“I live in cinema. I feel I’ve lived here forever.” - Agnes Varda
A student exercise in camera movement
Vision
Film remains the most accessible yet ever-evolving narrative medium available. New technologies and contexts continue to make way for different stories and unheard voices to emerge, creating varied forms, styles, genres and viewing platforms that continually redefine and expand what films are or can be.
At SMI we see filmmaking as a creative practice that consciously engages with the ever-changing social, political, aesthetic, and cultural contexts around us. The program will nurture both new technologies and new forms and will encourage the telling of stories that reflect upon the nature of society, linking the personal with the political and the particular with the universal. It is a space for self-driven students who are keen on pursuing a line of inquiry through their filmmaking practice and achieve newer levels of fluency and sophistication. The MA program provides a framework to support this.
Course Structure
- Core and Allied Learning Units
- Self-Initiated Lines of Inquiry (Fieldwork, Case Studies, Investigations, individual or Group Projects, Research)
- Theory and Understanding
- Open Elective
- Practice
- Culminating Performances of Understanding (Portfolio, Transdisciplinary research, Projects, Colloquium, Capstone/Dissertation)
- Knowledge Enhancement (Ability Enhancement or Skills Enhancement)
- Summer Internship
- Artist Residency
Learning Approach:
Learning in the MA program is partly through course work and partly through practice-based research. The curriculum provides strategic inputs in film technique, film language, storytelling, and research methods. Engagement with the context of the chosen line of enquiry is a necessary aspect of learning. Students are encouraged to explore and develop a personal style, voice, and vision to tell their stories, through an intense engagement with the medium. The focus is on achieving an ease in using the language of film to tell nuanced stories, experiment with form and/or pose relevant questions about ourselves and the world we live in.
The MA program provides a framework that supports research and the developing of one’s film practice to newer levels of fluency and sophistication. It offers theoretical and conceptual engagement with relevant topics and discourses in film practice. It encourages independent learning with close guidance from mentors, and collaborative work with peers.
Making a documentary on weavers in Guledgudda
Program Capabilities
- Creating layers of meaning, feeling or thought through moving image
- Constructing narrative through film language
- Experimenting with technique and form
- Conceptualising and realising a film in one’s chosen form
Still from a student film
Students lighting the scene in the flower market
Opportunities
Once you graduate you have several career opportunities
- You can set up your independent film practice.
- You can work with a senior filmmaker, or in any film or media production house, television, or web streaming platforms.
- You can work as media consultant for national and international development agencies.
- You can work in media archives, or in arts and media funding organisations.
- You can continue your research and pursue a PhD in film or any allied discipline.
People
Students recording the sounds of the evening
Still from a student film
Enquiries
FAQs
It is one of the few master’s programmes in India, aimed at all those who wish to develop a film practice, or take up film as an academic or research pursuit. It is designed by practising filmmakers who combine a long and sustained practice with academic experience. Visiting film professionals offer workshops and masterclasses to enhance learning.
The course offers a comprehensive understanding of the art and craft of filmmaking. Theoretical study units and cross-disciplinary research engagements offer a broad based understanding of social, cultural, political and aesthetic contexts.
The Srishti Manipal tradition of interdisciplinary study allows students to engage with other disciplines and ongoing lines of inquiry.
You should have learnt basic filmmaking either in an academic institution or as an apprentice to a filmmaker, and should be able to show your ability through writing and/or creative work.
You should be an avid reader and a watcher of films, and excited about developing your film practice.
You will add to your existing knowledge of filmmaking by honing further the technique, art and craft of filmmaking. You will watch lots of films, critically respond to them, and engage in several making exercises that explore the finer nuances of filmmaking. You will be part of research projects along the chosen lines of enquiry, and build research skills that draw from multiple disciplines and approaches. You will engage with the history and evolution of cinema in its various contexts and with the discourse that surrounds it. You will learn to conceptualise and develop ideas, write proposals and pitch your work to facilitators and peers. At the end you will make a short film within the framework of the programme.
By the end of the course, you would have developed the capabilities required for making a film, exploring form, narrative and genre. You can be an independent filmmaker, or join an established production house or a senior filmmaker as an apprentice. You could also find work as a media professional in any corporate or development organisation. If you wish to study further, you may continue to a PhD programme within Srishti Manipal or elsewhere. In addition, there are other opportunities such as curating festivals and working in grant making organisations.