Director Krishna Patel Behind The Camera

Krishna Patel is the director and founder of 2 change films which is an independent film community. Krishna took on a feature film which gave him his first credit as a director at the age of 19. His films have been recognized by several festivals. He is in the midst of developing a set of productions. He is the first person I know who is in the movie business and is going to make a movie that will hit theaters all over the world. He is going to change the views of millions of people from the critics to the audience.

Q: What movie inspired you the most to go into the directing business, and how did that movie inspire your creativity?

A: I don't think I would be able to name that one distinct movie that sparked my curiosity but I can say that I was always delighted to learn any little thing I could about how film making worked. I used to watch out for anything that would give me a glimpse into the action taking place behind the camera such as silly goof ups or a boom mic in frame, something that allowed me to understand the humanity involved in such a highly perfected art form.

Q: Which short film, that you have produced, do you think is your best and why?

A: I don't believe any of my work to be my best and I hope that I never will. I believe that we must all strive to keep perfection or the thought of satisfaction out of our life so we can continuously progress and create beauty out of the flawed. If I had to choose, I would say that Insignificance, a story about a contract killer's moral dilemma, has to be my favorite but not my best.

Q: What inspired you to become a director in the film industry and at what age did this happen?

A: My parents were always big family video fans. We don't have many pictures of us but we sure have a lot of video. For my, film making started more through the technical elements of the trade, such as the functions of different cameras or the use of advanced technologies to create some of the simplest effects. I started experimenting with all kinds of short little clips. My brothers and I used shoot goofy little action movies and make ourselves disappear and reappear or duplicate ourselves, all kinds of silly things and at first I thought of it as a toy and then I started to love the idea behind it all, the idea of capturing a moment, real or fabricated, and reliving it over and over again, the closest thing to immortality that we could achieve.

Q: What is the strangest thing you have done as a director, on or off the set?

A: There are many weird things we do, but one time while I was directing my feature, I was getting frustrated with the performance of one of my actresses and I had tried all day to guide to give me the particular emotional response I was looking for and it wasn't happening. We came onto set the next day and I had planned to try and reshoot her scene one final time at the end of the day. The scene required her to slowly go from a happy, cheerful person to a crying, depressed person due to emotional trauma and she was not able to connect to the emotional trauma of losing everyone she loved. So I started telling everyone on set to stop talking to her and every time she took a shot for the other scene we were currently shooting, I told them all to pretend like it was horrible. Poor girl was tormented all day by all of her friends and by the end of the day, right when we about to take that shot, she felt so lonely and abandoned that the performance just poured out of her and it was one of the best scenes in the movie.

Q: Where do you want to be in 15 years with your job?

A: Hopefully doing what I do now at a bigger scale and helping others achieve their dreams in the film making field. At the end of the day, film is an art and I feel like we are all innately drawn to the idea of expressing ourselves through art or hobby and it is a healthy activity that everyone should take part in.

Make sure to check out his videos and movie Godboy which hit theaters in spring of 2010.