4 months with First Frame 2013…It’s a long period…

Two days back, for the first time in 4 months, I thought of changing my laptop’s wallpaper. 4 months… it’s a long period…

First Frame 2013- Core Team. Photo Courtesy: One of my good photographer friends at college

I am sitting here in front of my laptop and am staring stupidly at this blank word document. For the past 4 days, the only thing that I have done when I have switched on my laptop is opening facebook, checking my email, making innumerable Google searches for the same keywords and that is it. And this happened to kill the time that was left after I slept for 12 hours a day, met friends and spent hours chatting at the DLF Place Eat Food Lounge each day and waiting for some kind of update on Whatsapp. Suddenly there still is so much time left…

For the first time in so many years, my blog writing came to a halt over the past 4 months. I wrote rarely. Hardly 4 or 5 posts in 4 entire months. How could I be so irregular in the one thing I loved doing? This is one question I have asked myself many times over the past months. I knew the answer. For the first time, I was doing something which had a much bigger priority in my life than my blog and there was no second thing I could concentrate on.

29^th of November 2012- It was not a very eventful day in history. But today when I look back I realize that this was in fact one of the most eventful days in my history and to a great extent, my college’s history. This was the day when a few of my friends and I approached the Director of our college with the proposal for conducting First Frame 2013- Fifth International Students’ FilmFestival.

For a festival which had been out of the market for five years, the comeback had to be huge. No doubt, we received a lot of apprehensions and negations from our friends, our seniors. First Frame nahi ho sakta was one of the most common dialogues we heard. We weren’t confident either, but to all these negations we had a common and confident reply First Frame hoga, chaahe kuch ho jaye.

The days rolled by. Our end-term examinations were on but we were at the college and doing our best to convince the management for the festival. Getting the ‘Go-Ahead’ signal took us an entire month. And the moment we had it, there was going to be nothing that could stop us. Before college ends, this was something that we had to do no matter how. And so, a few hours before we left on our college trip on 3^rd January 2013, we announced First Frame 2013 to the world.

Time was running fast. The venue was booked. The blog was rolled. Call for entry posters were printed. Promotions began at full scale online and offline. We were allotted a room in college which was going to be the First Frame Office or FFO as we acronym-ed it. Time was too little. We had to get the sponsors and media partners. We had to design the entire festival’s look. We had to get people involved. We had to set the stage for the anchors. We had to get enough number of entries. We had to get the jury. We had to complete all work on-time, if not before-time. In short, we had to create and manage the biggest event in our lifetime.

On 1^st of April as each of us reached home, feeling satisfied that all work was done and the stage was all set for the commencement of the festival the next day, we got a glimpse of the banners and flexes put-up at the venue. Our happiness knew no bounds. First Frame actually ho raha hai! The feeling sunk in and we lay on our beds too excited to sleep.

On 3^rd, the very day First Frame 2013 got over, a good friend asked me, Now within a few days we can expect your blog entry about the event, right? I laughed and agreed. I knew I was going to write about this- that was certain. But, I had no clue that even writing on my blog about something I have so lovingly done was going to be so difficult! I am not sure if difficult is the right word, but yes, it feels like a struggle to sit and patiently write all this. I want to, but probably I am too exhausted to use my brain for anything that requires concentration. I can easily concentrate but the will to do so is completely lacking. That’s the exact open state of my mind and this is how it has been since First Frame 2013 ended.

 “First Frame sach mein ho raha hai?”

“Yaar, sponsor kahan se laayein? Koi kuch jugaad laga do…”

“Bill reimburse ho jayega na?”

“Showreel cut ho gayi?”

“It’s 10, it’s getting late! Go home!”

From the secretive Code F2 to FFO, the stupid fights, the abuses, the happy times, the sponsor mil gaya moments, the ‘free’ food at Meridien, the bhadaas moment after the late night dinner at Murthal, the many mental breakdowns, the ho jayega..tension na le moments, the Tankush dinners, the I want this work done dialogues, the itna kam time bacha hai aur kaam itna saara karna hai realizations…And there is so much more…

At the end of the two day event when our Director called us, the entire First Frame team, on stage to be applauded for the work that we had done, I couldn’t control my emotions. I told everyone who would listen Humne First Frame ko revive kar diya and probably there weren’t many people who could understand what this simple statement meant. Having accomplished successfully what had been my reason for joining MBICEM three years ago, having done something huge and something which nobody else had been able to do, having dared to achieve the so-called impossible- it feels great. Somehow, the feeling of being content and happy, of having accomplished something grand, fails to catch hold of me although it’s been 4 whole days since it all came to an end.

Seeing the newspaper articles about First Frame 2013 makes me very happy. The Hindu, AsianAge, Deccan Herald, HT Campus, Uth Time, Janbhawna Times, Jansatta- that’s just a few. There is a lot more coming within the next couple of days. But then it would be over. Reviving the festival was the major challenge we faced. Carrying it forward should be easy. But making it grander is what would make us happier. This isn’t just another college festival after all…this is India’s first ever International Students’ Film Festival and this is huge…!

Wearing our customized First Frame tshirts was a proud feeling. It was difficult to get it off. Yes, I wanted First Frame to happen, and happen successfully but No, I didn’t want it to end. 4 months…it’s a long time…but it seems to have gone by so soon…I miss the time already…