How to prepare for JET(FTII-SRFTI)
The purpose of this post ironically beats the title of the same. There is no way you can really ‘prepare’ for JET(FTII-SRFTI). I’ll only try to put forth my experience and that of my batchmates who got through to FTII-SRFTI last year through JET. Everyone has had a different approach work for them & that sense of subjectivity is vital to a course like this. I got through in my third attempt and I still don’t know what I did differently.
To start with, you have to approach the exam in 2 ways. The subjective part and the objective part of it. The format of the paper continuously changes from previous years. When we had answered, the weightage was equal: 50 marks for objective & 50 marks for subjective. But for this year, you can check the pattern of examination on their website.
If there’s one part of the exam you can really ‘prepare’ for methodically, so to say, it is the Objective one. Do the simple stuff: Keep in touch with what’s going on with culture, politics, sports, economy; anything and everything to do with the contemporary. (We were asked a range of questions from Bitcoins to Netflix). The other thing that helps is learning about the different art forms of India. Its obvious that if a state funded film school is looking for candidates, they’ll appreciate if there are individuals who are aware of their roots. So go through all the art forms, their history, their origination, the stalwarts etc. Another thing that some of us did was go through these online GK quizzes. More often than not, the questions pertaining to these ‘India’ based segments of art, history, politics are the common ones that are part of the UPSC lot. Going through Manorama book of the previous year is also a good excercise since it has all the information in a single place. And most importantly, know about films or filmmakers. At least the basic ones. Hollywood, Bollywood, regional Indian cinema & world cinema. Also try & know about the process of filmmaking from conception to delievery. James Monaco’s How to read a film is a good book to refer to for the same.
Now coming to the subjective part; the exam is structured in a way that the only possibility of answering it is looking into your own self and conjuring up answers from your own experiences. What helps is being aware of the medium, especially for the stream you are applying to. They aren’t looking for in depth knowledge but they are looking for a knack, a sense of the medium. An opinion, a point of view, a perspective that’s singularly yours. So if you aren’t the kind who is in the habit of writing or has a tough time articulating stuff, try writing stuff down on paper physically. It might seem boring and unnecessary but it’ll help you as the paper is usually pretty long and the time is limited so articulation becomes key.
FTII also uploads question paper from previous years. You can go through them! You could try and answer the subjective questions from these papers itself. In general, its a good practice to write things down.
I got through for cinematography and I hadn’t particularly prepared anything. I knew basics of light and photography(This being essential because there were multiple questions related to photography). Read up about cinematographers and try writing why you liked cinematography of certain films. Read about these films & if you can, write your own opinion too. Its important that your point of view is established. Start with writing about the cinematography of the last film you liked.
For each field, some of my batchmates written about their experiences:
Manas Krishna, Cinematography (SRFTI)
With respect to questions related to photographs or sketches, don’t try to be pretentious and write something uselessly over the top. Write what you are feeling and write it honestly. Remember that they are looking for unique individuals and you are unique in the way you think and articulate yourself. The key is not to lose your individuality throughout the JET examination process(This includes the orientation). You can refer to this question bank which I referred to while preparing.
Karthik Varma, Direction & Screenplay writing (SRFTI)
Read about everything like you’ll need to retain their perspectives for the rest of your life but enjoy learning about it. Ask yourself questions like why do you like films? Why do you want to pursue it? What does it mean to be an artist? What is technique in art? Have an idea of everything and learn to articulate what you know effectively. Practice writing. Write stories and try build them with only images or visual descriptions. Write a few short scenes.
Listen to Indian and western classical music. Read a lot everyday and take notes of the things you’d like to remember. Try to find your own stand on some of the broader issues that occupy our times, not just those related to media and cinema. Go through www.nofilmscool.com and everyframeapainting. Read or watch John Berger’s Ways of Seeing.
