Conversations with Siddharth Lal

Today we’d like to introduce you to Siddharth Lal.

Hi Siddharth, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My life’s journey in the past three 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. Looking back at it, one thing that has really helped me is the ability to take bold and brave decisions and back myself to make those the right ones.

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 – a career path I wasn’t passionate about. It was instilled upon me at the ripe age of 16 when I saw EVERYBODY – including my friends and teachers, either pursuing it themselves or encouraging us to pursue it for a deemed “safe” career path. After struggling to find meaning in what I was pursuing, this month was the first time in two years I had an opportunity to go back home because of the lockdown and truly rethink my life decisions and fundamentally try to 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 time, one day I thought of recording myself recite a poem I wrote a few months ago and post 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, took a long bath, and wore my favorite white t-shirt, placed my phone on a stack of books and hit record. For editing the captured footage, I remember googling “Best Free Video Editing Software” and downloaded 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 clip and remove all the bad bits to present 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 had 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! I didn’t know 120 people, I didn’t even know 50. I saw people actually taking the time to watch it and appreciate it. 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 of making more videos and expressing 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 always 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 truly express yourself without worrying about things going wrong or you messing up. 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 the filmmaking and editing process. I gave myself enough chances to fail and kept on improving as I went along.

Continuing my YouTube journey alongside being a full-time engineering student was really tough at times. The pressure of keeping up with my numerous assignments and exams always took a toll on me. But there was something so maddening and transcendent about this new filmmaking world I was exploring using my dad’s old camera and a bunch of YouTube tutorials – that I kept on going. I didn’t know if there was a way for me to actually pursue this field full-time but what I knew was that it certainly captured my mind in the most beautiful and captivating way.

November 2020 was the month that completely flipped my life upside down and transformed it in the most magnificent way. On the first day of that month, I was diagnosed with a rather severe case of COVID-19. I still remember how scary that moment was. It was as if time had stood still and life – something you’ve taken for granted for all these years – is now suddenly at stake. During those days, I found myself closer to death than I had ever imagined.

But every cloud has a silver lining and for me, it was the realization that I too will die one day. And as morbid as that sounds, it is one the most fundamental realizations that I wouldn’t have had had things been just alright. I was shown a picture of how things would pan out if I resisted taking action. It made me realize that all this time I had been too afraid to figure out my passions because I might come up with answers that might not fit the status quo or might not be validated by some people. I recognized that I was living a risk-free, safe life while suppressing what my heart truly seeked. But now, all these thoughts and preconceived notions suddenly seemed to shrink in the face of death.

It was during that time I realized that the light I sought for in the outside world was always within myself. I decided that if my life would one day be remembered as something, it’ll be because of the stories I was able to tell through my films. I remember thinking that even if I had to succumb to this disease, it will only be after I tell my story. That moment, I conceptualized a film called ‘if anything happens I love u’, which was a documentary film highlighting my experience with COVID. Creating that project was like a cathartic relief of sorts. It tuned my subconscious and strengthened my decision to pursue filmmaking full-time.

The deeper understandings and changes in perspectives coming out of COVID were immense. I realized that the ultimate form of happiness is having something to look forward to. In all these years of monotonously running a race that I didn’t even belong to, I dreaded the future. But now with my newly found sense of purpose, I was finally excited about what the future had in store for me and the things I could do to achieve my goals as a filmmaker.

I understood that it is the knowledge that I’m going to die that creates the focus that I bring to being alive. This accentuates my urgency to accomplish my goals now. The need (not desire), the need to fulfill all my dreams and ambitions and live a life of abundance arises from the fundamental truth that one day I will die and will no longer be able to pursue them. It was this sort of a reminder that my life needed to put everything into perspective and give it a new meaning. In the worst of times, I was able to use death as a motivation to lead a better, more fulfilling life.

I felt a huge weight being lifted off my shoulders, the weight of pretending to be someone I’m not, the weight of chasing something that neither gave me fulfillment nor satisfaction. This singular experience brought about a fundamental change in my outlook on life and taught me to view it as an opportunity and not as a trial. It taught me how to be responsible for my own happiness and gave me the courage to back myself in difficult scenarios.

In October 2021, I finished creating a film called ‘Resurgence.mp4’, which was about this transformational journey that changed me as a person, the journey that helped me find answers which led to me discovering my true self and guided me to figure out my purpose of existence. I submitted this film for my application to the American Film Institute, where I currently am pursuing my Masters in Editing.

Exactly one year ago today, 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 and getting the chance to collaborate with the finest filmmaking talent, every single day seems like an ode to happiness and fulfillment.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Growing up in a middle-class background in a country like India, one doesn’t generally have the luxury of time to figure out their passions and interests. Amongst the dense population, a child is, oftentimes, given an illusion of how important it is to succeed in a traditional or a ‘safe’ career path. A sense of competition and the notion that in order to be successful or happy in life, one must look at life as a race and always strive to be number one in it, is instilled upon children from early on. These ideas, though toxic to a child, are common in almost all households in India.

Amongst such considered to be ‘safe’ career choices, engineering tops the list. Because I had developed some sort of an interest in science while at school, I was led to take up engineering by everyone around me, my friends, my teachers, and my family. At that time, being accepted to a top 5 engineering school in India seemed like a huge achievement. And as confused as I was about whether I’m on the right track or not, I was happy seeing everyone else around me pleased with my efforts. I didn’t really know whether or not this was my passion, but I answered that doubt by looking at people around me who were also pursuing engineering. A big mistake on my part that was reflective of the competitive rat race environment I grew up in.

