The Malhaar Film Festival, one of the year’s biggest events, has once again wowed us with another evening of delightful events. The events of day four were so illuminating that the attendees were pleased and had the best experience ever. The events began at 7:30 PM IST and ended at 12:30 PM IST.
Just like the previous evenings of the event day four of the Malhaar Film Festival had three sets of events starting from a master class by the brilliant and talented cinematographer, photographer and DOP, Nandit Desai.
Nandit developed an excellent eye and ear for sophisticated and exquisite aesthetics as a result of his early interest in cinema, music, and performing arts. Besides light, he loves playing around with audio production and is an amazing drummer and tabla player. In his master class on “Lightning for Cinema”, he made it very clear from the beginning that it would be more immersive and interactive than previous masterclasses.
With his peaceful and quiet demeanour, he has a way of putting the audience at ease. In the masterclass, he brought back marvelous recollections of his time working with the Odissi dancer Arushi Mudgal to record her performances for a project as he turned the pages of a lovely decade-long album. He described his experience to the audience saying “Arushi asked me to cover one of her performances, which turned out to be one of the most spontaneous, most organically beautiful shot of my life. There was no brief in this, which was atypical of projects of this nature. We didn’t plan anything. She kept pitching various aspects of photography to me as we shot, and obviously, I was open to anything because it was an opportunity for me to test my knowledge. It was a completely organic process for both of us.” After that, he stated that in every cinematographer’s life, there are moments when all the moments just click together. When that happens, when it all comes together beautifully, it makes you proud. It gives you the motivation you need to carry forward.
Then, moving to the real details of the masterclass, Nandit commented on the significance of lighting in storytelling saying, “Why do we light? There is no one reason but a combination of reasons. We use light to attract attention towards points of interest, to reflect the psychology of certain characters, sometimes it so happens that we shoot on indoors on set, so we use light to tell the time of day. Light has a subtle but very significant role. “
After giving an hour-long masterclass on the significance of lightning in cinema, Nandit ended his session with a heartfelt thanks to the attendees of the evening.
Moving forward to the second event of the day, which was a panel discussing focusing on the Dos and Don’ts for an indie filmmaker. The night started off with highly admired and famous guests Naima Kramer and Nia Bullock, independent producers and editors from the USA who showed off how they are crushing it when it comes to developing the distribution process and upholding the income rights of the small-budget, independent filmmakers.
In the panel discussion the duo enlightened the audience with their words of experience, saying, “As an indie filmmaker, you need to find producers who are ready to show faith in the independent filmmakers. You need smaller companies. Small companies take the smaller percentage. We’ve found that the problem with big-time producers is that they are dealing with the film hubs, not the individuals. “
But that wasn’t all the evening has the third and last event for the night starting at 11:30 PM IST to 12:30 AM IST. The last event was a master class by another expert in the field of theatre, Franciszek Kozlowski. The globally known celebrity has all kinds of titles to his name from being a Polish Sound Designer, Film Music Composer, Film Producer and Serial Award Winner, he has excelled in everything he does.
In his masterclass on “Simplified Sound Designing,” Franciszek Kozlowski highlighted the extremely fluid nature of the sound editing process. In his words, he described the process in the simplest and most personalized manner. He said, “There is no hard-bound rule in sound editing. You just got to feel the vibe of the sound when it plays in conjunction with the scene. In the shooting process, it’s just collecting material, but for me it is just inspiration. Sometimes you have to throw in everything that you have recorded. If the director and I have differing ideas on the sound, we have to have a collaborative approach to reach a decision. But for me, it’s mostly about what the film is about. It also depends on whether or not you feel the vibe that the sound brings. “
This year’s film festival’s absolutely stellar jury panel includes mega stars of cinema such as Adil Husain (national award-winning Indian actor), Rajit Kapoor (Indian actor and director), Sameer Nair (CEO of Applause Entertainment Limited), and Neeraj Kabi (self-taught Indian actor and producer), who will be a prominent part of the ten-day film festival.
The Malhaar Film Festival was inaugurated on August 19th, 2022 with a spectacular opening ceremony and masterclasses by some of the world’s most established artists and will run until August 28th, 2022. The event still has five more days left with more master classes and panel discussions lined up on the way. This year’s event has already added a new element with the introduction of NFTs as tickets. Participate in this phenomenal film festival to expand your cinematic expertise and have an unforgettable experience.