Arena Animation Academy held their 14th Annual Function at Govt. Museum Auditorium Sector 10 on Sunday 12 Dec 2010. The event was attended by the students and their parents. STPI Director Ajay Srivastava, Dr. Mahender Kumar, Chairman Dept of Indian Theatre were the distinguished guests present there.
The event started with a wonderful welcome dance Saraswati Vandana by Nishika. There were solo dances by Tejaswi, Anshum, Divya, Linken, Ishika, Maginder, and Nishika. Group dances were presented by BSc I Year & II Year. Ramandeep presented a rejuvinating Yoga performance. Solo Songs were presented by Mandeep, Prabhjot, Ishika, Mayank, Kartik, Bikram & Charanjeet. Bikram accompanied on the Guitar. Mahesh presented a comic poem.
A play was staged on the educational system. Based on the theme of Sholay and using characters from the film, the actors conveyed the purposefulness of the hard work and effort required to achieve success.
Vineet Raj Kapoor mentioned that the students who dared to show their talent would usually be the ones who make a mark first in their careers as well. A will to take risks and succeed is desired besides talent. An annual report presented by him highlighted this year’s special events. This year Perspectives was held, which focused on the making of the Animation Movie “Lava Kusa”. This also had a seminar by Prosenjit Ganguly famous Animation Movie Expert. A Team of Arena Faculty had worked on the Animated sets and backgrounds of drama “Ashoka” by DPS School. A team of Faculty and students had also worked on the 2D Animation Clip for promotion of the movie “Dreams of Sheikh Chilli”. The Project of creating an Animated Presentation NDPL was successfully commissioned by faculty of Arena Chandigarh. A 5-Day Animation Workshop was also held by Prosenjit Ganguly were students paid a tribute to Ryan Larkins through their work and movie.
A Team comprising of Neelu Kapoor and Vineet Raj Kapoor of Arena Chandigarh also participated in an Exhibition in South Korea. This helped them enter into fruitful partnership that helped increase the brand value as well as quality at the centre. Last year many foreign employees have come to the centre thereby increasing our width and understanding of the field and its scope. This has also resulted in a tie-up under which our students are expected to go abroad for short internship at foreign studios. The first batch of such students are expected to leave Chandigarh within a month.
Many special interest groups and clubs were started by Arena Staff and Faculty which enhanced the learning experience of the students. Some groups like photography and sketching have held many learning sessions and are a regular feature at the centre.
The event was rounded off with a Prize Distribution honouring all faculty and Semester Toppers. It also honoured the best animation and graphics projects by AAASP and BSc Students. Monika Modak was declared the “Outstanding Student of the Year” whereas Parminder Singh was honoured for being the Leading Mentor of the Year.
Dr. Mahender Kumar remarked during his speech, “Animation has been the missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle of storytelling. The picture now seems to be complete.”