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The two-day workshop kicked off with Srila Chatterjee, one of the top production designers in the country, speaking about her job. She described it as ensuring the right look, ambience and atmosphere in an ad film through sets, props or real locations. Srila illustrated her talk with samples of her own work such as the Ericsson mobile phones "Surprisingly Small" film. One was surprised to learn that this Cannes award-winning commercial was shot in the old Mukesh Mills, at Colaba. The restaurant in the film was actually a set built in adecrepit courtyard. But it looked so beautiful and so real when completed that cameraman Barun Mukherji tried to persuade Srila to start an actual restautant there -- a great compliment for a set designer.

Think of any great ad film on the box today, and Prasoon Pandey has probably made it -- the Fevikwik `fisherman' film, the 8 pm Whiskey film or the Cadbury's `Mehndi' film to name but a few. Prasoon was there to tell us how to write better ad film scripts. Just follow three easy steps, he said: Figure out (1) the one thing you want to say in the film; (2) how to say it emphatically; and (3) why should anybody care about what you're saying.

Most films go wrong at step one. Advertisers are rarely single-minded about their brand, so they try to cover up by saying lots of things. Pick any one thing from their laundry list and work on it, Prasoon advised. In step two, the important thing is to keep the graph (or interest level) of your script steadily rising. And when you reach the peak don't dither. (Thisbasic rule of good story-telling is apparently unknown to most Indian directors, whether they work in Bollywood or Adland.) Step three is the real test -- all is lost if the consumer says, "So what?" So make sure your film says something she cares about.

Cyrus Oshidar of MTV talked to us about the brand image of `Indian cool' his channel sought to project. His role was to contribute to it through channel promos like the hilarious one featuring the `qawali' i

upa ke banyan pehnoge, to Rupa kya pehnegi?

Cyrus, who was in advertising 14 years before shifting to MTV, told us that the best thing about his job was there was no client to reject his concepts. Leaving him free to freewheel within the rather broad outlines of MTV's brand strategy.

Ram Madhvani, director of films like the beautifully-crafted new Adidas commercial, described the role of a director as an answer of questions. Questions like who should be the actor, where should a film be shot, what kind of music should it have? How a directoranswers depends on how he has lived his life up to the point he is asked the question. So when you hire a director, Madhvani maintains, you pay for the sum of his life experiences. I guess that explains the rates (at times a crore or more) directors charge these days to make a 40-second ad film!

The workshop ended, appropriately, with Prahlad Kakkar's presentation on 25 years of ad films. That's about how long he's been making ad films himself, so he has a wonderful perspective on the subject. Kakkar took us on a nostalgic visual journey starting with his early black & white spots for Jenson & Nicholson and Bush Radios and ending with his latest work the touching new Pepsi film with kids wearing Sachin masks. Kakkar stressed the importance of nurturing the creativity of young people. He also spoke, perhaps somewhat unexpectedly, about what a wonderful role model Sachin is for Indian youth. Kakkar spoke straight from the heart. Ending the workshop like a good ad film. On an emotional high.

SumantoChattopadhyay is associate creative director, Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai. His opinions, however, are not necessarily shared by his employers.