ITV

Tag: Visual Effects

  • Toronto and FICCI to increase collaboration in films, VFX & animation

    Toronto and FICCI to increase collaboration in films, VFX & animation

    NEW DELHI: An agreement has been signed between Toronto and India to engage in mutual co-operation and advance their common interests in the creative screen industries to foster business partnerships, linkages and exchanges.

     

    The Memorandum of Understanding between the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the City of Toronto will act as a catalyst for new investment and knowledge sharing opportunities.

     

    Both parties have also agreed to provide assistance or any facilities necessary for trade missions, summits, seminars, festivals and other similar activities.

     

    Toronto mayor John Tory, Consul General of India in Toronto Akhilesh Mishra, and FICCI-Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, & Comics Forum chairman Dr Ashish Kulkarni signed the document.

     

    “This agreement will help Toronto to access and collaborate with the Indian film industry, the largest producer of films in the world,” said Tory. “This agreement will stimulate economic trade and investment in both countries. Toronto’s film industry does better each and every year – this will help us continue that trend and keep us on top.”

     

    “I would like to applaud the visionary and dynamic leadership of Mayor John Tory, Councillor Thompson and Zaib Shaikh, the City’s Film Commissioner and Director of Entertainment Industries, for their efforts to initiate the MoU with FICCI for co-operation in the fields of film, television, visual effects and gaming,” said Mishra.

     

    “This is a significant development in the spirit of the India-Canada audio-visual co-production agreement signed in February 2014. I believe the MoU signed today will catalyze co-operation not only between our film industries, but also strengthen ties of culture, tourism and friendship between peoples of India and Canada,” added Dr. Kulkarni.

     

    The creative screen industries include location and studio production, post-production, visual effects, animation and interactive/digital media. Toronto is the first municipality in Canada to sign an agreement stemming from an audio-visual, co-production treaty established in 2014 between the governments of India and Canada.

     

    FICCI took a 20-member delegation from Film, Animation, and Visual Effects industry to Toronto from 8 – 13 September to promote audio-visual co-production activities between India and Canada post signing of co-production treaty between the two countries. This was the first such delegation from India after signing of the co-production agreement between the two countries.

  • Unique education programme in animation by veteran animators in Bengaluru

    Unique education programme in animation by veteran animators in Bengaluru

    NEW DELHI: The first-of-its-kind educational initiative in Bengaluru referred to as ‘Train the Trainers’ has been launched by the Association of Bangalore Animation Industry (ABAI), the largest non-profit association to promote animation in India.

     

    The programme commenced on 21 April but interested candidates will be enrolled during this week as well. The programme is actively supported by Department of IT, BT, S&T of the Government of Karnataka.

     

     The state government through its KAVGC policy 1.0 is aimed at improving the educational infrastructure of the AVGC (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics) industry. In order to improve the quality of the trainers in the AVGC industry, and thereby improving the overall quality of education imparted, TTT programme aims at bringing together national and international trainers to facilitate the training in different modules of various stages of production.

     

     The TTT program, chaired by ABAI secretary Ankur Bhasin, CEO of Bhasinsoft, is envisaged to provide an academically challenging educational experience through effective teaching, research and service, enabling candidates to acquire understanding, knowledge and skills necessary for establishing successful career in teaching and becoming responsible trainers within the animation industry.

     

    “The TTT is an innovation on jump-starting the quality of educational initiative on the digital arts environment. It assesses the pain point of who will impart new media arts learning. It will help plug a major gap in growing a talent that needs tens of thousands of employees over the next 3 to 5 years.” ABAI country head, technicolor India and president Biren Ghose.

     

     The candidates who enroll for this programme stand to gain not only six months of high-quality training but also a chance to work on live projects in a professional studio environment. This will enable the candidates to learn teaching techniques such as creative teaching methodology, class-room management, and all other aspects of AVGC.

     

    “TTT program, in its initial offering, starts with a concentrated batch of 12 candidates per batch to ensure that there is no dilution in the quality of imparted training. A separate Executive TTT course is also offered for working faculties who prefer weekend classes” says Bhasin.

