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Behind the lens

St. Joseph's College is conducting a certificate course on the craft of cinema

HANDS-ON LEARNING With students making films individually, there is much emphasis on practical training

The camera angles are spot on; lighting and sound are surprisingly professional; and the editing is seamless enough, with a good deal of nifty graphics and a well-coordinated soundtrack thrown in. What's more, getting this kind of precision on their first cinematic project took students of the certificate course in filmmaking at St. Joseph's College a mere four months to master.

In its second year, FilmForce: Guided Production from Storyboard to Screen, as the course is called, offers interested participants a comprehensive curriculum on script writing, cinematography, linear editing and all that nitty-gritty that go into them. "Participants don't really need any prior experience or filmmaking skills when they join the course. We teach them everything from coming up with an idea and doing the research on it to developing the script to the cinematography, lighting, sound and so on to even editing and post production," says Amitabh Ashesh, the course coordinator who studied film production at Stanford and has been a consultant with numerous production houses in California and Bombay.

The idea behind the certificate course, which focuses on documentary television programming, corporate or institutional films and ad films rather than feature films, is that such productions are an important way to express opinion and create space for regional issues that do not get covered in the mainstream media. Thus, the sample of films produced by students last year encompasses topics such as the need for localisation of school curriculum, the fairness complex among Indians, eco-friendly toilets, rainwater harvesting, suicide and so on.

Intelligently structured

Structured as it is for practical learning, what is also interesting about FilmForce is that it can be beneficial to those in need of filmmakers too.

According to Amitabh, the course is designed so that clients who need films made about certain issues can avail of the services of either students or alumni of the course. Thus, while clients receive products that are almost as good as the professional stuff, and at more affordable rates, students of the course get to experience first hand what goes into professional film making. In fact, students of the last batch have already made a film on the NGO Kushal Foundation, and other such projects are on the anvil.

It is this structured but open format that is the main draw of the programme say past participants. Unlike other programmes, students in this course make short films/ videos of 8-15 minutes individually, and that has made all the difference, says Pooja Ramesh, who was part of the first batch. "During my bachelor's degree in mass communication, I had to make a film, but that was in a group of 10 students. Here, we made our films individually, doing everything ourselves. For a course that lasted four months, with only three hours of class each week, we learnt a lot."

FilmForce kicks off on August 24 at St. Joseph's College and will comprise four months of classes on weekends and weekday evenings. The course is priced at Rs. 15,000, for which students receive the chance to work with a broadcast quality video camera, sound recording, lights and professional editing. For details, contact the college on 22274079 or 22211429 or Amitabh Ashesh on 98459-56328.

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