MUMBAI: The Sarvakar symposium on “Next gen cinema & TV: Digital all the way” held on 9 October addressed topics ranging from digitisation of media to the techniques of media convergence to the apt marketing of creativity. The symposium was attended by prominent media personalities.

The symposium, a part of the ongoing nationwide Sarvakar knowledge event series, was conducted by Sarvakar Visioninfinit — a platform that helps media students, media trainees and media aspirants to horn their skills with the help of media experts.

Speaking on the topic of “Image capturing: The story so far…”, Fuji Film general manager technical Ujwal N. Nirgudkar narrated the techniques where the traditional filmmaking technology can be converged with the digital filmmaking technology. He said though the resolution quality of digital prints is inferior to the normal film prints, both techologies could co-exist because of the changing scenario of filmmaking. During his session, Nirgudkar also explained the science of cinematography.

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Narendra Goel of Goel Films, speaking on “Television programming after soap opera”, invited the audience’ attention to other genres including talk shows, documentaries, sitcoms and current affairs programmes saying those genres also hold potential to replace soap operas. Goel expressed his concern at the kind of treatment being given to even award winning documentaries.

Soumitra Ranade who directed the movie Jajantharam Mamantharam spoke on “Visualising stories in special effects”. Declaring that the days of idol-adoration are over, Ranade said new methods of storytelling should be attempted to attract the audience. Terming the Indian filmmakers’ contribution to animation films uptil now as “disappointing,” Ranade said animation films which can withstand 50 or 100 years could be made only when the independent filmmaker gets the convenience of using the technology at his will.

“In the present scenario, you can’t do experimentation in stories when so much money is at stake. Once the independent filmmaker has the technology through PCs, he might be able to come up with better animation films,” offered Ranade. He said enterprising people were required for such experimentation.

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Music director Narayan Parasuram, speaking on “Music for film & television: The changing scene”, alleged that TV had been completely disrespectful to music. “The allocation of budget for music on television is absurdly low,” he pointed out. Parasuram who composed the music for Jajantharam Mamantharam and various TV shows commented the emergence of new digital technologies has made the music industry extremely democratic. “Though it is extremely tempting for music composers to use technological shortcuts, the bastardisation of the medium should be avoided,” said Parasuram.

Prof. Ujjwal K. Chowdhury shared his expertise in the field of “Media education in convergence era”. Giving a detailed presentation of the subject, Chowdhury pointed out that we had been lagging in the field of packaging and marketing though we made great advancements in the fields of creativity and technology. He narrated various aspects of convergence in the fields of media consumption, media ownership and media skills. Chowdhury also dealt on the subjects of media education, digital cinema, convergence in marketing and corporisation of the film industry.

Prof. Yogesh Mathur, a veteran film editor who had also headed the department editing – FTII Pune, spoke about the creative potential of editing while dealing with time and space. “Time and space manipulation through editing is a wonderful art,” he commented.

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Winding up the symposium Sarvakar Visioninfinit director Utpal Chowdhury stressed on the need for an increased participation in such workshops to have a better understanding of the future of media.