A science film is exactly what its name suggests, it’s a bridge between the art of film making and science. Thanks to films like Interstellar and Gravity, the words space travel and wormholes have become common topics for discussion. The Indian film industry too has an array of sci-fi movies to its credit with scripts spiced up to suit the taste of regional audiences. Films like 2.0, Dasavathaaram, Indrunetrunaalai, 7aum arivu and 24 have explored various complex scientific concepts like time travel, bio-weapon threat, the future of robotics and genetic engineering.
The importance of film making in promoting science was enunciated at the three day national workshop on Science Film Making organized by the Centre for Communication and Multimedia, Lady Doak College (LDC) in collaboration with Vigyan Prasar, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India.
LDC Principal Christianna Singh addressed the gathering at the Inaugural Function. About 50 students from the host college besides The American College and Fatima College participated in the event.
Nimish Kapoor, Head, Science film’s division, Vigyan Prasar, told his young audience that filming is no longer limited as an art but isalso an important tool that helps common man understand science and its importance. He explained the whys and hows of science film making while stressing on the importance of avoiding jargons and adding a socio emotional appeal. In his opinion, every film made ought to suit a particular target audience.
Matiur Rahman, an independent full-time science film maker and director of Television Programme Company, enlightened the participants about cinematography techniques and lighting effects on visuals. PoonamChaurasia, a cinematographer and science film editor, handled the session on sound recording techniques and sound control on camera. The other resource persons for the event included Renuga Devi, former professor and head, department of linguistics, Madurai Kamaraj University, K.R Baskar, senior producer and A.Muppal, producer, Educational Multimedia Research Centre (EMRC), Madurai. They covered topics like script writing formats for science films and the introduction to digital film making.
On the second day of the workshop, the participants were asked to shoot an experimental 30 second science short film in and around the campus. Arrangements had been made to edit the videos at the media lab and the final version was reviewed by the resource persons.
G.Asmath Asima, a post graduate English student at LDC and her team explored themes like noise pollution and preserving nature for their experimental short film. K.Gausika, a third year physics student from the same college said her takeaway from the workshop was the realisation that science is not just a subject meant to be studied in the confines of a lab and understanding the importance of making it available to common man.