Pune: As a part of the exchange programme with Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, three final year students of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Pune, have left for Australia on Monday.
The students, all from 2016 batch of three-year post-graduate specialisations, are Sanskriti Chattopadhyay (Direction and Screenplay Writing), P Kumaara Swaamy (Cinematography) and Nitin R (Sound Recording and Sound Design). After a two-week exchange programme, they will return to the campus on July 7.
FTII Director Bhupendra Kainthola informed that under the programme, FTII students will rub shoulders with their counterparts from the region’s most prestigious and highly regarded film schools, including Beijing Film Academy, Tokyo University of the Arts, International Film School of Cologne, Nanyang Polytechnic and Nanyang Technological University of Singapore and University of New South Wales besides Griffith Film School.
“This year on offer is an expanded programme that will include specialist labs in screenplay writing and innovation to explore new and immersive forms of storytelling,” Kainthola added.
Every year up to 60 film and animation students from around the world head to the iconic Australian Outback for an intensive programme of production, masterclasses and festival screenings. Film and animation students are challenged to pitch and produce a short film and screen them. Students engage intensively in the programme, volunteer at screenings and events, participate in industry masterclasses and collaborate with the special guest directors, actors and other creative professionals. After two days of immersive workshops, students pitch their concepts and then collaborate to write, shoot and cut live-action and animated films.
This is the second year in a row that FTII students are participating in the exchange programme which was formalised in 2018. This year 12 Griffith University students and two teachers had visited FTII.
About the students
P Kumaara Swaamy has taken a Masters Degree in Fine Arts with a gold medal from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Hyderabad, ahead of entering FTII. Besides being a university topper, Kumaara Swaamy has won six gold medals from various photographic societies. He has also bagged the Andhra Pradesh State Government award for best cinematographer of a short film.
Nitin R graduated in automobile engineering from Kerala University before joining FTII. His documentary project Aagaswadi (Village in the Sky) has been doing well in the domestic and overseas festival circuit.
Sanskriti Chattopadhyay has a Masters in Cultural Studies from English and Foreign Language University, Hyderabad, where she also studied linguistics. As former research fellow in Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities, Manipal University, her research area focused on literary, cultural and visual studies.