“Before making Saloon - my first film - I had been aware of the potential of DSLRs to capture beautiful video, but I wasn’t sure how to approach this new medium. I work as a stills photographer and, luckily for me, last year the Scottish Trades Union Council provided the funds for NUJ (National Union of Journalists) members like me to enrol on a short film making course run by Cardonald College in Glasgow.

Inspired by the NUJ course and increasingly aware of the impressive films being produced by other photographers using DSLRs, I bought myself the basic kit and began planning the production of a short film.

I chose my subject carefully. Having lived in Delhi for ten years, I was familiar with the relaxed and often jovial atmosphere of barbershops and knew they were colourful institutions that are great to photograph. The work of a barber also involves plenty of repetition, which is ideal for filming shots that can later be edited together.

I don't like to interfere with subjects when I'm taking stills, and in order to produce an authentic account of life in a barbershop I wanted to adhere to that same rule when making my film. I allowed events to unfold naturally and, apart from the early shots of the hairdressers looking to camera, the only scenes I ‘directed’ were of a barber loading a blade into the razor and a hand picking up a comb, which I knew could work with one of the many shots I already had of men grooming their newly coiffured locks.

Saloon was made over the course of a weekend in a lower-middle class suburb of New Delhi using my Canon 5DII and a Crozsiel focus-finder mounted on a Manfrotto monopod with optional retractable legs that provide for greater stability. I've always used prime lenses for my stills work but was aware that a zoom would allow me to work faster, mixing wider establishing shots and close-ups without the need to change lenses. So, I opted for a Canon 24-70mm f2.8 as my principal lens.

This set-up was not perfect. I found that the cramped confines of a barbershop are not particularly suited to working with a monopod and, for a few of the shots in Saloon, I filmed hand-held, dispensing with the focus-finder and instead of the zoom lens, resorted to my lighter 50mm f.1.4 lens. In addition to providing a few extra stops, this smaller kit also allowed me to get close-in to my subjects without the awkwardness of wielding a large lens.

Cutting Saloon to the Virgin Media Shorts time limit of two minutes and 20 seconds meant I had to be quite a ruthless editor and had to remove several scenes. I needed to take viewers straight into the action, cutting rapidly between shots - not unlike the barber who, looking to a bench full of waiting customers, realises that he must get a move on!

The music for Saloon was an important decision. I've never particularly enjoyed Indian commercial cinema but, ever since I saw the movie Dil Se almost 15 years ago, I've been aware that the Tamil composer A.R. Rahman has written some wonderful musical scores. Not only is "Satrangi Re" an infectious song, it comprises a couple of distinct themes and breaks between these themes which is great for editing. As the song ebbs and flows, so too do the sequences of my film and, though it’s less than three minutes long, I like to think that the shifting pace - accentuated by Rahman's score - somehow makes Saloon feel more substantial.”

Tom Pietrasik

tompietrasik.com/blog

Category: The 2011 Shortlist

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