Just ‘shoot’ it, guys!

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College assignments are so boring” crib students as they take out those A4 sheets and write something that’s been ripped off the Internet. But when the assignment involves taking out your handy cam and capturing things and people around you, then the project is not only challenging, but gives you an eye-opening learning experience.
Ask Avinash K. Kuduvalli, a second year BA student how his assignment is going and he says, “It’s important to delegate work unlike us! We chose not to, so everyone got involved in everything like script writing and editing, so there’s a lot of chaos now!” Avinash’s group of ten has chosen to make a film based on Roal Dahl’s Mrs Piggy And The Colonel’s Coat. “We’ve learnt a lot while working on field. Our biggest problem was getting permission to shoot outside houses and bus stand. People would look at us suspiciously! Finally, we found a bus stop to shoot at and a not so attractive house,” laughs Avinash.
Media studies student Hitha Gujjar and her team made a short film in fifth semester, which will be screened soon in their college. “It’s based on a personal incident that one of our team members experienced. It’s about how each person interprets the same incident differently based on their personality. It’s a small incident that’s blown out of proportion,” she says.
Since they had to attend college while making the film, the six girls took around a week and a half to complete the film. Hitha believes that teamwork is utterly important when it comes to filmmaking. “The people in your team should be technically knowledgeable too. I think this is one of my most challenging assignments till date, which makes it more exciting,” she says.
For final year journalism student C.S. Bhagya and her pals are making a documentary as part of their sixth semester project. “It’s about how to write a poem. Our film is interspersed with people who write poetry, both poets and lay people who pen poetry. We wanted to look at different levels of reading and expressing poetry,” she says.
Their documentary also portrays an actor who plays the persona of a poet. “We’re done with shooting the film. We’ve to move on to editing now,” says Bhagya, who believes that delegating work is important. “We have designated roles like editor, camera person, and director,” she adds. With no previous experience in filmmaking, this has been one of her best assignments till date. “Dealing with people is of utmost importance. Filmmaking is like an emotional rollercoaster. Some people can’t stand their differences and grow apart. But if it’s a positive experience, then it’s quite brilliant. It’s like a preparation for what’s out there,” says Bhagya.
Even management student like Rahul K. got a taste of filmmaking, thanks to his teacher who gave the class an opportunity to shoot a film. “This was for our advertising project. We tapped our creativity and had major fun,” he
says.