The Smashcut Chat: NYU’s Shivani Khattar on online film education and “finding your tribe”
Shivani Khattar is a New York-based independent filmmaker whose been teaching NYU Tisch High School Filmmakers Workshop and Professional Filmmaking Workshop for Adults on Smashcut since 2019. She earned her MFA degree in Film Directing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she received the Paulette Goddard Scholarship, two years in a row. Her short films have been screened at film festivals around the world including SXSW and the Palm Springs Short Film Festival. Shivani has also worked with some of the busiest commercials production houses in New York, including McGuffin Films, Homestead Editorial, and Assembly Films. You can view Shivani’s work at shivanikhattar.com
At what point in your life did you know you wanted to pursue film? Were you able to explore your creative interests growing up?
I fell in love with cinema when I was around 7 years old — I was a latch key kid and my best friend was the video cassette player. So everyday after school I’d put in a VHS tape and watch a movie — this later turned into a DVD and then streaming, of course, but the feeling of falling into a new world the minute a film came on never went away. Sadly, I wasn’t able to explore my creative interests because of where I grew up — the schools there didn’t really have film programs and academics were always a priority. This all changed when I reached college (I did my undergrad work in India, as an Economics major) and was able to pursue theatre and work as an intern in a documentary production company.
How has working in theatre in India influenced you as an artist and shaped your creative directorial style in film?
I directed many plays in the “Theatre of the Absurd” tradition and acted in some. I think this informed my voice as a filmmaker — I am more interested in blending the genres of fantasy and reality, and I think this comes from the hyper-realistic form of theatre I worked in.
How did working as cinematographer and editor influenced your directing? Do you advise your students who want to direct to hone technical skills, too?
I love directing — but I think cinematography and editing inform that role so heavily. Most directors I admire (like David Fincher, Chloe Zhao — she edited Nomadland herself —and Bong Joon-Ho, who works very closely with his editor right from the start) tend to be excellent editors and know a lot about how to create pictures. I think as a director it is very important to experience the other roles too, especially shooting, lighting and editing. This helps directors communicate their vision better to other departments and makes them think more in terms of the language of cinema. Of course the starting point for any narrative project is always story and character — but being able to translate that visually is equally important.
What role has mentorship played in your filmmaking journey?
It has been crucial to me understanding that as filmmakers we live a dual life — one that feeds our soul and one that supports our life, and it’s important to strike a balance between the two. I think we have this very romantic and one-sided notion of how a filmmaker’s career should progress — but in reality this is a hard profession and being able to be an employable filmmaker is even harder. The key is to keep making work that you are passionate about while still managing to pay the bills. This is a line all filmmakers have to walk. The hope is that eventually the two things meet, and they do but it takes time. I don’t think I would have understood this without the advice and support of people I consider my film mentors.
How did you start teaching and what had drawn you to it?
I started teaching because I was beginning to feel too jaded with my work as a commercials and branded content director. I started my career shooting documentaries that earned me my first few jobs as a branded documentary director. This quickly became a very lucrative path financially but I wasn’t being able to pursue my independent film work as effectively as I wanted to. Teaching piqued my interest because it meant that after almost a decade of working I would need to revisit the things I learnt in film school. This helped bring back my passion for cinema and independent filmmaking. I also love how teaching means you get to share your love for cinema — the thing that first made you enter this industry with others. It is a very rewarding and meaningful experience in that sense — you get to see others fall in love with cinema — and that is special. We cinefiles have to stick together so that cinema as an art form will live on.
You’ve been teaching NYU’s Tisch Pro Film Workshop for a while. What’s your biggest take-away? How different is it for you to teach adults vs. high school students?
I think high school students approach filmmaking from a very different lens as compared to adults. The work is very different — in some ways high school students grasp the language of film very clearly. As adults we tend to bring our life experience to our art much more and so the technique tends to take a back seat. Eventually both reach the same destination but the path feels different. High school students tend to think technique first and artistic expression second and it tends to be the opposite with adults — but eventually I think the two merge and the work in both cases is very powerful. I think when you’re in school you tend to focus on learning the skills much more as opposed to when you’re working and trying to figure out how to find the right avenue to express yourself artistically. The course leaves so much room for students to find their own path — and often by week 4 I really start to see students get confident with their filmmaking voice. It’s amazing to see that progression occur.
