Crack FTII Exam

Crack FTII test

=============

I have been receiving a lot of requests and queries through email regarding guidance on how to crack the FTII written exam . I have gone through the same situation years back when i decided to write the FTII exam . 

It doesn't really matter if someone has cleared the exam , cause the interview is the main thing !!

But personally I don't want anyone who is really passionate in this field and looses it all in the written test itself . I thus thought of sharing few points in how to clear the written test .

Regarding the interview : Its up to you …

They are very smart in finding you and your passion …

If you are true to yourself , and you are fortunate you can reach there …..

Ok , now coming to the point ….

FTII conducts written test as the primary way of filtering the aspirants …

The various course FTII provides and other info are there in their website .

this who are really interested in knowing these , please visit the website top to bottom …

I used to see the website everyday for the last few years till I got there ….

It gives you everything you need ….

There is one another point which I would like to tell :

Please don't com up with some shitty crappy questions like :

Should I choose acting or editing ?

Or what is the scope of sound recording and direction ….

Cause this is not an engineering college for you to be awarded with a offer letter before you finsh your course !! This is an art … Please go there if you love it .. And when you love it , Its a fucking different thing all together … You will love this world and the world loves you … I can't explain how it feels …

Its a different feel …. You eventually might end up to be a great artist and people will come behind you … On the other way If you plan based on the brand name of FTII or go thinking will i get money or job and all , may be you might become just another guy with some salary ….

So first decide what you want …. Why you want and love it ….

The reason why I am telling this is I have received a lot of mails asking to guide them on helping them to decide which course to choose !!! Its really sad to even reply these mails … Please be your boss , never let others to decide what your life should be …

Regarding the test …..

Once you know your filed of interest , please go through the related stuffs .

For example : If you are intereted in direction , you are supposed to know what are the basic stuffs related to Direction … Like : Describe a small story which you have in ur mind to make it a short film and why its so much important for you ? and Differtn Directors and also how you see a film …

You are going to be a director of tommorw … So have a view or eye of direction in everything from day to day activities to the movies or tv shows you watch …

These will be two main sections :

1.GK and General sections  

2.Section specific .

I have not to my knowledge have seen any specific books designed for FTII interview .

But this GK or common section which should be answered by every group of student  deals with the basic questions which is related to art , films and giving a little more importance to our mother INDIA !

the best place or book is : INTERNET ….

things to know : 

INDIAN film industry and how it evolved during each period .

Some very basic questions like first talkie , first colour film , etc can be answered if this is covered !

When reading these don't read it like you are studying for some school exam where you study last minute and go vomit all the things in your head and come back clean …

Love the subject and trust me … Its wonderful to read Indian History ….

Read about : Different Art forms .

I would suggest , know our INDIA map …. every states and then go through each state in the map and learn the various artists from that state . Classical dances , folk dances …. 

Read about : Places and other monuments including temples and its location .

Paintings , Artists like film makers , Painters , dancers ,  singers ..

When i said film makers , please give much more importance to legends than newer ones ….

Just don't stick on to Hindi films . There could be a descriptive question asking your favourite movie and why its your favourite ?

Questions are asked on famous kings , also ,

Civilisation - Harappa , Indus Valley , etc etc ….

recent awards : Bafta , Oscar ,

Filmy knowledge : which Indian movie got oscar nomination 

Please note that : General questions can be objective type or it can be fill in the blanks type .

They have not promised anyone in this world that they will put only objective type questions or only fill in the blanks …So better be ready for anything ….

What I meant is … when reading about an artist , try to respect the artist and know about him rather than muggin him up , which eventually you will forget his name like in the kid forgetting the name of the king in an advertisement …:P

Descriptive :

General type to Films related …..

farmers suicide ,

different sound formats ,

film formats , different sensors in camera , whats your opinion about the recent ban of films by Govt ,

whats is NFAI , what si the importance of film festivals ? evolution of films , film industry 10 years down the line , digitalisation , UFO , Atmos Dolby , etc , etc …. 

Please Note : these are just what I felt , and I am not a member of FTII selection crew or something .

I am just a guy who have writen the FTII exam 3 times which gave me some idea of what it is :)

So please don't take a print of this and just study only these and ask me tomorrow why none of these questions came !! Cause this is to give an idea and not to leak a question paper …

Basically know INDIA , its art forms and its artists a lot better and you will crack the common section and love the field you are trying (like direction or sound or editing or whatever …) and you will crack that section too …. This is not like CAT or other exams . they don't keep any cutoffs for throwing the papers off just cause you missed few marks in one sections … all those discussions in the net regarding this cutoff are rumours … Just do your best and you can crack the test .

don't worry too much about cutoffs and all …

And most important , don't talk too much to too many people .

everyone talks like they know everything , eventually what they did is make us more confused and pissed off ….

