Press Release 14 March 2012

Production of a short animated folktale from Manipur has begun at the Manipur Film Development Corporation in Imphal.  The initiative was started in a three week long Animation Workshop from 25 February and concluding on Saturday.  The event has been supported by the Government Department of Art and Culture, in response to finding new ways of preserving the cultural heritage of Manipur and promoting it to a wider audience.    

Although it will be just five minutes long, the production team of workshop participants, all with some prior experience in art, design or animation software, are beginning to feel that it is like a feature film.  The story seemed simple at first in its oral form, but to translate it into the medium of animation is quite another matter. Over a hundred shots are required to convey the story in an entertaining, dynamic way, exemplified in the hilarious climax that takes place when the “Thief” character has the ride of his life enacting rodeo stunts on the back of a tiger that he has foolishly mistaken for a horse.   All this will have to be animated frame by frame.  At present the preferred technique is 2D cut-out animation using software to manipulate puppets. 

Naturally the characters have voices too, and today the team turned their attention to sound, with the aim of recording dialogues for the story in three languages – Manipuri, Hindi and English.  Fortunately the Manipur Film Development Corporation has a professional sound recording studio, and R.K. Lalmani is adept at using the multi-track digital recording system.  Lalmani works at the Corporation and he is a film enthusiast who has made a few films himself. 

With no female participants in the workshop, Haobam Sandhyarani Devi (Sandhyarani), a teacher with some experience in acting has volunteered to provide the voice of the “Mother”  - who is at her wits end and finally invents the “Tapta” to silence her screaming child.   A. Rishi Sharma (Rishi) also dropped in to find out more about plans for the musical track.  He has his own recording studio close by and has offered to compose a musical track once the animatic has been completed, as it will give an accurate idea of the pace and action of the film.  He also has an extensive collection of sound effects for creating ambience, realism and mood. 

Sephin Alexander has taken time away from the preproduction module of his animation course at National Institute of Design to get some practical experience in preproduction in Manipur.  This includes assembling the animatic – a sequence of storyboard sketches that also incorporate some basic animation to convey the action and identify the final animation requirements.  Rahul Laishram, also from the National Institute of Design, is composing and animating a test sequence of the film that will be the opening shot – that of a traditional Meitei house, one stormy night.  Both are exploring ways of simulating rain using software and there are several useful tutorials available online to refer to:  

How to make rain in After Effects:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Dz09RuP65s
(quite an amusing video on how to make a bright scene dark with rain)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvGQtvo7Be4
(good information on creating basic rain in After Effects)

Example of lightening and rain created in After Effects:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOLVXK1Yk4A&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMxcBWVplp8&feature=related

The workshop is collaboration with the UK based Adivasi Arts Trust, a charitable organisation that promotes awareness of indigenous art and culture.