Creating a visual masterpiece requires heart, soul and a spark of inspiration. But in order to capture the spirit of imagination on film, it takes more than a spark to stoke the fire; skill and education are also required.

Helping students succeed at turning their visual dreams into video realities, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham hosted a two-day national conference on Video Production Techniques for Advertising and Applied Art.

The workshop organized at the Amrita School of Arts and Sciences in Kochi took students behind the scenes to glimpse what few see: the creative process in action.

Cinematographer K.G. Jayan inaugurated the conference. An award-winning veteran of over one thousand documentary films, he shared his keen insights with the participants.

Other invited guests represented eminent media professionals from the communication and advertising and fields.

Feroz Babu, a winner of the Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop Award, spoke about print advertisements, mainly highlighting typography, images and design principles. He discussed digital workflow in an ad agency. The freelance graphic designer and web developer was earlier a photographer with Malayalam Manorama.

In another session, veteran ad expert from Chennai, Sri. Sankaran Nampoothiri, guided delegates on the art of crafting powerful and groundbreaking advertising strategies. Having run branding, corporate identity, design and print campaigns for corporate clients, he spoke about thinking inside as well as outside the box.

He recalled how he was among the earliest adopters of Pagemaker, Word and Corel Draw, software commonly used in the industry today.
More interactive sessions with visual communication experts taught students the finer points of video production, cinematography, audiography and editing that go in to produce effective audio-visual advertisements.

Delegates participated in brainstorming sessions to come up with advertising strategies for different products in world markets.

“As we brainstormed, we got a sense of how it must be like to work in an ad agency,” said final-year Amrita student of B.Sc. (Visual Media), Roshni Raj Nambiar.

“We wanted to give students an exact feel of the ad world, and make them aware of creative strategies, and show them how much work goes into the making of an ad film,” explained Vinod L., Assistant Professor from the Department of Visual Media and Communications, who convened the conference.

“Abundant opportunities and a promising future await students who enter the advertising field,” he added.

Combining creative expression with education, Amrita is preparing students to take their first steps on the road to advertising success.

December 5, 2011
School of Arts and Sciences, Kochi