authorhttp://www.aditya.com
Today we’d like to introduce you to Aditya Gupta.
Aditya, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I come from a town in the outskirts of Mumbai, India where I first started filmmaking. This goes back to when I was in 9th grade,
my school had a documentary making competition for uplifting of go green agenda. I always loved to try new things and making
a documentary seemed very interesting. I participated in the competition with my friends in the hope of winning the bragging
rights of having made the best documentary the school ever saw. However, that’s not what exactly happened. In fact, we had
made a documentary which didn’t even pass the first round of selection. More than a failure this felt very funny to me and my
friends as we had a lot of fun while making it. This experience ignited a passion in me for filmmaking and telling stories through
movies. I proceeded onto learning filmmaking from internet and whatever resources I could find. The following year I made
another documentary for my 10th-grade farewell ceremony, narrating mine and my classmates’ journey in the school from the
beginning. After having it screened in front of everyone, I could see tears filling up in people’s eyes. This became a proud moment
for me and it made me realize I could tell stories through movies. To further my education in film, I joined a film school in
Mumbai named FX school along with pursuing a diploma in Information Technology. The film school taught me a lot about film
making and how it is a collaboration between many departments to create one visual story. It also helped me find my passion for
cinematography out of all the departments. I was very lucky to have had a chance to work in Bollywood for some time after
graduating.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
When I started filmmaking in my school days, I was just doing it for fun and didn’t take it as a profession, so when I decided that I
wanted to be a filmmaker, it took some effort to convince my parents at first, as none of them or anyone in my family background
has been a filmmaker. But, after working on a few projects and showing my passion for the field, my parents agreed and have been
very supportive of my decision since then. They have been very interested in my career and have always been trying to open up
new opportunities for me. That may be through finding an established filmmaker in the industry on Linked In and helping me
connect with them or helping me get professional education overseas and build a strong base for my career.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them
about what you do?
My passion has always been to learn about new fields and grow my knowledge, therefore I chose the profession of
cinematography/storytelling, as this is a never-ending learning process. I have always been a technical and creative guy who likes
to build stuff and do it with fun. And I think that is what I am known for. Whenever I read a script, there are hundreds of ideas
running through my mind of how I can shoot it and while those ideas storm my mind, I also think of how I can achieve those
practically with the technology accessible to me. This calls for finding creative solutions and ways to get it done within the
provided resources which I love working on. I am also very passionate about what I do which lets me keep working on my projects
for hours. I think this is what director’s like about me, I provide them with multiple ways of doing the same thing which forces us
to have a discussion and think about why would we do anything in a certain way, what would it convey to the audiences and what
effect would it have on the story.
I am proud of all of the projects I have shot but again since the learning process never ends, every time I see any of my past work,
I think of what could have I done better. The project I am really proud of and excited for is the short film I did with one of my
favorite directors Espie Randolph III, Project & Serve. That film was very unique as Espie had a vision which was very open to
interpretation and I had a lot of creative freedom for the style and mood of the film. I love the final cut of the film, excited to see
how it does in its festival run.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
One bit of advice that I had received and I still follow is being consistent for whatever it is that I am doing. Learning a new craft is
very exciting but also takes consistency to master it. And patience is very important to grow in this industry. Big opportunities do
come but it takes time for it to reach us, and it only reaches us if we keep working for it consistently. Lastly, networking is
probably the biggest part of the job of being a filmmaker. I believe there are many people who can do the job well in their unique
style but people who get hired are the ones in the network.
