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Largest
gathering of Indian animation professionals under one roof
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ASIFA
India's Bill Dennis
welcoming the audience
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Prahalad
Kakkar:
Rousing Speech
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Organised by ASIFA India and supported by TASI, MAAC & R&H
India, International Animation Day 2005 witnessed the largest Indian
animation gathering under one roof so far.
The 250 strong crowd was proof that the seeds of unity had been sown
in the fields of Indian animation.
The celebrations included an awards ceremony, screenings of ASIFA
showreels from across the world and a panel which discussed animation
in all earnest, inspired in part by chief guest Prahlad Kakkar's rousing
speech where the celebrated ad film maker elaborated upon the quirkiness
as well as the lost innocence that animation invokes.
Welcoming the animators, ASIFA India President Emeritus Bill Dennis
pointed out that "In the six years that I have been involved
with Indian animation, a great deal of improvement has taken place"
Chief Guest Prahalad Kakkar began by sharing with the audience, how
it was Ram Mohan who helped him with his first film.
"The first film I ever made was thanks to Ram Mohan. It was a
love poem that I wanted to shoot, I had a princely sum of 400 Rupees
but that wasn't enough to make my movie. It was Ram Mohan who suggested
to me to shoot stills and offered to reanimate them" shared Kakkar.
"When no girl was ready to star in my film, I tricked one girl
by taking stills of hers on the pretext of seeing whether she would
suit the role. I then gave the stills to Ram Mohan who needless to
say, sequence animated them with his animation camera and lo my first
film was ready" he added.
Following is some original 'KakkarSpeak' which revealed that
the ad film maker's deep insight on the art and psyche of animation.
Who says animation is for kids only?
Kakkar offered a very insightful perspective saying,"Animation
is meant for everybody, especially for adults. They enjoy animation
in a much more deeper way becuase they realise the innocent world
that they have lost. Animation is a tremendous economic potential
for India and it will garner force, what is needed right now is seed
money"
Indians are going to change the way the world looks at animation
Indians are going to change the way the world looks at animation becuase
we look at life in a very different way. Indians have a very special
brand of humor, there are very few people in the world that crack
jokes about themselves the way we do.
There has to be some Khujli within you to make you want
to be animator
An animator is someone who articulates through drawing. The first
pre requisite for training in animation has to be drawing. There has
to be some khujli to say something in an exagerrated &
different manner. If you cannot develop your style, then you can never
be the best!
I should have been an animator, but I couldn't draw well. If you cant
draw well then no amount of technology or breathing down people's
necks will ever make you a good animator.
The
awards ceremony and screenings that followed witnessed some great
Indian animation being showcased.
Following is a list of winners.
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Vaibhav
Kumaresh making his acceptance speech
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Proffesional
Category
Simi Nallaseth for In the Air (Animated music video)
Narayan Shi for The Friend
Vaibhav Kumaresh for Amaron Battery Pandu Mangal
Chetan
Sharma for Elf Moto4 Gold Thangarajan
Vaibhav Kumaresh & R&H India for Alley Chase
Student Category
Ranveer Singh Sahmbi for Swoosh
Sahal Merchant for The Bench
Partha Das for It was raining.
Sangram Borse for The common story
3D Rage (MAAC) for Takes you higher
The panel discussion on Education in Indian Animation had the speakers
discussing the topic in all earnest. Moderated by Bill Dennis, the
panel comprised of NID Animation Co-ordinator Sekhar Mukherjee,
TASI secretary Ranjit Singh, Vaibhav Studios head Vaibhav Kumaresh,
Animation Professional Ashish Kulkarni, VCL GM K Chandrashekhar
and MEL CEO Rajesh Turakhia.
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Consensus:
The Industry needs to ask artists and animators to share their
knowledge
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Government
support in animation education
There were varying perspectives on this issue. While KC, Turakhia
and Sekhar Mukherjee felt that government support was essential.
Ashish Kulkarni and Ranjit Singh felt that the bus would be missed
if one waited for the Government.
"We do need government attention towards animation. What we
have done at MAAC is tried to subsidise it a bit. If the government
takes initiatives then a lot more can be achieved" said Turakhia.
"I believe there has to be an active networking between NID,
Government and the industry" opined Mukherjee.
"I believe that we use the Government as a beating bag. The
onus lies on us to prove to the government and come up with viable
schemes and propositions. Government is a facilitator. The important
thing is that the Culture of the Independent animator has to take
root in the country" stated Ranjit Singh.
"If
we wait for the government to do things then it will not happen.
Three years hence we shall still be discussing government support
at the International Animation Day 2008 celebrations" warned
Kulkarni.
While KC too felt that the bus would be missed, he felt that the
onus was on the government to recognise the potential.
"India is running out of time. Small countries like Irish and
Welsh republics come to us and ask us to set up studios there. If
these small countries can see the potential than India which is
relatively a superpower should have a lot more to offer. 2D-3D doesn't
matter, what we need is to wake up to the economics around animation.
We should set up a large training institute with a capacity of training
tens of thousands. the government should provide land, subsidise
power and provide bank loans to help build and manage such centres"
said KC.
Art
fundamentals, Education and training.
Art fundamentals are extremely necessary in animation. Sadly
most institutes in the country are ignoring this.
"We have to realise that its all about art, not geometric co
ordinates. Passion and madness is what is needed. The education
has to be all about finding your madness" exclaimed
NID's Mukherjee
Pointing out the difference between training and education Vaibhav
Kumaresh shared,"Let's not mix education with training. Both
serve their needs but lets not mix the two. Education is vast, it
gives an environment for a person to explore the art and the medium.
Training is a very small part of education.
" I wish that there were 10 NIDs across India" he added.
"2D is a part of the foundation. We are not teaching anything
like drawing, writing stories, backgrounds and art fundamentals
in India. What we are teaching is more of post production"
emphasised Kulkarni.
"The best guys in the Industry that I see are from the initial
ZICA batch, or the many people trained under Ram Mohan. The point
is that these professionals have been trained in 2D and that's why
they are good" he added.
"Culture of the Independent animator has to take root in
the country" was Tony's take.
Animators from the industry need to share their Knowledge
How muchsoever one may invest in traing infrastructure, finally
it is talented faculty that could make the difference The panel
also thought that it was necessary to get animators to share their
knowledge with the industry.
"I would ask all the trained professionals out here to please
come ahead and volunteer their time so that the Industry can have
more animators. It will be good for the entire industry" said
Turakhia.
Echoing Turakhia's sentiments Kulkarni added,"Hype is phenomenal
but there is no direction. TASI & ASIFA should take this as
a challengeto push the cause of training. If we wait for Let's force
the good artists and animators to teach & share. The fact of
the matter is that artists are afraid of creating competition. If
we can make the artists feel secure and convince them to go ahead
and share then things will change"
"It
is sad that I have met a number of senior animators but none of
them are interested in training. We need more people like Ram Mohan
who is single handedly responsible for giving the Industry so many
animators" shared Tony.
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"Let's
clone Ram Mohan" : Dennis' jestful suggestion to
solve Indian animation education problems
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