India's golden touch to Oscars

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br /><img align="left" src="/photo/527855.cms" alt="/photo/527855.cms" border="0" />MUMBAI: The Americans may not like this, but even the all-American Oscar night will have an Indian touch. <br /><br />The Academy of Motion Pictures has hired Tata''s Visual Computing Lab (VCL) Studios to design the computer graphics for the titles and visuals that are used to introduce Oscar nominees and winners.<br /><br />Twenty computer artists and engineers from VCL''s offices in Mumbai and Bangalore worked round the clock for ten days to complete the project.<br /><br />The team developed the "liquid gold" concept —in which golden drops of liquid will morph into the Oscar statuette—as also the visuals used to introduce programme segments like nominees for best actor or actress.<br /><br />The Academy of Motion Pictures had given the project to a Los Angeles-based motion picture design and production firm, Prologue Films, which, in turn, had outsourced the graphics element to VCL. <br /><br /><formid=367815><br /><br /></formid=367815></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br />Incidentally, Prologue Films is headed by graphics'' creator-producer Kyle Cooper, who has worked on several motion pictures including <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Spider-Man, True Lies</span> and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">The Mask of Zorro</span>.<br /><br />"We had done special effects for a music video produced by Prologue Films a few months ago," said K Chandrashekhar, head of VCL Studios. <br /><br />"They were pleased with the quality of our work and approached us for the Oscar project in January. It''s basically their concept and design and our execution."<br /><br />The specified design elements were sent to India digitally via high speed media servers and digital networks and all of VCL''s executed work was similarly delivered back to Prologue Films.<br /><br />Speaking to TNN, Mr Cooper said that he was "impressed with VCL''s creative excellence and their ability to deliver seamlessly. It was almost as though they were round the corner rather than around the globe," he said.<br /><br /><formid=367815></formid=367815></div> </div>