‘First Cut’ for filmmakers of tomorrow

Workshop begins for 40 selected students from across State

For 40 higher secondary students, Monday may mark the start of an eventful journey, marking a turning point in their lives.

Selected from around 3,500 students from across the State after school and district-level aptitude tests and interviews, they will undergo a six-day workshop on filmmaking, named First Cut, organised by the Career Guidance and Adolescent Counselling Cell of the Higher Secondary Education Department as part of its annual campaign, Students Initiative for Training in Artistic Rejuvenation (SITAR).

The workshop is being organised in association with the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy at its Centre for International Film Research and Archives at KINFRA Film and Studio Park in Thiruvananthapuram.

“The workshop will give students an opportunity to interact with the doyens of filmmaking. A week-long national camp will follow in December either at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata or the Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India (FTII),” C.M. Azeem, State coordinator, Career Guidance and Adolescent Counselling Cell, told

The Hindu .

The camp will cover various aspects of filmmaking. Exposing students to various academic and career avenues in filmmaking is among the goals of the workshop.

Once the national workshop is over, the participants will be given an opportunity to make a short film, which will be exhibited in all schools and may even compete in national and international film festivals.

Under SITAR, which was launched in 2012, a specific art form is selected as the theme annually and students with aptitude for that are extended State and national-level training in collaboration with premier institutes in the areas concerned.

Till now, students have been trained in theatre, short film, design, media, fashion technology, new media and animation and photography in partnership with august organisations such as the National School of Drama, FTII, National Institute of Design, Indian Institute of Mass Communication and Journalism, National Institute of Fashion Technology, and IIT Hyderabad.

“We have found that 70-75% of students who have undergone training under SITAR are either doing higher studies, often in the same premier institutes, or working in their chosen areas. Many of our students were able to crack the tough entrance exams of premier institutes we partner with since they had been conducting the aptitude tests in the same format of their entrance exams,” said Mr. Azeem.