Film Making Workshop At Four Seasons Juhu by Kurtz Inderbitzin

48 year old Kurtz Inderbitzin is a well known American, who is associated with training Indian Film Making aspirants from last 5-6 years. Prior to that he  has worked for more then 14 years  in developing, writing, directing, editing and producing movies and shows for major studios, cable companies and the networks, including CBS, ABC, Lifetime, NBC, TBS, TNT, HBO and Warner Brothers Network, in all formats, High-Definition, digital video and 35 mm film. He was president of Abandon Pictures for eight years, producing films such as Sundance Film Festival Favorite Scotland, P.A, Oxygen (starring Oscar winner Adrian Brody) as well as Off the Lip, Pros and Cons, Glory Days, Project Greenlight, Dimensions of Fear, Time Shifters and The Brink. As vice president of Orly Adelson Productions for three years, he developed and sold 21 television films. Additionally he has directed Brian Gina Nick and Welcome to the Neighborhood, and written and produced many others.   Kurtz is a passionate trainer. In his Indian stint he has been Dean at Subash Ghai's Whistling Woods School at Film City Bombay and also associated with Marwaha's Film Making School at Noida. Now he is director at Annapurna International School of Film+Media located at Banjara Hills Hyderabad.  Today I attended his workshop at Fourseasons at Juhu where around 100 aspirants listened to him passionately in lively and interactive session. During the course got an opportunity to speak to him.

How will Annapurna International School of Film+Media create an international talent among aspirant filmmakers in India? We will have  innovative way of teaching where practical knowledge will dominate over bookish stuff.   Our BFA and MFA (Film+Media),  BFA and MFA (Animation+VFX), BFA and MFA (Dramatic Arts) as well as MBA (Media Management) will be  a very comprehensive and complex courses matching international standard but at a affordable price. As the courses will run in a Active Studio, students will have opportunity to learn in the real life situation. They will also be given an opportunity to produce two films in a year. That means by the time they will get their degree they will have real work experience. Every Year number of Institutes imparting Management Degrees are opened, it is very difficult for those holding fresh MBA degree to get job. How you see job prospects to your prospective graduates. To my mind entertainment and media  are  the only sector where there is no recession and there is a serious shortage of trained professionals. So I see good opportunities for those who pass out from good Film Schools.   Will India stay hung on animation as a pure outsourcing model or is there potential to move up the value chain? There is unlimited potential to do both. India has a huge population to draw talent from. Computer sophistication is widely prevalent and the country is sitting on historical children's tales and fables and many generations of content-rich literature that are not exploited yet. There is opportunity to become a major global player in the animation arena, even as original content creators.

But isn't the business dominated by big investment requirements, branding and marketing promotions? For the US animation majors, 60 per cent of the revenues comes from overseas. India needs to exploit this global market. There is scope to make the change and gain access to the same markets as the US companies have. Labour costs are lower here. High-level animation skills can be built up; the other skills are in place. Storytelling can come from here; original content creators can be produced.

Isn't there too much focus on creating animators than building as it were a superstructure of original creators? Education is certainly a problem area that needs to be tackled. One of our goals is to contribute to original content creation. Students will be taught literature and storytelling. If India is to direct and produce animation movies of global stature, the entire process has to be overseen. We have to create a knowledge system like the US, which has a factory and assembly line structure; the ability to understand the entire production chain is a must.

How does local talent get international exposure, which is crucial to the progression of the industry? Major outfits like Pixar, Walt Disney and DreamWorks are hungry for hiring animators from India. In fact lot of animation work is already outsourced in India.

Do you see an export market for Bollywood films as well? Bollywood has focussed on musicals for over so many years and it has thrived in the local market with its brand of filmmaking. That is not going to be suddenly exportable. But there are certain positive changes sweeping the industry. Multiplexes, for instance, are bringing about a culture shift.  Once you produce more varied forms of movies, some part of that content can be exportable and where ever Indians Diaspora is there Indian Films are in demand for that audience.

What will make Bollywood experiment with different forms when it has such a strong and protected domestic market? India has a choice. With the economy growing at such a frenetic pace, the growing middle class will change their lives fundamentally in two ways. They will spend more on education and consumption on leisure will go up. The demand for media content will change as consumer tastes alter. If India doesn't create that varied content, Hollywood will gobble up. That is how American culture has spread; Hollywood has taken away the film industries in other countries. For Bollywood to stand up, it has to create different kinds of content. That will also open up the global market for Bollywood. Even though the subjects could be India-centric, there are chances that some kind of this content may be acceptable in other markets. Indian film industry has to grow and expand. It is important for India to participate in the globalisation of media.

You have produced shows for networks in the US. Do the needs for content vary from network to network? Yes, there is a difference in approach. Each network is pursuing different demographics. CBS historically caters to an older audience more dramatic pieces. When I made content for TBS, which catered to males, they wanted action movies. Fox, on the other hand, targets younger audiences. While NBC has a more sophisticated demographics, ABC was looking at women jeopardy films when I was providing content for them. But networks shift their demographics from time to time.

There is this theory going around in India that the reality show genre is killing narrative television. How do you look at it? It is a phenomenon which swings back and forth. The hit gameshow Who Wants to be a Millionaire brought the reality and gameshow genre back on television. Simultaneously Kaun Banega Crorepati did extremely well in India also. In the West, now narrative television is back on track. Same thing can happen in India also. It all depends on the taste of audiences and there is no fixed formula as such when it comes to television programming.

How will this help in their business models? Hotel Four seasons  Workshop in action Another scene from the workshop As I see it, studios will tend to release movies on theatre  more as a marketing and branding exercise. They will then depend on DVD sales for their revenues. The same logic will apply to networks. They will air the shows more for branding and initial exposure. They can then license their products for pay-per-view models.