• Home
  • About Us
  • Submit Article
  • Write for Us
  • Contact Us
Indie Shorts Mag
  • Home
  • Premieres
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Film Festival News
    • Short Film News
  • Reviews
    • Short Film
    • Documentary
    • Web Series
  • Hall of FameNew
  • Tutorials
    • Pre-Production
    • Post-Production
  • Live TVBeta
  • Submit Short Film
No Result
View All Result
Indie Shorts Mag
  • Home
  • Premieres
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Film Festival News
    • Short Film News
  • Reviews
    • Short Film
    • Documentary
    • Web Series
  • Hall of FameNew
  • Tutorials
    • Pre-Production
    • Post-Production
  • Live TVBeta
  • Submit Short Film
No Result
View All Result
Indie Shorts Mag
No Result
View All Result

Interview with Shahid Kamal (Cinnamon – Short Film)

Indie Shorts Mag Team by Indie Shorts Mag Team
13 Aug 2015
in Interviews
0
Interview with Shahid Kamal Cinnamon – Short Film Featured - Indie Shorts Mag

Interview with Shahid Kamal (Cinnamon – Short Film) - Director's pictureThere are films that make such a strong impression on you that it stays there in your head for quite a long time.

Shahid Kamal’s Cinnamon is a story of a newly elected mayor who comes from a family where his dad was verbally and physically abusive to his mom. He is waiting to go on a chat show. On the chat show, he ends up saying good things about his dad. The story shows psychological effects of domestic violence on a person.

After getting nominated for Best Director, Best Actor (Male) & Best Editing at Short of the Month’s June Online Short Film Festival, Indie Shorts Mag team interviewed the talented director of Cinnamon. Here’s what he has to say about his grippy drama  – Cinnamon.

Abusive dad and a twist in the end makes this film a must watch. Shahid, how’d you come up with such an idea? What was the inspiration behind this story?

I am a doctor by profession and the inspiration comes from my psychiatry rotation. The twist in the end reflects what a traumatized mind can do. It also gets the audience thinking.

They say that half of your film is complete if you cast just the right actors, how does it feel like when working with experienced actors like David Sandercock who delivers a powerful performance in the film also got nominated for ‘Best Actor’ award at Short of the Month’s June Online Short Film Festival? Does it make you a little nervous while directing them? What were your key inputs to him?

You are absolutely right. David Sandercock was an amazing actor to work with. His experience didn’t make me nervous at all; in fact it gave me more confidence as a director to work with such a refined actor and make an entertaining film in the end. Although I loved his acting throughout, but I really liked his performance in the last scene-that of giving milk to his dad in the cellar. I needed contradictory emotions from him-that of hatred/revenge (and a need to punish his dad) and sadness (he would wish that he never had to do that). I thought he acted exactly the right mix of emotions in this scene. My key input was my support, friendly yet, professional attitude and clarity of direction, as in what I exactly wanted from him in different scenes in the film.

Interview with Shahid Kamal (Cinnamon – Short Film) - behind the scene 1

What was the casting process for this film, if you can share us your experience on that?

We received many applications. I relied a lot on actor’s show reels and I was lucky to find most of my cast through this method. One of the most interesting auditions was for the role of Harry (Abusive Dad). After intensive scrutiny of at least hundred show reels, I originally liked one actor, but unfortunately he lived in Switzerland and we were not in a position to pay for his travel and accommodation. Then after, I found another actor who, on the first day of rehearsal told me that he had booked a holiday on the day of the shoot. I had to then re advertise and again after going through many show reels, I liked one guy who was in the show reel of another applicant. I was pleasantly surprised that when I contacted the applicant asking for details of his co-actor, he did not mind it at all and got back to me almost immediately. That co-actor turned out to be Steve, who I finally managed to contact and he happily agreed for the role. The other challenging bit was casting the child actor. I had no previous experience with working with children. During the audition, I asked children to get a cup of milk from the kitchen and offer it to their parent. I am glad I was able to cast the right actor in the end with the help of my team.

My favorite part of the film was the last scene of the film. What is that one thing that you like the most about “Cinnamon”?