Please note again : please keep this as a help or reference and learn more from this ….

Any queries or concerns please post it here , please avoid sending mails ….

All the very best ….

FTII in IFFI 2012

Filmy Sounds

Sound in Indian Films
=================

Sound in films is not a new thing .
But a proper understanding of this field is still a new thing .....

Films on early days .....

Seeing people walking and doing actions .... Not in real life ... But on a white screen ... Wow .....
But the WOW effect was not lasted for long ....

Something was missing , and it was "SOUND"....

Talkies .....

Now people are no more interested in just seeing things or Musicians playing in the side to create mood.
They lost the love in once WOWed upon thing -- the Silent movies ...

The Silence was broken once and for all ...

We need the screen to speak ...
We need to hear new sounds ...
We need to hear the people in the screen ....

Music and Sound .... Makes the picture complete .....

But why Sound is not given importance ?
Why Sound is given the least importance ?

Sound Credits are scrolling some where invisible,
where as every one knows Direction , Editing , Cinematography, Music Direction , Acting ....

Sound as a department itself dint exist among Indian Audience until recently a man from a small village in Kerala , pulled India's name to the Oscars by winning the Best Sound Mixing in 2010 ....

Its non other than Resul Pookutty

Since then many people came to know that there is something called Sound Department which works behind the Screens which is the main reason for all the sounds we hear in Television and Movie Theaters ....

I myself was interested in working in Films from my School days .
I used to think that Music Director is the one who make all the sound recording , and also music in films .

We are happy that one man got the opportunity to change this illiteracy among many and now many including me are dreaming to learn the technique of Sound Recording ....

FTII , the best institute in India for film studies have reported a huge increase in applications for Sound Engineering since 2010 .

I gave my first try in FTII on 2010 , when i was not able to get through .

Since then my way of watching movies have changed .
I just dont watch a movie , I hear a movie ....

I never saw a critic reviewing on a movie technically
In fact not much people would love to read such reviews .

But i felt we should reciew a movie with respect to every aspect
Its a project which is struggld by manyyy people .

So we cant just judge or review a movie on the Directorial or Acting part.

I have started writing this blog on a intention to review movies with respect to Sounds .

Hope to start coming up with many reviews soon ...

RIP Rahul Dasgupta Sir

RIP Rahul Dasgupta Sir

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahul_Dasgupta#Rahul_Dasgupta

"We are our own Visitors , We are our own Ghosts" -- Rahul Dasgupta ....

FTII student drowns in pool at institute

FTII student drowns in pool at institute.

When I got this news , I felt terribly sad .
It was around his course completion party .

Spent the last 5 years in FTII is nothing small .
5 days in this campus itself is a memory which will last for ever !!
5 years in the campus with lots and lots of dreams , and good friends around .

Its sad .

May his soul Rest in Peace and let God give strength to his family and friends .
He lived and died in FTII :(

My Life at FTII starts by 30th August 2012

Since i wrote the blog :

http://myftiidream.blogspot.in/2012/05/ftii-2012-entrance-exam-questions-and.html

I got many friends who commented and supported through mails and chats to move forward towards my dream .It was a wonderful time with everyone and it was very inspiring .
I take this chance to thank each and everyone who stood with me , and will stand hereafter in my life ..
And also my parents and my dear ones who supported as well as critisesed me over my activities :)

This is a great moment in my life and I would like to mention some very special people in my life who inspired and helped me do something in my life: My parents and teachers,My sister,relatives and friends,Salini,Ajayan,Subramani,Arun,Aakash Kulkarni, Vipul, Manish , Amar and Rakesh Anand !!
Be with me in the path ahead .

Today I got the mail from Institute that the classes for this year will start by August 30th and am super excited for this moment !!
Life is nothing without some good people to share it with , and am lucky that I got many ...

Love you all .....

What ever it takes .........

This part of writing gives me real happiness. I am going to express a true lot of incidents and accidents in my path towards finding myself !!
My Life was an unplanned trip. Always ends up with something less or more !!
But it really worked for me . It gave me a hidden truthful lesson to get a prepared trip !!
Now I believe that am walking though a planned path . A seat in the great Film and Television Institute of India, Pune for Sound recording Course . A supportive group of people around, a good vision and a 5 year plan in heart , a laptop to scribble all I want and a place to post all my thoughts

But to reach here , it took a lot out of me !!
But before I talk a lot about myself , let me tell you something very clearly .
Even now , what I say or claim as a planned path is a planned path for just me
For my relatives and even for my mother , it’s the most stupid decision I have or anyone could possible take in ones  life . But I have been a stupid for myself all these years , until now !!
So stupidity is subjective and as I am writing here , I am subjective over my side

I always had a coffee and chat with the toughest times ….
It gives a one to one dealing with how you can be more crazier !!
Days just went and I loved the craziness in me .
I started understanding that I am not dead and I have something in me to live for …
A deep passion , like we heard in the movie INCEPTION !
An idea …. An Idea , once implanted into ones mind, is soo powerful that it can change a lot !



