Ever wondered what it would be like to be part of a video game that was no longer virtual?Sure we’ve had many movies that have conceptualised around that idea. But instead of sitting through 140 minutes or so of tense curiousity, what if it was just 11 minutes of sheer gaming? Then you have Project 11.A short feature film, the 11-minute movie revolves around an underground video game with cult status. Gamers across the world (predictably, 11 cities, hence 11 gamers), are racing against each other to cross level 11 (unfortunately a cliched reference again), a level that has never been crossed before. What however makes the movie grow beyond its cliched-cult-science-fiction-thriller status is that the gamers don’t realise that they could be playing the last game of their lives. After all, why hasn’t anyone ever crossed level 11 so far?More commendable than its concept is the movie itself. A completely self-funded project made among friends with collaboration that crosses borders, languages and artistic sensitivities, directors from across the world were short-listed to help in co-directing the movie. The film having been set in different cities, was made by editing together rushes from all these locations. With different directorial segments coming together in just 11 minutes, the movie does pique the interest in audience. Says Ranjan Singh, co-writer and producer of the film, “We did have a few co-ordination issues initially. The directors being from different backgrounds naturally had their own artistic views. But we were very clear about what we wanted and things smoothed out eventually.”The core team of the movie includes producer Ranjan Singh, director Vikas Chandra, editor Geeta Singh and Vivek Rajagopalan as the music director. The whole movie was conceptualised, scripted, filmed, edited and produced in just five months. “We began scripting in June and by July had listed out our co-directors and the sequence. August and September went into shooting and October was completely occupied by post production. And now we’re ready for its premiere,” adds Ranjan.The Indian cast includes Siddhant Karnick who has worked in a couple of Yash Raj films and ShikhaTalsania, a face you might recognise from Wake up Sid and Dil To Bacha Hai Ji. The rest of the cast was selected by their respective directors. With just nine lakhs for funding, most of the actors worked on not very handsome fees.“The nine lakhs that went into making the movie was completely self-funded. So we’re hoping that after the premiere we should be able to make that back. Based on the response, we’d like to send it to film festivals and so on. But the driving force behind this is to be able to get enough funds to make Project 12. Though the concept is similar, we initially had planned on making Project 12, a proper feature film. Since the challenges were bigger, we thought we’d start small with Project 11. hopefully Project 12 will work out in 2012,” shares Ranjan.The movie made on a shoe string budget is an achievement in itself with cost covering for 11 separate directorial teams, 11 cast members, equipment, post production, promotion and release.“I think we made the best use ever of all these social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and so on because our entire collaboration happened there. The directors were nice enough to work for a nominal fee. They took care of all the off-site business; we just paid for equipment and so on. Over here, we’ve done whatever it is through friends,” comments the former world wide marketing head for INOX cinemas.To be released in five languages --- Japanese, Mandrin, Pashto, English and Swahili - the movie is will premiere on glamsham.com at exactly 11 am today followed by a rerun at 11:25 am, after which it will be pulled from the internet as free content.
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