"CELEBRATING LIFE" FILMMAKING WORKSHOP 2019

Bangladesh is a beautiful land brimming with talented individuals in many different fields. Despite the celebrations involving music, dance and culture in Bangladesh, the unsung talents in the fields of film, photography and lyric-writing seldom receive the proper platform to showcase their potential. The Daily Star-Standard Chartered Celebrating Life arrived on the scene to remedy this predicament, taking its place as the premier national competition that highlights budding and established filmmakers, photographers and lyricists all over the country. A part of this initiative is the Filmmaking Workshop. The Filmmaking Workshop was designed to help new filmmakers, by giving them tips about the craft of filmmaking. Many young filmmakers still face a lot of problems, so to help them, renowned filmmakers come to the workshop to guide them. The late great director Tareque Masud was involved with the Filmmaking Workshop right from the start. This year's Celebrating Life Filmmaking Workshop took place over a period of three days, from January 31 to February 02, 2019. Some of the most renowned film directors in the country came to the workshop. Directors like Shameem Akhtar, Anam Biswas and Mejbaur Rahman Sumon were present. They told young aspiring filmmakers about how to improve film direction, make better scripts, how to improve a film both pre and post production. They also gave a lot of advice on how to make sure the story telling is as good as possible. The aspiring filmmakers were also taught about how to pay attention to details even the minor ones.

On day one the workshop was conducted by Anam Biswas. He said, "To write a good script, aspiring filmmakers need to read novels. Throughout history, playwrights like Shakespeare and Rabindranath have been writing amazing dramas. All the new filmmakers must read the great plays, and understand why they are considered so great. It is important to understand the emotions that the author tried to portray with his writing. To be a better filmmaker, you must also watch all the great films and read all the great screenplays."

ANAM BISWAS, SHAMEEM AKHTER AND MEJBAUR RAHMAN SUMON

On the second day of the workshop, Shameem Akhtar said, "If the script for a film is proper, then 60% of the work for the film is done. Satyajit Ray said it before. The conception of the film has to be clear, the theme and idea for a film must be top notch. Firstly, a director needs to make a script for a film before thinking of a location for the film. A film is a team project; you have to make sure that everyone can properly showcase their skills. Through your scripting, you must be able to attain dedication of everyone in your team."

On the last day of the workshop, Mejbaur Rahman Sumon said, "What we filmmakers want to do is make films. And the most important thing needed to make a film is the story. I believe the most important part of that story is the idea. The idea is what an artist is trying to express. In my personal experience, someone becomes an artist after leading their life in a certain way. Artists can get many ideas from something miniscule, while some people cannot get any ideas from seeing something massive. For aspiring filmmakers, they must watch something in detail; get big ideas from small things. That is an artists' mind."