Hasta La Motion!

Meet Rambu. She lives on a small Indonesian island called Sumba where she loves to play hide and seek with her brother Ridwan. Rambu also believes that her mum has magical powers! Nearly two years ago, Rambu’s dad died suddenly and her family struggled. Eventually her mum couldn’t even afford to send Rambu and her siblings to school. This was especially hard for Rambu, who wants to be a Doctor when she grows up. Then her mum Lydia received a small loan and that’s when the magic started. A small loan enabled Lydia to open a small shop, giving her a regular source of income to support her family and send Rambu back to school. A helping hand in the form of a small loan was a world of magic to Rambu. Find out more at opportunity.org.au

The first look into the collaboration “YPPERLIG” between IKEA and danish furniture design company HAY. The film abstractly shows the materials that eventually will go into the collection in 2017. Client: IKEA Agency: NIKEXTENSION Production Company: Kuhl & Solvstrom Creative Direction: Nikolaj Fremming (Nikextension) Concept: Mike Wittrup (thebarkas.com), Nikolaj Fremming, Morten Kühl Christensen Design & Animation: Morten Kühl Christensen Houdini FX: Morten Kühl Christensen Art Direction: Mike Wittrup, Morten Kühl Christensen Sound Design: Kong Malthe, Jakob Littauer

The Film and Television Institute of India is to have new syllabus for its courses aimed at streamlining academic course work.

The Governing Council of the FTII in its 129th meeting held in Mumbai gave approval to the Academic Council’s proposal to convert FTII into a holistic institute of cinema, television and allied arts, offering varied choice of subjects related to cinema and digital media.

The GC also approved the vision document of FTII, which proposes to switch from teacher centric approach to learning centric approach, giving students enough flexibility to steer his/her career.

The GC Meeting was chaired by Chairman Gajendra Chauhan and Information and Broadcasting Ministry Secretary Ajay Mittal attended the meeting as a special invitee.  

The Academic Council of FTII, headed by noted filmmaker and television producer B P Singh, had drawn up an action plan for broad basing the course content. The proposal envisages setting up of nine different “schools” under the aegis of FTII, which will offer 22 courses, including short-term courses in music composing, animation and gaming, prosthetics and make up, costume design besides the core subjects like direction, cinematography, acting, editing and sound design.

The new syllabus aims to finish the courses in time bound manner. The new syllabus has been drawn up through a collaborative process taking inputs from academics, experts and alumni of FTII.

The institute will also introduce Choice Based Credit System which would replace the present system of annual assessment. The new syllabus under semester system would be introduced from August 2016 batch, while existing batches will continue to be covered under the old system. The GC also approved appointment of a Proctor and new rules regarding hostel accommodation.

Film maker Rajkumar Hirani, actor Satish Shah, former Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, director Pankaj Chandra, former Mumbai University Vice Chancellor Dr Rajan Welukar, Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, DG K G Suresh, Films Divison DG Mukesh Sharma, Ramoji Film and Television Institute, Hyderabad, Director Pavan Manvi, and noted film critic Bhavana Somayya were among those attended the meeting.

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Pokemon has been a part of every kid’s life since long. From the enthusiasm of getting to know different Pokemons to watching the protagonist Ash Ketchum explore new places and face new adventures, we have all dedicatedly watched it all. Thus, we tried our hands on a lot of pokemon games, be it in the form of card games or video games, we tried them all, didn’t we?

Now, Nintendo has released its mobile game called ‘Pokemon Go’ which is by now creating a lot of buzz among the Pokemon lovers.

Here are some facts about the game that you might find helpful.

What is Pokemon Go?

It’s a mobile game launched by Nintendo which lets you live the Pokemon dream in reality, or at least in ‘augmented reality’. The game traces your location through online maps and places Pokemons, gyms and pokestops all over. All you got to do is, reach the specified location to unlock the rewards and catch Pokemons. You don’t have to fight to weaken the wild Pokemon in order to catch it, but it depends on the Pokemon’s CP level, your pokeball and the way you throw it.

Where has it been launched?

For now, it has been launched only in Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the USA. People who do not come under these regions have downloaded the APK file and selected a region to play in.

How is the gameplay like?

