Interview: Ajay Dev Dinesh - director, screenwriter, editor of Neena Signing Off

Synopsis: "Neena, an adventurous final-year engineering student with a love for travel and new experiences, finds her world shrinking overnight when the COVID-19 lockdown confines her to a single room. What begins as temporary isolation slowly turns into a suffocating loop of routines, screens, and silence. When a new job takes her to Kochi, she sees it as her ticket to freedom but soon realizes the walls have only changed their color. Caught between global chaos and personal stillness, Neena’s spirit starts to crumble under the weight of monotony and loneliness. “Neena Signing Off” is a reflection of a generation that learned how fragile and how resilient the human mind can be when the world stands still."

ROFFEKE: In your director's bio, you write that you are driven "by stories that find beauty in the ordinary and emotion in the quiet corners of life...through subtle performance and real-life experiences translated into powerful visual storytelling." As a fan of Bollywood films, I can confidently say that your film "Neena:Signing off" is definitely not the typical, larger-than-life Bollywood film. What challenges, if any, do you face in making (and marketing) films that are not the norm?

AJAY DEV DINESH: India has multiple film industries, and Bollywood is one of them, the biggest one, but this movie was made in a smaller industry named Mollywood. Mollywood represents films from the state of Kerala and is one of the smallest film industries. Making a movie in this industry is very hard due to budget constraints, low returns, and difficulties with OTT and other releases for the film. We deliberately took a call while filming "Neena: signing off" that we are making this film for festivals and not for commercial purposes, which gave us a clear focus on how much to spend and how to be creative within that budget. This is a film made by contribution from a lot of friends rather than from a professional perspective. And one thing I learned about Marketing for films is that, if you make a good enough film and it gets some appreciation in film festivals, people would want to see it and YouTube channels would be willing to buy it, so the idea should be to make a good film that people would love.

ROFFEKE: The first song: "life goes on, through new roads, life goes on" is so beautiful. Was it created specifically for the film or was it licensed for the film?

AJAY: The song was made for the film only. It's a very short song, and we have no plans to release a single album for the same since it's beautiful when seen with the film rather than as an independent.

ROFFEKE: It was delightful to watch the phone text messages and other phone content displayed outside the phone screen. Could you please explain the editing process regarding this? Which editing software would you recommend for this?

AJAY:  The whole VFX work for this film took more than 2 months of daily effort for us to complete. We had planned it while filming to leave spaces in screen for all these visual elements to appear. The software we used is Adobe's After Effects, and there are a lot of plugins that would give you something to start with, and then you modify them by yourself to fit them into your film. Other than that, we used AI generations too in some shots to fill in for what we missed while filming.

ROFFEKE: Your film is a work of fiction but is partly inspired by real events. a) What is your process of fictionalizing a true event? b) The presentation fiasco that happens around the halfway point of the film is heartbreaking. Was this inspired by true events or did you make it up?

AJAY: Most of my stories originate from a true incident that I then fictionalise. I usually take the core element from the incident and bring some characters into the same incident, and then think, "How would this guy behave in this situation?" In the case of this film it's based on several true stories, not just one, so I didn't start from any particular incident. The first step was to define the character, then take them through these incidents and then figure out how to conclude this character's journey. The presentation fiasco was fully fictional; it never happened in real life.

ROFFEKE: What lessons did you learn during the lockdown?

AJAY: During lockdown, I was just out of college, so the main thing I learned was the value of freedom, to be able to go anywhere at anytime, do anything you like, I was really learning the value of these during lockdown but used most of the time that I got in learning about filmmaking, finance and engineering which are the three things that I am really interested in. Also started planting seeds of stories in my head so that later they'll become a big tree of stories.

ROFFEKE: Your film has a strong mental health theme and you write in your director's bio that: "With Neena Signing Off, I wanted to capture the silent struggles of a generation to show why mental health is just as important as physical health, and why it should never be ignored." How do you yourself take care of your mental health?

AJAY: I had struggles with Anxiety from childhood. I realised it when I was an adult that "it was anxiety" what I was feeling sometimes and then seeked proefessional help to understand it and then get rid of it. It took me a year to go through therapy, medications and then finally come out of Anxiety fully. That is one more reason I want everyone to take good care of their mental health, because I myself know the difference.

ROFFEKE: You have a background in engineering. How did you make the transition from engineering to filmmaking? What skills/lessons, if any, from your engineering era do you apply to filmmaking?

AJAY: Even before becoming an Engineer my heart was always into filmmaking. During college days and school days, I would use my laptop to edit some small videos, learn about how to edit or direct a film through YouTube and other online sources and think about stories. I am good at learning things, especially softwares so I learned editing software during my Engineering time and was also part of the media team in my college, which helped me learn how to operate a camera. If you see the credits, I have done cinematography as well in some schedules. All of these came from my school and college days.

ROFFEKE: You were the screenwriter, editor, visual effects artist and director of "Neena:Signing off". Any advice for aspiring screenwriters, editors, vfx artists and/or directors?

AJAY: I don't believe that I have achieved enough to advise young filmmakers, but one thing I can say is "When you make a film, be too serious about it, put your 1000% to it, plan it well, think of obstacles upfront and create Plan B, and finally... be creative."

Interview: Catarina de Cèzanne - Director of "After Link" (Question 2)

ROFFEKE: In your jornaldemonchique.pt interview, you mention that: “After the project was rejected by the ICA (Cinema and Audiovisual Institute) and numerous other institutions, I made an appeal online and we brought together a team of professionals from seven different countries in Europe to make the film with our own means”, What kept you going after all those rejections? What helped you not to give up?

