Immersive At The Korea-Philippines TV Content Showcase & Media Forum

November 30 – December 1, 2009 at the Hyatt Hotel, Manila
Hosted by KCC Korea Communications Commission
Organized by KISA Korea Internet & Security Agency

One thing about being an animator is you never stop learning new things. Right now, as we move along the process with our own game development, we took the time to respond to an invitation from Korea. At first, we were worried that we were going to be the only attendees but the anxiety washed away abruptly as the ballroom filled and the forum was on its way.

At first it was an awkward silence as the first speaker gave his speech with the translator alternate between pauses. Maybe the man was just like us, restless in a crowd. The name we forgot, but he was from the organizers from <a href="KISA “>KISA.

Next came BJ Song, as we now understood, the brains behind the Korean incarnate of the Japanese teen drama in comics and animated feature Hana Yori Dango, with it’s Taiwan version Meteor Garden and thus took the name Boys Over Flowers. It was fascinating that, given the cultural differences, Koreans and Filipinos are not that much different when it comes to producing shows. We are all one-man-army when it comes to doing things. But you must give them credit for being mush more attentive to details, specially with their system for choosing actors for their shows. And the fan Club for Boys Over Flowers came in throng! And most of the discussion was really for fans and observers alike.

After a lenghty discussion came in Ms. Jee Soo Han, Executive Producer for Media Specials. Her creds range from Talk Shows to Documentary, something every student of Journalism aspires to be. Her take on Co-Production and Collaboration struck a nerve and awoken some dormant need to know more. And we will be communicating with Ms. Han when the need arises. There is so much to know about the business. . .

Our own Jose Ma. F. Bartolome talked about stuff involving Philippine Television and the current state of the nation, drew laughs and made pointed insights.

What are we doing here? We aim to know more about the craft. Animation we are good enough. Game development? We are definitely learning more as we go along. But the marketing and the collaboration, we will definitely need the experience of these people so that we may apply the knowledge in the near future.

Animahenasyon: Discovering The Potential

We don’t know all the details yet. But we were there last night at Gateway, all bleary eyed and weary from working triple time, but managed to squeeze in a peek at the awards ceremony. The Boss and a handful of us who are still awake were there.

On it’s 3rd year, Animahenasyon is the brainchild of ACPI and it’s affiliate schools and studios. As animators we sometimes delve deep into our work that we often forget there is a world out there, and the awards night was a welcome respite. You could feel the enthusiasm of the young people flowing freely, the anticipation, the bragging rights that naturally comes with the announcement of the winners.

The event itself is a no-nonsense affair, all geared towards the entries itself, and we never felt like outcasts since most of us dress up the same way: like hooligans out to party on the nearest pub. Even with most of the audience were from The College of Ct. Benilde and Ateneo De Naga University, most of the existing and still kicking animation people are there to grace the affair.

So, this was the time these guys were waiting for, and we thought the wait was worth it. I mean some of these students worked on their entry for a couple of years, give or take a few months spent preparing for exams and stuff. And some of the professional category contestants really improved a lot. Not that we were constantly monitoring the event as it unfolds, but hey we are animators, scuttlebutt has a way of finding its way into our ears.

The CSB Dance Troupe showed impressive presentations, a quartet of Cosplayers made it through the evening without hurting themselves and anybody else.(Just kidding, guys. We know you put your heart and soul with each costume. Hats off to you!).

There were loads of OOOOOHHHSSS and AAAAAHHHHSSS and Yeahs. Everybody was rooting for somebody. But what made our night out is the fact that a band really rocked our socks off with their modern-art-rock-experi-metal music – EVEN! We could have shouted more but then, they would have to cancel the rest of the awards altogether. So we just followed their vapor trail on the net afterwards.

Congratulations galore to all the winners. Hope you guys still have the energy and the drive to actually do animation work, because at this point we must get our grits together and really show the world what we’ve got.

