FICCI FRAMES 2007 is just around the corner and the entire entertainment industry is gearing up for it!
The conference thrust on the Animation / VFX / Gaming vertical continues and the number of high profile International Stalwarts speaking at the event has peaked to a record high this year.
VFX Plenary session
VFX has a special plenary session devoted to it with top International luminaries including Rhythm & Hues Founder John Hughes, ILM�s Jon Labrie, Weta Digital�s Samir Hoon, Autodesk�s Maurice Patel speaking at the session which is to be moderated by FICCI VEC Chairman N Madhusudhanan.
Four Sessions on Animation IP
Interestingly, the conference has sessions devoted to Animation IP with topics covering Scriptwriting, Animation Content:360* , Comics to Animation and Animation IP with Global Appeal.
Top Speakers at these sessions include:
Lisa Goldman, Matt Castello, Govind Nihalani talking about scriptwriting.
Munjal Shroff (COO Graphiti), Lisa Goldman, Isaac Kerlow (NTU, Singapore), Jean Thoren (President Animation Magazine), Finn Arnesen (SVP, GM Turner-UK), in the panel on developing animation content 360
The series on comics to animation is to be moderated by Ashish Kulkarni (Founder, Anirights) and will have panelists including Virgin Comics COO Gotham Chopra, Tim Mostert, Creator of Speedy, Raj Comics CEO Manish Gupta, Chandamama CEO Vishanath Reddy and M Emmaneul Prevost from France.
The session on Animation IP with global appeal is to be moderated by DQ Entertainment MD Tapas
Chakravarti, and panelists include Crest CEO AK Madhavan, Adlabs Animation head Siddhartha Jain, Virgin Comics CEO Sharad Devarajan, Toon Boom President Joan Vogelesang and Thomson VP Thierry Pasquet.
Licensing
Another very interesting session is the one on the licensing business which has two stars of the business presenting including Cartoon Network�s Jiggy George and LIMA President Charles M Riotto.
Gaming
Gaming gets a solitary session moderated by EA(HK) President Jon Neirmann, Nokia Director of Technology Strategy & Games Mark Ollila, Zapak�s Rohit Sharma, Spark Unlimited Co Founder Sunil Thankamushy, Pearl Research MD Alison Loung, Microsoft APAC & China Entertainment & Device Division head Alan Bowman.
BAF
Another extremely anticipated part of the Frames event is the BAF (Best Animated Frames) Awards which is scheduled for the evening on the 27th. 14 categories are to be awarded at BAF this year.
X Media Lab
Another important and interesting development at FRAMES this year is X Media Lab which is to be held alongside the event. More than 16 Internationallly Acclaimed experts are scheduled to mentor at the lab which will have 10 nominated projects from across the world recieving the mentorship. Mentors at the X Media Lab include the Genuis Film Maker Shekhar Kapur, Nokia Worldwide Director of Technology & Strategy, Games, Multimedia Mark Ollila, Intel Digital Home Group�s Marcelino Ford-Livene, Four times Emmy Award Winner Dale Herigstad, BBC�s Innovation Executive, Future Media and Technology Priya Prakash, The Interactive Channel founder and CEO Robert Chua, Crest Animation Studios CEO AK Madhavan, Indiagames Founder & CEO Vishal Gondal, Any Screen Productions CEO Ferhan Cook, Doom 3 writer Matt Costello, NTU Dean of Art & Media Isaac Kerlow, Nokia Sr Researcher Elina Koivisto, Adlabs Films Head of Animation Siddhartha Jain, Fortress Private Advisors, LLC Founder & MD Paul Strickland, Legion Interactive Director Tom Kennedy and Digital Wellbeing Labs Director Alexander Gr??nsteidl.
Speaking to AnimationXpress.com about FRAMES, FICCI Director Amita Sarkar shared, “Through FRAMES it is our endeavour to recognise the potential of the Animation industry in India and to take it to the next level, where we can boast of some characters from India which can be popular worldwide, by encouraging the creation of IP as against the back office processing work for foreign studios which we are currently engaged in. The highlight at FRAMES will be the expertise which shall be shared by experts from all over the world with our industry people and vice-versa.”