All Entries in the "Review" Category

NASSCOM Animation & Gaming India 2007: Resourcing Human Resource

Despite all the optimistic talk about India’s rapidly growing animation industry, professionals and educators alike acknowledge the severe lack of quality manpower. This is a matter of concern for all those contributing to the industry, whether as studios or as institutes. The agenda at this particular session on 2nd Nov. at the NASSCOM Animation & Gaming India 2007, chaired by Ganesh Natarajan, Vice Chairman, NASSCOM, was to analyze the problem, tackle the hurdles and look at possible solutions through discussion.

The panelists were AnimationXpress.com CEO and Managing Editor Anand Gurnani, Arena Animation Executive Director R. Krishnan, Accel Animation Chairman N R Panicker and Red Octane CEO Anurag Khanna.

The first two points brought up were -
1. Setting up more animation training institutes.
2. In-house training by studios.

NASSCOM A&G Summit, Keynote Address by film-maker Subhash Ghai

Subhash Ghai, Chairman and Managing Director, Mukta Arts Ltd. is a film-maker of repute and has pioneered the corporatisation of an industry, namely Bollywood, that was notorious for being unprofessional. He has 16 successful hindi feature films to his credit and has recently set up the Whistling Woods International Institute for Film, Television and Media Arts. He was welcomed on-stage by Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM. Here are a few candid observations that he made.

“My heartiest congratulations to NASSCOM for organizing this summit. A few years ago, I heard all this talk about the rapidly growing market for animation and wondered where were we going to find the human resource for it. That is when I decided to set up the Whistling Woods International.

NASSCOM A&G Summit, Inaugural Address by Nelson Recinos

Two time Emmy award winning producer and director, Nelson Recinos, has 10 years of experience in the TV industry and more than 20 years of experience in the animation industry. He has worked with most big names in animation. Beginning as an animator at the age of 20 with Hanna Barbera’s Scooby Doo, he followed it up with He-man at Filmation. Then he directed ‘Baby Looney Tunes’, ‘Animaniacs’ and ‘Pinky and the Brain’ for Warner Brothers. He has also directed the Charlie Brown movie and was at the helm of two very popular Nickelodeon shows - ‘Catdog’ and ‘Oswald the Octopus’. Sharing his experience of working on Catdog and Oswald he said, “Catdog is extremely fast-paced while Oswald, keeping in mind the target audience- preschoolers, is very slow. You need to have very different mindsets for each of the shows. It was a challenge to work on both simultaneously.”

Nelson has recently become an independent producer because he felt the time had come for him to start working on his own ideas.

NASSCOM Animation and Gaming Summit, Inauguration & Welcome Note

“Just like the textile and industrial revolution in the past, the time is now ripe for a creative revolution. It is time for the rise of the creative class.” With these words, the emcee announced the NASSCOM Animation and Gaming Summit, 2007 open.

Mr. Kiran Karnik, President of NASSCOM, began by welcoming all the delegates, “For the 1st time the event is being held in Mumbai. Until now, the summit was held each time in Hyderabad. I have been actively involved in this area for the last 5 years. Worldwide the market for Animation and Gaming has been booming, but India has only scratched the surface so far. In fact, we are almost non-existent in the world-wide Gaming industry. The domestic market is no doubt large and growing in both these sectors, but worldwide it has been huge for a long time now.

Chitrakatha Day 3 : An Experimental Path - Selected works of Cal Arts students’ graduation films

A beautiful exploration of possibilities in experimental animation was presented by Isabel Herguera, herself a Cal Arts Alumnus. There is no formula for this kind of animation. No right way or wrong way. Experimental Animation is more about empowering your work.

Animation is a discipline that combines everything and that was reflected in the selection of films screened:

Excerpt by Lucas Walker
It goes without saying by Una Lorenzen
Anamorphic trap by Beom-Sik Shim
Crank Balls by Devin Bell Bob and Julia by Jee Hyun Yoo
The Representation of Absent Things by Donna Golden
Ripe Rock by Max Winston
Dear Alphabet by Marina Budovsky

Chitrakatha Day 2 : Spanish Animation Scene

Spanish Animation Scene - a selection of recent, short animation films.

Presented by Alfred

The aim of this presentation was to showcase simple to complex Spanish films, some made by native Spanish animators living outside Spain and the others by non-Spanish animators living in Spain. Alfred put it succinctly - “We are not Spanish people”, he said. “We are people from the animation world”.

The showcase was also about the way that the films are made. About how people from a small industry and a small world make films. The power of the idea is

CHITRAKATHA 2007 - The triumph of originality!

The 3 day Chitrakatha International Student Animation Festival 2007 ended on an optimistic note with the screening of some brilliant, original animated films by Indian Animators. The success of this festival has proved that there is great hope for the future of the Indian animation community. We really do have supremely talented animators in India and NID has been the nurturing ground for a majority of them.

Kudos to the Chitrakatha ‘07 team for having put together such a good show. The selection of films, programmes, workshops and panel discussions was in keeping with the theme of the festival - “everything original”. Right from the posters to the T-shirts to the mascot to the theme animation, each and every element of Chitrakatha had been created lovingly and painstakingly by the students and faculty of NID. A daily newsletter was printed everyday by the students, with interesting tidbits of information and comments and interviews of the delegates. You will find in-depth coverage of the event here on the allaboutanimation blog.

As proud supporters of the festival, we really do hope that they make this an annual event and wish them all the very best!

Day 2 at CHITRAKATHA ‘07 : Highlight - Panel Session on Animation Education and Industry Trends

The panel discussion was a highly thought-provoking and completely interactive session, where several pertinent issues were raised. Moderated by Anand Gurnani of Animation Xpress, the panelists were:

Prakash Moorthy, Head, Animation Dept. Miditech, India
Vaibhav Kumaresh, Vaibhav Studios
Simi Nallaseth, Director, Epiphany Films
Amit Anand, CEO, EttanimA Studios
Binita Desai, Associate Professor & Animation Designer, DAIICT, Gandhinagar
Arnab Chaudhuri, Animation Film Director
Basav Raja, Independent Animation Designer

The first question was addressed to to Arnab, who is currently directing his animated feature, Arjun.

“While directing your animated feature- Arjun, what kind of team are you trying to build and what are the challenges that you face in doing so?”
Arnab: We had a very short time to build the team. The biggest challenge is that the industry is