Mumbai, India, April 21, 2009: In a unique initiative, Whistling Woods International (WWI), Asia's largest Film, Television, Animation and Media Arts Institute today announced that it has associated with the Leeds Metropolitan University, UK for a four week practical course called Bollywood Snapshot., (number of students) undergraduates from Leeds University recently visited the WWI campus to take part in a four week study placement.
Bollywood Snapshot -a short theoretical and practical course- introduced the 2nd year film students from Leeds University to the cultural context, styles and characteristics of Hindi cinema and film production in Mumbai.
During this course, Leeds University students got an insight of historical and cultural contexts of both commercial and parallel Indian cinemas through 16 hours of lectures and screenings. They interacted and worked with industry professionals while successfully completing project on Z1P cameras wherein students had to write, produce and edit a short film. Whistling Woods International exposed the students to film production in Mumbai, furthered their practical skills and developed their knowledge of crew roles in a different cultural environment.
Expressing his excitement on the association Mr. John Jr. Lee/ Meghna Ghai- Puri said, "There is a great deal of interest in Indian cinema especially in the UK. We believe creating a model like Bollywood Snapshot gives students a realistic experience as opposed to an illusionary one. The exchanges will play a critical role in the kind of movies that'll be produced in the future. I am really keen to see what the next generation of film-makers having such strong exposure bring to the audience. "
In order to familiarize students with equipment and techniques the course had about 60 hours of lectures in Direction, Production, Editing and Cinematography. Students had 2 days to shoot their movies and 2 days for post production. They shot two short films based on the following topics:
Brief 1:
Raj, an uninvited guest from the slums enters the Bollywood factory chasing stardom but ends up meeting up one instead on his way out.
Brief 2:
Two aspiring Bollywood troup dancers, Annabelle and Vanita, train and cat fight in a series of daily auditions. Annabelle stops competing the moment she finds out that Vanita is not quite the 'girl' she thought 'her' to be.
About Whistling Woods International
Promoted by Subhash Ghai, Mukta Arts Ltd & Film City, Mumbai, Whistling Woods International (WWI) is Asia's largest Film, Television, Animation and Media Arts institute. WWI provides world-class education in all technical and creative aspects of filmmaking and television through 2-year, full-time residential programs in 8 specializations namely Acting, Animation, Producing, Cinematography, Direction, Editing, Screenwriting & Sound.
The full-time faculty of WWI is a body of academics and industry professionals (like Subhash Ghai, Naseeruddin Shah, Rajen Kothari, Anjum Rajabali,Samar Khan etc), with regular guest lectures by leading film-makers, actors & technicians (like Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra, Vishal Bharadwaj, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Ashok Amritraj, Shyam Benegal, Madhuri Dixit, Govind Nihalani, Farah Khan, Makarand Deshpande, Farhan Akhtar, Neeta Lulla, Rajkumar Hirani, Nagesh Kukunoor, etc).
WWI has initiated affiliations with several international film schools like the Griffith University, Australia, Seneca, Canada, The Norwegian Film Institute, Bradford College & Deakin University, Australia. WWI is also in advanced talks with several top-tier film-schools from the USA, UK & Canada, with finalized agreements with these schools expected shortly.
All in all, WWI strongly marches towards becoming THE place for media education in Asia, if not the world. For more information, please visit www.whistlingwoods.net.
About Leeds Metropolitan University
Leeds Metropolitan University is striving to be a world-class regional university, with world-wide horizons, using all our talents to the full. It is one of the largest universities in the country, with around 30,000 students and 3,000 staff. They have two contrasting learning environments in Leeds, the traditional setting of one campus in the world famous sporting area of Headingley and one intertwined with the business, health, civic and entertainment quarters of Leeds.
They also are developing in partnership opportunities to study locally across the North. Its regional university network involves fourteen partner colleges, from Newcastle to Nottinghamshire and from Grimsby to Belfast, with over 300,000 students between them. Together, they are creating on this side of the Atlantic the equivalent of a major American state university system, which they term a Great North Uni.
Leeds Met has brought together some of the great names in British higher education, such as Carnegie which stands for excellence in sport and education and the Leeds College of Art, where Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth studied. They met at what is now Leeds Met. For more information, please visit www.leedsmet.ac.uk |
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