Let’s Talk Animation

‘Let’s Talk Animation’ - a seminar was conducted by the Academy on October 01, 2005 at Kalamandir, Kolkata. The seminar was inaugurated by Dr. G.D.Gautama, IAS, Principal Secretary, IT, Govt. of West Bengal & Chairman, Webel .

A packed auditorium watched presentations and some brilliant animation work by lines of experts from all over the country from leading animation studios. Mr. Anish H. Mulani, Production Head – Crest Animation Studios, Mumbai, India; Mr. Sesha Prasad, Production Co-ordinator, Rhythm & Hues Studios India, Mumbai and Mr. Hari Varma, Director Operations, Toonz Animation India Pvt. Ltd. Trivandrum held the audience captive with their interactive sessions. The audience even had the opportunity to get their questions answered from these industry professionals.

Films like “Castle of El Dorado”, “A Super Hero Story”, “Sugar Free”, “Robostression” in 3D and “Dried UP” in 2D, the creations by our first batch of students were also screened during the program.

Last but not the least and the most applauded was the screening of some of the most exciting creations by tiny tots that were made during the Childrenz’ Animation Workshop 2004, a one of its kind event that was conducted in the Academy.

Fun quizzes on Animation during the seminar enabled the crowd to bag exciting prizes

This annual seminar of the academy was covered both by the print media and the electronic media.

Inauguration
The Animation Academy set up by Webel was inaugurated at a glittering function in Kolkata on the 5th June, 2004 by Hon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal, Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. Shri Manabendra Mukherjee, Minister-in-Charge of Information Technology & Environment, Government of West Bengal, Mr. Barry Parker, Faculty – Sheridan College, Canada were the Guests of Honour at the inaugural function

       

The Children’z Animation Workshop 2004 has got of to a flying start by the Webel Animationl Academy in the State of West Bengal.Right from its inception, the Children’z Animation Workshop organized by Toonz Animation India has proved to be a trailblazer, encouraging creativity and popularizing animation in India. The animated films made by children at the Workshop have gone on to garner top honors at several prestigious film festivals, like KAFI (USA), BIMINI (Latvia) and Animadrid (Spain) among others.

 

       

INDUSTRY UPDATES

State eyes premier position in animation   (The Times of India, 06.06.2004)  

After IT, it is the fast growing animation sector where West Bengal would like to make a mark.  

The West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation (Webel) has already started talks with leading animation firms based in Mumbai and South India to establish studios here.

Officials involved in the process said they were depending on Bengal’s best calling card-its acknowledged human talent – to help swing a deal in their favour: “We are reasonably confident of the entry of a big player in Wets Bengal soon,” Webel Managing Director S.K.Mitra said on Saturday . He did not name the prospective company.  

Officials said getting ready manpower – a perennial problem faced by animation companies – would be the least of their worries if animation firms chose to come here. “We have already sorted this out through the establishment of the Toonz-Webel academy, the country’s first free-standing animation school,” Mitra said.

The animation academy – which would churn out both 2D and 3D animators – was inaugurated by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday.

Mitra said Webel had already reached an “informal understanding” with the likes of Toonz, Crest Communications and Padmalaya Telefilms to ensure that pass-outs from the academy could net lucrative jobs. However , academy head Barry Parker said the students would not need any crutches for securing employment. “They have great story-telling skills and after the training here, they will just be flooded with offers, I am absolutely certain of that,” Parker said.  

“Our expertise in IT is already recognized and very soon, it will be the same with animation. Kolkata will lead the IT-enabled entertainment arena,” Bhattacharya said.

News Article from Telegraph

In Class with a Chronicler of Cartoons   

the creator wishes it to be. There are no limits or guidelinThink of a world of free-flowing imagination where the mind is allowed to wander, and it is as surreal ases, and the possibilities are boundless. Impossible? Think again, for this is the world of animation, where images are not restricted to reality.  

This is what a group of students is learning at Roopkala Kendra, from a rather special guest. "This next Yugoslavian film is a take on life as the filmmaker sees it. The 26-minute Russian film after that is too long for an animation short film, but it's a masterpiece," explains Giannalberto Bendazzi, animation critic, historian and teacher. His attentive audience listened in silence, before all eyes eagerly turned to the screen when the projector rolled.  

The Italian is on a weeklong trip to town for lecture-demonstration sessions at the Salt Lake institute, to educate students from varied disciplines - editing and directing to social communication and animation - on the long, albeit little known, evolution of animation cinema.

And the author of the mammoth book Cartoons: One hundred years of animation cinema, the only one of its kind in the world, which Roopkala Kendra is in the process of translating into Bengali, has only words of praise for his Calcutta students.  

have preconceived ideas of what animation films are and should be. In Russia, th"I have travelled around the world teaching at many different places, but everywhere the young people ey think the best is what they have seen as children on Russian television. In the US, it's Disney they identify with; in Korea, Japanese films rule. It's very frustrating, because I feel they should be looking beyond. But this is the first batch that has no previous ideas, and their attitude is one of wanting to conquer the world. That is as it should be," says the 58-year-old.  

The discussions involved a dissection of the meaning, visual styles, the significance of the language and the music and the philosophy of art, besides the history of animation cinema around the world.  

"It's a great opportunity for me to learn, since we don't know much about this topic in India," says Kushal Chakraborty, a 27-year-old student in the two-year animation course. "I have always been passionate about this medium, but I hadn't thought of using it as a tool of social awareness till now." 

Two events in the last century changed the face of animation filmmaking forever, observes Bendazzi. “The fall of the Soviet empire put a stop to a lot of quality state-funded films from East Europe. But then the advent of computers opened up new avenues. Whereas 20 years ago you had only a couple of interesting films every year, now you have about 10 to 12.”

