FICCI FRAMES 2015: Focus on more ‘Inclusivity’ than ‘Exclusivity’

The theme of the 16th Edition of FICCI FRAMES is “Making India the Global Entertainment Superpower”. In keeping with this theme, the highlights of this year’s conference are the Entrepreneur Track, The Digital Media Track and Frame your Idea.

As in the past, this three day global convention covering the entire gamut of Media and Entertainment like Films, Broadcast (TV & Radio), Digital Entertainment, Animation, Gaming, Visual Effects, etc. with nearly 2000 delegates encompassing the entire universe of media and entertainment expected to attend the event.

‘Frame Your Idea’ is a unique initiative which aims to provide a platform to idea owners to come and meet studios, producers and potential commissioners and publishers of their idea and explore long term businesses and build intellectual properties.

So people having any idea around feature films, TV series, live action or animation for kids’ content, comic book creations, gaming ideas or documentary ideas, can simply register for FICCI FRAMES and look at building on their intellectual properties (IPs).

Speaking exclusively to AnimationXpress.com, FICCI AVGC forum Chairman, Ashish Kulkarni exults: “This is probably the first time in India that someone will get the opportunity to rub shoulders with the best brains of the media and entertainment industry over the span of three days and not just get to learn from their rich and vast experience in the field, but also get a chance to work alongside them in a project or assignment if their ‘idea’ gets selected.”

On 25 March – as FICCI FRAME kicks-off – the film producers will be coming in to listen to the ideas that are presented to them by the IP owners; following which, kids’ programming along with comic book ideas will be given time to be presented on day 2, with major kids channels coming for this session accompanied by a few big comic book publishers; the Children’s Film Society of India will also be sending its script committee for the pitching sessions and finally day three (27 March) will be open for documentary and television aspirants to mingle with the stalwarts of the industry and present their ideas to them. The broadcast brigade will not only be scouting for GEC programming, but also reality, culinary and travel added to the mix.

“This is also the first time that we are introducing a ‘Frame Your Idea – Game Hack’ along with the team at Reliance Games and Zapak. There will be 20 ideas that will be pitched to some of the leading game publishers from around the world and they will be showcased on day one itself. On day two we have kept the doors open for any game creator to come and pitch their games to these publishers, so this Game Hack is going to take things up a notch in the field of gaming in India,” reveals Kulkarni.

The Entrepreneur Track will be a kind of crash course training in becoming an able entrepreneur and also learning the tricks of the trade in terms of how to get things kick-started in the first place, followed by managing to sustain a profitable business model and lastly to take things to a whole new level and climbing the ladder of success. This track will also help understand how to do business in this era of globalisation and look at how small ideas can be built into bigger businesses.

There is going to be a large amount of focus on the ‘Digital Story’; wherein there will be discussions on how large amount of content creators have realised the power of digital media and this will be in focus across the three day enriching event.

“The broadcasters at one point in time used to be the primary source of content, but some of the content producers have realised that even if their smaller ideas find no space among the broadcasters, there is always an alternative platform to reach out to their audience and that’s where the ‘Digital Story’ took shape and will be in the spotlight this FRAMES,” expounds Kulkarni.

This year will also be the 12th edition of the Best Animated Frames (BAF) Awards and there are a great number of entries that have already been received from not only in India but also around the world. This BAF edition will recognise the winner of the ‘Game Hack’ at ‘Frame Your Idea’ with a special award.

There is also going to be a large focus on the kids’ programming this year and looking at alternative revenue sources along with understanding the kids’ behaviour to create more engaging content; these will be a few things that will be discussed and looked at seriously.

“The ‘Make In India’ movement has also inspired us to follow the belief of ‘Create In India’ and we are looking at ways through which we not only support young entrepreneurs starting out in the industry but also help them to sustain and grow the industry together; that is going to be the larger agenda,” ends Kulkarni.

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