IDSFFK | Screenwriting masterclass led by Urmi Juvekar

Hope and fear would be key engaging elements with a film for a viewers, according to her

Aspiring filmmakers and screenwriters went away with some valuable lessons from an engaging masterclass on screenwriting by screenwriter, director and chairperson of the fiction jury Urmi Juvekar as part of the 16th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) on Saturday.

Hope and fear would be key engaging elements with a film for a viewers, according to her. “What is it that touches you in the story? Why must you tell this story? And you find your relationship with the story. How is this dealing with hope and fear? Because that’s the only way the audience reacts to you. Make the audience feel hope and fear. The more we know about the character, the more we hope or fear,” she said, adding that one must concentrate on emotional information about characters.

Discussing the different elements of a story such as aesthetics, intent and taste, she asked the participants to ponder over why one wants to do a film. She also spoke about the process of how stories take shape around us as events undergo transformations by passing through various mediums. Giving the example of the Aarushi Talwar murder case, she explained how something that starts as a news clipping in the end became two films with differing perspectives. “Cinema is a complicated medium. When various elements get added, it becomes cinema. It’s either everybody’s experience or nobody’s experience,” Juvekar said.

The session was moderated by documentary filmmaker Prachee Bajania, whose short film will be screened as part of the ‘Nagari: A bioscope for the city’ package at the festival. Juvekar’s documentary The Shillong Chamber Choir and the Little Home School will be screened as part of the jury films category on July 30. Juvekar has written the screenplay for films including Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, I Am and Shanghai.