Filming a green cause

A five-minute long shortfilm ‘From the Anonymous Writer’, a work created as part of the competition by students of KV Aakkulam focuses on creating a cleaner city
Students of Kendriya Vidyalaya Aakkulam who made a short film  Manu R Mavelil
Students of Kendriya Vidyalaya Aakkulam who made a short film  Manu R Mavelil

KOCHI: Focusing on a good cause, a handful of students from KV Aakkulam have come up with a five-minute-long shortfilm. Titled ‘From the Anonymous Writer’, the work, created as part of a competition among the KV groups of schools, may end up earning an accolade for the educational institution as it has been selected to the nationals.

Deepa M Nair, the school’s English teacher who was in charge of the activity feels that the work might fetch a prize for the school. She says, “I am very hopeful. The children have put in much effort, inspite of not getting enough time.”Raising a voice against garbage dumping alongside roads, the film follows a girl who does not hesitate the least to clean up the classroom while her friends spend time throwing paper balls at each other, putting it in bins. Putting waste papers and covers in the nearest bins on her way back home, the schoolgirl soon comes up with an idea- a personally written note from ‘an anonymous writer’ to dissuade those preferring to dump garbage on sidewalks. Ending with a voiceover of Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking about Swachh Bharat Mission, the work sends out a strong message on responsible waste management.

Deepa says, “Unfortunately since the notification of the shortfilm competition came during the last few days of the Onam holidays, there was also a short amount of time to prepare. The topic was same and was part of the swachh Bharat Mission’s awareness activities. The preparation of the shortfilm, including the script, shooting, editing and mixing, took around five days.”

While the protagonist has been essayed by class VI student Gayathri Gireesh, a group of students from class VIII to X contributed to the rest of the effort, including the script, camera and editing. Deepa along with the Work Experience Teacher Sabari Gireeshan directly assisted the students in the making of the film, while Deepa says the Principal Jose Mathew was a ‘guiding force’.  Speaking on the message conveyed through the film, the teacher adds, “Each and every individual should contribute to keeping our public places clean as it is not just one person’s responsibility.”

While the teacher feels that the students could have come up with a better work if they had more time, she is content with the outcome. She adds, “Kids come up with a lot of new and brilliant ideas. This work was infact a combined effort of the students, while our task was just to guide them. There were also some shots which were never preplanned but came out well, for instance the rearview mirror image of the protagonist in one of the scenes.”

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