The making of Internconnect video teaser

May 7, 2012May 7, 2012 Chandana

But remember, the brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.

Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

Recently Suthirth, Intern – Social Media & Marketing, got a chance to live the quote and set the example for rest of the team to follow. It’s remarkable that we got something, which would have cost a bomb outside, done practically for free. But what is more remarkable is the grit, determination, and never say die attitude he displayed during two weeks of video making and delivered it on time. Rest of the story in his own words…

When Sarvesh said he wanted a video teaser for Internshala, he knew what exactly he wanted and I only had to get the right people to execute it. What seemed like a simple job of picking people turned into one of biggest challenges (read: interesting) I’ve come across.

A video scribed teaser had the uniqueness of being very catchy and appealing to everyone who views it. And the pre requisite to make such a video was a very good artist to sketch all the scenes, and once we had one, the job was half done.

After searching all our contacts for the best available sketchers, we met two expert sketchers from NIT Durgapur who agreed to join the ambitious project initially but had to back out in the last minute since they lacked the resources to record a good quality video. #Fail. 0-1, Let’s start keeping scores.

A few more days of searching, we found a VERY talented sketcher Kevin Fernandes, a first year MA student at IIT Madras. Out of his passion for sketching cartoons, Kevin had no second thoughts and instantly agreed to jump into the team for the ambitious video. #Win, 1-1.

Now all we required was an expert to direct and shoot photographs for the stop motion video. After another quest for the best, we met Sumit Sute, an enthusiastic student at IIT Madras and passionate about videography who agreed to take the lead to direct and shoot the video.

Meanwhile, I and Sarvesh finalized the script, and Ankur helped us with a few expert tips, and things to watch out for. Finally, the day for shooting had come, and Sumit was missing! Further enquiry revealed that he got attacked by a hive of honey-bees during his trek near Andhra Pradesh, and unfortunately had to back out. #Damn! 1-2.

Determined to still go ahead with it, I managed to find a replacement photographer within an hour, and though delayed – the shooting went on! Harikrishanan V picked up the script within hours and agreed to help us out despite already having other commitments on his plate. #haha, 2-2!

After a grueling six-hour shooting session, Kevin and Harikrishnan finally managed to finish shooting the entire script. The only parts left were audio and editing.

In search of a perfect voice (Read: the iPhone voice) for narration, we brought Ashwin ‘More’ Pananjady (IIT Madras) into the team. Though his voice didn’t quite match the iPhone voice, he did an excellent job of narrating the script with his expert dramatics and extempore skills.

The audio part was well managed by Sudarsan B and Raunaq Banga who did a great job in mixing the music and the overall audio for us (Both of them are IITM students, and play for a band named WeDesi.)

Lastly , Saideep Karipalli (IIT Madras) joined the team to put together expertly all the above and make our final video. With his expertise in video editing, he made the job look easy with the addition of a few effects and animations.

Just when we thought Video was done and we were ready to roll, we realized that one scene was missing from the script and another sketch had a spelling error. With less than 12 hours to go for launch, we had no option but to do it.

Finally, after an all nighter before an end semester examination, and several hours of rendering – we managed to get the video ready, just in time for the launch!

All in all, the video was a memorable experience and the two weeks we worked on it taught me Murphy’s Law, and how the world can try to conspire against you in your efforts to achieve your ambitions.

Moral of the story : Nothing is impossible !