Film students get masterclass in Art Direction at workshop

By Hadassah Mani Bandi

The Times School of Media held a five-day-long art direction workshop for Bachelors’ and Postgraduate diploma film students. The workshop started on April 17, Monday, and concluded on April 21, Friday. The last day of the workshop was reserved for a day-long shoot on the sets that the students had made as part of their art direction and set making workshop.
The workshop included theoretical lectures and practical work. Mr. Soumitra Dasgupta, a professional from the filmmaking industry and a professor of Film Studies at The Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, gave lectures and guided the students on how to build a set for a film.

“I want to share my knowledge and experience in the film industry with the students, so when I was invited by Professor Gauri Chakraborty to the art direction workshop, I was happy to come. We all have to start from somewhere and this opportunity of building and shooting on set is a good starting point for the students,” said Mr. Soumitra Dasgupta.

The workshop’s goal was to help guide the students on how to select a location, and covert a location according to the requirements of a film.

“The idea was to help them learn how to create a different world, a world they needed for their project. We selected a location inside a building with a lot of open space and converted the corner into a small café. The students are hardworking, and it helped in the process of planning and completing the set, ” said Mr. Soumitra Dasgupta.


In the workshop, the students had to shoot a lip-sync music video of an old song. For the purpose of the shoot, they created a café using materials available around campus. They made walls using old flex boards, plywood for window frames, and paper plates for décor, and they attached origami to the walls.

“This workshop helped us learn how to improvise. We didn’t have cement to build a wall, so we used an old flex board and painted over it. Usually, we only think of aesthetics but in this art direction workshop we also had to consider how everything would look on camera as we put it together,” said Aaradhana Rawat a BAFTW second-year student.


“The first day of the workshop was a theoretical lecture which was informative and helpful in understanding the topic, but I couldn’t wait for the practical part of the workshop to start where we would build the set. Building the set was fun and knowing we are going to be shooting on the set we created was exciting,” said Vidisha Kaushal, a BAFTW second-year student.

Film Studies is a course that requires an understanding of the theory through lectures, but students also need to have guidance in the practical working of the subject.

“Film programs are intended to train a student in the practice and also rejoice in the theoretical base of the craft. Workshops are an effective tool for training film students. So when it comes to art direction it cannot be taught in a scattershot arrangement, so the faculty and I decided to bring in Mr. Soumitra Dasgupta, a veteran from the industry, who has had experience on sets to guide the students,” said Professor Gauri Chakraborty.

(The writer is a Semester IV student of BA (Journalism and Mass Communication) programme.)