Kamal feels that Tamil film producers are an ignorant lot

The second day of the FICCI MEBC kicked off with a very informative panel discussion on the topic "Director’s Cut: Film-making and Managing in the Digital Era". Kamal Haasan - chairman of FICCI MEBC, film makers Priyadarshan, Santosh Sivan and Gautam Anand - Director, Content Partnerships, Google, APAC were part of this discussion which was attended by a keen audience. Gautam Anand was also involved when Google took over YouTube in 2006.

The discussion was basically centered on new platforms that have come up and how they have strengthened filmmakers (not just professional but even short filmmakers with promising ideas).

Kamal agreed that YouTube being a robust and flexible medium, experimental films can be made which don't abide by the rigid rules of commercial film making. He was also concerned at the ignorance on the part of Tamil film producers about the scope of YouTube as a monetization platform. Later, he gave an interesting analogy about cinema theaters and places of worship and how people would always go to these places for a mass congregation experience despite having their own small setups at home.

Gautam Anand opined that Indian film industry was at the forefront at producing experimental content specific to the online medium. Being a subject matter expert his speech was very informative and Kamal was all ears as Gautam gave all his expert opinions about how the online medium would be at the forefront of distribution for the film industry.

Priyadarshan emphasized on the fact that film makers needed to constantly update themselves on the latest happenings in the industry in order to survive. Nadiya, Nassar, directors Dharani, Lakshmi Ramakrishnan were also part of the audience for this hour long panel discussion which saw good audience participation.

This session was followed by a one and a half hour long discussion on the topic "The Long-tail of Movies and the Role of Technological Protection Measures (TPMs)". This was a discussion which featured a lot of technical talk from the diverse panel. ‘Long tail’ is basically reaching out to the fragmented audiences who reside in the far corners of the world. Each type of audience desires one particular type of content at a specific time of the day and with the  increase of distribution channels it becomes possible to cater to such a diverse audience. The session threw light on the emerging distribution platforms and also on security measures to protect the data that is distributed on such new platforms.

Simultaneously in another session there was a VFX demonstration on the making of “Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows” by Nicolas Aithadi, VFX Supervisor, Moving Picture Company. This session was also well patronized by visually inclined people who wished to know more about the visual splendor that they see on screen.

On the whole, the pre-lunch session of Day 2 of the FICCI MEBC continued to be informative and was worth the time for the audience.

Tags: FICCI MEBC, Kamal Haasan, Priyadarshan, Santosh Sivan, Gautam Anand, Dharani, Nadiya, Nassar, Lakshmi Ramakrishnan