The one thing I love is the scene where his dad was about to slap his mom and for the first time he gets the courage to stop his dad. When our composer was making the music, he came up with the idea of combining Bach music (Which was used in first flashback) and string music (used at the present time). It created the exact build up of emotions that I was looking for, just before the final scene.

ConversionAILeaderboard - Indie Shorts Mag ConversionAILeaderboard - Indie Shorts Mag ConversionAI - Indie Shorts Mag

Interview with Shahid Kamal (Cinnamon – Short Film) - behind the scene 2

You’ve earlier directed a film “Bonjour”. How different are these two films from each other in terms of your approach in directing them?

I am currently finishing Bonjour. These two films are really different from each other. While Cinnamon is a serious drama, Bonjour is a lighthearted film about a little two-year-old girl who wants to make friendship with a two-year-old boy. Directing Bonjour was a challenge as the kids were around 18 months of age at the time of filming and I had to take a lot of help from their parents. Their parents would make them do certain things for me, which would sometimes be random, and I had to then be opportunistic to choose the take with required emotions, so I could use them to tell the story.

Shahid, it was a well written drama with a perfect required twist at the end. Well to end this, when can we expect another short film from you and your team?

Well, thank you for the compliments and I am really glad you liked Cinnamon. We should be ready with Bonjour within a month or two and I would love to submit Bonjour to your film festival. We have decided to change its name to ‘It’s a kid’s movie’, We are really looking forward to see the audience response to ‘It’s a Kid’s movie’.


We would like to thank Shahid for doing this interview and wish him all the luck and success for his new venture “Bonjour”.

Tags: Interview

Get real time update about this post categories directly on your device, subscribe now.

Unsubscribe
Previous Post

Mettle – Short Film Review

Next Post

5 Short Films That’ll Restore Your Love For India – Happy 69th Independence Day India

Indie Shorts Mag Team

Indie Shorts Mag Team

Related Posts

Noah Stratton-Twine - Young Young Men - Interview - Indie Shorts Mag
Interviews

Writer-Director-Composer Noah Stratton-Twine On Coming Of Age For Millennials, Composing, And His Fondness For Low Apertures

6th October 2020
Film Festival Director - Anthony Straeger Interview - Indie Shorts Mag
Interviews

Making films as an independent filmmaker is the best masterclass you can give yourself: Anthony Straeger

2nd October 2020
Next Post
IMG 0074 2 - Indie Shorts Mag

5 Short Films That'll Restore Your Love For India - Happy 69th Independence Day India

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

From Editor’s Desk

Editor’s Picks: 2020’s Flashback In One Go!

Editor’s Picks: 2020’s Flashback In One Go!

Sponsored

  • Recent Reviews
Facebook Twitter Instagram

About Indie Shorts Mag

Indie Shorts Mag is a publishing agency that works within the ‘short film circuit’. We review short films, documentaries, music videos and web series, amongst others. We stand out amongst the short film review sites for being multi-diverse & global in our platform and reach.
Our team works tirelessly to help promote, publicize and market your short films that deserve the shout-out! Besides reviews, we host film festival news as it’s a known fact that the film festival buzz is unmissable and we ensure you aren’t left behind!
We aspire to form a niche for ourselves as the ‘short film magazine’ that remains the hub for filmmakers & their audience.

Popular Topics

  • Announcements
  • Articles
  • Crowdfunding
  • Editorial
  • Film Festival News
  • Film Festivals
  • India Edition
  • Interviews
  • Marketing
  • Marketing
  • News
  • Online Premiere
  • Post-Production
  • Pre-Production
  • Reviews
  • Short Film
  • Short Film Competition
  • Short Film News
  • Tutorials
  • Web Series

Indie Shorts Mag on Instagram

Follow Us On Instagram

© 2015-2021 Indie Shorts Mag

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Premieres
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Film Festival News
    • Short Film News
  • Reviews
    • Short Film
    • Documentary
    • Web Series
  • Hall of Fame
  • Tutorials
    • Pre-Production
    • Post-Production
  • Live TV
  • Submit Short Film

© 2015-2021 Indie Shorts Mag