Confirming 10 locations isn’t easy. Gathering the great crew that we have working on Omission isn’t easy either. Throughout the whole process of preproduction for Omission Azure Productions (http://www.azureproductions.com.au/) have been with us every step of the way. From those especially tricky locations to advice on scheduling and crew. We wouldn’t have gotten as far as we have done without Annmaree Bell and John Frank’s excellent advice and support. And when we complete the film, we will be submitting to film festivals over the next two years with their help.

• azure
• executive producing

Posted 1 year ago

We searched for a long time to find the actors who would be Monir, Rajun and Beena. I’ve detailed in an earlier post the trials of finding Bengali actors. We confirmed our actors a month ago and have been in solid rehearsals twice a week for the last three weeks.

I’m very proud to announce:

Rahmat Ullah as MONIR

Deep as RAJUN

Indrani as BEENA

Other Cast have also been confirmed

Taxi Driver - Kazi Islam (Fagun)

Man in Suit - Jim Severino

Drunk Girl - Catherine Terracini

Girl 1 - Samantha Borg

Girl 2 - Elizabeth Kirkland

Clerk - Adnan Chowdhury

• cast

Posted 1 year ago

We have searched long and hard for a production designer. Everyone loves the story and the film but after this search I have to say that production designers must be the most in demand, overworked people in the industry. Book them early! So it is with real happiness that we announce Claire Moloney (COFA 04, NIDA 08) (http://cmdesigns.com.au/) as the Production Designer for Omission.

Claire has extensive experience in art, costume and set design for many theatre productions (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The Boy from Oz, The Producers, andDirty Dancing, The Birds (at NIDA)) ( http://cmdesigns.com.au/resume/) and has also designed or costumed a number of excellent short films (Sub,Boys Grammar, and Memory) and features (Cross Life, Suburban Boys). Claire’s passion for the arts began with a Bachelor of Design from the College of Fine Arts (COFA), UNSW majoring in environmental and graphic design. She has exhibited at the Prague Quadrennial and has been the recipient of the prestigious William Fletcher Grant.

She is the perfect choice to bring alive the distinct world of Bengali immigrants in Sydney. Please join us in welcoming Claire to the film!

• production designer
• crew

Posted 1 year ago

Recounted below are the highs and lows of finding Bengali actors and how we went about trying to find them.

Directing at auditions (dear god!)

Finding actors

All I remember was fear. The first time I thought about doing a film mainly in Bengali, I thought that it may be an impossible task. All the immigrants that come to Australia from Bangladesh are busy building their lives, surviving, persisting. You just don’t hear of a Bengali who is a professional actor.

But during the countless hours that I’ve now spent travelling the length and breadth of Sydney, from down in Minto to out west in Blacktown, I’ve seen people who are absolutely in love with performing and the arts. And even under the stresses of immigration and survival they still keep alive their deep cultural traditions. I’ve seen why Bengali cities like Kolkata and Dhaka were the intellectual capitals of the sub-continent.

We used a number of different methods to find actors. 

1. The most useful was using the personal networks of both myself, and a casting advisor Golam Mustafa who is very well connected in the Bengali world. Aish Nidhi also helped quite a bit. I went along and met people and they knew other people and I followed the chain down from there. (70-75% of actors came from this method)
2. We advertised on Bengali websites. We got perhaps 20-25% of our actors through here.
3. We advertised in the largest Bengali paper (10%)
4. For the child we contacted the 6 or 7 Bengali schools that are spread across Sydney and got recommendations from the teachers. We saw about 10 kids.

Casting

Casting is one of the most overlooked parts of making a short film. But a bad decision made in casting has difficult repercussions down the road. It increases the work load tremendously.

I think most directors hurry through casting and take the first best options because they can’t really tell what they really want or what to look for in an actor. I think this because I didn’t really know what I was looking for going into the auditions.

I had made some guesses: physical fit; intelligence and understanding of the story and character; acting ability and experience, commitment, directability etc. But how do you see all this in the very short time you have in an audition?

So I tried to meet the actors before the auditions. Since the actors aren’t professionals, this method was a really good way to build trust as well and traverse the network. At the initial talk, you can gauge the actors commitment, intelligence, physical fit, and their experience if they have any.

Then we had general auditions at Newtown Community Centre, where we saw about 15 actors for the part of Monir and Beena. That night we also drove out to Blacktown and other places to audition actors in their homes or have invited them to my house to audition there. Out of all of that I had 2 good options for Monir, and  good options for Beena. We already had what I thought was a pretty good option for Rajun already.

