Concept Art from The Dream Blanket UTV & Epiphany Films 2007
“A dream once dreamt, is but a reality waiting to be realized”
Years ago, many an Indian animation artist and director dreamt of making their own animated features. Back then, the animation industry as well as the domestic market for animated content had not evolved much. No one was aware that the ‘animated feature’ dream would be a reality so soon.
The Dream Blanket, a 3D animated feature recently announced by UTV & Epiphany Films is one such exquisite dream which is being woven into reality even as we speak. Based on an original story and concept, the feature promises to take animation to new, refreshing heights of story telling and production design.
Simi Nallaseth (Director Co Producer & Co Writer -Story, Screenplay) the driving force behind this project is brimming with excitement and her enthusiasm and conviction is contagious.
“The story was conceived by two of my friends and me. They are Shaiontoni Bose (Weretiger and Spooked for Penguin) and Dinesh Kapoor (Copy writer/ Creative director at JWT, New York). Based on the original story, Shaio and me wrote a screenplay. Itâ€?s a Buddhist fairytale about a 10-year-old girl who begins to believe in her dreams and is set in a Buddhist locale of Sikkim” shared Simi
On board with Simi is UTV which is Co Producing the feature with Epiphany Films (Promoted by Simi, Mahesh Mathai, Ashutosh Phatak) at a very good budget and scale.
The team in the making also includes Art Director & Chief Production Designer Jasbinder Singh, Music Composer Ashutosh Phatak as well as Co Writer (Screenplay) Shaiontoni Bose.
So overwhelming is the intrinsic appeal of The Dream Blanket that some leading global Animation Artists and experts are planning to relocate to India to be part of the team that�s going to work on this fabulous project though their names cannot be shared at this point in time.
UTVâ€?s Aditya Krishna who is the Executive Producer of the animated feature remarked, “The Dream Blanket is an enchanting tale, whose story elements have reached out to all of us. It dwells on fantasy and abstractness while still adhering to the richness of Indian storytelling. It is an original story that is reflective of real life choices and decisions but set in a new world. The characters are well developed, the locations are exquisite and the theme is eternal. All of that coupled with the passion exuberated by Simi and her talent in visual representation is what pulled us towards the project”
UTVâ€?s Aditya Krishna – Researching in Sikkim
“After UTVâ€?s involvement, the team has done further visual development as well as a large amount of story enhancement. The team has also gone on a study trip to Sikkim where considerable time and effort was spent in understanding and documenting the elements of the location that the movie will reflect. Interviews with local people were conducted, handicrafts and local industry were studied, monasteries and villages were visited, a huge amount of pictures and video clips were collected and the essence of Sikkim was captured in our cameras and through our time spent there” he added.
Jasbinder Singh (Art Director) shared that the team was just back from a research trip to beautiful Sikkim “The Dream Blanket is very conceptual in story and imagery. Itâ€?s a Production Designerâ€?s delight! We are just back after doing quite a lot of research and are feeling even more refreshed and the creativity levels are brimming”
With Pre Production for the film underway, production is only a few months away. On being asked as to where the film would be produced and what are their plans in terms of talent? Simi as well as Aditya, “A great film is only possible with a great team. So we are casting top talent. Artists who have an urge to make a top quality animated feature. Good story delivered with style!”
“Presently we are evaluating all options for production for all our films based on the requirements of individual projects” added Aditya.”Our team is going to include artists who are passionate, inspired and mad! The ones who are crazy enough to stay late nights perfecting their shots, work Saturdays because its so much fun, and say a happy yes to the hardest tasks remarked Simi adding that she was confident of finding the talent.
Coming back to the discussion about the research trip, Jasbinder shared some of the beautiful reference shots “The Sikkim trip was like being in heaven. India has so many beautiful places. In our journey we traveled from Bagdogra by chopper to Gangtok. It was a great experience of shooting video reference from a chopper. We observed the plantation on hills, it looked beautiful with patches of flowing terraced hills. We studied different monasteries, most of them perched on hilltops”
“We also observed murals in the monasteries. Especially the interiors have a lot of murals and props, the pillars were in a certain design, very decorative. There was very little relief work on arches or pillars and motifs, but they were very boldly painted. Some monasteries had vibrant colors while others had earthy colors scheme.” DUBDI” monastery is one of the oldest that we visited in Sikkim, which has very beautiful old murals of an earthy palette. We walked through hilly forests, clicking pictures of nature”
“We finally reached a spot where the clouds were touching us. I felt they were like a blessing for The Dream Blanket. A strange thing that I observed was, a few dogs were always asleep outside most monasteries. Finally the overall study of the Buddhist monks, the monasteries, the culture and Sikkim is helping us in making The Dream Blanket come alive in an honest and authentic fashion”
With visual imagery being inspired by ethereal as well as earthy moods, what would the sound design be like?
Epiphany promoter Ashutosh Phatak who is composing the score for The Dream Blanket shared, “Throughout my journey in music and sound, I have been influenced by a variety of genres and styles and have composed fully classical scores (Indian & Western) as well as absolutely urban and edgy stuff. Composing and creating sound for animation is exciting because the unlimited possibilities of the genre seep in to the music also and the canvas gets much more larger”
“What is particularly exciting about Dream Blanket for me is the fantastic realm the film exists in and the challenge of incorporating the Tibetan sound scape into the music” he further shared.
“We want to be true to the story’s calling and make an original film. Original in story, design, performance, music, everything! So, the artists will be challenged much more on this film as they have to think original in order to create original content. The way we develop our work is with great emphasis on study, deep research and sharing knowledge. Only then the magic emerges and dreams come alive!” exclaimed Simi.