Films/Filmmakers to watch/read about:
La Jette by Chris marker, Hypernormalization by Adam Curtis
Bengali cinema: Apu trilogy, Charulata by Satyajit Ray, Meghe Dhaka Tara by Ritwik Ghatak
Indian new wave: Uski Roti, Bhuvan Shome
Tarkovky’s Stalker, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery of Splendor
Akira Kurosawa, Yasujirō Ozu, Hayao Miyazaki, Ingmar Bergman, Guru Dutt, Vinod Anand, Anand Patwardhan, Ai Wei Wei, Banksy, Werner herzog, Francis Truffaut, Alfred Hitchcock among others.
Sleep well everyday and spend all your time on this. Make it more important than getting through to the institute. Make up your mind that even if you don’t get in, you’re going to learn it by yourself and jump right in.
Book Reccomendations by Anirban Gupta, Editing (EDM-SRFTI)
In the blink of an eye by Walter Murch
The Conversations with Michael Ondatjee and Walter Murch
Sound Design by David Sonnenschein
Technique of film editing by Karel Reisz
Other: Film Form & Film Sense by Sergei Eisenstein , Five C’s of cinematography by Joseph V. Mascelli, If its purple, someones gonna die by Patti Bellantoni
Saptak Sarkar, Sound Design (SRFTI)
For the subjective paper, I read a book called “Sound Design” by Anup Mukherjee. That basically game me a basic overview of what sound design is and some historical background. The questions are usually based on the properties of sound( pitch, timbre, loudness etc), some conceptual questions like thinking the soundscape of a scene and lastly analysis of sound design of a film. I prepared about a film I liked, remembered the crew and cast(that comes in handy too) prior to exam.
Lastly, be confident about what you write. There is hardly any wrong answer while you’re answering your special paper. Just confidently think and write.
Laksh Banthia, Screenplay & Direction (SRFTI)
This post is about writing strategy and time management for JET. My suggestions are specially relevant for the Screenplay Writing and Direction exam, which I took twice and cleared on both attempts.
Finish the MCQ in 2–3 minutes. Answer all questions, put down your best guesses. You either know or you don’t know the answers, so don’t waste time on the MCQs. In my opinion, they are the least important part of the the exam in terms of the mental attention and preparation required.
The descriptive section will make or break your paper. Jump to it as soon as possible. First identify the questions you will answer out of the choices given. Go with your instincts and decide quickly. Then, start tackling the questions in the order in which you are most confident. You don’t need to write your answers chronologically as there is space in the question paper itself. This will help build a momentum. A good momentum is important because the paper is lengthy, and if you finish it, in my experience you raise your chances of being in the top percentile.
The objective is to write fast and complete the paper with structured answers. Plan your answers quickly but properly before putting pen to paper. You don’t have time to be clueless in the middle of your response.
Momentum is also important to make you feel good about showing your engagement with cinema. It gets the creative juices flowing. It’s also self-affirming, and generally makes the exam-taking experience a good one. Although it doesn’t guarantee your selection, in my opinion it is the best and ultimate goal you can set for yourself as a JET candidate.
Devraj Bhaumik, Sound Design (FTII)
Start being obervant about the environment around yourself. If you are walking on the road and if you can dissect and pick out each element of sound that you are listening to, it’ll help in understanding what any sound actually “sounds” like. Also, solve some basic sound equations like the relation between frequency, wavelength and speed of sound. Lastly, just LISTEN to a film that you really like and try to find out the aspect of sound design in that.
Abhro Chowdhury, Producing (SRFTI)
There is no preparation for cracking JET, there is a way of life for it. It includes being generally aware of what’s happening in our country and around the world. Watching movies, reading novels, writing essays and watching random science documentaries on DNAs could all help.
YouTube is a great resource at our disposal which should be exploited as much as possible for learning about everything from colour correction to script breakdown. (Don’t ignore film history either)
But really, if you love films and are intrigued by the process so much so that you are lead to scanning the internet and libraries for filmmaking tips while observing life as is, it should be enough.
In conclusion, like mentioned before, be honest, believe in yourself and your point of view. Be confident and wish you all the best.
For those who get through JET and need help for orientation, feel free to reach out to me on Facebook & Twitter. I’ll try and direct you to the right people from the respective streams.