THE PROJECTION HAS BEEN CANCELLED?

“Shhh, be quiet, we are learning about film”. That was the sign that was put at the entrance of OPENS offices for the last couple of weeks. The reason is simple: OPENS Youth Club School of Film was organised along with Independent Film Centre Kino Klub Novi Sad.

The plan was for the participants to go through all phases of work at one film during four three-our sessions – from the idea and development of scenario to its filming and montage.

“These four workshops are organised to include the basis of film. The participants can learn something more about writing a scenario, filming and the beginning of the development of the film. There were 20 applications at the beginning, 11 of them came and now there are only four of them here”, Filip Markovinović, film and theatre director, the lecturer at the workshop says.

Milica Amidžić is one of the participants of the course. She is one of rare people who are sitting in the chair next to the film projector. She is already in the film world and as she says, she needs someone else’s experience in practice. “I wanted to know how a scenario is written because I think that as someone who works with films, I must know how that is done. I am satisfied with workshops and the knowledge I have gained”, Milica explains.

And that would be the end of the story if this was not the third time we are trying to write the coverage about OPENS School of Film. The experience from last year, on one hand tells us that there has always been a chair more borrowed in the neighbourhood for Filip’s workshops, while this year that is not the case. At the same, this year, or more precisely recently, cinemas are empty and blockbusters are, if at all, watched at pirate websites at home.

Is the interest in film decreasing with young people? How often do they visit cinema and are they interested in the development of a film at all? We have decided to bring a Dictaphone and as a guerrilla, from ambush get the answers to some of those questions from passers-by.

Passer-by 1: “I deal with film, I like them and I often watch them at home and at the cinema. I think that film is a medium that is dying a bit, because wrong people are in charge of culture.

Passer-by 2: “I like the cinema experience but I usually do not have enough money to go and see a film. When I’m at home I cannot concentrate enough and I miss good stereo sound offered by a cinema. I think that the tickets for the cinema and theatre should be cheaper.”

Passer-by 3: “I would like to learn something more about the creation of a film, I watch them often at home. I don’t go to the cinema for financial reasons mostly.”

Passer-by 4: “I don’t watch films, I am not interested in them. I rarely bump into a good one.”

Passer-by 5: “I watch films at the cinema, mostly. I think the interest in film is higher now than before.”

So, the interest for the film exists. The conclusion number two is that the tickets are above the financial possibilities of most young people (even though we maybe forget that there are numerous discounts for young people at the cinemas in Novi Sad). The conclusion number three is that a lot of young people are dissatisfied with the situation in the culture, but it is unclear why they do not try to change that. And finally, if finances are the main problem and source of lack of interest in the culture content, how come there is no a chair more required for a free film workshop?