If last month Animax lured school kids with the opportunity to meet Brand ambassador Irfan Pathan, this month the channel has arranged for animation workshops for school children.
5 animation experts including IIT animation head Professor Shilpa Ranade, VCL’s Shrirang Sathaye, ToonzWebel academy dean Dennis Deegan, ZICA animation head faculty Prince Paikattu and Independent animation film maker Atish Tripathi are part of the special team of experts who have agreed to be part of this initiative.
The Animax workshop is conducted in association with Indiantelevision.com’s Animation ‘xpress which partnered the channel in terms of co ordination and planning.
Rohit Bhandari, Asst. Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Animax and AXN told Animation ‘xpress that,”Animax is committed to not only show animation to the children but also introduce them to the nuances of animation techniques. In this way we hope to channelise the creativity among the Indian kids so that they can consider animation as a career opportunity.”
The Animax animation workshop is to be conducted across 5 cities in the country and shall be held in 2 phases. Over a 100 schools in each city have been invited to send in 2 students accompanied by a drawing teacher.
To be held on 11 and 12 Feb, 05, the first phase includes workshops at Delhi and Bangalore, while the second phase to be held on 18 and 19 feb ’05 includes workshops at Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
The course is a basic introduction to animation concepts and the idea is to expose the children to the creative fun that animation creation offers. The workshop spread over 2 days,will have one 4 hr session each day. Various activities like flip book activity, demonstration of pixilation, cut out animation have been planned by the experts.
“I think its important to have such workshops so that the kids get exposed and excited about how the medium works” said Prof Shilpa.
“4 hours is quite a small amount of time to teach much but the workshop will at least expose the school childrens’ mind to the art” added Shrirang.
The channel which launched in July last year, has now devised a strategy in which it shall be connecting directly with consumers. Its previous attempt of connecting with school kids by getting in Irfan Pathan was quite a scuccess.
From a marketing viewpoint, the effectiveness of Animax’ strategy to conduct basic animation workshops with school children remains to be seen, but it seems to be a good gesture by Animax towards the animation industry.
Is Animax too, planning to commission Indian made anime?