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Journey of the film 'Love'
Development
 After a long day at work and driving home on a hot summer day of 2000, the seed of
'Love' was planted. It was a one-liner - “A man is willing to wait his entire life for his love”. “I immediately sent an email to my writer Rebecca Sanders about this idea and by end of December, 2000 we had a synopsis of the film. At first Rebecca was reluctant in taking on this project, but she was convinced quickly. We have a great chemistry together which helped me express my thoughts quite easily”, says Hari.
Early 2001, Hari and Rebecca started having sessions every week to discuss the project and its development. Rebecca came up with a very detailed treatment for 'Love'. They wanted the treatment to look almost like a screenplay. By March 2001, the treatment was complete and Rebecca started writing the screenplay.
To develop a strong and compelling story line, Hari would spend many Saturday mornings in a coffee shop thinking of plots and reading the treatment “zillion” times. “I used to finish one cup of coffee in the next 3 hours. I would stare outside the window in search of ideas and most of the days I couldn’t come up with anything which I liked”, he adds.
He wasn’t thrilled with the first few drafts of the screenplay. He didn’t feel that love was compelling and strong between Jack and Rusty. He often felt disappointed that he couldn’t express his feelings about 'Love' to Rebecca effectively. As love is hard to define, show and tell, he would constantly think of ways to express it in the script. This process was taking a lot of time and he felt that time was ticking away, inspite of not having a 'producer' breathing down his neck. Hari is focussed and driven. He wants and tries to achieve the best with his unbelievable diligence and hard work. “Now, I am passionate about film-making. During my childhood, I was scared of going to movie theaters and now look at me, I am making films”, says Hari jokingly.
For the first time in 'Love', he undertook the challenge of editing the screenplay. He wanted this film to be very subtle about love and Rebecca definitely kept his vision in her screenplay. “Becky was always overseeing my changes and approving it. Without her writing, I think 'Love' wouldn’t have been possible”, adds Hari. The screenplay was ready after seven revisions.
Pre-Production
 Even before the screenplay was ready, Hari started thinking of ways to fund the film. He was determined to raise the capital for the film in the valley. “The first thing which needs to be done before you approach any investor is to have a strong business plan, passion, clear direction and you should be in pre-production when you approach the investors. They should feel that the project will happen and they can see a product if not their money back immediately”, adds Hari.
He approached some of the executives in Silicon Valley companies with his proposal. He couldn’t create any interest in them. But he never gave up the task of finding the money for the project. Due to the Silicon Valley gloom, he had to cut down his budget.
He recalls smilingly, “I was so excited when the first investor came along. I thought wow! Someone believes in me and the project!”. The first investor really gave him an encouragement, which propelled him to raise enough funds for the project. He would have knocked on at least 100 doors before someone opened the doors for the project. “Always be faithful and loyal to your investors. Even if they don’t ask of your progress in the project, you should update them periodically”, adds Hari.
Before any other person was hired, a storyboard artist, Siau was secured to help visualize the screenplay. The investment on this process usually pays off during the production. Each scene was storyboarded. The toughest scene should always be storyboarded first.
He did all of the location scouting himself. He says that “the project meant so much to me, I wanted to be a part of each and every aspect”. There were two major locations in the film, the State Prison for Women and US Marine Base, which many thought was impossible to secure and especially film in those locations. He started working with the State of California eight months prior to filming. He met with the Prison Officials, took tours, met with the inmates as well. “It was a very different and scary feeling the first time when I stepped into the prison. But once I was in, I didn’t feel any fear or hostility from the inmates”, adds Hari. "In this excitement and fear, I left the car unlocked, with my laptop, cameras, cell phones etc and when I came back from the tour, nothing was stolen from the car. I guess the prison is the safest place”, he adds jokingly.
There were so many people to thank and respect during pre-production. Fay from Chowchilla, a lady who was so kind and willing to show him around the town and act like a “location manager” without the title. She made arrangements for him in her office to meet with talent agents, caterer and owners of various locations etc. She would take him to various locations in town, which included the courthouse, grocery stores, hardware stores, hospital, beautiful meadows etc. Hari adds, “Without her this project wouldn’t have seen such exotic locations”. She also led him to a person, Chris, in town who helped him with the Marine base locations and costumes.
Once the locations were secured, he started looking for the crew and the cast. He wanted to keep them local. Almost, the entire crew and cast were picked from Central Valley of California. There were a handful of people who came from San Francisco and Los Angeles for the production. He would visit Chowchilla and Fresno once a week to finalize his cast and crew. For the first time, he went through an elaborate audition of cast. He was nervous at first if he could find all the necessary cast. He was able to decide for two lead female roles fairly quick, but the lead man, Jack’s role was tough. He was very reluctant to use Matt at first, due to lack of experience. Hari recalls, “but it was the best decision Rebecca and I made for this role. He did total justice to the role of Jack in the film”.