I have a kid within me yelling out for a lot different things .
Having nothing was always my feel , when everyone described me as the perfect life with everything
A day or the other I ask myself , is it worth to do what ever we want ?
If it makes you happy and feel like living , yes !
If it makes you feel good , and do more, yes ….
I had unhappy days of doing all sort of things which never wabted to do, but did .
Starting from changing of many schools in my life (I finished my schooling in a total of 4 schools), followed by getting into engineering college instead of an arts of college , then going to a regular job sitting in front of computers and not doing anything creative at all ….

Life was horrible . But in between I tried to do something which makes me feel good.
Watching movies always was a medicine for me .
I got my queen of my life , and I met her during my first job in software .
The only reason I have to say that I am happy about my first job !

Then it was her inspiration to find a better me in me !
She found my interest in music and sound recording .
It was during my first job in a company called UST Global, when I was a little active in singing, composing and recording songs and sounds , that I found my good interest lies in Sound recording .
I bought a Philips Dynamic Microphone – SBC MD150 from Music world and a sennheiser headphones !!I dint know what to do with it , but I wanted to record professional quality sound .
I bought some headphones , and some wires and joined a guitar class .
I recorded some sounds , but it dint really come up well.
Noise was every where !!
Then I decided to do something for this .

Then came FTII …..
A new chapter in my life .
It was on 2008 …
I was researching in internet over this , and she pointed out FTII is the best place to learn about sound recording !!
Then I did some research and understood what she said is right !!
But we came to know the sad news that just 2 days back they closed the intake of forms for that year . Thus we missed the deadlines …
Then waited for one long year , and gave my first attempt , years went on and many things happened in my life – Both good and Bad ….
And this year , I am getting into FTII .

Finally the question is
Are you happy ?
Yes , I am …..

That’s all it takes and matters
Do what ever you want and what ever it takes,
happiness is all it matters .....

Story is not over yet ....
Finding oneself is a beautiful process and it goes on ......

FTII Dream has finally come true

After years of wait and dreaming , the day has come finally to enter the great place !
Finally selected for one year certificate course in Sound ....


It was a little disappointing in fact when I got to know that I am not chosen for the film sound but for the TV sound . But its a great thing to see that I have made it up there as one among the 12 in television   sound !! It makes me feel really happy and a proud moment to take this opportunity to thank each and every person who supported me and still supports me to reach here and still stands with me for the coming days to make my future bright ..

Thanks every one !! 

FTII 2012 Entrance Exam Questions and Answers

This year i have written the FTII entrance exam for  :

1. Three Year Post Graduate Diploma in Sound Recording and Sound Design and 
2. One Year Post Graduate Certificate Course in Sound Recording and TV Engineering

on 6th May 2012 (Sunday) at Kendriya Vidhyala , Tambaram , Chennai.


Its a 30 KM Drive from city , and had a good time speeding through the NH .
Met many aspirants who share many common dreams

This years exam was a different experience for me .
Having written and cleared the entrance on 2010 , and went through orientation and was put in waiting list and became unlucky to wait not just days but till the next entrance exam , which was held this year .

It was a long gap as there were no admissions on 2011 .
This one year made me go crazy behind movies , with attending film festivals ,
travelling , working in between in a software company , watching films , reading and sleeping ....

So the sunday was a long waited day , for me to write the exam the second time .
Personally felt the GK sections and descriptive were made easier ...

The introduction of the objective type style itslef reduced the burden
Surprised to see that there were not much of Technical questions in the descriptive.

Expected some basic questions on Physics, Speakers, Microphones, Acoustics, etc ....

I wanted to share some of the questions i remember so that it will be useful for myself and others aspirants who are preparing for future exams .

Keeping one thing in mind is always helpful for any one . FTII dont keep a standard style of questions . They dont look out for Geeks . They look out for people who love art . Obviously the one who love some thing should know many things about it . Thats the logic in their questions . They havent asked any dance and asked for which state it belongs to (which is a very comon question).  But they asked it in a differnt way - Shovana NArayan is assiciated with what art - For those who know she is a Kathak dancer, its easy to take out the answer from the 4 options as "Classical Dancer" . Kathak is a classical dance form originated from Uttar Pradesh .


Irrespective of various groups like sound , cinematography, Direction , Editing , the reason for why FTII insists on asking every one the set of common questions in GK is because we all share the common path even though we do technically a different job . We will all make films , which is a very powerful tool ...

