Making movies with masters
SUDHISH KAMATH
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Filmmaker K. Hariharan is all set to launch a film school that offers comprehensive training in film, digital and high-definition technologies.
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Film Director K. Balachander at an editing center at T. Nagar in Chennai. Photo: S. Mahinsha
He's India's best-known film theoretician, having taught film and communication students from all around the world. This critically acclaimed filmmaker is now launching a film school for the Prasad Group, which has six film production facilities around the country, among the biggest in Asia. The L.V. Prasad Film and TV Academy will open in August 2005 and will admit 10 students each in Direction, Cinematography, Sound Recording and Editing for a two-year postgraduate diploma programme in Film and TV.
K. Hariharan in an exclusive interview reveals his plans for the school. Students will be trained on film, digital and high-definition technologies — a first offered by a film school in India. Irrespective of their specialisation, students will be given the same inputs in the first year.
"I want them to know the importance of each department. Only if they edit for someone, will they understand the role of an editor. Only if they do the camerawork for another director will they understand the significance of a cinematographer. Only if they understand sound and music; ragas and rasas, will they know what music best sets the mood for the scene they've shot. So like how drawing or painting is taught, we are going to teach them from the very basics — right from how to compose a frame, how to tell a story using just still photographs and setting it to music. `Go click some photographs and make a one-and-a half-minute film.'"
"The focus will be on a healthy integration of the strengths of the allied arts like painting, dance and poetry, with the aesthetics of cinema and television. Students will be encouraged to negotiate the audio-visual narrative structure with a better grasp on the liberal arts so that communication with the intended audience becomes meaningful and socially relevant," Mr. Hariharan explains. Students will then be taught on different platforms. "They need to get a feel of cameras; old and new. So we'll give them an old Mitchell, an Arri and a handycam, so that they know exactly how technology has changed. And also, so that they understand which camera is best suited for the film they want to make. We are going to encourage them to make all kinds of films."
Each student will produce around seven short films; from documentaries to fiction, from experimental hybrid shorts to multi-camera live coverage, computerised animation to music videos,
during the course and these films will be sent to film festivals around the world.
HARIHARAN: Hoping to encourage creative genius. Photo: K. Ananthan
"With the imminent convergence of Internet and television, the future of digital media is going to take a variety of forms and shapes. The future of the narrative will be going through radical alterations and this can be addressed only by such organisations that are leading players in the field today. The best filmmakers from the country walk into our facilities every day, we can surely lead some of them into the classrooms to talk to our students," he says.
"We want to bring back the tradition of the guru-shishya relationship. So instead of internships, we are going to make our students find mentors. So a student could walk up to some as senior as K. Balachander or a Bharathirajaah and ask them to share their experience as a guru. These kind of interactions will prove to be far more useful to the students than any internship."
The course fee of Rs. 2 lakh a year covers material costs. Students will be working on 35mm, 16mm and high definition video formats. "We have tie-ups with banks for loans and are also arranging scholarships on a merit-cum-means basis," he says. Applications are available at the L.V.Prasad Film and TV Academy, 28, Arunachalam Road, Saligramam.
For more details, Email
hariharan@prasadacademy.com or call Anjana Ravi at 9841648177.
The last date for submitting application forms is May 30.
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