Bengaluru: Short film enthusiasts have an opportunity to hone their skills with the tools available to them this weekend, at a smartphone filmmaking workshop. The workshop will be conducted by filmmaker Venkat Amudhan, known for his short fiction work Thug Beram .
Entitled 'Barebones', the two-day immersive workshop will see participants learn to shoot, edit and eventually screen the projects they make during the course of the programme, besides picking up some tips on financing and film festival submission along the way.
"The idea is to provide insight into what goes into smartphone filmmaking. The workshop will be conducted on a smartphone, and will focus on how to maximise the performance of the phone as a camera, with the aid of wireless microphones, clip-on lenses, tabletop tripods and gimbals," says Amudhan.
He goes on to say that while the workshop focuses on the smartphone as a shooting tool, the insights participants get — from contextualising an idea, to writing notes and learning about shot blocking — will be medium agnostic. "We'll go over the basics and do the shooting on the first day, while the second will be devoted to offline editing, media management and the actual editing process, following which the projects will be screened," Amudhan explains.
Besides the camera accessories, he says that the software he encourages participants to use is all free. "Modern smartphones have made the barrier for entry into short films, documentaries and content creation for platforms like YouTube and Vimeo much lower, and in about five years, these cameras can seriously challenge even high-end mirrorless cameras," he says, adding, "That said, I believe editing on a phone is still not a very viable option, so post-production will still happen on a laptop. The editing tools we use are now well-optimised to handle footage shot on phones."
The other highlight of the workshop is that participants will be able to get 30 days of mentorship from Amudhan, where he will guide them on putting together a production docket, financing their short film projects, and provide information about film festival roadmaps.
Besides this, he is also in the early stages of his first full-length feature. "It is called Zero and is still in financing and development mode. It is essentially a road movie about three people who are escaping from their past."
The Barebones smartphone filmmaking workshop will be held at The School of Ancient Wisdom on September 1 and 2. For registration, visit http://www.barebonesfilms.com/ .
