With Covid19 pandemic tossing a spanner in the production work of many movies; both national and international projects, and half of the world relying on virtual means to sustain, there is a new sub-genre of content creation that seems to be brewing in the OTT space; it is filming through virtual meetings.
Voot Select special TV series The Gone Game recently hit the streaming platform and created a buzz in the film fraternity because of its production value and unique style of storytelling.
The Gone Game, a four-part series daintily injects paranoia and unease in the air with its riveting storytelling, almost adding a gratifying Hitchcockian touch in the current era. In the Covid19 lockdown, everyone reeling under tension and panic; and the only possible means to maintain social engagement whilst self-isolation was via calls, messages and virtual meetings.
The tv series has seamlessly incorporated all the three modes along with a few more resources like CCTV camera, video blogging style technique, and few handheld shots which is achievable on own to complete the filming of the project.
With director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat the TV series stars Sanjay Kapoor, Shweta Tripathi, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Arjun Mathur, Rukhsar Rehman, Dibyendu Bhattacharya. The TV series is a locked-room murder mystery in the early days of the pandemic which has given a relatable touch that everyone faced/facing around the pandemic lockdown in India. The story begins in March when people were making dalgona coffee and banging thaalis in the hope that everything would be fine and we will be soon back to normal. But it didn’t. Initially, the relative innocence in the Gujral family debate, over video conference, whether or not to participate in the Janta curfew conducted in March.
While Amara (Shweta Tripathi) and her mother, Suneeta (Rukhsar Rehman), are quite looking forward to participating in the nationwide gesture of support for frontline workers, Amara’s brother Sahil (Arjun Mathur) scoffs at the idea. Not only does he think it’s a waste of time but also has more concerning matters on his mind. Sahil has recently returned from Bangkok and after having evaded the mandatory test at the airport, he chooses to quarantine himself in his bedroom, (convinced that he’s been infected). His wife, a social media influencer named Suhani (Shriya Pilgaonkar), is forced to sleep in the guest room. They are the only two characters who are in the same house (however neither Sahil nor Suhani were seen together on-screen). Everyone else, through a stroke of bad luck, is stranded alone, as so many of us were when the lockdown was announced by the government with just four hours’ notice. The story revolves around Sahil’s suffering, being Covid 19 + and his mysterious disappearance.
In the lockdown, almost all of us have gotten ourselves acquainted with video calling apps like Zoom and Jiomeet. The web series is also filmed in conjunction with the current zeitgeist, there is no physical meeting; everything is virtual in the series and this makes it more interesting and relatable.
The web series is short and interesting if you love the crime thriller genre and want to watch something new and innovative, you can give it a dekko. The TV series has zero to minimum visual effect shots as it included the shots taken on mobile devices at maximum. Since the virtual meetings are shot on different light condition the finished scenes seem to have gone through for good color correction. GFX and edit studio was done by Myriad Media works and Rahul Borse, Tanvir Kajalekar of JM VFX, DI, and colourist was Anindya S Ray.
The TV series is inspired, written, and produced in COVID 19 lockdown, The cast shot almost entirely within the confines of their homes, directed remotely by a remote crew therefore despite all the extraordinary odds, storytellers of the series conjured up the most fitting world of our time.