Call Backs

We then organised a call back for the family to see how they would work together. This is when shit got weird! One of the actors that we’d really liked for the role of Monir called me at six just before I was leaving for a dinner. He apologised profusely but said that he was in a very difficult position. One of the actors in his play that he was directing had quit and now he himself would have to play the role which was being performed in late July. But things didn’t seem right. To cut a long story short, there were some issues at home for him which made it difficult to act in the film. To say I was disappointed and disoriented by the reversal would be understating it. We now had to look at other Monirs. I didn’t really want to go back to the actors that we’d already seen, so we restarted our search. 

Thankfully it seems like we’ve found a new Monir who is going to be great.

Casting Call Structure

The structure of the casting was mainly based around a two hander that I had written out that could be done in multiple ways. This short dialogue was used to check the actors range and his choices. We then moved onto some improvisational work with a couple of scenes. I was really interested to see if the actor could take directions and effective change their performance. Whether they had a natural, realistic style that didn’t look like acting. I use action oriented verbs mainly as direction but depending on the actor’s request talked about motivations a little although most of the pieces were contextless on purpose.

Recording Auditions

We’d taped all the auditions on a Canon 7D and the tapes have been really helpful in really studying a performance in depth and comparing an actors development through multiple takes. It’s also been handy in comparing actors. We’ve also tried to have the camera in close and move around the actors and it has simulated a canvas for the performance which gets closer to the film we are going to make in the end.

We’ve also been using the video clips and carefully showing the actors their performances so that they can have an understanding of what it is that we are trying to correct. I think they’ve been surprised by how much the camera picks up and how little they have to ‘act’.

Rejections

We made sure that we called back the actors who weren’t selected and thanked them for their performance. It is always a process of giving as an actor and it’s something that I respect deeply. Everyone was quite gracious even when they weren’t selected. A key goal for me, and through me for others, is to create a community that I can make films with in the future. That’s certainly something that’s happening.

Rehearsals

We’ve only just really begun rehearsals and as up till now we have been acting out scenes, and parts of the script, it was our first chance to discuss the characters and the meanings behind the story.

The actors that we have so far were quite insightful about the characters and had a deep understanding of who the characters were. There were things that the actors had thought of, and backgrounds that they provided that I hadn’t. But none of it conflicts significantly with what I’ve been thinking so it’s been a pleasurable act of fleshing out the story rather than reconfiguring it fundamentally.

One thing that we are finding is that the dialogue doesn’t always work. Especially with Rajun it often feels unnatural and forced. This is one the great things about having the number of rehearsals that we do have. It gives us a chance to make dialog that feels more real, fits more nicely with what really would be said. I’m really looking forward to the process.

Further on translations. Golam Mostafa has translated the dialog of the script to Bangla for the actors with multiple options for certain lines for us to choose from. We’ve been having a hard time getting the Bangla text into Final Draft but soon we should have a combined script for everyone.

I’ve also written up notes on directions for every actor for every scene in the film. These are initial instructions that we will build on throughout the rehearsals. I’ve been trying really hard to direct with simple active verbs and trying to get the actors to ‘think’ or ‘act’ as little as possible. The actors really just has to be as the character. This is easier said than done and I find myself sometimes giving emotional explanations for things which often get us an over-exaggerated reactions.

What I’ve also found myself doing is really concentrating on the blocking and making sure that the actors have things to do and concentrate on. This often results in a far better performance because the actor again is preoccupied with being rather than with acting. There is much progress left to make but we are definitely heading in the right direction.

As to particulars, we will be rehearsing two times a week from next week to the shoot dates at the end of July for about 3 hours at a time. I wish we could do more, and as we get closer to the date we may do more.

The Best Part

What has been most surprising is just how much I enjoy working with actors. It’s so lovely to see someone give up so much of themselves and transform themselves in to someone else. I can barely keep myself from smiling at the transfiguration. It’s also great to see actors adjust and refine their performance and see them reacting well to direction. This is a such an exciting journey. I really can’t imagine doing anything better than this.

• actors
• auditions
• rehearsals

Posted 1 year ago

It was 1987, I was seven. I remember coming to Australia as a strange, dream-like adventure. On the plane over I mistakenly ate some pork (prohibited to Muslims) and promptly threw up. In hindsight that was quite a poignant moment that anticipates the themes of Omission: the lures and stresses of assimilation. 

Please find answers, or at least, sincere attempts at answers, to the questions that people have asked us.

Questions
What’s this film about, in one sentence?
What’s the film about, in four paragraphs?
Who is the film about?
What are the problems of assimilation in Omission?
What’s up with the weird/nothing ending?
Why is the climax so violent?
Is Monir a monster?
Does Rajun find the money or steal It?
What is this film not about?

What’s this film about, in one sentence?

Omission is a short film about a Bengali immigrant father and his family’s struggle to assimilate and survive in a new culture.