CATARINA: In Portugal, being rejected by ICA and other government grants is a dead cert. I am almost certain that every filmmaker in Portugal has a project “on hold” waiting for rejection while doing some other film in the meantime, guerrilla style, or keeps working full-time or freelancing in publicity, or does something else. Even though we all pay taxes, nobody can expect anything from the government, and we are also extremely limited in any other grants.

 It’s not a secret that our country suffers from elitism and nepotism in almost every industry. Once, I called in with questions regarding the submission application, and the secretary said “we are very busy today, calling the ones we know will submit to help them with the form”, which immediately told me that the process is not biased.  While the application for government film grants is supposed to be free, I’ve also encountered government grants whose one of the leaders was selling her project consultancy services for that specific grant, with no guarantees of success and for a high fee, which tells us that art and culture are merely transactional. The process is also too long, sometimes leading to more than one year and a half years waiting to receive the notification of the results, while in other countries, such as Australia, government grants run every 4 months. Years ago, there was also a time when some of us, filmmakers, gathered to look into the previous film titles which did win said grant, usually between 20,000EUR and 60,000EUR, and we realised that those supposedly completed films were nonexistent on the web. This is all to say that we know the system is broken, we bet on local film funding (which comes out of our taxes) with less hope than choosing the numbers in the lottery.

 Even though we did not receive monetary support, I feel extremely grateful for the council of Monchique for allowing us to film in the mountains without asking for a fee, for FatKat Productions equipment and the DoP, the motorhome as well as production supplies we borrowed from Southwest Productions, for Dona Ajuda who lend us second-hand clothes and objects for set dressing, Águas de Monchique who gave us bottles of water for free to survive the extreme heat of Summer, the Galician company Mesturasóns who did our sound mix, Mastervan who lend us walkie-talkies for the driving shots.

Seeing everyone so deeply engaged and dedicated to this project, despite us having no funding, was what made me not give up on this film. In the end, I guess we don’t
do it for us, we do it for them.

(Look out for question 3 in which I ask Catarina: The team includes British Rebecca Pilkington in the art department (“Eternals” and “The Danish Girl”), the propsmaster Hungarian Ilka Selmeczy (“Dune”) and Head of Locations Tony Frew (“The Poor Things”, “Gladiator”, “Mister Mayfair” and “That Good Night”), for sound, Sérgio Botelho (“Duros de Roer” and “Um Filme do Caraças”). Briefly, how did you manage to bring together such a diverse and experienced group of creatives?)

Mythology, Metal, Merry Christmas Mithras

 
"Metal musicians have long been drawn to the wellspring of mythology...Norse, Greek, Egyptian..."
"The Metal Odyssey: Exploring The Connection Between Metal and Mythology" by Silviya Y.

'"Merry Christmas Mithras" is a dark folktale born from a deep dive into the truly ancient mythology of the Roman mystery cult of Mithras. Our creative process was as layered as the myth itself...' - TRIXSTART

"Mythology offers a vast and varied repository of stories, characters, and symbols, which align seamlessly with the dramatic essence of heavy metal...These ancient stories introduce archetypal heroes, formidable deities, and moral tales..."
"The use of mythology and fantasy in heavy metal"

Question 1: In your cover letter, you wrote: "I believe the subject matter is particularly resonant, prompting curiosity and conversation about the nature of belief systems, the weight of doctrine, and the terrifying lengths to which individuals will go to secure power and prosperity under the banner of faith." The intersection of power, prosperity and faith is a volatile topic. Why risk censorship when you could pick "safer" subject matters that do not venture into mine-field domains (mine-fields such as the pagan roots of some religious holidays)?

"The synergy between mythology and heavy metal lies in their shared characteristics. Both are inherently dramatic, dealing with themes of conflict, triumph and the struggle against adversity. Mythological stories often feature larger-than-life characters and settings, mirroring metal's bold and theatrical nature."
"The role of mythology and fantasy in shaping metal's iconic themes"

Question 2. Your creative risk paid off in that within a month, Merry Christmas Mithras had won awards and had been offered profit share anthologies and distribution deals. What is it about this unconventional short that you think resonates with audiences and "the powers that be"?

"Many bands use mythology to reconnect with their heritage. This not only enriches their music but also offers fans a deeper cultural connection." - The role of mythology and fantasy in shaping metal's iconic themes

(Below is an excerpt from the Metal Embassy Interview of Kenyan metal band "Chovu" - African Traditions, War Paint, Positive Ethnicity)

"Myths often address universal human concerns - life, death, and the quest for meaning. These align seamlessly with metal's introspective and sometimes dark lyrics." - The role of mythology and fantasy in shaping metal's iconic themes

Question 6. Your director statement is cryptic yet intriguing. What do you mean by: "All I have experienced, known, believed and lived is simply an exquisite collection of star dust and electrical impulses."

Question 3. Again, to quote your cover letter, you wrote that your film Merry Christmas Mithras was "conceived, written, directed, produced, shot, and edited entirely by TRIXSTART, who also handled the AI, graphics, animation, and all practical FX, art/handcrafted props, every element of production, from script, storyboarding, cinematography, editing, lighting and sound to practical effects, intricate handcrafted props, and final VFX, forging a truly singular creative vision with extremely limited resources." Aren't you a people person? Aren't you a team player? :-) In other words, why go the "solo auteur" way when you could collaborate? After all, the common adage is that film is a collaborative sport...

Question 4. If you had unlimited resources, what would you add to the film?

Question 5. You fuse "ancient craftsmanship and cutting-edge technology." What would you say are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these two methods? If you had to pick only one method, which one would you go with and why?

Question 7. Advice for anyone wanting to venture into: a) horror filmmaking b) solo filmmaking c)controversial films ?

WATCH THE (very creative!) TRIXSTART INTERVIEW HERE