What are your thoughts on remote film courses and platforms like Smashcut? How has the pandemic and remote teaching changed your approach if at all?
I think remote/online film school is such a breakthrough in film education. It has made film school accessible to so many more people and in that respect I think it’s incomparable to teaching-in person. You can be in China and make films with a person from Peru and it can all occur without you having to be in the same place. When I was in film school I would have killed for an opportunity to make films in India virtually with my crew mates who came from Costa-Rica. But we were in New York and had to think only of films we could make there. In the time of streaming platforms where the number one show on Netflix is a French show dubbed in English — this is the kind of collaboration we need to foster — and it’s only possible online.
Smashcut makes it all so easy with the way you can share files, host edits and have video conferences. Not to mention the pandemic has forced us all to re-examine remote living — it’s so much more conducive to having a better work-life balance. So for adults with full time jobs and families, having a film school that is virtual makes it so much easier if you are unable to move to cities like New York and LA to learn filmmaking.
What skills do you see being important to filmmakers in the current landscape of remote work?
Communication, communication and communication. This is especially important in the film industry but more so in the context of remote work. One has to be an effective communicator and make sure they are able to clearly express their ideas to their collaborators.
How do you see the film and education industries changing right now?
I think as with every other field, we are embracing remote work in the film industry, too. Pre-production and post-production are slowly adapting to being remote. We still need to be physically present for production — but the shift towards remote work is coming. This means we have to train the next generation of filmmakers to work effectively within this paradigm — this is why programs like the NYU Special Programs Courses on Smashcut are so well positioned to provide that type of education to aspiring filmmakers. The other big change is coming with streaming platforms and the need for more episodic material. This means the film programs must reflect this in the education too — shifting emphasis from feature films to episodic and web series development and production. The fundamentals of filmmaking remain the same — but more electives that teach episodic production need to be introduced into mainstream film programs.
You are a collaborator. How have you discovered members of your team and how do you keep the relationship with them strong? What would be your advice to your students?
I went to a very diverse and international film school and I learned the value of international collaborations early on in my career. Working with students at school who came from different countries offered a very unique perspective to my own films. This idea is now reflected with the democratization of entertainment with streaming platforms launching globally. My advice to students who are scattered across the world would be to utilize that opportunity to make international productions — there is a huge audience for that now. My collaborators and I are currently developing ideas based in India, the UK and the US — and it’s only possible because they are embedded in the film industries in each of these places. My friendships and now creative partnerships with people I met in film school have now made it possible for me to make work for international audiences.
What’s some advice you have for aspiring filmmakers?
Stay open creatively and watch all types of movies — as many as you can. And most importantly, keep persisting until you finish your project — filmmaking is a tough industry but if you can persevere it is very meaningful and rewarding.
How do you balance life/work?
It’s tough — but necessary as a filmmaker. You sometimes have to live a dual life: one that sustains your life and one that sustains your soul. I think the way to strike the balance between the two is to find ways to hold yourself accountable for delivering on your passion projects — I treat them just the same as I would a work assignment. It also helps to have a support group, for me it’s my friends from film school. We’ve had a writing group to write our feature films and this way we all hold each other accountable. It’s also a great motivator because we are all struggling with similar problems both artistic and practical. So my advice would be to find your tribe and stay accountable to yourself.
What are you currently working on? What other roles would you like to explore in the future if any?
I am currently prepping a feature film meant to go into production in India later this year. It is a feminist horror film about a woman who discovers she has special abilities.
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Smashcut is a next generation learning platform built for real time, media-based education. Smashcut partners with universities and organizations to develop and deliver customized, branded, media-based online programs. The Smashcut platform features a high degree of collaborative instruction, and real-time student project review via live 1:1 video sessions with instructors. We built Smashcut to help the next generation of students learn to communicate ideas and work effectively in a culture and workplace increasingly dependent on visual media and digital collaboration. Learn more at Smashcut.com.
