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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Tribals to make animation films based on folklore

New Delhi: Armed with multimedia softwares, tribals from Jharkhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and the North-East are being assisted by six students of Ahmadabad-based National Institute of Design in the capital to synchronise their tribal folklore into animation films. For over two dozen tribals, many of them from some of the remote parts of the country, the rustic tools of daily life have been replaced by a keyboard and a mouse as they make their way into the world of animation.

Armed with multimedia softwares like Photoshop, Premier, Maya, Macromedia 3D Max and Combustion SFX (for special effects), tribals hailing from Jharkhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and the North-East are being assisted by six students of Ahmadabad-based National Institute of Design in the capital to synchronise their tribal folklore into animation films.

The participants are not only writing their scripts, storyboard and designing picture frames for their respective 5-minute films but will also render rural tunes as background music in them.

"We are doing the storytelling and film editing part. How and where to place the characters in the film sequence is being helped by the NID students," says Venkat Raman Singh Shyam, a Gonda tribal artist from MP, as he draws various designs of the Squirrel for their film "Gilahri ka Sapna".

The Santhal tribals group from Jharkhand and West Bengal are putting together a folk tale with the main characters of a Bear, Tiger and a man.

"Our designs are drawm from wall paintings found in our villages. The music that the film will have will be unique to our culture," says Bharat Bhushan Murmu, a santhal from Jharkhand. "The whole of India is discovering animation, hence this is the right time for these tribal artists to reap the benefits of the technology and explore native Indian animation," Tara Douglas, workshop conductor and an animator herself, says.

Douglas said these artists need financial help and encouragement. She is also contemplating to approach the Ministry of Culture and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) for monetary assistance as animation is a "costly business which these artists cannot afford".

As the tribals prepare beautiful picture of wild animals, birds, trees and other flora, the NID students pitch in for "depth and perspective" of the subject.

"We are not here to change their lifestyle and their traditional stories... that is their take," Gaurav Juyal, a final year student of Animation and Film Design at NID, says.

The two-week workshop is being organised by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and Douglas, who works with the Adivasi Art Trust in the capital.

The group from Manipur is preparing a story based on a man and a monkey. One participant - Oken Amakchan - says that the workshop will take their skills "forward by leaps".

The three films will have sound effects by the tribal artists themselves and the participants have been instructed to "forget themselves and be the animated characters".
source: The Deccan Herald

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