Debdoot Das:
Hot Salsa Video Launches Director
The director was even more thrilled to get praise from his peers. “When the final master was done,” he relates, “I called my friend Randy Hudson — he’s the president of the New York chapter of DVD Association and runs Broadness, a big media production house — to ask him about replication.
“Randy offered to re-master the disc in the industry-standard Cutting Master Format (CMF), so I sent it over. And the people he works with said, ‘This is a breakthrough product!’ That was my first hint that real professionals thought it was good.”
Randy Hudson comments, “We took Debdoot’s salsa video to a Media Communications Association workshop on DVD authoring as a great example of how DVD Studio Pro lets you create a good-looking disc that’s also highly functional.”
Adds Das, “That workshop was when things changed completely. People in the industry saw my work, and all of a sudden I was able to get any appointment.”
His Own Label
While independent directors who make successful videos normally end up selling them through large record companies, Das decided to take “The Quick and Dirty Guide to Salsa” directly to the public through Amazon.com. “Most people don’t have direct entry into the sales channel,” he explains, “and stores don’t usually carry stuff from the little guys. But I wanted to put my own label on it.”
The low-budget director soon got a powerful boost. “My video became the highest-selling dance DVD on Amazon,” says Das, “and I was offered a contract with the distributor Navarre, which will get my product into retail stores. It’s unusual for them to sign a small company like mine,” he admits. “But now I can offer a catalog of titles.” The salsa video is even available for rental through NetFlix.
American Dream
Whatever profit comes his way through “The Quick and Dirty Guide to Salsa,” says Das, will be channeled into his long-held dream of directing a feature film. “That is why I came to America,” he states simply. “It’s also the greatest thing about what Apple is doing. The technology has finally all come together to make a real film on a computer, so what I want is possible now.
Das started making what he calls “arty short films” at just 16, collaborating with novices who are now Bollywood stars. He worked in film and television in India until he immigrated to the U.S. at 25 and enrolled at Cal Arts to study live action filmmaking. Today he is ready to get his own work on the silver screen, and he’s already written the script.
The story concerns immigration, a topic that continues to resonate deeply for Das.
“It’s about Cubans and what’s called the Wetfoot-Dryfoot Law,” he relates. “People who swim over and manage to set foot on American soil are allowed to stay, but if they catch you 10 feet out in the water, you’re sent back. That law has turned emigration into a game of life.”
“That workshop was when things changed completely. People in the industry saw my work, and all of a sudden I was able to get any appointment.”
Miami Via Casablanca and Dostoevsky
“On a clear day you can see the lights of Havana from Key West,” he continues, “but that particular 90 miles is so treacherous, even the Spanish conquistadores didn’t attempt to cross there — they went to Tampa.
“The immigrants try it because it’s the shortest route. But there are huge waves, storms, sharks, cold nights, hot days. They’re pursued by the Cuban and American navies, and they don’t have a compass or navigation equipment.”
Das focuses his movie on a young couple. “The girl makes it to land,” he says, “but the boy is interdicted 10 feet from shore, so he’s sent back. She waits for him every night for a year at their meeting point, but he never comes. It’s kind of like Casablanca, and it’s vaguely inspired by the Dostoevsky short story ‘White Nights’.”
He’s met with producers, plans to go into production in 2005, and will edit his film with Final Cut Pro HD on a Power Mac G5. “I can’t tell you our casting ideas,” he teases, “but there’s one famous actor we’re hoping for.”
