One of the most popular and respected animation personalities and creative evangelists globally, Shelley Page also known as the International Animation Goddess has a huge fan and friend following in several countries including India. Needless to say her session was highly anticipated. Hitting the nail straight on the head, right at the beginning of her session, Shelley addressed the several business heads within the audience “It‘s the commitment to excellence and inspired talent groomed and nurtured with a lot of dedication at the international schools that have made it possible for us to come up with creative leadership. Unless you have the creative structure within your leadership teams it will not get you where you want to go.”
Drawing in from her collection of the most amazing short films of the year from all over the world, Shelley showcased a film created by students of the Film Akademie, Stuttgart called Loom, the stunning film which zooms in on the process of a spider weaving its web and then capturing its prey was so cinematically treated and presented that it gripped the viewer and stunned as if the viewer itself was the victim of the spider. The concept, treatment, direction, CG, Edit, Sound, technical proficiency, and post had such finesse, “This film represents the highest level of attainment at the student level in the world. created by 3 students who have completed 6 years of education.” shared Shelley.
“It could have been a VFX Show reel but by adding the amazing story telling dimension to it, it becomes this stunning and gripping experience of a film.” She added.
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Shelley pointed out that the students of Film Akademie Stuttgart were not only given the best of the education, exposure, and mentoring but also the most advanced conference on CG and FX, The FMX conference which is hosted every year and attracts the best of studios , inspiring talent, interaction between leading schools and networking with studios as well.
When we are talking about these schools and leading institutions, we are not talking about 1000s of students we are talking about maybe lesser numbers but we are talking about inspired talent that strives to be technically proficient, yet be focused on the film and story, with wonderful artistic and design sensibilities.
As a jury member, I see a lot of complex narratives in the short films that I see coming from India. But what I see missing is the theme, the articulation or the point of what the film is about?
She next showcased films from Gobelins. “The success of this one institution is a very big factor in the success of the recent successful animated features we have seen coming out of France” she said.
Talking about the incredibly successful feature from France Despicable Me, she said that how in theory the film could have been created anywhere, but in practice it could have only been done in France owing to the fabulous talent pool that is nurtured in its wonderful animation schools in the country. The co-director is a graduate from Gobelins, many of the team of leading supervisors are from the same school as well. The reason I give these schools examples is because these schools are looking to involve and participate with India.
She showcased a couple of films that highlighted on talent development for direction, One of them was an amazing short film produced 12 years ago called More, directed by Mark Osborne,”It is very hard to find directors who have an understanding of story telling from the feature film level.” That film was in 1998, Mark won many awards and this was followed by him working on Spongebob and eventually he came to Dreamworks…co director of Kung Fu Panda.
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She signed off her session showing The Boy and the Beast by Johannes Weiland from Studio Soi, Stuttgart. “This is a very specific theme which is very personal and expressive” said Shelley describing it as the best film of the year. “This film though set in a non descript European environment, it speaks to everybody.”
“I want to see more personal films coming from Indian students” she concluded.