NASFF-21 great opportunity to acquire modern film-making skills: Osama

ISLAMABAD, Jun 1 (APP): National Amateur Film Festival (NASFF-21) qualifier Osama Huissain Chaudry on Wednesday said the initiative was a great opportunity for the youth to acquire modern film-making skills at the international platform that will help create more interesting stories and short-films.

Osama Chaudry, is a student of National College of Arts Lahore where he is learning film-making. His eight-minute short fiction film Sasanity qualified for the National Amateur Short Film Festival (NASFF) contest from out of a total of over 1,100 entries received from 72 different educational institutions across Pakistan.

The Grand Finale of the event was held on June 26, 2021. The top 15 high achievers of NASFF-21, including Osama, were awarded 1-year Film-making Diploma from New York Film Academy (NYFA), Australia.

The film’s script was written as part of the course assignment given by the College to create a story on a Dinner scene that went awkward which was later transformed into a short-film during the Covid-19 lockdown, Osama told APP while highlighting that the film had been completed few months prior to the NASFF 2021 competition commencement.

He said the theme of his short film revolved around significance of family communication, its implications and effects of absence of clear communication among the family members.

“My family and I performed the characters of the short-film. I played the protagonist’s character, my mother, grandmother and uncle played the characters of the mother, grandmother and uncle as guest respectively”.

The story focussed a boy who wanted to order fast food for himself but could not hide it from his family and he was also unable to communicate his message in an eloquent manner which turned the dinner scene into an awkward situation, he said.

The cinematography of the film was managed by Osama and his Murtaza Ansari that continued for two-day, he mentioned.

Commenting on the one-year diploma on film making in the New York Film Academy (NYFA), Australia, he said it was not only a good opportunity to learn at a reputed institution rather would help us acquire professional writing skills, learn fundamentals of film making, editing, safety at the set behind the camera and importance of modern equipment to be used for film making.

Chaudry was of the view that it was important for a film maker or film-making as whole to have exposure in abroad where one could learn new concepts and this also helped explore new ideas.

“The place like Australia which is a diverse country with different nations inhabiting there will help more in learning in a different enabling environment”.

He concluded that the stories and films then made would help create more interesting films and stories.

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in collaboration with Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) had sought online registration for the National Amateur Short Film Festival (NASFF) themed “the colours of Pakistan, the Indus identity, Pakistan a cultural melting pot, empowerment through SMEs, Philanthropy in Pakistan and Value addition in Agri-products of Pakistan.”

NASFF was created to tap the talent and creativity of Pakistani youth, who choose Film and TV production and mass media communication as their professional careers.

The festival was meant to proffer a chance to such talented youth to produce high quality short films projecting the real image of Pakistan.