New short film “Seeds” shot solely with Google Glass
USC School of Cinematic Arts graduates Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian experienced life-changing moments through their short film “Seeds,” which they shot entirely with Google Glass. Google Glass is a completely hands-free way to connect with the internet through the use of voice command.
Alvida · Seeds allows the audience to walk a mile in the shoes of a young man who leaves his wife back in America to visit his home village in India. – Photo courtesy of Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian
The project began on campus after SCA professor Norman Hollyn brought the opportunity to the attention of Ohanian. “One honest two-minute film can change your life,” said Aneesh Chaganty of his experience filming “Seeds”, a short film shot entirely with Google Glass. Chaganty and Sev Ohanian, both graduates of the SCA.
“Google Glass was running a small program called ‘The Creative Collective’ throughout the country to see how the product could be implemented as a filmmaking tool,” Ohanian said. “I had to put together a team. When tasked with finding a great director, I brought on Aneesh instantly, knowing that he would have both the creative skillset and passion for story to pull it off.”
From here, Ohanian and Chaganty began a month-and-a-half long filmmaking endeavor that would not only jumpstart their careers, but change the way people view Google Glass technology.
“From day one, Sev [Ohanian] and I wanted to do something no one had ever done before,” Chaganty said. “Rather than just using the Glass and telling just another short film on it, we wanted to take a lot of the concerns the public had with the product and address [them] in the most epic and emotional way we could.”
The film outlines the story of a young man who travels from the United States to a village in India where his mother resides in order to share with her the ultrasound photos of her grandchild. The shooting of the film required traveling more than 9,500 miles from Los Angeles to South India. Chaganty, who wasn’t only director, camera operator and actor, also served as a translator of Telugu, which is a language spoken in the villages where they were filming.
“I remember standing outside the open door of a moving train at five in the morning, recording the sunrise as we sped through Indian countryside,” Chaganty said. “I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a suspicion right there that the world would really like what we were making.”
Chaganty’s premonition rang true as the video got more than 2 million views in the first few hours following its online debut.
“Looking back on it now, it’s funny to think that Google didn’t even know what we were shooting until it was all done,” Chaganty said. “The final product got just enough people excited for them to make a massive exception to their own rules and showcase an independent project on their official YouTube channel.”
Though it has received the most recognition, “Seeds” is not the first collaboration between Ohanian and Chaganty. Their first major project was an original screenplay they wrote titled Animal Heist, about a group of outsiders who band together in an attempt to steal a 400-pound gorilla from the Los Angeles Zoo. The two filmmakers entered a competition with 3,500 other screenplays and placed in the top 20.
“It was [our] first screenplay,” Chaganty said. “Writing it together was one of the most absorbing, stimulating and satisfying creative experiences I’ve ever had.”
Since graduation, Ohanian has produced the feature film Fruitvale Station with fellow SCA graduate Ryan Coogler, which ended up winning the Grand Jury Prize for a dramatic film at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Additionally, he has worked on multiple feature films for James Franco’s Rabbit Bandini Productions and just wrapped an independent film starring Cobie Smulders and Guy Pearce in Texas. Ohanian also teaches a few courses at USC.
“One of the main lessons that I push in my producing class, based on my real-life experiences, is that the majority of producing and filmmaking happens outside of meetings, outside of productions and outside of emails,” Ohanian said. “Everything from the way a producer carries themselves, to how they interact with every member of the crew, has a huge impact on a production. I make it a point to not only discuss how to make good movies, but how to be good people while doing it.”
Chaganty, who is only 23, made his biggest wave in the film industry with “Seeds.” Following the viral success of the video, Google offered him a yearlong position in the Creative 5, an elite group of five recent graduates from across the world to help manage the Google brand.
“We’ll be making spots, interactive projects and hopefully some of those cool Google doodles we see everyday,” Chaganty said.
Editor’s note: The original post misidentified Aneesh Chaganty as Sev Ohanian. The post has been updated to reflect those changes.