Youthopia-March 2011

Youthopiafuture beckons...

Important UpdatesPanasonic Scholarships

Grassroutes Fellowship Programme

Career Passion and how it effects your job and personal lives....

OMG Facts

Puzzle World

General Awareness Quiz

Parents and Career Planning

March, 2011

Cover Story

ANIMATION

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Cover Story AnimationDetailed discussion on Career Opportuni-ties in the field of Animation

Career and Development

How to prioritize your work...Tips to take organize your schedule to in-crease efficiency

Parent’s and Career PlanningHow can Parents help their children in mak-ing the crucial career choice?

Student CornerImportant updatesUpdates about upcoming competitive

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OMG FactsAmazing facts that will dazzle you

Fun ZonePuzzle World

General Awareness QuizQuiz to test your knowledge about ongoing in the world

Story of Walt DisneyAn Inspiration for generations to come...

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Bula raha hai koi mujhko…Duba raha hai koi…

Tike hain paon zameen pe…Hai imtihaan ki ghadi…

Paon zameen pe…Asman pe nazar…Paon zameen pe…Asman pe nazar…

Dear Readers, These lyrics of a recently released Indian Ocean song perfectly depict our state of mind. With a keen desire to influence the way career is perceived and bring-ing a paradigm shift in career planning processes, we put forward our new en-deavour, an effort to reach out to the young bright minds, raring to make a mark in this world. All this may sound good, But then

Why now?Because you are going to decide the course of your life now. Though, is not there already too much gyaan on education, career, and youth issues. Actually there is, so why are we rambling here.

We are?Ours is a voice of reason trying to make sense in this myriad world. We would talk about issues bothering you in a language you identify with.

Why this?The fact is, no matter how bothersome, these issues are crucial and will have a lasting impact on the rest of your life, so why not spare some time mulling over them and take fruitful decisions, we are just trying to help you build a satisfying successful career.

What not?No gossip, no promotion, no non sense. Well…

We initiate a new beginning ‘YOUTH-O-PIA”, an Ordell of reason and opti-mism, hope you all enjoy our new E-zine.

Welcome!!!!

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The joy of creation has no bounds. Whether we evolved or God created us may be open to interpretation and scientific proof. The idea of being able to create a world using one’s imagination is quite exciting. Imagine being able to do such a thing for a living, with the advent of increasing computing ca-pabilities and visual technology, there are plenty of career possibilities in the field of animation.

What is Animation?

The word animation is derived from a Latin word “anima” meaning soul i.e. when life breathes into characters. The art of anima-tion started with the cavemen who used to draw pictures on the rocks surfaces. Then who can forget Walt Disney for the creation of his cartoons especially the Mickey Mouse! In the present sense it means linking the se-ries of drawings and simulating their move-ments together. It is an art form in which inanimate objects are brought into life by se-quencing the drawn images. Animation is a graphic representation of drawings to show movement within those drawings. A series of drawings are linked together and usually photographed by a camera. The drawings have been slightly changed between indi-vidual frames so when they are played back

in rapid succession (24 frames per second) there appears to be seamless movement within the drawings.

Animation is a blend of entertainment in-dustry and technology; it is concerned with design, drawing, layout and production of graphically rich and attractive multimedia clips. Animation is a form of emerging me-dia in our century. Animation is growing into a multi-billion dollar industry thus gen-erating a great scope of employment. This

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field involves a lot of hard work and long hours of meticulous planning. Its not just being limited to entertainment but is find-ing increasing utility in several fields such as architecture, medical science, robotics, avia-tion to name a few. This field being new to the Indian sector has a lot of hidden poten-tial and talent, which needs to be groomed.

Who can be an Animator?

A person with an artistic bent of mind and passion towards creative arts is an ideal can-didate for this profession. Creativity is the most wanted quality for this career as ani-mation starts with developing an idea into a visual representation. The art of sketching or drawing is another basic skill one should possess. An animator’s task is to read the script carefully, study the storyboard and try to get into the character. In other words he/she needs to know and understand the char-acter. Patience, discipline and dedication to work is a vital ability as this field involves lot of hard work and long hours of thorough planning. It is advantageous to understand photography, lighting and movement for those planning to work in computer anima-tion. In short for an Animator, Imagination and Imaging are crucial.