What’s the future of the Indian animation film industry? “It has so far been much less satisfactory than its potential. It is still a sleeping giant. But the day India decides to embrace animation, it will blossom, backed by a wonderful folk tradition and 1,000 years of culture,” ends Bendazzi.

News Article from Indiantelevision.com Team

Convergence, animation, gaming to receive special attention at FICCI Frames 2004

MUMBAI: Convergence, animation and entertainment will receive special focus at the fourth edition of the Federation of Indian Chambers, Commerce & Industry's (Ficci) convention for the entertainment industry - Frames 2004 - in March this year.

This time, there will be 15 sessions instead of the 23 that marked last year's event, as feedback from the attendees indicated that the proceedings were too exhaustive to absorb, according to Ficci entertainment committee chairman Yash Chopra. Addressing a media briefing here this afternoon, Chopra said that at any point of time, there will be a maximum of three sessions. Sometimes, there could be just two. Last year, there were as many as five sessions running simultaneously.

Since convergence is a major theme, on 17 March, Reliance Industries chairman and MD, Mukesh Ambani will deliver a presentation on the entertainment opportunities and challenges in the digital age.

Ficci entertainment committee co-chairman and SET India CEO Kunal Dasgupta pointed out that convergence was increasingly becoming a reality. These days broadcasters, mobile phone operators and cable companies are all turning towards making and distributing content, he said. One session will deal with improving the return on investment (ROI) for TV channels. The catchphrase for this session is '' If programmes were brands, would Kotler need to be rewritten?'

Turner Intl Asia Pacific president, MD Steve Marcopoto will deliver the keynote address. Other speakers include BBC World's director Jonathan Howlett, SET's executive VP Sunil Lulla and NDTV Media CEO Raj Nayak. Today the need for tracking viewers' mindsets to arrive at the proper balance between content and marketing is growing. The speakers will talk about the marketing mechanisms used to push new content to entice viewers away from rivals.

Given the continuing CAS imbroglio, an important session on 17 march will deal with the question Addressability Where Do We Go From Here? CNN's Andrew Stevens will host the discussion which will feature Reliance Entertainment chairman Amit Khanna , SET Discovery president Shantonu Aditya among others.

Another side to television is how the ad agencies use the medium to ensure greater ROI for their clients. CNBC India corporate editor Govindraj Ethiraj will host the session which will see speakers like O&M chairman Piyush Pandey and Group M South Asia CEO Andre Nair. The session will look at how local brands have taken advantage of television as well as what innovative media strategies global companies have done to make sure that their brands are more desirable.

Animation as an industry is taking off in India. The question is what opportunities exist for Indian companies to move up in the value chain and avoid working as mere sweatshops. This is one of the key issues Frames will seek to address with three animation sessions. The first one looks at co-production and production values from India as well as the kind of output expected from us. The issue is whether we can develop strong local and international properties for our market and abroad while maintaining the international level.  

The speakers include Jadoo Works CEO Ashish Kulkarni, Turner Intl original programming VP Susan Simensky and Red Kite Productions MD Ken Anderson. Another session will look at the quality of work that broadcasters like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network expect from production houses. The third session titled Walk The Talk will scrutinise the relationship between animation and IT. Could the next Pixar come from an Indian IT major?

Frames' involvement with animation will go beyond just seminars. It has instituted the Best Animated Ficci Frames Awards (BAFF). The aim is to set new benchmarks for our animation industry.

Gaming is an area that is expected to see a major boom in the coming years. Indian software companies are beginning to bag contracts to create games for foreign media conglomerates. Electronic Arts president Jon Niermann will deliver the keynote address. His company sees tremendous potential for growth of the gaming industry in India for MNCs.

News Article from Financial Express
Soon, Dragon May Make A Foray In Tinsel Town
NEW DELHI, FEB 6: New Delhi and Beijing have called it a “historic moment” after agreeing in-principle to go in for a co-production deal in the film and entertainment sector. Addressing a joint press meet here on Friday, I&B minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Chinese minister for films, TV and radio Xu Guangchuan expressed confidence that their dialogue would reach a logical conclusion soon.

China is exploring cooperation in films, besides cartoon/ animation, entertainment programmes and documentaries on TV. The two sides also agreed to have film festivals in each other’s countries. Not only that, China will be the international flavour at the next Film Festival of India.

Both CII and Ficci would be involved in the Indo-China entertainment sector cooperation. Exchange of journalists between the two countries is also being explored. The minister himself has been a journalist.

While Mr Xu’s favourite Indian film is ‘Awara’, it was the more contemporary ‘Lagaan’ that got him more interested in the country’s entertainment sector. Moreover, the Chinese minister spoke about going beyond the political consensus to cooperate in the area of media. “TV is a sign of modern culture,” he said.

For a better understanding of the Indian film industry and movie theatre business, the Chinese minister is scheduled to meet Bollywood biggies in Mumbai on Saturday. According to sources, Zee network has signed an MoU with the Chinese delegation for programme exchange/acquisition. Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma said the national broadcaster had a meaningful dialogue for barter of programmes.

Although the two sides did not indicate any time frame for a treaty, ministry sources said the government had learnt from its experience with Canada. So far, India hasn’t signed any co-production pact with another country. But, the deal is ready to be signed with Canada, after 18 months of work and negotiations.

China has already entered a co-production pact with Canada.

 

News Article from Financial Express

Animation Seminar
The West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Limited (WEBEL) hosted a Seminar-Cum-Open House Discussion on Animation at the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata on January 31, 2004. Senior representatives of Govt. of West Bengal, Webel and Toonz Animation India attended the seminar.