so ,we also had a workshop at vibgyor this yr ,it was a good experince ,now i have been going to film festivals and in general have attended workshops related to screenplay writing,editing,direction,camera etc in geenral but when a checked on the website ,nothing of this sort was mentioned ,so i put a mail to one of their and asked "whats this workshop about"? and i got a rpely saying that "its a general interactive workshop not focused on any particular topic"
now i remember many directors telling in interviewa "you can learn all the technique but most imp. thing is to know :WHT YOU WANNA SAY"?,i think thats the most imp thing as in what the film is about ,whats its theme,whats the common factor binding all the shots,scenes,sequences together ,and i feel its the most difficult thing to unstd,no film school (including ucla or nyu )can teach you this thing ,they can teach all the technical stuff or all the masterclasses(which all available on you tube )but no one can teach you :WHAT YOU WANNA SAY ? ,it has to be very internal and i think thats where this workshop helped me a lot and i would surely rate it as one of the best workshops i ahve even attended untill now and trust me i have been to many and hell lots of stuff on net also,
now getting back to workshop itself,on the first day ,we all came in the afternoon ,and were introduced to Sujata babar (with abhivykati),she took the initial class,the first thing she asked was to describe ourselves thr visuals and not words,now this was a fantastic exp.,i had heard of such kind of exercises in NID ahmedabad from a professor whose workshop i had attend in blore ,but this was my first such kind of experince,now we all talk a lot about ourselves andd in general also but when it comes to such kind of stuff ,you really have to think and find a suitable visual metaphor to depict your core inner self ,this is not easy ,we were given 10 mintues ,at the end ,i really enjoyed the process(i think thats what matters in the end),i really appplied myself for those 10 mintues in thinking what visuals describe me best as an indvidiual ,i had never tht from that angle before about myself ,in end it was really a good exercise in visualizing and putting those visuals on papper,and i think we got very good response
now next session was by K.P Sasi,he is documentary filmmaker from kerala ,he showed some of his music videos related to america and naxalite problems,after that we had a good discussion related to his anti american views and music videos
then the next day session was by Mr. Luis ,i think in 90 mintues i got so much fucking gyan that i never imagined i would get in my wildest dreams while taking the bus to trissur ,so much to absord,first he showed a movie "vitthal",now this is one the best short movies i have seen in my life ,the director really knew his craft very well and showed the anger,frustration and the POV of a child who is forced to cut his hair after his grandfather dies ,some of shots were simply fantastic esp child standing in front of the mirror ,i am sure given a worthy full length screenplay .the director would do wonders in film making ,then he showed animation movies by candian film maker ,esp one the movies "vertical lines" really showed the core of the film making in its simplest form ,there are tomes written on screenplay strucuture,cinematorgaphy,use of color etc but i would suggest any body who is remotely interested in film making to watch this movie,now first time i didnt get et all,actually i was bored but then on public demand it was shown again ,i think it showed another thing which any aspiring film maker should always has:AN OPEN MIND,usually when we c smthing which we havent seen before ,we say that its boring or its bakwas,but you have to be patient,give it a chance and i learned my lesson very well ,then he talked in general about narrative structure and film making in general ,sadly he was part of orgazning committe so he had to leave early ,how i wish he could have extended his session but alas.............
then the next session was by Mr.Baburaj,another docu filmamker,he talked in geenral about his career and docu film movement in kerala ,it was very informative session ,but as always any session which is close to the lunch always seems too long na !
Then post lunch session was on editing by Mr. Cherian ,it was sort of 2 hour marathan session on editing in general,.i think the guy covered everything that can be covered in a 2-3 hour session and gave some good examples also ,i sort of liked the guy's way of conducting the session,he was cracking jokes ,keeping the atmosphere light but still giving lots of gyan also and in the end he talked about walter murch ,now i have been big fan of walter murch ever since i saw conversation by coppola(which i think is the one the best movies ever about loneliness ,and the effect was enhanced manifold by background score by shire and sound design by murch),recently also i read the book"in blink of any eye" by murch,it was so so informative ,the guy has his own style and untill very recently used to edit in film ,how i would love to meet him?
then came the biggies in evening ,MR.Anand Patwardan and Norma Marocs ,just a general brief interaction about their film making and life in general,so this was the workshop in general ,there was another session about which i will write later but i have write about Patwardan here ,he seemed so calm,cool,relaxed, normally what happens is that when your movies get banned or are delayed for release ,stuck in court cases etc ,one tends to turn bitter and may also show "world-is-against-me" mentality but i didnt see anything like that in him,he seemed so sure of himself and above all,his calmness is whcih i liked most ,i admire his guts for making the kind of movies he wants to make but more than that i now admire the person behind those movies more ,
The last but not the least(as always) session was with Mr.Saeed Akhtar Mirza,wow what an experiencce it was ,i can easily say it was most invigorating 90 minutes spent in past few yrs ,he was simply in top form ,he didnt talk about film making as such ,he talked about life in geenral,his experiences,his approach towards life ,his ideology,his views at certain issue close to his heart ,in the end it was all worth it ,we asked few Qs and he replied each one of them in his own inimitable style ,he also recited some urdu couplets and then translated them in simpler language:) for our comfort,he also told its the fire in the belly that counts not the film school degree ,
so thats all ,certainly a gr8 experince ,i gained a lot from interacting with all the ppl and above all with the fellow workshop ppl,i think i was the only person with non media background there ,all of them very passionate about film making ,i feel gr8 whenever i am in company of ppl who are passionate about somthing (it doesnt have to be film mkaing ,it can be anything),you feel more alive and less robotic:)(s/w engg know wit i am talking about),
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