All Entries Tagged With: "Chitrakatha"

Chitrakatha 2009 @ NID, Ahmedabad

The second edition of the Chitrakatha International Student Animation Film Festival is on  at NID’s Paladi campus from 29th to 31st October. I’ll be blogging about the sessions too but in the meantime, you can follow me on Twitter - @allabtanimation and catch live tweets. I’m using the hashtag #chitrakathaNID so its easier to find the relevant tweets.

More to come later…

Bitten by the Festival Bug

The festival season is upon us and I don’t mean the religious festivals like Ganesh Utsav, Navratri, Ramzan and Diwali. I am talking about Animation festivals.

The season kicks of with the much-awaited and resilient ANIFEST INDIA ‘09, which battled the killer flying pigs (you know what I mean!!) to emerge a winner. Now slated for 18th, 19th and 20th of September, ANIFEST INDIA will retain its flavour and all its fantastic sessions except for those by Nate Wragg and Christian Krupa who had to return to the USA. Instead we have a super VFX bonanza from Sony Imageworks - Behind the Scenes of ‘The Watchmen’ and ‘G-Force 3D’. TASI has done a superb job of getting an assortment of topics together all at one venue - Anifest India ‘09 is being held at the Convocation Hall, IIT Powai, Mumbai. Registrations were closed in early August itself as the number crossed 1500 but spot registrations @Rs.400/- all inclusive might just be available if you reach early on the days of the event.
For all the details including sessions, speakers, timing and the TASI Viewer’s Choice Awards, visit www.tasionline.org

Next up is the week-long International Animation Day celebration by ASIFA India sometime in October-November. Every year, 27th October is commemorated as International Animation Day across the globe. ASIFA India has been celebrating the occasion with events held across various cities in India - typically beginning with an all-day event in Mumbai at NCPA where the Awards of Excellence are given out. While I’m still awaiting details about this year’s festival, the Call for Entries for the 8th Annual ASIFA India Awards of Excellence are open. For details, check out this link. Hurry, the last date is 13th September 2009.

Then from Oct 29th to 31st we have the second edition of Chitrakatha - An international student animation film festival organised by the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. What’s even cooler about the festival (besides the fact that you get to interact with probably the best talent in the country) is that it is being held against the beautiful backdrop of the NID campus. If you missed it the last time, make sure you don’t miss it now! They also have announced a call for entries - one for a student category and the other for teachers. Check it out here.

Make the most of it and don’t miss any of these celebrations of the Art of Animation!

20 years of NID : Presentation by Binita Desai at the Chitrakatha 2007 Festival

With just 7 days left now for the launch of the website, we are getting experts on the subject of animation to write for us as well.

On the first day of the Chitrakatha Festival at NID, there was a special presentation by Binita Desai, Associate Professor, Animation Designer, DAIICT, Gandhinagar, to commemorate the completion of 20 years by the animation department at NID. She has generously shared the transcript of the presentation for our readers.

A wonderful selection of films by students through the years was screened after Binita’s compelling talk on the origin of the animation department at NID and all the people that made it possible. Here is a list of the films that were screened followed by the transcript of Binita’s presentation.

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!

Chitrakatha ‘07 International Student Animation Fest WINNERS

Winner : Memorial
by Matte Clausen and Jon Gutman
University of Southern California, USA

1st Runner up : Norbert
by Michael Hill
RMIT University, Australia

2nd Runner up : The Tide
by Mette Skov
Den Danske Filmskole, Denmark

Jury Special Award : Aal im Schaedel (Eels)
by Martin Rahlow
Filmakademie Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

Special mention by Jury for Indian film : Three little pigs
by Bhawna Vyas
National Institute of Design, India

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