Context: A few years ago I posted a couple of 'how to play xyz song on guitar' videos. Kannada language songs are under represented, and most tutorials just have wrong chords/notes.
Being kids of the tablet age, Avaneesh and his buddies used to spend a lot of time giggling at Annoying Orange videos, 'unpacking toy X' videos, and even 'teenagers waging Nerf wars' videos on Youtube. Given that every home with a kid is a theater now, no surprise, they have millions of views. Soon, we humans will hand out iPads to monkeys, and be surprised at the videos that hit a billion views. So, he and his buddies set out to make videos that would make them the next millionaires. They spent a couple of months saying stupid things to each other and uploading, but nobody watched. I had to listen to "Your video has 6,000 views, but our video has only 36 views!" kind of complaints.
Forward to two days back: He announced that he was appreciated in school for his acting skills. He said he even got a few 'Nice job, bro' high-fives from random boys in school. Ours is not exactly a thespian bloodline, although his mother does get pretty dramatic at times. Raised eyebrows and a look at his mom was what he got from me, for example.
Cut to the present: It's 6pm on a sunday, and I'm driving him to his classmate's place. A 'make a film' assignment from school, some clever maneuvering by the aforementioned thespian and I'm here donning a chauffeur's hat. A Nerf rifle butt jutting out of his backpack shoots the theme out aloud, but I ask about it anyway.
"A robbery" he says, " we're enacting a robbery of a gem"
"A guard working at a museum accidentally carries home a gem, and throw it into a vase without realizing its worth"
"This is your story?" I ask
"Yes," he says " ..my story. The guard has a roommate who's a cop. That makes robbing them a challenge for the robbers"
"How do the robbers know these guards have this..gem?" I ask.
"That's not important. We can assume the robbers have observed & listened to them.. like all those TV episodes with lots of gadgets.. "
I have more follow up questions, but I hold back. The film's due tomorrow anyway, and it's 6 pm. I take a different tack "So, you've written the script, and people know what to say?"
"No" he says to my surprise, " I've figured out that it doesn't work well"
He sees that I'm looking for more, and explains.
"All those videos we were making a while back, we had a script. But nobody would be able to act it out well or remember it. So the videos were all bad and we got no views. One day, I had an idea and I asked the others to not go by script. I asked them to know their theme, and just speak whatever comes to mind. That video was much better, and we got our highest views!"
"Really? How much ?" I ask while my mind wanders to reading about how Scorsese would make his actors do similar things.
He blushed a bit, smiled and said "96 views".
The dim light helps cover my expression. He continued " But that's way more than our other videos!"
I too recover quickly " No.. that's really good. That's a pretty good idea!"
Fortunately, he has other logistics worrying him. For eg, his bright orange-blue Nerf rifle doesn't look 'realistic enough'.
"Why don't you make this a comedy?" I suggest. I even add a couple of jokes. These jokes tend to flow when the mom isn't around - she's ever ready with groans that women in delivery rooms can't muster.
He gives me a polite chuckle, but he's too emotionally attached to his story make it a parody.
So I ask, "What happens with your robbery?" .
He relates the plot - He & his robber gang gain access to the house through the terrace, and try stealing the gem. But the residents end up waking up. There's a shootout, he and his fellow robber die, and the remaining one is arrested. (I bet he wanted to enact the 'getting shot and dying' scene. )
Again, a lot of 'but' sentences come to my tongue, but I swallow them all like gulab jamoons I so love. We arrive at the destination, and out comes his fellow conspirator - looking like a robber so screen has ever seen before.
I gulp a couple more of those hypothetical gulab jamoons, and head back with a 'good luck!' wave.
No wonder I can't lose weight.
