Our Location: The Epicentre of Our Project

I'm afraid to admit, that behind the "classy" mask we put on, we're just Gen-Z girls who really wanted to play with "aesthetics". Generally, both Zara and I know we've got good taste in terms of aesthetic, and we also knew early on that we're good with cameras and shot composition. So of course, experimenting with that was something really important for us to showcase, beginning with our preliminary. Our most interesting classes in A1 were always those where Sir Zia spoke to us about Editing techniques and camera angles; teaching us about media micro-elements and how they bring meaning to a media text by tying in together with macro-elements like representation and narrative. Applying those concepts was the most fun part of the process, which is why we picked the location we did.

We wanted to do a dream sequence, but the location was key. What environment will an actor be placed in that'd be almost too good to be true? Good enough that one would willingly escape from their troubles to there? Unfortunately, Lahore is a very urban city, with a lot of history and architecture that was a bit out of reach for us. We needed our location to be as accessible as possible. We couldn't go in blindly, instead had to have some idea at least of what to do and where to go and what things would be like there in the process of shooting. So the first place to come to mind was Old Lahore.

Living in Lahore my entire childhood, I'd been to Old Lahore numerous times, and every time I would find something new; it's an elaborate place. I think people tend to downplay or ignore the beauty of the places they live in - you get so busy with everyday life that you forget to explore (at least that was the case with me), since it'd always be there... right? Anyways, it was a good place to shoot since the most aesthetically pleasing locations were within a 10-minute radius of the Old ("Androon") Lahore area.

That was the thought process behind our preliminary. At this point in time, we knew what we'd be walking into. Where we got the best shots, places where taking the shot was easy, versus where it was difficult, so this time we were prepared.

Here are some of the locations we shot at for the preliminary, and loved the look of, which we were determinded to shoot at again: these images show stills from our footage as well as professional photographs taken of the location:

You can also see a lot of the locations we filmed at in this part of the Walled City of Lahore Authority's website, in which they've given photographs as well as the rich history behind each highlight of the Lahore Fort:

Our biggest problem in terms of location, though: we were filming in the Holy month of Ramadan. In Pakistan, most public places are either closed or really slow because majority of the locals are fasting. General tourism during this month is also minimal, so we had absolutely no idea how timings of the location were altered. Secondly, we were also going on a Saturday, which DID NOT help with the stress of not knowing. As a Pakistani, it's one of the things we're most used to - sudden closure of public places or roads without any sort of warning, so we had to be prepared for anything. Therefore I had to check any and all online platforms to make sure we didn't go all the way for nothing, while fasting, at 8:00am in the morning almost 40 minutes away from home. Unfortunately, I couldn't find updated information about the timings available on the Walled City of Lahore Authority's website which I combed through; so we knew their original timings, just not about the revised Ramadan timings:

Now the only information we had available was through word-of-mouth and our parents' general knowledge. We had initially found out it'd be open at 8:00am, but there was no way of confirming. But of course, being a "filmmaker" entails risk-taking, doesn't it? All we had were hopes, prayers and dedication, and we were ready for our shoot.