FMaC, the Film Making Club, is a cohort of people interested in filmmaking. The club has 10-12 members from every batch who have their interests in various aspects of film making like scripting, acting, cinematography, and editing. Oasis is an important platform to show their talent, says Mridul Poddar, the co-ordinator of Film Making Club. The Oasis Aftermovie is the club’s most important work during the fest. They will be extensively shooting throughout the fest trying to cover each and every event.

‘The work during Oasis will be exhausting. Events keep happening throughout the day. We have to schedule our shoots in such a way that we can cover almost all of them. Apart from the shooting and editing process, the scheduling part is the most tiring’, says Mridul. The aftermovie is expected to be released halfway through the second semester after all the editing and other post production work is done.

Like every other year, this year’s principal event will be Metamorphosis, the short-film making competition. Participants submit their entries with a predetermined theme, this year’s being “Retelling a Classic”. The top 10 finalists are invited to Oasis and their films are screened and assessed by a judge. The event is made more special by the presence of Sivakumar Ananth, renowned writer of the movie Sachin: A Billion Dreams, as the judge. He is also an alumnus of BITS Pilani.

Apart from this trademark event the club is planning to conduct three new events. ‘The idea behind introducing these new events is to encourage each and every aspect of filmmaking.’ For the editing enthusiasts, they have the trailer making competition, where participants are free to cut and make a trailer of any movie of their choice. ‘Different aptitude and editing skills are required to cut a trailer as you have to let the story out at the same time, hold it too. You just have to let enough story out to instill curiosity in the minds of the viewers. That is why we decided to dedicate an event for it.’, says Mridul. Another event is the poster making competition, where the entries will be assessed based on how participants can show the story with minimalistic design.

There is also another short-film making competition, where the film has to be shot during Oasis. This event has the club giving an already shot clip to the participants, who are expected to develop a story around it and place the clip intact in their movie. ‘The clip will be very abstract. So, participants will have to think a lot and be more creative to make use of the clip as such in their movies. This will help in assessing their creativity’, says Mridul.

For the acting enthusiasts, there is an impromptu acting competition where they will be asked to recreate a popular movie scene with certain constraints in place. As the competition moves forward, the difficulty level will increase and so will the constraints. ‘Having seen how a particular scene has been performed, trying to recreate it in a totally different manner, not using any part of the original, makes the competition more interesting.’

When Mridul joined the club, it was still in its nascent stage with no proper equipment. It was during his first year that the club got its own DSLR with the help of the then StuCAA. The club was not very popular during that time. However, their Game of Thrones Curtain Raiser and House of Cards Opening for Oasis 2015, made people recognize them as a club and their talent. Around six or seven videos were released during 2015, and all of them were well received. ‘The club is far better than how it was in my first year in terms of the inventory, skilled and interested members and recognition we have.’, says Mridul, thinking about the club’s growth

Mridul appreciated the StuCAA this year, believing that they understood the importance of investments for better output. ‘This year’s StuCAA is a very good blend of people who are ambitious, practical and calculative. This makes them receptive to new ideas. Finally, everything works out very well. The co-operation from StuCAA is a major reason why we have been able to introduce three new events this year‘.

While the club concentrates on videos during the odd semesters, it focuses on making more short films during the even semester. Mridul remains silent about their Oasis video, not wanting to ruin the suspense. This video is expected to be their magnum opus for the fest.