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Film Making Outside Film Schools

Film Making Outside Film Schools

It’s a dream of the millions! Especially, in this cinema crazy country like India, where the national time pass is divided between cricket and watching the latest Bollywood flick, it is the cherished dream of at least a few hundred thousands – to become a successful film director. The dream remains distant and unfulfilled for almost all of them, while a statistically negligible number of people do realize their dream and curve a niche in the tinsel town. Even the term “successful film director” encourages divergence in delineation. For the film-fanatical yet film school uneducated newbies it is the glamour and glitz of splendid multi-stared Bollywood musicals complete with routine action and emotional sequences that mesmerize them over and over again and become their theme for a dream. The rest of film school literate, European Avant Garde cinema watching pupils commonly snoot at this emotional over the top melodrama, as trashy mass culture content. Nonetheless, films continue to charm and weave its magic over everyone and young aspirants continue to drop by the studios for a little stint as an assistant director of even a mediocre moviemaker.

But the fact is; those with a specific degree or diploma or even a little training in the moviemaking or television production remain a preference for all the professional production managers. Unfortunately but inevitably film making or TV production courses are pretty expensive as it unavoidably requires the setup and infrastructure, which is costly to buy as well as to maintain. All those young people with a deep pocket or more honestly with their parent’s deep pocket may enroll for these courses; however, except a few recognized and much-admired film schools around the country, most of such institutes fail to deliver what it promises on the pages of their glossy, chic broachers, which also come at a steep price!

For the young talents unable to get enrolled in prominent film schools, what lies ahead is not uncertainty and disappointment, rather a more rewarding and perhaps a little problematic way to realize their dream. All one needs is the passion for the medium, tenacity and the ability to work hard against all constraints; and their fuel, needless to say, is the Technicolor dream in their eyes. Nevertheless, one needs to sketch out a proper way to go about realizing their dreams to become filmmakers and there is scope, even outside the coveted film schools.

Cinema is often called the “bastard art” as it is the amalgamation of different art forms and medium-- that is also one of the fundamental reasons of it being a team effort. However, at the initial stage, outside a film school or media institute, without the fancy audio visual setup and snazzy camera one can get hands on experience in video production or short filmmaking – the solution lies in the utilization of available equipments. If one doesn’t own a camera, he or she can always borrow one from their friends or relatives. And no matter how bad the quality of the camera is or whether its format is obsolete or not, it always helps to get hands on training with an operational camera, especially to get familiar with the different types of basic shots and camera movements.

The key is to keep your fiction or nonfiction short and simple. There are two reasons behind this.

Firstly, from a more technical perspective, a film with short duration is easier to edit on a non professional nonlinear editing setup. Even if someone wants to edit it on the regular mid range home PC, it will not become a major problem if the film remains short.

Secondly, for anyone trying his hands on filmmaking, that too with low end equipments will certainly face a lot of technical problems, hence it makes sense to keep the storyline, or narrative structure as simple as possible, so one can concentrate on expressing the story properly by using all the cinematic conventions available by the medium. Next comes the recognition part. This is where the “luck” element comes in to play, yet if one proceeds decisively, one can transform the weakness into strength and attain the necessary recognition for farther advancement in this field. Accordingly, even before the final edit is done and the film is ready, it is absolutely essential to do a little research on the forthcoming film festivals on regional, national and even international circuit.

Some of the film festivals require an entry fee for each submission but most of the armature film festivals have options for free student entry or special concessions. The crucial thing is to remember that it is not really important to worry about how well known and glamorous the competition is; rather the objective is to be appreciated and recognized by an established association of cinema, no matter how small it is. Even an award or special appreciation from a small time film club or student film festival can become godsend for ones film career. The key is to find out the opportunities of showcasing the films locally, nationally and (thanks to the internet) internationally and exploiting it appropriately. At a time when the domestic and global entertainment industry is experiencing an exponential growth coupled with an upsurge of alternative distribution medium and an emergent appreciation of low budget but good quality content, it is an encouraging scenario for all the budding filmmakers with a glimmering dream of leaving a master’s stroke on celluloid.

Writer : Saayan Chattopadhyay

Writers Profile

Saayan Chattopadhyay is a media critic, journalist and researcher. He writes extensively on film, TV, popular culture & gender representation in general and Indian media and film industry in particular. He is associated with the Department of Media Studies of an Indian University.

chatterjee_online@yahoo.com

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