Magic Films: the case of an Indian start-up

Decision Sheet
 Khushboo 227232

About Magic Films: Magic Films, an Indian startup. A social enterprise, named Magic
Films, is a not-for-profit film production company. Magic Films would initially focus on
producing and distributing short films on social issues.

Protagonist:
Vikas Jha - the young executive producer and CEO of Magic Films, an Indian startup, 29.

Other Characters:
 Mr Vivek Sharma, the Vice-President – Corporate Social Responsibility of a reputed
Pune-based business group.
 Prof. Pankaj Roy - Director, Institute of Moving Images, Pune
 Jay - the owner of the firm Flash Vision

Problem Statement: Vikas, who had no prior experience in filmmaking, needed to make
a short film with an inadequate budget, limited and inexperienced staff, time constraints to
availability of resources, and little to no incentives to provide while making the film a
success.

Challenges:
 None of Vikas’s 11 team members had any experience in film making including
himself.
 The short film length can be around 30 minutes. Could this script hold the attention of
the audience for such a long duration of time?
 But would not an entertainment component make any social message more palatable?
 Indian documentary film industry. It is neither organised nor recognized!
 The industry remains unorganized because of the lack of viewer interest (since these
films are usually of an amateur quality and lack the presence of popular film stars)
and the consequent lack of interest amidst corporate bodies and funding organizations.
 No effort has been made by the Government of India to give funding, infrastructure
support and industry status to this sector.
 Future growth potential is completely dependent on government support for this
industry as well as viewer interest (which is dependent on film industry).
  Motivating filmmakers and popular stars to get involved in short films will not be
easy

Future Dilemmas:
 Regarding outsourcing: Vikas was still not fully sure about the various skills
demanded by each of the in-house departments. Under these circumstances, should he
have outsourced more functions to third parties? What then would have been the cost
implications of such a decision?
 Flash Vision, which would be providing the services with respect to cinematography,
was available only for 2 days, whereas the shooting required 3 days.
 A budgetary support of INR 200,000 for the present project – which was inadequate
 Another big worry for Vikas was the casting. Only three actors had been finalized,
one suggested. And none of them had prior experience.
 What if the actors could not act? There was absolutely no budget to hire professional
actors. There was also virtually no time to do formal rehearsals.
 The next question was selecting the location. What would that be?
 200 students would be required as extras. Motivating so many students for the
insignificant role of an ‘‘extra’’ and that too on a weekend was going to be tough!
Even if you got them, could you manage such a big crowd to get the right kind of
output? How?
 What about the costumes? Could this be a big issue? Who could be assigned the
responsibility of looking after costumes from within the team?
 Could students who are singers could help? But why would they, given their
forthcoming exam and assignment submission schedule? How could he motivate them
to contribute.
 A motivating song at the end as the backdrop for the credit titles. Without the lyrics
ready, the last scene could not be shot. How did he get this task done? Maybe, the
same people could help. But he had to check up.
 Another question, which was worrying him, was what should have been the look of
the lead character – Shrikant Nair? Should he have a clean shave, moustache or a
beard, thick hair or thin hair? The script showed the lead actor in three distinct phases
in terms of age. What should be the right look, makeup and costume suitable for each
of the three phases?
 Again, who would look after continuity? Besides, there should also be one to two
persons to provide assistance to the five-member crew of Flash Vision.
 Further, there should have been one person to record the serial number of all OK-
takes for each shot of every scene.
 How did he organize this team called Magic Films? What should have been the
reporting structure? Did he require people from outside to chip in? If so, in which
areas?

Evaluation Criteria:
  Time Constraint
 Cost of production
 Quality of film
 Labour Management
 Lack of resources

Alternatives:
 Cutting the script short while keeping its essence.
 Ask for an increase in the budget.
 Hiring of technicians and professionals for guidance and help
 Cutting short the extra cost wherever they can.
 there were too many solo shots in the script. These could be clubbed together and shot at
one go, thereby, increasing overall productivity.
 prepare a shooting schedule that would give clear directions to the entire production
team.
 Asking for help from friends and acquaintances interested in filmmaking.
 Marketing this opportunity as a great learning experience for students.

For Industry:
 Government of India should give funding, infrastructure support and industry status to
this sector.
 Viewer interest can increase if popular stars start acting in these films and established
filmmakers also start making short films.
 Proper mentoring by experts from the field and successful entrepreneurs from the related
domain can greatly help to reduce the failure rates experienced by short film production
startups in India.
 Strong government support in terms of providing industry status to the short filmmaking
sector will help short filmmakers to get bank loans, funding, etc. and thereby stimulate
short filmmaking in the country