Production
 This was the most exciting and tense part of the process. There were 40 crew and cast members who were interacting together for the first time. It was a tense moment for him as it was the first time he was working with a bigger crew. But his good planning during pre-production paid off. He got great help during pre-production from the Production Manager ( Maribea) and the First AD
(Traci).
He recalls that a few days before the filming he couldn’t sleep, eat or even think coherently. First day shoot was the most difficult one. It was a scene at the State Prison, where the crew and cast had to get clearance to enter the prison. He couldn’t believe that the first day of filming went so smoothly. He was not on schedule for the first few days of production, which made him very nervous. On one hand they were slipping schedule and on the other they were already bleeding in the budget. It was perhaps very tense but Hari kept his cool and believed that everything will be okay.
In a few days, everything came together miraculously, and the production turned into fun for everyone. He was very pleased with the overall performance of the cast members and the efficient work by the crew.
He recalls an incident, when one day there was a skateboard scene and they needed a skateboard. One of the crew went around town in a van picking up kids with skateboards. In the meanwhile worried parents called the police and there was an Officer at the location. It was tense but hilarious at the same time to see Hari being interrogated by an Officer and First AD, Traci consoling the parents. On the other hand, the local police department would also help the unit by bringing them hot chocolate and coffee during some outdoor night scenes
"The crew and cast were so efficient that we wrapped up our principal photography in 20 days and under budget."
Driving back after completing production, Hari's eyes were filled with tears, and of course, these were tears of joy. He will never forget this humbling experience.
They filmed in the town of Chowchilla, at the state prison, Chowchilla streets, court house, hardware store, grocery stores, back roads of Chowchilla, Chowchilla hospital etc.
Post-Production
 This is the process where a film is made. This part was frustrating at times for him. First, he couldn’t decide if he wanted to edit or have an editor for the film. Of the entire process, he recalls this being the most painful and tiresome part. Most of his frustrations were with the computer and hard drive crashes. But again his patience paid off. He completed his rough cut in two months. “It's very hard to convey all the necessary direction to an editor. I will always edit my films from now”, says Hari. He plans to buy an AVID system for his next feature films.
Once the visual edit was complete, Hari and his mentor, Jack Gittings, started looking at the sound section of the film. The dialogue, foley, ambience, sound effects, ambience were all needed for the project. From the onset of editing, he wanted to outsource the sound effects and foley sections of the sound. Jack spent almost two additional months going through the dialogues, setting the levels, cleaning the dialogue etc.
Once the dialogue was in reasonable shape, Hari started talking to various post-production houses in LA and in SF area. He used Juniper Post for its sound editorial work and the first final mix. Hari was very fortunate to work with one of the persons at Skywalker Sound and get another mix from them. “This is an experience which I will never forget in my life”, adds Hari.
When Hari felt everything was going good with the post-production, the music composer had to pull out, as his other projects were not complete. “I almost broke down when I found this, as this person understood the film well” says Hari. Then, he started looking for a composer in the bay area. He saw eight composers in the area but couldn’t find any. He was looking for someone who was emotional, understood the film and could get into the character. “The composer needs to get into the characters, just like the writer and actors”, he adds.
One fine day he got an email from a friend who suggested the name of a musician on mp3.com, where a composer, Ernesto Cortazar, had million downloads in a year. “I listened to his mp3 music and I was instantly in love with his music. I saw his credits and he was a maestro. I didn’t think I will be able to work with him”, says Hari. Then, he started looking for his contact and sent an email from the site and didn’t expect to get any reply. Then, on January 02, 2003, he received an email from Ernesto Cortazar.
He was thrilled. Hari immediately called him and talked to him and it was a deal. He flew down to Mexico to meet the composer. The night he arrived in Mexico to meet the composer, Ernesto gave him forty themes to listen to, but unfortunately he didn’t like any of them. Hari was a little disappointed. He gave Ernesto the copy of the film to watch that night. "Next morning, after breakfast Ernesto asked me to come to his piano and sit beside him. Instantly, I fell in love with the piece and it was one of the theme music used in the film. It's called 'Solitude'”, recalls Hari.
The film is complete. Hari is getting ready to submit it to atleast 30 film festivals, and finding distributors for the film. He says that making a film is easier than selling it.
Published on 13th
July 2003
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