DIVYADAAN, OCTOBER 16, 2010: The Mass media has enveloped all walks of life. The human person, in his search for meaning, has intertwined himself/herself into this web of inter-subjective communication through the mass media. Yet the media is not self-revelatory. It has to be understood and grasped. It has to be deciphered and solved. In this process of understanding and deciphering the media and its effects, the brothers from Divyadaan, Salesian Institute of Philosophy participated in a two day course on Film Appreciation conducted by Rev. Fr. Robert Pen, sdb.The course dealt with feature films and its effects. The brothers during the course viewed various blockbuster films and critically evaluated them. The first session saw the students discuss ‘The Rules of How to Discuss a Film’. The students systematically understood that in a critical evaluation of a movie one must understand 1.) The production particulars 2.) The Plot 3.) The techniques involved 4.) The Sociological theme and 5.) The Educational relevance. The students further, through a video presentation, understood that a feature film takes over a year or a year and half to complete and that the feature film is not single continuous stream of movements but is made up of different ‘edited shots’. The brothers then through the next two days viewed different films and evaluated them. The evaluation of the feature films was done at two levels: the individual and the group level. During the evaluation the students had to first critically evaluate a film. The evaluation would then continue as the students were divided into groups of six and discussed their findings.
During the concluding evaluation the students expressed their gratitude for getting an opportunity to attend a course of such magnitude. They found this course useful as it would help them evaluate and understand feature films in new light especially during their practical training in the coming years. This would in turn help their boys to understand the ramifications of the media and thus counter its effects on their lives.
