Arena Park Street learns the tricks of the trade with HAT-Trick 3

26th of July, 2008, Kolkata: Around two hundred and fifty serious animation enthusiasts attended the third in the series of HAT-Trick seminars at the Gyan Manch auditorium today. The seminar was conducted by noted Advertising Film Maker Mr. Dibyendu Bose.

A specialist in Post- Production- Visual Effects and Animation Production with Opus Communications, he has worked on more than 250 commercials and corporate films till date with advertising agencies like JWT, O&M, Lowe, Rediffusion DY&R, Mudra, Bates and other renowned agencies in India and South Asia.

He has also worked in collaboration with award winning animators and film makers Sumant Rao and Gayatri Rao of Animagic Studios Mumbai and with post production houses like Prime Focus, Pixion, Western Outdoor, Prasad EFX, Famous Studios and Famous House of animation and Tata Elexi.

The speaker in action

The seminar started with the speaker sharing his experiences as an ad film maker with animators at various stages of his career. To introduce the students to world-class animation, he first showcased a short animation clip made by a few animators working in Philippines – Manila by the name of “Holy Cow Animations” and surprised us by the information that all the animators were Indians. This led us to the realization that like all other fields, Indian talent is truly appreciated worldwide in the field of animation too.

A few audio-visuals

He also went on to say that one of his most pleasant experiences with animators has been their approach to work- they have looked upon themselves as film maker and not as animators only. Conversely, his worst experience with animators has also been related to their approach to work- when it comes to meeting deadlines, most animators do not keep in mind the importance of deadlines for clients.

Listening...thinking...learning

His emphasis on the correct attitude to work drew a lot of questions from the students. The queries ranged from career prospects to costing for production to visualization to story writing to importance of technical skills vis-à-vis the importance of presentation skills. As he went about answering each query in detail, he also explained the complexities of a making an ad film and dwelt on the ethical aspect of film-making as well.

Commenting on the event, Mr. Ramesh Ruia (Centre Director, Arena Park Street) appreciated the change in the students’ attitude which was reflected in the continuous barrage of questions directed at the speaker. “This proves that the H.A.T Methodology of training has made the students sit up and think about doing things in a different manner. They are taking these changes seriously and are becoming more aware of industry requirements, hence preparing themselves better for the industry.”

The speaker himself summed up the proceedings beautifully – “ Tools are like the brush in an artist’s hands, if the idea and creativity are missing, the brush is of no use to him, but if he doesn’t know what to do with the brush, it doesn’t help much either. What is required is a perfect amalgamation of both.

The reason behind the success

"375 Spectators - 180 Minutes - 1 Stage and energy unleashed"

12th of July, 2008, Saturday, Kolkata: ...And he came running down the gallery steps of the auditorium to take the centre-stage only to mass hypnotize his audience “gen-Y” for the next 180 minutes.

The incident - Around 350 Arena Park Street students and 25 of their teachers were held captive in Gyan Manch Auditorium this morning for three hours by a gentleman. He did not possess any ammunition except for a microphone. The anticlimax – the captives expressed a sincere desire to hold back their captor after the three hours of captivity.

The event – The second seminar of HAT-Tricks. The captor – Mr. Prosenjit Ganguly.

The animation students of Arena Animation - Park Street, were not prepared for what was in store for them when they trooped into Gyan Manch to hear Mr. Prosenjit Ganguly speak about “The actors behind the action”. There were many disbelievers in them and many had contingency plans that if the seminar was boring they would head to the nearest multiplex for a decent movie.

As is become of Kolkata and reminiscent of the first IPL match of night Riders at the Eden, power failed when PJ started to speak. There were no presentations, no pens, no paper, no audio visuals with him but PJ continued enthralling the audience with his powerhouse “performance”, and not a single soul moved in the packed auditorium. He was a treat to listen to and to watch as he spoke, mimicked, acted, joked and pranced about the stage, making it his own in his signature style.

He introduced the students to the meaning, the process and the stages of animation development. He explained to them the importance of story, research, concept and the visualisation that goes behind making an animation film. He talked about why a rigger or a texture artist or even an animator needs to understand the story to enable them to do justice to the visualisation of the film maker. He explained that these components were the “actors” behind the “action” or the film.

PJ illustrated to his audience how passion as an ingredient can act as a catalyst in the process that translates ones thougts and ideas into the output of animation.
He implored them to cultivate a habit of continuous practice. Through his mimicry and caricature, he showed them importance of acting sense for creating any animation because sans the knowledge of moods and emotions, one can’t portray that feeling into any character. PJ’s dedication was being reflected through his body language and his assets (his “Desktop” and “Laptop” i.e. a couple of sketch books which he always carries).
The also drew examples from his life and his NID days, making the audience identify the profound values of the design process with utmost simplicity. His talk ranged from the simple differentiation between a story (to be read) and a screenplay (to be performed); from the primary lesson of the vitality of remaining a student for life, to the significant aspects of design-visualization and pre-production like ideation, story-telling, story-boarding and character design (The Actors) before taking the actual plunge of getting a film into the production stage (The Action).

Anecdotes from his student-life at NID brought alive a whole new perspective to the total process of learning and teaching animation. And it did raise a few questions in the teachers’ minds: are we being able to create that environment for our students where they can enjoy their education? Even if the answer to this be in the negative, the light at the end of the tunnel was visible too.

