By Sandhya D’Souza, II BA Journalism, St. Aloysius College
Life became beautiful for Anisha Sheth, Valene Noronha, Benubala, Chaya Ganapathy, and Shilpa PC of III – BA Journalism when their movie "Life is Beautiful" became the shinning star of the Shooting Stars -2007 students short film competition conducted by the Department of Journalism, St. Aloysius College.
Shooting Stars, a student film making competition is the brain child of Rev. Fr Richard Rego SJ, HOD Journalism, St. Aloysius College. He launched this event in the academic year 2005-2006. It was a competition first of its kind for undergraduate students and it filled the young minds with excitement as this provided them a stage to project their imagination.
This year the shooting stars competition was held on 3rd of this March. Unlike last year, this time the competition was open to the entire College. 10 movies – that is I Am not an Island, Just Another Day, Life is Beautiful, Who is a Friend?, Darpana, The Roll of the Role, Bhramid, Jivith, Sankalp and Nannu- were screened. Apart from these movies from the competitive section, four documentaries from the non competitive section A day out in the sea ?Trawler fishing, Conflict Zones, Where?s the Road? And Everybody Says nobody does, were also screened. These short documentaries were the result of the documentary workshop held in October, were also screened.
Father Richie said that the Shooting Stars contributed to regional cinema as Bhramid, Jivith were in Konkani and Naanu in Kannada.
All these movies were made entirely by the students in a span of 2 months and these 10 masterpieces are a result of the heart and soul contributed by the 42 students involved in it. Making movies is a big responsibility and it requires budget and many students have spent their pocket money to get their movies into the limelight.
Many 1st year Journalism students were involved in the making and their maiden efforts are truly appreciated as they have managed to put up a good show in spite of the very little experience they have had in handling camera and editing machines. Sankalp was a movie made by the B.Sc. students, and they have taken tremendous enthusiasm and done very well even if they were new to this field.
Mr. PN Ramachandra, Director of the Tulu Movie Suddha, Miss Subhashini, Asst. Director of Nayee Neralu, Mr. Rakesh Vasani, the post supervisor of KBC were the honorable judges who evaluated these movies on the basis of Concept and Story, Direction, Camera work, Editing and Overall Impact and gave the students their precious feedback.
Mr. Balakrishna Shetty, Representative of Adlabs Films, Mangalore was the Chief Guest for the Big Event. He was impressed by the efforts and hard work the students had put in and added that movies should be made on simple themes and they should leave a big impact. Movies should be made on topics that interest the public.
Fr. Denzil Lobo, Vice Principal of St. Aloysius College in his Presidential address added that media are not only massage but a message as every movie teaches us something in the end.
The students responded tremendously well to the festival. "It provides us exposure" says Sajna. Others like Benubala say that "It was great and it helped our team to express our talents and ideas". To Mahima the competition was a base for improvement for the better. Sindhu feels that "Shooting Stars provides a platform where theoretical aspects get a chance to blend with practicality.
Fr. Richie is planning to make shooting stars a bigger event by expanding its scope to national level, in the coming year. This competition has definitely kept young spirits up and all are looking forward to the competition which will be held again next year. I hope there will be more entries and more excitement.
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