What’s the film about, in four paragraphs?

The film is about the life of a Bengali immigrant family and the strains and hurdles of assimilation.

I’m interested in my father’s generation of immigrants. These aliens are formed in the strong community and family based cultures of the sub-continent. They then, to better their lives, move to a deeply individualist country. One that is inhospitable to their previous way of being. I find the problems that come out of this exodus and resettlement to be a centre of significant drama.

The film is about Monir’s realisation of how different the world he has come to is, and how he must change as a person to get along in it. It’s about who he is as a man, and how he should live his life.

It is also about documenting how this family works and how isolated they, like most immigrant families, are. Their key goal is to persist, to survive, even through the most terrible hardships. I’m interested in continuence.

Who is the film about?

Of course the film is about this entire family, but it’s prime concern is Monir. The first two thirds of the film studies the family and how it works. But what we are interested in is how Monir reacts to the climactic moment.

I’m interested in the character of Rajun, but he is not the primary protagonist. It is enough that in the scene subsequent to the climactic scene we know that Rajun is in his room and most likely OK.

What are the problems of assimilation in Omission?

The film explores, and the characters suffer through the problems of assimilation on three layers:

1. Outside
   Migrants have to change some fundamental aspects of their relationship with society when they come here. This is particularly difficult for immigrants who come from a collectivist, family oriented, stratified cultures. What they’re faced with is a individualists philosophy which causes severe schisms in their character. Monir drives a cab here but perhaps back in Bangladesh he was a doctor, or a journalist, or a financial controller? Beena helps her husband at work and drives him there. Would she have learnt to drive in Bangladesh? Most likely not. Rajun has to reconcile his freer Western self with the Bengali expectations at home. All of these schisms create difficulties that the characters have to  navigate and are very interesting dramatically.
2. In the Home

   This is a deeper layer which is rarely seen from the outside. Here most immigrant try to stablise their lives and keep the norms, values, and relations of the old world. But the pressures of assimilation inevitably occur and often tear families apart. How Monir disciplines his son, Beena’s autonomy, the way Beena reports on Rajun are all ways of being that comes under intense pressure from the new way of doing things that exist outside of the home. Some of the deepest, most punishing ruptures happend at this layer. The extreme level of violence that he uses is a signifier of that.
3. Inside the Self

   The deepest layer however, and the subject of nearly all great art is within a single character and how that character understands and explains his own consciousness. We follow Monir at the end of the film to see what affects these schismatic circumstances he finds himself in has on who he thinks he is and how he should live his life. Monir is under an intense gaze, not only from us the viewers, but also from within. As his idea of what right and wrong is, what it means to be a father and husband and man come under question he explodes and struggles towards some kind of silent acceptance. He doesn’t solve his problems but he clearly becomes aware of them. There are many migrants walking amongst us who are in similar situations of turbulence.

What’s up with the weird/nothing ending?

The ending is subtle, but there is a lot of meaning packed into it.

• Disorientation

  Monir is disoriented by his circumstances, just as the traveller is disorientated. Unlike the traveller, Monir, and immigrant, doesn’t have any option to get out his situation. I think this is one thing that makes him laugh.
• Persisting

  The central purpose of an immigrant is to get settled, create a new life, and to persist. I think another reason that Monir smiles is that he knows that even through the worst of it, life has to go on for him and his family. That there is no quitting, and how funny the world is, and how strange existence itself is.
• Hands

  The concentration on his hands is a reference back to the concept that he uses his hands to support his family by working, but also to hurt his family, as when he hits Rajun.
• Tone and Insinuation
  The short film form, like the short story form is a highly specialised, constrained form with it’s own essential character. The medium does not allow for narrative closure. Ending a story neatly feels cliched, simplistic and worst of all, unrealistic. Monir is not ready to completely face what he has done let alone do something about it. It would be tacky for their to be a expected, predictable resolution to this film. There is some kind of realisation in Monir and for now, for this film, that is enough. Some of the most significant changes in life happen in the smallest ways.
• Symbols
  There are a complex network of symbols in the last third of the film. As an example, in the last two scenes we emerge slowly out of Monir’s darkness, visually his driving at night, into the light. There is a feeling of hopefulness and continuity. There are others   symbols threaded into the film but I’d be spoiling the fun if I gave it all away!

Why is the climax so violent?

We don’t like violence. Here’s why it’s there:

1. The story is based upon a true occurrence that was related to me. The level of violence depicted respects the level of violence that actually happened.
2. Although the level of violence is extreme even by Bangladeshi norms, this kind of violence does happen and is often accepted in Bengali culture. This needs to authentically realised in the film.
3. The extreme climax is necessary to create the right amount of dramatic weight to set up for the scenes that follow and their flow and pacing. The extreme climax creates the heaviness that is required for the last third to be suspenseful. The audience is now coaxed into searching for some kind of meaning, or reaction in the last scenes because of the horror of what’s come before.

