Film Bazaar to have a VR Lounge & Virtual Reality Sidebar

Google, YouTube’s session will be on Building Communities and Icons and Facebook to have a session on Marketing the Indie Film and Building Communities

The 10^th edition of NFDC Film Bazaar held from November 20^th to 24^th 2016 at Marriott, Goa will have a series of interesting and engaging ‘Knowledge Series’ sessions this year.

This year a lot of focus is on technology & its impact on narratives, digitalization and the expanding scope of monetizing films (Indie included) and of course New Voices as well as the tried and tested ones – how do they hope to tell their stories and experiment with form, what are these stories as well as how do they propose to build their viewer community and engage them.

Knowledge Series, which consists of specially curated presentations, lectures and panel discussions with key decision makers and market drivers of the film industry, will have a Virtual Reality Sidebar.

There will be a Film Bazaar Virtual Reality Lounge powered by Samsung Gear VR where virtual reality films will be screened. It is managed by Meraki and slot bookings will soon be open on 1018MB, booking partner for Film Bazaar Virtual Reality Lounge powered by Samsung GearVR.

The VR Sidebar in Knowledge series will be on Immersive Experiences – a new Industry within the Film Making Universe and has some very exciting sessions, interesting visual experiences inventory and some very exciting expositions and demos.

The VR Sidebar includes three sessions:

Session 1- Presentation by Michel Reilhac (ex-Head of Film Acquisitions at Arte France curated the VR NEXT sidebar at Cannes 2016 and has also directed 6 VR shorts) on Virtual Reality technology titled Bust Myths – Immersive technology and its role in future Cinema Narratives, is one of the marquee sessions in this sidebar.

Session 2- Story Telling & Narratives in 360° VR

Presentation by Mirjam Vosmeer, Amsterdam Creative Industries Network

The session hopes to explore the kind of stories that are being told in the Immersive Viewing space and the kind of tools that will be deployed to tell them.

Session 3- with Avinash Changa , CEO and Technical Director of WeMakeVR who will share his experiences around creating VR content – from development through storytelling and distribution for VR.

Indie Films or for that matter any aspect of Contemporary Culture thrives if it has a fast expanding and cohesive Community.  And the Online forums have been providing the tools to facilitate the same. Last year KS had focused on Crowd Funding campaigns – how they are not just about raising money & resources to realize the film but also a means of building up a community of loyalists and dedicated viewers who are not only invested in the film but also will help spread the word to enhance its box office and then its VOD journey.  Knowledge Series had showcased the Crowd Funding campaigns of  Punyakoti with director Ravi Shankar (a Sanskrit animation film which is in the Co production Market this year ), Proposition for a Revolution with Producer Ruchi Bhimani  ( a documentary which has now been released and is traveling extensively as The Insignificant Man) and Kothanodi with Director Bhaskar Hazarika (the Assamese feature which went on to win the National Award and also had a very successful Assam release).

This year Film Bazaar takes the thought forward with 2 key Knowledge Series sessions with 2 of the most engaging and popularly used platforms –

1. Google YouTube – Building Communities and Icons

In Conversation with Satya Raghavan, Head of Content Operations, YouTube India

2. Facebook – Marketing the Indie Film and Building Communities

Presentation by Saurabh Doshi, Head, Media Partnerships, Facebook

Other Knowledge Series session include:

Session 1-Stories that are being told in Regional and Small Town India

Panelists: Nagraj Manjule, Filmmaker, Sairat and Fandry, Bhaskar Hazarika, Filmmaker, Kothanodi, Raam Reddy, Filmmaker, Thithi

Session 2- Women Protagonists in Indian FilmScape – Changing Dynamics

Panelists: Shoojit Sircar, Filmmaker, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Actor and Vani Tripathi Tikoo, Actor, Theatre Artist

Session 3- Unique Distribution Models – Reaching out the Indie

Panelists: Sandeep Mohan, Filmmaker, Sudevan Peringode, Filmmaker, Vivek Paul, Co-founder, CEO, Reel Monk

Session 4-Expanding Scope of the Short Film

Panelists Shlok Sharma, Filmmaker, Nishant Roy Bombarde, Filmmmaker, Sameer Mody, Founder, CEO, Pocket Films, Chintan Ruparel, Founder, Terribly Tiny Talkies

Session 5– VOD as the key distribution platform for Indies

Presentation by Orly Ravid, Founder, The Film Collaborative, Suri Gopalan, CEO, Vista India

Open Pitches 

This year Knowledge Series will also host an Open Pitch for the Co Production Market projects on Nov 21^st and an Investor Pitch for the Film Bazaar Recommends projects on November 22nd & 23rd

Key Sessions

There will be a Master Class with Philip Lee (producer of Cloud Atlas, The Dark Knight, The Revenant, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) on Mounting and Positioning the Epic across Cultures.

One of the key highlights of the Knowledge Series this year will be Imtiaz Ali’s conversation with the London based film author Nasreen Munni Kabir in the session ‘Makeover of the Bollywood Love Story’

The session aims to explore the freshness that Imtiaz Ali brought in with Socha Na Tha… sticking always to the love story at hand, the drama emerging from the mess that the love birds themselves created out of their confused selves.

The first ever fun Break Up song on Hindi Celluloid became the ‘in thing’ to do further redefining filmdom’s approach to the pain of separation and eventually the Love Story template. And of course travel was there… throughout!

Nasreen Munni Kabir will explore the director with the drop-dead looks who could easily be mistaken to be the star of his film! And what makes this romantic mind tick!