‘Who’s Mistake Who’s Fault’ is India’s first student 2d stereoscopic film by Soumavo Ghosh Dastidar & Arijit Pande & their student team at their very own Scribbling Toddlers School of Animation.
Animationxpress.com’s Zeenia Boatwala had a conversation with Soumavo Ghosh Dastidar & Arijit Pande on the making of ‘Who’s Mistake Who’s Fault’, its challenges & Scribbling Toddlers School of Animation.
Please tell us about yourselves?
I Soumavo and my friend Arijit know one another from last 7 years. We were studying together at Toonz Webel School of Animation learning animation the ultimate field of fantasies when we had been lurking through our dreams of being a part of the artistry that brought a little mouse to life from a mere sketch to creation of the huge and mesmerizing planet of Pandora.
After working six years in the Indian Animation Industry, we decided to start off our own studio where we can escort to life our imaginations and in the process wanted to create our own team which gave birth to Scribbling Toddlers School of Animation.
Your journey in the Indian animation Industry & now as a filmmaker?
Indian Animation is a strong Industry to work with. We’ve enjoyed working with recognized animation studios DQ Entertainment, Crest Animation, Green Gold Animation, Famous House of Animation, Red Chillies [At Red Chillies we bagged a chance to do the storyboard of RA.ONE as a freelancer].
Our industry is enormous in terms of creativity & opportunities but, one should really work hard in making this industry a better place to explore and conceive.
We’ve had a marvelous journey working with great artists Mr. Suresh Eriyat of Famous House of Animation, Mr.Prakash Moorthy, Mr.Ashutosh Jayarka of Crest Animation & Mr.Suhas Kadav & Mr. Babu Dayal of DQ Entertainment.
A brief about your first 2d traditional stereoscopic student film?
Our movie is titled ‘Who’s Mistake Who’s Fault’ The story of this movie revolves around chaos in a restaurant caused by a confused and lazy butler & at last when he takes the situation under control everything goes wrong accidentally.
With this movie of ours, we are echoing the voices of our students as this film belongs entirely to them and they’ve worked right from conceptualization to the stereoscopy of the film.
What medium of animation have u selected for your movie & why?
We’ve chosen Classical 2d animation as the medium of animation for ‘Who’s Mistake Who’s Fault’ because classical animation longer exists in our Indian animation industry. We’re happy to see the industry focusing more towards digital animation but we believe that Old is gold & classical animation should be kept alive.
Also, the second reason is that 2d traditional animation is included in the first half of the course tenure that we offer. The roots of 2d Animation shall give life to a great 3d output later.
Why Stereoscopy?
Stereoscopy is the newest craze in the animation industry. Everyone wants to create stereoscopic films because it gives sharpness and depth to the best level, so why do we fall back? Seeing the heavy demand for stereoscopy, we’ve introduced it as course at our Scribbling Toddlers School of Animation.
Could you elaborate more on the characters of your movie?
As the story of the film centres around a European restaurant we have a Buttle (anonymous) as the central character & his boss – the Head Chef. Buttle, the protagonist had been kept always under pressure in order to give a proper strength to the climax.
How has the process been?
We had a blast! The process has been great of making this movie at our very own school Scribbling Toddlers.
The entire animation for ‘Who’s Mistake, Who’s Fault’? is done in classical 2D Form.
At scribbling toddlers, we’ve given our students complete freedom and pace while working on projects so that they learn by themselves all the finer points of making an animation movie. The hardwork and commitment our students have shown for this movie is truly appreciative. All the faculties and the students at our school have collectively produced a great work. Students & Faculties have worked nights together for giving life to this film.
‘Who’s Mistake who’s Fault’ will complete by the end of June’12 and we’re launching both 2d and stereoscopic (anaglyph) versions of it.
Could you share more on the look and feel for the movie?
The look and feel of this movie is kept a bit stylized & a bit of rugged and rough.
Since long we’ve been seeing lack of animation principles in student films. Most of the Indian Animation content seems to be stiff at times. Hence, we thought to make the first student 2D stereoscopic film by our school filled with a blend of rich Animation Principles in terms of performance.
The stylization is basically “not to Have Any line” in a 2d hand drawn animation but to give it a bit Retro Look , a bit pop art form.
And the style of the movie is kept rough just to make the production process a bit faster which actually never happened .Also accomplishing the challenge of delivering a distinctive animated stylized student film was a essential area.
