JMC Study Hub interacted with ‘Mr. Naveen Kumar’, Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication and Deputy Director (Content Production), Digital Learning Centre, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak to know his experience and understand the fundamentals of the subject in the Mass Communication field.

Highlights of Interview

• Making of a good documentary film
• List of Projects make most proud
• Advantage of Non- Linear Editing
• Important role the Video Editor
• Video editing software used in the making the projects

Q. As you have edited/directed/supervised various short films and documentaries, so can you tell us what makes a good documentary film?

Mr. Naveen: The collective hard work and team efforts of all team members of the three television production stages i.e. Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production, makes a good Documentary. It applies to the other genre of television program production also. For a good Documentary one must research extensively on the topic. Ultimately your research work on the topic will decide that your documentary will get a good script or not.

A good script is one of the essential things for the success of your documentary. Secondly, the other important aspect is the Visual. As you know television is a visual medium and the good visuals used in the program make an emotional bond with the audience. The documentary requires the best shots to describe the script of your documentary and to grab the attention of the audience. If your audience is not getting the appropriate and corresponding visuals they will not be able to attach themselves with the story. The third most important aspect is the assembling of the visuals and audio according to the script which is done in the Post Production Stage. It is said that the actual film is made on the editing table. This is the final stage of the program. The audience will watch what you decide at this stage. So this stage needs more attention and precautions while selecting the visuals and placing them in the right place.

Q. Among your various projects, which project makes you most proud of and why?

Mr. Naveen: I am proud of all the projects. My all students have done tremendous efforts for these projects. Personally, I like my first documentary Ek Swaal,  which was based on a forgotten Boxer of national repute, Jasbir. I made a documentary on the Central University of Haryana, Mahendergarh in 2016 and supervised a documentary The Pink Auto, Woman Empowerment on Wheels which was a project of my student Jibin. M, and it was screened in Prakriti International Documentary Film Festival –2018 held at Anna University, Chennai in 2019. A documentary on Ratnawali 2014 (Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra) is also one of my favourite projects. There are many more like Room No. 58 (short film), Saaz ka Raaz (Documentary), Taraori Sarai  (Documentary), etc. which are close to my heart. The credit goes to the students and their team efforts.

Q.As you have done a diploma in non-linear editing. So can you describe in brief the non-linear editing and its advantage?

Mr. Naveen: Editing videos and audio with the help of software is called a Non-Linear Editing.  NLE replaced the Linear editing, an analog video editing technique used before the advent of computers in video editing field. NLE gives you more flexibility; accuracy; speed and freedom to use many visual and audio effects and saves your valuable time. I think this is the biggest advantage of NLE systems.

Q. What do you think about the most important role the Video Editor plays?

Mr. Naveen: A video editor is one of the most important team members of the project. As I mentioned earlier, the audience will watch the same which is decided in the post-production stage. Hence editor’s role becomes more important in terms of shaping the raw footage into a final product. He should have the ability to identify what the script says and how the Director wants to convey to the same to the audience.

Q. Can you tell us which video editing software have you used in the making of your various projects and why?

Mr. Naveem: I use Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro the most. Both the software are very user friendly.