If you thought the sudden screams and
startling appearances that horror films are
famous for were scary, wait till you see
‘Crackle’! ‘Crackle’ is India’s first 3D 360
degree Virtual Reality horror short film,
directed by Eddie Avil and Ashley Rodrigues.
Virtual Reality has been explored to a
certain extend in India and internationally,
but ‘Crackle’ is a one-of-a-kind film being
produced and made completely in
India.
Edward Avil is an Indian
musician, songwriter,
composer, bass guitarist,
scriptwriter and restaurateur
who owns a sound recording
studio, Sounds Good Studio, in Mahim,
Mumbai. He debuted on the professional
music scene along with his brother, Adam,
as a member of ‘Greek’, a popular rock
music band in the early ‘90s. Pioneers in
the Indian rock music scene that had their
own original content, Greek soon changed
their name to Pralay. Their first album, titled
‘Urban Reality’, earned them their first-ever
shortlisted nomination to the Grammy
Awards in 2003.
Ashley Rodrigues started as a sound
engineer and has produced audio for
various TV commercials and radio jingles.
Ashley is from Goa and has a house in
Tivim while Eddie’s in-laws are from
Porvorim. They earlier teamed up to set up a
restaurant, The Blue Mariposa, in Candolim
which they ran for a year.
“Virtual Reality is when you are a part of
the whole scene of the plot. Virtual Reality
happens at various levels like gaming,
animation, etc but here we are talking
about real life virtual reality where all the
actors are absolutely real. The medium is
very immersive as once you wear the virtual
reality headset, you are in the movie. You
are not just observing what is happening
around you but you are part of it and
all your senses are at work,” said Eddie,
explaining the concept of Virtual Reality. He
has worked on a 360 degree VR shoot for a
travel app earlier.
The 12-minute film has already been shot
and is currently in its post production phase.
Saju Jose is the co-director, while Shanti
Bhushan Roy, the DOP for Anil Kapoor’s ‘24’,
has done the cinematography. The story and
screenplay has been written by Eddie Avil. The
film is produced by both Eddie and Ashley.
The cast of the film includes Amaan Sait,
Archita Agarwal, Rohan Joshi, Snigdhadeep
Chatterjee, Shivam Arora and Vijayant Narayan.
The make up team consists of Fat Mu, Radhika
Dhas and team. The live audio recording is by
Aditya Jadav, who earlier did the live sound for
the hit Marathi film ‘Sairaat’, action direction is
by Prashant Naik and team and production by
Ujwal Mantri.
“It was a pleasure to work with this
young but very talented bunch of actors
who worked non-stop in a very challenging
environment with a super tight schedule. By
the end of the shoot, all the cast and crew
were super drained but they all contributed
uncompromisingly to make ‘Crackle’
happen,” said Eddie.
It is very challenging to shoot for
Virtual Reality and Eddie has fallen in love
with this medium. “Since the video is 360
degrees, it has to be shot in low lights or
natural light. You have to keep the crew
and gear out of the shot. There are more
camera restrictions. But we enjoyed the
shoot and I loved the overall experience.
The story too has to be written keeping
in mind the medium. It should be a fully
stimulated movie or else it could be shot
on the regular 2D medium. It should have
the need for the actors to look everywhere.
We had a great team working on the film,”
he added.
Explaining the growth of VR, Eddie says,
“VR is one of the most radical tech that has
hit our world and all the visionary directors,
producers, studios and advertising agencies
are adopting it early on to stay ahead of the
curve. Steven Spielberg is making a VR film
which will be released next year. ‘Avatar 2’
will be having a VR cut, ‘Baahubali 2’ will be
having a shorter VR version released. A R
Rahman is making a VR film called ‘Lemusk’.
Even Apple is getting into Augmented Reality.
Digital Networks are adopting VR, namely
Netflix and Amazon, and even brands are
adopting VR because of its immersive nature.
It is a very powerful medium.”
Since the film is 3D, the makers
recommend watching the film with a VR
headset like Google Cardboard or the many
options available now. It can be watched on
a smartphone and YouTube. “Our plan is to
send the film to various festivals in India and
abroad and we are also in talks with OTT
platforms here in India. We intend to create
more immersive 360 degree VR Content
and be the premier VR 360 degree content
creators from India,” concludes Eddie.
