FTII ORIENTATION
Once you clear the written test, you are selected for the next round i.e. Orientation & Interview which last about a week. Usually about 40 people will get selected for this second round. Since i had no idea going in about what to expect, i am writing a detailed overview of the Orientation & Interview for the 1 YEAR CERTIFICATE COURSE OF FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY WRITING.
P.S. The orientation for all the courses are almost the same, only the assignments will differ. They will test your knowledge of understanding movies & the specific branch you have applied in.
So let’s just jump right in.
Day 1.
First day is a casual getting to know each other day. There are no assignments on the first day. The only thing that you will do is get all the mentioned documents verified and do the medical test.
Verification: Please do not take this lightly because they are very through in their document checks. Get the original and a self attested copy of each document and 2 passport sized photographs. The reason i say don’t take this lightly is because out of the 41 people who were shortlisted for the Orientation & Interview, 10 got disqualified because they did not have the proper documents. It was really disheartening for them as they had qualified so far and were disqualified because of such a small reason. I would add that this is no fault of FTII as they mention everything properly in the prospectus. Hence i would suggest, read the Prospectus very very carefully.
Medical test: While half the people get their documents verified, other half will go for a medical test. It i just a regular check up. First they will test your eyesight by asking you to read letters like when you go to an eye specialist from far and nearby. Second eye test is to check whether or not you are cooler blind. After that, the doctor will test your BP, Weight, Height, Lung capacity, Ears and Heart rate. very casual test. Once you get the medical certificate and documents verified, you are done for the day.
Day 2.
This is where the real shit begins. Our day began with a small introduction about FTII and the course by one of the Assistant Professors, Ketki Pandit. She welcomed us to the course and after her, Anjum Rajabali sir gave the Introductory lecture, where in he basically prepared us for the Orientation and the course if we are selected. He spoke about FTII in general and also explained the basics of screenwriting. It was a very introductory lecture. He will ask each and everyone some question. He is a very funny guy and the lecture is vert casual but hell lot informative than anything i have ever attended about writing. After the lecture, we were shown a French short film, The Chicken and a discussion followed about it. We analysed it and spoke about the story, the characters, the mood, etc. Sir Anjum gave some amazing insights into analysing films which will stay with us forever.
After the lunch break, was our first writing Assignment. We were made to write, in 4 pages & in 1 hour about the Most powerful event in our life. This had to be a real event and were not allowed to fictionalise anything. The Second assignment was continuation of the first one. We had to write the same event in terms of scenes & dialogues and here we had the freedom to add fictional elements to it. Though we were given only 6 pages. SO we had to keep the dialogues to a minimum. Time allotted for this was 1.5 hours.
Day 3.
We were shown a short film by an ex-FTII student. This film will not be your typical short films. It had an artsy curve to it. The first group discussion was based on this movie. We were divided into 4 groups go 8 each. Hence the GD was very personal. We were asked different questions and also asked to express our views about the movie. An important thing to notice was that, one of the 2 people who conducted the GD watched the film first time with us. Hence he had seen the same thing as we had. Also, the discussion was very casual and we were reaffirmed when he said that it was okay if we did not understand the film, These are not the kind of films one sees outside of a film institute. That was a real breather. Because i frankly, had not understood the film totally.
Post lunch we had a small exercise, on which we were not graded, but was important for the assignment that followed.
We were shown a series of images and asked to mention the feeling we get after seeing the picture. It was a group exercise and again, very casual.
The reason the image exercise was carried because the next assignment involved us making an image by describing the feeling in words.
Each of us were given cheats which had 2 different words. These words were a feeling. For example i got Guilt & Friendship. What we had to do, was construct a still imagine in words; one for Guilt and one for Friendship, both independent of each other. So when the examiner reads what you had written, the feeling that you have described gets invoked. You cannot use the word you got in the explanation. This was one challenging exercise.
This was followed by what i feel was a very difficult assignment. We were given 1.5 hours to write a feature length story in 4 pages. Explaining the best way you can. There was no restriction of genre. We could write anything we wanted as long as the story gets conveyed in the given pages and time.
After this, we were shown the film “Maqbool” by Vishal Bharadwaj and that ended the day.
Day 4.
This was the light exercise of the orientation stage. Group discussion based on the movie we watched last night, “Maqbool”. It was similar to the first one, though this lasted longer and in this case everyone had more to speak as this was a movie we understood more then the short film we were shown. Again, this was very casual.
This ended the exercises. Post lunch we all were briefed about what exactly the course it about and what we will be doind throughout. The current batch was present to answer any of out questions. So at the end of day 4, we had a clear idea of what we are in for if we get selected.
A thing to add is, there is no need to worry at any stage. All the discussions are very casual and the faulty is very friendly and supportive.You can go and talk to them anytime. No-one takes themselves seriously and they see everyone as equals, regardless of how many times you have appeared for the exams or what your education or age is. In my batch, there were people from all over India, aged from 21 to 40 years. We all had different educational backgrounds but the same love for films.
