David Black interviews Dave Krunal.
Today, I’m chatting with an Australian/Indian filmmaker based in Melbourne called Dave Krunal. Dave has been active since at least 2015 and has produced and directed five short films.
DB – Hi Dave. Thanks for taking the time to chat with me today. Can I ask you what it was that motivated you to start making films?
DK –Thanks for having me, David. I appreciate your time.
I was always into writing and photography. However, my photography had a limit due to expensive celluloid films in the 90s. My world changed when I had access to a mobile camera when I came to Australia in 2007. My passion and the visual sensory experience were elevated with the world of digital images. I bought DSLR in 2010 and learned the fundamentals of composition, shutter speed, ISO and aperture. In 2012, I launched my photography Facebook page and started manipulating my photos with fiction writing. I felt that a unique story was emerging in my photos. However, it was still not enough for my expression. That’s how I discovered filmmaking. I realised that video does not exist in reality! The movie is nothing but a series of photographs. That was my moment. I felt a connection with filmmaking as my go-to art medium to discover a unique voice and style. I took a 3-month filmmaking course in 2013 and started my journey as an independent filmmaker.
DB – Let’s start by covering each of your shorts in turn. The first on your IMDB is “Waterbomb” from 2015. Can you tell me a bit about this?
DK – Waterbomb is a sixty-second experimental short film that portrays the global water shortage. I came across Martin Scorsese’s advice for emerging filmmakers on YouTube. He encouraged movie makers to tell a story with just a few drops of water on the lens. As simple as it sounds, the idea was to experiment as anybody can learn filmmaking grammar. However, it’s the original style that defines you. Waterbomb shows my fascination with point-of-view (POV) perception, which I excessively used in my debut short Curious and Chakr.
DB – Also, in 2015, you produced and directed “Sunday”. That must have been a busy year for you. Tell us about Sunday.
DK – Well, 2015 was my peak year for filmmaking experiments. Sunday is a poetic narration in Hindi (India’s national language) about my childhood nostalgia. It tells a story of a guy who has all the comfort in life but still not happy with the present. He disconnects himself from the surrounding and lost in his childhood memories. He remembers his old friends and asks for an unusual favour. The only reason I made Sunday because it was personal. It still is. I think every filmmaker should make at least one movie that would be close to the heart regardless of viewership or money.
DB – Curious is also from 2015. Let’s wrap that year up by hearing about Curious.
DK – Curious was my debut short film. As I mentioned earlier, I attended a 3-month filmmaker course in 2013. I glued with some like-minded people when we were making our student short film Blessed. I wrote, directed and produced Curious in 2014. However, it was released in 2015 after completing the film festival circuit. For Curious, I wanted to explore the dark side of curiosity. The driving factor for me was to learn all the aspects of the filmmaking process with a short film. I formed a team with industry professionals. We did auditions, crowdfunding, location scouting, storyboarding, film festival strategy and post-production. The film has no dialogues, and the challenge was to portray a story with visuals and sound. I was glad to work with David John Watton, a British theatre actor who portrayed the role with a diverse range of emotions. Curious has 13 visual effects, and it was praised for its Mise-en-scène, technical and artistic execution.
Dave Krunal directs David John Watton for Curious
DB – Moving onto 2017, you made “Love is not in the Glass”. That is an interesting film title. What is it about?
DK – I support the LGBTQ community. The metaphor with this film was to show that whether you drink a wine from a coffee cup or a wine glass, the good wine would still taste good. In other words, whether you are in a male body or female body, the soul is universal. Hence the title is “Love is not in the glass”; it’s in the wine. It is a monologue about a transgender woman who tells her dating story. The challenge was to find a real transgender actress for the film. I had to visit many transgender bars and pubs in Melbourne. In the end, I was fortunate to discover Rebeckah Loveday, who portrayed the lead in the film. “Love is not in the glass” is the only movie I executed with the lowest budget and fastest release time and also the only movie that has got the highest viewership among all of my films (laughs).
“Love is not in the glass” shoot with lead actress Rebeckah Loveday and Josh Hayes
DB – The last listed on your IMDB is Chakr. Can you tell us more about this film?
DK – Chakr means the cycle or loop. It is a time-travel thriller in my native language (Gujarati) about a Uber driver whose night changes forever after dropping a lady passenger. The story was inspired by a domestic violence event that I witness in my neighbourhood. Chakr is the most accomplished film from a film festival perspective. Although the film has nothing to do with my native language, the idea was to target regional film festivals in the local industry. The strategy worked so well, and the film was crowned with three awards - Best Short Film, Best Fiction and Best Direction. Despite all this, the film lacked viewership as I attempted to offer a genre to a local audience who prefer mostly dramedy. Also, my calculation went wrong with picking a distribution partner on YouTube. I signed the five-year agreement with the leading YouTube channel in India. However, they made no effort in marketing. After months of frustration, I broke the contract and re-released the film on my YouTube channel. It was a bumpy ride, but I don’t regret it as I see every project as a learning curve. It is worth noting that no one would care about your content more than you.
Dave Krunal with DOP Eddie Beyrouthy for CHAKR (The Cycle) Shoot
DB – Your last film is from 2018, so I’m sure you have some more in the works. What are your future plans?
DK – I am working on my first feature film script. I have come to that point where it’s just not enough to make a movie and see what happens. The important thing is to know about how distribution works for indie films. I don’t see a significant issue with distribution as there are many platforms in the market. The core challenge for any filmmaker is to find and build the audience. Considering money as the primary constraint for micro-budget filmmakers, we spend most of the fund for the production and not thinking about the marketing strategy. My plan includes making feature-length movies, but I also look forward to sharing my knowledge on my YouTube channel to empower aspiring filmmakers and actors.
Dave Krunal wins Best Short Film award for Chakr at IGFF, Los Angeles
DB – Where can we see your films?
DK – All the films are available to watch for free on my YouTube channel.
Chakr (The Cycle) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx9BP3oodBg&t=5s
Love is not in the glass - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCNDKlRJChI&t=1s