The morning of the shoot I got up and prepared everything to go. My camera on the ready, LED lights and props packed, batteries charged; all set! Fajar picked me and Musfirah up as per plan and we headed to Food Street. 

​

Upon reaching food street, I first did Musfirah's hair and put in some flowers Fajar bought for her costume. Here is a time lapse of me doing her hair. Secondly, we found a spot to set up our equipment so that we could have our picnic set up with our props such as the radio, fruit baskets, candles, et cetera. After all of our props were set up, we began shooting. We directed Musfirah on how to use the props so we could get our shots. A local Chai Wala asked us if we wanted some Gurh Wali Chai (tea) to which we said yes and ended up using that as a prop as well. Upon concluding this sequence of shots, we went to the main road of Food Street and took a handful of shots featuring Musfirah walking about along some of her writing on a notepad just to maximise the amount of shots we gain for the dream sequence of the film opening.

​

After we were satisfied with all our shots at Food Street, we headed towards Delhi Gate as it was our next shoot spot. We reached there at noon so there was a large crowd within the hustle and bustle of the heart of Lahore and naturally we had a-lot of people staring at us shooting so we had to wrap up our shots rather quick. We took some in front of Delhi Gate then headed ahead. Inside Delhi Gate there was a quaint little store selling intricately hand-made crafts called "Craft Ghar" where we wanted to get a couple shots but they said they sadly don't allow unpaid shoots thus we got some shots outside the store and headed off to the spice market ahead where we secured some shots at an uncle's stall. What we came to learn was that the locals in Old Lahore also know a thing or two about set design in filming as this kind man led us up a staircase to the most beautiful cozy balcony where we got much ethereal clips of Musfirah to use.

​

Sabeel Wali Gali was next in our list of locations. After having shot all day in rather populated and crowded areas, it was refreshing to find a place which was secluded from the city. Whilst planning, I especially wanted drone shots of Musfirah spinning in her dress. However since we failed to obtain a permit for drone shots, I decided to climb up a rather steep ladder after inquiring a local on how I could get up to a rooftop in one of the Gali's buildings. Once I was up there, it was time to get some "drone shots". Remember how I previously said the locals are really helpful? Well an uncle who was nearby told me to include some leaves growing on the side as a foreground element to add depth of field in our shot. This added much needed dimension into our shot which ended up making the final cut. Moral of the story: get help from locals if filming in Old Lahore. 

​

Lastly we had to get shots on The Orange Train line the opening of our project. Fajar dropped me and Musfirah off at Anarkali Station where we got our tokens and boarded the train. Firstly we had to wait for some passengers to leave as the vehicle was packed however after two stops, we found some space to sit. Then we initiated filming. Our first shot was of Musfirah picking out a song on Spotify which, in the final product, played as soon as the main background song "Teri Dastaan" started playing as we wanted to mix a sense of diegetic and non-diegetic audio in post production. Though we got some side-eyes from passengers nearby, we finished getting our shots in about 15 minutes after which we enjoyed our ride to Ali Town station where Fajar picked us up and we wrapped a draining but productive shoot day. Did I mention this was my first time on a train?