Eligibility:

Training is the most essential and important

History of Animation• 1914: Winsor McCay produced a cartoon called

“Gertie, The Trained Dinosaur” which amazingly consisted of 10,000 drawings.

• 1919: Pat Sullivan created an American cartoon “Felix the Cat.”

• 1923: Walt and Roy Disney found Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio.

• 1923: Walt Disney combined live action with cartooncharacters in thefilm“Alice’sWonder-land”.

• 1927: Warner Brothers released “The Jazz Sing-er” which introduced combined sound and im-ages.

• 1945: Harry Smith produced animation by draw-ingdirectlyontofilm.

• 1964: Ken Knowlton, working at Bell Laborato-ries, started developing computer techniques for producing animated movies.

• 1982: Tron, MAGI, movie with CG premise• 1993: Jurassic Park use of CG for realistic living

creatures• 1995:ToyStoryfirstfull-length3DCGfeature

film.

aspect to get a job in the field of animation. The profession doesn’t demand a degree or an academic qualification. Those with a ba-sic sketching skill and a passion for anima-tion can enter this field. Having a Degree or a Diploma in a related course would be ben-eficial and can improve the chances of land-ing a lucrative post. The necessary training

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can be obtained at art or design schools through bachelor’s degree or diploma pro-grammes in Fine Arts / Applied Art / Visual Art / Commercial Art / Graphic Design / Visual Communication Design. Many train-ing institutes and computer academies are offering Degree and Diploma courses in an-imation. Minimum education qualification for a degree and diploma course in anima-tion is plus two or equivalent.

Any graduate preferably arts graduate could apply for Post-Graduation in Anima-tion. But some institutions such as Industri-al Design Center (IDC), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and National Institute of Design (NID) follow eligibility criterion that only graduate of architecture, technology and engineering, fine arts can apply for the PG course in these institutes. Besides these graduate and post graduate courses, there are several professional courses that focus on various styles and techniques. These courses, i.e. Courses in Traditional anima-tion, Stop-motion animation, Rotoscoping, Computer generated 3D and 2D animation, Clay-motion, Photoshop, Human anatomy, Drawing etc helps one to specialise in a par-ticular area. One should also have a basic knowledge in computer handling.

Job Prospects and Career Options:

A candidate needs to have a strong portfolio of work to get a job in this field. Any aspir-ant should either have on previous projects or atleast developed some art-work to show-case their skills by being able to produce

Bhargava Kiran was completely clueless as a teenager about his future plans. A dreamer at heart he was not interested in academics. An avid photographer he could spend hours im-agining how a scenery could be with different shapes and colours. Trudging through Gradu-ation he came across a course in Animation and his life was transformed.

For the last 3 years he has been working for aHollywoodAnimationstudio’RhythmandHues’.“Thethrillofseeingmynameinthecredits of blockbusters like HULK, Night at Museum-2,hasgivenmeimmenseconfidenceand sure of making it big in Visual effects and Animation”, tells Bhargav feeling lucky to have pursued his dreams.

his/her previous works to land a job in com-puter animation. Many organisations first select potential candidates as an intern and after successful completion of few tasks, the

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organisations hire them on a full time basis. There are plenty of options both in India and abroad. Animation is an exciting and upcoming field. All the major film indus-tries like Hollywood have started accepting animation as an important component in film making. Specialized computer knowl-edge and skills are essential for various jobs in the field of animation. It is a booming in-dustry with wide job openings and one can work on full length animation movies or any other related fields like television, ad-vertising industry etc. An Animated feature film, which offers considerable employment prospects, is a combined talented effort of a wide variety of artists. A typical animation film requires around 500 animators.

Though entertainment industry is the major

recruiter in this profession, animation is also needed in other areas like business, sales, engineering, education and advertising. There is scope to work even in industries like fashion designing and interior design-ing and even in medical, legal and insur-ance companies for their presentations and models. The gaming industry that includes video and mobile games also needs good animators. Some animation institutions ap-point students for teaching assistance, so the students can take up a career in teaching profession also. Animators can find jobs at print media and publishing firms also. Free-lance work is also another option for anima-tors, particularly those specializing in web animation.

