rude. Although I got my way in the end, she did insist on a few things which was annoying. Towards the end, she even became a bit of a 'diva' and insisted that I do up her shoes as she, was the 'star of the show'.  

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Another challenge was that I had a lot of ideas and filmed a fair amount of them. By the end it was very difficult for me to edit as there was so much footage that I wanted to use but it sadly ended up on the cutting room floor as I had to make hard decisions.  

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Working with wooden puppets for the first time had its own problems as the puppets were not very sophisticated. Their heads were not able to turn therefore angles were difficult to find. Also breathing life into inanimate objects, whose faces were painted on with just one expression, was challenging.