Saturday, June 16, 2012

Imaging Cinema-IIT Madras- Screenwriting and Film Making workshop







The 10 day training at IIT-Madras for the Film Making and Screenplay Writing workshop was very informative and inspiring. Most of the eminent guests and speakers were from FTII Pune and L.V Prasad Academy of Film and Television, Madras. The whole workshop of 10 days were divided in the following capsules:

1.       Magic of Cinema
2.       Mechanics of Cinema
3.       Method of Cinema
4.       Making of Cinema :                         48 hrs time given to participants to shoot in groups and Edit their film.
5.       Majesty of Cinema :                       Screening of  films made by participants


Magic of Cinema

1.       Elements of Film Language by Mr.K.Hariharan, Alumni-FTII Pune, Currently working at L.V Prasad Academy of Film and Television, Madras
2.       Insight into Cinematography as a graphic art by Sunny Joseph. Alumni-FTII Pune
3.       Methods to Deconstruct a Film- Examples : Sathyajit Ray’s Charulatha and Guru Dutt’s Saheb Biwi aur Ghulam

Interactive Session with Mr.Rohan Sippy (Director of Bluffmaster and Dum Maro Dum), Mr.Shreedhar Raghavan (Screenplay-Bluffmaster and Dum Maro Dum) and Screening of the film Dum Maro Dum.



Mechanics of Cinema

1.       Talks and discussion on Cinematography by Ranjan Kothari- Alumni-FTII Pune
2.       Session with Krishna D.K  (Director of Shor in the City), discussion on his approach to make films and tell stories
3.       Session on Importance of Sound and Music in films. Instruments and Gadgets used during the shoot and in post production
4.       Arun Bose : Sound Design and Mixing, working at Prasad Labs, Chennai
4.       Session on Editing by Ranjit Shankaran- Faculty  at L.V Prasad Academy of Film and Television, Madras
5.       Session on Make Up  : Krishna Rao, Faculty at L.V Prasad Academy of Film and Television, Madras
6.       Session on Sets and Costumes : By Salim Arif- Alumni-FTII Pune, Case Study- Shyam Benegal’s Machis and Sathyajit Ray’s Charulatha
7.       Process of DI in Films – By Mohan Krishnan- Prasad Labs, Chennai
8.       Session on Production Management : by R.N Subramanian, Prasad Institute
9.       Direction – Non Fiction Films : by Shiva Kumar Mohan, Faculty at Prasad Institute



Method of Cinema

1.       Intro to and elements of screenplay by Atul Tiwari, screenplay and dialogue writier
2.       Developing conflicts and structure for a story, by Mr.John E

Making of Cinema

1.       150 Participants divided in Groups of 10 each and were asked to decide on stories and write the screenplay, in consultation with the mentors and guides
2.       One day for shoot was given with PD -170 Camera’s and Camera Assistants
3.       Half a Day for Editing on FCP- with an Assistant Editor.

Majesty of Cinema

1.       Screening of 15 Films
2.       Awards Distribution
3.       Feedback Session by Mr.Hariharan and Vote of Thanks by Mr.Atul Tiwari



Tamil Cinema was extensively discussed. Films like KO, Aaranya Kaandam, polladhavan, naan kadavul were amongst some which were discussed.

Some of the guests who had visited for the interactive sessions over the period of 10 days were

1.       Anuraag Kashyap

2.       Habib Faisal : Director of Ishaqzaade

3.       Thiagarajan Kumararaja : Director of  Aaranya Kaandam

4.       Sriram Raghavan : Director of  Agent Vinod, Ek Hasina Thi, Jhonny Gaddhar

5.       Rohan Sippy : Director - Bluffmaster! And Dum Maro Dum

6.       Shridhar Raghavan : Writer for Bluffmaster! And Dum Maro Dum


I was in the Group-14,  10 members had collaboratively worked on the script, Shoot and Edit. Our Team got the 3rd Prize for the Best Short film amongst the 15 short films made and screened.




No comments: