Introduction/ Day 1
After Success of IIT Mumbai Workshop and IIT delhi Workshop/seminar, we were invited to do the seminar at BITs Pilani. Just after finishing that one, we had the next workshop plan in IIT Roorkee, and it was probably 5 most hectic days of the year for us.
Anyhow, on top of it, we were one faculty member short in both the DFM workshop. Missed you here, Neha. The journey began With three of us, Ekta, Darshan bhai and me(Mehul).
We landed on the Indira Gandhi International air port , Delhi for pilani DFM. Indra, the god of rain, welcomed us very surprisingly with rain and chill hard snow on our way to pilani. It was pleasant and breezing journey in the political Van “ambassador” passing through green/brown hills and open fields. Pilani is about 4-5 hrs run from Delhi, and what an intriguing run that is, I must tell you. We reached pilani at 8:00 pm and found Birla Institute of Technology(BITs Pilani) quite isolated institute by far long field around for hundreds of kilometers.
We were hosted by Vaibhav Soni (workshop organiser,APOGEE 2007).We were quite impressed by BITs welcome that we received from organisors. Super-fast We got to our rooms and got freshed for the meeting / planning of DFM workshop on next day. Initially it was 9 hrs DFM workshop planning, but as we started discussing it, Vaibhav found the workshop interesting enough to extend it for more hours and somehow he managed greater resources for 18 hrs DFM workshop. So next day ahead was going to be pretty hectic one, that we all knew.
We had allotted them two days, as on third day we had to leave for DFM workshop at IIT-Roorkee. it was short time and a big goal. Our Session in the great auditorium hall started a big late due to technical difficulties, which also affected enthusiasm of people a bit, but once it started rolling, things turned pretty well. It was so astonishing that faculties like Dr. Geeta (communication ,literature,film appreciation) were there to attend the DFM workhshop.
Effectively we had advanced and improved the format of DFM for BITs. We started with our usual sessions of technicalities of film making. it was , say, kind of lenghty, as it usually is. but we tried to make it better by adding more fun elements to it. 68 participants were then divided in four groups. All participants were made to churn ideas in the group and come up with 3 min short film idea ,that too, in limited time right there in that session time. Each team had found a name for their group like “ XYZ production” and each team had assigned roles for their group members. all filmmaking theory wer done now, and it was time to do the movie. They were then quite ready for 3 min short film shoot. They had learnt all required skills for short film that they would shoot after 3 hrs breake. Excitement was absolutely running high.
We strictly told them to do production in just 1 hr of time and maximum 30 min shoot on DV Tap for 3 min short film. but as usual, when people are so engrossed in thoroughly enjoying what they do, they tend to forget time bounds. anyhow, we assisted all teams in the production wherever required. We flagged Red signal to all team at 6:30 pm, marking the end of the shooting time.
Next morning at 10:00am post production was going to start. We went back to our rooms. After some time, even though we were tired and exhausted, the invitation from APOGEE team for their cultural event called “Mithalee” , tempted us and so we went to see it. It was worth staying up, as the event was full of talent quotient and I personally loved every minute of it.
And so thus end Day 1, and we continued on to Day 2.