And even as he accepted a small token of appreciation from the spellbound audience, it was a unanimous feeling that it was actually he, who had left them the magnanimous gift of a new dream, a new passion, a new love and a new vision-that of transforming oneself from just a student or a teacher of animation to a film maker. At the end of the day, the audience walked out with the same camera they had walked in with - but with different eyes.

Ninety percent of the audience had come to hear a three-hour long lecture from the man whose abovementioned profile suggests but five percent of his persona. The tricks that PJ held up his sleeves, ensured that a hundred percent of the audience went back home, if not with an amazing growth in their knowledge base, then at least with hearts ignited with a passion for animation. The audience laughed with him, responded to him and felt united with him as he took them through an enriching experience of falling in love with the entire process of animation film-making. They had just been re-introduced to the phenomenon called “animation” by PJ.

After the seminar, the Director of Arena Animation, Park Street Mr. Ramesh Ruia invited Mr. Ganguly to speak to the faculties of Arena Park Street in order to help them carry forward the process of Holistic Animation Training introduced by them and Mr. Ganguly did just that by advising the faculties on how to deliver their training for maximum impact.

“PJ’s suggestions and guidelines will be adopted and synced to our current training methodology and we hope to deliver true animators of the type required by the industry as soon as the students who have undergone training under this methodology start to graduate” said Mr. Ruia. He went on to wish that more PJ’s from the animation industry would come forward in this fashion to guide and help Arena Park Street in taking this process forward.

Apni Pehchan – Your Identity (Good Vs Great)

The difference between “Good” and “Great” is an enigma which has probably never been deciphered appropriately. For one, the interpretation of these aspects about anything is highly context sensitive and can change from situation to situation and from one context to another.

So whether there exists a common thread which if followed would lead from one to another i.e. from good to great in the context of animation film development is the issue which we would like to attempt to address hereunder.

I would personally define “Great” as a function of “Good”.

Greatness = function (Good)

The challenge however, is to define this function especially in context of becoming a great animator.

The simplification or expansion of this complex function, which had eluded me for a long time, finally hit me like a lightning bolt and I suddenly became “Buddha” the enlightened one or the only one to have finally cracked the code. (Just kidding)

On a more serious note, I have been thinking about this for a long time and have been involved in numerous debates with the likes of animators, students and even trainers on this subject in an attempt to unearth the truth.

The responses or outcome of all these debates have yielded complex furmulae which transform the path from “Good” to “Great” into a complex maze of roads with names like “Creativity”, “Designs”, “Unique”, “Hard Work”, “Style”, “Skill”, “Dexterity”, “Story”, “Pride” …and the list goes on and the maze becomes more and more complex…….

I am not convinced. I am not undermining the importance of these issues in the hunt for Greatness. All I am saying is that in the journey from Good to Great, these elements are like the signals which our train driver must obey. They enable us to complete the journey safely and surely, but are certainly not the driving force which propels the train that we are aboard in our quest for “Greatness”. They and similar other prepositions are probably the ingredients behind “Good”. The hunt for “Greatness” is still on.

The driving force, which makes a good animator, The catalyst which triggers the final transformation from “Good” to “Great” in the context of animation film making, I believe is the “Junoon”, “Diwaangi” “Fire” or “Obsession” which comes but from the love for this subject. The process of maing a great film starts with igniting the creative fire within ourselves and converting it into a towering inferno which burns out the volatile matter and leaves behind the residue of “Gold” of “Greatness”

This is the objective of our HAT Methodology. We want to make “Great” animators out of you because everyone else is making “Good” animators, and the industry where you are headed does not need “Good” animators – It needs “Great” ones.

I would welcome comments and debates on this. Please post here or write to ramesh@arenaparkstreet.com. Also visit http://www.arenaparkstreet.com/

Misgivings about the HAT Methodology

A lot has been said and written about the HAT methodology and it is time that we started implementing it effectively without any further delays. We can implement it effectively only if it is interpreted correctly. So let us first clarify misgivings about this methodology.

We all tend to get ensconed in our comfort zones and are very reluctant to break the mould in which we have been living all our lives even though their may be better options available only if take the effort to find it.

Reluctance and misgivings about this methodology stems from this fact. We are all very confortable in doing thigs the way we have been doing and are un willing to take the extra effort to understand anything which is away from our comfort zone. That is the reason there are misgivings about this methodology.

For once this methodology does not say that "tools" or software are not important. We are simply saying that there exists a world beyo9nd this too. All we are saying is that learning just "tools' or teaching just "tools" does not a good animator make.

The Design Visulasitation, Pre-Production and Post-Production aspects of animation film making are equally, if not more, important to the film making process as is production or tooling.

So in effect we are ADDING these aspects to our training methodology and in no way SUBTRACTING anything from it. The aspects other than tooling are a PLUS rather than a MINUS to the overall training that we intend to provide to our students.

Dear Students, Please note the PLUS. and Dear Trainers, Please wake up and smell the coffee. If you want to create good animators, you both need to break your comfort zones and dive head on into this methodology.

In case anyone has any misgivings about this, please feel free to contact me and I shall be happy to assist you in understanding this process. My email is ramesh@arenaparstreet.com

You may also write to me if you want to add somehing to what we are saying. I will welcome comments from the readers on this issue.

Looking forward to a healthy debate.