The style has its own demand of time. But, it was really mesmerizing for us to explore a complete new process for the film.
How many artists worked on it and how long did it take to complete?
This is really an astounding account for us as we have only three students working on the movie & they have indeed done a stupendous job
in bringing this film to life.
The challenges faced in the making of the movie, how did you overcome them?
The main challenge was the team strength which is only three and it’s their first vast task to attain. They never worked in a team before so it’s a learning process for them as well as us in terms of guiding them on how to appreciate your team member and cheer him up to get the process going. And, proudly we can say that the team has come out with flying colors.
The projects you have worked on in your earlier stints prior to launching the school?
Arijit: The best point of my career was with Crest animation studios. At Crest I got to work on amazing projects Barnyard, MBC, Alpha-Omega (stereoscopic movie). Leading a pilot Ferre-Benoit (in XSI) was fun and it was a towering challenge with a totally novice team. It won a special jury award at a film festival in Europe & Alpha-Omega secured an Oscar Nomination. As Alpha and Omega is the first stereoscopic movie of India, I feel extremely glad to be a part of it.
Soumavo: I’ve worked on a couple of great overseas projects at DQEntertainment. Also I’ve been a part of Red Chillies as a Storyboard Artist for Director Anubhav Sinha’s Ra.One.
Mastering Technical Knowledge or Mastering Aesthetics-Your Views
Well, we believe, Mastering Technical Knowledge is a must. It’s vital to be in touch with the current technologies in the Industry. Keeping oneself updated on Mediums of 3d & 2d Animation & well as knowledge of software’s flooding the market has to be one of the prime concerns. But, the chief factor of becoming a good animation artist is to constantly practice the basic and foremost aspect of mastering the Aesthetics. As Quoted by Jeffrey Katzenberg, “Animation is pure artistry, its pure creative expression” So, Strong Aesthetics & Sharp Technical Skills complement each other
Hows the Journey of Scribbling Toddlers School of Animation been like? Hows things shaping up?
Scribbling Toddlers School of Animation was formed on 1st of August of 2010 & It was during that time we were planning to form our own studio in Kolkata. We started to work on self-generated projects & started to keep an eye for people who would love to work for traditional animations. Once we started our school, we trained people for classical animation & gradually started 3D Animation Course. In our opinion, pursuing a mix of 2D and 3D courseware qualifies a student to be a great professional in the Animation Industry.
Could you give us highlights of the courses Scribbling Toddlers School of Animation provides?
At Scribbling Toddlers School of Animation we’ve divided our course in two semesters:
Semester 1 is a 9 month course which focuses on the 2d Medium of Animation. This course informs students on Advanced Sketching Sessions, Introduction to Animation, Preproduction & Layout. After the completion of this course students are given a task of creating a 1 minute 2D short film.
Semester 2 is also a 9 month course in which the candidate will specialize either in 2D or 3D Animation. Students specializing in 2D will learn Higher Anatomy, Animation, Preproduction & Layout whereas those wanting to purse 3D will be offered a special course in Stereoscopy.
Education for Indian Animation- Your Views
It’s time to review our education system of our field. Industry cannot be a better place unless this section is taken care off. The Animation Educator’s should portray the accurate pictures of Animation.
We truly appreciate the endeavourer the Animationxpress.com took for arranging Academia in all major cities.
What inspires you?
Mickey Mouse, Snow white & the Princess and the frog are the inspiring magical creations by Disney. Building a wave of numerous emotions in Sci-Fi Fictions is an extremely amazing part of them.
Also, we’re following our western counterparts & getting motivated by their work.
Creativity for you is?
As said by Rabindranath Tagore “What is Art? It is the response of man’s creative soul to the call of the Real.” so creativity is the way one sees the real world and interprets in his own unique way.
Please share a few guidelines for the students and aspirants of Indian Animation Fraternity.
1. Judge Yourself! Self examine yourself by asking some questions, why do you want to be in animation? Do you like to draw? Do you love cartoons?
If the answer is ‘YES’, nothing can stop you
2. Be acquainted of the hard work involved in Animation. It’s no way a Kid’s Job.
3. Last but not the least; choose your training institute watchfully. Be keen to know about the profiles of the faculties of the particular institute & interact with their students & only then go ahead