A good salary is one of the most attractive parts of this industry. The professionals in this field earn a six digit salary within a short period of time in their careers. A be-ginner in this field can earn a salary of `10 – `15 thousand per month. With experience, the salary grows at a multiplier rate. A well-experienced animator who has a good port-folio of excellent animation work could eas-ily get `50000-`60000 per month.

Animation is one of the most exciting pro-fessions to be in with plenty of scope to ex-cel create a niche for yourself. What a great way to ‘Create’ your future.

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When you are passionate and interested in what you do, you do it better…

The same old adage applies aptly when it comes to your profession. It might be para-doxical that the words “Passion” and “Ca-reer” when used together may seem like an improper usage of vocabulary but rest as-sured one of the most important elements of personal happiness is being passionate about your vocation and your job. It is not ideal to be one of those people who live for the weekends and dread Sunday evenings. Thus, the job you will take up in the future, no matter how rewarding it might be finan-cially, will play a very important role in the way your life and career shape up. When you consider the scenario that you will be spending approximately one-third of your life in your office (on the basis of 9 working hours per day), you would want to make sure that your office is a place for you to look forward to with excitement. To sum it up, Life is too short to not love the work you do.

Can I really find a career in which I will enjoy my work?

Why not? It is completely possible to not only find the job that is a perfect match for your skills and interests, but one that also in-spires you and fuels your desire to perform better, work harder. It’s all about fulfillment,

the eagerness to work hard and succeed. Some of the jobs that match your interests may not be as high paying as others but ca-reer passion is not about financial benefits, it’s how the job makes you feel. Although money might look very attractive in the be-ginning, you are bound to have doubts and possible disorientation in the future when you will ponder whether you have made the right decision in putting money over motivation. Loving your job will thus go a long way to loving your life; hence make sure you have enough information about yourself as well as various career paths that lie in front of you before you take a decision.

My passion…Where do I start?

One of the recommended ways to find out your interests, passions and possible career

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paths is by taking some time and asking yourself a series of questions that tend to describe your way of living, likes and dis-likes. In this section, we have listed them for you (in no particular order) for your as-sistance. This set of questions help you to reflect on your personality and ambitions. Although it is advisable for you to answer these questions on your own, assistance from someone closely associated to you in your family or school can be taken too. It is not necessary to answer all the questions in

in mind? How comfortable are you with speaking in front of a gathering? Can you learn new things really quick? Brainstorm as many qualities as you can and make a list of them.

3. Your non-academic interests: Another important factor that plays a major role in your career passion are the activities that interest and excite you in your school life that are not directly related to your studies. These can be among what you do in your free time; reading books, taking part in out-

you really enjoyed learning were and looked forward to attending the class. Often, these subjects would those in which you have scored the highest marks, although that should not be the criterion to decide your favorite subject.

2. Think about your personal skills: Write down all those things that you can do easily without much effort; those that come natu-rally to you and those that you find difficult to deal with. Can you memorize informa-tion and remember it well? Are you a math whiz who can easily calculate large numbers

4. Any dream jobs / careers: More often than not, there must have been a lot of jobs that must have really excited you during your school life. Many of you might be us-ing these to fill up the “What do you want to become?” question in slam books. These jobs can be anything; from the highly daring fighter pilot to creative careers like photog-raphy and fashion design. Make sure you do not worry about the eligibility criteria while you list the jobs down as the idea is to simply ignore the roadblocks and choose dream careers.

one sitting. So, whenev-er you find some time, take a pen and paper, sit down with a calm mind and go about answering these questions.

1. List down your fa-vourite subjects: In the ten years of school life, look back and think what the subjects that

door activities, brows-ing the internet, social-izing with friends and many more. Although some of the entries on the list may not directly point you in the direc-tion of career, they can nevertheless act as indi-cators of your job satis-faction.

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5. Areas where you have already done well: School life is the best time where you can explore yourself. There are numerous op-portunities which might have come across you; managing a group of other students as the class leader or taking part in organising a school function. There might have been in-stances when your parents, friends or teach-ers must have praised for being good at something. All these qualities can help you choose a career that will best suit you and match your abilities.