     

    He added, “In my studio, Bhasinsoft, and across the industry it is seen that a large amount of good talent comes from tier 2 and tier 3 hence TTT is also planned in a way to reward trainers in the program with cash incentive for training in these cities.”

     

     Institutes stand to benefit that the candidates will be able bring the exposure and knowledge to impart quality training to students. The teaching methodology, which is a combination of a learner-centred interactive methodology and a project-based teaching, will help bridge the gap between Institute and Industry. A better education quality is bound to improve the students’ placement record, which will further enhance the reputation of Institute.

     

     The programme will be offered in two formats.

     

    1. Standard TTT Program aims to up skill candidates who are looking to enter the AVGC industry as trainers as well as 0 – 6 month of experienced current trainers/ artist in Studio.

      Duration: 6 months (5 Days a week).

     

    2. Executive TTT Program aims to up skill candidates who have 1 or more years working experience in the AVGC industry as trainers.

     Duration: 8 months (1 Week per Month / Weekend Classes).

     

    Guest speakers from renowned studios and industry experts will train the candidates on various disciplines; profound understanding will be given of the fundamentals such as design and aesthetics, storytelling and acting. The programme will have overall technical brush up and up scaling of skills at three stages viz. Pre-production, Production, Post Production; Detailed analysis and activities to understand the industry Pipeline and Work Flow management; Practical work experience at associated Studios / Production houses; Individual project based on specialization and group project for understanding and experiencing team dynamics; and Personal Development through mock lectures and group evaluations.

     

    “Indian AVGC industry is growing at a rapid pace – not only because of larger quantity of Hollywood content being worked on in India but also because of a growing domestic market. The Animation, VFX & Post Production market has grown from Rs 35.3 billion in 2012 to Rs 39.7 billion in 2013 and is expected to add over 40,000 jobs in the coming 3-4 years. For the growth to sustain and further enhance, it is imperative that the quality of students being trained improves which in turn is a result of the quality of trainers imparting the training. Hence, TTT directly addresses the need of the hour.” Ankur emphasized.

  • FICCI FRAMES 2014’s theme is “Media and Entertainment: Transforming Lives”

    FICCI FRAMES 2014’s theme is “Media and Entertainment: Transforming Lives”

    MUMBAI: FICCI FRAMES 2014 (March 12 -14, 2014, Mumbai) will be a landmark event marking the 15th chapter of the convention which has always been an unparalleled platform for the exchange of ideas and knowledge between individuals, countries, conglomerates.

    As in previous years, the world’s media & entertainment industry will be in full attendance at FRAMES 2014 with nearly 2000 Indian and 600 foreign delegates, encompassing the entire sector. FRAMES 2014 will have plenary and parallel sessions on a broad spectrum of issues covering the entire gamut of media & entertainment like Films, Broadcast (TV & Radio), Digital Entertainment, Animation, Gaming, Visual Effects, etc. over a period of three days.

    The theme of FRAMES 2014 will be “Media and Entertainment: Transforming Lives” with the aim being highlighting the role of media and entertainment as a vehicle for social change.

    The convention will discuss reforms and regulatory endeavours along with working on ideas on socially meaningful and quality content. The inaugural keynote will be by FCC Commissioner, Mr Ajit Pai who will touch upon content in the regulatory landscape in the US. Mr Raghav Bahl, Controlling Shareholder and Managing Director of the TV 18 Group will make the theme keynote address on Media and Entertainment as  a Vehicle for Social and Economic Change. Mr. Aroon Purie , Chairman India Today Group,  to give a Keynote on The Print Industry: Surviving All Odds in the digital era . Justin Osofsky, VP – Media Partnerships, Facebook will talk on Establishing Social Networks as the Primary Online Forum for Public Conversations .

    Apart from the core theme, FRAMES 2014 will focus on the key avenues for monetising the sector such as Talking Numbers: Hard Facts about M &E’s Economic Contribution; TV 3.1: Content, Strategies and the Future of Broadcast; De-bottlenecking the Regulatory Hurdles, The Changing Dynamics of the Film Exhibition Landscape.

