Indian Cinema - Bollywood Snapshots

Training/Coaching/Tuition by Whistling Woods International Mumbai View Contact

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We want you, to explore the dynamics of the Mumbai film industry through working with professionals and through comparing Commercial Cinema with Indian Art and Parallel Cinemas, unraveling and exploring new trends and practices. Studying in India as part of your life experience, or your education, is an opportunity not to be missed. You can stay in Mumbai for a month and experience Indian culture, the Mumbai Film Industry and produce a short film while immersing yourself in one of the most vibrant and modern cities of India. Whistling Woods International invites you to experience our exciting programme Indian Cinema-Bollywood Snapshots in the heart of Film City.

Indian Cinema - Bollywood Snapshots is a short theoretical and practical course that will introduce international students to the cultural context, styles and characteristics of Hindi cinema and to film production in Mumbai.

During the course participants will:

1. Get an insight of historical and cultural contexts of both commercial and parallel Indian cinemas through 16 hours of lectures and screenings.
2. Familiarise themselves with film making equipments and techniques through approximately 60 hours of lectures in Direction, Production, Editing and Cinematography.
3. Write, produce and edit a short film, or music video, shot on Z1P cameras.
4. Interact and work with industry professionals while successfully completing their short films.
5. Attend Yoga & Dance classes
6. Get access to selected Film Screenings
7. Visit Film Sets & Shoots

Participants will attend approximately 6 to 8 hours of classes a day for five days a week. Two days of the course will be dedicated to shooting their projects and two days will be utilised for post production.

Faculty

O S Gupta
Somnath Sen
D Woods
Anil Zankar
Umesh Gupta
Anjum Rajabali
Ravi Gupta

Application Procedure & Fees

To apply for Indian Cinema - Bollywood Snapshots you must get in touch with Affiliations department at Whistling Woods International and send your CV and Statement of Purpose explaining what areas of film making you would like to explore during the programme.

WWI runs Indian Cinema - Bollywood Snapshots upon group request (minimum 10) and twice a year in December/January and May/June. Please contact Affiliations for exact dates.

Whistling Woods International

The Institute

Founded by one of the India’s leading filmmakers – Subhash Ghai and is promoted by Mukta Arts Limited & Filmcity Mumbai. Whistling Woods International(WWI) is Asia’s largest Film, Television, Animation and Media Arts institute, providing world-class education in all technical and creative aspects of filmmaking and television.

Whistling Woods has also been rated amongst the top 10 film schools in the world by ‘The Hollywood Reporter’, alongwith institutes like NYU Tisch, NFTS, FAMU & AFTRS. WWI was the youngest school to be featured in that list.

The WWI Mumbai campus is located inside Mumbai’s film & television production hub ‘Filmcity’, and offers courses that vary in duration from 1 year to 3 years, both full-time and part time in nature. All the major specializations of the Media & Entertainment industry are catered to, including Acting, Animation, Cinematography, Direction, Editing, Producing, Screenwriting, Sound and Media Studies. WWI also offers India’s first MBA in Media & Entertainment and India’s first MBA in Media & Communication.

The full-time faculty of WWI is a body of academics and renowned industry professionals like Subhash Ghai, Rajen Kothari, M Krishhnamurthy, Rob Reece, Anjum Rajabali, Rakesh Ranjan, Ashmaki Acharya, Somnath Sen, Samar Khan, Prashant Naik, Yusuf Mehta, Dhananjay Khore with regular guest lectures by leading Indian & International filmmakers, actors & technicians like Ashutosh Gowarikar (Director of oscar-nominated ‘Lagaan’), Farhan Akhtar, Ashok Amritraj, Shyam Benegal, Naseeruddin Shah, Danny Boyle (academy award winner for Slumdog Millionaire), Rajkumar Hirani, Rakeysh Mehra, Vishal Bharadwaj, Farah Khan, Nagesh Kukunoor, Shelley Page (head of international outreach for Dreamworks Animation), and several more. Students at Whistling Woods, hence, have a unique opportunity to interact on one-on-one basis with some of the most successful professionals in the Indian film industry.

The courses at WWI are designed to ensure that the students’ learning is collaborative and industry oriented. The curriculum at WWI is a unique hybrid of theoretical and practical aspects and ensuring that the creative dovetails well with the business aspects. All students also undergo rigorous study in several co-curricular faculties like Film Appreciation, International Art Literature Culture, Production Design & Music.

These unique elements in the curriculum & the teaching methodology have seen WWI’s student body growing over three times over the past three years. Further, almost 15% of the student body now comprises of International students, from the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Italy, France, Holland, Vietnam and others who choose WWI over the multiple film-studies options available in their own countries.

The Institute is also highly committed to ensuring that its students move into the industry in creative and rewarding areas of employment. WWI alumni are currently working at several leading media organisations like Aamir Khan Productions, Annapurna Studios, BIG Animation, Balaji Telefilms, Dharma Productions, Dreamworks, Excel Entertainment, Fox Star Studios India, Mukta Arts Ltd, Percept Picture Company, Prime Focus, Rajshri, Red Chillies Entertainment, Reliance Mediaworks, Rhythmn & Hues, Star TV, Technicolour, Walkwater Film, UTV Motion Pictures, Yashraj Films and several more.

In early 2011, The Sony Media technology Center – a global Center of Excellence established by Sony Corp. & WWI and located at the WWI campus in Filmcity, Mumbai was inaugurated by Sir Howard Stringer (Chairman, CEO & President, Sony Corp.). Sony has recognised WWI as a leader in the Media & Entertainment education sector in Asia, decided to partner with the institute for setup of the same. This follows Sony’s two other centers in London & LA and is the only one that has been setup in association with another organization, the first two being standalone centers. The Sony Media technology Center (SMTC) at WWI will focus on new and emerging technology in the fields of High Definition filmmaking, 3D filmmaking, High Definition Exhibition and HD Broadcast. Sony has equipped the WWI Mumbai campus with the latest technology in both HD filmmaking & 3D filmmaking and will also be stationing on campus their global subject matter experts from whom WWI students would learn a great deal.

In 2010, WWI was accepted as a full member of CILECT (Centre International de Liaison des Ecoles de Cinéma et de Télévision) – a global association of film schools, which lays very high standards on admitting members (there are only 150 members of CILECT). This membership has enabled huge expansion in WWI’s international operations with student & faculty exchanges been planned with the best film schools in the world. In the past as well, WWI has initiated affiliations with several global film schools, including first-ever-in-India activities like International student co-productions. Some of the schools that we have undertaken these activities with are Deakin & Griffith in Australia, Bradford College UK, Syracuse University USA & NYU Tisch Asia.

In a major step in secondary education in India, WWI was invited to partner with India’s premier High School Board - the CBSE board by the Ministry of Human Resource Development - Government of India to design a Media Studies curriculum for the country’s primary High School board (the CBSE board). WWI has prepared the curriculum, teaching methodology & is undertaking teacher-training for the ‘Media Studies’ elective in the 11th & 12th grade.

With the Mumbai campus operational since July 2006 and the student body having grown from 90 to 350 over 3 years, WWI is strongly looking at expansion both in terms of course verticals and campuses.

The above is just a snapshot of what Whistling Woods International has achieved in the short span of five years and the institution strongly marches on its way to fulfilling it’s goal – to be the institute of choice for media education globally.