How The Deed Was Done

After a great deal of procrastination, four days to be precise, I have finally sat myself down to write my impression of the first Frame TwoFive meeting in Mumbai on the 4th of feb at the NCPA.

To be honest, I was somewhat looking forward to this meeting... it had been some time since I'd connected with the mothership (as Kavita calls it). So there we were on an unusually windy evening in mumbai at the NCPA, students and ex-students trickling in steadily and before we knew it 30 odd people had gathered.

The first thing on the agenda was to find a suitably non-windy place to have the meeting. That done, we all sat down and Arun introduced the concept of Frame TwoFive. People on this forum already know what Frame TwoFive is about. Even I knew about it before I had gone for this meeting, but the experience of huddling around with fellow students and hearing Arun's call-to-action-in-the-name-of-love-cinema-and-NID made the idea more vivid and engaging.

Arun's speech was reminiscent of Mel Gibson's in Braveheart. A spirited effort to regroup and channelize the energies of a scattered group of individuals to a common cause, that in the end would benefit all. And, like true Scotsmen, once the meeting got over, we were all left with the big question- "Where can we get some beers?"

Jokes aside, Arun has done his bit, and its a fantastic thing he has done by getting us all to meet. Now the onus is ours.The next meeting of Frame TwoFive shall be organised jointly by Hitesh and myself, sometime around the end of February. And for all you Scotsmen out there... "the beers are in the fridge!"

- Pryas Gupta

Hungama Bombay Ishtyle

THE MISCHIEF MAKERS:

Chitra Sharma
Deepali Kane
Geetika Juyal
Hitesh Kewalya
Mrudangi Jasani
Nirmala Nair
Partha Chakrabarty
Pia Goswamy
Pryas Gupta
Rajat Nagpal
Rohit Dubey
Ruchi Bakshi
Shwetabh Verma
Junuka Deshpande
Pallavi Arora
Megha Lakhani
Akhila Krishnan

Siddharth Gautam Singh

Aastha Gohil
Prachi Mokashi
Sarah Dacosta
Sushmeit Nambiar
Yaatra Dvivedi

Aditi Banerjee
Ahsam K.R.
Milann John
Prahlad Gopakumar
Ujjwal Utkarsh
Udayraj P.J.

Arun Gupta

Photo: Pryas Gupta

Scriptwriting in Goa :)

India Screenwriting Workshop
17 March - 23 March 2008, Goa

http://www.britishcouncil.org/india-arts-screenwriting.htm?mtklink=india-arts-screenwriting

Last date for Submission of Applications - 11 Feb 2008

"The difference between life and the movies is that a script has to make sense, and life doesn't."
Joseph L. Mankiewicz

ATTENTION: All writers with a story inside that is trying to get out. Got a great story but don't know how to start a screenplay?

Here is a writing lab for people who have stories to tell….

The India Screenwriting Workshop is designed for aspiring screenwriters to interact in group and individual sessions with Screenwriters of international repute, with the aim of developing their own writing skills. The workshop will focus on the written work of the writers, examining their immediate story concerns and overall screenwriting craft. Writers will also interact with Industry Producers with the aim of developing the skill to pitch their stories compellingly.

WORKSHOP OUTLINE
This workshop will be led by 2 Principal Mentors each of whom is a screen-writer of repute and is inspired to share their experience and guide young writers to shape their craft. 3 Writer/Directors will feature as Guest Mentors and Industry Producers will conduct sessions on Pitching the Script. Besides lectures, Q and A sessions and screenings, each participant will get two individual feedback discussions with Mentors. At the end of the workshop, a seed grant will be awarded to the writers whose stories show the best potential for development into a quality screenplay. This grant is to support the writers to complete their screenplays in a stipulated period of time in which they will also receive two rounds of feedback from their Mentors. The awardees will also be required to create a short video pitch of their screenplay. Judgments on submissions will be made by a jury of Mentors and the Program Directors and their decision will be final.

Principal Mentors:

SABRINA DHAWAN, writer of Monsoon Wedding and Associate professor inScreenwriting at the Tisch School of Arts

PAROMITA VOHRA, writer of Khamosh Pani and Visiting faculty forScriptwriting at Sophiya College, Mumbai.

Proposed Guest Mentors:

Shekhar Kapoor
Vishal Bhardwaj
Abbas Tyrewala
John Newbigin
Ian Iqbal Rashid
B R Sharan, Saregama India Limited

Program Director:
Natasha Badhwar

Executive Director:
Nila Madhab Panda

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE:
This workshop will be held over 7 days from 17 March to 23 March at The International Centre, Goa.

TIMELINE:
Last date for Submission of Applications > 11 Feb 2008
Announcement of shortlist of Participants chosen for Workshop > 28 Feb 2008
Screenwriting Workshop in Goa > 17 March-23 March
Announcement of Seed Grant Awardees > 23 March 2008

APPLICATION FORM:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/india-arts-screenwriting-appl.pdf

The India Screenwriting Workshop 2008 is funded by the British Council India.
Corporate Partner: Saregama India Limited
Organized by: Eleeanora Images.

Letter from Washington

ola!!

In these days where we live such insular self focussed lives, its so incredibly good to know that Arun is promoting a platform to connect for the sheer joy of it.

Gracias muchly, Arun and all who care enough to be enthusiastic about life.

Love,
Lekha Washington

Re: Delhi Calling

Hi Everybody!

Definitely a great idea to catch up for frame twofive meet in Delhi.

Pls. do let me know the venue and time.

