A memorable travelogue isn’t just a collection of pretty shots. Like a movie in any genre, a travelogue needs a defining idea, for example, “Manhattan Is a Place of Surprising Sounds.” You can focus your travelogue before you leave home, or—as with William Long’s “Pushkar,” you can discover the essence of your movie during the trip. Either way, the travelogue must be about something  specific if it is to hold the audience’s attention.

MMM: What drew you to the Pushkar festival?

Long: I first heard about the Pushkar festival from my Dad. My parents are both well travelled but Pushkar is one of the places my Dad keeps going back to. We went to Pushkar as part of a larger trip visiting Rajasthan. I’d never been to India before and had originally intended to shoot a more generic travel film of the places we’d visit. We had a guide who took us to temples and palaces and markets. It was all so touristy it didn’t feel like I was in a new country. It was like being in a museum. But as soon as we arrived at Pushkar I  knew that the film would solely be about this experience.

MMM: Did you have a concept about how you would shoot the event?

Long: Because I’m usually a planner, I watched a few other films on Pushkar before making the trip. There were a few things I knew I wanted to capture, such as portraits, and I knew I wanted to capture colour. But when I got there and started talking to people, I felt very present. Everything I shot was spur of the moment.

MMM: Why shoot with the iPhone instead of a traditional camera?

Long:  It allows me to film discreetly. People start to act differently when there’s a camera on them, but everyone is so used to phones that it rarely phases anyone.

MMM: Beside your phone, what equipment did you use?

Long: As it happened, I was testing some new gear. I used Moondog Labs  anamorphic lens, which is absolutely fantastic.

MMM: What makes it special?

Long:  It allowed me to capture so much more in a shot, and brought a cinematic feel to the film. However there were a few drawbacks. Because it’s a really wide-angle lens, if I wanted to shoot close-ups I had to get really close. And if the anamorphic lens wasn’t 100% aligned with the phone lens then it often resulted in blurred edges, but I managed to avoid that by periodically checking the lens to make sure it was still lined up.

MMM: Any other equipment?

Long: I had a hand-grip from Foto Safari Products—a MoJo-PRO Mobile Phone Stabilizer—which helped me stabilise the phone, while making it easy to film with one hand. I used a Leef memory stick, to back up my footage each day. I also had a great microphone—a Shure MV88—which plugged into the lightning jack of my iPhone.

MMM: Seems like you were well-equipped.

Long: Unfortunately, that didn’t last long. On the way to Pushkar I wanted to get a shot from the outside looking down the length of the train whilst it was moving. Luckily, the doors on the train didn’t lock, so I could hold my phone outside the door.  But as I pulled the phone back inside I lost the microphone! It knocked against the door, fell off and hit the track. To top it off, the shot that I got didn’t even make it into the film!

MMM: Your movie gives FiLMiC Pro a credit. What do you like about that app?

Long: A recent upgrade allowed me to shoot in LOG mode and 4k, which made grading the film such a smooth experience. I don’t think their LOG mode is perfect yet but they are continuously working to upgrade and improve their app, so it will only get better.

MMM: Could you tell us about how much footage you shot?

Long: I had 2 hours 20 minutes worth of footage from Pushkar, which when split over a five day period is just under half an hour a day, which isn’t very much. Due to limited memory on my phone, and the size of 4K footage, I had to be selective about what I chose to shoot. I also knew that I wanted the final film to be fast paced, so I never shot anything for longer than 10 seconds, as most of that would end up being cut out anyway. The only exceptions were when something exciting was happening in front of me, like the camel training, when I didn’t know what was going to happen and didn’t want to miss anything. When choosing selects I was looking for energy, colour, and anything that I felt represented Pushkar well. The first cut was done over the course of a month, and the final cut was finished four months later, after the music had been composed. In total, it probably took ten edit days.

MMM: Could you talk about your method of relating the music and the visual images?

Long: The music was composed by my brother, Jamie Long, who was with me in Pushkar. We decided early on that we wanted the film to have a dancy-vibe, and really wanted something that would emphasise the colour, liveliness, and the life of the place. The music was composed especially for the film to fit each sequence. We spent a lot of time in the end refining the edit and the music, making sure we were hitting the right emotional beats. Jamie describes it as this: “The composition is divided into four quarters. The first and final quarters are upbeat and inspired by a new genre called moombahton. The second quarter is more Indian in style and features instruments and percussion from the subcontinent. The third quarter features a tremolo marimba playing over tabla. Although the final quarter is similar to the first quarter it also features Indian instruments and percussion to highlight the journey the viewer has been on.”

MMM: What would you like people to take away from your travelogue?

Long: I hope that this film will whet people’s appetites and encourage them to travel to Pushkar. It really is spectacular.

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William Long is a London based, writer, editor and filmmaker. His work includes features, documentaries, and music videos. Previously, two of his other travelogues were featured in this magazine: “Life in North Korea” and “Patagonia.”

“Pushkar” has been chosen as a Mobile Movie of the Week by the editors of MobileMovieMaking.com