Seminar on Effective Story Telling in Movies & Animation 2009 @ ICAT, Chennai

90 minutes of non-stop visual treat enthralled a packed audience of Animation students and enthusiasts as Shelly Page of Dreamworks (Los Angeles) addressed the students of ICAT (Image College of Arts, Animation & Technology) and IMAGE as part of the Global Giant's latest initiative to work closely with the best Animation schools in India.

Shelly Page is the Head of International Outreach at DreamWorks Animation - producers of, among many others — Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda. She is a former animation production artist and has worked on many animated feature films during her 20 year career.

Speaking to the students, Shelly defined the quality standards in the student animation category by showcasing International student's works from various Animation schools across the world. She provided guidelines on how Indian students should transition from working on software to creating final output rich in concept, treatment and execution.

Eric Riewer from the Gobelins school of animation, France explained that the key to become successful character animator is to make an emotional capture of even simple objects. To convince any professional studio to recruit students, he advised them to keep their animation films as short as 2 minutes without compromising on creating compelling character designs, timing of the story and artistic originality.

Students welcomed the session as it was an unusual one and filled with killer tips. Mr. V.Natarajan - Chief Academic Officer of ICAT delivered the vote of thanks and hailed Dreamworks on their efforts in helping Indian students to raise to International standards much before they pass out from the Animation school. Ms. Shelly also presented the college library a copy of the book titled “The Alchemy of Animation”

• How can stories help movies be personal, touching, and moving ?
• Beginning with realistic portrayal of aspects of everyday life in local environments, what are some ways that fantasy can be introduced in movies?
• What are some ways that leading characters can be given immediately-recognisable styles of moving and speaking, and clear motivations and missions?
• What are some characteristics of “Hollywood” films? Can films produced elsewhere also capture the international market?
• How are innovations in technology including those involving game-playing and role-playing on the Internet, and texting on mobile telephones changing the cinema business?