Anupam Mishra
------------------------

Hi everyone,

I am in Delhi and would be happy to help with the gathering in Delhi. Let me know. Weekends are good for me. I wil be back in Delhi on the 17th Feb from MIFF and can pitch in with my TV and DVD player.

Love,
Vaani
------------------------

hi everyone!

well, quite a few of us are in delhi and it'll be a good idea to meet up and take the interaction forward!

it's good to read the detailed n fun descriptions of group meetings taking place in bangalore etc...

samreth, namrata, bhavana, shagun, roopal and tarun, please do respond!

cheers!
megha mathur

Delhi Calling

Hello to everyone and a very happy new year!

The purpose of this message is to

a) acknowledge the effort being made by this group to keep alive a certain spirit of discussion and dialogue.

b) to find out who are the frame TwoFive members currently residing in Delhi.....so that we can have our own frame TwoFive meet one of these days because frankly i'm feeling quite left out :D

So if Delhi members would be so kind as to reply to this message with email ids we could fix up a date. Even people who are likely to be in Delhi in the near future should reply.

Another piece of information for those who are interested > The Tri-Continental Film Festival 2008 : Human Rights in Frames is being held in Delhi at the Stein Auditorium in Habitat Centre from Jan 18-21.

THE FESTIVAL IS OPEN TO NON FILM CLUB MEMBERS AS WELL.

OPENING FILM "ITS ALWAYS LATE FOR FREEDOM " (Iran) Informs the viewer about the profound social problems in Iran through the eyes of three teenage boys in a correction centre in Tehran.
HABITAT CENTRE - 18 JANUARY 6.45PM - STEIN AUDITORIUM

For a detailed schedule check out the website

http://breakthrough.tv/event_details.asp?eventid=216&id=4

So here's hoping a Frame TwoFive gathering will take shape in Delhi. The weather is nice, the sun is out...it should be fun!

Love
Mandakini

Re: Bengalooru-ed

I must say that when communities are losing human touch and getting confined to virtual spaces, the attempt made by frame twofive is an incredible one - to bring back the concept of ideas to be discussed through the spoken word and not the written one. I wish I was there in person to say this. Kudos!!!

- Rajat Nagpal

Bengalooru-ed

L-R > Shami (Kavita's hubby), Kavita, Vasu (aka Swarathma Sai Baba), Aloke, Arun, Chinmayi, Aditya (IDD), Geetika and Bharani

Pic: Geetika's Mac

Kavita Arvind
Mon Jan 7, 2008

Last Saturday (once removed) was unusual. It saw a motley bunch of people who shared some things in common share a few moments that were as nostalgic as they were interesting. Frame twofive met in Bangalore.

So it follows that the commonalities were the love of cinema and NID. Forefront among the not so 'commonalities' being Vasu's new hairdo.

I cannot deny that I went to the meet with some aspersions. The only bait that got me going was the opportunity to meet fellow NIDians (the connections with the mothership run deep) and the fact that I was terrified of incurring Arun's wrath and his follow up phone calls!

I reached earlier than the others as usual and waited at Barista's at MG Road. Arun was the next to reach. His enthusiastic grin was infectious. Soon Vasu, Vasu's fellow band mate (Pavan), Chinmayi, Bharani, Aloke, Aditya (IDD) and Geetika made their appearance.

Conversation of any kind at Barista's MG Road is quite difficult, especially when the collective age of the patrons at the cafe doesn't quite add up to your own, so we drifted to my most favorite place in Bangalore - India Coffee House.

Over several cups of bitter-sweet coffee, Arun spoke about frame twofive and what he hoped this meeting would eventually lead to. An informal platform of NID film and video graduates who could share ideas, their love of cinema, films, conversations... gradually expanding to include their friends, anybody who loves cinema and could bring something of value to the group.

The conversation flowed, the idea was exciting. We spoke of ways of bringing in more meaning to what frame twofive could do, in terms of eventually giving an added impetus to the film department at NID and its rapidly expanding fraternity.

I found the meet rejuvenating; it is always interesting to meet people you have seen as students or perhaps even taught as students in their new avataars as working professionals. It is nice to know that in whatever little way, you have been part of their journey.

We moved from India Coffee House to my home. We needed a quieter place to watch some films. Armed with several beers, we hijacked the television and plonked ourselves in front of it, thus disrupting any plans that Shami could have had of watching Manchester United strut their stuff.

Arun showed us a compilation of the project-1 of students who had graduated in 2007 (project-1 is the first independent film that a student makes, it can be either an advertisement or a public service ad). We also looked at Bharani, Chinmayi and Vasu's Project-1; and my batch's first group project.

What followed were debates on juries; discussions on whether a film should be seen in the context of its film maker or not; on the film makers themselves, some of whom were present in the group.

On a more personal note, it was interesting to watch the film my batch had made as long back as 1997. We never finished the film; in fact we were so unhappy with the film that we did not even put in any credits to it. I had written the story and the script for this film and I felt moved to see the potential in this film 10 years later. I could not help but wish that we had dug our heels in and seen this film to completion.

Though the frame twofive meet at Bangalore started with no intentions of purpose, but perhaps more of curiosity and connectedness to the institute... the form that the evening eventually took was quite beautiful, even magical in a way. it seemed as if a bubble enveloped us, a bubble of common stories, journeys shared, ideas acknowledged, films made, films that worked and those that did not; there was this bond, fragile but a bond nevertheless, that wove us together.

To be honest, I am not sure if we will meet again in the same spirit, I hope that we do.

More importantly, I hope that frame twofive is able to look beyond familiarity and the confines of NID. I would love to see this platform expand to include people from other disciplines, without labels of any kind, but very simply with sensitivity and sensibility to a story told well.