Story Telling Workshop

Story Telling Workshop

Pravah Jaipur Initiative organized a 3-day workhop (June 7,2011 – June 9, 2011) for the members of PJI’s Critical Video Unit (CVU) and youth interested for film making internship. This was to improve the writing skill in script writing and story telling.

Mr. Manak Matiyani, trainer for this workshop, from Commutiny Media, New Delhi, was really inspiring. He shared his knowledge and taught the skill of writing to the volunteers through simple examples such as the popular story of “the Hare and The Tortoise” and experiences makes it easier for the volunteers to understand.

The concept was explained through interesting mediums like graphs, presentations, video screenings, discussions, etc. A very important concept of story mapping was taught by a powerpoint template of a graph to show where a story needs to have a point of interest.

Through traditional and popular stories volunteers identified the essential elements of story such as Plot, Conflict, Climax, Resolution, etc. The symbolic ability of a story and its perspective as one way of telling stories differently gives a different identity to a story. On the first day, a group activity of innovation on a film was done and all the volunteers enjoyed it fully by making a remake of “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge” to a hilarious movie “Dilwale Dulhe le Jayege” in a proper structure giving it a new look.

Everyone shared their individual stories looking at innovative ways of telling and structuring. A very essential 3-Art Structure of scripting was explained by looking at the structure of a popular bollywood film “Sholay” and 3-Act Division, Plot points, teaser and tag was taken in detail and the volunteers learned breaking up the story to organize their ideas and follow a simple structure and identified transitions, symbolism, visual and audio elements and layering by looking at some short videos and discussing on it.

Had screenings of PJI short film and identified the 3 act structure. Also seen and discussed movies which do not follow this structure, knowing when and why you are breaking the rule and innovations on the three acts.

As PJI always works on youth development and talks about social issues, a concept of social cinema i.e. messaging through movies on social issues was taken deeply by taking cues from advertising of Jagori’s, MustBol, Indian Railway, etc. After discussing upon these, volunteers learnt that a target audience need to be defined with tone, plot, narrative style. A story with a emotional and personal connect is more effective in conveying a message.

Manak, the mentor also tried to meet the expextations of our volunteers and explained the differentiated the concept of story, script, screenplay and story board. The feedback of the volunteers for the workshop was very positive. “I had so much many stories in my mind but never knew how to express it effectively. Now I can write it in an interesting way” said Mohammad Khalil. “After this workshop I know how a social issue can be shown in an appealing and interesting manner” added Abhishek Chawariya. - Kritika Shukla

Story Telling Workshop

Story Telling Workshop

Pravah Jaipur Initiative organized a 3-day workhop (June 7,2011 – June 9, 2011) for the members of PJI’s Critical Video Unit (CVU) and youth interested for film making internship. This was to improve the writing skill in script writing and story telling.

Mr. Manak Matiyani, trainer for this workshop, from Commutiny Media, New Delhi, was really inspiring. He shared his knowledge and taught the skill of writing to the volunteers through simple examples such as the popular story of “the Hare and The Tortoise” and experiences makes it easier for the volunteers to understand.

The concept was explained through interesting mediums like graphs, presentations, video screenings, discussions, etc. A very important concept of story mapping was taught by a powerpoint template of a graph to show where a story needs to have a point of interest.

Through traditional and popular stories volunteers identified the essential elements of story such as Plot, Conflict, Climax, Resolution, etc. The symbolic ability of a story and its perspective as one way of telling stories differently gives a different identity to a story. On the first day, a group activity of innovation on a film was done and all the volunteers enjoyed it fully by making a remake of “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge” to a hilarious movie “Dilwale Dulhe le Jayege” in a proper structure giving it a new look.

Everyone shared their individual stories looking at innovative ways of telling and structuring. A very essential 3-Art Structure of scripting was explained by looking at the structure of a popular bollywood film “Sholay” and 3-Act Division, Plot points, teaser and tag was taken in detail and the volunteers learned breaking up the story to organize their ideas and follow a simple structure and identified transitions, symbolism, visual and audio elements and layering by looking at some short videos and discussing on it.

Had screenings of PJI short film and identified the 3 act structure. Also seen and discussed movies which do not follow this structure, knowing when and why you are breaking the rule and innovations on the three acts.

As PJI always works on youth development and talks about social issues, a concept of social cinema i.e. messaging through movies on social issues was taken deeply by taking cues from advertising of Jagori’s, MustBol, Indian Railway, etc. After discussing upon these, volunteers learnt that a target audience need to be defined with tone, plot, narrative style. A story with a emotional and personal connect is more effective in conveying a message.

Manak, the mentor also tried to meet the expextations of our volunteers and explained the differentiated the concept of story, script, screenplay and story board. The feedback of the volunteers for the workshop was very positive. “I had so much many stories in my mind but never knew how to express it effectively. Now I can write it in an interesting way” said Mohammad Khalil. “After this workshop I know how a social issue can be shown in an appealing and interesting manner” added Abhishek Chawariya. - Kritika Shukla

Share-A-Smile Cafe

On Friday, Ashutosh hosted a Cafe meeting to informed the volunteers about the Share-a-Smile program and its Project Yatra. The project is a program to help members explore themselves, learn about different social issues, and contribute their own skills by teaching English in a government school.

The first phase of Project Yatra is the "virus" stage, which aims to make people more aware of the ways they are linked to and play a role in social problems. This will be achieved by hosting public meetings. In the cafe, the members started out playing games which forced them out of their comfort zones and urged them to consider different concepts, such as efficient use of resources.

The cafe participants then discussed the next two phases of Project Yatra. The next phase is "Gyan", in which the participants will go to government schools in Jawahar Nagar and other areas of the city. They will seek to help the students by teaching them English.

The last stage of the project is "Khoj", an exploration of one's self, in terms of skills, options, and active consideration of the choices we have in life. Ashutosh speaks about how Kabir said that the only question we can really seek to answer about ourselves in "Who Am I?", and this will be a central part of "Khoj".

Share-A-Smile is actively seeking volunteers to join the Project Yatra campaign for the next two years! If you are interested or would like more information please contact Ashutosh at 8302485842 or shareaasmile@gmail.com.

Environment Day Cafe!

The Pink Square Mall was host to a Cafe Mohalla meeting on International Environment Day, June 5th. PJI celebrated by hosting an interesting and interactive cafe meeting in the mall, where we played games, watched films, and did other activities relating to the environment.

We started by playing a few energizers and games which relate to concepts and the environment, such as "seed to tree". Then we watched a few short films on topics such as environmental crises and climate change. One animation on what we can do to help protect the environment was made by our very own volunteer Chaitanya.

"At the cafe, we interacted with lots and lots of people. The environment was very good. People became more aware of what they are doing and what they should do," Chaitanya said. "I havent showed my film on such a large scale, like in a mall...it was really very good to know that the crowd who I dont know, they also like my movie."

Afterward, we had an intensive discussion on these issues, along with what steps we ought to take in our own lives to help solve environmental problems. We did a "kabaad se jugaad" activity, in which we made bookmarks from old newspapers, in order to conserve our resources and put them to a good use. To help publicize this cause, our volunteers went out in to the mall to distribute kits made of "kabaas se jugaad", as well as tree saplings generously donated by the Pink Square Mall.

Roughly 25 members came to the Cafe meeting, which was organized by Amreen and Bhavya. We collaborated with the NGOs Message and Muskaan in hosting the cafe. This is the first monthly cafe which will be held at the Pink Square Mall, which we hope to establish as an open space and platform for youth in Jaipur. We are grateful to Nitin and everyone else at the mall for hosting these cafes.