Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Siddharth Lal. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Siddharth thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
My life’s journey in the past 3 years has been nothing short of a wild ride. The learnings that have taken place, the experiences that I have had – have taught me more about myself than all my years before.
March 2020 – everybody has a story to tell about that month. A period that’ll completely change the way we look at our lives and think about our priorities was right around the corner. During that time, I was in my sophomore year of pursuing Mechanical Engineering. After struggling to find meaning in it, this was the first time in two years I had an opportunity to go back home because of the lockdown and try to rethink my life decisions and truly understand what it is that I really want from life.
Those 6-7 months I spent by myself in the lockdown gave me a lot of new perspectives. During that time, I realized that I had only ever seen people run after something in their lives; and amidst this never-ending race, I had not taken time to figure myself out.
Thinking of fun things to do at home to pass the time, one day I thought of recording myself while reciting a poem I wrote a few months ago and posting it on my old YouTube Channel. The poem was called “An Ode To My Sweetest Failure” and I wrote it after getting rejected from the Hindi Literary Society of my college, something that I really wanted to get into. On filming day, I woke up early and wore my favorite white t-shirt, placed my phone on a stack of books and hit record. For editing it, I remember googling “Best Free Video Editing Software” and downloading what came up first – a magical piece of software called Lightworks. I loved how I could remove all the “umm”s and “ahh”s from the footage as well as all the bad bits to present to the audience only what’s important. There was something so intrinsically special about the ability to control time that I had just discovered with this intriguing new tool I found access to. Little did I know that it would be this charm that would one day change my life.
I woke up the next day and this video I just put together had 120 views! It was a huge surprise to me and made me feel seen and recognized in a way engineering never did. That moment sparked in me the zeal to make more videos and express myself creatively through this medium. Months passed and I tried my hand at all sorts of stuff – from poetry videos to vlogs to podcasts – I explored all that I could.
People say Quality is more important than Quantity. We’ve heard that phrase so much growing up, it has become ingrained in our subconscious. We try to limit our failures and focus on putting our efforts into perfecting something in one go. But with experience, I have learned that this isn’t the most helpful way to go about pursuing something. Prioritizing quantity over quality will free you from the shackles of failure. It will allow you to go out and fearlessly express yourself. Even if something goes wrong or you fail, ‘quantity’ has got you covered. You can always improve with the next one. With each video, I learned something new about filmmaking. I gave myself enough chances to fail and kept on improving as I went along.
Last year in March, I found out that I had been accepted into the best film school in the world – with a scholarship. And that moment is a testament to the fact that anything is possible if you have the strength to break the chain and follow what your heart truly desires.
My time at AFI has been nothing short of a wild ride. With so much learning taking place every single day and getting the chance to collaborate with the finest filmmaking talent, I feel like this is the path I was always destined to take.
Siddharth, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
As an editor, most of my work revolves around the Post Production – that stage in filmmaking which takes place after the film has been shot. Among a whole list of processes, I specialize in editing the film as well as dealing with how the film sounds. My work consists of carefully studying the raw footage received from the set and crafting them together piece by piece to tell a story out of it. My focus is constantly on conveying emotion as well as on portraying a plot with the shots I have using the tools I have at my disposal. A large part of my work is about working with the director in the editing room and shaping the film from start to finish as per our vision.
Editing is as much a creative process as it is a technical one. It, to me, is the unspoken and unseen but very much deliberate emotional language of a film. I have always compared Editing to Christopher Nolan’s Batman. The reason being, Batman is whatever Gotham needs him to be. He is truly an incorruptible force who believes that the people must be rewarded for their faith even if it’s not in him. And according to me, Editing is to Film exactly what Batman is to Gotham, a silent guardian, a watchful protector. I look at editing as the backbone of a film. It’s what makes the actors’ performances shine, the cinematographer’s aesthetics come to life, the director’s vision to take shape. And it does all this and so much more, without even affirming or acknowledging its presence. Therefore, much like Batman, Editing truly is the everlasting ‘dark knight’ a film needs. For this reason, I find editing to be the most beautiful aspect of filmmaking.
I look to portray an emotion or take forward the narrative by creating sequential contrasts and moments of juxtaposition by accurately using the aspects of time, space and movement to generate physically, emotionally and narratively expressive sequences.
Last semester, I also became one of the first AFI Editor whose script got approved for a thesis spot. It was a script I wrote while applying for film schools two years ago about how an Afghan mother handles the situation of telling her daughter that she won’t be able to attend her first day of school the next morning because their city has been invaded by the Taliban. The fact that I can even imagine telling a story like this and building a team of exceptional filmmakers around me to make it with is a testament to how powerful and transcending a medium, cinema is. These aspects of filmmaking continue to fascinate me every day.
What sets me apart as an Editor is my ability to break things down into simpler fragments and work on coming up with solutions from the bottom up, a skill I have learned during my engineering days. If you think about it, there’s a lot in common between the fundamentals of Mechanical Engineering and Film Editing. The way they both approach creative problem-solving and collaboration is very similar. Both fields also require attention to detail as well as a degree of technical proficiency. These skill-sets come naturally to me and have certainly helped me a lot during my time at AFI.
My goal as a filmmaker has always been and will always be to contribute as much as I can in creating impactful cinema that has the potential to change people’s lives. My path for the future revolves around gaining experience working on different kinds of films and with different types of people – while creating the ‘movie magic’. These experiences will be vital to me in becoming the kind of Editor and Storyteller I believe I can be. The kind that strives for excellence while constantly yearning to push the boundaries of storytelling.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Being an artist, I feel that I have the opportunity to possess a platform that helps me reach out to a number of people with my art. And, for me, I think that the most rewarding aspect of this is being able to send crucial public messages to those who are in need of it.
For instance, the most recent short film my team and I are working on is one called ‘Nadia’. It centres around a young Afghani girl who is beyond excited to start to go to school, but all throughout the story, her mother is hiding from her, the fact that she won’t be able to start school because of the Taliban situation.
Not only do I get to do my dream job by making these films, but also promote social messages and make people more aware of current situations, which ultimately, helps make this world a better place.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Ever since I was younger, I wanted my point of view to reach people because I felt that it was unique, and one that was needed in the society.
Growing up in India, I couldn’t help but notice that watching films is very affordable in India. And because of the poverty and illiteracy, people usually do not opt to read books and such and prefer movies over it. Maybe this is why I have always thought that films are the best way to reach out to all kinds of people.
What drives my creative journey is the comforting fact that through my films, I get to share my point of view, thoughts and messages to humans from all walks of life, from all over the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://siddanube.wixsite.com/my-site-1
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siddharth._.1710/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharth-lal-92b796182/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@siddanube99/featured
Image Credits
Praboo Ariva, Ivanka Lawrence