Fancy a career behind the camera?

creative pursuit

Film-making is fast becoming a sought-after career option today. With more institutions and universities offering related courses, students and parents alike are happier to brave the potential uncertainty and lack of awareness of this industry.

The film industry itself is growing rapidly. Today, there are over five million people employed in the film and television business in India and the sector is outstripping the economy as a whole, growing year on year at around 15-16%. It is what you would call a ‘sunshine’ industry in India because though it has been in existence for a long time (over 100 years), it’s only now that it is beginning to reach its potential as a business, both domestically and internationally.

Film-making tends to be seen either through the lens of acting or directing as it is usually these two faculties that receive all the plaudits when a film is successful but there is a myriad of other areas which make a film a strong finished product.

Many paths

Film-making is an extremely vast subject as within films there are many specialist areas, which all have different career paths and different avenues to pursue higher studies and education. But it can be split into three areas: pre-production, production and post-production. These offer specialisations in screenwriting, direction, production, cinematography, editing, sound design and acting. Further specialisations can be sought in areas like visual effects (VFX) and production design.

Super specialisations are now beginning to emerge as well. Editing, for instance, is witnessing great traction for editors in digital asset management. This is the on-set management of the digital asset which is the film. This was never an issue when we used to shoot films on film stock but with the advent of digital film production, the management and safekeeping of the film rushes has become a highly specialised role.
There is also a hybrid role emerging between animation and direction. Storyboarding has long been a process of envisioning a film’s shot division on paper before actually shooting it on film or digital.

This has now given way to something called pre-visualisation, which combines animation with this storyboarding so that a car chase scene or a fight scene can be pre-planned on the computer before it is expensively and elaborately shot. This is a highly lucrative option for students with a strong visual eye.

Outside of the film craft area, there are various ancillary businesses which drive the film business too. Marketing and communications are of course key parts of the film industry and all areas like advertising, public relations and digital and social media are all specialist areas for the film business, with many firms offering services which directly suit the film business. These are areas that usually drive the most employment as they are growing extremely fast to meet the growing demand for films and all things film related.

Talent management is another strong ancillary area which is becoming a strong career option. Talent management and the agency system has come to India quite late, but these managers tend to handle the stars and key creative resources of the film industry, from everything related to their endorsements to their choice of films. This means a manager has to be technically sound and also well-versed with business acumen to represent their clients in extremely high net worth deals.

The event industry got its start from films and to be honest, no event in India is complete without some Bollywood flavour. With the retail and outdoor segment growing rapidly, there is a growing demand for event planners, strategists, organisers and execution specialists. People who have an intimate knowledge of film business and the technical requirements of handling live shows or shows to be broadcast, generally are best suited for this dynamic industry.

Training in film is often seen as a tertiary step, which means that once you have done one degree in film, there is little scope to do anything further. This is not at all correct. There are many Master’s courses in film in different areas, which can help students further build on their depth of knowledge on the business side as well as on the artistic and aesthetic side. This means that students from different streams can easily join Master’s level courses and increase their understanding of all areas of cinema, and improve their academic and professional prospects.

Film-making is making great strides as a strong career option because creatively-inclined students are no longer rail-roaded into taking the path of least resistance. Young India is confident in its ability and therefore more young people are willing to test that ability by following a passion in one of India’s most well-loved businesses — movies.

(The author is head of academics, Whistling Woods International,
Mumbai)