So loving what we do is a good option.
But doing what we love is always the best option .

Here are some of the questions i remember which came for this year exam .

3 year diploma in sound questions
======================================

Common Section for all groups included GK - 20 questions .
Objective type .  (I remember only 11 now )


GK (Common Section)
=====================

Shovana Narayan is associated with    -- dance

cotton , industrialist, congressman , closely related to mahatma gandhi ---- > Jamnalal Bajaj

Kutty ,Shankar , Vijayan ... with what are these people related to = cortoonists

jude felix is assosiated with which game or sport = Hockey

agent vinod film directed by = sriram raghavan

main hoon na music director is : anu malik

My FrozenTturbulence in Kashmir  is written by : Jagmohan

Dr joon lew of korea,the recipient of international Gandhi award,is known for his service in which field : Eradication of leprosy

the real name of Akshay Kumar =  Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia

Kalachakra ceremony assosiated with == buddhism

indina isntitute of community dev is located at  : uttaranchal



short notes on  *(Common)
==============

The film society movement in india

NFAI and its influence on Indian Cinema - national film archive of india

Future of film

The impact of film and television on the younger generation of india


sound related

================


1.Tell 2 movies which you liked and disliked with respect to sound
2.Tell the importance of sound in the films .With a film as reference


========================================================================

1 year course in sound

GK (Common)
============

GK for 1 year course was not objective .
it were all fill in the blanks type, but most of them were easy ...



steve jobs co founder of --------  Ans : Apple Inc
1 TB = how many GB   Ans : 1024 GB
Bahadur shah buried in ?   And : Burma
Hurt Locker director : Kathryn Bigelow.
Dirty picture direftor : Milan Luthria
Who is considered the father of the Indian space programme? Ans: Dr Vikram Sarabhai.
Prithvi theater founder in the memorial of "Prithviraj Kapoor"
----------  was the first capital of India . Ans : Calcutta
Head quarters of Al Jazeera TV -- Ans : Qatar
Aspect ration is TV is the ratio between ---- and -----
(Horizontal and vertical pixels)

short notes on : (common)
==========================
10 mark each

urban challeneges to ecological balance
Anna movement and media impact on that
Raja Ravi varma and 4 other artists (forgot the other 3)
ethical censorship

sound specific
===============
TV sound and film sound difference
tv program u liked and u disliked . explain why ?
Difference btw live sound and dubbed sound
Write any 2 of the following - NTSC, MPEG , DVD, HD



One interesting thing i heard from some people who came to write exam are :
High level of influence is required to get in FTII .

It was funny enough . All the students who got in along with me last year through exam are just simple guys ,
who are really talented and they all got with their talents .

The selection Crew of FTII are reputed people in the resective streams.
There is noooo descrimination there , and they give space for any one .
Irresptive of his financial or influential backgrounds, his caste . his place of education , etc .

Its pure merit based , and in fact that is why FTII stands way ahead in Film Institutes .

Now its time again to check the website daily to see if i cracked this year written exam or not :)

All the best everyone ...
Take care :)

Its still a dream. And i am alive.

Its still a dream. And i am alive.

Dreams are great . Cause when you realize its a dream, you have forgotten most of it. Except for those who keep it till you see it 4 real !!

3 years back, when i finished my b.tech and realized that i am an engineer and not a student any more and need to go office wearing neat dress, wear ropes around our own neck, wear full sleeves stuffing the heat within inside, drive long ways and enter the zone where people smile for money, talk for money and sleep for money ,i felt sad. Cause i thought after all 4 years of college life wouldn't end up so soon.

I remember how my Amma struggle to feed lessons to my brain and get me passed in exams :) Life is so fast .

I love songs, music, sound, films, pictures. My ambition is to work in films .
This dream came long before i finish my b.tech. But i finished b.tech . College going was my last option in a day's list !! I neva used to attend the first 3 periods. Getting up late and missing the trains were not actually fun . But i cant get up early . So i found some fun in missing trains.

I started dreaming this dream , which is still haunting me . 2 months back i have written my ftii entrance for sound engineering course, and 2 months back i have left the company too . Results are not yet announced. And right now , i dont have a job . Basically jobless .

Dreams can come true. What will be my FTII dream be.
Its a dream and am still alive to get it true .

Dreams can come true :)

Months later ..........

Date: Nov 1st 2010 .

Its late night . I just opened FTII site to check the entrance results . And my name is shortlisted . Finally dreams coming true. :)

Dreams will come true :)

Thanks to my mom , my sister sister Sindhu, Salini , teachers , my guitar sir Rakesh , every useless who tried to depress me by discouraging me which inturn helped me to achieve things by getting in as a fire to get things done , thanking FTII . Thanking everyone .

Dreams will surely come true :)

All you need to do is ............................Dream :)