Workshop on independent filmmaking

It is a familiar story — a filmmaker struggling to find funds to finish what he had begun so earnestly. Nearly everyone who has become anything in the industry would have anecdotes of those first difficult days. Don Palathara has been facing it for a while now, hoping to finish Vithu or Seed, his second film after the critically acclaimed first — Savam. Vithu is about a father and a son, the differences that come out of two generations, in their values and perceptions. After listening to a few friends and well-wishers, Don has come up with a plan. He will extend his crowd funding campaign to a filmmaking workshop in Kochi. But it’s got a prefix — independent.

“I wanted it so because this is for those who have no high-end equipments, those who wish to make a low-budget film,” Don says. After all these days, there’d be a thing or two he could pass on to the aspiring new filmmakers, on how to deal with the difficult days. He has roped in parallel filmmakers from the industry too. Independent film connoisseurs like Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, Sajin Baabu, Prathap Joseph, Jiju Antony, Sandeep Kurissery, Amrith Shankar and Basil Joseph will lead the workshop that will begin on February 1 at the Sacred Heart College, Thevara.

“There will be classes on the different areas of filmmaking such as scripting, cinematography, editing, direction, as well as training to understand location sound and music,” adds Don. At the end of the workshop, which will last 10 to 11 days, three scripts by the participants will be developed into short films. “We are restricting the number of participants to 18, so it’d be three teams of six each.”

For details on the workshop, contact Don on 9495565342 or donreplies@gmail.com.