Please note that choosing a career is an im-portant and time-consuming process. It is advisable to take the inputs of everyone around you while you sit down to answer the above questions. But, do not let the ex-ternal influences affect you in anyways. For example, if you are being consistently asked by your parents or elders to pick up a voca-tion that does not excite you at all, it is in your best interests that you make your own decision. In this case, making your own choice also might require you to convince your parents regarding the option you are

about to take. This will require you to do quite a bit of research on the career that you want to get into so that you might be able to answer all the questions your parents might ask you and clear any doubts that they might have. It is also good to take help of a career advisor to help you chart out your path and explain the financial aspects of the education that needs to be taken. Career counselors provide you with an unbiased comprehensive view about the careers and can also help your parents get rid of their qualms.

Everyone deserves the opportunity to live a life of fulfillment and passion. Whether you are a student who have struggled with your subjects or someone who has done well in your studies, you can (and should) always find time to discover the right career for you -- the career that will fulfill your career pas-sions and lead to a life of happiness. Look deeply inside yourself and remove all obsta-cles (real and perceived), and you will be on your way in your journey for finding your career passion, achieving career success, and living your life.

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A teenager’s life is tough, you are full of restless energy, there are friends, sports, movies, music, hobbies and off-course there are studies but only 24 hours in a day. Often, you must have wondered how do I cope up with so many things to do, I want fun and I want to do well in everything.

Well the key to do well and enjoy life is to ‘prioritize your work’. Life becomes easy if we enjoy what we are doing and every-thing goes as per a planned schedule. But it becomes a Work Load when it is not com-pleted in a specific time period. No one likes pending tasks and the pressure that comes with it.

When we start a task, a reality check is al-ways required. Practicality is an important phenomenon. Everyone has a series of tasks in front of them, all asking attention at the same time, it is wise to pick the important ones first and finish them before picking up others.

Planning beforehand is always a good in-sight along with the amount of time we can allot for the work. For every minute spent in organizing an hour is earned. Enjoying life is all about living in the right moment at the right place at the right time.

Keeping everything organized saves a lot of time. While preparing a to-do list, think what all things you will need beforehand. For example if you have to attend a class,

or if you have to fill up some forms and file them into a organized file, then keep all the necessary items handy like the file or a note-book etc,. Therefore this saves a lot of time.

The sole solution to prioritize your work is to plan it well. Divide them into simple cat-egories. Get yourself a chart and fix it up on a wall. Some of the categories can be:

A. Urgent C. Important

B. Not Urgent D. Not important

There can be a mix and match of the differ-ent categories depending on your require-ments. It is not enough to be busy, even the ants are busy all the time. The important thing is what we are busy at, because that makes the difference. Whenever you have a task at hand, think if it is ok to get busy at that or are there other important tasks

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which can be taken care of.

It is never too late to prioritize your work. Jot down the most important tasks and main-tain a small list. Stick up the lists wherever it is more noticeable. Highlight the most im-portant ones and work through maintaining it. If the pressure is too much then review the list, check whether the ones you have marked as important actually fall in the im-portant list category. If possible schedule them into different timelines.

It is important to have some flexibility with time, Buffer time is necessary .There is al-ways a possibility of an unexpected devel-opment demanding your immediate at-tention nullifying all your planning. Some deviation will always happen, but having some kind of planning is always better than no planning and will ensure efficient utili-zation of time giving up a better picture of tasks.

The main reason even after planning and pri-oritizing you may still be in a mess because people generally tend to deviate. Sometimes even the least important activity can be more

keep track of the schedule. Tell them to keep a check on you and keep reminding you if you deviate. Sometimes even the most de-termined of the people lose track of their priorities, so small reminders are always helpful occasionally.

Taking frequent breaks is necessary to re-juvenate yourself from the stress. Humans can’t work like machines, all work and no relaxation would take out the joy from life. It is important to have some free time in be-tween. This not only freshens your mind body and soul but also helps in speeding up the work when you get back.