     Stakeholders and thought leaders such as Uday Shankar , CEO , Star India Pvt. Ltd & Chairman FICCI Entertainment committee , Mr. Karan Johar , Chairman , FICCI FRAMES , Mr. Punit Goenka , MD& CEO , Zee entertainment Enterprises Ltd. , Mr. Sudhanshu Vats , Group CEO Viacom 18 Pvt. Ltd. , Mathieu Bejot Executive Director , TV France International , Roger Fisk, Presidential PR Guru from President Obama’s electoral campaign; Jim Egan, CEO, BBC Global News, Andrew Lack, Chairman, the Bloomberg Group; Bill Livek , CEO Rentrak ,  Kim Dalton, Chairman, Asian Animation Summit; Hiromichi Masuda, Vice Chairman Business Committee, The Association of Japanese Animations,Todd Miller, the CEO of Celestial Tiger Entertainment (A Lionsgate joint venture) and former head of Sony Pictures Television, are slated to speak at FRAMES 2014.

    FRAMES  2014 has been planned with a some off-the-cuff sessions to broaden the conventional boundaries of the summit. Sessions such as “Internet & Democracy: Interloper or Catalyst? ” ., “The Film that Changed My Life”; The Indian Electronic News Media: On Fine Balance?” promise to be intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking.

    A discussion specific to attracting the influx of private equity for the sector has been planned and film funding is a subject which will be deliberated upon. A Producers’ Masterclass wherein acclaimed producers like Andy Paterson and Guneet Monga will discuss the overarching role of a producer in taking a film from start to finish. Masterclasses with acclaimed Hollywood VFX supervisors such as George Murphy , Oscar winner and Chief Creative Officer, Reliance Media works , Jon Cowley and Ben Murray  of Prime focus world are also in the offing. The cinema exhibition sector will be dealt with at a very interesting session Cinema Advertising & Alternative Models: The Changing Dynamics of the Film Exhibition Landscape. Creative sessions on “The Past Present and Future of Good Cinema: Film-making for a Cause” and “Cuts so Deep: Are we Sacrificing Creativity at the Altar of Morality” will focus on meaningful cinematic content.

    Australia to be the partner country and Karnataka is the “Partner State” at FICCI FRAMES 2014 . Mr. Srivatsa Krishna , Secretary Deptartment of IT , BT & S and T , Govt. Of Karnataka will touch upon how Karnataka has been doing much to promote growth and development of its M&E industry

    An innovative feature of FRAMES 2014 will be the FICCI-INK Salon, an exclusive by-invite only daily hour-long session with speakers from the Indian part of TED talks. The BAF award show and networking evenings will as usual be the hallmarks of the after-hours.

    Media and entertainment’s role in public consciousness as an umbrella which shapes and sustains opinion and juxtaposes fact with utopia is an objective which FRAMES 2014 intends to reinforce.

  • ABAI: KAVGC Summit kicks off in Bengaluru

    ABAI: KAVGC Summit kicks off in Bengaluru

    BENGALURU: The Karnataka Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (KAVGC) Summit organised by the Association of Bangalore Animation Industry (ABAI, in collaboration with the government of Karnataka kicked off in Bengaluru last evening. Indian as well as international stakeholders from the animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) industry saw Karnataka’s minister for IT, BT and S&T S R Patil inaugurate the two day event at the Hotel Chancery Pavilion.

     

    Amongst those present during the inaugural ceremony was the Karnataka government’s principal secretary, IT, BT and S&T I S N Prasad.

     

    During his inaugural speech, Patil said that Karnataka state government’s thrust was on capacity building for the KAVGC industry and wanted to make Karnataka and Bangalore the preferred KAVGC destination.  He informed that this year, globally the estimated $153 billion KAVGC had a CAGR of 10 per cent, while in India it was growing much faster at about 22 per cent CAGR and was expected to reach five billion dollars this year. He said that a state funded post production and processing facility similar to the ones in Mumbai and Chennai would soon be inaugurated in Karnataka.

     

    He further said the state government was willing to work with bodies such as Ficci that had made some progress in setting up the curriculum for education courses.

     

    While echoing Patil, Prasad said that the state government was willing to listen to the KAVGC industry and act accordingly. “Karnataka will continue to lead the AVGC growth in India. We have partnered with a cross section of the digital content industries through ABAI,” said Prasad.

