hindi cinema | Imaging Cinema

IIT Madras Presents
Imaging Cinema 2012: A Course on Screenwriting and Film Direction
1st to 10th of June, 2012 at IIT Madras

The course is to include sessions on Screenwriting specifically, with specialists such as

Atul Tiwari (Mission Kashmir, Dasavatharam and currently working on Viswaroopam with Dr. Kamal Hassan)
K. Hariharan (Director of the L.V. Prasad Institute of Film and Television, Chennai)

and other distinguished faculty members from Film Institutes across the country.

Also part of the course are interactive sessions with noted filmmakers and technicians from the industry, like (Directors unless mentioned otherwise, in alphabetical order)

Anurag Kashyap (Paanch, Dev D, Gulaal, No Smoking, That Girl in Yellow Boots)
Habib Faisal (Ishqazaade, Band Baaja Baaraat, Do Dooni Char)
cinematographer Ravi K. Chandran (Black, Ghajini, Agneepath, My Name is Khan).
Rohan Sippy (Bluffmaster, Dum Maaro Dum, Taxi No. 9211, the President is Coming)
Shriram Raghavan (Agent Vinod, Johnny Gaddar, Ek Haseena Thi)
Shridhar Raghavan (Khakee, Dum Maaro Dum and Apaharan)
writers Suresh & Bala (SuBa) (Ayan and Ko directed by K.V. Anand) and editor Anthony (Sivaji, Vaaranam Aayiram, Enthiran, Ayan, Ko)
with Thiagarajan Kumararaja (the promising filmmaker behind ‘Aaranya Kaandam’)
and Sudhish Kamath (acclaimed film-critic and writer-director of ‘That 4-Letter Word’ and ‘Good Night, Good Morning’)
Krishna DK (Shor in the city, 99)

Please note that some resource people will be doing 1-2 sessions.

The course will span ten days from the 1st to the 10th of June, 2012. The outline is as follows.

The first part, for about two-three days, would be a Film Appreciation module, where participants would be introduced to the Magic of Cinema, the emphasis being on reading Film as a Text. The second part, for the next two-three days, would look into Film Execution, focusing on the mechanics of Filmmaking such as Lighting, Sound, Camera, etc. intending to demystify the filmmaking process by sharing the secret; by telling how the magic is created.

Having warmed up and armed with both appreciation and understanding, the course would step it up as it enters its third and most defining part – the Scriptwriting section, where participants would first work in groups on existing scripts to understand the process of construction. The goal is to first familiarize each participant with the method behind the madness, subsequent to which each group would be ready with a short 3-5 minute executable script of their own.

The last day would be a ‘Red Carpet’ event where the work of each student-group would be discussed, rated and awarded accordingly. This event, yet again, would be yet another turn on the learning spiral, providing scope for students to learn from mistakes and be rewarded for ingenuity.

Please note that the medium of instruction, primarily, is English. Each participant would be rewarded with an IIT-Madras certificate of Participation on completion of the Course, which is an initiative of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras.

The Fee Structure is as follows.

Rs. 10,000/- for Professionals
Rs. 9,000/- for attendees of our workshops in 2009 and 2010
Rs. 8,000/- for Students with valid ID and Documents
USD 250 for NRIs

If you have any more queries, contact us at +919551783161.

Accommodation:

Accommodation will be charged extra and is not inclusive of the course fees.

Limited rooms are available in IITM guest house (AC) and will be allotted on the first come first serve basis. Few rooms are also available in hostels (Non ac). The rent for the rooms at Taramani Guest House is Rs. 800 for a single AC room and Rs. 1000 for a double AC room. The rent for the hostel rooms is Rs.150 per day per head. Please note that most of the rooms are on the shared occupancy basis and the bookings for the same will begin once the shortlist is announced.

Click here for directions to reach IIT Madras Campus.

I wanted to write something on contemporary Hindi mainstream cinema (other than appreciating LSD and Udaan) but I couldn’t find my way through those formula movies releasing one after another. I was eagerly waiting for Anuraag Kashyap production, Bejoy Naambiar’s debut film Shaitan to release for its supposed claim promising something on the lines on David Fincher. Well it too turned out to be a formula Hollywood story except for some gripping experimental scenes. I was still searching for some silver lining because it was Anuraag Kashyap and guess what? I got mine. It was the most visible and appealing posters seen everywhere. I agree the posters were not made by him but still encouraging and identifying creativity matters.

Shaitan’s poster is superimposition of the images of lead characters on the ink blots of Rorschach test (or simple ink blot test). In psychology Rorschach test is used to examine a person’s personality characteristics and emotional functioning. In shaitan’s context it provokes underlying thought disorder in people reluctant to describe their thinking processes openly. In this test the patients are subjected to ten ink blots having perfect bilateral symmetry on a separate white card (Five inkblots are of black ink, two are of black and red ink and three are multicoloured) and based on their reactions and perceptions about the blots conclusions are drawn about their motivations, response tendencies, etc. So when the slogan of the movie says “Face your inner shaitan” it appropriately refers to the ink blot test. It’s like, it tells you to test your reluctant emotions and tendencies.

Some of these cards are often perceived as threatening with subject being in an inferior position while some others are said to provoke the sexual drive. Even though we may not know this consciously, the poster has done its job in the Freudian way.

Another poster which caught my eyes on the similar lines was DevD’s surreal poster. In this Dev is a shown devoid of any expression. He is wearing sunglasses reflecting smoky images of him in it and his pink shiny lips are shown abnormally large with suggestive pink smoke coming out of it. It is illogical for anyone to have such large lips in the objective reality. That is actually the whole point of the poster. It manifests a reality higher than the objective reality that we are accustomed with and hence logic of objective reality will fail to explain it. The higher reality (in the movie) is Dev the protagonist is overpowered by his innate instinctual drives like sex, anger, etc. which are symbolized by his huge pink lips disproportionate with his face. Drug addict and an alcoholic Dev is overpowered by his desires to the extent that they often fail to communicate with his waking consciousness. This is signified by his sunglasses and the images in it. These smoky and smudgy images show his consciousness trapped in the rim of his sunglasses. He is also shown being hit by the cupid’s arrow signifying his love. It might be this arrow which caused the aforementioned deformity in him. The poster completely describes the character of Dev and also gives it a modern look.

Surreal posters for movies have a long tradition and DevD is no exception. When it comes to surrealist movies one name that occurs to me is the surreal film maker and an important figure in the surrealist movement- Luis Bunuel. In fact I found a stark resemblance of DevD poster to Bunuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. It is about the so called high class society (the bourgeois) and their hypocrisy, intense fears of public humiliation, prejudice, snobbery, etc. Some of the other posters which capture the mood, tone and the filmmaker’s attitude appropriately are love sex aur dhokha, Dhobi ghat and delhi 6. We will get back to you on similar lines. In the meanwhile keep watching this space and let us know your views.

This post is an entry to the Reel-Life Bloggers contest organized by wogma.com and reviewgang.com