At college, I would oftentimes feel burnt out and stressed. I was not able to derive joy out of my course work and I was never fully satisfied or happy with my studies. I found myself procrastinating and pretty much drifting through life, without a goal or a mission, without something to look forward to. Soon enough I realized that engineering was not something I wanted to pursue for the rest of my life. It was simply because I was never able to decipher my sense of purpose and meaning from pursuing this career

Breaking out of this environment that I had already committed so much to has to be the biggest challenge I had to face in my journey of rediscovering myself.

My undergrad university had a weird policy that inhibited the final-year students who had plans of pursuing higher education – as a backup, apply to jobs in companies that came directly to the university to recruit students. This meant that I had no plan B and that my film school dream came at a cost and a risk. A risk of being unemployed after 4 years of perseverance and hard work. Choosing to commit to preparing my film school applications and not applying for jobs was one of the hardest decisions that I have ever had to make. Having been raised in a middle-class background, my whole upbringing had been conditioned in a way that would make it easier for me to get a job, a job that at this moment I had chosen to sacrifice. For me, it was not only a decision that marked my first step in the right direction but also a move that told my parents how passionate I was about this. And looking back, I think it was a culmination of all these things that convinced my parents of letting me explore and find my way on this new path. Their support in those times meant absolutely everything to me. They trusted me when nobody did and encouraged me to give my all to what I believed was possible, and I cannot be more grateful.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As a filmmaker and editor, most of my work revolves around the Post-Production of a film. 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 I receive from the set and crafting them together piece by piece to make a film out of it. My focus is constantly on conveying emotion as well as telling the story to the best of my ability with the shots I have been given using the editing tools I have at my disposal. A large part of my work is also 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.

My editing process is a rhythmical one, a rhythm that ingrains in my subconscious mind the knowledge to respond appropriately to the natural flow of a shot. 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.

My newest AFI film – ‘Goodnight, My Love’ – is about a couple’s stay in a mysterious Bed&Breakfast and how what was supposed to be a relaxing weekend getaway turns into a terrifying tale when the entity in the room takes control of their fate. Being my first psychological horror film, this film brought its own set of challenges, especially in the edit. One of my major areas of focus was that the film should be cut in a way that incites horror without any sort of sound effects or sound design. Cuts should be what creates fear in the audience’s mind. Therefore, I often found myself cutting in complete silence, a method that has worked for me in the past as well. Secondly, what excited me the most about this project was the opportunity to use sound as a major medium to amplify emotions throughout the film. I spent the months before the shooting, especially during my winter break in India, to understand what the film was trying to say at a deeper level and how I could use editing and sound to convey it better. I made a lot of Foley Sound Effects too that did manage to make their way into the final cut. Another thing that I did that helped me was that I made a huge graph of every beat in the film and assigned a numeric value to them based on the amount of tension that beat holds. This proved to be of immense help to me as I could visually see what my cutting approach should be at each point in the film.

I have been overjoyed by the response this film has managed to garner. My professors at AFI have appreciated the kind of visual storytelling carried out in the film. My peers also had similar thoughts and my Editing and especially Sound Design was acknowledged positively. A lot of people have complimented how the film was more than just a classic horror movie and how it smoothly switches between inciting uncomfortable touches of laughter as well as extended periods of horror.

The project has been extremely fulfilling to make. I am so proud of my team and our collaborative efforts. It was beautiful seeing everyone work with so much passion and dedication. It was made with a lot of love and most definitely is one of my strongest pieces yet.

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 at my time here.

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.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I believe we, as human beings, need stories to reaffirm who we are in relation to our planet, our environment, and everyone else around us. They help us find our sense of purpose and identity. And that’s exactly what drives me as a filmmaker. I feel cinema accurately reflects all the intricacies and nuances of life itself. And I want my films to dive right into these complexities and show people that at their cores, all stories are similar. And these similarities in stories of people from all around the world is proof that we, as human beings, are indeed collectively united together by the emotions we are able to feel and express rather than being divided by any class or race.

A script I wrote is 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 get an opportunity to potentially make it into a film for my AFI Thesis – is a testament to how powerful and transcending a medium, cinema is. These aspects of filmmaking continue to fascinate me every day. I want my cinema to embrace the cultural differences we have as human beings, while not compromising on representation and opportunities. Through my films, I aspire to contribute towards building a more pluralistic society.

I also am passionate about inculcating the ideals of leadership, teamwork, manner of communication of creative ideas and the importance of working with a positive attitude in all my projects. I want to empower everyone I work with and make sure they are happy and genuinely passionate about their contributions.

I believe that the highest degree of human creative potential can only be tapped into when a group of driven individuals come together and set out to achieve a common goal, to create impact and bring meaning to people’s lives through their endeavors. For me, editing has always been a way of self-expression. It marks a sense of purpose in my life while instilling in me a sense of excitement about all the ways it can be used to tell authentic stories that bring people together. And that’s exactly what this part of my life is dedicated to.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siddharth._.1710/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/siddharth.lal.507
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharth-lal-92b796182/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@siddanube99

Image Credits
Praboo Ariva, Ivanka Lawrence