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Animation conglomerate DreamWorks
recently partnered with Bengaluru based Paprikaas Interactive to
set up its base in India. In a step toward scaling up its operation
in India, the company is on a major talent acquisition spree. With
the current team of 40 including French and Indian artists, DreamWorks
plans to expand to 150 in a year's time.
DreamWorks Head of International
Outreach Shelley Page
was in Mumbai for a couple of weeks and visited few animation institutes
as a part of her outreach program. AnimationXpress.com's
Money Sharma
had a freewheeling chat with Shelley at Whistling Woods International,
where she spoke about DreamWorks' plans in India, the Bengaluru
setup, animation talent in the country and more…
Excerpts…
Please share about your role in
India.
My role as head of International outreach is to be involved with
looking for talent to join us internationally, including for the
two studios in California and now for our new set up in Bengaluru.
We came here [to India] several years ago as we were attracted by
talent that already exists in India. It's an exciting opportunity
for us as it gives us a chance to expand our production environment.
We already know that there is a strong
talent pool here. My work is to go beyond the existing talent in
the studios and look at the next generation of talent coming out
of the animation schools.
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What are the reasons behind your
shift to India?
This is a very exciting opportunity for us because it is very difficult
for us to expand in California for a variety of reasons, not least
because the talent pool there is heavily fished by all our competitors.
It's very difficult being just round the corner from Disney, Pixar
and Sony. Coming to India gives us an opportunity to bring something
new here. There are a lot of great studios here and I have always
been impressed by the quality of work I have seen from the leading
studios like Prana, Crest, Pixion and so on.
Tell us more about the Bengaluru
setup.
We have supervisors trained
at DreamWorks who will exclusively work on our projects in India.
The second thing is that the Bengaluru team will be equivalent to
the teams in California. This [the Bangalore setup] is not an outsource
situation, but a new environment which is going to be equalized
with the California studios in one pipeline.
We brought in a group of recent graduates from two leading animation
schools in France and trained them in California. At the same time
we are looking at a new team of experienced artists from India.
So what we have is a team of very experienced people from India
(about 25) coupled with inexperienced but equally talented people
from France (about 12), hence the first team will number at 40.
By next year when we are in production of the first project, ultimately
we'll be around the 150 mark. A lot of people would be trained from
India.
When will the production at the
Bengaluru setup begin and what are the projects under the pipeline?
The first project will be a direct TV special for NBC in the US
which is a Christmas Special called Mad Santa. This project is a
very important one for us because it is using characters from Madagascar.
We did a similar thing last year with the Shrek characters and it
was very successful. 24 million people saw it on the first screening.
These things will be shown for ever. When you make a TV special
in the US that's popular the coming generations end up watching
them. So the quality of these series has to be equivalent to the
quality of our features, because that's what people are expecting
to see. We are bringing this project [Mad Santa] in its entirety
to India.
We will be commencing work by October
and the final product has to be delivered by October 2009. So it's
a tight schedule. But by that time the team should be pretty integrated;
they would be bringing in new people all the time. By then, we are
pretty confident that we will have a great crew.
About relationship between Paprikaas
and DreamWorks…
It's a very unique situation. When we first came to India, we explored
a number of different options on how we could have a presence in
India, which included buying an existing studio or partnering with
a VFX studio. Finally we realized that we needed an equal partner.
We were approached by Technicolor in the US who had recently acquired
Paprikaas Intercative studio in Bengaluru and they approached us
to be a creative partner. This was perfect timing for us.
So what has happened is that Paprikaas
has moved into a new building in two floors and we have moved into
the same building on an adjoining floor. So we are linked in terms
of the structure, but otherwise we are a completely separate unit.
What sort of talent are you looking
for in India?
Obviously we are looking for experienced artists. That inevitably
means people who are working on other projects. We are very clear
to the people whom we talk to; that we want them to complete whatever
their current responsibility is. We have told everybody whom we
meet, to let us know when they might be interested in shifting after
their current projects. Beyond that we have certain needs. Mainly
we are looking into areas like VFX, rigging and lighting… the more
technical areas.
What about your plans of training
young talent in India?
The team that we have is very strong and we are happy with it. Hence
we are not aggressively looking at many people at this point. Our
next stage, for which I am here, is to look for juniors who will
join us as interns or trainees and eventually as employees within
the next one year. And we want a lot of those; we are very excited
about the young artists we have met so far.
Which are the next movies from
the DreamWorks stable?
Madagascar 2 will come out towards the end of this year.
After that, we will switch our entire production pipeline into 3D
stereo, which is a very big challenge for us. That's another reason
why we are excited to expand our production capacity to India. For
one year we will produce only one movie Monsters Vs Aliens,
which will be our first entirely 3D stereo movie.
In 2010 we have three releases in
3D including Shrek Goes Fourth and two others. Among the
other two, one is How to Train a Dragon, which is my personal
favourite. These movies will be produced in California, especially
in terms of getting the voice-overs done.
Any comment on the kind of animation
from India?
There is some really good work coming from India. And since I am
very interested in Bollywood, I am also looking forward to future
projects which link the two. I have seen a few mythology projects
but am looking forward to projects which are based on our model.
What are your plans with the Bengaluru
setup?
We are here for the long term… it's not a short term project. We
will be hiring more people but we the intention is to not grow too
big and stay the optimum size.
money.sharma@animationxpress.com
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