Some time spent on prioritization can en-sure that every second counts helping you make most of the time available. What is better that having fun without a worry of unfinished business.

interesting than the most important activity. That is when self control comes into picture. Self-discipline is the most important quality needed to make sure your planning works.

You need to be clear in your head and get in touch with our inner self for a success-ful outcome. Our mind is a fickle entity, at a particular point of time we can think some-thing very motivating and be determined about it, but the immediate next moment we may want to do something entirely dif-ferent.

If the plan is not working out for than it is important to reprioritize and make sure you are adhering to the plan. Try to engage someone, family or friend who can help you

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There is no greater joy for a Parent than to see their child become successful and achieve all that they ever dreamed for her/him. An inspiring parent can guide a child to the pinnacle of success but an impos-ing parent may hamper the child’s growth stunting her/him to mediocrity.

As the parent of a school-going child, it is likely that your child’s career choice is the furthest thing from your mind. The current focus might be the performance of chil-dren at school, friends, sports or some other things. There is no appointed time to start planning, an involved parent can sensitize the child to a myriad of career options avail-able and guide her/him through the entire decision process.

Parents, in fact, may have the greatest potential for assisting their children in career planning.

How You Can Help Your Children Explore Occupations?

When one is young, the future’s possibilities are endless. A child is least concerned by the commercial or a status factor while choos-ing a career. There are many ways to explore occupations and parents can guide them to build a fulfilling and successful career out of their aspirations. . Here is what you can do:

• Keep Your Opinions to Yourself: Try not to discourage your child from exploring a

particular career, even if you think it’s all wrong for him.

• Network: Use your connections to set up opportunities for your child to meet with people working in various occupations.

• Protect Your Kids: Make sure you know who your children are contacting to get in-formation about careers. Accompany your child if he or she is meeting with someone.

• Read about Occupations: There are many ca-reer books in public and school libraries. A lot of information is also available on the Web.

• Live It: Kids like hands-on experiences, One way to experience an occupation is through job shadowing. A child can visit a workplace to see what the daily activities are.

There is no dearth of activities which you can and propel your child towards a dream ca-reer. 11

Youthopiafuture beckons!!!Student Corner

Important Updates

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This column provides you the best facts that will really drive you crazy. So go on and share with friends and family !!!

There are more cows in India, than there are cars in the Unit-ed States.

A Rubik’s cube has 43,252,003,274,489,856,000

possible configurations.

Breathing the air in Mumbai for just ONE DAY is equivalent to smoking 2.5 packs of ciga-rettes.

It cost 7 million dollars to build the Titanic and 200 million to make a film about it.

When Mel Blanc was in a coma, he would only speak to

his doctor in the voices of Bugs Bunny and the other Looney

Tunes characters he played.

Writing down your worries just before taking an exam can boost your test score.

A space vehicle must travel at a rate of 11.2 Kilometers per second in order to escape Earth’s gravity.

India has MORE cell phones than TOILETS. India has some 545 million cell phones, enough to serve about 45% of the popula-tion, but only about 366 million people or 31% of the population had access to toilets.

Coca-Cola is sold in over 200 different nations.

There is a town named “Llan-fairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrnd-robwllllantysiliogogogoch”. This is a town on the island of Anglesey in Wales. It is the longest name of a place in Europe and one of the longest place names in the world.

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1. What occurs twice in a lifetime, but once in a year, twice in a week but never in a day?

2. Dodgy Dave did such a good job of the housing estate, he was asked to paint the room numbers on all of the doors of the fourth floor of the local hotel. He painted all of the numbers from 400 to 499. How many times did he paint the number 4?

3. A man has to get a fox, a chicken, and a sack of corn across a wide, deep river. He has a rowboat, and it can only carry him and one other thing. If the fox and the chicken are left together, the fox will eat the chicken.If the chicken and the corn are left togeth-er, the chicken will eat the corn. How does he do it?

4. Name the most recent year in which New Year’s preceded Christmas?

5. Mr. and Mrs. Stone have three daughters and each daughter has two brothers. How many children do Mr. and Mrs. Stone have?

