5th VGIK International summer school happened in the City of Vladimir, one of the ancient cultural cities of Russia, from 5th July to 25th July 2013. The summer school is organized by the Russian State University of Cinematography, VGIK, Moscow.

The summer school invites students of film schools across the world studying film direction, cinematography and film production and focuses on documentary film making.

Hitesh Liya, student of Cinematography was one of the 23 participants selected this year to attend the school. It’s a residential program wherein the participants undergo tutoring and workshops in documentary film making and make a short documentary film (8-12 min.) leading towards the successful completion of the program.

The participants are selected by the VGIK Art Council based upon their applications which their bio-data outlining their skills in film making, one of the film school projects and a proposal envisioning a possible film to be made in Russia.

The films made by the participants were awarded in the category of the Best Cinematographer, Best Producer, Best Director and Best Film. Hitesh won the ‘Best Film’ award.

“This Summer school was a highly enriching experience for me as a film student and it widened my perspective on the methods of documentary film making on an international platform and I thank SRFTI for supporting me in this endeavour of my film education” – Hitesh Liya, Cinematography.

More detail about the VGIK summer school is available here http://www.vgik.info/international/summer_school/

SHIP OF THESEUS has been making waves in film enthusiast circles in the country for the past couple of weeks. To deconstruct the phenomenon, SRFTI organized a screening of the film followed by a full-on discussion on 16/08/2013 with the makers – Anand Gandhi (Writer/Director), Pankaj Kumar (Cinematographer), and Ruchi Bhimani (Executive Producer).

Students and faculty members interacted in a focused manner, and a very lively question/answer/observation/rejoinder session followed. The no holds barred discourse was moderated by Shyamal Sengupta, HOD of the newly constituted Department of Producing for Film & Television.

The Satyajit Ray film and TV Institute, in collaboration with Directorate of Film Festivals organized a homage to the recently departed Film maker, Rituporno Ghosh, from the 8th of August till the 11th August, 2013.

At the inauguration ceremony on the evening of the 8th, held at the SRFTI, Main theatre, the esteemed guests spoke about their association with the departed Director. Some of the Films directed by Rituporno Ghosh were screened at the Main Theatre of SRFTI. Two meaningful Panel discussions on the 10th and 11th of August, were the parallel attractions of this event.

The topic for 10th August was ‘The Cinema of Rituporno Ghosh’ and the panelists were Mr. Samik Bandopadhay, Mr. Anjan dutta, Mr.Suman Mukhopadhay and Mr. Siladitya Sen. The panelists elaborated on what the director messaged through his films. Panelists for the 11th August ,Mr. Shekhar Das, Mr. Anik Dutta, Q, Mr. Arijit Dutta, Mr. Ashoke Vishwanathan and Ms. Satarupa Sanyal discussed the role of the director in contemporary Bengali Cinema and in the larger context, regional Cinema in India.

Click the picture below to view some moments

Playback Workshop

The much looked forward to playback workshop, a combined endeavour from the departments of direction, and cinematography was conducted by Shri Anil Mehta between the 19^th and 23^rd of July 2013. The 9^th batch of students,  gained both in knowledge and experience immensely from the  seasoned cinematographer-director’s  keen insights into the craft.

The aim of the workshop was to learn the craft and techniques of shooting a playback within a stipulated time period and with available resources.  An intense preproduction session took place guided by Shri Mehta at the end of which, students were ready with a schedule, the shot division, and the requirements for the shoot. A four day shoot commenced the very next day.

Unlike earlier workshops, where track laying was also part of the workshop a pre- released  Assamese song was selected and re-picturized. Joy Baruah the singer of the original track performed for the lip synced portions, canned on the very first day of shoot. Two remaining days were shot on locations away from the campus ranging from spaces as challenging as a moving tram to passing street shots.

Actual locations, were replaced by recreating a brothel sequence on the campus, and this was a high point of the workshop with the guest lecturer effectively demonstrating HOW COMPLEX LOCATIONS CAN BE CHEATED CONVINCINGLY.

What emerged from the workshop was rushes to be edited into a 3 min playback sequence to the story of childhood sweethearts drifting away from each other. In the process of growing up, choosing professions, and achievements, and the twist comes when the girl becomes a dynamic police officer entrusted with the job of capturing a underworld kingpin, who turns out to be her childhood sweetheart.

This was the 2^nd playback workshop conducted by Shri Anil Mehta and one in a long series of interactions with the students of this institute.  The well known cinematographer of films like Lagaan , Veer Zara ,  Rockstar, etc and innumerable Advertorials  Films to his credit, Anil Mehta is a  mentor par excellence.