MIFF 2020: “There is no wishing the digital revolution away”

IDPA held its sixth and final Open Forum, a regular fixture at every MIFF, on the lawns of the FD Complex, on Sunday, 02 February. An eminent panel of speakers put forth their thoughts and ideas on the subject, ‘Digital Revolution: Is it helping film-makers?’ They comprised Amit Tyagi, Associate Director, MIT-ADT University, Pune, and former Dean of FTII, Balkrishna Diwakar, Former Professor, Jamia Millia, Cyrus Dastur, lawyer-turned-theatre-artiste-cum-film enthusiast, who founded Shamiana Film Club, 12 years ago (Shamiana screens critically acclaimed short films in different cities in India, free of cost) and M.S. Thomas, ADG, Doordarshan. The discussion was moderated by film-maker Ravi Iyer, Executive Committee member, IDPA. Sanskar Desai, Secretary IDPA, introduced the event and presented a vote of thanks.

Thomas, Cyrus, Ravi, Diwakar and Amit

Setting the ball rolling, Iyer said that after the industrial revolution, we now have a digital revolution which has, maybe, caught us off-guard. “It means different things to different personnel, within the film and TV industry, and to the members of the panel.” Tyagi began by saying that there is no wishing the digital revolution away. He continued, “Having made this grand generalisation, I need to break it down to specific component parts. The first layer would be digital means of shooting a film, capturing an image. Digital means of editing a film would be a second layer, which has been in place since about 1990. The third layer is the distribution and exhibition of films, the so-called industry side, now archaic.”

What are the types of films that come to Shamiana, asked Iyer, and Dastur replied, “A lot of the short films we get are on the digital format. But talking about the digital revolution, it has its good points and bad points. We would still have been able to get short films for Shamiana screenings if the format was 35 or 16 mm. Shooting a film has now become so easy that every duffer in the country feels that it is his/her constitutional right to make a film and that he/she can make a film. I wish technology was a bit more challenging. Film-making is not about the camera--and I wish film-students understood this--it is more about a skill. Ever since Shamiana has started screening Oscar winning films, a lot of people come to me and tell me that they want to send their film for the Oscars! I wonder whether they have actually seen the films they have made.”

“Everybody has a story,” remarked Diwakar, recalling the words of his professor of screenplay at FTII, Saghir Ahmed. “Ahmed said that if you throw a stone and if it hits somebody, he has a story to say, and it is more important for him than anything else in the world.” Whereas storage was a problem with 35 mm film boxes, the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) had newer problems to deal with, after the switch to DCPs, largely related to KDM, he recalled. “As a back-up, we now need to have Blu-Ray copies, just in case the KDM does not work (at MIFF 2020, it did not work for the film Sindhustan).” How have these changes affected Doordarshan, India’s government-owned and operated national telecaster? Thomas averred, “I am seeing a huge transformation, from analogue to digital format, over the years. From being at the crossroads, we have now moved completely to digital. But the new concerns are preservation, archiving and monetisation of digital content.”