The Short Film

Short Story #2

“6:00 AM? Not my thing!” murmuring slowly, Chaitra rolled over in her sheets on a cosy bed. The moment of sweet sleep is just before when you need to wake up. It’s no less than the feeling of being in heaven especially when it’s cold and you’re snuggled in your warm, soft and fluffy blanket. Turning around, she grabbed one more slot of sleep. A moment later, she woke up fresh and feeling relaxed. Those were tough days for Chaitra. She hadn’t had a proper sleep for days. She’s been toiling hard to make an ad film.

Chaitra has done her graduation from Miami Ad School in Art Direction and Advertising. Her dream to flourish as a director could become a reality once her ad film gets selected to the ‘International Ad-film Festival”. She could win prize money of $100,000 if she wins the competition.

Nothing comes so easily to Chaitra. Though she is aware of this fact, she never gives up. This is the quality that sets Chaitra apart from the other people. About a week ago, Chaitra got to know the news about this Film Festival through one of her friends and wanted to send her entry before the deadline is over. So she’s left with a tiny spell of time in which she has to mail her submission.

She’s left with just two days to finish her task and Chaitra is still struggling with the choice of script. She’s so unsure about what to choose so that her ad stands the best. Lots of ideas were bombarding her mind. Social awareness, human emotions, technology, movies, sports, environment, development and science- across these categories Chaitra needs to choose one for her film. With the lack of time bothering her, she couldn’t decide on anything. Finally out of the blue, an idea struck. She quickly grabbed her scribbling pad and jotted down the key points in a jiffy.

Now there’s a warm smile on Chaitra’s face. She could heave a sigh of relief. Not wasting any more time, she called up her team and started to work on it. She’s keen on not missing any minute detail. Coordinating through all the departments of work, Chaitra got immersed into the job skipping breaks though the team worked in breaks. At the end of the day, the ad film is ready leaving the editing part to be done.

It was 3:00 AM. Sipping her favourite hot brewed coffee, Chaitra started watching the film they shot so that she could continue with the editing part. Once that’s done, she began to edit. By around 8:00 AM the job is done. She had to sacrifice her sleep to make up things in time. Now that the final video is ready, she is to just upload and send the mail.

With all the excitement, Chaitra attached her file and sent her entry to the competition. But it was too late before she checked that the duration of the ad film she sent exceeded the guidelines of the Ad Film Festival. Chaitra broke down in astonishment and fear. Her dreams shattered in a hurried moment in spite of her hard efforts to give her best.

Her grief was beyond words. She didn’t even shed tears but became all numb. She couldn’t eat or sleep for the next two days.

Few weeks later, it was the result announcement day. Chaitra was sure about what would happen. Still she couldn’t stay away from the curiosity to check the result. It took a very long time before she could get to the results page. And when she finally could, it was sadly no different from her prediction. Her entry wasn’t even selected and winning prize was a far thing.

She broke down into tears, wept for her mistake and sat down miserably. “Tring tring”. Her phone rang. Chaitra picked it up and spoke in a low voice. To her astonishment, it was a Hollywood producer with an unbelievable offer for her. He wanted Chaitra to direct a movie with an extended story of the script she sent to the Film Festival. She couldn’t believe what she heard. She did not speak any other word apart from an occasional “yes sir”. The producer told her that he’d mail her all the details and wanted her to meet the next week. Chaitra beamed in surprise. She eagerly shared her experience with her parents who always supported her through all the odds.

The film producer was apparently the jury member of the Ad Film Festival crew who liked Chaitra’s idea of movie. Her entry exceeded the duration but he felt it would make a great film instead.

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“If you fail in spite of your hard efforts, there’s something better waiting for you. It might not always be what you want. It could be what you deserve.”