Vinod Kumar addresses the film workshop in Ranchi on Tuesday. (Hardeep Singh)

Ranchi, Jan. 11: Here’s some jolly news for, well, Jollywood.

Aspiring film directors, writers and technicians looking for a career in the fledging Jharkhand film industry, otherwise known as Jollywood — or maybe even its super-glam senior cousin Bollywood — had some hand-holding with lights, camera and action.

Marwari College played host to a two-day filmmaking workshop, Wings of Jollywood, for budding filmmakers before starting a new course on mass communication and video production. The workshop saw 20 eager beavers from the college picking up finer nuances of filmmaking from professionals.

According Marwari College principal Javed Ahmed, the reason behind the workshop was to give students a basic grounding. “We will start a three-year degree course from the next academic session, which has been approved by UGC. We want interested students to know the techniques to make documentaries or films before they enroll for the course,” he said.

Ahmed added they had allowed only 20 students out of 70 applicants to join the workshop. “They were chosen based on their interest in film making, experience in theatre and competence or knack in handling the camera,” he said.

The event was co-ordinated by theatre and film director Sushil Ankan, also the reader and head of the philosophy department of the college.

Filmmaking, script and screenplay writing, budgeting and make-up the first day’s topics. In the first session, well-known writer-cum-director Vinod Kumar laid stress on the basics — lights, camera and sound — adding that before entering the field, it was imperative to have an understanding of technicalities.

Ankan spoke about screen and script writing. “Script writing is a vital ingredient in filmmaking,” he said. While writing a script, one has to envision frames and shots, otherwise the entire story could go haywire, he added.

“It was a great exposure for those who want filmmaking as a career,” said Anil Kumar Mehta, a participant.

Day Two will have classes on storyboard writing, video and still camera, lighting, editing, graphics, sound design, background score and marketing. Students will also get certificates of participation.