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Professionals complaining about a shortage of institutes
to impart training in the field of film and television finally
have something to look forward to. Digital Academy, which
claims to be India’s premier television and film-making
institute, will open on 5 April with a career fair.
The
institute is the brainchild of Kartikeya Talreja who will
be the managing director. Talreja says that the idea came
about due to a lack of trained professionals in the entertainment
industry. The venture has received the backing of his father
Basant Talreja.
An
official release informs that Digital Academy positions
itself as somewhere between the extremes of a university
and a career institute. The objective is to provide short
intensive curriculum offering basic to specialised courses
covering all aspects of film-making. These will benefit
the novice as well as the serious film-maker. Offerings
will also be related to pre-production, production and post-production
in filmmaking the release states.
Elaborating
on the strategy, Talreja made the following remarks: “The
Digital Academy is located at Andheri East between Seepz
and Tunga Paradise Hotel, MIDC. It is housed in the Gemini
Studio complex where we have our production facility - a
building of four floors with expansion capabilities of three
more floors."
"Digital
Academy will offer extensive hands-on, practical oriented
training. And our students will get to make a demo feature
film as part of their course, encouraging them to start
off as independent film-makers by the end of their course.
"Other
sections of the campus houses a mini theatre with the finest
equipment for projection and to reproduce sound at its best
in acoustic surroundings, a faculty room, a well furbished
library, a digital editing suite, digital sound editing
and recording suite.
"Special subject class rooms including over a 1000 sq ft
dedicated to the acting and direction classes with web cast
facility, each of the class rooms are being cabled for networking
and to recieve the broadband signal whenever they arrive
and a cafetaria.
"The
building houses all the facilities, props, shooting equipments,
make up rooms, special effects and editing suites, DV cameras
and other equipment required to make a complete film without
stepping out of the building.
"The
institute will be ready for operations on 5 April 2002.
At the moment we are giving the finishing touches to all
designs. We would like to put this on record that 70 per
of Digital Academy’s faculty are full time employers while
30 per cent of the faculty members will be on our Guest
Board.
"Besides
this Digital Academy will also have visiting artist and
technicians who will be giving lectures and conducting seminars.
At any given time a minimum of eight full time faculty will
be on the premises. The total staff strength will be around
30."
Talreja said the Digital Academy’s efforts will be supported
by industry professionals and celebrities, including ex-FTII
graduates, as faculty members. Digital Academy’s large investment
will house bleeding age technology machinery to assist the
students to make a feature film on a shoe-string budget.
Elaborating
on course content, Talreja says the academy would be offering
two main courses besides specialised elective courses. The
academy is offering The Film Appreciation Course & The Foundation
Course and various specialised courses. The Home Film Essentials
Course is targeted at housewives who are curious about the
world of film. The Little Actors Course can be taken up
by little children during vacation time.
Regarding
the response Kartikeya says: "We expect to enroll and train
1200 students in the first year of operations with plans
to expand through a carefully chosen franchisees. Once franchisees
are in place we expect to train another 1200 students."
One
of the prominent guest faculty who would be giving lectures
at Digital Academy is Prayag Raj, a writer who has long
been associated with Merchant Ivory Films, as well as having
scripted Bollywood blockbuster films like Coolie
and Amar Akbar Anthony, Talreja says.
The
various courses offered by Digital Academy are intensive
period courses. The courses will run for about three months,
five days a week non-stop for six hours a day in two batches.
The Foundation as well as the various specialisation courses
will run for three months each, according to Talreja.
The
career fair is being held on 5,6, and 7 April. For details
call 022-6901427 or send an email to response@digitalacademy.info.
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