6. Joey leaves his house early in the morning to go to a day camp. Just as he is leaving his house he looks at an analog clock reflected in the mirror. There are no numbers on the clock, so Joey makes an error in reading the time since it is a mirror image. Joey assumes there is something wrong with the clock and

rides his bike to day camp. He gets there in 20 minutes and finds that just as he gets there the day camp clock has a time that is 2 1/2 hours (2 hours and 30 minutes) later than the time

to the correct time.)

7. How quickly can you find the answer to:(50 x 49 x 48 x 47 x 46 x 45 x 44 x ……… -44 x -45 x -46 x -47 x -48 x -49 x -50)

8. Find the missing number in the series: 18, 14, 12, 11, ?, 10.25

9. 12 members were present at a board meet-ing. Each member shook hands with all of the other members before & after the meeting. How many handshakes were there?

10. If each letter in the following equations represents a number from 1 through 9, deter-mine what number each letter represents.

A+A+B+C = 13

A+B+C+D = 14

B+B+C+D = 13

that he saw in the mir-ror image of his clock at home. What time was it when he got to day camp? (The clock at camp and the clock at home were both set

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1. What is the name of the former President who had been ousted in the recent unrest in Egypt?a. Mohammad Bin Tughlaq

b. Hosni Mubarak

c. Rian Akbar

d. Salim Hussain

2. Who won the FIFA 2010 World Cup? a. Spain

b. Netherlands

c. England

d. Italy

3. Who among the following players switched franchises during the recently held IPL auction?a. Sachin Tendulkar c. MS Dhonib. Pragyan Ojha d. Yuvraj Singh

4. Who has been nicknamed the “Milkman of India”? a. Pandit Nehru c. Verghese Kurien

b. MS Swaminathan d. Aamir Khan

5. Lack of which vitamin causes Night Blindness? a. A b. B c. C d. D

6. What is the number of states in India?a. 28 b.27 c. 29 d. 24

7. What does the letter “P” denote in “IP ad-dress”?a. Programming c. Procedure

b. Protocol d. Packets

8. What is the latest movie in the Harry Potter series? a. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

b. Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix

c. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

d. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

9. Complete the famous quote of Mahatma Gandhi “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable _______”a. Love

b. Thought

c. Justice

d. Will

10. What is the field of Paleontology connect-ed to? a. Paints

b. Pharmaceuticals

c. Dinosaurs

d. Reptiles

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Walter Elias “Walt” Disney was an entrepre-neur, entertainer and an international icon. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th cen-tury as the co-founder (with his brother Roy O. Disney) of Walt Disney Productions.

Disney is particularly noted for being a film producer and a popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He and his staff created some of the world’s most famous fictional char-acters including Mickey Mouse, a charac-ter for which Walt Disney himself was the original voice. The following sections give you a detailed view of the life’s journey of Walt Disney.

Childhood:

Walt Disney was born on December 5, 1901in Chicago. In 1906, when Walt was four, his family moved to a farm in Marceline, Mis-souri, where his brother Roy had recently purchased farmland. While in Marceline, Disney developed his love for drawing. One of their neighbors, a retired doctor named “Doc” Sherwood, paid him to draw pictures of Sherwood’s horse, Rupert.

Walt’s father had experienced small success and failures in his life and had been known as a critical and sometimes a rude person. He demanded his children to work. Walt, who was 9 years old, was first involved in his father’s long journey. He remembered he had to wake up at 3.30 in a freezing winter

morning and stopped playing with toys that was left behind during their journey.

Teenage Years:

Walt attended drawing class every Saturday in Kansas City Art Institute and School of De-sign, which his father considered as “an edu-cation”. Walt soon made use of his talent to earn some money. At the end of World War I, Walt quitted high school to join the ambu-lance driver troops and managed to earn a huge success in drawing and caricature for the U.S Troops. Supported by his self confi-dence, he went to join the Kansas City Star (Local Newspaper) as an intern in cartoon section. Because of his lack of education and no connections, he was rejected.

