Film Industry is perhaps the most glamorous industry. Though on surface, the job of a director/documentary film-maker seems full of glamour, hype and stardom but in reality, it is a highly challenging role. A documentary film maker is someone who directs or even produces the film.
Documentary films are made for different mediums such as, motion picture, television, documentary, community projects and corporate training videos etc. A documentary film maker is responsible for converting the concept for a film project into a finished film.
The idea could be of a small video, music video, advertisement or a full-fledged film. He does his job by assembling a cast and crew and picturing the sequences on specific locales. As far as budget of the film is concerned that depends upon the scale of the project. It could be in millions or could be few hundred dollars, depending who are the target audiences of the film.
An advertisement video or a mainstream movie can cost unheard of amounts but a movie for education purposes or for local clients do not require heavy investment. The job of a documentary film maker is very much technical in nature. He must be creative and brimming with ideas.
A film maker or a director needs to have vision and should definitely have received specialized training in film making. Plenty of impressive courses are available for those who wish to pursue a career in film making. One can go for degree, diploma or certificate courses.
To become a documentary film maker in Britain, one must have an academic qualification in a media-related core subject. Ideally, one should have GCSEs in standard subjects followed by a BTEC in media studies. Furthermore, one can go for an HND in Media Production, which is the equivalent of the first two years of university study. This course is recognized everywhere and commands respect as well. Interested students can opt for a range of specializations of the core media production topic.
The job of a documentary film-maker can be quite stressful. If it’s a large project, he/she will need to handle hundreds of people and that is no mean task. A director needs to take care of all the minute details. This industry is extremely competitive and one must be ready to face odd challenges.
In India, the number of institutes offering training in documentary film-making is quite few. However, the quality of education is top-notch and one definitely gets to learn a lot.
The institutes are:-
Amrita School of Arts & Sciences, Kerala,
Amity School of Journalism and Communication, New Delhi
Editworks School of Mass Communication, Uttar Pradesh,
Anhad Institute of Media Studies, Jammu and Kashmir,
Asian Academy of Film and Television, Uttar Pradesh
Once the course has been completed, documentary film makers can work with educative television channels that cover reality films. One can also work with several NGOs in order to help them in conveying their thoughts and ideas to masses at large. Many documentary film makers prefer to work independently and follow their own creative instincts.
