First Isabel, then Ishu Patel and most recently Joel.
The Animation Society of India (TASI) is firing on all Cylinders.
For those that attended the animation feasts, the hangover‘s not yet subsided. And for all those that didn‘t make it, the only consolation is that there‘s more coming from TASI.
The TASI session starring Joel Simon was held at Bhavan‘s college Andheri (W) on the 9th of December.
The session was kick-started by a welcome address by TASI secy Tony Singh following which Joel took over and started his presentation with beautiful pictures of Belfast, his hometown. Using the unique Irish tradition of ‘Pecha-Kucha‘, Simon introduced himself with 20 pictures that reflected what he was all about, taking 20 seconds to talk about each snapshot.
This interesting way to introduce himself gave the audience an idea about Joel as a person.
The Flickerpix CEO and super talented Animation Film Maker from Ireland treated the audience to a vast treasury of stop motion animated clips right from his Award winning debut film CiderPunks to his latest Award winning ‘Horn Ok Please‘. Joel also shared his vast experience and knowledge of material science and physical lighting for miniatures with the audience.
As one watched the snippets that Joel showcased, it reflected his style and film making preference which was inclined towards real people, real issues. For eg, his film Second Helpings is a movie about a young girl who has a psychological problem of feeling fat when she isn‘t; On The Air is an episodic series (5 MINS EACH) which is based on an Irish Radio Show and the script is the same as in the radio show.
Joel also shared some very interesting facts about his life and his journey from Belgium (where he was born) to Ireland (where he made his career in animation).
Talking about his experiences as an amateur transitioning to professionalism, Joel talked about the making of Ciderpunks, with which he had started his career. “Though I am not very proud of this movie when I see it now, but this is the first movie of my career and I am emotionally attached to it. Ciderpunks is a 14 minute film about a community of people in the U.K. and this movie was completed in two years and two months.”
Since the commencement of the five hour session, Joel had stressed on the workshop being interactive and that is exactly what happened. With an expert on stop motion and clay animation present to answer their queries, students and even professionals could not help but ask as many questions as they could.
As the session continued, Joel showed some of his work and told what went behind making them. Second Helping, clips from The Hugo Melon Show, On The Air and his latest work, Horn Ok Please (a short film) are a few to name. With every movie or clip, he answered questions from the participants and shared about the challenges he faced while doing these projects. He also guided the students as to what best they can do to become good animators.
Towards the end of the seminar, the five hours seemed less for both Joel and the audience as he wanted to speak more and participants wanted to ask. Also present at this stellar session were Indian animation directors and active animation enthusiasts Kireet Khurana and Vaibhav Kumaresh.
