on teaching!

...watched some final year student films of srishti school of design, bangalore today. was so impressed and now want to see more. such a strong foundation of sound n the visual...must be a function of time...a 3yr course as opposed to the 1yr course that i've been teaching at SCM- Sophiya's (for over 10 yrs now!!).

never imagined i'd enjoy teaching so much but over the years its been a case of "diminishing marginal returns", or some such thing! with each passing year i'd end up feeling more dissatisfied...with the students' seeming cavalier attitude, the v blinkered course agenda, their final films...

but am begining to think that the problem is perhaps with me n not them. hearing myself, i sound like my own profs or parents or seniors (back then) ...old n crabby n malcontent...so that seems to be the challenge - to re-invent yourself...make it as exciting n relevant...and cut your losses by lowering expectations...

i remember one of my fav profs saying...ajay, even if there is one student in class, start the class!...this was in response to my cribbing about how they don't come on time n how pissed i get after having shot the previous day till late, gone thru assignments, woken up early to be in class on time at 8.15am only to find 3 out of 40 students in class...grrrr!

(a few days later)...lost my train of thoughts there...ah yes...also, after seeing a few student final films, have begun making some generalistions about a few institutes...like, ftii - films made with a huuge burden of world cinema, very formal in shooting style, mostly fiction short story adaptations. nid - more form than substance, slickly executed poor scripts. jamia n scm - laboured socially relevant archaic story telling, mostly documentary. sristi - i found most exciting with new high-risk-taking ways to telling their stories. next to see - symbiosis...

cut!