CRAFT is a scam. CRAFT syllabus is more theory oriented. Also the shooting exercises which you will be doing with the direction students would be shot on handycam. Trust me working with handycam is a waste of time and energy.
CRAFT has an old PD 170 Sony camera (It keeps malfunctioning also) which is not used anywhere by the way these days. This camera will be given to you to shoot documentaries. Even documentaries are shot on DSR 250 or better cameras than that. When you are practicing shot taking with a handycam, you cannot get accustomed to bigger cameras.
When interviews are going on in CRAFT, Naresh Sharma hires a big camera like DSR 250 and track and trolley from a production house in Delhi in order to show the new students that they have a lot of equipments. Truth is CRAFT only has a tripod which was broken last time I checked. They don’t have a crane and they don’t have a track and trolley. Therefore, when you shoot your final project with the direction students you would have to use either static shots or basic panning and tilting.
CRAFT has a P2 Panasonic which will be shown to you once in a blue moon. This camera also does not function properly as the footage shows grains while basic panning. You won’t get much time to practice on this camera but the final projects will be shot on this camera.
Also during interviews a celebrity is present at CRAFT from a technical field. Well that celebrity only comes during the interview days. On normal days you will never find any celebrity faculty coming to CRAFT.
You must be knowing that feature length films in India are made on Arriflex camera (which is the film camera). Naresh Sharma promised our batch that he will conduct a workshop on Arriflex but he never fulfilled that promise. In other words, the syllabus was not completed. Even as an assistant cinematographer you are expected to know how to load a film can in the film camera. If you have never ever seen an Arriflex at work, how can you know how to load the film.
Only one boy in our cinematography batch of 2010 got a job (total strength was 12) but that too through his own contacts. Naresh Sharma had nothing to do with his placement. Naresh Sharma has no contacts with the good production houses in Mumbai. Same was the case with direction batch and editing batch. Their cinematography faculty Mr. Gaurav Bhardwaj was good at still photography only but his camerawork sucked big time.
Last but not the least Naresh Sharma does not have basic manners. He always shouts at his students and keeps discouraging them. I have even seen him using abusive language in front of girls. He does not respect his students. Naresh Sharma also takes cinematography classes at CRAFT. Once we were having a workshop with Sunny Joseph and Naresh Sharma himself had instructed the students how to light up the room. When Sunny Joseph came inside the room, he told us it was all wrong this is not how you light up a room. You can imagine the standard of the faculty’s knowledge.
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