A very smooth, well organized, and focused event, the 12th anniversary of Arena Indore held on the 8th of September in Indore had an audience of more than 900 youngsters, animation students and included a few parents as well.
The 6 hour event boasted of a star studded lineup of speakers from the Industry including Animation Film Maker Gitanjali Rao, Krayon Pictures Technical Director Anand Bhanushali, Technology and Post Production Evangelist Neil Sadwelkar of Pixion, VFX Guru Artery Animation‘s Yunus Bukhari and AnimationXpress.com‘s Anand Gurnani.
The event was also attended by Arena‘s Easo T who was the chief guest and Puneet Sharma who has been spear heading Arena‘s industry focus. Also present were representatives from other Institutes including EMRC, Antz Animation, Midds, RCA Digital, Frameboxx and Toonz Animation
When youngsters in the Indore audience whistled and cheered scenes as Printed Rainbow played on screen, it just stuck one, that here was a young audience quite the same that goes to the Movie Multiplex to catch the latest Bollywood flick and this same audience was enjoying watching Printed Rainbow! That audience reaction broke a few myths we have about Indian audiences and animation, as well as about the different layers of story and expression within a film that can hold different audiences for different reasons. It also bore testimonial to the finesse and power of Gitanjali Rao‘s film making.
Gitanjali also showcased her 4 minute trailer of her feature Girgit, and interestingly one of the characters in her films hails from Mandu near Indore. Many in the audience blown and mesmerized by Rao‘s cinema stood up and asked questions and many came up to her later saying she was a role model for them.
An event is not only as good as its speakers and organizers but also as good as its audience and the Indore event scored on all 3 fronts. The audience‘s focused queries and sincerity kept the enthusiasm going.
Neil Sadwelkar‘s presentation was a clear, succinct and very pragmatic insight into the roles and profiles within the post production value chain for film and for video. His slides which mentioned practical aspects on the need for patience, on the liking of watching content on how post production professionals eventually get habituated to late nights and junk food were insights coming from someone who has been there and done it for long.
He emphasised a lot on sound as well. The audience had quite a few aspirants for post production and Neil was indaunted with questions and queries right from what should a post production reel have to how can one improve post production skills and what could a raw beginner do to get focued on to this field.
Up next after a short long break was Anand Bhanushali of Krayon Pictures with his Double Dhamaka presentation which included insights and guidance for students and at the same time also gave some sneak peeks into the studio‘s feature film Delhi Safari being directed by Nikhil Advani.
The passionate and enthusiastic Bhanushali shared a couple of his favorite shots from the film which delighted the audience no end. The quality in terms of production as well as the creative story telling looked top rate.
Bhanushali‘s entire presentation was focused on inspiring students to what they could achieve by hard work, dedication and applying a problem solving approach. How impressed the students were by Bhanushali was very evident as they thronged him with questions and requests for autographs and even asked him to pose for photogrpahs.
Bukhari Sir ki Class, was the next session with Yunus Bukhari who‘s entire presence, elequence and the thoughts that he shared with the students, bringing a very focused, thought provoking approach to making choices and then making the most of what‘s chosen. and all this in the context of Visual Effects.
Bukhari showcased scenes, before and afters and sequences right from his work in Devdas to Mee Shivaji Raje Bhosle Boltoy… he also did an elaborate case study using his work on Balaji‘s Kandy Floss as reference.
His constant refrain was on striving to achieve the best and how CG & VFX could provide the best opportunity for creative people.
Last to take the stage was AnimationXpress.com‘s Anand Gurnani who did his trademark Quiztime With AnimationXpress, asking questions from the obvious to the difficult, from who is the director of Kungfu Panda to what is the name of the studio creating Kutti Chetan.
The entire seminar was organised by Arena Indore Geeta Bhawan Square on its 12th anniversary. Media and Other Partners included Radio Partner Radio Mirchi and Venue Partner- EMRC while the Industry liasoning and promotion to the industry was handled by AnimationXpress.com
Sharing his comment on the entire excercise and also on the other events that were part of the entire 12th anniversary celebrations, Arena Indore MD Sanjay Khimesara shared “Arena Animation Centre located at Geeta Bhawan Square, Indore has completed glorious 12 yrs of creating World class Animators & illustrious Multimedia professionals on 09.09.09. Centre has grown by leaps and bounds during this period. From a small setup today centre has been able to provide huge and adequate infrastructure to students. Today centre is being recognized as the most renowned destination of Media Studies in Central India.
Centre’s proven track record of training and placing thousands of students & has also been appreciated through prestigious various awards. Centre is also rated as Arena’s amongst top twenty Arena Centre in the country. Besides providing quality training, Centre also provide outstanding support in job placements. Arena students are placed leading Multimedia companies in India and overseas. Apart from placements several students have become self employed and freelancers. Even interactive sessions on communication and personality development are also organized for student’s exposure and soft skills.”
“We continue to provide students with best value on their investments by providing them with excellent training, placements. As a key part of our delivery we provide regular value additions to students by organizing activities like Seminars from Industry Experts, Workshops on key topics not included in Courses, Regular Industry Visits, participation in local and national competitions along with offering international certifications and degree qualifications. A series of events including Seminars, Workshops, Industry Visits, Gaming Competition, Contests, Job Fair & campus placement activities are being organized in September’09 to mark the 12th Anniversary ,which is being celebrated as Aniparv’09.”
