Blue Lenz Awards: Inside the Making of ‘A Day in the Life’
Carved in Blue recently hosted our second annual Blue Lenz Video Awards. Out of the many videos posted to our Blue Lenz YouTube channel over the year, we chose the top films in each of six categories, and the winners were announced at a ceremony on Aug. 31. Thank you to everyone who entered, our judges and our host, Bluezone at Munich Fabric Start.
Another Design Studio and Creative Cheat Sheet Media x Raymond UCO won in the Best Sustainability – Connection to the UN SDGs category for their video “A Day in the Life.” The video centers on Nitin Shrivastava, who manages a denim mill in the middle of a forest.
Here, the film’s director Stefano Aldighieri and the producer Sundeep Ramudamu discuss their vision and what it took to film the short.
Carved in Blue: What was the concept or inspiration behind your winning film?
Stefano: The inspiration for the subject matter came after visiting the mill. As we all know, most mills look quite similar, all have the same technology, same machinery, same processes – to some degree. The one thing that really stood out for me in Yavatmal was the sincere effort to be more responsible towards the surrounding environment.
Sundeep: I was fortunate enough to contribute to the greenery by planting a tree in their premises. Greenery is their top most priority. They haven’t left any space which doesn’t have plants, even if the cars are getting obstructed by the growing branches, nothing changes.
Carved in Blue: Why did you feel it was important to explore this topic?
Stefano: There is way too much greenwashing nowadays, so when we see examples of people or companies that have been trying to do the right thing since long before it was trendy to do so, we should share their stories.
Sundeep: After reaching and seeing the place in person, I realized their deep intention which they feel does not need to be publicized, as that is how a way of life should be. Honestly, I was amazed by this simple thought process, which I have never seen anywhere. Had it been another place, even a small step would have been amplified to glory.
Carved in Blue: Could you describe the process behind creating this content?
Stefano: Once we decided to participate (the idea came about while we were working on a presentation about storytelling that we gave in Bangalore), and agreed on the topic, I quickly wrote a script and prepared a story board to share (via Zoom) with my partner in crime, Sundeep. I had worked with him before but never on a film. I suggested that we try to emulate the look and feel of old post war Italian cinema from the neorealism movement. I even asked him to watch a masterpiece from those days, “Bicycle Thieves,” to get the right mood during shooting and editing.
Sundeep: I knew Stefano will have some offbeat idea about any of his concept, but I wasn’t ready for a black and white version when I heard it first from him. But with the reference movie he shared, I felt it. The movie was impactful, had emotions and I realized our film is not just about greenery, or about indigo—it is about emotions, and how passionately an industrial space is created for years like a home. And the black-and-white theme definitely helped focus in the narrative, made it stand out from other entries and also surprisingly has the highest number of views in the channel, without any promotion apart from us sharing on our LinkedIn, but that was it. I very strongly feel the black-and-white version is the strongest version of the video compared to the color version, and I learnt this only because of Stefano.
Several discussions through Zoom calls happened about storyboarding; it was always a fun conversation. However, the time was very tight—I had only two days to shoot at the location singlehandedly. With my cameras, drone, mic, everything to handle at one time, it was definitely an exhilarating experience. This wouldn’t have been successful without Mr. Nitin’s participation and support, where he gave all his and his team’s time for the filming.
After returning to base, the first thing was to share the footages with Stefano so he could gather the difference between the storyboarding we did and the actual set of footages. I hope it justified to him. The only thing we both missed badly was the cotton field, which was not the right time as it was under sowing process.
Carved in Blue: What was the most challenging part of producing this video?
Stefano: One was time. After we decided to participate, we had to write, arrange for a trip to shoot the footage at the mill—Raymond UCO graciously assisted with that part. The other one was working remotely, from opposite sides of the planet. Video calls are useful, but exchanging very large files and communicating subtle details is not always easy.
Sundeep: For me, the most challenging yet the most exciting part was flying the drone because in India a nano drone has a 15-meter height limit. We had to climb all the water tanks to add to the extra height, to capture various parts of the location, but it was also my most favorite moment there.
Carved in Blue: What stands out as a memorable moment from behind-the-scenes?
Stefano: I think the collaborative process throughout the whole experience. We managed to have a very constructive dialogue all along and it made everything run smooth.
Sundeep: All our Zoom calls from the beginning when it was all vague and rough, till the last edit where Carie’s voiceover added the final touch and the final credits at the end of the video.
Carved in Blue: Why is video such a powerful medium for denim storytelling?
Stefano: I have done photography for decades, and tend to agree that a picture is worth a thousand words. Sundeep is far more specialized in video production than me.
With video, you multiply those “thousand words” by 24 frames per second, and by the duration of the movie!
Jokes aside, the whole medium, combining photography, writing, acting, music, makes for an extremely powerful tool that can create an emotional connection with the viewer.
Sundeep: A five-minute video can impact and share knowledge, information and experience hours of content. To read a book, one has to stop doing everything and only focus on reading, but for a video, you can still continue with your workout and morning jogs (If it is a podcast), and within those few minutes, the video expresses from all dimensions or mood, music, sound effects, visuals, images, narration and so many elements. I am glad to see our collaboration grow in a positive manner and that we have more concepts for denim videos in the pipeline.