Inspirational story

Walt Disney: A True Inspiration for generations to come

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Youthopiafuture beckons!!!Laugh-o-gram:

Walt did not give up after being rejected by the Kansas City Star. He used his sketches made during the war to get a job in a com-pany called Kansas City Film Ad Company. This company produced short animation commercial for local movie theatres. From the technique that he learned from the job, Walt who wanted to be an entrepreneur es-tablished his own business called Laugh-O-Gram. He used his own drawings for come-dic news, animation tales, and even films about dental health.

The company did well in the beginning, but after a bright start it was struggling to sur-vive. Walt sold his apartment, stayed in his office and relied on his kind neighbor who was a restaurant owner to give him free food. When his only client got bankrupt six months later and only one movie complet-

ed, Walt was also bankrupt.

Later in his life, reflecting on Laugh-o-gram Walt Disney said, “It’s good to experience huge failures when you were young.” And according to his words, he did not experience it again.

Hollywood:

He left Kansas City with only $40 that he earned from selling his Laugh-O-Gram cam-era and joined his brother Roy in California by hoping that he could revive Laugh-O-Gram series in Hollywood. He aired his short comedic news at a cinema in Los Angeles and sold an idea for a film on a tale about Alice in Wonderland to a New York film distributor called Charles Mintz. He received $1,500 per film, this was his great debut.

After their contract was extend twice, Mintz and his cousin, George Winkler, felt that Alice was out of date and asked for something new. Walt returned with a series about a naughty rabbit named Oswald, the first animal char-acter before any other animals appeared in a comic. The new series, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was an almost instant success, and the character, Oswald became a popular figure.

The Disney studio expanded. Disney’s suc-cess was finally here. He started receiving $2,250 per movie roll. Walt got married to Lil-lian Disney and bought their first house in an elite area, and renovated the front section of the shop to become a studio.

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Youthopiafuture beckons!!!The Setback:

In February 1928, Disney went to New York to negotiate a higher fee per movie roll from Mintz. Disney was shocked when Mintz an-nounced not only that he wanted to reduce the fee he paid Disney but he also threat-ened that Mintz had most of Disney’s main animators under contract and would start his own studio if Disney did not accept the reduced production budgets. Mintz could make the films without Disney. Disney de-clined Mintz’s offer and lost most of his ani-mation staff.

Walt when he grew older and wiser said that, “You might not realize it when it happens, however your worst experience would be the best thing that happened to you.”

Mickey Mouse:

After losing the rights to Oswald, Disney felt the need to develop a new character to replace him. He based the character on a mouse he had adopted as a pet while work-ing in his Laugh-O-Gram studio in Kan-sas City. The mouse was named Mortimer. Mrs. Disney felt that the name was not good enough and suggested the name Mickey. Mickey’s voice and personality was pro-vided by Walt Disney until 1947. Mortimer later became the name of Mickey’s rival for Minnie.

The first animated short with Mickey in it was titled, Plane Crazy, which was, like all of Disney’s previous works, a silent film. After failing to find a distributor for Plane Crazy, Disney created a Mickey cartoon with sound called Steamboat Willie. After the release of Steamboat Willie, Walt Disney would con-

tinue to successfully use sound in all of his future cartoons. Mickey soon eclipsed Felix the Cat as the world’s most popular cartoon character. Mickey’s popularity started sky-rocketing in the early 1930s.

Walt began building his studio from the mon-ey he received from Mickey and began to de-velop more Mickey adventures-such as Don-ald, Daisy, Pluto, Goofy, and other Disney animals. Walt took a lesson from Oswald the Rabbit and the result was he made the most important business decision when he sold his first Mickey series: he insisted to maintain control over his artistic work and ownership of his characters. At first it was a bitter experi-ence, but in the end it became the most valu-able lesson, because it taught him to secure his company.

Today, the company not only has gained con-trol over the animation industry, but also the media; beyond Walt’s wildest dream. The cor-poration he co-founded, now known as The Walt Disney Company, today has annual rev-enues of approximately U.S. $35 billion.

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Team Youthopia

Ankur MitalMithun Kalaga

Aravind ThodupunooriDeepali Gupta

Mrudula Narlanka

**All images and illustrations used in Youthopia are open source and do not violate any copyrights. However, any

oversight, if any is non-intentional. 19

Youthopia-March 2011

Documents

Transcript of Youthopia-March 2011