New Director: Nandita Jain

No surprises that Amazing Spectacles, the animation arm of Prime Focus which has its roots in India, immediately connected with Nandita Jain’s  MA graduation film from the NFTS  and quickly signed her.  A clever move indeed for Jain’s short film Kahanikar (The Storyteller, the trailer for which can be seen above) went on to win Best Animation award at the LA Shorts Fest and is now a hot ticket on the film festival circuit.  shots editor at large, Lyndy Stout, catches up with the young animator in London, where she is currently based.

You wrote and directed Kahanikar. Please tell us about the writing process, about the myth and your inspiration.

Kahanikar is loosely based on my granddad’s, and my own experiences, of the onset of his dementia. All of us have a storyteller in our lives; for me, it was my granddad. Hence, I was very keen on using the stories he told me as a child to tell his own story, which is where the myth about ‘how the coconut got its face’ comes in. Starting off with the existing metaphorical parallel of the young fisher-boy losing his head, I began to create many more intricate connections, which tied the myth closer into the shifts in reality that I saw my granddad experiencing. Revisiting the stories of my childhood allowed me to see them in a new context and find deeper meanings – it was a really fascinating experience. I did have a few images in mind of the demons and the two main characters so I created moodboards which we used as springboards for writing the story. I teamed up with a writer at the NFTS, which was a great experience. The writing process itself was quite tricky as it is through a child’s innocent eyes that we experience an old man losing his mind to dementia, a disease that affects a lot of our loved ones.

The end was the hardest bit to write. Although I was sure that I wanted the audience to see the flawed beauty in the strange world of dementia and leave them with a sense of hope in its darkness, the ending itself was particularly elusive. I think we finally managed to pin it down only in the edit room after going through one animatic after another. Translating words into pictures is often harder than one thinks.

The live action and animation mix really brings the story to life; did you always intend to do this?

The film was written in a way that the narrative weaves itself through three visually and aurally definite worlds; the two unique imaginations of Nirmala and her granddad, and the real world that they live in. For the imaginations to have a more pronounced impact, the real world had to be very real although live action wasn’t always the route I thought we would go down.  After a few initial tests of creating a digital 3D world with realistic nature textures, we realised that nothing would ever be as real as reality itself. We did a few more tests on a beach in Kent, which helped us get the green light on a live action shoot. My cinematographer then recced virtually  the entire British coastline on Google Maps looking for a beach that would suit our requirements in terms of size, camera angles etc. Also I forgot to mention the film is actually set in India – but of course our budget would never allow for a shoot there. After recce-ing three beaches in a day, we finally settled on this tiny gorgeous crescent shaped beach down in Devon. When we got back stills of our recce, people refused to believe it was actually a place in England, which further confirmed that it was the right place for the film to be shot. The film was shot on a RED camera to allow for greater flexibility with image correction in post. I had a great digital post supervisor on my team who did a smashing job of making the animation and the house set all fit together snugly into the footage hence creating a believable ‘real’ world. 

Now that you’ve graduated what are your plans?

My immediate plan, of course, is to do what I enjoy doing and make a living of it. I have been very lucky that Kahanikar has been received very well in the festival circuit and won the Best Animation award at LA Shorts which got it longlisted for the Academy Awards.

I am currently working on a short children’s animation film with Nickelodeon UK about a little tortoise that wants to fly. I would like to work on more short films and commercials in the future and would love to direct a feature film some day.

Your film is rooted in Indian mythology but is accessible by all cultures. Can you imagine working on other animations that have other cultural sensibilities, ike an English or American commercial? 

Storytelling is part of our innate human nature and it is through stories that we learn about each other. An engaging storyteller is one who has a strong grasp of the narrative, understands the characters and knows how to breathe life into the story. What I find particularly interesting is how storytelling changes from culture to culture and yet stories retain an inherent sense of universality which all of us can connect with. The world is full of stories waiting to be discovered - I want to travel more to learn and create work (commercials, short films, illustrations, features) that speaks across cultures.

What is the best piece of advice you've ever been given about filmmaking?

Don’t be afraid or scared to try new things and never give up. 

What inspires you creatively?

Inspiration is everywhere – you can travel to the pyramids to find it or it might be waiting for you when you walk down to the local post office. I enjoy visiting the theatre and different kinds of art exhibitions. I am an avid reader and love discovering new authors and books. I also spend a lot of time watching films apart from just the popular ones in the cinema and looking up short films online. It is always refreshing to meet new people and listen to their stories.

What would you like to be doing in five years time?

I hope to be a successful director working in commercials and short films by then and would love to be directing my first feature film!