Is Monir a monster?

Monir truly loves Rajun, you can see that when he looks down from the office whilst working, you can see it when he tells Rajun to study, you can see it when his hands rest on the door handle; you can see it in the sacrifices that he makes for his family. These are subtle but clear signs of his love. He is a character who has to suppress his emotions so that he can play the role that is expected of him but in this new culture that role is under attack and his realisation of that is one of the central threads of the film. These aren’t excuses for what Monir does, but he is a real human being with desires, and failings, and successes.

Does Rajun find the money or steal It?

The film is not clear on this point. The camera does not clearly see where Rajun gets the money from in the arcade. 

Essentially it doesn’t matter whether he finds the money or steals it. What Monir does and the reasons he does is largely dependent on deeper character and social factors.

What is this film not about?

Although the film has violence in it, the film isn’t primarly about violence. The film is also not about child abuse, in that, I have nothing new to say about those subjects.

• questions
• answers
• faq
• notes

Posted 1 year ago

Well, it’s not as nefarious as all that! Omission is a focused film that looks at the lives of Bangla speaking immigrants in Australia and it makes sense that we should reach out to tell that community about the film. After all, it is their story that’s being told.

We’ve been overjoyed with the help that we’ve received from the big Bangla websites (like http://priyoaustralia.com.au, and http://bangla-sydney.com/ but recently an interview with the director was printed on the front page of Bangla Bartha, the Bangla paper with the largest circulation in Australia. One of the nicest things about doing this is the random phone calls we get everyday from people who want to know about the film, or who want to help the film in some way. It’s nice to know that there is a community who really wants to see this film made.

Front page, yay!, but below the fold, boo!

The utterly ravishing director.

The Interview, so much wisdom, so insightful!

• media
• marketing
• bangla
• community

Posted 1 year ago

When making ‘patient cinema’ you are left scantily clad. There is no recourse to batches of sparkling dialog, or to bone-crunching car crashes, there are no loving, soft sequences of bodies. You are left with the story, and the basic tools of cinema, photography, sound and score, performances, and the edit. 

But this is also the strength of patient cinema: because you have nothing else you’re left to concentrate deeply on what you do have. Sound is one of these tools. What becomes important is to work in the details. To polish and shape the small amount of actual stuff in the film to significance.

Score

Initially I didn’t want a score for at all. Music is such a powerful, affecting medium in its own right that it felt like cheating to use it. Or it felt like it would overpower the delicate balance of the film. But as I was writing the script the Indian classical ragas that I was listening to slowly seeped into me. I realised that the minimalism of Indian ragas, their slow and stately development, their emotional complexity was the perfect accompaniment to the slow process of realisation that the characters go through in the film.

The work of Ravi Shanker and Vilayat Khan for Satyajit Ray (Jalshaghar for example), or Ali Akbar Khan are key touchstones. But Omission is about the difficulties that come out of the mixture of two cultures and I want some minimal electronic stuff reminiscent of Low End Theory (http://www.lowendtheoryclub.com/podcast/) to battle on the sound track with the Indian Classical ragas. Nosaj Thing is a good artist to look at for what I’m thinking electronically: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LZgINyGTV0

There are large areas of silence in this film where the score needs to create a texture of longing, of melancholy, of threats, and possibilities. Of lives being lived quietly. It’s a soundtrack for Monir to contemplate his new life.

Sound

I think that with sound you can be far more experimental than you can with visuals. Sound is subtler than visuals, sound is intuited and so there is latitude to do things that may be unnatural in the scene, to add sounds that may not be there at all, or to distort the sound that is there.

The Bengali family in Omission are dislocated from their culture. Sounds are unnatural here, either really quiet, or strange electronics and machines. Back in Bangladesh, sounds are natural and they are dense. There are always people around everywhere. Here there is less people, less activity, more space. For Rajun, and Monir there are attractive worlds of desire like the games arcade, or decadents partying on the streets at night. Sounds they can hear all too clearly, but that are foreign, and unreachable somehow. This long performance by Shahid Parvez is a good example of the pace: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2047781053200757696#

Some key references for me are the work of Leslie Shatz in Elephant and Paranoid Park, or the Assassination of Jesse James, and Alan Splatz’s work for David Lynch. Their use of other worldly electronic hums, and clicks, and clangs create an emotional ecosystem of unease without being gauche or mawkish. They create a rich underworld of feeling and counter-feeling that is barely noticed, but even more powerful for being understated. That’s what I’d like for Omission.

• sound
• score
• composer

Posted 2 years ago