Hasta La Motion!

Framestore, the VFX studio that won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects for the film The Golden Compass, has appointed James Whitlam as executive producer, Film. Whitlam has earlier worked on the VFX work of various films like Mad Max: Fury Road, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Batman Begins.

His nine-year tenure at Rising Sun Pictures was quite fruitful as he worked on the major ventures of the Harry Potter franchise. His 25 years as a producer has been conducive to supervise various feature film projects. His recent work as senior VFX producer on Peter Berg’s film Deepwater Horizon was his last project before joining Framestore.

From left: James Whitlam, Pierre Belaisch, Jon Neill

Gaumont, the French powerhouse known for producing, co-producing, and distributing films, has its own animation production wing too. Gaumont‘s Paris-based president of Animation, Pierre Belaisch, is exiting the company. Belaisch used to head the company’s European TV animation activities and also previously served as MD of Gaumont Animation.

Axis Animation, Glasgow-based CG studio, has appointed Jon Neill as Head of Lighting, Rendering and Compositing. He has previously worked on several major projects like Jungle Book, Skyfall and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and held senior positions at MPC and Cinesite.

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Vishal Gondal has undoubtedly been a celebrated personality in the gaming industry of India. Being the founder of ‘Indiagames’, one of the most noted gaming companies India had seen, he created a name for himself as a polished veteran in the industry. He departed from the Indian gaming scene in 2012 after Disney acquired Indiagames for $100 million. Now, he is planning to make a comeback and contribute to the country’s gaming industry.

AnimationXpress reached out to Vishal Gondal in an attempt to get an idea of the plans and vision he has on his comeback.

Vishal Gondal

Post Indiagames, he has been working towards his wearable, fitness brand, ‘Goqii’ and now intends on coming back into the gaming scenario. “I can see the inflection point in India as far as mobile, smartphone, data and everything is concerned but I felt it was the right time to start looking at investing in this space because there are many young start-ups and companies who need what I call ‘smart money’, because so far industrialists have paid the money who have never played a game (literally) in their lives.”

Although the main focus for the entrepreneur this time will not be at just publishing or developing games, but also to provide ‘mentorship and advice’, which seems fair, as the country’s gaming industry is surging forward and the new and young start-ups could find the guidance of a veteran really beneficial.

It will definitely be exciting as well as challenging for Gondal as the industry and the ecosystem in India has evolved over the period. He states, “Smartphone penetration was very low during my time at Indiagames and feature phones were dominating. Whereas, today the android penetration is huge and more and more people are coming on data plans, so clearly it’s a very different landscape.” He further adds, “Previously, the people playing games were mostly the first 100 million odd people who were all English-speaking and understood international content but now, there are people in small town and villages who have smartphones and high speed data connections.”

Although, Gondal did not seem to be very content about the quality of games that is being produced in the country, he said the games continue to be ‘mediocre’ in quality and people are buying movie licences and just re-skining the games which worked earlier but now, given the easy availability of the best games from around the globe, consumers have turned to be really advanced in the choice of content.

He further explained his views saying, “It is about the quality and not just about being an Indian game or a foreign game. For example, Clash of Clans is made in Finland, but people care about the quality of the games and not where it is made as consumer taste is very advanced and so are their expectations. People still think that just by having a Bollywood or a movie name and giving a mediocre game experience will get you downloads. Yes. Somebody may download but do they actually play the game?!”

Thus, to take things into perspective, everyone who can run whatsapp on their phone can more or less download and play games but they still opt for foreign games because of the quality experience and not the name. Given the smartphone penetration is on an absolute surge in the country, it would be the best time for Indian gaming companies to create IPs which can compete with the quality of experience provided by many foreign games.

Gondal informed that he intends on tapping every aspect related to gaming industry and not restrict it to just publishing or developing games. From VR, AR to other technologies and even eSports, he plans to cover it all. He informed that he is already in talks with people and organisations from the industry, but has not decided yet on where or who to start with.

He is currently presiding as an advisor over the Mountain Dew’s eSports event launched in the country named ‘Dew Arena’ which aims to engage 30,000+ participants throughout the event. It would be interesting to see how it works out for Gondal as he has quite a name in the industry and young start-ups can use the funding as well as the guidance from an experienced personnel from the industry.

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Ogilvy Johannesburg’s radio advertising campaign for KFC South Africa, “KFC Man Meals”, has won the Radio Grand Prix at Cannes International Festival of Creativity, following on from the recently awarded D&AD Yellow Pencil for Radio. The sad fact is that guys who like cocktails are afraid to admit it because they are branded unmanly. KFC is the great equaliser. Everyone from every walk of life can be found in a KFC store. So KFC Man Meals would like to challenge norms and conventions of what it means to be a man, as well as show you that every man can enjoy the wonderful taste of KFC Man Meals. You can like Barbra Streisand and still be a man. You can drink cocktails and still be a man. KFC Man Meals are not just for burly hammer wielding jocks, it’s for every man. Three radio commercials “Coloured Weights”, “Claw Thing” and “Cherry Lip Balm”, take us through tested perceptions of manhood.

KFC Man Meals Credits

The KFC Man Meals campaign Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg by chief creative officer Pete Case, executive creative director Mariana O’Kelly, creative director Molefi Thulo, art director Tammy Retter, copywriter David Krueger, radio producer Alison Ross, working with KFC brand directors Mike Middleton and Thabisa Mkhwanazi.

The ads were produced by sound engineers Louis Enslin and Theo Potgieter with voice over artist James Alexander.

The Chase is the true story of four friends who are united by one epic adventure—chasing after Forrest Fenn’s legendary treasure chest hidden in the Rocky Mountains. Together they’ll traverse 3,500 miles in a small RV to learn what it takes to become real treasure hunters. The Chase is on! Visit us online: www.facebook.com/thechasefilm @TheChaseDoc Twitter/Instagram —- More info on Forrest Fenn’s treasure: http://dalneitzel.com/ – Treasure Hunter Blog and Community http://www.oldsantafetradingco.com/ Forrest Fenn’s Website

Footage from 4-23-2016 visit to Raccoon Mt. Aerial shots captured by Matthew Disbro using a GoPro Hero 4 Black flown with a 3DR Solo!