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Photo: T. Singaravelou

GETTING SET: Creative talent is a key asset for those who wish to make a career in the cinema field.

Film-making involves acting, directing, production, cinematography, scripting, sound recording, visual mixing, editing and so on. If one has artistic and technical skills and the ability to express one’s ideas, this is the right field.

The director and his team of assistants are responsible for all creative decision-making involved in film-making, including those connected with the script, cast, location, camera, rehearsing and direction. The director works closely with the cameramen or the cinematographer. The cinematographer has to visualise and compose each scene in consultation with the director and he has to decide on camera angles and keep track of the ‘takes’.

For direction, cinematography, audiography and editing, professional education and training is essential. There are several institutions offering professional courses. The following prominent film and television institutes provide quality education. Postgraduate diploma courses require a bachelor’s degree in any discipline as the minimum eligibility for admission.

The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, an autonomous institute under the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, offers postgraduate diploma courses in direction, cinematography, audiography, editing, acting, art direction and production design in the film and television fields.

The duration of acting and art direction and production design courses is two years each. Others are of three years. There are 20 seats for the acting course. Others have 12 each. Entry qualification (except for audiography and art direction and production design) is a bachelor’s degree in any discipline.

For audiography, a bachelor’s degree with physics as a subject at the Plus-Two level is needed. The art direction and production design course requires a bachelor’s degree in architecture, painting, applied arts, sculpture, interior design or related fields in fine arts or equivalent diploma as an entry qualification.

Some certificate courses offered by this institute include those in animation and computer graphics (duration is a year and a half, minimum qualification: Plus-Two, 12 seats) and feature film screen-play writing (one-year postgraduate certificate course, minimum qualification: bachelor’s degree in any discipline, 12 seats).

Courses available in the television field are those in direction, electronic cinematography, video editing, audiography and TV engineering. All these are one-year postgraduate certificate courses with 10 seats each. Graduates in any discipline are eligible for admission. Applicants for audiography and TV engineering courses should have studied physics as a subject at the Plus-Two level.

Selection to these courses is based on a national-level entrance test followed by an interview. The entrance test notification can be expected during March every year and the test will he held during May or June.

For the 2008 admissions, notification has already been published. The last date for the receipt of applications is April 21. The application form and details can be downloaded from the web site www.ftiindia.com . Postal address: Film and Television Institute of India, Law College Road, Pune - 411 004 (Phone: 020-25425656, direct line: 254 31817 - extension 223.)

The Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata, another autonomous institute under the Union Government, offers three-year, full-time residential postgraduate diploma programmes in direction and screen playwriting; motion picture photography; editing; and Sound Recording. Each course offers 10 seats. Entry qualification for courses in direction and screen-play writing; motion picture photography and editing is graduation in any discipline.

For the sound recording course, a graduate with physics as one of the subjects at the Plus-Two level is eligible for admission. Age limit for all the courses is 30. Selection is based on a national-level entrance test followed by an interview, orientation test and viva voce. Postal address: Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, EM Bypass, P.O, Panchasayar, Kolkata - 700 094.

The Film and Television Institute of Tamil Nadu , CIT Campus, Chennai - 600113, offers three-year diploma courses in direction and screen-play writing; cinematography; film processing; sound recording and sound engineering; and film editing.

For direction and screen-play writing, the minimum qualification is a degree and for all other courses, it is a pass in higher secondary or diploma in electrical and electronics engineering or electronics and communication engineering. Most of the seats for each course are earmarked for students from Tamil Nadu.

Jadavpur University, Kolkata, conducts a master’s degree course in cinema studies for graduates.

The Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi - 110 025; Anna University, Audio Visual Research Centre, Chennai - 600 025; and the Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication, Pune - 411 004, also provide training in video and television production.

The Whistling Woods International Institute for Film Television Animation and Media Arts, Mumbai - 400 065, conducts two-year, full-time courses in direction, screen-play writing, cinematography, acting, editing, sound recording, design and so on ( www.whistlingwoods.net).

The Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT), Chithranjali Studio Complex, Thiruvallom, Thiruvananthapuram - 695022, an autonomous research, training and video production centre under the Kerala government, conducts a one-year, full-time postgraduate diploma course in science and development communication for graduates in any discipline.

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