     

    Earlier, during his introductory remarks, ABAI president Biren Ghose set the tone for the summit when he said that the government and the ministry had been extremely strategic and extremely proactive in taking up a call from the industry.

     

    Speaking about the 2013 edition of KAVGC Summit, Ghose said, “The summit is meant to provide new direction to professionals and companies, highlighting growth and opportunity areas. It showcases our engagement with the academia, the government and industry and highlight the policy execution we have enabled as the roadmap for the next year.”

     

    The second ‘ABAI Leadership Excellence Award’ was conferred to Rajiv Chikalapudi, the creative and business force behind India’s animated phenomenon ‘Chhota Bheem’.

     

    Chikalapudi, during his keynote address detailed the long journey by his company Green Gold Animation to create and sustain a genuine IP success story including successes in merchandising and licensing. Chikalapudi said that a number of companies had great IP ready, but were afraid to pitching them. He exhorted these companies to go out and showcase their products, citing his own example – Chotta Bheem had been rejected twice before it was accepted by Pogo channel.

     

    The second keynote speaker Dreamwroks Country head Damian Froberville described the progress of the Indian Unit of Dreamworks and also gave some insights into the Asian scenario for global services. Froberville also said that the convergence between films and gaming was very much on the cards, but had not yet reached there. He said that this mattered to the players in the industry because of increased reliance on service providers with more content and shorter timelines of a product; and a lot more flexibility with VFX players doing a larger portion of game work.

     

    Among the other notable speakers and panelists included Greg Childs editorial director, The Children’s Media Conference; Jai Natarajan, Ceo, Xentrix Studios;  Owen Hurley, Creative head, Technicolor; Charles Gauthier Vice -consul and senior trade commissioner for India, Quebec office in Mumbai; Vsihal Dhupar, MD South Asia, NVDIA; Akhauri Sinha, MD, MPC, Bengaluru; Wil Braithwaite, Senior Applied Engineer-Digital Film, NVDIA; Ankur Bhasin; Ceo Bhasinsoft India Ltd; Vamsi Ayyagari, Management media professiona; AshishKulkarni, Ceo Reliance Animation.

     

    Notable additions to this year’s edition of KAVGC are the four Specialised Clinics – the IP Clinic; Technology Clinic; Co-production and Outsourcing Clinic; and the Pitching Clinic.

     

    The KAVGC Summit held annually for the last three years with the support of the government of Karnataka, continues to increase its focus on the business and industry of AVGC, aiming to provide a forum for knowledge sharing and improved connectivity among decision makers and stakeholders in the sector.

     

  • Q1-2014: DQE International continues profitable run

    Q1-2014: DQE International continues profitable run

    BENGALURU: The Tapas Chakravarti (he’s the CMD and CEO) led, Hyderabad based DQ Entertainment (International) Ltd, (DQE) continued its profitable run in Q1-2014.

     

    DQE had reported loss for Q1-2013 of Rs 9.2 crore. It reported profit of Rs 14 crore in Q3-2013 followed by a profit of Rs 23.3 crore in Q4-2013. DQE’s net profit for FY-2013 was Rs 37.3 crore. As of June 2013 (Q1-2014), DQE had recorded a net consolidated profit of Rs 6.6 crore.

     

    The company says that its revenue and profitability has a clear seasonal pattern, similar to that of the rest of the global animation industry, wherein almost 60 per cent of the annual revenue is achieved in the third and fourth quarter of the financial year and these results are in line with that trend.

     

    DQE is a global player in the creation, production, distribution, licensing and marketing of various forms of entertainment. The company is a major player in the country in animation production capacity for television, feature films, home video, online game art, visual effects, mobile and next generation console games.

     

    Let us take a look at DQE’s other figures for Q1-2014

     

    DQE’s consolidated net income from operations of Rs 30.43 crore in Q1-2014 was 1.64 per cent lower than the Rs 30.93 crore for Q1-2013 and a little more than a third (34.4 per cent) of the Rs 88.54 crore for Q4-2013.

     

    In Q1-2014, DQE had suffered a foreign exchange loss of Rs 18.4 crore, in Q1-2013, this loss was lower at Rs 5.94 crore, while in Q4-2013, it had a gain of Rs 4.3 crore on account of foreign exchange.