Looking forward to Animahenasyon 2010.

We Have A Reason To Celebrate Today!

Ronie's Birthday

This young man has been working hard and staying up late like a seasoned animator. True, he’s still got a long way to go, but from what we’ve seen, this guy is bound to do great things in Flash.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RONIE!

Inuman na!

Animahenasyon 2009

Annual Animation Competition and Festival

Official Website! Yessss!

My name is Slurm.

I’m one of the creatures you’ll be seeing (if ghosts can actually be seen) in GHOSTFRIENDS.

It’s a show.

It’s a game.

It’s going to be pandemonium! As you are here now, you’ve met Crosstitch, another character. He just put up that sign so you can be redirected here.

So what’s going on with Immersive Animation?

Lots, actually.

The artists who created us are busy upgrading skills, after some drawbacks from typhoons and blackouts, there’s no slacking for these guys.

The site, like Crosstitch told you, is being constructed by some of our own artists. It’s a slow process, but we all can wait. There’s no point in rushing things. That’s one of the new attitudes. And we are taking it one step at a time.

Hey! I ‘m talking like I’m one of the guys here!

Truth is, the artists sometimes assume the role of the characters. don’t tell them it came from me , huh?

We’ll keep you posted!

Coming Soon

We are experiencing, since last week, some really bad, wet weather. People are having a hard time with the flood, and the latest news proved to be sad, with victims of Ondoy still missing or found dead. Close friends and acquaintances suffered immense losses, but we Pinoys are bred tough, and we will rebuild . . .

On a different note, and a bit of good news -

WE HAVE OUR OWN WEBSITE! YAY!

Coming soon – www.immersivenation.com

Something to look forward to.

At the BCWW Floor

Some really cool photos. ( REAALLY cool, Boss Posing with the Big Guns )

Animation Council of the Philippines with Sang-Gil Lee

With Cartoon4Kids CEO James Ooi

GITCT CEO Sang-Gil Lee

The Journey Continues

In Korea, another event came after ACE Fair and we are there. No rest for the Boss, well at least, until this one concludes and The Director will be back again at the studio, firing up the alcohol lamps and rigging up the apparatus, and whoa, this is turning out to be some Frankenstinian scheme! Hee-hee!
And the crew are restless and itching to do stuff. wet behind the ears, green as asparagus, but willing to be part of the creative cauldron, and are just waiting for the Boss’ return to the hive.
Now that everybody is well rested and full of moxy, it’s only a matter of time when things start rolling . . .

Next Stop: BCWW 2009 KOREA

BCWW 2009

Shared via AddThis

Almost Done

Making ripples

Such a large venue. Boss tells us how clean and orderly everything is, from the entrance to the red carpeted isles ( we refer you to the flicker photos on our sidebar here at this blog). Too bad, our booth could use more posters (we actually made several additional posters, but will only be used on the next expo) because such a very austere and stoic setting could use some bit of fun. anyway, we did mention that after ACE Fair 2009, Direk Del will be moving on to another conference, much like this one. Back here at the studio, some of us are still hard at work with the stuff needed doing, others are doing sub-con jobs at TOEI Philippines, but the workload has eased a bit. Still, animation is not all happy and fun. This is SERIOUS work. REALLY serious work. We may look like a bunch of hooligans doing crazy and noisy stuff when out, but this is really some weight we carry. And most of these past weeks was geared towards this event, and, at the risk of being redundant, we are glad we made it to KOREA. True, Japanese-style animation is still the mecca for all things animated, but we are confident that Immersive is emerging as one of the few who has well-rounded artists with anime,flash and enough action-script skills, add these to the immense, really immense talent pool we have now on our line-up, guided by the the Boss himself, JediSithMasterDirek Del and AssistantDirectorFlashMeister Arvin, Immersive truly, will be, a force to reckon with.

Just as soon as we get more sleep . . .

Still a very large venue

That’s it for now . . .

Next stop: World Domination!