A look back on “SPECTRUM”

“Spectrum” an initiative taken by Manipal Education is a series of events and seminars conducted all over India with the main aim of creating awareness as to what makes animation the buzzword of the entertainment industry.

It was kicked off on 09/02/08 in Manipal University, Bangalore. The first of its series was inaugurated by the father of Indian Animation, Mr. Ram Mohan along with other dignitaries like representative of Rhythm and Hues, Mr. Amit, RJ Harsha from Big 92.7 Fm and representatives from the Manipal Management. The seminar then continued on with the organizers welcoming the audience formally followed by a brief description as to what would happen during the whole seminar. The organizers then gave the mike to RJ Harsha who talked about the morning show that had been held along with Mr. Ram Mohan and the response received. After his talk the organizers gave a brief description of Mr. Ram Mohan’s background and his achievements. Mr. Ram Mohan then took over the dais and talked about his personal experiences in the animation industry and how this people driven field had changed along with time. He then talked about the present condition of the industry and gave a lot of emphasis on how animation education is needed to be thought properly, i.e., right from the basics of hand drawn animation and not only of software’s. He had also emphasized on facts that animation was a medium of story telling. He then showed us a small clip from the feature film “Ramayana” after which he talked about how the film was made and his wishes that it would be a collaborated Indo-Jap project but because of the offer being refused by the Indian Government, the Japanese took it as a their own project. He then talked about his involvement in the feature film where he had given most of the character designs and the voices which were given by Indian theatre actors. After the presentation on the film “Ramayana” given by Shri. Ram Mohan, some question were cross fired to him to which he had given answer pretty aft fully.

The dais then went on to Mr. Amit, Rhythm and Hues which were the visual FX team for the Oscar nominated film “The Golden Compass”. He had started by giving a brief description on how their company works after which he had shown a presentation on what films that they had worked on and along with some clips they worked on in the films. He then talked about of the recently released Oscar Nominated Film, “The Golden Compass” where they had to work during late hours. He then emphasized on the hard work put in from both the Indian and the American teams of the movie, communicating daily and working it out to be a grand success. He also talked about the technicalities of the film briefly and giving the audience a brief idea as to what, where, when and how they had done it, number of test taken and software’s used. He ran through most of the presentation due to time delay. After his presentation, he too was cross-fired with some question which he answered pretty well.

The seminar then continued with a short quiz conducted by the students of the college to which the answers came out very spontaneously. The chief guests were presented with a small memento from the organizers after which the organizers gave the vote of thanks which was followed by a tour of the campus and refreshments.
The seminar had an over-whelming audience who were very pleased with the seminar as it was a highly interactive one. The whole event turned out to be a grand success.