     

    DQE’s total expense for Q1-2014 at Rs 18.9 crore was more than half (51.7 per cent) of Rs 36.56 crore in Q1-2013 and less than a third (31.9 per cent) of the Rs 59.26 crore in Q4-2013.

     

    DQE’s production expense in Q1-2014 at Rs 1.65 crore was a little more than a third (36.7 per cent) of the expense of Rs 4.5 crore in Q1-2013 and almost a quarter (25.24 per cent) of the Rs 6.53 crore in Q4-2013.

     

    DQE’s employee expense at Rs 20.22 crore for Q1-2014 was 15.1 per cent lower than the Rs 23.81 crore in Q1-2013 and just 0.75 per cent lower than the Rs 20.38 crore in Q4-2013.

     

    DQE’s animation segment reported consolidated revenue of Rs 27.57 crore in Q1-2014, lower by 1.8 per cent as compared to the Rs 28.08 crore in Q1-2013, and a little more than a third (35.22 per cent) of the revenue of Rs 78.28 crore in Q4-2013.

     

    DQE’s animation business had revenue of Rs 182.01 crore for FY-2013.

     

    Capital employed for the animation segment at Rs 192.80 crore for Q1-2014 was 42.3 per cent more than the Rs 135.50 crore for Q1-2013 and 17.5 per cent more than the Rs 164.05 crore for Q4-2013.

     

    In its Q2-2013, DQE had said that it expected its distribution business to deliver significant net cash flows from FY-14 onwards. This has not happened in Q1-2014. Results from this segment were Rs (-1.859) crore in Q1-2014, Rs (-1.884) crore for Q1-2012 and Rs (-9.482 crore in Q4-2013. For FY-2013, DQE’s segment result from Distribution was Rs 12 crore.

     

    Revenue from DQE’s distribution business in Q1-2014 at Rs 2.852 crore, was almost flat as compared to the Rs 2.847 crore for Q1-2013 and a little more than a fourth (27.8 per cent) of the Rs 10.26 crore in Q4-2013. Given the fact that DQE’s overall business has seasonal patterns, this segment could show results as per the company’s expectations during the rest of the quarters of FY-2014.

     

    Capital employed for distribution for Q1-2014 at Rs 244.56 crore was 35.2 per cent less than the Rs 377.28 crore in Q1-2013 and 1.7 per cent more than the Rs 240.33 crore in Q4-2013.

     

    Chakravarti said, “The macroeconomic environment in some markets, especially in Europe and Canada, remains very challenging even in the children’s entertainment business. There is however a definitive improvement in the US Animation and children’s entertainment segment where considerable effort is being paid by us to further enhance our footprint.”

     

    “Our core business fundamentals remain sound with a strong current order book, to be executed over the next 2-3 years Our business is global and we have had particular success in TV and Home Video distribution, licensing, merchandising and publishing for brands like The Jungle Book and Peter Pan, as well as for many other properties such as Iron Man, Casper, Charlie Chaplin, Tara Duncan and Little Prince.”

     

    “We are in the process of rescheduling DQE India’s working capital facilities necessary to execute our new order pipeline and complete production and delivery of high brand equity properties such as The Jungle Book – series II, Peter Pan – series II, 5 Children & IT- series I, Lassie – series I, Little Prince – series III, Robin Hood – series I, besides several other productions”, informed Chakravarti.

     

    “We have given a special focus to strengthening our balance sheet by putting an extraordinary effort into the collection of receivables from our clients and partners, which will further improving our working capital position.

     

    I remain cautiously optimistic that we will end the fiscal year in a satisfactory position as planned,” Chakravarti said.

  • 10 films shortlisted for Oscar VFX category

    10 films shortlisted for Oscar VFX category

    MUMBAI: Members of the Visual Effects Branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have shortlisted ten films for the ‘Visual Effects‘ category.


    Among the films that have been shortlisted are Hugo, The Tree of Life, Captain America: The First Avenger, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Real Steel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and X-Men: First Class.


    All members of the visual effects branch of the Academy will view 10-minute excerpts from each of the 10 shortlisted films on January 19 and vote for five final nominees for the award.


    The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on January 24.