It’s pretty similar to the original story. You start off with one of the three Pokemons; Charmander, Bulbasaur or Squirtle. You can follow the maps and catch wild Pokemons, indulge in gym battles and earn rewards from pokestops. If you’re willing, you can buy these rewards through micro transactions (through pokecoins gained by spending real cash). Overall the game is quite a fun as you never know where a Pokemon would be, which makes it exciting.


How is the game doing so far?

Pokemon Go has already topped the charts in the USA as the top free app and Nintendo’s shares have already spiked up by 10 per cent. So the picture is quite clear.

There have been reports about the game servers being down for many players, probably due to the enormous number of ‘Pokemon Trainers’ trying to join the bandwagon to showcase their Pokemon prowess. So far, Nintendo hasn’t released an official status regarding when the server problem will get fixed so you can just hope that you aren’t one of those few unlucky ones to face the issue.

Anything to keep in mind before you start playing?

Yes, it is a virtual world based on real maps which drives Pokemon Go, so no internet = no Pokemons. It will consume a lot of battery charge from your phone as reported by users. Finally, it’s very important to be safe out there when you try to ‘catch’em all’ as a Pokemon can be in the middle of a busy street and you can be too indulged in your quest to pay attention (leading to an accident).

All that being said, it definitely looks like the game is here to stay. So, when are you starting your quest to become the ultimate Pokemon Master?

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IGX or Indian Games Expo, India’s first consumer centric gaming expo (as the organisers claim) is all set to return for its second installment this October. The organisers revealed the dates on the official website and IGX this year will take place on 15 and 16 October. Entry this year too will be free, with online registrations kicking off in the month of August.

However, there is a change of venue this time around. Though the expo is still very much happening in Mumbai, this year it will be held at the World Trade Centre in Cuffe Parade instead of Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon.

Like last year, IGX will host platforms ranging from PC to mobile. IGX was also host to a number of high profile games which included Mortal Kombat X, WWE 2K16, MAD MAX, Batman: Arkham Knight and Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate among others. This year too it is expected to bring in games like Mafia 3, WWE 2K17, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, PES 2017 and many more. A number of international gaming companies too were part of the last year’s edition and according to NDTV Gadgets report the likes of Sony, Warner Bros, Ubisoft and Bethesda will be making a return this year too.

The focus will be more on making games playable rather than making the expo an e-sports gig. There will be a few gaming tournaments with competitive games but the details of the same haven’t been revealed yet. Sony PlayStation being the primary backer, one would anticipate that they could return this year too whereas we can expect to see the the rival console maker Microsoft this time as it was absent last year.

Cosplay competition is an integral part of the gaming expos and is an experience in itself. It was a big plus for IGX last year but still there is no word from the organisers about it. However, it is safe to say that cosplaying will be one of the highlights of the expo this year too.

IGX 2015

IGX not only hosted an array of international titles but also a couple of Indian gaming companies and hardware manufacturers which were part of the first edition. One should expect a number of Indian game development companies to be part of the expo this year as well. Last year, there were only two game developers who had stalls at the expo, Mumbai-based game studios Apar Games and Vanishing Point, who showcased their games Scribbled Arena and Third Eye respectively. Bangalore-based Absentia VR showed off its Tesseract VR headset at the expo which could convert any PC game to a VR experience.

All said and done, there were a few shortcomings and naturally this being the first edition of the expo, people had a few expectations but the brickbats came from a few quarters. There was a slight displeasure among the indie gaming community about the stall prices which they felt were pretty steep and could have had subsidised for the local talent to showcase their games. Not only the Indian game development community, the visitors too had a few criticisms for the organisers regarding the games which were being showcased (most of the games showcased were already available long before the expo), malfunctioning PS4s and long queues which resulted in the chaos at the venue.

The first outing of the expo saw people throng the venue in great numbers and yes, the expo is a step in the right direction with introduction of video games to a lot of non-gamers and an event to look forward to for the gaming fanatics. 2016 being the second edition of IGX, it would be interesting to see what all lessons have the organisers taken from their first edition and whether it will cater to the local talent or be like other Indian pop culture expos where we rarely observe Indian content and artists being promoted.

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