Renowned film-maker Akira Kurosawa had once visited my alma mater FTII (a long time before I joined of course). The direction department of the institute was on cloud nine as they escorted Mr Kurosawa to give him a tour of the institute. But they were left bewildered and a tad bit jealous when he told them he wanted to visit the Editing Department first! Someone even voiced their query as to why the editing department was being preferred over the shooting studio and other departments. Mr Kurosawa laughed at the query and replied “Films are created on two tables. The first being the writing table (while the screen-play is being written) and the second is the editing table!” In his address he did not emphasise on the shooting aspect of film-making. Instead he stressed on the importance of Writing & Post Production (which in today’s scenario includes but not limited to Editing, Sound Design, Colour Grading etc). Strangely though, film-making in current popular opinion is mostly shooting! It is extremely important for people who aspire to be part of film-making, to not only build a strong foundation through studying or watching cinema but also to learn the technicality of film-making through editing too. Yes, shooting is definitely an integral part of film-making but doing so without necessary preparation and technical know-how is as good as milking a bull.